Small update

Well, just a little news. Griffin and Aaron have their own place in Longmont now. We left the Habitat apartment just a little worse for wear after 4 years of habitation but as clean as we could make it. We just hung a set of shelves in our bathroom—and that's hilarious, because it's a $400+ set of shelves I won from ListenUp 2 Chrismasses ago. It was supposed to be a media shelf and is thusly very heavy-duty and stylish. It has holes for cord management. I'm going to have to post a picture later XD

Last night I worked with charcoal for the first time in years. I'm drawing Dr. Who (Eccleston) because he's a cool lookin' dude. I got stuck jumping from the left side of the face to the right, but I'm going to come back to it later.

I also drew the next page in my comic. It didn't hurt at all! We had a lot of fun talking about art and what it "should" mean when you can't expect to make a living off it... Anyway, I'm feeling a lot more artistically optimistic.

MS is same-old, same-old. Saw Vollmer on the 24th and that was, as always, a positive experience. I'm on track to be going off Tysabri in December as planned. My next infusion is September 8th.

In other, less awesome news... I have a stack of paper over an inch thick. Each sheet has someone on it that I have to call... today. >_<

So yeah, that's all I got to say =) Hang loose, all!

Things Are Looking Up

Hello faithful audience.

This is going to be short. There is no meaningful updates here; only that I can feel creative energy coming back to me (finally! I was starting to freak out). It feels good. Now if only I had the time...

*meanders into the room*

My long-lost best friend from middle school is an amazing blogger, an inspiration to single moms and married childless couples and anyone else in the world in my opinion... and she gave me this award. I'm not sure I deserve it, and I'm even less sure that I have the nerts to say 10 things that are difficult for me to share... 1) because I feel like I share almost anything under the opinion that if I'm not proud of thinking it then I shouldn't be and 2) because if I'm not sticking to that opinion then it's REALLY something I shouldn't be sharing. But I'll give it a shot, eh?


The Honest Scrap award is given by other bloggers who consider a blog’s content or design to be brilliant. The awardees must then post ten honest things about
themselves and pass the award on to other bloggers who fit the bill – in other words, whose blog is brilliant.”



I think honesty is put to the test when you tell people things you’d rather not share. Things that scare you. So here’s 10 painfully honest / potentially disturbing things about me (proceed with caution):

1. I think I've lost the capability to express myself artistically. I tell people who say this sort of thing to me, "that's ridiculous, just make yourself do it!" But I can sit and stare at a blank page for hours, feeling more and more frustrated and helpless. I don't want to give up but repeatedly trying and failing makes me feel worse than not trying.
   
2. I fear, often, that I've made all the wrong decisions in my life. Yes, I'm happy, but I'm not doing all the things I dreamed of doing--or any of them really. I'm too old, and too young.
   
3. I really really hate it when people suggest to me that I do something that I was already planning on doing. I don't know why, but it immediately makes me want to refuse.
   
4. My sex drive is all but gone. Sixteen, where did you go?
   
5. I think I might be a mean person. At least judgemental.
   
6. I deeply resent having to work full time to earn insurance for my chronic illness. Seems bass-ackwards to me.
   
7. I MS'd out of Grad school without even finishing 1 semester after doing a ton of work and 6 years of planning and longing. I don't think I'll ever go back.
   
8. I believe that a few generations after I'm gone, it will be as though I never was.
   
9. Most of my friends call me a "badass" or "courageous" or "amazing" because I don't let things stop me. I call that celebrating mediocrity. If I was those things, I'd still be in Grad school, or have something published, or be accomplishing anything at all.
   
10. I think I might love my cats more than my (future) kids. This sucks, because they almost certainly have a shorter lifespan. But I can tell them what to do forever, and they can't throw screaming tantrums in grocery stores.
    

So, while my life is not exactly boring right now, I don't think I have the time to type about it right now. I'll post at a later date, I promise.



Tag, crazy people!



Adventures in Domesticity

Stargazer's Observatory

Tea Party With the Hatter

Burning Tree

K.D. Bryan

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

That sound? The Bzzzzzzzzz? that's the drone of my life. I'm updating because Hanna told me to. Truly, I have very little to say.

But, I guess I'll do a short update on what I do have to say. First off, bikes.

My first experience with our new bikes was... and adventure. I had ridden my bike around the block a few times to make sure it worked, then Branden rode it from our house to a bus stop, then from the bus stop to my work, all without incident. However, when I got off work and went to ride it back to the bus stop, the rear tire was flat. This was immediately after I got the bike back from the shop for a full tune-up and etc. Turns out, they didn't replace the tubes. Remember, my bike is ancient--that tube could be 12 years old. I have no idea. Anyway, I took it back to the shop and they generously didn't charge me for labor, though I did have to buy the new tube. >_< Now, when I spin my pedals backwards, at all, the chain does one of two things: if it's on the big gear, it hops off the gear an loops around my pedal. If it's on one of the other two gears, the top strand of chain goes slack and gets stuck between the frame and the rear tire. Branden was looking at it and our theories converge: we think that one of two things is the problem. Either my wheel's not on my bike properly, or the gears are attached to my rear wheel wrong, so that the gears can't spin backwards (or even stay still when I'm walking my bike, or just coasting without pedaling, for example). I'm starting to get really frustrated. But I guess the good news is that the bike still works, even if it's got these chain quirks.

Second, everyone moving in. The third new arrival in our apartment complex is moving in this Saturday. Having the first two around these last couple of weeks has been really awesome, and unless there's yicky drama, I anticipate a year of social whoo-hoo. Unfortunately, the possibility for drama will spike considerably for the next two weeks or so, as our third arrival attempts to get one of the first arrivals into bed and fails...

Hopefully, that won't happen. Can't promise anything though.

So, we (Branden, Sarah, Joe, Steph, Ian, Dan, and I) went camping over the 4th of July. We went up to Wyoming to shoot off fireworks. I'm not going to go through it every moment by miserable moment, but I'll list the highlights:

1. Sarah got allergies as bad or worse than Branden's, but usually doesn't have any allergies at all, so didn't know how to handle them. She was miserable all weekend.
   
2. We had an ideal spot to shoot off fireworks: A huge flat rock. However, when we tried to shoot them off on Friday night, some jackass started yelling at us to "take our fireworks home." OMFG, it was the 4th of July for pete's sake. But, we quit so that we wouldn't have the forest service called on us, since we were camping in a national forest.
   
3. After our failed fireworks attempt, most people went to bed, and Joe and Dan stayed up drinking until 6 am. They drank ALL the liquor that was supposed to last 2 nights for 7 people. >_< Then, they started dragging burning sticks around, trying to fight Branden, and grabbing the saw and shouting that they should go saw more firewood, etc stupid crap.
   
4. So, on Saturday, Sarah, Joe, Branden, and Ian took a field trip to Laramie to get more liquor and other things. The field trip that was supposed to last 1 hour actually lasted 3, and left me and Steph completely alone and bored. (Dan slept most of the day.) Though, I did end up talking to Steph about stuff, which was nice. Nonetheless, it was a long, dry 3 hours since all we had to drink was soda, it was 90 degrees out, and we also had no food. Argh.
   
5. So, they returned with some more liquor (but no water >_<!!!!!!) and we had sandwiches. Then everyone but Sarah and Joe went into the tent and took a nap. Sarah and Joe went for a drive. The rest of us decided that we'd vote to go home when they got back, since it had turned out to be a pretty boring trip so far.
   
6. However, when they finally returned, they had a camp table and a few other things that made it seem stupidly selfish to go home after they spent the money, especially since all 7 of us are in dire straights for funds right now and we knew it was an effort to revitalize the trip.
   
7. So, we stayed. Sarah was in a terrible mood and basically refused to have any fun. We went up and shot off the fireworks that were small and didn't make noise, saving the noisemakers for last. However, when we did get to those, the same jerk-off started yelling at us, so we stopped again.
   
8. So, we went into the tent and set up the table to play some card games. It was, as you might imagine, quite crowded, with Sarah asleep on one side and B & my air mattress tipped up on the other. But, grudgingly, I have to say that the game was fun anyway.
   
9. Then we all went to sleep. We woke up the next day, broke camp, and went home (the process of breaking camp took 2 hours, driving 3). Sarah was again in a terrible mood.
   
10. Overall, I'd rather be playing video games.

Other than that, I've gotten back into art in a big way. My biggest problem has always been taking my sketches and making them "finished works," and this is no exception, but I've definitely been working hard. It's been great.

And work's just... work. It's fine, nothing to report.

We're planning an epic Halloween party. I'm not gonna say more than that for the moment, but... it's epic. People should come.

Ok, bye now!