Total dead: too many
Total injured: too many
Total relatives and friends of the dead and injured: too many
Total military dead in subsequent wars: too many
Total military injured in subsequent wars: too many
Total relatives and friends of the war dead and injured: too many
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My iPhone was burning down the batteries very quickly over the past week during my trip to New York. Something was up with it and it finally went kaput, really kaput, while waiting for my flight home from New York City. As a result I spent a lot of time observing and drawing, both on napkins and in my sketchbook. Here are some of the interesting people I drew and got to know.
On the way home from my week in New York City I sat next to a woman who reminded me a bit of Susan Sarandon. Her eyes were similar but it was really her voice, having the same tone and inflection, that made me feel like I was listening to the actress.
Karen had gone to the city for the first time to have a girl’s weekend with some friends. She is a world traveler yet had never been to NYC. She loved the city, could live there easily she said (I feel the same way after my stay). But after a weekend of eating, drinking, sightseeing and walking she was ready to get home to San Diego. She missed her cat. She was a very interesting person to sit next to.
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Before I got on the plane I spent 5 hours waiting at LaGuardia Airport (long story). I sat for 2 of those hours across from this woman, Jasmine. She slept in this position for a long time.
After a while we realized there should be more people around and found out the gates had changed. We traipsed over to the new gate together. Turns out she was also in NYC for a weekend of fun. She said she had a lot of it. She showed me some photos of her time in NYC, a lot of pictures of her and her friend mugging for the camera, a concert and more self-portraits. She wore bright red lipstick in some and bright pink lipstick in others. She was now very tired and very hungover and was also glad to be headed home. She was a very interesting person to wait with.
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Before Jasmine showed up I was entertained by a mother and daughter sitting across and down from me waiting for a different flight. They had a teeny weenie little dog with bulging eyes who continually peeked out from under the mother’s arm.
The daughter had bright hot pink shorts, brilliant yellow socks and a big knee brace. She played on her iPhone for well over an hour without moving. The mother had on a lacy, Stevie Nicks type of black dress on. The dog blended in under the crook of her arm until it would open it’s eyes REALLY wide and look around. Then it would fall asleep again and disappear into the folds of her dress. They were very interesting people to observe.
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Drawings by Marty Coleman, who loves to draw when he travels.
We are going to the Belmont Stakes. We were going to watch Triple Crown history, or so we thought.
The potential Triple Crown winner, ‘I’ll Have Another’ was scratched from the race today. Expectations and anticipation are dashed. What is that really about but us humans constructing a world in our mind that hasn’t happened yet. Horses don’t do that. I am glad I am a human, not a horse. But I sometimes like having a horse’s enjoyment of the here and now.
Are you able to deal with expectations well? How?
My first travel napkin of my trip to speak at Blog World in NYC.
I did the usual thing when you are alone at a social media conference and tweeted to the Blog World crowd asking who wanted to get a bite to eat before the opening party. Rzaz, Sus, and Apdo responded and off we went to find good Thai food.
We were all strangers so we told our ‘Why are you at Blog World?’ stories. When I told about me as the Napkin Dad Apdo picked up a restaurant napkin and exclaimed, so you could just draw on this one if you want, right? I took up the challenge and came up with this of Apdo in the city listening to a little bird.
After dinner we saw this.
Then we mosied over to the opening party where I introduced my new friends to some of the people I met at Blog World LA in November. They made some great connections and I met someone from Bulgaria.
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I am on my way to Blog World NYC to speak on Wednesday. My topic is ‘Overcoming Content Procrastination Start to Finish’. I am using the analogy of running races to illustrate ways to be productive and effective in content creation. I thought I would show one of the drawings I am going to have in my presentation.
I am feeling confident about my presentation. Luckily I am also NOT feeling confident. What that means is I am being realistic. I know I could fall flat on my face and to lessen that risk I am doing everything I can to prepare properly. Could I still fall flat on my face? Sure. Just as in a race I can train and prepare properly and still have a lousy race. But preparing makes your confidence, though not 100%, higher and more assured than if you are just flying by the seat of your pants.
Some who could see my process of preparation might say I fly by the seat of my pants. But for me and my personality, I think I do pretty good to prepare. Let’s hope so!
Drawing by Marty Coleman, who is about to hit the Big Apple!