On Being Good Enough

So...a million years ago when I was in high school (college?) I had a steady gig and after I put the boy to bed I would watch Touched By An Angel while I did my homework. The only thing I (mis)remember from the entire series was a single conversation where the red headed angel and her boss are talking and the conversation went something like this:

Red Headed Angel: "I don't like singing as a human. When I was part of the heavenly choir my voice was angelic and now it's awful" 

Boss Angel: "Girlfriend, He said make a *joyful* noise, not a good one."

I have been mis-quoting* that Boss for the better part of a decade (mostly as justification for some really bad singing) and I feel it can apply in this class, which is thus far mostly a giant affirmation and kick in the pants to run my freak flag up flagpole.

In case you (like me) don't have psalms at your fingertips, I googled:

Psalms 98:4 (King James):  

Make a joyful noise unto the lord, all the earth

make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise

As part of my homework for my most recent workshop with the Define School, I made a little graphic, put it on instagram, printed it up, and put it around my house. They make me smile. And remind me not to be too concerned with...life in general.

*the real quote is:
"He never said make a beautiful noise unto the Lord. He said make a joyful noise." -- in the episode "A Joyful Noise"

** I do plan on writing a little review of Michelle Gardella and her amazing class. I'm still trying to find the right words for it. It was amazing, when I can stand for long periods of time again, she's getting poundcake.

Daddy Coffee

I have spent the past month taking Molly Flanagan's Visual Storytelling workshop through The Define School.  Four lessons that culminate with my being able to be as articulate with my images as I like to think I am with my prose. 

I should let you read my prose some time.

If you've spent any amount of time with me, then you know that we love our coffee and that we are big fans of letting Baz have his way in the kitchen. For the first twenty-ish months, Baz's sign for Steve was "Daddy Coffee"  - they've been making morning coffee together since Baz was born and now it's about a 60/40 split...favoring Baz, of course.

This past week, Steve worked from home a few days while we battled the plague in various forms. Afternoon coffee happened.

Walter hangs out happily in that thing for (maybe) five minutes. 

Long enough for me to  document a daily occurrence that I normally (blissfully) sleep through.

(Yes, it's so good we have it shipped. Buy your own here.) 

Good times.

If you're feeling like you need to improve your story telling game, contact Molly. Stalk her blog, take her class. She is sheer genius and I feel imbued with a bit of it. It has been a privilege.

PS: anyone have any Save For Web advice? I think I shrink too much, but I don't feel like I'm shrinking that much....?