Here are the outfits I wore to work from the past couple of weeks.  I donned my orange Trina Turk dress on Friday in support of Syracuse University sports (my alma mater).  The men’s and women’s basketball teams did well this year.  They both made it to the Final Four!  There was so much excitement in this town.  I watched the last three games at different venues and it has been a blast.  Last night, the crowd was disappointed with the outcome, but that energy turned into an amazing night of dancing to the live band that took the stage at Shifty’s once the game ended.

Of course, Mother Nature took the loss a bit harder and decided to give us back our snow!

How crazy is this?  It is the view from my back porch taken a minute ago.  Yes, just this morning!  Funny, because yesterday I was contemplating whether or not I would mow the lawn today….

My 5th graders finally finished their wood sculptures.  They are currently on display in the school library.  Next we will tackle a slab/hand built clay sculpture.  I haven’t done the lesson in ten years, which was the last time I taught 5th grade art, so that should be fun!

My Studio in Art class is working on a mixed-media still life drawing and the rest of my 8th graders are painting their clay projects.  They have a choice of metallic paint or fluorescents.  The glow-in-the-dark element is soooo fun!  One of my students donated his black light to the classroom.  We can now check the projects in progress to see if the paint is covering well.  Thanks, Joe S.!

The end of the marking period is fast approaching, leaving only ten weeks of school for the year!  Wow.  It was about this time last year that I got my first cell phone.  Yeah, I know!  I was living under a rock for the first fifteen years of the new millennium.

Stephanie G., one of my Studio in Art students from last year, was the one who told me about #ootd (outfit of the day).  I guess you can blame her for turning me into a fashion monster, lol.

But, of course, I was already coo-coo ca-ca for fashion.  It seems as though time has flown by this school year but at the same time… it seems to be standing still.  I don’t feel as though I am aging.  I actually really love the way I have finally caught up to myself.  To my dreams for myself, I mean.  Because suddenly, I’m achieving everything the real me has ever wanted.

And in the process, I have found my life’s purpose.  Giving visual voice to local artists. Assisting them in any way I can to help them achieve their goals and dreams.  Offering positive energy to students – not to persuade them to have art careers necessarily, but to help them fall in love with art, with the arts.  And to believe in themselves in the way that they know they can achieve anything they want.  That they should not stop working towards a goal until either they achieve it or stop desiring it.

It’s taken me a while to learn this stuff, but time hasn’t actually mattered, if that makes any sense.  This journey has been the true gift.

Okay, time to throw on the giant parka and venture out into the April sprinter (winter in spring?) wonderland on my way to a brunch date with one of my besties.  But first I need to decide what to wear….