summing up
it's has been awhile and much has happened. this will be a long post.

ken's last day of classes is this friday! 8^) and his professors have given him an extra week to work on his portfolio. i'm really happy that he's coming home. he's shown me some of this work-he's really progressed and is really prodding buttock in his classes. he's the best one there and that's not just a biased opinion 'cuz i'm dating him: he won an award for being the most technically skilled in his class and is impressing the heck out of the professors. 8^) still, he's worried about being able to find a job. i believe in him, though. i have yet to see him flop on a job interview. he's the most determined and goal-oriented person i've ever known.

thing is, the last weekend of july, his parents and his uncle bub are going down to help him move out just like they did when he moved in. i tagged along then and i'd like to tag along now, but i don't think his parents will want to pay for a hotel room for me. not that i blame them; i was a little embarrassed that they did that last time. still, i want to help. we'll see how that goes. i'm afraid that i may have invited myself along and i've seen what happens when folks do that...

i've missed him terribly and i'm glad he's finally coming home!

he's not the only one coming home! one of my best-est friends, jo, has been in stuttgart, germany for the past year studing the language and culture. she's been having fun and trying to stay single (i'm still proud of her to trying her darnest to stick to this) but it's time to come home! she'll have to go back to UK at Lawrence, but i at least want time to visit, just hang out and go over the Radiant speech with her.
come home safe, jo!

now, to mom.
she hasn't moved off or anything but for my mother, when it rains, it pours. first, she has a chemical imbalance which results in being bi-polar. only mom doesn't get too manic. she just gets normal. she mostly gets the depressive side of it. i just don't know what to do sometimes with this. first, mom usually doesn't tell folks how she feels. my grandmother instilled on her impression that she shouldn't show her emotions and pain, so they build up inside her to the breaking point.
so, if mom finally tells that she's feeling sad, sick or hurt, you know she's really sick or hurt. her tolerance for pain is that high, but she does feel and can only take so much.

a few years ago, she got off disability, went to school to become a CNA and got a full-time job at a nursing home. now, she's 30 years older than me and i'm 28 now. she's not an old fogey but her job does but stress on both body and emotional well-being (and we already know what shape poor mom's emotions are in.) but i am proud of her for trying. she felt called to help those less fortunate than she. she loves looking after the folks who live there, it's her co-workers, her fellow CNAs that she has trouble getting along with. they are younger and don't want to work. they dump all the responsibilities on mom and watch tv. >8^(
lots of times mom will get a whole hall to herself.
they won't fire anyone because they are so short-handed. and not for a moment does anyone think that mom can't cope or deal with it. mostly she can, she's the strongest person i know, but not all the time! she' been getting more and more tired/exhausted lately. and her co-workers don't understand that it's not the type of tired where after a bunch of sleep she'll be fine again.
she finally went onto part-time hours and has re-applied to disability. it's starting to get to her.
she has been denied on disability. but is appealing. if she is denied again, i don't know what to do. neither does she. she just doesn't want to lose the house in weiner or worse, her cats.
one a happier note, she has reconnected with larry, an old childhood friend. she saw him when she went to visit her sister in dallas and they have been exchanging e-mails. which is good, but unfortunately her computer gave out. so she comes to borrow "mine," (techinically it's ken's. i'm borrowing it because my modem is out.)

prayers for mom would be appreiciated and very helpful.

on the job front (warning: rant alert!)
we're not happy at douglas, no precious, not at all! i've been there a little over 3 years and i've relized how naive i've been. i'm not a designer to them, i'm a secretary with extra skills; i'm the office gopher, always sent to run errands. i didn't get a degree for this! i've learned the hard way that it's sucks working for a family-owned business unless you are a member of said family.
most of the cool projects get done out of house and i'm not even consulted. >8^(
i feel like my design skills have atrophied.

i'm trying to get hired on over at Graphix, where i did my internship. at least i'd been doing design work. 9.9
the thing is i'm worried about insurance. yeah, i know cindy can't afford to get my all the benefits i get here at douglas, but i don't want to stay someplace where i'll be miserable just to keep benefits. after all, i'm am artist as well as a designer. i don't want to just settle for the safe thing when i can take a risky chance and maybe do something that would make me much happier in life.

so, i'm doing some free-lance work at Graphix as soon as i get off for the day as douglas. that means about 1-3 hours extra work. no wonder i'm tired now!

this past couple of weeks at douglas really sucked! they had me in the back warehouse, with no a/c, peeling labels off of racks that were going to be taken down and sent to the new expanded warehouse in conway. i got a BFA for this crap! well, in the middle of that, they decided about 5pm one day that i was going to the warehouse in conway to meet with susie about a design project. yes! design work! finally.
of course, they coulda told me about going down there earlier! *grrrrr!*

there are some good things there. t and b have always been nice, but sometimes i just can't wait until the day i can pack up my office and hum "Take this job and shove it" or "hit the road, jack" under my breath.
but for this week at least, i'm designing again. i don't plan on it lasting however.
i am going to enjoy working in my office with the a/c.
ok, enough ranting about that.

in other news...
*i've developed a fasicination with bento boxes over the past month. i have 3! now i just need a rice cooker so i can start making some decent food to put in them. i just love the idea of cute little lunch boxes.

*a new comic shop, Galaxy Comics & Games, has opened! it's where Legends used to be behind the pizza inn on Caraway, so if you know Jonesboro, AR, go check it out! i even designed a flyer, pro bono, for them.they loved it. i'm so happy!
the talented stan kortan, fellow ASU alum designed the logo.

*i have finally broke down and got a livejournal. it's a sketchblog, so the real-life stuff will stay here. and that means, i'm drawing more! still just sketches, but i am working on the relaunch of blue canary! i'm excited! i just need to get my butt in gear and just draw.

*i got the latest harry potter! yes, i'm a book geek as well as an art geek. c and i went to the midnight launch at books.a.couple (as jo calls it,) and who did i bump into? hillary creech, nee keller. it was a blast catching up with her. she has photos of the HBP release party on her lj!

i had forgotten how much fun i had hanging out with her and beth and the others during the school play rehearsals.
and speaking of beth, i bumped into her a few months ago. 8^) that reminds me, i need to contact her and see if she's up for hanging out at coffee shop or something (i'm so wild, can you tell?)
and for awhile i thought i had permenantly lost touch with the gang, grown apart etc. it's good to be wrong sometimes.

however, as cool as it was to hang with hillary and her friends at the HBP launch, a total fanboy loser otaku would not leave us alone that night! he was a creepy one, though not as bad creepy and icky as the doofus who got kicked of the herald staff whose name i will not mention. yuck. sounds like hill's friend, the hygiene fairy could've been useful here. if that wouldn't make him go away, nuthing would. 6^)P LOL

*over the past year, ken has gotten me hooked on itunes and mp3s. i've gone nuts. 9.63 Gigs of music. *sigh* i just wish i had an ipod now. he's been collecting them from his classmates and sharing them with me too. plus jo, will send one or two every now and then from germany. gotta love my music.

*last but not least, c and i went to a bead show in memphis this last sunday. i got a good haul!
yup, making jewelry is a hobby of mine. i'm proud of myself for back in may, i completed my first successful 2-strand piece: a bracelet with rainbow flourite chips and assorted silver beads. Ta-Da!


i've already turned the strand multi-toned carnelian beads i got sunday into a necklace (i've had a silver pendant/bead that i've been struggling to find the right beads to go with it.) the bead has some chinese characters on it, but i can't read it and it's hard to make out in the photo. but i love how it turned out.


i also got:
2 strands of rainbow moonstone, both about 4mm round
2 strands of garnet (one is 3-4mm round, the other is little rectangles
1 silk cord
1 stone pendant and 4 stone ending beads
1 strand of ceramic maneki nekos beads for alice (she loves the good luck kitties!)
and
some random silver beads and findings including 2 silver toggle clasps and such.
i'll post the finished products as i complete them.

i've discovered over my years of fooling around with beads that i like making pieces with real semi-precious stones and silver. i can make do with glass and pewter, but don't get me near that plated stuff.
i'm not too fond of yellow gold. it's so overdone.
i like silver. it's affordable, has a nice, warm glow amoung the coolness of the color and, if need by i can kill werewolves with it. 6^)P

the bead show overall was cool and c was very helpful as the voice of reason, ("kit your budget is $$, if you get that, you'll have spent half of it.") we read HBP each other and just had fun. 8^) in fact, i had finished the book the night before and she just finished it yesterday. we exchanged much text messaging about the book.

c did find a cute cresent moon made of mother of pearl that i'll try to make into a piece for her, most likely a necklace.