So this is what you get done when your mom nags you about your homework.

On Friday, March 24, (the day of my last post) Mom and I painted the sky blue background around my sketches of the cranes.  I had another painting day set aside last week, but it got pushed back.  Yesterday, Mom and Nancy and I spent a couple of hours blending blues and doing an undercoat of grey for the cranes.  When I left, I was very happy with how the background is turning out.  It don’t want it a solid color…I want it to be a blurred landscape.  I haven’t gone back to look at it again today, but I think I will still be happy with it.  The state on the base isn’t going to stay blue.  I’m thinking greens in the east and sandy browns in the west with the Platte River snaking across the middle.  Truly, the detail of the cranes is going to be the biggest challenge.  That is scheduled to be tackled this weekend.

One fun thing that has happened with all of this is that I am reintroducing myself to some of my favorite music.  I have a selection of cassette tapes (for those of you under a certain age, Google that) with music that I loved to listen to when I was growing up.  There are several soundtracks – Forrest Gump, Dirty Dancing, Star Wars – and a LOT of New Age – Enya, Narada, Jim Brickman.  I have fun music from the Nylons and Neil Diamond and a collection of songs from the 1950s.  There is Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. (mine) and a mixed tape of songs by Prince (pretty sure that belongs to Dave).  I had almost forgotten how much I listened to music growing up.

These cassette tapes have stayed with me longer than any actual cassette player, so I asked Dave to buy me a cassette player the last time he ran errands.  He was nice enough not to laugh directly in my face.  Apparently cassette players are not easily found on the shelves of your local retail store any more.  I ended up borrowing a player from my dad in order to listen to them.  Dad still has our old Atari and Betamax player, so I figured he would have a cassette player.

So the heart is in progress.  This week, I will take the quiz bowl team to competition, go to five or so musical rehearsals, make two ads and a poster for Arbor Day, encourage my Academic Decathlon students as they do the first part of their Online National competition, create a newsletter for the Friends of Arbor Lodge Foundation, go to a band concert, support my husband on a new adventure, and take a friend out for a birthday dinner.  Come Saturday morning, I will don my “Earth Without Art is Just ‘EH'” paint shirt, slip the Hunt for Red October soundtrack into the player, and study the detail of crane feathers like I never have before.