Pen and Water Wash with stamped letters Crummy watercolor journal 3.5" x 5.5"

I would love to tell you I've been traveling or sketching up a storm or on some delectable adventure, but the truth is I'm not really sure where the last two weeks have disappeared to! I haven't any sketches to show for my absence either. Well, with the exception of the one to the left and it's just a quickie.

There are times when I want to sketch and there are times when I want to sit back and absorb what's going on around me or to focus on the person I'm spending time with.

I can fall into my sketchbook like some people fall into their smartphones and it can damn annoying to someone who doesn't sketch. Or so I've been told.

For me, often the point of sketching is to create a portal, or return ticket, back to a moment I want to remember. In this instance, I wanted to remember the "pity pot" and a quick sketch was all that was necessary.

As we sat together, it took a few minutes for me to grasp the idea that the pity pot was a toilet and when my friend was done with her pity party, she simply hit the handle to wash all the negativity away!

It amused me and it delighted me that she had found a way to deal with some of the ongoing, life challenges she's facing. Like most of us, she's dealing with her fair share of "stuff."

She also puts a timer on her pity parties and sets a firm deadline, say 4 o'clock in the afternoon before her family comes home from their day, by which to end her party. That way she doesn't fall into the trap of lingering too long.

At the end of her party, she ceremoniously flushes the toilet and watches the water swirl the pity away and out of her world. Clever, huh?!

And that's what I have to show for the last two weeks.