May 31

I walked to the bakery to order the cake for Opening Night of the play, then had a little sit-down to draw before walking home (total 7500 steps). It's a gorgeous day here today! I am at last getting some colour on my legs.

May 30

I had a pang of depression after my final exam at school today. I am always sad when the semester ends, but this time it's even worse because my close friends are graduating, and I am not. School isn't going to be the same without them.

Lola's been spending a lot of time in my art studio, working on a special gift for a special someone who is moving far away immediately after graduation. She's going to miss him even more than I will.

May 29

Following Julie's lead, I walked to the garden centre to buy some more veggie plants and seeds for my garden. On the way, I stopped to sketch a sampling of the adjacent shopfronts in my eclectic neighbourhood.

Despite it being a public holiday, my garden centre was not too crowded, as it sits within the Memorial Day Parade route, so was not easily accessible by car this morning. I got to watch the marching bands and cheer squads warming up for their big performances. Lauren should have taken me up on the offer to accompany me on this pleasant outing. She would have loved it.

May 28

My tomatoes are fruiting.

May 27

May 26

Lauren found a gift in her drawer that she'd forgotten to give me for Mother's Day.

May 25

May 24

I have been completely off my game since the press check. Getting tangled in the stress of work, eating poorly, and walking less than 5000 steps a day. As I've been offered another eight or ten car book press checks, most of them interstate, before the end of the year, I need to figure out how to do the work and retain my equilibrium.

May 23

Josh's new play opens next weekend. I hope those of you in Los Angeles will come and see it. It's a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family.

So far I've produced posters, postcards, the program, and ads. Still to go: Display board of head shots and promo photos, and taking up Louie's pants.

May 22

I am still somewhat fried.

May 21

I'm starting to feel human again.
Check this out.

May 20

My colleague on this press check was nearly carjacked at 2 a.m. this morning on his return to the factory. It was right down the road; four guys in a red car pulled up very close beside him at the light, then pulled in front of him, stopped, and piled out of their car. Bob had the presence of mind to put his foot to the floor, swerve around them, and leave the scene at high speed. He was, of course, EXTREMELY rattled when he got here. When the police arrived they said that the perpetrators had just committed an armed robbery at a gas station down the road, and were probably looking to switch vehicles.

It's all very disturbing. So I've decided to stay put here at the printer's until the job's over. No visit home for me this evening. Uploading my latest sketch will have to wait till tomorrow, when I'm home with my scanner.

Addendum next day: Home and safe. 65 hours work in four days ... whew!

May 19

Tui wondered what a press check is. This is the explanation I gave her:

There is a big job being printed, a car brochure. It has 36 pages, which are printed four at a time (each sheet is called a "form", there are nine in total in this case). My job is to be there and check the quality of the printing of each form. I don't have to supervise the entire print run, I just have to be here at the start of each run and get them to do micro-adjustments till I'm perfectly happy with the colour.

All going well, it should take about eight hours between checks. However, this job has been problematic. The work is being produced by an advertising agency in New York. Their client is a major car manufacturer, and so far on every form, they have called through changes AFTER we have received the files, made the plates, and put it on the press. So we have had a big delay while we stop the job, make the changes, get them approved, make new plates, and start again.

We've been at it for three full (24 hour) days, and have so far printed only four forms. I haven't had more than three hours sleep at a time, much of it on the couch at the printer's. I came home tonight to spend a few hours with my husband; it's now 11pm and I expect a call any time now to drive back down there (it's a 1 - 2 hour drive, depending on the traffic).

So that's why I'm so tired. And no, Julie, I haven't been walking a mile to draw. But tonight I noticed on a map that there's a graveyard not far from the factory, so tomorrow between checks I am going to find it. It is possibly a visually interesting island in the middle of a very ugly industrial wasteland.

May 18

Another long day on press check. This arrangement is in the printer's visitors' lounge.

May 17

I started on a big press check today, which involves many hours at a printing factory in beautiful (not!) downtown Commerce. This quick sketch was done when I nipped into the outlet plaza on the way there this morning, to buy a cold drink.

May 16

Another in my "five things" series.

May 15

Played with paper and glue tonight, and came up with a new series of cards. In case any of my loved ones out there are wondering why the cards they receive are always based on this rusty brown cardstock, it's because, oh, four years ago I think, I had to buy a whole ream of the stuff to get the hundred sheets I needed for Christmas cards. One of these days it'll be used up and you'll get different coloured cards. Until then, enjoy!

May 14

Inspired by Julie's landscapes, I'm trying to look up and out at the bigger image, instead of just focusing on small things. So on today's walk I drew the "wash" behind our house -- our back fence is just beyond the little bridge in the background.

May 13

Just back from a sketchcrawl at the L.A. Zoo with my drawing pals from Southern California Drawing Room. Drawing animals is HARD! I could use the fact that they move around a lot as an excuse, but really it's just my lack of experience with animal models. Anyway, this baby giraffe obliged by standing at attention for quite a long time, so I am somewhat pleased with this sketch. I took lots of photos throughout the day so will be practicing more over the next days and weeks.

If you're in Southern California and you like to draw, please consider joining our yahoo group and coming along to future sketchcrawls. We have one planned in three weeks to San Juan Capistrano.

May 12

A lot of my neighbourhood is flat, but there are some hills nearby, and today I climbed a steep one. At the top was a shady tree with lilies growing at its base. A perfect spot to rest and draw.

I am celebrating my new weight loss milestone: 40.2 pounds/18.3 kg. It sure feels good.