Be Stung

What a testy week. I'm being tested, again...is that it? Is it a trial by fire-type situation, this...is it a testament to growth?

So many positives, so many good things, upswings. And then I went flying, right off the swing, landing in a great thud on hard-packed gravelly ground.

Good stuff? Yes, there was good stuff. The job at the Community College was challenging, but not overly-so. It was relaxing and secure...for two weeks plus, anyway. Then came a freelance project for my clients in Jamaica Plain; interesting graphic layout with that all-too-important message to humanity, to fight AIDS, get tested, etc. I have to love when a small job turns into a much bigger one, challenges me to be ever more creative and expand my design vocabulary - this needs to happen all the more regularly, and I need to see myself evolving and pushing forward on that creative front.

So I did. So I do - I get more creative, and I get more lively with my social interactions. I see a friend in emotional pain after a break-up, and I go to her, I comfort her..I cook for her. I spend good quality time filling her space with my voice and laughter and presence so she won't feel lonely or stuck. We have an art day - I teach a technique, and I draw for the first time in a year...and it's good.

I accompanied said friend to a club, middle of the week. We went to see some friends of hers play some very original, progressive and impressive music. It was an evening tinted with the vague hope that I would click with one friend in particular, which did not happen even though I liked him and would like to be friends in the future. But, I did meet another graphic designer who was sweet and cute, and I was inspired by her and I went night swimming with she and the cute keyboard musician. And that was taken, by me, as a sign of uplifting promise and new horizons, and new outlets for personal enrichment of all the types that fulfill me the most. And then I baked stuff for my godson Jack's birthday, and I looked forward to an event-packed weekend with friends!

Saturday morning I walked Zee in the park down the street. As we crossed the grassy open area on the hill, I was suddenly and violently crippled by a searing pain in the underside of one of my tender, small toes. I swore a blue streak and hopped and frantically scrabbled at my foot while my eyes brimmed with tears, since the pain was excruciating! I had been stung, viciously stung in my podiatric underbelly - somehow this would serve as a metaphor for my painful, disappointing and offensive week to come.