This week has seen less practice than any week previous. I helped my beautiful wife organize and prepare a space for her new dream workshop. I can’t really explain how wonderful you feel seeing the love of your life so happy. If you’ve seen your significant other absolutely elated, about anything, then you know what I’m talking about & if not, then think of the happiest you’ve ever been and that is what I feel seeing her so happy.

Along with changing up our work space, I’m celebrating with a new work space myself.

This wondrous desk started out a tiny bit rough, but it wasn’t anything a little elbow grease wouldn’t fix and 2.5 hours of dusting and polishing proves my point. I still have to find a way to fix the leather feeling surface. Good thing most of my practice is done in books so the line through the table top doesn’t effect my work.

I think the most taxing part of the situation was having to think about what I wanted to put out in storage and what to keep in my new desk. You gather so many things over the years that you don’t really notice, by the time you do, you end up looking like one of the people that are on the hoarders television show.

Excuses aside, it feels good to have things mostly back in order. I am somewhat OCD when it comes to certain things especially my closet and my desk. Whether it is the new beaut pictured above, or my desk at work, I have to have things neat and orderly.

Unlike the practice this week, like I said not much time for it as I was busy with organization projects. So the lines are a little shaky, like your legs after a long run. The Spencerian minuscule x is executed starting with the 3rd Spencerian principle the left curve, into a slight curve downward toward the baseline with the 1st principle the 52 degree straight line; slight curve up into the 2nd principle the right curve, ending with a straight line at the same angle of the curved lines crossing the main slant.

I seem to be struggling with the second x in each pairing of practice. I think I’m over shooting the distance of the first stroke and in doing so it is stretching the first x. It appears that I need to tighten up that first x overall to create more room for the second. I’m also noticing that the “squiggle” of the x appears to be a skewed and reversed lowercase s. So I find it easier to do if I don’t think of the strokes individually and execute said “squiggle” in one fell swoop.

Happy practicing.