A New Beginning - Looks Promising

Went to my first meeting with the Elk Grove Artists group (EGA) this evening since I'm a new member and I have to say that it was one of the most entertaining night I've had in a long time. Met our new president for the year who was also in charge of the new website for the group who cheerfully welcomed me to the group. A couple of artists who I know were also there as well and were happy to have me within their group.

One of the subjects that was covered in the beginning of the meeting was a fund raiser that they wanted to bring up before discussing it in more detail in a later meeting. 

The guest speaker turns out to be a woman I know and haven't seen in several years by the name of Renu Lal who is an absolute sweetheart of an artisan. She does henna designs for a living and was speaking about how she goes about doing the designs and the history of henna itself being used. It was fascinating to have a fresh look at the art since I hadn't anything with it for several years. My funniest moment during the evening was when Renu pauses in her lecture, looks at me:

Renu: Wait.. Havent' I done you before?

Me: Yes you have actually. A few years ago.

Renu: Oh my goodness! How have you been??

The next thing I know, as Renu happily smiles at me, I suddenly have 16 pairs of eyes turn and look at me in surprise. Yes people, the new girl knows both your former president of the club and one of your members who made it to the meeting (not to mention at least 5 other members who didn't make it to the meeting so can only guess how much more in shock the others will be when they find that out). All I did was just sit and smile as the lectured continues. Afterwards, Renu ended up doing some henna designs on our group's president and vice president while she and I chatted and caught up on things before I took a seat and let her do a design on me as well.

It was so good to have such a warm welcome from a group who's members in nearly all cases are double my age. I think that I am going to be enjoying the chance to socialize and make more connections with them along with learning more about various mediums. I'm sure that I will be finding many more ways of improving myself and moving forward with my business with the help of the EGA group. 

March 29, 2012 (additional material) 

Our current group president was nice enough to go ahead and send me some of the photos she took of me and the vice president getting our henna done which I would like to share!