My Weight Loss Art As A Stagnant Pool - Soon To Be Drained and Replenished

Until I go to Weight Watchers this week I'm gonna think that I've remained at the weight of 244# for who many weeks. Wednesday's weight will hopefully crack the stuck brake that has me stranded on the side of the mountain top.

The Continuing Saga of Weight Loss Art

I am 244#. 33# lost since joining Weight Watchers!! Yippee!

The Art of 566 Monmouth Blvd. - Galesburg, IL

My Grandma and Grandpa lived at 566 Monmouth Blvd. in Galesburg, IL. Later in years the neighborhood went to hell and their house turned out to be a crack house. A year or two ago it was torn down. Lots of great memories were created there before it fell on hard times.
When I was born this is where our family lived. There was an apartment on the second floor. This where we lived.
What can be better than living in the same house as your grandma? That is hard to beat.
There were two bedrooms in this apartment. The bedroom my sisters and I lived in was not very warm for whatever reason. Seems like we could see our breath in the early morning hours when we'd first get up. There was only a half bath upstairs. The only full bath in the house was in the foyer of the home. Right there when coming in the front door was a long closet that houosed the bathtub, toilet and sink. All of us took our weekly bath in that bathroom.
I loved that house.
My grandma named Alice Carlson, cooked pies, cakes, cookies, meatballs, head cheese, chicken, --- everything in that kitchen.
My grnadpa, named John Leroy Carlson, was a miner at the Little John Coal Mine in Victoria, IL.
I used to go over to my grandmas and stay all night. She had a big antique bed I slept in. When she died I got that bed and slept in it for YEARS. Probably til 2001 when Linda and I moved to Fort Lauderdale when we sold it. It was riddled with termites and ready to crumble.

My Lucy Art

Lucy art is always happy art just as Lucy is good for a happy life.

My Art - Part 4

Mmmmmmmmm. Art.

My Art - Part 3

More of my favorites.

My Art - Part 2

More of my art I like the best.

My Friends As Art

My buddy Melody who brought Milo (pictured) and Venus to Linda and myself. Melody runs the Dog Star Animal Sanctuary in Ottumwa, Iowa.

My Art in Short

Weight Loss Art

Now, I've reached my 10% milestone--28#! My exercising is stepping up too. 1600 reps in 30 minutes. I do at LEAST 30 min. on the eliptical 5 times per week. I'm feeling better everyday. Weight Watchers is the way to go. Only 65# to go.
The complicated stuff about why I feel the need to lose. It seems as though my BIGGEST motivator is how people think of me. The mean things people say to a fat person stick with that person for all time. Whether anyone realizes it or not. I remember my sister Terry saying to me while we were playing Canasta in 1994. We were sitting at a dining room table in the condo they rented at Lake Occachobee, FL. Her husband, Phil, Terry and I were playing. I said something like it isn't over thil the fat lady sings and she smirked and said she was waiting for me to sing. Long forgotten by Terry, it sticks with me. My Dad, ashamed to introduce me to his work buddies when walking downtown Galesburg about 1980. We were standing in front of Nyman's Jewelry Store on Prairie Street and he stood and talked with his friend for 10 minutes anyhow and not one second of recognition but obvious body language demonstrasting shame at his association with me. And there are hundreds of more stories. Going with my mom to visit her friends in Victoria, IL. while visiting the grave of my father. The crippled man in the wheelchair who was a friend of my moms said he could not tell that I was Verna's daughter because I must 2-3 times her size. This is how he greeted me at the his door upon entering his home.

I had a cousin named Beulah who was huge. Maybe 350#. Beulah lived on a farm with her husband and daughter. She was the BEST cook and baker ever!!! Whenever I saw her she was so beautiful. Hair coiffed, makeup, girdle, nylons, body-tight pretty dress, heels. But when she sat and walked, while graceful, I can now see that she was physically in tremendous pain. Sitting with her legs crossed at the ankles, knees tightly together. It takes strenghth and whatever else to put that image out there when big and bulky. Beulah, I love you .

So now I am on my journey. Successfully!!!! I hope to go on a cruise in December with Linda. 10 days. I will continue on my exercise regimine and eat healthfully. I will swim and be in a suit and be perfectly at ease. I love my life now.

In the winter time I want to get a new Fishermans cable knit sweater to wear twith beautiful jeans. Last week Linda and I went through our closets and took a few hundred items to the Salcation Army.

I'm soon to be done being FAT!

My Weight Loss Art for this Month - Turtle/Snail Pace

Oh, the weight loss was slowed by a birthday and by Easter. But now I'm back and uping the exercise and lowering the points. Yesterday weigh-in was 252.4. No gaining but no great losses either. Hit 25# this month. This is zapping my want to draw or paint. Art suffers for arts sake.

My Birthday Art in 2010

Yesterday was my 56th birthday. It was the best ever. So I was just back after 3 days of celebrations with Linda, fammily and friends to be greeted at work with cards, angelfood cake from my friend Jen Eldridge, a balloon and well wishes from all. I heard from EVERYONE Facebook. It was a day full of rememberances from all.
Thank you! My life is the best it's ever been.

My Life Art In 2010

Linda and I are today celebrating our 11 year anniversary of our commitment to our life partnership. It is the best art of my life. This love is the basis of all I do and all I care about. Linda is my equal and my most beloved.

Weigh in at the OSF Weight Loss Challenge resulted in 255.5#. Very good. Tonight I weigh in at my weekly Weight Watchers right before we leave town for our dinner celebration at Alexander's Steak House in Peoria. Wednesday it's my bff Patty's and mine weekly Canasta Blasta. Then on Thursday Linda, me, Patty, Mom, Virginia (Linda's Mom), Matilda and Maryanne are going to The Packinghouse for my Birthday celebration dinner. Oh, the weight loss will suffer but the good times will roll.

I don't care to go to politics much in my art life but somethings I am compelled to mention to help sculpt our composite art.
Small memo to all "important" people. President Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Hilary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Our Pope, Bill Gates, Diane Sawyer, Barbra Walters, Dean Trantalis, and all of those (allot) I fail to mention.
Cease all major sports activities for 10 years. All monies to education. Up pay of the teachers. Hire more teachers don't lay off. National focus on teaching children values, morals and general knowledge.
Allow each person with a social security number a voting button. Each person votes on issues as presented to Congress. ALL voting takes place in this manner. From elections to laws. Senators and "representatives" no longer vote. The merely present issues in the walls of Congress, and we the TAXPAYERS vote.
All Federal prisoners are shuttled to the moon where we have built a prison. Offenders stay there. The guards are the second highest paid persons in our society - second to teachers.
The IRS is disbanded. Flat tax. It will never happen as long as our "LEADERS" are millionaires. There is not a Congress person who is not a millionaire.
Somehow we need to take things back.
I think this will make a difference.
President Obama is doing a great thing with trying to fix healthcare. He's right. If you worked in a hospital as I do you would see that much of what goes on is not right. One instance. Room #1 there is a woman who has a terminal disease but her insurance refuses to pay any longer for whatever reason. Luckily I work at a place where everyone gets care. In Room #2 there is a 20 year old girl who has a headache, no insurance, and is on her phone playing a game to pass time. Who is paying for here? Me and you. This goes on all of the time. I know that the system needs work to make it right . I know that all of this " excess" and "unnecessary" situations are my job security. But I feel it worth it for me to have a disrupution in my lovely life somehow to make the broken system work.
Dear Jesus, hear my prayer...

My Boat Art From 2004 to Now - 2010

In 2004 Linda and I lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in a ground floor level conda which was situated on the water. We had a boat dock 20 feet from our back door. This is the year I graduated from Radiology Technology school. As a graduation present, Linda bought me a 22 foot pontoon boat. It was beautiful. Two years later when we decided to move to Illinois we still owed a bunch of money on the boat but wanted to get rid of it the easiest way possible. So we left it in the hands of a shyster nad moved away. In 2008 the boat sold to a guy who lived in Galesburg, IL. In the end we were left with paying for the boat and not having anything to show for it. And it left us knowing we had been screwed. But we carried on ad recovered. Sort of like....just one of those things.
And so now in 2010 we have no debt. Our home is paid off, we have no credit card debt, no car loans and two GREAT jobs. I an x-ray tech and Linda an RN!!!! We are the luckiest people I know!!
My weight at WW yesterday was 256.8. Yippee!! Down 20.6 pounds!

My Summer Solstice Art in 1985

About the year 1985 I was living in Key West, Florida. There was, at the time, a womyns living compound up on Sugarloaf Key. My friends and I took off from our home at 1208 Bay Street in a VW van. That van is another story in itself. When we got to Sugarloaf we were met by a large gathering of women. I think KC, Devona, Mary and Jean a Cotton were there. About sunset all of the women were instructed to form a big circle out on the large lawn. There was a group of houses on one side of the property, a large lawn, then a road next to that and then the water. All of us sat on the grass in a big circle. Blue carried a large clay bowl filled with sage grass and sat down as a part of the circle. Blue said she would light the sage and each of us should verbalize what we wish to "let go of" and when the smoke from the burning sage would rise up and disappear, so would the oppressing baggage we carried with us go up in smoke when verbalized. I had never been in such an environment and not used to putting my feelings out there for a bunch of strangers to hear. I sat next to my friend Captain Mel. When it came time for me to speak I said, "I am so moved by this whole scene I can't speak.". Everyone went Wow!. The next person to speak was Captain Mel and she muttered under her breath, to me, "Bitch.". She was caught off-guard.
Following this ritual there was alot of music and nude dancing under the stars. Martha, I can't remember her last name, who had just lost over a hundred pounds, shed her clothes and was frolicking in the grassy area and near the waters edge. The full moon was out. The pot was burning. Girls were everywhere I looked. The weather was steamy hot.

My 2010 Art Is Becoming My Evolving Weight Watcher Body

Last year I joined Weight Watchers the week before Thanksgiving. I just needed to start this long journey then.
Being 55 years old and weighing in at 277.4# I knew I needed to start. My entire life has been full of excuses and irresponsibilities. Now I was at a point where I had everything in my life just as I wanted it - except for my weight and self-image. So that's when I started that journey.
Now I am into it with a vengeance. I see my weight slowing dropping off. I feel my body improving with feeling and movements which have been dormant for quite some time.
Yesterday when I went for my weigh in I was 259.6#. So I am down 17.8#.
The first week of 2010 is when I really got serious. The holidays were over and I didn't gain any weight. I didn't lose either but...
So as a result of this transition I've found that I've let my painting drawing go by the wayside. For now. I need to concentrate and immerse myself in this best of quest for self-improvement. When I am at a place where I can resume my projects I will. I will also know when that time is.
One thing I really want to do is chronicle my journey here on this blog.
After all, it's ALL art. Isn't it?

My Art in 2009 Was Fruitful and Multiplied

In this year of 2009 I found my longtime friend Captain Melody. Let me tell you about Melody.
We met in circa 1984 in Key West, Florida. Melody lived onboard her trimaran, Waxing Moon, at Garrison Bight. She ran a charter boat business for women only. It was busy enough to keep her and her girlfriend, Kathy in rice and beans and all essentials. I lived at 1208 Bay Street. We were neighbors. right across a busy street from one another. I lived with my current, Jana.
I helped Melody sail her boat on the occasions she had a sail booked. It was always fun but we always got high when we went out and then I was pretty well good for nothing. I remember Mel and Kathy took me on a 3-4 day sail in the outback for my birthday one year. I have such fond memories of this time. It was full of swimming, sunning, eating , laughing, drinking, getting high, and spending our days with no clothes on. It's a very free-wheeling feeling if you've ever done this. Of course back then I was much more comfortable in my own skin.
I'm 261.2 thanks to Weight Watchers now. I'm absolutely loving this counting the points program. But I digress.
So Captain Mel and I have been friends for a long time. Melody taught herself to draw and paint. She sailed her boat - not Waxing Moon - across the big drink of Atlantic Ocean and stayed in the south of Spain for nearly a year. Flew back to the USA and returned to her hometown of Otummwa, Iowa.
Melody lives there now. Melody has a painting business where she paints beautiful portraits of people and their pets. I'm gonna try to get her link up here on this blog. She also has an animal rescue shelter she named Dog Star.
Last year Linda and I got not one but two beautiful puppies from Melody. I'm also going to try to post their pix here. Maybe a movie too.
In 2009 I was 55 years old.

My Art In 1999

In 1999 I was 45 years old and the most important person in my life was met.

I had been out of any romantic relationship for five years and I was ready to meet someone.

My mom and dad had just left from their visit to Key West and I was feeling good. One day I was reading the local free newspaper and in the personal ads I saw an ad which contained the phrase, "I've found my peace.". This was meaningful to me at this time and so I called the number and left a long message. The girl called me back and left another message. After a couple of phone tag messages left we finally connected. During our conversation we sensed that we had met before. It was true. Not in another lifetime but in the previous year in September, there is an event in Key West called Women's Week. My friend Mary had arranged for us to meet at "Diva's" - a local gay bar. During this meeting we hit it off great but failed to exchange phone numbers or whatever. It apparently wasn't our time to meet. so six months later I guess it was our time to meet. so we made a date to meet at the Rooftop Cafe in downtown Key West. We had dinner. We've been together ever since. That was over ten years ago.

She is my S.O. My partner. My main squeeze. Linda. She's the nicest person I know and she treats me better than anyone ever has. She's the love of my life. The person I waited 45 years to meet.

My 1986 Art Life in Key West, Florida

In 1986 I was 32 years old and I moved to Key West, Florida. Jana Hart was my girlfriend at the time and we moved there together. It's always easier to move somewhere else with someone. Obviously moving alone would be the alternative and not a good one if you are at all a social person.
So jana and I had been involved with each other for about a year and felt it was our time to move. I quit the job I had for the past 9+ years to move far awa to a land and culture I was not sure about. The biggest change I had made in my life to date was a move from the little midwestern town of Galesburg, IL to the much larger midwestern, central Illinois city of Peoria, IL. So I lived in Peoria for about 10 years. Already making the biggest change in lifestyle by aditting to myself and a small group of friends that I was gay. so now I'm tackling the change of moving about 1800 miles away to the most Southern tip of the continental United States - Key West, Florida. And Key West not only being the most southern point but also the gayest per capita, at this time, in the US. Maybe I just made that last statistic up but it sounds OK. So Jana divorced her husband, we packed our truck and drove away. It was a sad and lonesome feeling that day. Jana drove the car. I drove the big truck. We got separated on the Interstate and with it being pre-cell phone worl - I felt very lost and lonesome. I remember sitting on the bumper of the truck crying. Then I saw Jna come down the merge ramp in the car and I was so happy and relieved. Driving down the Keys for the big move was a beautiful ride. Very foreign looking. Palm trees, coral gravel, intense heat, bright sunlight, lots of fast cars, billboards selling shells and t-shirts, etc... Boats and water were evident after mile larker 75 was passed.Then I saw blue water, many boats and a generalized feeling of a big sigh of relief and absense of stress and tension. It was obvious and I liked it. We drove to Key West and stayed at the Econolodge because our apartment wasn't ready for us to habitate. Helen Wardell who was our landlady, promised she would hold it for us for $100.00 when we visited in September. She agreed that it would be painted and ready to move in when we arrived. This was my first idea that people can promise things all they want and that it doesn't mean that it will be done. Nothing had been done when we got there. The front lawn hadn't even been mowed. So we went back to the hotel and Jana crawled into bed and assumed the fetal position and stayed there for a couple of days until I got the apartment in good enough shape to move in.
I'm spending way too much time on this period of my life because nothing I say is really important enough here except that I didn't work for money the first month we lived there. I worked at least 8 hours per day in getting the apartment good enough for us to live in comfortably. Jana was working as a RN at the small dePoo Hospital on southard Street in Key West.

My Key West Art In 1985

In 1985 I was 31 years old and I lived in Key West, Florida. I lived at 1208 Bay Street. A two bedroom, one bathroom apartment situated next to the busiest car repair shop on the island. This apartment was one block from Garrison Bight- the city marina. I could look out my front door and see the Gulf of Mexico. the Old Town Trolley Barn was also next to me as well as the Key West Bar and Grill. The Key West Bar and Grill had a drive-up liquor store. Right across the street from me lived a girl who was a heavy weight. Stout. Very long, thick hair. I never knew her name until many years later, like 10 years later, I went to work at the Key West Convalescent Center. The front office girl here looked very familiar to me and after a little while it dawned on me who she was. I remember her name now as Dona Rosado. I recently caught up with her on a Facebook page. She is still my friend. she lost 160# by diet and exercise over a course of 2 years.

So my little neighborhood here was tropically satisfying. Palm trees, ibis and geckos filled my yard. I had a big backyard and I mowed weekly. I built a big picnic table to sit my guests at as they came to eat the spaghetti sauce and grilled food I cooked.

When I moved into this apartment it needed a total make over. It took me a full month of working on it at least 8 hours a day to get it to look ship shape. As soon as I got it to look the way I wanted it to look my first out of town guests arrived. They stayed for a week. I barely knew them. A 21 year old and her boyfriend. We were being used. I think this is the last time I let this happen to me. ha ha.

Art For All

Wow! What a concept. Art for all. I need to find out what to make of this. New and different topics each day. A new artist each day. Display my own art. I joined Weight Watchers and now maybe my body will be my art. Need to lose 100#. This will be the art work that can change my life.