David Bruehl

I decided to watch the new Harold and Kumar last night instead of blogging, so this post covers today and yesterday.

Yesterday didn’t consist of too much; I had two appointments in the evening so Kimmy and I took advantage of the break and had a lunch date. If you live in Norman, I highly recommend Sweet Basil Thai restaurant. We eat there regularly. They are excellent- great food, atmosphere and service. It’s very fancy but comfortable and has some great vegetarian options. 

I’ve realized of late how disorganized I’ve let myself become. I’m by no means lazy, I work very hard. However, focused conscious work on the proper things would yield me greater results than what I’m getting now. I’m doing a little “me work” right now to prioritize everything I’m juggling, everything I’m trying to get accomplished so things don’t fall through the cracks. Blogging is actually a part of all that. I believe in the concept of reflection, and I think it allows one to get more out of life. 

Yoga has been excellent. A couple weeks ago, I was having some issues with my left hip-flexor, just giving me a little pain, like it was slightly strained. It’s reduced itself gradually and I’ve been taking care of it. I still get a slight strained feeling in it, but it’s definitely reduced, and I’ve made some changes to correct my posture at work. I have been notorious for leaning into that leg with the hip widened out to use my foot pedal while tattooing. I lost the pedal and just use a switch now. It’s a lot more comfortable and wasn’t really much of an adjustment to my work style. In addition to that, though, I’ve been trying to stretch the muscle, essentially doing the opposite of what creates the pain. While in shavasana in class this morning I got a flash of an idea to do king pigeon pose with my chest pushed out a bit, head back, arms behind my torso, which essentially puts the majority of the stretch in my lower body in to the front of the hip of the back leg. After class I tried the posture and it worked fabulously to stretch exactly where I wanted it to. I remember thinking that I felt just about perfect as I was leaving. I later looked online and found bow pose and half frog pose which I’m going to work a little with too to see if I get any better results. I also did a shoulder stand preparation with my legs up the wall, which served to work my muscles all along my ribcage. It feels like my whole body’s talking to me. It’s good, though; that’s how we change.

I had yet another no-show today. It was a pretty small tattoo, though, so no sweat. I took the extra time to work on drawings. There’s always that. My tattoo this evening was the second session of a lower arm tattoo incorporating a tattoo of Hawaii on a guy’s arm. We’re doing some tropical flowers with smaller flowers in the background. I’ve been establishing the initial grey wash for the background so it can heal while we do the foreground flowers and eventually put some muted tones in the background. I’m happy with the depth of the piece so far. 

Yesterday’s piece was a lower arm piece of two ships- one sailing, one sinking with the quote “loose lips sink ships.” I’ve done an upper arm piece on this client and we’re work towards full sleeve on this arm.

Here’s what I’ve been up to for the last week or so. I’ve been starting a lot of new stuff, which is always good. First is the start of a half sleeve of the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter. Second is a vanity related half sleeve. The next two are my first session on a cover-up of a gnarly armband. I included the inside arm image to give an idea of what I was covering. Fifth is an oni mask half sleeve; also a cover-up of a gnarly armband. Sixth is a girly bird cover-up. The two after that are a tattoo I started over a year ago that I just finished. Her stars/flowers were pre-existing; we colored them in and added the scroll work coming off of them. Ninth is a pair of traditional swallows, incorporating a cover-up. Then the final three are images from a family tribute full sleeve I’m starting. Seeing all of these images together make me realize just how many cover-ups I actually do.

Last night I stayed up till 1:30 finishing my drawings for the next day and watched Donnie Darko and Lady in the Water. Kimmy was nice enough this morning to let me sleep in.Because of sleeping in, my day basically began with yoga class. The past couple of Mondays have been difficult; I go to class Monday through Thursday, but I try to do yoga daily, sometimes even some yin-style yoga at night on class days as well. The past two weekends, though, I have not gotten to it at all. This has left me very stiff come the beginning of the week. The great thing, though is that I feel great by the end of class on Monday, and the rest of the week of classes is pretty normal.

Looking back on these past two weekends, it’s been a little more chaotic than usual, but isn’t that the exact kind of environment in which I should especially be doing yoga? It’s funny how we tend to do the opposite of the action that would make a situation better. For the record, I learn a lot from a class structure, but I gain the most from yoga at home. I get to concentrate on my own pace and let my body guide me into each proper asana.

My workday started with a bang. I was running about five minutes late, so I called my appointment to let her know. She sounded a little weird, but said “okay.” Once I got to work at 12:05, she’s not there. 12:30, not there. 1:00, not there. I called her about not showing up for the appointment, since she obviously knew about it. Surprise, voicemail. I figured she was dodging me, so I had Kimmy call her. The woman actually answered the phone and Kimmy told her who she was, so the woman asked if she could call Kimmy back. Surprise, she never did. I was so fucking steamed about the whole situation. What fucking brazenness? How can someone be so passive aggressive that they can’t simply say, “Sorry, I forgot” or “I can’t afford it” or “I chickened out.”

By not calling me to cancel, or at least acknowledging that she wasn’t coming, she basically made me unable to fill the spot, thus cheating me out of a few hundred dollars, at least. This isn’t even taking into account the number of hours I spent drawing the thing.

In situations like this, I’m thankful I work in a self-directed work environment. I went home to spend time with the family and draw for later appointments this week. I also called some of my major pieces in progress to check in and try to book appointments for the people I haven’t seen in a while.

At home, Zeke got some birthday cards in the mail from family, who gave him $15 for his birthday. Zeke was pretty disappointed, hoping it was going to be “a lot of money” in his words. His grandmother called to see how he liked the card and the money and he pouted about it and started to cry some. In response to Zeke’s behavior, Kimmy sent him to his room. I thought about going up and lecturing him, but I kept thinking about how discipline is at its best simply education. I tried to look at things from his perspective. To Zeke, $15 wasn’t a lot of money compared to what he’s been used to getting with two sets of grandparents buying him gifts when he was an only child. So, I went up to Zeke’s room, and sat down and talked to him about what my situation was at his age, (much poorer, living with a single parent) and how some kids at his school might not be able to live as nice a house or have as many toys as he has.

I thought Zeke seemed to get it, but after ten minutes of being downstairs while he was in his room, I could hear him throwing a fit. I called him down and had him sit silently on the floor for several minutes while I finished drawing. After that, I looked up a photo of some african children in poverty, (mild, not too disturbing) and I explained their situation to Zeke, how even a single meal is a blessing, or even clean clothes, much less toys. The description of this actually brought me to tears, a little bit, which made him melt and start crying some. I stressed that I didn’t do all this to make him feel guilt or shame, (which I’m trying to do away with in my parenting) but rather to put what his life is like into the proper context. It all really seemed to click with Zeke at that point.

It’s very easy to think of children as tiny adults when it comes to their manners, etc. In Zeke’s situation today, it’s easy for me to look at him as ungrateful, while truly, honestly, what his actions show is that I as a father have not properly taught him gratitude. I have heard the whole adage about how children are the best teachers, and it’s things like this that make that come alive for me. Any thing I tell my children warrants self-reflection. Do I express gratitude for my life and situation? Am I looking at what I have in the proper context? In these ways, Zeke allows me to grow as he grows.

I can’t help but thinking of Abe, too, right now. He’s inching his way towards the “terrible twos” right now, learning his boundaries and what all. It’s funny, we’ve totally forgotten about that time period with Zeke, and we get to learn how to speak to a two year old again. My mom passed on the best trick, giving two choices.

For example:

Leaving the room making us chase after him-
“Do you want to stay in here like we tell you, or do you want to have to go to your room?”

Throwing his food-
“Do you want to eat your food, or do you want to go to the living room while we eat?”

It amazes me that at less than two years old, this very clear logic resonates with him and he makes his choice. Abe has taken to nodding his head to say yes half of the time, which for some reason makes me smile even more than him saying yes. He actually only whispers yes, and does the same thing for “please”

I headed back up to the shop for my evening appointment– starting a full tribute sleeve with an angel, cross and a portrait. I outlined the major pieces today, and I finished the portrait. We left the transitional stuff in the sleeve for the next session, and decided on one more image for the inner upper arm. Very fun piece so far, I’ll post photos of it soon.

As of getting home, it looks like Kimmy and Abe might be getting sick. Let’s hope not! We’re pounding Airborne to hopefully curb/prevent it.