fast and fast

Does time ever go by quickly these days! In this new rhythm of just working a Monday thru Friday work week, I find myself looking forward to the weekends. But even with that, I don't feel like I have abundant structure still. My new household has helped some, which is nice. We have dinner together on Tuesdays and on Fridays we have a big dinner and invite lots of friends over. I was kind of afraid to commit my Fridays to doing community dinners (which...we did conclude that everyone is not 'expected' to be there - but so far we all have I think.) But I'm finding that it's really nice to have a social happening that you know is going to happen regularly. I think in LA especially, that's just not the norm. Like this morning in church, I was sitting in front of a couple who were in a Bible study with me a few times but had never really talked to but want to get to know - and I have the community dinner to invite them to, it's great!

The second 'fast' in the title is because I've been doing a detox fast this week. I've done it a couple of times before and I find that it really kicks my body back into good health. And I feel much better now at the end of it. I'll be breaking it tomorrow - which I'm looking forward to of course. But it is funny...I haven't been craving food, the first few days I really wanted to put something in my mouth though. And I've been able to just enjoy the smells of things, which is a really nice detail to become more aware of. I've also been trying to slow down the pace of life some...and that's been really good feeling. I really don't want to feel rushed and pushed through this life!

A couple of weekends ago I got to have lunches with my nieces and Kenny and Tiana - which was great! Hopefully soon I can start spending more time with them, I miss them!!

And last weekend my parents came to visit, which was very nice also. They got to meet my new housemates and we dinked around town some, visited some art galleries, some which were nice. I found this one painters work that I really liked, I think I'm going to pull some of his ideas into my own work. Which, I know have my easel here thanks to Dad, and soon I will have a functional little studio space in our outdoor garage. I'm really looking forward to spending some time in painting.

This weekends highlight was getting the last bits and pieces out of my old apartment. Kim will be moving out of it this week. A little sad. I like having a second "home" in my old neighborhood. But...I still kinda will anyways. Also this weekend I got to do a photo shoot of me and the Stude! A friend of a friend who's a photographer offered to do it for me, as I was looking for some good shots of me and the Stude to submit with my magazine article idea. You can catch a sneak peek of a few of those pictures on Andie's photography blog...I'll be posting some here when I get the set. It looks like there's going to be some great pics to come, I'm very excited. Andie's got skills...thanks Andie!

AND I got to talk to a guy who lives a few blocks away and has a 55' Studebaker too! What are the chances...his is almost exactly like mine.

Tomorrow I'm headed to San Francisco for a work conference. It's on a curriculum dealing with training teens what healthy relationships are supposed to be. Always a challenging subject to teach, so I'm looking forward to that - and of course to being in SF and with buddies!