Changes

2008 has started with a bang. The last few weeks seemed to last about a million years. My husband interviewed for and got a new job. Hell on the manicure. (This is a joke. Ever see an artist's hands? Nail polish doesn't have a chance.) With this job change, for which we've been waiting eons, it seems that the family has breathed out a collective sigh of relief. Perhaps we've been damming up all our own energies, waiting for this outcome. And so it has begun.

Mark's schedule has changed, which means my schedule has changed. My car died in the middle of a downpour when I had no cell phone. We replaced it with a better model (car, not the cell phone). Mark traded his car in for better gas mileage for his longer commute. We aren't the kind of people to trade in cars. We run them to the ground. Last time we bought cars was 1998. Then, as now, we both bought cars in the same week. Who does that?

Both kids are heading toward some pretty intensive spring activities some of which called for auditions/tryouts and honest-to-goodness swashbuckling. More nailbiting on the part of the mother. Outwardly, I am calm and supportive. My cuticles tell a different story. The kids have even more opportunities before them. I am truly excited for them in a way that only a parent can be.

My artwork went on display at Red Raven Art Company on gallery row in Lancaster and I sold a piece to a pretty well-known citizen and art collector. (Let's just say that a local university art building is named after her.) My mind reels. Seems I now have credibility as an artist (either in the public spectrum and/or my own head. Can't decide.)

I revisited my second novel--aiming for some hefty revising. This is a major breakthrough for me. My writing was lagging behind painting the last couple of months.

Lots of swirling movement. I'm beginning to think it had to do with the rearranging of furniture. Feng Shui? How else can you explain all the changes? Somehow, this shift in reality begs for answers. But maybe I don't want to know. Maybe right now, it is just enough to send out prayers of gratitude, a few well-meaning thank you notes, and accept that we have been laying the groundwork for these happenings over the period of some seemingly stagnant months.

When it rains...get a new bumper sticker.

Yesterday, after ten years of service to our family, my beloved purple minivan Iris, died. She gave us a wonderful ride in Philadelphia/Delaware area last weekend. A trip to Trader Joe's and Total Wine. IKEA. We were looking to replace her in probably two months, but on the way home from the grocery store yesterday she decided to take destiny into her own hands. In a torrential downpour, she started bucking as I was getting off the exit ramp about 3.5 miles from my house. I would have pulled under the overpass and let her sit there, but I had neglected to take my cell phone with me that day. (This was pure idiocy on my part--driving a minivan with over 201,340 miles in a downpour. I wasn't tempting the car gods there, was I?) I managed to get Iris to cough and sputter to a gas station where I called for a ride from my trusty friend Marsha. Not some little repair: I had no reverse gear and the car wouldn't go above 30 miles an hour. I heard a choir of angels break through the clouds and say, "It's the transmission!" I was just glad it happened at a convenient time without kids in the car, and in a place convenient to our house.
So, as luck would have it, my in-laws want to buy a new car and already had their prize picked out. We are buying their old one. Under-employed artist/writers can't really be choosy in this instance, but I am lucky in that their 2003 van fits our family's needs and lifestyle. Plus, a minivan is good for me as an artist, hauling my paintings around. The "new" car is washed and waxed with a CD player and power everything that my previous car lacked. I guess my left arm will probably atrophy now that I don't have to wind the window down, but buying shirts will be easier now that both arms will be the same size. And quiet? I can actually hear the radio when I am driving on the highway.
So here's the thing. I am looking for a new pithy, non-political bumper sticker. My last bumper sticker read, "Well-behaved women seldom make history." That bumper sticker suited me to a T. But I am willing to see what else is out there, and I am open to all suggestions. Lay them on me in the comments section or send me links to possibilities.

Update: I've been checking out the possibilities:

Don't make me call my flying monkeys

You'd be like this, too, if they dropped a house on your sister.

Wicked

Techno Pagan. I workship the holy Mother Board (This one is funny because my husband is a techie Geek.)

Goddess on the loose (I like this one, but have to remember that my husband will be driving this occasionally.)

A woman's place is in the house. The White House.

You just got passed by a mom in a minivan.

If you ate pasta and antipasta would you still be hungry?

Come to the dark side. We have cookies.

If my husband is the computer geek, why am I the one multi-tasking?

Study art and logic. Learn to draw your own conclusions.