Tattoo Part 1

Sat. night I got the first part of my new tattoo inked. It's a series of autumn leaves blowing in a gust of wind. I've wanted a hip tattoo for a while, and was trying to decide what exactly I wanted when I stumbled upon a note I'd written about 8 years ago with the idea of a blowing leaves or snowflakes tattoo. Autumn means a lot more to me than winter, so it was an easy choice.

Shaun only had time to outline 3 leaves and shade the first 2. There will be 7 total, curving around my hip towards my back. Each leaf is from a tree that is special to me in some way. So far I have:

Liquidambar styraciflua (Sweetgum)
Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip Tree)
Quercus alba (White Oak)

Yes, I'm a complete dork and know the latin botanical name for each one. I still remember the identification quirks for each one from college ecology, too.

I love the vibrant colors and shading of the leaves. I can't wait to see what the next ones look like. Here's a closeup of the shading:


The way we're designing it is fun. Shaun drew each leaf individually, and I flip it around on my skin until it's where I want. While he's working on one leaf I lay there and think about what colors to use for the next one. The tattooing isn't bad, except there was a ticklish spot he inked that made it hard to lie still. Now I know how a dog must feel when you scratch its 'giggle nerve' and it starts to pat its foot.

I'll post up more pictures once it's finished, I just had to share what I have so far.

Self improvement is tiring

I now have 3 months of successfully running 3 miles 3 mornings a week completed. Completely coincidently now that the 4th month of the year is starting, I'm going to increase to 4 mornings a week. With the improvement in the weather I'm taking the dogs walking/hiking in the evenings more. I'm eating healthier--many days at lunch I wonder why I always run out of spinach in my salad, despite the laughably tall pile falling off my plate. Of course, I usually put something interesting (like a lean cuisine pizza or the meat/cheese of a turkey sandwich) on top of it. I'm dancing more, camping, and gardening again. During the week I keep up pretty well with everything. But lately on the weekends I've just crashed. I still do stuff, but I feel so dragged out I end up laying around reading for hours. It's like all the motivation and will power I have during the week evaporates for those 2 days. The problem is that it comes as a shock, I feel like I want to do stuff, but just never summon the effort needed. Hmm...maybe if my 4th day of running is Sat. morning it will gear me up for the rest of the day.

Jungian collective disinterest?

I just flipped through my regular online life -- the series of email accounts, facebook, and friends' blogs that I normally stay current with. I noted that nothing was happening on any front, despite not checking them for a few days. A few months ago all of them were updated frequently. Facebook was entertainingly updated each time I logged on, and I nearly always had at least one email to reply to. Then we all seem to have mutually lost interest in our online lives. No one really updates their blogs anymore (myself included) or chats through facebook like we did. I wonder why it happened? Did we all suddenly get bored with ourselves, or too busy to bother? Was it a collective domino effect, with each person's lack of posting influencing those who normally read it and used to post themselves? Maybe we all kept each other going, and with the first stumble we ground to a halt. Maybe the same theory will work to bring us all back up to some semblance of regular posting. Y'know, I think it's probably a reflection of the fact that none of us are really internet-obsessed bloggers. The former frequent posting was a lark, a fad that ran its course. But just in case it's not, here's my own little attempt to get things moving again. I did always enjoy reading the irreverent tidbits everyone shared