First Day of Fall

Today I went to the TAWN Fall Fest. It is held at the UU Church on 22nd, just east of Swan. Kind of odd to have a pagan festival at a "church" but it works really good. This year the festival seemed to be more active and better attended. More vendors, more people coming through.

My friends John and KC banded together, and shared a booth. John is "Left Hand Asylum" and KC is part of "D Eclectic Gifts." They seemed to do very well together, and easily sold enough to cover the cost of the booth. I helped out some but mostly I had fun.

One of these years, I'll get my act together, have my own products, and my own business. One of these years. (laughter is appropriate here)

School is going well! I have a 3.8 grade average. At least no math for now! Yay!

New adventures...

I turned 50 in July. Kind of scary. 50 and still not published, unemployed again, and still living with my sister and her husband.

So I decided on some goals. I started the "medical administrative assistant" program at Pima Medical Institute on July 17. Passed the first two sections with good grades, and now I'm stuck in math hell. Oh well! I will survive.

Okay, one goal is to finish a novel and get published before I turn 55. I have one story in mind that I've played with off and on for the last few years. It's a sci/fi story of a young man from a medieval society stuck on a spaceship, and trying to get his friend Maria back to her family and the relative safety of Republic territory. That's more "mainstream."

Then there is one story that I had been writing for my own amusement few years back. It is not mainstream, and harkens to a genre I love called "slash fanfic." It's pretty much gay male erotica. The working title is, "Almost but Not." I'm thinking of working on this one first, giving it an ending, cleaning it up editing-wise, and try my hand at publishing as an e-book on Amazon. Could be amusing.

Today I went to a writer's group meeting, and met some very interesting people. I've tried a few writerly groups in the past, but they weren't for me. This one definitely seems more promising.

Other goals include getting a solid job, saving money, and moving out. I was hoping for my own house before, but I don't think that is realistic. Apartment first, house of my own later. I need to clean up my credit score, and be more responsible.

I will try and be better about making entries here. It will be good to follow my progress along with everything. Class, writing, life. Thanks for listening.

"Cindy the Art Quilt"

I am still alive. Recently I have discovered doing a kind of Crazy Quilting. Kind of "Maggie Crazy Quilting." I'm still learning how to do it, and call them art quilts. "Cindy" started when I was talking (listening) to a friend on the phone. An older male friend of hers had recently passed away, and she was supposed to inherit his dog Cindy. Well, this guy's b*tch of a daughter had the dog put down instead. She didn't wait for her brothers or the reading of the will. So this "art quilt" is in Cindy's memory.

August/September

August was an interesting month for me. 1) I was laid off from my job of 19 years. Actually it came down to 19 years and 1 week. It was very bittersweet because I was kind of looking forward to being released, and sad because I would miss a lot of people, and I do. I'm going to get some training, and hopefully it will help me get a better job in the future.

2) My sister and her husband went up to Idaho to bring their daughter and family back down to Tucson - help her move back here. Her husband has been in Korea, and he got home about a week ago.

3) My long time fur friend and companion, Jiri, had not been feeling well, but I kept hoping it was the heat. That one week the swamp coolers stopped working, I had ants in the bedroom, and realized that Jiri needed to go to the vet. I took her, and unfortunately she was doing so badly that it was just better to "let her go" so to speak. Sometimes life just really sucks.

So now we start heading into September, and Jiri's sister (littermate) seems to have a growth on the left side of her chest. I take her into the vet. He wants to do surgery, and I might have been able to scrape the money together, but the big thing for me is that Bridget (as was Jiri) is 14 years old. That's getting up there in years for a cat. Would surgery really be the best option? I decided no. So I have her here at home, and I keep I close eye on her, and as soon as she seems uncomfortable, I will take her back to the vets.

Life really sucks sometimes, you know? But she seems to be doing okay, and we muddle forward.

vacation

I'm going to Comic Con in San Diego. My friends KC and Donna are going too. We're driving over in Donna's car. It will be fun, a nice break, and hopefully we will have a great time. The last time the 3 of us tried going on a trip together, Donna's husband died. Kind of scary, ya know?

Got a new Paper Mache book for my birthday. It's very inspiring. I need to finish up my wizard, and try something else. I saw a really cute gangly cat from an art fair, and I think I want to try something like that next. We shall see!

Drawing Day 2009

Found out late last night that today is Drawing Day. I hadn't heard of it before, wish I had of! I'll try to get a few drawings in just to show support.

This is the link to the website:
http://www.drawingday.org/index.php

Drawing Day - June 06, 2009
drop everything and draw
Drawing Day is a worldwide drawing event encouraging everyone to drop everything and draw for the sake of art. Help us create 1 million drawings online this day.

Drawing Day has arrived - tell all your friends!

Still here!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted here. Getting laid off from work and not all that choked up about it. Last day in June. Working on going back to school for digital arts program. Took math placement test, and thank gods it was really low. I need the basic stuff again. Never have been good with math. Words are my thing.

Saw Wolverine twice this weekend. Once on Friday with Dear Sissy, and once Saturday with Ms. Collins.

Checking the watermark motif to make sure I got the directions right. Sharing it with a couple friends.

Going to try and make my own tiles for "mixed media mosaics". Got the Laurie Mike book, LOVE IT.