My overburdened Primary Care Physician's office now does this computerized appointment reminder phone call thing. They called me last week and the recording said I had an appointment for Tuesday, and to press "1" to confirm that I'd be there. That's all it said -- no "press 2 to speak to a receptionist" or "press 5 if you need to cancel" or whatnot; just, press "1" to confirm. Dudes, if you aren't going to give me a choice, why bother make me press anything at all? I didn't press anything, because I had no idea what the appointment was for, so I just hung up. A few hours later I remembered that I still needed a booster shot for an immunization I got right before traveling to Belize, and that I had probably made this appointment way back in January, so I called back and spoke with an actual human to make sure I still had the appointment, which I did (see? I didn't press anything, and it didn't cancel the appointment. So stupid).

Anyway, the booster shot appointment was for this morning, so I hauled ass over to Easthampton, where the receptionist (who looked to be about 16 years old) told me she was sorry, that someone tried calling me but I didn't answer (I was in the shower, duh), but that they actually shouldn't give me the booster for another month and a half. Huh. If only an actual human had called me instead of a computer, or I had been given the option of speaking to a human last week, we could have cleared this up then and saved me some gas and time. Sigh. I made an appointment for the end of July and that was that.

[This post has been #385 in the series "Things that could be greatly improved if only people listened to me, the expert on everything."]

It's pollen time down at the 'park. My "back yard" (really a common area) looks like it's been shot in sepia tone. Pale yellow covers everything. We need a stiff rain to wash it away. Amazingly, this particular sort of pollen doesn't bother my allergies, though the sheer amount of it makes me sneeze (as it would if it were regular dust) so I wear a mask whenever I futilely try to sweep off my porches. The little particles are so tiny, you really can't get them all off the porch floor. And though I have considered it, I think using a vacuum cleaner in what is technically an outside space is a little too close to have-to-scrub-my-hands-100-times-a-day town for my liking.

I've sort of finished an art piece that's been sitting on my desk for months, and I'm in the middle of converting an XL men's buttondown shirt into a shirtdress. The sleeves are tripping me up, big time. I'll try to post a picture of it when it's finished. (I should have taken a "before" shot... oh well.)

Hey, lookit me! I finally did something and started up a shop on etsy. Right now there is, um, just one item up there. But I put up a temporary-ish banner and filled out all of the other info, so I should be good to go, once I'm at home during daylight hours and can take better photos... Which might not be until Thanksgiving. (Mornings are off-limits; I can barely get my ass out of bed, showered, dressed and out the door before 9:30 as it is.)

Also, it looks like the two 2 GB Kingston SD cards I bought for way cheap do work. I bought them in prep of going to Belize without my laptop (and without the ability to dump all of the images off my camera every night).

Edited to add: Now there's 7 items for sale! Go shop!

Ok. I finally uploaded my photos from Halloween weekend. Here's my deer costume. I was alternately a revenge-seeking deer (i.e. a deer hunter, ha ha):



...and an injured (see shotgunned chest) and subsequently suicidal deer:



Yeah, I didn't win any prizes this year. The gun was fun, though.

And, I actually finished the top of my decade quilt! Here it is.



It's meant to be an adult-sized quilt; see the scissors for scale. And it's a little rough around the edges, which will disappear once I do the finishing work. I have a couple of flannel sheets I'll use as both the other side of the quilt and the batting. (When I started this, years ago, my plan was to make kind of a light blanket thing instead of a heavy quilt.)

So that's what I've been doing instead of working or getting freelance jobs... Though I only worked about six hours on this during the last week. That's how much work had been done on this already. Damn.

Warning: This post really could have been multiple Twitters, but I don't want to overload their system.

I'm getting into an unemployed groove over here. Get out of bed at 9:15 or so, eat breakfast in front of the computer, do some job search stuff, eat lunch, then work on refinishing my table (see below) until I can't, read crap online and work on other minor projects, play Turok, make dinner, eat with radio, then upstairs for TV/Turok/more computer time, or out for singing/a show/etc. In bed by midnight. That's the semi-productive life I've been leading.

For lunch yesterday I made an egg sandwich, a mug of tea, and a glass of watered-down unsweetened organic cranberry juice, to which I accidentally added a generous dose of milk. Normally I stop myself before actually pouring the milk into the wrong container, but this time I just filled my glass of juice to the brim with creamy goodness. I might be starting to lose it.

Yesterday was also day two of my furniture stripping project. I'm working on a rough-hewn-looking coffee table that I bought for $20 via Craigslist. It appears to be a knock-off of a fancier, pedigreed table that Pbup had (and probably still has). I'm using a water-soluble stripper, which means it doesn't work all that well, but I don't need to use a ventilator.I also have to scrub the stuff off, hard, so I also get exercise, kind of.

If you've ever wondered where everyone who doesn't work a regular 9-to-5 job goes during the day, I can tell you: WalMart. Twice I've had to go to the dreaded WalMart to get more supplies; the second time, I rode my bike there, and with my messed-up hair and work clothes, I fit right in. I didn't even bother unrolling my right pant leg. I still hate it in there, and their selection is shit, but it is about a mile and a half closer to my house than Foster-Farrar. And if I can't justify going to the cheapest possible store while I'm unemployed, when can I justify it?

I've been reading about salary requirements, and how to handle requests for them, and I just want to point out that the word salary is really weird. If you see it used frequently, it ceases to have any meaning. Salary. Salary salary salary. It's like a salad, and celery, together. I feel it would be better if it were spelled salery.

Doing all of these little projects, and cooking real food, is time-consuming. And I am starting to feel stressed about my lack of income. I am torn between wanting to continue enjoying myself (while still looking for work) and just taking any job at all in order to stretch out my severance pay for as long as I can. And by "any job at all" I mean soul-withering work like temping and data entry. But jeez, I don't really need to be that person, do I? I haven't had to do that kind of work for 12 years. Universe, please give me permission to not be that person. I will repay you by doing the crafty things I've been putting off: finishing my quilt (started, oh, 4 years ago or so) and completing the new scarves and opening an Etsy shop and writing the pitch for that magazine. Amen.

Hey! You need some new things, don't you? I mean seriously, just look at yourself. So get on down to Dandie in the Underworld, just behind Osaka, and buy some new things. Perhaps one of these necklaces would do the trick.






Yes, I made them. Yes, they are only $10. Yes, the price is so low that it is hard to believe. But it is true.

I've joined Twitter. If you want to keep tabs on me, let me know and I'll invite you or whatever I need to do. It's fun! (If you don't know what Twitter is, there's this great site called "Google" you might want to look into it.)

Also, I got my first check from the art-o-mat people! The modest check came with an Activity Report listing how many pieces I've sold and where. I sold 10 at a museum in Sacramento CA, 5 at Faces (step it up, local people!), 5 at a museum in North Carolina, 5 at a museum in Charleston S.C., and 10 pieces at the Whitney. I repeat: I sold 10 pieces of my artwork at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Awesome. The art-o-mat people asked for 50 more pieces to sell. I think I'd be able to finish them within three years, this time around...

I went to the ICA in Boston on Saturday. The museum has just opened in a new location and building, and the design has some nice features: I like the huge glass elevator, and the Mediateque, a cantilevered room on the fourth story with a glass wall tilting downward, so that all you see is water when you look out the window. A bit hard to describe.

The art was okay. Some good stuff, but it was all on one not-huge floor, and the quantity didn't seem like enough for $12 admission. We did not, however, spend any time in the "Mediatheque" browsing through their digital video art archives, which would have been fun. My favorite piece was this: We walked into a darkened room -- there were a number of these scattered around, usually with some video installation playing inside, but this one just had a large rectangle of orange on the wall, and a museum guard standing next to it. The orange seemed to be slightly glowing. I went right up to it, almost touching the wall but keeping my hand a couple inches away so as to not upset the guard. The rectangle appeared to be painted directly onto the wall; it wasn't being projected, because my hand made no shadow. Was the paint itself glowing? I wondered that out loud, and the guard said, "Actually, it's --" and she stuck her hand INTO THE RECTANGLE. I actually, literally gasped, and said, "You just blew my mind!" The rectangle was an opening to a seamless little room, that was somehow illuminated completely evenly. It was incredible, funny, awe-some. All good things for art to be.

Speaking of art (of the much-less-ambitious variety), my one-of-a-kind mini-watercolor blocks are now in the Northampton art-o-mat! Stop on by and take a look, it's still in the lobby of Faces. Half the money goes to a good cause (supporting art in the schools or some such) so go and vend a piece of my very soul. Cheap!