Sooner

Inspirational song: Lust for Life (Iggy Pop)

I've spent a lot of the last couple months looking forward to tomorrow. When my duties on the board went from rewarding volunteer work to stressful drag, I focused on the handover as the day when I could finally get back to doing the things I wanted to be doing, for me and for my family. One of the things I promised myself I would do was start painting again. I didn't have any particular subject in mind, I just wanted to paint. So for the last few days, I let some ideas bounce around in my head, until this morning, when a pencil and piece of heavy paper appeared in my hands. I sketched, and liked what I saw, so I inked it, and kept liking it. I collected my paints and a few brushes, imagining that I was going to do heavy brushwork in a Van Gogh style. Once I got going, I let my hands work without thinking about it too much. It is taking itself in a different direction. I know better than to interfere, when the piece itself has such strong opinions on how it should look. This is a lot of fun. I am glad I didn't wait until tomorrow to begin. I guess there is just something bred into us Okies, where official start dates mean nothing to us.

I wasn't supposed to spend all day rediscovering which end of a paintbrush is up. I was supposed to be organizing today, making sure my continuity binder was ready to hand over to the next president, along with the gavel. I'm telling myself that I owe it to the next board to spend the rest of the night doing it, but it will be hard to convince myself to behave. I'm trying to tell that inner voice to shut up, the one that keeps saying that it's not like I'm not going to be around, and that the next president lives less than two miles away, where I can deliver just about anything. Our group settles down for the summer, but I still need to give my successor all she needs to prepare for next fall. It might end up being a late night.

For now, I will watch the large storm cell bearing down on my end of the county, and hope that my satellite tv hangs in long enough to see the Voice. And I will try to remember I'm a grownup, and take care of my obligations for tomorrow.