A Birthday and Other Small Celebrations

11/15/24 Macrina Bakery, Maple Leaf neighborhood

I had a birthday last week – not a “big” one, but an ordinary, run-of-the-mill one. Still, I enjoy milking birthday celebrations for as long as I can. The first was a little sketching party with a few friends at Macrina Bakery (above).

The next was a personal tradition I’ve had for decades: Going to the Green Lake Starbucks early on my birthday for my free drink (one of few perks that haven’t been eliminated). When I worked full time, another personal tradition was to take a vacation day on my birthday (because working on my birthday was against my principles), and even then I enjoyed getting up early for that free drink. Before I became a sketcher, I just brought it home, but now I usually drink it there and sketch.

11/16/24 Green Lake Starbucks

The third sketch journal page below is a small celebration of my ongoing downsizing project. I’ve been losing momentum lately because the tasks are more onerous now: Tedium combined with sadness is not a good recipe for enthusiast productivity. I kind of dread it, and at the same time, I’m getting close to the end, so I want to finish – but it’s slow. The small load I took to Goodwill on this day is probably the last for a while – all the rest is either trash (not much), recycling (lots) or shredding (hopefully not too much).

11/21/24 Victrola Coffee Roasters, Ballard neighborhood