Double Shot Espresso

Potluck number three was fun. As an introvert big gatherings are always a bit intimidating at the start, but food is for sharing and celebrating, conversation eventually comes.

I made too much rice for our casserole, so the beefy surprise layer appeared undiscovered until late in the meal. Caramel Surprise squares were a success among the ladies. It's quite an honour when I remember the embarrassment of my first potluck's jello & berry "soup". Now I practice a recipe before bringing it to a public event, and sample it if possible. I’ve been fortunate to have hungry college students to determine what recipes are good, and keep me from eating all these chocolaty sweets on my own.

Next to visual appeal I learned placement of your dish on the potluck table also makes a difference. Plates, cutlery, bread, butter, salads; big servings are taken from those first salads. You suddenly realize the array of choices and a quickly filling plate, so portions get progressively smaller as you work your way down the table. I certainly don't get bored of my food at these events!

Anyway, that's enough potluck talk for today.

Potluck season is upon us! I’ve been trying to determine my strategy as the weekly potlucks intensify. Week one, I brought a beautiful salad of spring greens, colourful vegetables and a homemade oil vinegar dressing. I thought it looked appetizing, and it did okay among its competition. I think the broccoli threw people off though, and the leftovers were soggy.

For potluck number two I chose a family favorite, banana chocolate chip muffins. They were quick and easy, and I knew the leftovers would not go to waste, which was fortunate as only three muffins were sampled. They didn’t stand a chance next to the beautiful individual cheesecakes. So we’ve enjoyed our favorite muffins this week.

With two potlucks coming up this week, I’ve begun preparing three dishes today. So I’ll continue this experiment, and see if I can learn the secret to a good potluck dish.

The past few months I’ve been busy transitioning from Corel to Adobe, and it’s been a painful process. Kind of like listening to “The Ghost of Genova Heights” by the Stars. I was listening to their latest album, liking the sound …and then this song came on, and I thought “What is this 80’s tune doing on here?” I’m not a fan; I seem to be alone in this. Makes listening to local radio stations painful. No matter what the station claims the genre is, every second song is from the 80’s … and the “all 80’s request” noon hour! Well, no radio, no road-rage.

So when the chorus of “The Ghost of Genova Heights” starts hitting Michael Jackson notes I can’t handle it anymore. I’m desperate to delete it from my ipod so I never have to listen to it again! But, I’ve liked the rest of the album so far, so I should just give it a chance. Maybe I’ll keep it and only give one star. Still listening, the band is really grooving now, maybe this is more disco than 80’s. I love ABBA…so ya, disco, that’s good or even just barely into the 80’s would be okay, I could live with it if that’s what they were going for. By the end of the song I rate it two stars. Definitely disco. And now I must confess the song keeps growing on me. I even intentionally listened to it today.

So that sums up my experience with Adobe CS3, everyone that uses it absolutely loves it. And this learning curve has slowed me down and caused high levels of frustration. But I’m hopeful that Adobe will be able to translate the ideas in my head just as well as Corel did. Maybe someday I’ll even grow to appreciate it like an Indie take on disco.

Imaginary Lives: If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do with each of them?

1. a visual artist in Paris
2. a costume designer in New York
3. graphic designer while raising a child
4. flight attendant (the travel side of it, wouldn't want to deal with people all day though)
   
5. fashion designer (or fashion illustrator)

Do you ever look back and laugh to yourself, and think how did this happen.

I had to look back at my journal from four years ago as I worked through Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way”. The “artist child” within was throwing another tantrum (it was become quite predictable that this would happen twice a year). Asking that I stop ignoring (the artist), and take action. So Cameron’s book was the “solution” that winter.

I had finished the distance ed. Graphic Design course in the fall of 2003. While doing some freelance projects; progress was slow almost at a stand still (or so it seemed). However, I continued picking up all the freelance work I could until my evenings and weekends were full.

For 9 ½ years I’ve been an accounting clerk. This week my job shifted to only graphic design and honestly it’s kind of freeing. I always felt awkward about what my work is and what I am passionate about...like math and art clash, you can’t do both. Attention to detail is the piece they have in common; at least that’s how I’ve justified it to myself. I realized one of my wild and crazy dreams for life came true, if having a child was not miracle enough, I’m also doing one of my dream jobs!

So, without overthinking it, what would your imaginary five lives be?

To update my list, I would replace #4 flight attendant with children's book illustrator.