Should Do (Sunday): Should I willingly face a needle??

Current mood: Busy (is that a mood?)
Current song: Latin Soul Syndicate - El Gitano Del Amor

Thanks to Parade the Circle, then hanging out with Matt all night taking up my entire saturday, I am forced to post this a day late. But hey, I'm not complaining. Going to my favorite summer event with some of the most awesome friends ever = a great way to spend a saturday.

I was going to focus on just my knee shoulds this week, but I've been thinking about a few others lately that I wanna get down on virtual paper. These range in difficultly and time frame in which they can be accomplished, but within the next year or so, they are all achievable... theoretically. It just all depends on my will power. Case in point, my first should.

• I should get a tattoo ------ Now, if you know me even the slightest bit, you'll know that my pain tolerance, out of 100, is somewhere between 3 and -27. So why would I willingly put myself through anywhere between 1 to 4 hours of repeated needle stabbings? Well, aside from being a total baby, I'm also a very creative person. I'm the kind of person who, even if I could, would never switch to contacts, simply because I love picking out creative glasses frames that represent me. I love art in every sense of form, including body art, and I love expressing my love for art. So despite the pain factor, I have always wanted to get a tattoo, and lately I've been seriously considering it. The two I would possibly get (either separate or together) are two of my favorite animals:

The first is a wolf. There are a million wolf tattoo designs out there, but I immediately fell in love with this one. One guess as to why.... yes, it's blue. It's also watery looking, which is my favorite element. I love everything about water, in all its forms, and not just because water is blue. The wolf also has a personal significance to me, as it reminds me of the one person I was closest with in this world. Many people get tattoos as a tribute to someone; this would be my tribute to him.

My second choice, and second favorite animal, is a tiger. Again, millions of tiger tattoos available, but I liked the tribal-ness of this one. Although the details of this one are still subject to change. Also, I'd want to get it with red shading, so its design would look like it was flaming, as an antithesis to the watery wolf above. Canine/feline, water/fire, blue/red, male/female... you can see why I'm considering getting them side by side. 

As for a location, I'm thinking behind my shoulder. It's a more fleshy spot, and thus less painful. I'd also make them relatively small, so it's both less painful and also easily covered. This should is still a big maybe, thanks to lack of bravery and lack of money... but it's been an ongoing should for me, and anything that I've been thinking of for so long should really be addressed eventually...

My other shoulds are not as detailed, nor as complicated to decide upon, but they are as follows:

• I should start to draw again ------- When I was little, I loved to draw. I still have notebook upon notebook of pictures I drew throughout my childhood. Art was always my favorite subject in school, right up to the last art class I took, during my senior year of high school. I'll frequently pass my stack of sketch books and think to myself "I should draw again", but it never happens. Probably because of lack of inspiration. I forced myself to sit down the other day and drew out a picture of a wolf, but I was pretty rusty, since it was a forced effort. For me, the desire to draw is a spur of the moment kind of thing, that requires a sketchbook on hand at a moment's notice. That's part of the reason why I just bought a really pretty clutch on Etsy, so I can keep a small sketchbook and pen with me where ever I go. And also, thanks to Etsy, I just ordered a pocket sized sketchbook the other day (like this picture, but blue). Hopefully it'll help ignite my old passion.

• I should learn to ice skate ------- This is one of my knee shoulds. As soon as I started middle school, I finally became brave enough to try to learn how to ice skate... but before I really got the hang of it, my first knee dislocation occurred, thus shattering my confidence and ability to ice skate ever again. Nine years later, and I officially am free of all knee problems! (except for slight arthritis.) Now that I don't have to worry about the possibility of falling and dislocating my knee again, I am free to finally learn something that my 4 year old neighbor has already learned. Her parents make their own ice rink in the backyard every winter so their older kids can practice hockey... so come this winter, I am going to be out on that ice, and 4 year old Sofia is going to be my teacher. 

• I should do a creative project ------- All this talk of art and creativity has my creative juices flowing. Thanks to this blog, my urge to write has been satiated some, although I've been looking back on an old story I was writing and am considering continuing it. But writing isn't enough. Along with writing (and hopefully drawing again soon), I want something else to keep my fingers busy. My friend Sabrina is always making stuff, usually involving cute little stuffed animals, and she does it all by hand. That seems so fun to me! I'm not good with a needle, but I have a few other things I can do, like finally put together the bracelet I intended to make when I bought a bunch of beads back in March. Or I have really been wanting to make a scrapbook of my vacation to Hawaii. I already have scrapbooking material from when I made one of my senior year of high school. And I have plenty of little souvenirs all ready to add to it. Every time I go to an art fair, which is unhealthily frequent, I always think "I could make that" and "oh wow, I should do something like this." Well this summer, I am going to start.

Well, that's all for this week. As my last should, I'll just say this... I should learn not to write out so much detail every time I blog, especially when I only intended on making a simple bulleted list. Oh well, that's probably one should that will never be accomplished...