Zen du Jour

People often ask me why I enjoy painting. And they're not asking me why I like the artistic side of painting (as in on canvases and such--which I do enjoy), but they're asking me about why I like painting walls. And halfway through my work today I realized it's because of the Zen of it all.

You see, somewhere in the middle of painting, I find myself both incredibly focused on painting and also able to let my mind go wandering off wherever it decides it might want to go. So while I was figuring out just how ambidextrous I could be (after all, when you're painting around shelves in a closet, that's a good skill to work on), I was also daydreaming about travel... and music... and Christopher... and dinner--definitely dinner. (Not to say that Christopher wasn't a large part of my thoughts today, but he would be one of the first to tell you that I start planning dinner when I get up the morning, if not before going to bed the night before.)

I ran down the list of foods that I really don't eat when Christopher is around. Some of them are off the menu because I kind of outgrew them (Kraft Mac&Cheese is on this list, even though it's still great comfort food). Some I've dropped because if I make them for Christopher he'll never eat them (that list includes anything with mushrooms--he's allergic--or canned tuna/chicken--he's averse to the smell). And some of them are a combo of both (eating at Taco Bell is tops on that list--although I sometimes sneak off for it. And doesn't everyone crave bad Mexican food from time to time?). Of course, since I was working around major paint fumes today (and the house really reeks tonight), I also considered ordering in. 

So I painted shelves and pondered food and painted and pondered. I had spent the morning running errands, so this put me into the late afternoon. Cleaning up after myself and setting up the fans to pull the fumes out of the house, as well as trying to get the paint to dry a little faster, I still hadn't landed on a dinner choice. 

I wrapped my brush and pad in a plastic bag to throw them into the freezer (since I'll be using them again tomorrow, this will keep them usable without having to clean them), and walked into the kitchen thinking maybe ordering in was the best choice. And then I opened the freezer and realized there wasn't enough room for the bag. Since finishing this paint job tomorrow is my goal, I knew what this meant...

I really hope the pizza which gave up its freezer space and moved to the oven will make the painting worthwhile.