Ok, so maybe I am painting at the Fairfield Inn in one mile from the actual beach, but STILL. I have told my children that once Soph goes to college I am off to the beach. I will live by the beach, I will paint by the beach, I will run on the beach. With my dogs who will live forever. YES THEY WILL, SHUT UP. That is the life I will have in the future and it will be good. And right now I am having a moment that is close. Boyfriend called me on Monday and said, "Um, I know your birthday is Wednesday and I promised to take you to a fancy restaurant to wear your fancy dress because we are retards and the last time you wore your fancy pants dress we forgot to take pictures of us all dressed up, but I have a business trip I have to leave for on your birthday." Yes, he said it just like that. And I was all ?????.... And then he said, "but it is in Myrtle Beach, near the water and maybe you can come and paint there?" And I was all, "OK!!!!" So yesterday I packed up an optimistic number of paintings to get done in one day, went and had lunch with my babies at school, told them I was going to get them some presents from Myrtle Beach (they are with dad this week) and jumped in boyfriend's car and drove. Can I tell you how much fun I have with this man? We have gone on many a trip now, all driving ones and we have never had to turn on music yet. We just love to talk and if he gets tired he seems to not mind my incessant babbeling, singing, humming and strange habit of randomly reading signs for no reason. And I love to drive his car. He has a very nice german brand car, boy those germans know their engineering, they do!, and I LOVE to drive it. Which is nice, cause he does not like to drive as much as me. But me, after being in my ford contour that has no working radio, the seats mostly don't adjust, the air only works full blast at a noise level that sounds like you are in a jet when it is on, is mostly full of dog hair and has dog slobber on the windows (yeah I know that is not so much the car's fault as mine) has a lovely hole in the bumber that people have begun stopping me in traffic to tell me they can fix (yeah, I have money for that) oh and as a side note I have a "Life is Good" magnet right next to it because I love the irony, and as of late it seems to buck like a horse when I drive it over 40 mph. So his car? I LOVE. I drove almost the whole 6.5 hours here. So anyway, we just went down to contintal breakfast and I had me some lovly raisin bran, coffee, oj and toast, took a banana and yogurt up to the room for a snack later and am about to paint while he does computer-y stuff at the office. I have many paintings to do by Christmas, not quite eleventy-million, but close. Eleven, actually, but still. So i need to get started, but I need to tell this one last story. Pay attention, I know I have rambled, but this is good.

So, four years ago I began painting. A few months after I quite my full time job and was painting dogs out the wazoo I began hanging art in local coffee shops to keep the commissions coming in. I got an email from a man that had seen my art and was so excited to get a portrait of their dog Grace for his wife's anniversary. Well I did that painting and so that his wife would not know about it, I dropped it off to his work (WAY before studio space was even a glint in my eye) I got an email about a week later from a man who had been a coworker of the other guy and had seen my art that day I dropped it off. He had just gotten the cutest puppy in the world and said he LOVED my art and wanted a portrait. Well I told the guy to wait until the puppy got a bit older and her markings were more apparent and to email me back. (Are you people paying attention, the good part is coming.) So of course life happens and said man never writes again. No problem. I lost track of him and he left that company as did the other guy. The guy who actually bought my art moved to Chicago or something so his wife could finish her PhD. Well about a year ago I met this very nice guy through some friends. We got to talking and had a nice time. The next time we saw each other he said, ya know, your name sounded so familiar so I googled you. I wrote you 3 years ago for a portrait! I asked his name and I remembered him as well. "I still have that email! How funny!" I said. So for the next year we were friends and hung out quite a bit. This past July we realized that not only did we adore spending time with each other, but we adored each other. And we began dating. And he is now officially, "BEST BOYFRIEND IN THE WORLD." Yes, really, he has the statue to prove it. So anyway, last month boyfriend's company bought out another computer company in Myrtle Beach - why I am here. And here is the small world part - through a series of moves and after his wife got her PhD, the orginal coworker works for the company that just got bought from the company my boyfriend works for. Follow? Go reread if you need to, I'll wait....Ok....And guess who we are having dinner with tonite??? Yes, I am having dinner with the guy and his wife whose dog I painted 4 years ago. How cool is life?? Yes, it is that cool! And now I must go paint by the beach and remember how super amazing life is and that when some things come full circle you can't help but be amazed with this thing called life and be so gratefull to wake up each day and see what surprise may be in store for you. Told you it was a cool story...