Farmers Market Artist Date

My Home for the Next Six Hours

At the current moment, I am sitting in the music library with hours (and hours) of homework and presentation preperation in front of me. This is about the last thing I feel like doing right now. An indulgent self care strategy I've decided to use today is to alternate working on this blog with doing my assignments. It might seem like that would slow me down considerably, but I know myself. By injecting something I want to do into an afternoon of something(s) I have to do, I will get WAY more done than forcing myself to do the mandatory tasks.  After all, "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!"

In addition to alternating about 5 minutes of drudgery with 5 minutes of blogging, I am also thinking back to the lovely Saturday morning I had this past weekend.  Headed to the mall to exchange some tennis shoes, I realized that I wanted to stop by my bank first.  Since my bank has branches pretty much everywhere (and I don't have a smartphone, yet - thinking of giving that to myself for an ISC Christmas present), I decided to enjoy listening to music and drive around until I found one.  

Having gone on many Artist Dates before, I have come to enjoy the small sense of adventure that comes from taking a turn down a road I'm not familiar with.  After a few such turns, I found myself at a lovely Farmers Market.  Since I had the time and it had been a while since I'd taken myself on an Artist Date, I decided to stop!

 

The air was perfect.  Just cool enough to feel like fall but not so cold that I needed a jacket. There was a lovely smell of fire roasted hatch chiles in the air.  I am learning to cook and am somewhat of a beginner foodie so I was delighted with the intoxicating smell, the beautiful colors and the friendly vibe of the people working with and shopping for the hatch chiles, canned sauces and lovely vegetables.  

I bought a $4 container of fire roasted (mild) green hatch chiles only after taking lots of pictures.  As you can see below, I was not the only one with this idea.  I could feel the heat from the flames in this one!

My favorite part of the morning came a little later, back at the mall.  I found the perfect pair of tennis shoes and was looking forward to going to Barnes & Noble to find a new journal and then home to create a recipe or two for my chiles.  I walked past a sign in the window of a candy store that proclaimed, "Everything is Bigger & Sweeter in Texas."   

The sign was inviting the reader to come in and purchase ridiculously large items of chocolate and candy.  Because of my life long struggle with a sugar addiction, I normally wouldn't have gone into the store, but it would have triggered my cravings and I would have been more than happy to pay more than $4 for a mocha-soy-something at Barnes & Noble later.  However, this time, I read the sign and smiled to myself.  

I've been playing around with a concept that ideas and experiences are my new candy.  My brain lights up when I see something beautiful or make a new connection in a much more pleasing way than it does when I have a sweet drink or dessert just for the sake of dessert.  Because of my beautiful morning, the gorgeous hatch chiles, the excitement over the new journal, the tennis shoes and the cooking later that day, I didn't crave sugar even a little bit.  

So... back to the library.  I've been sitting here the whole time.  By alternating working on this blog post and my giant homework assignment plus presentation, I was incredibly productive and got through my day without the aid of sugar or extra caffeine (an addiction I am not likely to give up anytime soon!).  I had a lovely decaf Vanilla tea with no sweetener and am relaxed as I head to my 5pm class.  

If you want to learn more about Artist Dates, click HERE.  I highly recommend them!  Because I nurtured my adventurous spirit this past weekend, I survived what could have been a dreary Monday.  Not only did my Artist Date comfort and energize me, it became the fuel for creativity (this blog post and my yummy chicken and hatch chile grilled cheese sandwiches) and helped me keep a beautiful attitude while persisting my way through stacks of books and hours of work. 

Where did you go on your last Artist Date?

My new tennis shoes (in case you were wondering J)