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Welcome back. It's been nearly 5 days since the last entry and I'm feeling journal-deprived.

It was a fine weekend. It started off with arriving home Friday night after two days and two nights of retreat. It was nice to be home and back to real-life. I missed C and the boys quite a bit.

Saturday was the Fountain Square Masterpiece in a Day contest. Fountain Square is a neighborhood in town that houses lots of antique stores, art stores and other fun places like diners and duck pin bowling alleys. The neighborhood sponsored this event where contestants were to create a piece of art (visual or written) between 9 and 2 that day, to be judged at 6pm. Well, C signed up to write a piece and I went along for support. (Unfortunately, my support consisted of reading magazines in the library and window shopping antique stores.)

Well, I went into one store and the owner (who I know) asked me why I wasn't competing. I said I didn't know. I didn't feel the vibe that day, I guessed. He convinced me to go home and get my paints. When I came back, I parked it on a sidewalk and did some sketches, then started to paint. C finished his piece, I finished my painting, we submitted them and went to run some errands.

We came back at six for the judging and I was amazed at all the great art that'd been produced that day. There were collages and paintings and sculptures. You name it. It was great. It was wonderful to see so many creative people together in one space.

After the belly dancing and drumming was finished the MC started announcing the winners.

He called my name. I almost fell over with shock. Holy monkey!

There were three winners for abstract art and three for representational art, and I was one. I turned beat red and walked up to the front where I congratulated the other winners and got my picture taken with my little illustration. I feel kind of sheepish about the win because there was so much good stuff there and I didn't want to compete in the first place. I am really glad I did though. I felt great.

The next day (Sunday) C and I drove to Chicago for my grandparent's 50th anniversary. We took a architectural boat tour down the river (wow! can I move there?) and went out to eat at Italian Village where my grandpa proposed to my grandma. During the close of the meal, everyone went around the table and talked about how they first got engaged, and C told our story. It was a really special moment. (And coincidentally, we learned that my grandpa asked my grandma to marry him in a little booth called La Pergola in the restaurant. C asked me to marry him under the pergola that we built together on our house. I think it's a good sign, personally.)

Today I be illin', (I'm not well at all). But creatively I feel like I just refueled. As soon as I get over being sick, I am going to paint the whole house red (or maybe just work on some more illustrations).

It's good to feel inspired. I don't think there's anything better, in fact.