Surrender

The first NaMoPaiMo was held in 2017. Back then, February seemed like the perfect month for a painting challenge. It's a short, cold month, and aside from the Sleigh Rally show which I still want to attend someday, not much is happening in the model horse hobby.

There were three wonderful painting Februarys.

Then in 2020, BreyerWest moved to Denver. In February. 

Let me be real clear about this: Having BreyerWest come to your town is not a bad thing. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. BreyerWest is truly BreyerBest. Having it local to me is amazing.

But also, having it local to me during NaMoPaiMo is hard.

That first year, I tried to do all of BreyerWest, while also running NaMoPaiMo. It didn't work, and I was an exhausted, miserable mess.

After that, we had a year of pandemic. BreyerWest was temporarily replaced by a virtual event called Breyer Boot Camp, and NaMoPaiMo proceeded like normal.

BreyerWest came back in 2022. I'd learned some lessons from 2020 and did a much better job juggling the two events. 

Still, it was a lot. Over the course of the weekend, I lost my keys, left my phone in an Uber and broke my NaMoPaiMo model.

Once again, I was an exhausted mess.

A happy mess, but still a mess.

This year, I want to be a lot less messy. I understand that I don't have the energy or emotional resources to participate both events, so I am letting go of Painting Party for the next several days. 

I hope all my painting friends will forgive me. We'll catch up again on the other side.