Semi official holiday week check in thread

So, what are you all up to, loves?

We're between rainstorms up here. Mom is worried that I'm cooking a turkey for the two of us tomorrow but since we just figured out we can afford to buy a holiday dinner, that's a nice worry. I told her I'd make tamales with the leftovers to take around to the family. We're not exchanging presents but since this is Crash Year 3, it doesn't matter very much. If we're fed, the animals are fed and there's pie, too, we'll be happy. Oh, and please, please hold the rain. The road is half done and turns to pudding-like mud in the heavy rain. Last week I had to park my truck and get out of here on foot to run errands because the creek was impassable. There was more water on the road than in the dry creek bed.

Cleaning up tax filings for the family and making notes for an essay but not much else really. This week is my favorite one of the year because it's nice and quiet and there's more time to do things like read or listen to random music or tag up with my peeps.

Got a weird message from Doug a few days ago, the first one in years. It was cryptic and frightening and I wanted to delete it but answered it instead with, so what is going on? Haven't heard back and probably won't. Which is fine.

I used to be Christmas queen, shopping, baking and festooning and staying up sewing and gluing everything in sight, In a way, this enforced low stress holiday is welcome. Simple rocks. I'll try to take some snapshots and post them later in the week. It's bare and spare and wintry up here -- as wintry as this valley gets, anyway. The horses are happy because the hillsides are greening up. They take the long view.

2 kids off to visit so's families, youngest doing the same, just not traveling far. we will see her a little tomorrow, then she will be off again as they leave for a vacation on sunday. that leaves one that hasn't quite gotten tight enough with his new love to be in on the family stuff. oh, yeah, and one i don't talk to. she did quite a bit of damage to last xmas, so i do not miss that one.
so, just the 2 of us, not really mad or anything, just moved on to another plane. no romance, no happy. just not mad, and waiting for the end.
yeah, a beaut.

So much fun. I love the reading one, the floating one and the inner tube.

Are you working on anything right now? Last year when the light came back, I roughed out an abstract of the light coming, lol, and that's as far as it got. It was a sketch of the exact moment the light breaks over the hill above me and hits the door to the studio. These hills look like nested wide Vs if you look from any one angle. But if you follow their lines, what they really look like is a pile of saddles.

wagging their tongues at me daily, because i have nowhere to fire them. i should be able to get them into a big wood fire in april, up in wisconsin. clay is so hard, and so expensive. i think i am unlikely to do much more of it.

just been doing my homework, which is satisfying enough. i think i will be fine as a designer. the added bonus of actually getting paid, and collaborating with other people, will make it all much more satisfying that making stuff that gets piled higher and deeper in my storeroom. i hope.
and it should be decent money here in chicago, although i read a temp ad where they wanted you to be "a rock star" with photoshop and illustrator, and "familiar" with like 3 other programs, including maya, which is a big 3-d thing, drive to a far south suburb, for the princely sum of $12/hour. those people were dreaming. but i am told this rock star thing is what people who don't know what they are talking about think you should be.

suspect i will find time to paint here and there, especially just the little ink drawings that i do for the paintings. it's all just a little large for the paper right now. need to let it settle down.

hope you survive the holidays there. much love.

I'd like to think that I'm pretty clever with these programs and that I can teach myself how to use them. Maya kicked my ass. I'm ok with Photoshop and Illustrator, but the only 3-D programs I've ever learned well is Bryce and Sculptris. The rest are like a punch in the head.

Check out Sculptris...it's free and very easy to pick up and start messing with. 3-D rendering on the fly, and some of the stuff people are doing with it is amazing. This is something I did in a couple of hours, and like I said, I'm not good with 3-D programs. But this is easy to work with.



Here's the program....

http://www.sculptris.com/

Take care of yourself!

i am not that interested in smothering my brain with maya. i don't see myself using it in the type of work i plan to do. i would rather get real good at web design. it is mostly a movie thing. we do make a fair number of movies in chicago, but that sort of work usually stays in hollywood anyway.
that said, tho, it does pay long dough.

and love it. Am somewhat dyslexic so the biggest prob is attaching the navigation to muscular memory. But, it's FUN and it's FREE, a big plus right now.

My 4yo nephew is a naughty little brat! :rofl:

:)

My brother and I had a break through yesterday. I'd finished cooking when he showed up but the second thing out of his mouth after "merry Christmas" was "can I help?" First time ever. :wow: :woohoo:

He used to be our naughty little brat and I had to hide my stuff so he wouldn't eat it, break it or lose it. lol :party:

I'll get back to you in awhile on whether this a good thing or not. :)

Been a wild year, filled with a lot of bad news for friends and loved ones. A LOT of cancer news this year. It got my mother in June, and 5 other friends found out they had it as well. My own is still there, but I did receive good news a couple weeks ago. An ultrasound turned up something in my neck in the Spring, and I waited 7 months for further news, only to get an MRI and find out there's nothing there. I know it's good news for me, but I feel bad that I was the only one to get good news on that front this year.

Let's see, what else.....

The Mass Department of Mental Health has decided to take on my case and help me get housing. I've been in a place with no heat for 6 years, and I've had enough, even though I love the cold and winter. It's one thing to be outside in it for a little while, and quite another to live in it. I've already made about 20 typos in this post due to numb fingers lol. I'm sure that even with their help it'll be a long process, but it's nice to have someone in my corner on this. I have zero patience in dealing with this stuff, and have just two modes: Way too nice and passive about it, or ready for a three state killing spree. I doubt I'll be out of here this winter, but hopefully next winter I'll have heat. I don't need a lot, just keep my place over 35 degrees and I'll be satisfied.

None of my meds work, and not taking them doesn't work either, so it's been a real up and down year. I was in tough shape, and thinking suicide all though November, but this month I've been pretty copacetic. I have personal reasons why December is a tough month for me, and it has nothing to do with being alone on the Holidays, so to have a mellow December has been a nice change.

But I'm still pretty much the same crazy bastard I've always been.

And I award bonus points to you for using the word "festooning". Now there's a word we simply don't hear enough of! :)

:loveya:

:loveya:

:rofl:

I'm just going to start throwing that word into conversations, whether it fits or not. "So anyways, I was down at the YMCA festooning in the pool...." :)

:loveya:

:D

I've been in one with no heat for 1 and have been wallowing as hard as I can.

Extra bonus points for dealing with November AND getting the Mass MH Dept to check on housing. That's pretty much magic. :party:

I grew up as a hockey rink rat, and have spent half of my life on the ice, so it's not as bad for me as it would be for those who actually like warmth. What sucks is going into offices or stores where the heat is on. I'm so used to the cold that going into a heated place is tough. Someone just send me to a place in the Yukon with a fireplace and I'm good. :)

If it gets below 60, my whole system starts to shut down. Maybe part of it is that light thingy. My mood improves noticeably when there's light. It's like being a rootless sunflower. lol

that is awful.

Trying hard not to talk about much. My brain starts shooting lightening bolts. Some of you may know what I'm talking about. It just shuts me down.

Had 3 days of pure hell. I was ready to go 'lie down'. My SO saw something in me and helped me through it. Knew what I was going to do. Convinced me to go back to therapy and as much as I dread it - seeing my Drug Pusher Doctor. Going to try adding another drug. Sucks. Really can't afford it but was convinced that 'life' has no price you can put on it.

Horses? How cool. I grew up with Horses. Beautiful Creatures. Miss riding.

Have a wonderful 2011!!!

I'm glad your SO has good eyes. :grouphug: to you guys.

It'd be great if someone could say "you'll be feeling really good by 'x' date". If you can make it through the week I'll do the same.