englishthistle

Good grief, what a week it’s been! Firstly, I had a fabulous time at the Denver Botanic Gardens with a guided tour of the Dale Chihuly exhibit. This was organized by my St Catherine’s alumnae group in Denver and I was also able to bring along a friend.

I was actually surprised by how few alumnae showed up to this. I think there were just the three of us with our respective friends / family members. Anyway, the exhibit is spectacular, as are the Gardens every time I go there, so if you haven’t seen it yet, what the hell are you waiting for?!

Chihuly never disappoints but then neither do so many artists. I wish I could be more like them but either my creativity has left me entirely or I’ve forgotten how to tap into it. What some of these artists come up with for each project stuns me. To have a mind that works like that is remarkable, but that they can keep coming up with newer and equally brilliant creations blows my mind. I’m lucky if I have an original thought once a month, let alone all the time, year after year!

Is creativity something that just happens or can it be summoned? If you have to summon it, does that make it original or derivative? Does a creative work lose its impact or importance if you know it’s a result of someone else’s inspiration?

It’s been three years since I last wrote anything for this blog and I’m frankly amazed that I’m still here to write this. Three years ago I’d been laid off and was trying to figure out if I wanted to set up my own business or go the traditional route of being a corporate employee. I guess I bottled out (as the English would call it) or chickened out. The thought of having to deal with my own invoicing, health insurance, taxes, networking, etc, etc – it was all too overwhelming at the time. So I went the traditional route and got a job that I’m still doing and, thankfully, loving.

What else happened? Oh yes, I got involved in my local bookclub very heavily. Now thanks to the crazy people who participate with me, I have an excellent and supportive circle of friends who read as much as I do, drink nearly as much as I do and are even more opinionated than I am! We read and discuss mysteries, historical fiction, classics, non-fiction, science fiction, good books, bad books, average books. We agree to disagree and, so far, have never fallen out over a book. Some of my favourites have included The Count of Monte Cristo, Where’d You Go Bernadette?, Dreamers of the Day, The Snow Child. The ones I didn’t like included The End of the Wasp Season, The Light Between Oceans, Continental Drift, Rabbit Run, Swamplandia!. I discovered Goodreads which opened me to even more books I hadn’t heard of and every day I add more titles to my “To Read” list. Very much like my Netflix queue, I don’t expect to live long enough to read/view them all!

It’s been a good couple of years for travel too. The year before I was laid off I spent 2 weeks in New Zealand visiting my oldest and best friend in Auckland. Two years later I had a very enjoyable long weekend back in Minneapolis, then another long weekend in Santa Fe and this year a 10-day trip that included Washington DC, Savannah and Charleston – courtesy Amtrak. More on that later. Last September I had plans to visit Sedona and take the train from Denver thro the Rockies to Grand Junction. However, thanks to the 1000-year flood North Colorado experienced, all that had to be cancelled. More on that later too.

So it certainly hasn’t been boring. And I hope I can continue to inform and entertain any and all readers with my adventures, failures, moments of clarity and confusion and everything else in between.