Adventures in UP land

When I headed up to the UP (upper peninsula of MI, for those of you not in the know), I expected freezing cold. I packed three pairs of mittens/gloves, scarf and hat. Then I acquired another pair of gloves and scarf in route to MI, so I was extra prepared. I guess that I forgot to take global warming into account. I had this idea that I would go out snow shoeing for hours on end into the wilderness with the bobcats and bunny rabbits, just like I used to. I only had jeans and my hiking boots, but I thought that I would be all right anyway. My dad tracked down my snowshoes and dusted them off for me. The snow has been preparing for my trek, neatly pilling up like a Tetris game for months. I snuggled in the night before waiting for the bright light of day. The next morning was magical. My dad showed me his magic chickadee trick, inviting them right inside his door way.



The little birds flitted in and out of the door and along with them came a strip of fog. Fog???…in the winter…that can’t be right. I looked out to see all of my luscious snow…gone. As I sadly watched my adventure fade, my dad convinced me to try out the snowshoes anyway. I went out in my PJs (yes, PJ’s in Dec in the UP) and snowshoes to test the conditions. I may as well not have been wearing them, because the snow wasn’t very deep. I sank almost to the ground and my snowshoes got coated in sticky snow, weighing about fifty pounds each. No snow shoes, but maybe I didn’t need them. That was it; I would go anyway, sans snowshoes. It would be just like old times on those random occurrences where I could walk on top of the snow, only this time I would not be walking on top of the snow. Now I had a new problem. I had counted on the snowshoes to keep the snow away from my boot tops. Not to worry though… I had this covered. I borrowed an old stretched out pair of socks from my dad, cut off the toes and stretched them over my pant legs and boot tops, like a pair of gaiters… only grayer.


I was prepared…chickadees were fed…the oatmeal had been eaten. We were off. And we got about ¼ mile off the trail and decided that it wasn’t the activity of the day. The very wet snow, while prevented from packing into the top of my boots by my makeshift gaiters, was not prevented from melting through my pant legs. It turns out that even melting and soggy snow is cold. A short time later we returned to the house to find that the latch had not caught and the door was ajar. Sure enough, there were chickadees flying around in the house that needed to be herded out the door. I never thought that I would herd chickadees, but now my life is complete.

Something like the Holidays

It’s getting close to Christmas, yet somehow I don’t have the usual warm fuzzy feeling. I could put this down to several causes. Wes is not here, so things are not quite the same. I have not decorated like I usually do, so the house doesn’t quite feel like Christmas. I also don’t have a handle on the presents like I usually do. I usually enjoy shopping for presents, but this year it has been hard. I don’t think that I will be sending out cards this year since it is down to crunch time and I am completely unprepared.

Things are not going well on the job front and this is partially my fault. I know that I am not aggressive enough when pursuing leads. Sigh… I told myself when I moved here that if I didn’t have a real job by Dec, I would get a minimum wage job just to be making money. I have been looking, but I find myself turning my nose up at many such jobs. Since I am going to be traveling back home to the UP for the holidays, I have decided to wait until after then to get one of these jobs. Of course, after the holidays, they lay off many people because people stop buying stuff, so that may be a bad time to get a job.

Over the last month, I have had a few parties at the house and everything has been great. The house is perfect for parties and the yard is great for outdoor fires. I even managed to get almost all the brush burned that I have been cutting down since we moved in. I guess I will have to cut some more soon. There is plenty more to cut :) Yesterday I moved the old kitchen cabinets out of the attic down to the garage. I am glad we kept them because they look pretty good down there and will be very useful. Since I couldn’t lift them by myself, the day was an interesting spectacle of me sliding them down the attic steps, one step at a time and then scooting them across the floor on a piece of old carpet. I put the lower cabinets in place and screwed them to the wall, but didn’t bother to hang the upper cabinets. I say ‘bother’ as if I could have hung them by myself…ha! The garage is still stuffed to the gills, but at least the attic has room to maneuver and sort now.

I have been dabbling in painting as you may remember from a few previous blogs. I painted a couple new ones a week or two ago. I like them, but not enough to keep them in a miserly fashion. I put them up on Ebay for cheap, but no one bought them. You can see them below if you would like. The thing I didn’t realize about ebay was that you had to pay for a period of time that you posted stuff for sale. I knew you had to pay, but I thought that stuff would be there until it sold. No, you can put it up for 10 days at most and then you have to pay more money. Blah.

Tomorrow I am off to the north country for Christmas. I think I am optimistic about how much real work that I will get done there, but then I always am. I hope everyone has safe, warm and fuzzy Holidays!!!

Sky Key

Beyond Vedauwoo

Kindness

I wrote the following blog sometime in November while I was waiting for something to begin. I wrote it by hand, so I didn't get around to typing it in until now though.

November 17th, 2008
Be kind to yourself

Today I went to a job fair. I spent an hour getting ready, another hour writing a brief resume to hand out like Halloween candy and a few minutes getting directions. On days when I have an interview, I spend time building up my self-esteem so I can come off as a confident person. I remind myself of the good things that I have done and of my achievements. In this state of mind, I found my inner voice nagging myself about how long it took me to do all of this. I didn’t get out of the house until 1 pm. So the sum of the morning was that I spent the morning building myself up and simultaneously tearing myself down. Later, when driving to the job fair, I accidentally took the wrong exit and went about 2 mi before I could turn around. I found my inner critic berating myself for one small traffic mistake that was really of no consequence. Still looking at this in the light of trying to build confidence, I was actually shocked. If I spoke to anyone else in the same manner, I would loose friends left and right. All of this over a simple mistake. I began to look at the way I talk to myself and I see almost nothing but criticism and berating. It almost makes me cry when I consider how cruel I am to myself. I want to be kinder to myself and I hope that you are kind to yourself as well.

I’m a winner!

On the 29th of November I crossed the finish line of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). Between Nov 1st and Nov 29th, I wrote 50000 words. YAY!!! I did not finish the story that I was telling, but I am pretty close. I don’t think that I will get back to it right away though. I have been neglecting too many other things in my life while I participated in Nanowrimo.

While on this journey I have learned a few lessons about writing and about achievement in general. Whenever I have written any fiction in the past, it has been when I was inspired and enthused about the storyline or characters. While writing for Nano, I didn’t have the luxury of waiting for the right mood, free time or phase of the moon. You have to keep writing through the parts that you don’t necessarily like while trying to make them somewhat interesting. You have to write through the scenes that make you cringe, like when your character makes a bad mistake and you can’t abandon them when they need you. Even though you have no idea how your sad, little wimpy character is going to defeat two armies, you have too keep writing. On most of my previous novel attempts, I have stopped when I got to one of these tricky scenes, waiting for the brilliant inspiration to get me going again. Of course, when you leave your little invented novel world, you forget all about the woes of your character and he or she is forever suspended over a pit of molten lava while you watch reruns of the 70’s show. So, instead I have learned that I have to write through these moments no matter how stupid and ridiculous my solution sounds. I can always rewrite a scene and it is much easier to rewrite a scene than to still have a whole book to write because I stopped.

These lessons are also applicable while writing more serious topics like my one remaining research paper. (BTW-Two papers were published online in Oct and should be out in print soon. YAY!) This last paper was supposed to be the one that I was going to enjoy writing the most because it was the most interesting topic. However, it is also very complicated and I keep getting stuck. I have not worked on it since the end of August. I was waiting on that brilliant moment where I would know exactly what to write. Meanwhile, I was thinking about everything but my paper. It turns out that I am not brilliant and so will not be receiving any brilliant flashes of inspiration. This means that I will have to get back to my paper in the old fashioned way of multiple draft, caffeinated beverages, and moments of beating my head on my keyboard. Today, my first Nano free day, I organized my office and found all of my notes for my paper. Tomorrow I am going to write many bad, confused sentences and probably wind up with a piece of drivel that I would have been ashamed of even back in highschool, but I am going to write and apply for jobs and go grocery shopping and start Christmas shopping and fix my file cabinet and… OK, I guess I will have to shorten my to do list first.

Learning about writing was not the only lessons I learned from Nano. I relearned the lesson that if you want to get anything done, turn the TV off or get a roommate obsessed with football. I also learned about pursuing a commitment. You would think that this is something I know about, having committed to and finishing a doctoral degree, but that was different. There was no time limit imposed except the pace I set for myself. In the case of Nano, I had to write 1667 words a day. It was so easy to fall behind and rarely easy to keep ahead. The first week was actually pretty easy, but so it is with most commitments I make, such as exercising. The second week, I skipped a day of writing to watch the election. I caught up gradually though and even got ahead of the word count. Getting ahead was the worst thing that could have happened to me. I got complacent. This was easy! I was so good that I would have a book in no time. Just like when you congratulate yourself on exercising every day for a week and decide that you can skip a day because you don’t feel like getting out of bed, so I decided that I could slack off a little and write with the TV on. Of course, I got behind again and this coincided with some really difficult scenes in my book. I had to invent ways to keep myself going, wrote some of the worst crap in my life and started staying up until 2 am to make my word count. So I found that I did better when I was a little behind and could not become complacent or confident. I also realized that if you want to get anything done in this world, you can not slack off for even one day, because one day becomes two and then three and then forever.

So, what about the story that I wrote? Well, it’s pretty terrible, but it has potential. During Nano, I received email pep talks from many of my favorite authors and I am going to share a bit of one with you.

I live in Barre, Vermont which calls itself the "Granite Capital of the World." Outside our town are enormous quarries, so when I speak in local schools every child has a mental picture of a granite quarry. "You know how hard it is to get granite out of the quarry," I say. "You have to carefully score the rock and put the explosive in to make the great granite block break loose from the face of the stone. Then you have to attach the block to the chains so that the cranes can lift it slowly out of the hole and put it on the waiting truck. That's the first draft. It's hard, dangerous work, and when you've finished, all you've really got is a block of stone. But now you have something now to work on. Now you can take your block down to the shed to carve and polish it and turn it into something of beauty. That's revision."

But first you've got to get that block of granite out of the earth, friends. You won't have anything to make beautiful until you do that. Now go back to work.
--Katherine Paterson

So that is where my novel is, almost since I haven’t quite finished the story yet. I have a rock that still needs a whole bunch of work. I have made a commitment with one of the other Nano winners to enter our novels in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (www.amazon.com/abna). Hopefully by then it will no longer be a rock, but a beautiful statue.

But first, I have to find a job and write my last research paper…

The last Dash

Nanowrimo has consumed my life. I just made 40,000 words. I have 10,000 left to go in 5 days. Aaahhh! Writing between 30 and 40K has been really hard. My story has serious flaws, including characters that have completely dissappeared and awkward scenes, but perfection is not the point of Nano. The point is to finally finish a novel. I have been emailed some really great pep talks from some of my favorite authors, so that has been really cool. I have also met some local people who are also writing nerds like me. Now on to the last dash. I hope that the turkey doesn't put me out of commision on thursday.

half way there

So I have not given up on my nanowrimo dreams. Tonight, a few minutes ago, I passed the half way point. According to the forum, 25000 words is cause for celebration with champagne and such. However, I am alone with Max and he is asleep and snoring. I don't even want a glass of wine because even though I am half way there, I am still behind. I need my fingers to fly fast over the keyboard and my brain to spit out words, so no wine for me. I have been a slacker these last two nights, going out to see other live human beings instead of staying in with my laptop. I have to get busy. Doing Nanowrimo is teaching me quite a few life lessons, which hopefully I will remember when I am done and will share with you when I have more writing time.

My friend is coming to stay with me for a couple weeks or months. I am excited about it. It will be nice to have someone else in the house. She is a published writer, so I am sure she will understand my Nanowrimo obsession. Who knows, she may even join me.

Back to my fictional world...

Nanowrimo

After reading my friend Amy’s blog, I was reminded of Nanowrimo. That is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write a 50000 word novel over the month of November. It is like the marathon of the writing world. No one cares how crappy it is and no one ever reads it unless you want them to. The whole point is to finish a novel. Its all on the honor system, so you could, of course, cheat your way through, but there is no real prize other than your name on a list and the warm and fuzzy feeling inside. So on Nov 1st at 10pm I joined up. That has had me writing a few hours a night except last night. I am up to 7000 words. I should make 8000 before I go to bed, but I am stalling. I suddenly had this fear that someone would read my story and think that it was really bad. I started questioning my ability to write. Once you start down that road of self criticism, its really hard to put your rose colored glasses back on. So I am not writing anymore tonight and hopefully by tomorrow, I will like my writing again. I am determined to finish this project, so cheer me on. Stop by Amy’s blog too and cheer her on too.

Because of this commitment, I don’t know how many blog entries I will be posting in November. I’ll keep you all posted on Nanowrimo progress and I know that you will all be on the edge of your seats in anticipation. ;)

Kitchens, counters, and procrastination

I have counters in the kitchen. YAY!!!! You can scroll down to see pictures. The sink will be hooked up tomorrow and then we will be cookin’. Literally. It’s sad that I am alone with no one to admire the counters with me. Its like opening a really great present all by yourself. I love the colors of my kitchen. Once we change the overhead lighting after Wes gets back, it will look even better. The only thing that I would change now that everything is installed it that I would have black backsplash instead. I know that sounds weird, but I think it would have made it look really sharp. That is something I can change in the future.

Other than the kitchen, I feel that I am moving really slowly on the rest of the house. Maybe I am expecting too much, but maybe I am just getting lazy in this unstructured and non-regulated world of mine. I have to make a list for everyday, or I don’t get a thing done. Today I had no list and accomplished very little…either that or since I didn’t write it down, I have no record of my accomplishments.

Before and After - Flower bed

BEFORE
This is what my flower bed looked like a couple weeks ago.

AFTER
Here are the results of a couple exhausting days.

The house of broken cars

Over lunch with Katie, I was telling her about my day yesterday and she said I should be keeping a journal so I decided to share more of the house adventures with you all.

7:00 am Monday
Get up because someone will be coming to cut tiles between 7:30 –8.

8:00 am
Start painting the new wall where the soffit was before they put the cabinets in.

9:00 am
Tile guy shows up. I am now cleaning up my flower bed up because I have decided to deliver my compost soil and mulch myself. The garden center wanted 100$ to do it and I would like to use most of that money to buy plants. I figure it should cost 20$ to rent a truck from the Uhaul and 30$ in mileage and gas. Whoohoo.. 50$ to spend on pretty plants.

10:30 am
Tile guy leaves????

12:00 pm
At garden center realizing that I have too much soil and that I will be making 4 trips instead of 2. Hmm that will definitely cut into my gas budget and make my day really long.

5:00 pm
soooo tired.... I unloaded 4 pickup loads of compost and mulch one shovel at a time and I am exhausted. I probably only managed to save about 20$ off the delivery charge, but I also saved myself a lot of work by being able to shovel the stuff more or less where I wanted it. If they had delivered it, they would have dumped it in the yard and I would have had to haul it to the flower beds. The electrician is still at the house doing random electrical jobs. I am asked to approve his work. He has not put in a switch for the dishwasher, just wired it. He also has not put in the outlet into the wall. This outlet was the main purpose of the job and the contractor forgot about it. Now the electrician has to go back to the hardware store to get more supplies. I head off to return the truck, expecting the will be almost done by the time I get back.

6:30 pm
I had this plan of coming home after I returned the rental truck and giving Max a bath because he had been playing in smelly compost all day and then shower because I had been playing in smelly compost all day. No electrician……

7:30 pm
I have given up on the electrician and decided that they are not coming back. Of course, when I go upstairs to shower, the electrician comes back and throws a monkey wrench in my plan. Apparently he ran into a curb and screwed up his van very badly. It kept over heating and that is what took so long.


8:30 pm
Job is done. I am exhausted and just want them gone. I approve the job even though there is a small part of my brain saying that something is wrong, but I am not mentally capable of figuring it out. The electrician asks to borrow my phone to call the contractor for a ride. No one has a phone in the group. Apparently the contractor came down the drive way and then turned around for reasons only known to himself. When I called him, the first thing I said was “The guys are waiting for a ride.” Now they are waiting out front for the contractor to come pick them up and are leaving the van out front. Just like the island of broken toys on Rudolph, somehow we became the house of sick people and broken cars. Every truck that has come along with this job has broken down and I won’t go into the ailments of all the workers.


9:00 pm
Well, hopefully they are all gone and I can shower and go to bed now.

I spoke too soon. Just as I was about the head upstairs, the door bell rang. The contractor never came back to pick them up, even though I called him and told him that they were waiting for a ride. They waited outside for a half an hour before they asked to use my phone again to call him. He wouldn't come back to get them. They had to leave driving a van whose radiator won't hold water. They won't get far and none of them have a cell phone. Uggh! I feel so bad for them that I almost offered to drive them home myself, but at least the van is gone.

9:30 pm
Showered, but Max is still stinky. Finally putting my tired self to sleep.

__________________________________________
8:00 am Tuesday
Up and at em. Hmmm… hair is interesting since I went to bed with it wet.

8:30 am
Had caffeine. Brain beginning to function. Still no contractor.
I now realize what was nagging me about the outlet. It is too low and below the level of the counter. I will not try explain what is wrong in any detail, but I feel that this is definitely something that the contractor should have been attentive to and given some direction to the electrician about. The outlet can’t stay there. Ugghh!!!

11:20 am
I head off to lunch with Katie. Still no contractor.

1:00 pm
Back from lunch and contractor and company finally show up. So much for his early start. He thinks he will get everything done today. Not likely…

5:00 pm
Work is commencing but at a slower rate than the contractor expected but about equal with what I expected. I have made them a to do list and adopted the hovering technique. One of the guys points out that the out let the electrician installed for the microwave is in the wrong place. Again, another thing that the contractor should have known. So half the work the electrician did yesterday will have to be redone. Now I am just shaking my head.

7:00 pm
They have left with promises of coming back early. But they haven’t really left because they are still standing in the driveway talking… probably about me and I am sure it is not fluffy nice stuff either.

Anyone want to place a bet on whether they will show up before noon tomorrow…

Woman vs Machine

Today has been a busy day. The garden had to be tilled and I was the only one to do it. So I headed up to the local hardware store to rent a tiller. It wouldn’t fit in my car even though they said it would, so the one of the men there brought it over to the house. He didn’t show me how to start it though. It looked like it started just like a lawnmower, but I hadn’t started a lawn mower since the last time I was in Norfolk, over 2 years ago. I thought I would call my brothers to ask. They are always trying to give me advice on topics way outside their realm of experience and here was an opportunity for them to shine. Of course they didn’t answer their phones, so I turned to google. Google: more dependable than siblings.

Tiller is running… time to begin. Now before I began, I had visions of some episode that you would find in America’s funniest videos. However, I managed pretty well, not elegant but well. Controlling a tiller though takes your full body and is very difficult. I am so tired now. I can only imagine how sore I will be in a couple days. Anyone looking for a day of boot camp should try tilling. Tomorrow, I think I am going to rent a truck to get some organic matter and mulch for my garden. That is, if I can move.

I thought that I would take a nice relaxing bath tonight. However, I came home from the grocery store to find the contractor and crew hard at work on my kitchen. I had given up on them for the day. They didn’t leave until 8:30. Then I realized that I had to paint part of the kitchen where they had done some repair work before they put the last two cabinets in tomorrow. So I spent my bath time wrapped up in a bunny suit painting. Uggh! Now, I am going to touch up, fold some laundry and go to bed.

Oh yeah, they delivered my household goods from CA last week. I made them unpack most of it, which means they take it out of the box and throw it in a pile. My house looks like a bomb went off. All of the linens and clothes have to be washed because they smell bad from being in storage all year. Needless to say, I have been putting the washer through its paces.

Still no stove though. I have been asking them to hook it up for a week now. I would like to cook indoors, but apparently that is too much to ask.

More Kitchen Pictures

First cabinets going in.

More Cabinets.

And we are getting a wall.

Side view.

Full view.

Our big wall cabinets don't fit because we didn't take into consideration the tiles that weren't supposed to be under the cabinets. We are probably going to have to lose the soffit, but it wasn't the right size anyway.

Progress: Jobs, Publications and House.

Jobs
I still don’t have a job, but I have a few jobs in my sights, which is more than I had a couple weeks ago. I have been invited back by a company that I interviewed with before to apply for a new position despite the fact that it is advertised as an engineering position. Hmm… I am also going to apply for some federal biology jobs, which means I have to wade through the arduous federal application process. Unfortunately with these jobs, they will get back to you anytime from 2 months to a year, so they might be a back up plan.

Publications
The two publications that were submitted have now been accepted. I couldn’t have done it with out my co-authors, so thank to them. It is such a good feeling to have 3 out of 4 done. Now I have to get busy on that last paper. I feel like I should go back to the literature and do some more research, which is now my current hang up.

House
The major project in house now is the kitchen. Here is a before picture.

I still have a lot of painting to do, doors and window and doorframes, but that is on hold now. They have ripped everything out of the kitchen now, including the sink :( so I am doing dishes in the bathroom, or I will be when I get around to it. There is starting to be a large pile waiting for me. They have managed to get most of the tile laid and grouted. They were here until 10 pm Friday night doing the grout. I was pretty impressed, but they haven’t been back since so my admiration is dieing a slow death. I primed the kitchen late Thursday night and painted it red Friday morning. I think the red turned out a little darker than I wanted, so I am glad that we decided to go with the lighter red shade even though I liked the red wine color better.





During the painting process Max ran by a kitchen door and managed to get red paint on himself. It looked like he was bleeding. They were delivering the kitchen cabinets at the time so I asked the delivery guys, “What did you do to my dog? He’s bleeding.” They were scared for a minute and denied doing anything until I told them it was just paint. Then they thought it was pretty funny. I had to give max a bath and he was pink for a while. I know what kind of costume Max will be wearing for Halloween. Willow did not escape unscathed either. I was painting the rails out front and she came out and stuck her head between the rails creating two nice racing stripes on the side of her head.



Our cabinets are natural Cherry and some of the patterns in the wood of the ones I have opened are really pretty. Here is a sample



Garden
So I have managed to get the front flowerbed shaped and most of the roots removed. I need to get a tiller and fluff up the soil before I amend it with compost. That could be quite the adventure. However, that is on hold for now until I get some job applications out. In the mean time, I have covered the front with copious amounts of cardboard. With all the moving, I have plenty of it around. I did this not only for weed control, but to keep Max from tracking mud into the house.

Birthday
Today is my birthday. The lead up to the birthday has been great! Lots of nice presents. However, the actual day has started in the traditional style. My computer has crashed and I have had to yell at the contractor already. Ugghh! Hopefully Carmony will come along the afternoon and rescue the day.

Settling In

There is nothing like a healthy storm to help you get to know the sounds of a new house. A nor’easter has been hovering over the area since last night. I kept hearing the winds while I was sleeping and in my half-awake state, I kept thinking it was Wes. :( I am not sure that this is the best weather for me to adjust to his absence. The pounding rain on the tin chimney cap just reminds me that I am alone. Then Max gives me puppydog eyes and Willow head butts me and for a moment its not too bad.

Wes left on Tuesday night for the horn of Africa to chase pirates. It’s amazing how quickly a person shifts into the grown up responsible role. Now I am the one checking that the doors are locked and if the dog is fed. It is good to be reminded of these roles sometimes so that I don’t become too dependent or unappreciative of my partner in life. That said, I think a week would be enough for these lessons.

To keep my mind off of things, I have a to do list and it is pretty long. I have only managed to cross two whole items off of my list in two days. The front hall has now been painted. I still don’t have a completely tiled kitchen floor though. We are now a week and a half behind schedule. I was going to have an adventure with a rototiller and till the front flower beds so that I could start planting some bulbs and flowers. I held off because of the impending storm and now I am glad that I didn’t start. All of the puddles gathering in the future flowers beds have convinced me that I need to have a raised bed so that there will be better drainage.

I find that I am very disconnected from the world right now in my “little Susie home maker” role as Dan calls it. I am used to having places to be and people to see, but now I don’t have anything to do. I am adrift in a honey-do list and microwave dinners.

There is a commercial on for the new Nano in all the colors. I want one but I couldn’t pick a color. I would have to have one of each so that I could pick one for the mood of the day! Today would be a bright yellow or crispy orange day to help counteract the gloom of the day and the house.

Link to House Pictures

Hi all.
I have been busy here obviously. Still painting and organizing. I was going to wait to put up the "after" pictures until all our stuff was put away, but Wes put some up on his pages so I didn't think the curious here should be denied. To see pics, go to:
http://wbdowntown.wordpress.com/

The New Life Chronicles

Friday September 5, 2008
We signed on the house, bought a new kitchen and lots of paint and spent the weekend painting.

Saturday September 6, 2008
Fix all the light bulbs! Paint! Look for Hurricane Hannah! Paint! Still looking for Hurrcane Hannah! Paint!

Sunday September 7, 2008
Paint some more! We have doors!!! I can use the bathroom without worrying about someone walking by in the hall.

Monday September 8, 2008
Wes had gone back to Rhode Island and the appliances were supposed to be delivered. However, not only did the appliances come, but the household goods and the guys to rip out the carpet also came. It made for a busy day. The moving guys couldn’t get the truck down the driveway and so had to park at the end and cart everything all the way to house. Every time someone wanted to come to the house they had to move the truck. It took all day to get the stuff to the house. Ironically the only thing that was broken was the same TV that was broken the last time we moved. After the last move it still worked; everything was justly off colored. This time they tried to push the TV stand with the TV on it. It’s a 300 lb TV and the stand wasn’t really meant to be a cart. The stand is now a pile of kindling and the TV has a huge black star in the center and has fallen backward inside the casing. I guess that TV was just not meant to be used anymore. They were not able to hook up the stove so cooking was not option. Oh well! They were able to hook up the fridge. I warned them not to open the old fridge. The old fridge had been used as a target practice with food and then shut up like that for a year. The delivery guys mentioned that it made the top of their “worst fridge ever” list and that it would be playing a central role in a prank back at the warehouse. Its good to know that it went on to a better life. All in all, it was a crazy and exhausting day.

Wednesday September 10, 2008
After many days of painting I was ready to get out of the house. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had an interview. Weeee!!!! The challenge of the day was to get out of the house in my interview suit without getting paint, plaster or do slobber on me. Mission accomplished. The interview was about 2 hours long. Easily the longest one I have ever had. I thought it went pretty well, but the company didn’t really give me any indication if they liked me or not.

Thursday September 11, 2008
Paint! Yell at Max not to lay against the wet walls. Paint some more.

Friday September 12, 2008
Still painting!!! Learning to paint trim free hand. First room looks like those pictures that dolphins and elephants paint, but the rest looks all right. Most of the holes have been repaired and you can no longer see from the master bedroom through the wall, down to the first floor.

The company I was interviewed with was supposed to make a decision, but put it off until Monday.

Saturday September 13, 2008
Guess what we are doing! That’s right…painting!

Sunday September 16, 2008
Paint! Wash the paint off the side of the dog. Guess it was a good thing that the green walls were already dry. Vacuum the floors even though I am convinced that I have picked up most of the plaster dust on my clothes while scooting along the floor painting trim.

For dinner, we went to ASAHI for dinner in Norfolk with Mike and 7 new people. The food and company was great. If you like Korean and sushi, you should definitely give it a try. It is on the corner of Independence and Pleasure House rd (for the out-of-towners, that IS the name of the road).

Back home and paint until about midnight. Giving up for now.

Monday September 15, 2008
I relaxed in the yard envisioning my future jungle… errr garden while the carpet was installed. The handyman’s henchmen was busting up the tile in the kitchen, so the house was very noisy. Willow sat outside with me, but did not like outside because there was nowhere to hide. She eventually wedged herself under the step. Later Max came in with his nose all dirty. I think he was trying to sniff the kitty and she had nowhere to go.

The company I interviewed with put off their decision again, because Hurricane Ike trapped some of their regional managers in other parts of the country.

That night we wandered around the house enjoying the new carpet and laying on the nice floor. So nice and currently fur free.

Tuesday September 16, 2008
The handyman and henchmen showed up early for the first time since they started. They usually show up around noon, but this time they caught me in my PJs. I spent the day hauling all the stuff from the garage in a laundry basket to pile it in approximately the right place in the house. Wes hauled the heavy things like boxes of books into the house and cursed at all the pretty light fixtures I picked out. The handyman’s henchmen started tearing out cabinets because he was tired of banging and scraping mortar off the floor. He was going to throw them out, but I told him for the 10th time that we were going to keep them for storage in the garage and laundry room. The new tile arrived and fortunately I was there when they started to unload it so I could tell them that it was the wrong color. It was some sort of red-brown and we wanted a creamy tan. So it will be another week for tile now. We are using the moving boxes as kitchen flooring for now. Fortunately they have not ripped out the sink yet so I still have running water.

The cable guy came by, looked at the mess of wires and left. Apparently it was not that simple.

Wednesday September 17, 2008
I decided that it was time to by hardware and mirrors for the master bathroom. Most of the old ones had been ripped off the wall. I also bought a bird feeder to hang in the tree for Max and a plant to hang out front for me since I have not yet had time to start my flower beds. Then I started looking at the hardware with plans of going over to Target to price shop for the best bargain. Unfortunately I got the call about the job while I was doing this. I didn’t get it :( They liked me enough to ask if I wanted to apply for another job they were developing, but its still disappointing. Back to the drawing board. I didn’t feel much like shopping after this so I just got some stuff and headed home. Fortunately my bad mood was a little dispelled by a nice box of house warming presents waiting from my mother-in-law. Yay, for cute fall stuff!!! Then I wanted to put up all my new bathroom stuff, but the electrician was using the drill. I also wanted to put away my clothes but with the electrician, handyman and the cable guy trooping through the bedroom every five minutes I am sure they all got a look at my undies. I really didn’t get much accomplished today. The cable guy had to rewire the whole house. It took him forever, but here I am blogging and watching TV.

Tomorrow I will search the job boards and paint the laundry room because I haven’t had enough painting yet.

Victory is Mine!

We finally closed on the house yesterday afternoon. YAY!!!! Wes landed and met with the contracter while I was signing all the paper work. Then we went and bought a new kitchen. Ouch!!!

Now if Tropical Storm Hanna doesn't blow the roof off, we should be set. More later....

Limbo Round 2

The little house that couldn’t
We have not yet closed on the house. Blah! We were waiting on one paper to get through. It got there today, but the other bank decided that they didn’t like some of the wording. Our people said there was nothing wrong with it, but it was sent back. Now it has to go through all kinds of people all over again. Then everybody wants time to look over the complete packages. There is a small chance that we could close tomorrow, but I am not counting on that. It is likely that we will close next week, but because it is a holiday weekend it may not happen until Wednesday. That will be almost two weeks after it was originally supposed to take place. Two weeks of limbo. Katie has volunteered to keep me tomorrow night and Carm has given me free run of her apartment from Saturday onward. Hehehe!!! Max is staying at puppy club med, so all bases are covered and everything is static.

Limbo
I have been attempting to make use of my limbo time. I have spent the last two days at ODU working on my paper. Although I have spent 50% of that time talking to people and 2% playing spider solitaire (which has been banned from my personal computer), I have managed to make some progress. Unfortunately progress was in the typical manner for this paper: two steps forward and one and a half back. I was running some statistics and found some significant values. The one thing that is worse than not finding any results is finding a difference long after you have resigned yourself to the fact that there aren’t any and have moved on with your life. To add insult to injury, the results aren’t clear cut, just more confusing. Ugghhh!! I have decided that I am going to make the most of limbo time and work hard on my paper. Maybe the universe is telling me that I need to get busy on my paper and I am not allowed to have a new house until I finish my paper. :(

It is amazing how quickly you can slip back into a routine. At ODU, I have quickly fallen back into the old routines despite being gone for 2 yrs. Work for a few minutes, go get a cup of tea, work for a few more, go visit, work, solitaire. The office is lonely though. I have to go out of the cave to find someone to talk to. Sad!


Green Hotel… Not
So over the last few years I have stayed in quite a few hotels. If you have stayed in one recently, you may have noticed the little card that states the hotel is environmentally friendly and will only wash the towels you leave on the floor. I thought this was fantastic and I couldn’t wait to start saving the world one towel at a time. Then over many trips to hotels, I came to realize that this is just a veneer that the hotel assumes so that it can seem green. Yesterday I put the do not disturb sign on my door just so that they wouldn’t come take my towels away. Today I wanted my garbage changed but not new towels, so I leaned the little earth friendly sign on top of the towel on the towel rack. I came back to see that they just moved the sign over to lean on the already clean towel and replaced all the towels. I wonder if the hotel staff has ever read the little sign. Apparently not.

Grocery bag sabotage
A couple days ago I went to the store to get breakfast for the week. I thought everything would fit in one paper bag so I asked the grocery packer to do this. I get to the hotel to find that he has put almost every item in a plastic bag and then put it in the paper bag. Grrrr!!!! Can I wear a green button or something that will let people know that I am trying to save the world one bag at a time? I consoled myself that I would be able to reuse the bags to pack up items that have escaped from my chaotic car. Then the hotel staff threw them away. Sometimes it is impossible to win even when you do care.

Travels and Tribulations

So I closed by last blog with the prediction that I would be keeping busy once I got to Norfolk. Well, I was wrong. Here I am in VA with not too much to do. But first let me tell you about the woes of yesterday.
The day started out fair. When I filled up the car with gas yesterday morning there was a sign on the pump, which I found fairly entertaining. It said “For Receipt Please Cashier”. Since I did not know how to please the cashier, I did not get a receipt. The drive went fairly well except that I had allergies. Max behaved really well. See how cute he is all curled up on the seat.



There was a lot of traffic on the road, so it took an hour and a half longer than it should have. I arrived at 8:15, and took Max to the new house to let him run around the yard. I was feeling pretty good about the day, but then things went down hill from there. I drove to the Navy lodge to check in and ditch enough stuff so that I could fit Wes in the car. There were only two people in line in front of me and so I thought that it would all move along pretty quickly. I was wrong. It took the desk clerk so long to check the first person in, I was ready to scream. Then I was relieved that the next person only wanted to rent two movies. That couldn’t take too long. I was wrong again. It took so long you would have thought that she was writing a summary of each movie. Finally, my turn. I asked to check in and a man pops up to the counter to ask about pizza delivery. The desk clerk proceeds to give him a five minute spiel on pizza delivery. I wanted to say something, like “excuse me, but I have been waiting,” but was so wound up after the long drive and the long wait, that whatever I said would have come out like “ITS MY TURN!!! RAHGREEE.. WHAT THE FURGEUDLNKJLSIFON CSDJSFB!!!!!!!” That, of course, was not warranted, so I internalized all my frustration. Finally I have been checked in, but then I had to sign a paper saying that if I bring pets into the room, I have to pay a $100 fine. Wes had booked a pet-friendly room. I didn’t have the time or patience to straighten things out, if they even could be straightened out. Wes’s plane had already landed at this point. I schlepped some stuff to the room, only to figure out that my key card didn’t work. I was so close to screaming curses and just taking out my frustration on the door with my foot. AAaaaaHHH! Finally get into the room and realize that the awful noise I had heard in the hall was coming from our bathroom. The floor of the bathroom is literally shaking from whatever was wrong. Again, no time to investigate. Max and I head off to the airport to pick up Wes. When you see your spouse after a long day apart, you are supposed to greet them with a little TLC. Poor Wes got a huge dose of my frustration. In the interest of all things sane, I withdrew from the field of battle and let Wes engage the front desk clerk.

Twenty minutes later, even though we had reserved a pet room and they had screwed up our reservation, the only way Max can stay in the room is if we pay the 100$ fine. It ten o’clock at night and we have nowhere to put the dog. We called our mortgage guy and begged him to keep him for the night. Talk about going above and beyond the call of duty. Tonight Max is at puppy club med. The noise in our room had not abated by the time we got all the other stuff straightened out, and there were no other rooms to be had. The replacement clerk (thank god the slow one went home) was amazed at the ridiculously loud noise coming from the floor. Just as we reconciled ourselves to the thought that we would have to live with it, we flushed the toilet and it went away. Then it came back, so we kept flushing the toilet until it went away permanently. Apparently it had something to do with the water pressure. Weird!

As for the house, we were supposed to sign today. Well the bank did not get their stuff in order and we did not find this out until we were on our way to VA. Now the bank is trying to put it off until the 28th. Obviously this causes quite a few problems for us, the least of which is that we are here in Norfolk with very little to do. Fortunately we have a fun weekend planned in Annapolis, which we have been expanding to fill up the time we were supposed to be spending on the house. Look out friends. Here we come!

Travels and Castles

Wes and I spent the last weekend near Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. I won’t comment on the “cottage” where we stayed…yes I will… The place did not allow pets, yet somehow a kitty had spent some time peeing in the cottage. Eeewww! Other than that, it was a nice weekend. On Saturday we went up to see the Castle in the Clouds, which is a mansion on a mountain top. We stopped to see some falls on the way up the mountain. The falls were pretty but I was more impressed with the mushrooms and parasitic plants. They were everywhere. It was a mycologist’s dream. I took lots of pictures!
I have toured quite a few mansions in the last year or so, but the Castle in the Clouds was my favorite. I haven’t really wanted to live in any of the grand house I have seen until now. I could live there though. I might even keep the floor plan as an idea for my someday dream house. The part that I like the best was the octagonal wings with lots of windows. Its funny that I grew up in an octagonal house with rectangular wings, but someday I want to live in rectangular house with octagonal wings. Anyway, go see it if you have the time. We were supposed to go out on a boat ride, but it started raining, so we did race prep stuff instead and then watched the Olympics.
Sunday, I got up at 5ish despite my better judgment and took Wes to his triathlon. I had considered hiking up the mountain to pass the time until the race started, but it turns out I am not a “hike up the mountain first thing in the morning” person. I went to do the spectator and professional race photographer thing instead. In between cheering Wes on as he came in and out of transition, I was a bit bored. To give myself something to do, I stalked the professionals after they won the race and got the female and male winner to sign a small pencil sketch I did of the swim. The guy, Any Pots, just missed making the Olympic team and the gal, Chrissie Wellington, came out of no where to win every race she enters and may be a future Olympian. Anyway, Wes was a fan and thought the signatures were pretty cool. I think its funny that the first autographs I ever ask for are from people that I barely know anything about. :)
After the race, Wes informs me that he needs to go to the Medical Tent because he thinks he has a ruptured ear drum. Apparently he was hit in the head in the first couple seconds of the race and almost dropped out because he thought he had a concussion. And he wonders why I have no interest in competing in the zoo. The doc in the tent said he needed to go to the hospital to get antibiotics right away. Fortunately, we had planned on having dinner with some friends in Boston and one of them is a doctor. So we got some expired antibiotics, had a nice dinner, met their sweet little girl and caught up on each other’s lives. All in all, it was a nice weekend.
Now the insanity begins. I have been doing last minute chores all day and packing up boxes. Tomorrow I have my last day at Sylvan, with my GRE student. It turns out that she lives right across the street from me. Funny! Then I pack the car and head to Norfolk on Wed morning. I don’t know when I am going to be able to post again, but you can be sure that I will be keeping busy.

Hello World

Hello friends that are scattered over the world.

Last November I decided to join the masses and get a myspace page and post a blog. I have since realized that not everyone has joined myspace yet and so could not read my blog. Recently I decided that I needed to have a greater online presence, mostly for the purpose of promoting my art work and to that end, I have reposted all of my entries from myspace on this blog and invite you all to join. I try to post at least every two weeks. The topics include news on my job and my location (which seem to change regularly), pictures of my art work and any other interesting tidbits.

There is a link to myspace page to the right incase we are not yet friends. There is also a link to a gallery where I display my Scifi/Fantasy art.

So at this point in my life, I am about to move again. I am currently in Newport, RI, but if all stays on track with the house we are buying in VA, we will be signing on the 21st of August. You can read more about the house in the previous blog entry. I will be driving to Norfolk next week, which means things are pretty busy right now.

After we get to Norfolk, we will be working hard on the house, trying to get it livable. I will be searching for a job or a new career if required. Any suggestions? I will also be working on my outdoor space, so think of me if you have any baby plants that need a home or have plants I could take cuttings from. This, of course, applies to Virginians and visitors.

Soon afterwards, Wes will be headed out to Africa to chase pirates and if we can get the house in some sort of shape, I may throw a “Have fun hunting Pirates” party for Wes before he leaves. Drop me a note if you live in VA and would like more details on the party when the time comes. Since Wes will be gone for the holidays this year, I may be up for adoption or be a willing participant in any crazy vacation schemes.

Anyway, welcome to my blog and don’t forget to peruse the back issues if you are curious about what I have been up to.

Limbo

Today I sent my resume out to 3 random companies. I plan to research about 30 more companies and send my resume to the appropriate ones. This is where I am with the job search. I am trying to find a job in environmental consulting, but I am afraid that I won't find anything appropriate. I am worried that I will end up with a dull job that will cause my brain cells to die of boredom.

Our plan to buy a house is progressing nicely. The bank accepted our second offer. Now we are in the process of going through the home inspection, so hopefully that will go well. We had a little trouble getting the gas turned on because the previous tenents left over a 1000$ in unpaid bills. The virginia gas company has out sourced its customer servie to India. When we called to get the gas turned on for the inspection, they wanted a copy of a lease or deed of sale. Whenever we explained that we weren't going to buy until we had an inspection, the person would pass us up the line to their boss, until we got to talk to someone in back in the states. Uggh! If you want to see pictures of the house in its pre-fixed up stage, you can go to Wes's page:

http://wbdowntown.wordpress.com/

In case I didn't mention it before, the house was trashed by the last tenants or vandals, so all the damage you see just means we got a better deal. If all goes well, we will be closing around the 21st of Aug and I will be relocating to Norfolk around then. Then let the fun begin.
In the meantime, I feel like I am in limbo. I know that I have plenty that I should be doing, like working on my research papers, but its hard to focus on the present when there are going to be so many things happening soon.

I am still working at Sylvan. Now I will be helping a Turkish student prepare her English for the GRE. Between Sylvan and physical therapy I feel like I only have a few hours here and there to work on stuff. I know that I need to become more disciplined and make better use of my time, but its hard.

I spent two days last week and finished a drawing. Its called "Mermaid's Embrace."
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Country girl in a Big City

So I spent the last weekend in NY city. It was my first visit and the hotel we were staying in was in Times Square. Now, after pinging around the country like a pinball, I consider myself pretty well traveled, but NY made me feel small. I was also pretty stressed out most of the time. The atmosphere in NY of hurry up and "step on anyone in your way" is pretty infectious and I think theonly time I really relaxed was when we were in our hotel room. There were many things that I wanted to see in NY, but our time was limited, so we settled on just doing one or two things on Saturday. I wanted to see the Zoo and Botanical gardens, but then decided that since it was in the mid 90s, that we should be indoors instead. We went to the metropolitan museum of art. It was amazing and we only saw a small small part of it. I would almost like to live in NY for awhile so I could see more of it. It was also pretty surreal seeing things that I see all the time on TV in real life. There were so many other things I wanted to see too, that we will definitely have to go back.
I started reading a book about the Vanderbilt women because of some of the history here in Newport. Most of the beginning of the book is set in NY, so it was interesting to be reading about streets in NY and knowing that I could just walk over there. After I finish the book, I will have to visit some more of the historical sites here in Newport.

I also saw the place in Riverside Park in NY where they filmed the final scene of "you've got mail." Cool!!

Things are progressing on our house deal, but things are still in the works so i am not going to say much about it yet. I am trying not to think about it too much until I know for sure that we have it, but I keep getting ideas for what I want to do to it.

This will be my last week with my Sylvan LC Biology student. Part of me is happy to be done, but I really hope that I made a difference for this kid. Somehow I doubt I made much of a difference though :(

I also got another FOAD letter today. I had already decided that against the job in VT, but it would have been nice to get a nod of approval instead of a impersonal FOAD. Its hard to keep up a go get 'em attitude after those. I am tired of looking for jobs too!!!

house hunting and Creationism

So many things have been happening since I last blogged that I can't possibly talk about them all. I guess I will have to be less of a slacker when it comes to blogging. Instead of boring you all with very extensive updates, I will write about my trip to VA house shopping...

Our flight there was irritating and we almost missed our connection because of delays and mechanical failures. On Friday we looked at about 6 houses. The first house was so sad. It was on the water and such a pretty plot of land. The house however, needed to be torn down. Wes and I couldn't really agree on any houses that day, so we kept looking. We had dinner with Carm and Jay and it was really good to see them again. I love how you can not see or talk to friends for long periods of time, but when you meet again, you pick right up where you left off. The next day was exhausting. We met bank people and looked at about 20 houses, including one that was so gross I was sorry that I was wearing sandals. We were able to narrow it down to about 4, but Wes and I did not necessarily agree on the ranking of those. We managed to compromise and decided to take a risk on a particular house. It is huge and on a huge lot that is private. It was foreclosed on and vandalized, so there is a lot of work to do. We put in a really low offer to see if the bank is in the mood to take it. I have to keep reminding myself not to get too excited about planning what I would like to do with the place. I don't want to be disappointed if we don't get it.



I am currently working on about three drawings, but i did manage to finish one other one. I liked the picture of Max swimming so much that I decided to try and draw it. Let me know what you think.



At Sylvan I am teaching a biology course for credit to a student from a Christian academy. The book is titled "Biology: God's living creation". It is interesting, but not difficult to avoid the sticky issues. Fortunately I don't have to teach creationism. In one of the chapters I teach, they have a section titled "Killing the Unborn Child." I kid you not! Obviously it has no place in a biology book, but that is the beauty of America. You can warp, I mean raise your kids however you want. Two more weeks of that.



Well back to work. I have too many things to do and not enough time. I guess I shouldn't be blogging then.

Day to Day

Pet peeves: Grocery baggers who put things like milk and laundry detergent in a bag after you ask them not to. I would rather pack my own groceries, but I can't and its customary to tip the bagger at the commissary, so I have to pay someone to waste bags and pack my groceries badly.

On the Job Front: So I blogged previously about the job offers at Norman Bird Sanctuary that I turned down. Well, apparently the universe was telling me that I should have taken one of those jobs. I was expecting to be teaching biology at Sylvan this summer. Today I found out that the two students did so poorly grade-wise that they have to go to real summer school instead of to Sylvan. I won't be teaching them after all. So now I am going to learn how to do some other task at Sylvan instead. Still training, but not teaching. Ugghh!

On the Fun Front: My friend Marin came down from Boston on Saturday and we spent the morning wandering around seeing gardens on a secret garden tour. That was pretty cool, but I wish there had been a few more on the tour. It was good to talk to Marin again and I think focused more on our chat than on the secret garden. In the afternoon, we went shopping downtown, but I was good and didn't buy anything. After eating dinner, we watched "Pride and Prejudice" and made earrings from my plethora of beads. Gardens, shopping, jewelry making: all in all an excellent day. This coming weekend, Wes and I are going to go to Block Island on Saturday if the weathers good and I will go with a friend to the Newport Flower Show. Yay, more flowers!

Progress: I haven't really found any solid job leads, but Marin gave me some excellent advice and information, so I am hopeful again. Wes and I have planned a trip to Norfolk on July 10 to 13th to look for a house. We have a list of houses that we like, about 30, so we will be busy looking. Hopefully we will find the perfect one, since we will likely be there for at least 3 yrs.





I drew another picture yesterday, "Whippy Tree", very simple, but I like it. I won't report on my paper progress because it is shamefully slow.











Movies: Wes and I went to see "Kung Fu Panda" and it was excellent. There were some parts that were predictable, but there were also many, many funny bits. One part made me laugh so hard I couldn't stop. Even though the movie had moved on and wasn't funny anymore, I had to laugh quietly so everyone around me didn't think I was nuts. Definitely go see it.

I took Max to the beach and was throwing the ball in the water for him. This is really his first swimming experience, at least swimming on purpose. Check out this picture! He is not a very good swimmer.

Thunder, Tornados, and floods, OH MY!

Last weekend I went to Madison for my Grandmother's 90th Birthday party. She doesn't actually turn 90 until October, so she was really surprised. It was really good to see everyone again, catch up on what is happening in their lives, and meet new kids and significant others. I also had a chance to go to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens and the Zoo, both free :) The gardens were amazing! The weather was interesting. Thunderstorms, tornados and floods. It prevented me from going out drinking with my brothers. darn. We went to see Prince Caspian instead. It was really good! Better than the first Narnia movie.

My flights were delayed there and back. Ick! I didn't miss any flights, but it was annoying. When I got to RI, it was 98 degrees at the airport. I had to go change before Wes picked me up so I didn't roast alive. By the time we got to Newport near the coast, the temperature had dropped 20 degrees. The house is finally cooling down now, but it still might be too hot to sleep.

So after I didn't get the job at the Norman Bird Sanctuary, the director had two more positions open up and offered me my choice of the two. Unfortunately they were fulltime and I can't do fulltime right now. I wouldn't have time to finish my papers, go to physical therapy, house hunt or work at Sylvan. I had to turn them down. :( I just want the right job!

I hope that it will not be this hot tomorrow as I have to go back to working in the greenhouses and outside for 4 more days yet before I am done with that job. If you don't hear from me again, I have died of heat stroke. You may have my cat. :)

updates

This is to update the blog I posted yesterday.

I did not get the job at the bird sanctuary. :( I lost out to someone with more experience with kids. If there was such a candidate, I had not expected to be able to compete with them.

In the good new department, I posted some new art at elfwood.com and have been getting some good comments. I even got all praise for the new stuff from the critic who poopooed some of the old stuff.

http://www.elfwood.com/art/a/l/alishabrown/alishabrown.html

Well, off to look at job advertisments some more.

Busyness

So I have had a busy couple of days this week. I have not had time to work on either my paper or my newest picture. :( Hopefully I will get a chance to work on the paper this afternoon after I clean the house.

Last blog, I mention that I had posted some pictures on elfwood.com. I have been waiting for some comments from people on the site and last week I got some, although not of the type I was hoping for. One fellow took it upon himself to critique most of my pictures. I do my best to take criticism calmly and improve my art accordingly. I can usually manage this after the sting has gone out of the comments. I could not seem to find the merit in this person's comments. I went to his page to see his art so that I could put his comments in context. He can't seem to get his art past the moderators (they are picky about the rules). His page has thousands of people thanking him for his comments. I went to a random selection of other people whose art he has commented on and I can't really find the value in those comments either. They mostly consist of "Your art needs more work." I have never met an artist who does not think that their work could be improved. They always seem to say "its not quite what I had in my head" or "I could have done this better." So anyway, it has been the trial of the week to not respond to this guy in a negative way. I just don't want to enter in the bitchy spirit that seems to inhabit so many online boards and chatrooms. I must refrain.

I have been putting together a curriculum for the biology student at Sylvan this last week and will be again next week. The number has grown from one student to 3, all from the same class. Tough teacher. I am a little more apprehensive about trying to motivate three problem students instead of one.

On Friday, I recieved my two weeks notice at Chase farms. The end of the season is coming up :( Fortunately I interviewed for a job as a naturalist at a local Bird Sanctuary on that same afternoon. The hour requirements are perfect, I get to talk about nature stuff and I would be working with preschoolers. How fun!I keep thinking that the fact that I had the interview on the same day as I recieved notice at the farm and that the new job would start the monday after the last friday at the old job is an indication that I am meant to get this job. However, I am realistic knowing that while I am very qualified on the "nature" front, I am not very qualified on the small children front. I have not worked with kids in many years. I hope that I get the job, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Friday night I went to a Spa party at a friend's house. It was a demo by the Body Shop. I was surprised to learn how globally friendly they were and animal friendly. If any of you ladies are looking for some kind of party to host, a Body shop party would definitely be a good category. The hostess of course gets fabulous gifts and discounts. I won't say how much money I spent >:)

Saturday I went to northern Massachusetts to a meeting for the New England Color Pencil Society. These meetings are usually all day affairs as everyone has to drive a couple hours and the meeting usually includes some kind of demo. Yesterday a woman was showing us how to work ..l board, which is like hard board. The draw for this kind of board is that after your varnish it, you do not need to put glass over it. This saves on framing costs and possibly shipping costs. We were drawing green peppers, which is something that I wound never have drawn on my own. I have always wondered why anyone would want to draw anything as boring as a pepper. Well, it turned out to be alot more interesting than I thought it would be. I am quite pleased with it. Of course now I am trying to figure out where to put a pepper imp on the picture as there is not much room. I am also trying to remember what a pepper imp looks like. I have been trying to decide if I should try some still life pictures....hmmmm.

This weekend I am off to Madison for my grama's 90th birthday party, even though she doesn't turn 90 until October. I am looking forward to see my grama, cousins and brothers. My brothers want me to go partying with them on Saturday night. Yikes!
Until next time...

Random Bits of Life

Wes participated in his first race of the season last weekend. He ran a half iron man at Disney World. Yup, high humidity and heat. He did really well on the swim and bike, but had some trouble on the run with leg cramps. He finished though and has a new strategy for the next race in NH in June.

Wes and I went hiking in the Arcadia Wildlife Management Area yesterday with Max. Max threw himself in every puddle and muck hole along the way. At the end of the walk, I pushed Max into the river just to try to clean some of the muck off. He has been pretty tired today. Barely even obnoxious.

I posted some of my art on a website called elfwood.com. Its a huge website with all levels of art and writing. Some of the art is really cool, but I haven't had much time to check out the writing. Most of it is the same stuff I have posted in my photos here but if you want, you can find it at: http://www.elfwood.com/art/a/l/alishabrown/alishabrown.html

My greenhouse job is probably going to end in a couple of weeks, but I might quit before then. Lifting some of the plant trays has been putting too much strain on my wrist and thumb joints. I have had to wrap them up in my old kickboxing wraps, which are neon green. Everyone thinks that there is something seriously wrong since the wraps are quite bulky. My neighbor thinks that I have been working with plants too much since my hands are green. haha.

In the last week I have seen both Ironman and the new Indiana Jones movies. Ironman was OK, but the tendency to emulate James Bond was a little annoying. The actions sequences were pretty cool, but leave your brain at home if you plan on enjoying the movie. Indiana was fun as always. I like the return of Maryanne Ravenwood and the new kid, Mudd. There seemed to be a little too much emphasis on how Indiana was old and not as good as he used to be. There were also too many cute critters! Why??? Overall the plot was entertaining, but the ending was a little out of the usual realm of Indiana Jones.

I have had too many rejections lately. Two art shows turned me down and I got a FOAD letter from another job. Two places where I sent my CV have not even acknowledged that I sent something. Also, one of the papers I have been trying to get published has been sent back to me for revision: neither rejected nor accepted. Its hard to keep up good spirits when it seems like everywhere you turn, the world is telling you no. I keep thinking about what I am going to do when I get to VA in the job department, but I keep coming up against a wall. I just don't know.
Just keep moving along...

blog on, blog on...

So I have wanted to post a blog for about a week now, but have really didn't have a focus. I still don't have a focus, but perhaps its really writer's block and I should just write on through it.

I am still working at the farm. They were teaching me to drive a tractor, but lessons have kind of stalled. I figured out a couple weeks ago that one of the women was really two faced. She talked about everyone and would say one thing to their face and another behind their back. She would also twist people's words to fit whatever slant she wanted. Of course, if she is talking about everyone else then she is talking about me too. I had some evidence of this based on a few interactions with the others. So for about two weeks I have tried to say as little at work as possible to give this woman less fodder. Friday was her last day though and its a relief. She was from a temp agency and they weren't needed anymore. I don't really know what I will be doing now, since it doesn't seem like they will be doing anymore planting. Moving plants probably and it is supposed to rain tomorrow. I spent a couple hours today planting flowers. You would think that I would be tired of planting things after doing it all week at working, but these are my flowers.

I am still in training at Sylvan, but I think I might get a biology student soon. Things are a little confusing there and I feel a little disconnected most of the time.

Wes and I went to a Pawtucket RedSox game last night. It was against the Norfolk Tides and even though I would have said that I did not have any loyalties, I found myself cheering for the Tides despite Wes's edict that I cheer for the PawSox. Oh Well! The game was fun, but I wish that they would serve some alcohol besides beer at the games. Then I am sure that I would have more fun.

There is a SOBE life water commercial on with gyrating lizards. I find this commercial disturbing. Anyone else?


This coming weekend we are headed to FL so that Wes can compete in his first 1/2 Ironman of the season. Its near Disney world, so we might go do something there like Animal Kingdom.

I entered a two color pencil pieces in a big Color Pencil show in the fall, but they didn't make it in. That was disappointing. :( I don't have any pictures in any shows right now so I feel like a bit of a slacker on that front too. I did finish a new picture, which is called "Nyx:Goddess of Night."

For the last couple weeks I have been working in watercolor, but not traditional water color. My picture is all stripes of brown. I don't think Wes really likes it, because when I ask him what he thinks, he say "It's brown." I tell him that is an observation, not an opinion but it doesn't help.


Well, off to do something that I neglected this weekend. Until next time...

just the everyday

Its Sunday morning and I am bummed that my weekend is half over. Obviously, I've gotten busy enough that I know what day of the week it is again. A sad development.

Work at the farm last week was pretty tough. We spent most of the week moving pots from the greenhouses to the fields. I think they decided that I am tough because they put me on the boys team and we spent alot of time moving gallon sized plant trays, six gallons at a time. Usually I think that the work is good for my neck and shoulder problems, but they seem to be getting worse. I wish the paperwork would hurry up so I can go back to physical therapy.

The woman at the greenhouse that I wrote about before, the one that no one likes, she went home with a migrain on Tuesday. She asked me to give her a ride downtown, which I did even though I didn't want to. I don't really want to have more to do with her than I have to. She's OK, I just don't want her in my personal life. Anyway she asked if I would mind stopping at the liquour store for her along the way because she thought a few drinks might help the migraine. I didn't want to and resented the fact that I was taking time out of my day to help her run her errands. I decided to stop though because I knew if she had been a friend I wouldn't have minded so I was just being bitchy. She didn't show up to work or call for two days. We heard from her again on friday...pay day. She said she had been in the hospital, but when I asked her what was wrong, she vaguely mentioned not being able to keep anything down. I wondered if her liquor store purchases might have had more to do with it than anything else. Hhmmmm....
We also found several nests of baby rodents while we were moving pots out of the greenhouse. They were very cute! The guys hid them so that the bosses wouldn't find them because that would have been the end of the mice. We think that the one nest will not survive though because we think the mom was dead and they didn't have their eyes open yet. :(

Wes and I went for a drive yesterday with the top off the car. It has been warm here for the last couple days and this is the first nice weekend that we have had. It was very nice and I got to see some of the local area that I had not seen yet. I felt very conspicious when we drove through the dowtown area at snail speed. I felt like everyone was looking at us because we were in the nice car. I don't really like being the center of attention, so it was a little strange. I probably just imagined most of it.

I have been through two training sessions at Sylvan LC. I have observed twice, but mostly I watch a tutorial on the computer. It's a little overwhelming. I am sure that I will be able to teach the verbal portion of the class. I am not so sure about the math portion. I have been working on refreshing my geometry, but sometimes I get stuck. I am a little worried that I will not be able to do the class. On the otherhand, they give you all the answers in the book and the steps to get them. We'll see. The guy who is currently teaching the math class doesn't connect well with the students, so I might do better even though I am less knowledgeable. Thats what I keep telling myself when I think about giving up.

Next weekend Wes and I are going up to New Hampshire for our two-year anniversary. We are going to a very nice place near lakes and mountains. It looks very pretty and I am looking forward to it. Two years went by really fast it seems. Are we officially not newly weds anymore?

I am going to start reading New Earth for my book club. It may have a bit of cult overtones, I have been warned. Oh well, I guess I haven't had my cult dose in a while.