In this crazy, weird dream that I was having Marcie, (who really does work for the State Department) had been assigned to Russia and for some reason I was going with her, but only for a month. I didn't want to go to Russia, because of Mrs. Reece, my sixth grade teacher who I was sure was a Communist spy for several reasons and also because I didn't want to leave Tony or be gone from the rescue ranch that long or fly the unfriendly skies.
Anyway, the next thing you know Marcie and I are at a ranch in Russia, standing on a mountain top and we are talking to a Russian rancher who was proudly showing us his Russian spread. It was a beautiful ranch, but the wannabe cowboy looked stupid because he was wearing one of those tall, furry helmets on his head, as he bragged about his large herd of imported Alpacas. Then out of nowhere he says to me in broken Texan, "Cousin Nancy, I want to marry ya. I read your blog. I love you and I will pay Tony some money, so I can marry ya." Marcie's eyes got real big and so did mine.
"Ya, right! Ya have got to be kidding me," I thought to myself. Then this Russian romancer rancher takes my hand and I woke up and got out of bed as the dogs flew off of the bed. I couldn't quit thinking about the silly dream and tried to figure out what it meant as I fed the dogs and started a load of laundry in Queen Bee. By the time Tone got home I had forgotten all about it—thank goodness.
After I cleaned up the breakfast dishes I sat down at the kitchen table and checked my e-mail. After answering eighteen I opened up the one from my friend Joni Daniel, the owner and publisher of Texas Animal Imprints magazine and it made me cry.
Joni had sent me a roughed out version of my column for the November/December issue with the artwork and I absolutely Loved It! It was so beautiful that I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming and it hurt. I quickly shot her back an e-mail thanking her for making my day great and told her how much I loved it. I can't wait for y'all to see and read it—it's my very first column!
After I made a couple of copies of it, I showed it to T. and he thought it looked fantastic, so I called Kinky and then went over to the Lodge to show it off to him and he was very impressed with it and he congratulated me on writing my very first column. We had a fun, but short visit and we mainly talked about how well Sophie Friedman was fitting in and I made Kinky laugh when I spoke for Sophie and said, "I love Uncle Chum and Uncle Brownie."
I was on Cloud Nine because of the column when I came home. I started to call Sandy and Jon to tell them the exciting news about it and then I changed my mind, because I wanted to check out my fasterpiece watercolor on eBay to see if there were anymore bids. I laughed out loud when I saw that there had been eleven bids and it was now up to $36.00 and the Wolfmuellers were the highest bidder! And, that's when I called Wolfmueller's Books to thank them and to tell them about my column in Texas Animal Imprints.
After Jon told me that he knew it was me, I told him about how excited I was with my first column and how beautiful the artwork looked and he was very happy for me. Then I changed the subject. "Jon, I can't believe that eleven people have already bid on my first watercolor fasterpiece and y'all are the top bidders and..."
"I know," Jon said. "Sandy and I like it. It reminds us of Grandma Moses. We want to buy it because the first paintings are the most valuable. You should paint another one and forget about..." After Jon and I discussed the possibility of me becoming an artist we said adios to each other and then the phone rang immediately—it was June, our super dog walking volunteer and I let Carlton take the call, because nature was calling me, so to speak.
When I returned to the big room I listened to June's message. "Nancy, this is June. There is going to be a drumming at the Yoga Place on October 17th and I really think that you will enjoy it. I am going to go to it and it is free and you can bring your own drum or borrow one of theirs...." By the time June finished her message I had decided to go to the drumming session with her. It will be perfect, because it will be my birthday and I love drumming! Thank you, June!
This afternoon after catching up and taking care of ranch business I decided to try and paint another watercolor fasterpiece. It ended up taking me an hour this time, because of a few pleasant interruptions. I made it a companion piece to the first one and have named it "Mountains to Remember" and I hope that you like it or at least it will make you laugh. Not to brag, but I am pretty proud of it even though it ain't great. Here are three pictures showing the progression of how I did it—starting with a blank page.
Once again, I have posted it up on eBay for auction, with fifty percent of the profit going to the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch and here is the number if you want to check it out 130440946734. And please note that the cat is fat—not pregnant.
Y'all have a great evening!
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