Ask and ye shall receive!
Sketchery posts are actually pretty easy to pull off. I love sketching. I just stopped for a year or so because a lot of my sketches were about bad stuff and I didn’t really want to share that. Maybe I’ll pull a Mark Twain and publish them 100 years from now when everyone who could be offended is dead. Or not. I haven’t actually been sketching that much. Mostly long rants about stuff and stuff.
You guys gave me a lot to think about and you said some really nice things. Thank you!
This is basically me fiddling around with my sketchbook while I wait for Bug to eat at a local diner. I had long finished, of course. I do a lot of that. She thinks she can exist off air and junk food. We also tried to get her last installment of homework done at the restaurant. That went over about as well as the food. She barely touched either.
I’m also worrying/drawing (I should coin a new term: drorrying) about the invitation website I hope to launch in a week or so. It’s in the programming stage and I haven’t seen it yet. I’m at the nail-biting stage. I can’t wait to share it with you guys though. I think it’s going to be super cool.
Next is playdates: I’ve actually found a fellow mom who doesn’t mind if I bring my laptop on play dates with her daughter. That’s kind of awesome. The first one we had, I just sat there and made small talk with her for three hours. It was painful. I didn’t know what to talk about and I was itching to work so bad the whole time. I hardly get much Bug-occupied-and-happy time so whenever I do get a minute I want to work on my laptop.
Here is today’s rapid fire sketch of messiness. I should be working but no, I’m thinking of you guys and all your nice comments that make me buzz. Too bad I have to draw about scary things. I need to work on that. But what comes out, comes out, you know?
Oh, you’ll like the cockroach story! It was lovely. Delightful! Creepy and crawly and full of the heebie jeebies!
As you may remember my cat, Aqui, is an outside cat. Not my choice, purely hers. She likes to come and go all night long and since we don’t have coyotes in this neighborhood I humor her by keeping a back window open just a crack so she can slither in and out. It’s all been very fine and dandy until last night.
I hear this tell-tale muffled meow that can only mean one thing. She’s caught something. She’s quite the hunter. I’m a super light sleeper and I wanted to drift back to sleep but her muffled meow sounded like it was coming from inside the house and the last thing I want is her delivering a half dead mouse to my pillow for me to admire. She will do this. She is quite proud of her hunting prowess and has to show it off to me every time. She’s caught birds, gophers, lizards and…GREAT BIG SCARY AMERICAN COCKROACHES THAT CAN FLY!!!!!!!!!!!! (click if you dare)
You read that right. Flying bugs with creepy-crawly legs and wiggling feelers. This is my worst nightmare. Snakes don’t scare me, spiders don’t scare me (too terribly much), mice don’t scare me but cockroaches do! I will climb up on tables to get away from them screaming like a sissy.
It’s been a bit challenging living in this run-down mobile home with an-under-the-sink leak that attracts bugs that like to eat rotten wood. Thankfully, my dad fixed the sink leak but there are still plenty of big bugs outside for the cats to bring in.
I hate it. With a passion. And there is no man around the house to come capture them and put them back outside.
So that’s what I had to do in my nightgown at two in the morning. Pleasant dreams!
bluhuhuhugh…shudder!
18 Comments
Stephanie M
Yay! This totally made my day.
Becca
Yay, sketchy posts!!!
I agree with you about the cockroach – EW! (though, spiders freak me out too)
Echo
YAY! I always love the sketchery posts. :)
Sarah
I got distracted and shut down my computer before commenting on the previous post, but I can see that I’m not the only one who enjoys the sketch posts. For one thing there’s the element of enjoying drawing vicariously through you.
As for ads and sponsored posts, do what makes sense for you. I don’t give a damn about sponsored posts if they’re clearly marked as such and if I remember rightly, you’re one of the best, most engaging and natural writers of such posts I’ve come across. If you can make some extra pennies that way, then do it.
Rachel W.
I too am a fan of the sketchery posts. Thank you! Also, since i didn’t tell you yesterday, I would be happy to read your review posts over here since you make them so interesting to read. Have a wonderful day!
Kuky
I’m on the yay bandwagon. YAY!
And eeeeew on the bug. Most all bugs freak me out but for some reason I bought a bug sucker look at them in a magnifying tube then release them afterwards gun. What was I thinking? The first time I used it, I screamed the entire time I sucked it up. Then I was thoroughly creeped out and too scared to release the bug. I put the tube outside and waited for Alan to empty the contents.
Hmmm… I don’t know how I’d handle a flying cockroach by myself. Scream the entire time putting a cup over it. Then scream as I slipped a paper between it and the floor. Then, predictably, scream as I run outside to fling said bug, paper, and glass as far away from me as possible. Can you imagine? :-D
sizzle
We SHOULD talk and send business each other’s way. ;-)
nicole i
paris ???!!!!
silver
When I lived in an apartment by myself I would deal with bugs in a similar manner. I’d trap them under a shoe box with something heavy on top. After a week, when I was sure they’d be dead, I’d lift the box and vacuum them up.
JaeElle
I, too, was distracted yesterday before I could comment. I enjoy all of the types of writing you do but I especially love your sketchery posts & your party planning Posts. You are so creative and have great ideas to share. If you don’t mind, I’m tempted to borrow your 40th birthday/midlife crisis retreat idea. It captures perfectly this age.
Heather in WA State
My cat once brought in a live bat. That was real fun to try to get back outside at 2am. Plus, my cat had bitten it and it was bleeding, and splattering blood all over the walls as it fluttered around in a panic. I never had to worry about bugs and spiders, though, because my cat would eat them, however we don’t live in an area with cockroaches, so I don’t know if she could have eaten one of those!
Thanks for sharing your sketches. Even though the content may seem depressing to you, so many of us can relate, and putting it into comic-form makes us smile and feel not so alone in our own trials. So keep sharing!
bethany actually
My main thought after reading this post is that soon, we will be back in CA and we can have working playdates too. :-)
Madge
I miss our working playdates.
BeachMama
Always Love your sketches!! I hate catching bugs too, I usually pull out the vacuum and suck them up, even though hubby tells me they don’t die, I don’t care, I can’t see it anymore and I hope it suffocates with the dust and dog fur :)
BB from Dot
What is poor Aqui going to do when you move? At the beach she will want to hunt crabs and beach bums! What happened to her kitten that you kept? I haven’t seen any photos of either of them lately. Will the dog be going back to your Mom’s? (Pets are on my mind because I had to find homes for my Mom’s cats when she passed away recently).
SAJ
I’m taking the two cats with me. Holly will sadly go back to my mom’s but at least she’ll get to come visit and we’ll get to visit her. :)
Emily
Love the sketch bookery posts. Makes me want to draw.
A different Elizabeth
SO happy to see the sketches come back!
I wish you lots of luck in finding a nice apartment for a nice price (or, as the French say, “un prix interessant”). Publish your “SAJ in Paris” book and I will try to get everyone i know to buy copies and then you’ll be rich, maybe!