But though there are caveats galore/You've only got to love him more--/And you do/You really do

Do you ever feel like you are the recipient of more acts of kindness than you give? I do, sometimes. Perhaps I've just been lucky to encounter really fantastic people along the way in my life. And I suppose the argument could be made that I am at least giving out a little something good to be getting it back tenfold.

It's the little and big things. Sometimes it's the little things that mean the most. I remind myself of that when I've hesitated, for whatever reason, to give someone a genuine compliment. It's often shyness that stops me, but I've pledged to correct that and do it anyway. Who knows -- a kind word from me could turn someone's day around. My day has certainly been turned around by a bit of warmth from a friend or a stranger.

Kindness is about so many different things. I am one lucky woman to be graced with love and kindness in my life. So much so that I think I'm getting more than my share. But I realize that's ridiculous and I'd never turn away kindness or love. And I suggest you don't either.

When you sleep/I will creep/Into your thoughts/Like a bad debt/That you can't pay/Take the easy way/And give in

Oh dear, I've been terribly negligent. Believe me, each Sunday when I read my Shiny Stats report, I feel very guilty as the numbers (very small to begin with) drop. In fact, this past Sunday I couldn't even bear to look at the report. Come back, come back! Bring some friends, some enemies, some strangers.

Let's face it, we all knew I'd never keep up with the daily asserverations posts. It was a noble thought, I contend, and I did do it long enough to change my thinking to allow me to see the good things in every day, even in bad days. In the last few weeks, I've had some bad days. I've felt rather despondent about ever finding a job, let alone a job I won't hate. I've been sad about if I do get a job I will lose the freedom of controlling my own time, even in a small way, and thus giving up a portion of the things that do make me happy. While having one of those particular meltdowns, I was stopped by a county municipality cop and nearly given a ticket for neither wearing a seat belt nor being able to produce my insurance card (I wasn't wearing the seat belt and my insurance card was in a stupid place -- e.g. crumbled into a ball in the bottom of my purse). The tears that were already flowing from the meltdown apparently garnered enough sympathy from the cop to let me go with a warning. I swear I wasn't trying, but hey, if it worked, it certainly wasn't a good time to add yet another stupid expense to my non-working day, and I was grateful. Thank you, officer, for taking pity on this mascara-streaked woman.

On a very positive front, I have regained a bit of my jewelry making mojo. After that special request for Valentine's Day, I realized that I got really happy while making the pieces; it was time to pull out the supplies and get myself moving again. I've been a little slow at it, but things are moving along. Most exciting was when I finally got some items listed in my Etsy.com store. Literally minutes after posting, I got an order for one of my necklaces. It was terribly exciting. Three more sales followed and I was on a roll. Here's a photo of the various pendants I made last week. I'm calling them 'shards and artifacts.'


I'm avoiding making more stuff now by writing this, but I wanted to get something on the blog and stop putting it off yet again. More jewelry pieces by the end of the day, I promise!

Yesterday was the 13th anniversary of my union with the ginormous, lovable entity known as Steve Pick. How is that possible? Thirteen frakking years! They've passed in a happy flash. Considering we've known each other for 27 years, I think we made the right decision.

Let's see, what else...Oh yes! It's too late now, but you should have seen Coraline in 3-D. It was a fabulous movie; touching and scary and exciting and, importantly, absolutely gorgeous. The 3-D was amazing. I flinched a couple times and even had to stop myself from reaching out and trying to touch the funny little mice that appeared to be a foot or so in front of me. It was so good and so engrossing that I didn't even mind the little kid getting a play by play from her guardian in the row in front of us. And, let me assure you, that's a BIG barrier for me to get beyond.

I'm enjoying Twitter lately, though I am continuing to ruminate on the mystery that is the instant rapport between celebrities. Apparently if you have ever shown up on a TV or movie screen, you have an instant bond with someone who has done the same. They are simpatico, I suppose. Their tweets can only be understood by someone else who has gone through the experience of being [moderately] rich and [moderately] famous. It's very odd.

All right, the fast food will be here soon (still ecstatic to be able to enjoy eating after the week of stomach bug!) and I need to get to work on other things. *kisses*

Sick, sick, sick/Don't resist

That's Mr. Baby, stretching that leg out and showing me his adorable, ginormous paw.

The week started well. Mondays are always good because it's radio show time and I love doing my show. I was nervous knowing I had an interview in the afternoon, but it was a normal amount of nerves, nothing debilitating.

Time for the interview rolled around fast enough and I headed out. Luckily the office was only five minutes from home. The interview seemed to go great and I'm pretty certain I aced the aptitude test. Now, as they're a staffing company, I just have to wait for something to come up. Let's hope it's soon.

Tuesday dawned with perfect weather. I ran out for errands just before lunch and reveled in the nearly 70F weather. It shouldn't be that nice in February, but you won't hear me complaining. Once I got home, though, I felt strangely warm and felt a little odd. And damn if I didn't have a fever; low grade, but enough to make me feel...off. More tired than usual, I went to bed before 10:30p but woke around midnight knowing something was wrong. Six hours later and my gastro-intestinal system had completely purged itself of anything left inside me. I am sparing you many, many gory details of my miserable night. Suffice it to say there was much moaning, and not the good kind. By 6am my stomach was empty and I felt a teeny bit better but things were most definitely not right. By midday on Wednesday, my fever was up to 101.8, the highest I've had in years. Basically I spent my day huddled on the couch wrapped in a down comforter, sipping at flat Coca-Cola. The only good thing was that I slept for a full nine hours on Wednesday night. That never happens.

Today has been much, much better. My stomach is still quite delicate and I thought that I had ruined things a bit after eating a bagel with cream cheese, and I'm still quite sure things are yet right, but the fever is way down and I feel so much better. On the job front, I got a very mysterious call in response to a Craigslist post I answered. A young woman with a very cute, posh Brit accent asked me some preliminary questions and informed me I'd only get another call if they wanted to interview me. Who knows what will come of that.

In another, very nice development, I got to flex my jewelry making muscles today. But I'll keep that quiet until after Valentine's Day so as not to spoil anyone's surprise.

So, I sit here, my stomach gurgling unpleasantly. Please, no more.

In my mind I'm drowning butterflies/broken dreams and alibis/that's fine.

Whoa, I've let some days go by but it's not because I had nothing to be grateful/thankful/happy about. Au contraire; and apparently I was so happy I forgot about blogging until now. Believe it or don't, but it's the truth.

Friday was a lovely day all around. Fantastic conversations, Steve had the day off, the weather was bright and sunny and, to top it off, a new (and A+) episode of Battlestar Galactica. I suppose I should give some trenchant summary here, but I don't feels it right at this moment (thank you, Nessa). Soon, I promise.

Saturday greeted us with gorgeously warm and sunny weather. I could smell spring in the air though I know it's silly to hope the cold weather is gone for the season. I woke up hoping for some thrift store mojo and since Steve didn't work till late, he accompanied me to Vincent DePaul's and Goodwill where I did find two versions of what I was looking for - small glass tumblers for wine drinking. Unfortunately that's where my mojo ended as I found nothing else. A quick trip to the vet with Lydia and I was home to get ready for Dana and Roy coming over to watch the last two BSG episodes, which basically meant making tiramisu, cleaning up a bit and spending a good deal of time chatting with my Scottish Correspondent. The evening was lots of fun, with pizza and a rather large amount of pinot noir being consumed. And before we knew it, it was 1am and R&D headed home and Steve and I took Foxy Brown out for a walk. I didn't wear a coat. It was nearly 1:30a in February and I went out without a coat. Heaven.

I ended up not going to sleep until 3am so when I awoke before 8am I was a little unhappy, but I got up anyway because I knew sleep was over for me. A couple hours later I got a text from Allison alerting me to a nearby estate sale and we headed out soon after. Even though it was sunny today, I was disappointed to find that the temperature had dropped quite a bit since the wee hours. I knew it was asking too much (though word is we can expect 6oF tomorrow...). The estate sale was in a corner storefront and when we stepped inside were immediately assaulted by a strong mildew smell. I breezed through the bric a brac, finding the prices too high, but then I poked around some random piles of clothing and linens upstairs until I found a pretty gorgeous vintage cotton bedspread.

When I put it down on the floor, Foxy Brown inexplicably went crazy, circling and circling, digging, and finally, as you can see, rolling around hysterically with a crazed look in her eyes. By the way, the embroidery on bedspread is done in a thick, punch-embroidery style. I think it's very Anthropologie.

As I attempted to pick up the spread, Foxy planted herself squarely and for the first time ever, posed for a picture for me, holding perfectly still.


I found a couple more items and then we escaped from the mold and mildew - a couple books (vintage BSG novelization!) and a pair of copper enamel earrings that I intend to make into pendants.




An afternoon spent chatting and finishing up preparations for tomorrow's edition of Emotional Rescue, led to a viewing of the previous night's Saturday Night Live, which was not a good episode save a very few bits and a fabulous performance by TV on the Radio. And if you missed it, here's the second song they did, the slightly chaotic, but mesmerizing "Dancing Choose."



Tomorrow afternoon I have a job interview. Yikes.

It's an asserveration, all right

Well, I got a call today from a potential, sort of, employer. While not a response to any job I actually applied for, it was a response to my resume being posted on Monster.com. The sort of part is that it's a staffing company. I know I tend to be fooled by overly positive seeming interviews, but this woman seemed ready to send me on a job. I suppose I will know more by Monday, after my interview with her.

So, that was a good thing. And Skype, while not as good as Google voice chat, was my friend today.

I fell in to a burning ring of fire/I went down down down and the flames went higher

Oh yes, it's been a couple of daya. There was nothing good about Monday (well, that's not entirely true, but I'll get to that) and I was in no mood to try to wrench a happy thought out of my mope. Because I was impetuous and mentioned here, and to friends, that I submitted some pieces for an art show, it was perhaps more painful when I found out I didn't get in. So, my embarrassment is very public and that just made it feel a little worse. Pile on top of this the fact that the organizers didn't actually bother to inform me of receipt of my submission nor my exclusion from the show (they just posted the accepted artists on the website. contrary to their call for art in which they specified they would contact prospective participants by a certain date). And on Monday morning, Steve asked me to redouble my job search efforts before we go broke.

So, it was quite a day. Unemployed and a failed artist. *sigh* I spent a lot of time crying. I think I got dehydrated. I went through about 20 tissues. It was a hoot.

The bright spot was that I have friends and loved ones (wait, aren't those the same thing?) who don't judge me based on my failures or successes but who continue to support and encourage me no matter what (well, I won't actually test that 'no matter what' part, or at least I don't intend to). Yesterday was much better. More friends, more support and the kind of chat with the Scottish Correspondent that can steer the tenor of the day in a more blissful direction.

In the meantime, I've applied for a dozen or so, maybe more, jobs ranging from something to do with pets in Illinois to temp agencies to a 'jack of all trades' posting that I think is for some sort of religious publication (only found this out after the fact) to regular secretarial gigs. If I throw enough resumes out there, will something stick?

Estate Sale/It's a Good Day

I suppose I should be slightly ashamed that today was the first day I seriously left the house since Monday morning. Rather, I consider myself lucky. Normally, I would have gone somewhere during the week, but I did have the excuse of a car covered in snow and surrounded by sadly non-melting snow. Even today I had a touch of trouble getting Schug (yes, my car is named Schug) out of my parking space. Here's a photo of Schug from earlier this week.


And you can see that the sun basically never get to our side of street. So that today, even after two days of basically 50 degree weather, we are still covered in snow while across the street all is nearly melted and gone.


At any rate, I was happy to be out and about today, first to an estate sale in Brentwood that looked promising. It was a teeny, crowded house (um, how about telling the person who bought the GIANT refrigerator that they have to wait until the sale is over to pick up the thing?) and I wish I'd had more opportunity to check out the jewelry, but I managed to snag some good stuff. First stop, the kitchen where I pawed through one of my favorite kitchen standards: the container full of random gadgets, implements and knives. I snatched this right away, despite the fact that I really don't know what it is.

This vintage chopper was irresistible. Eat yer heart out Pampered Chef. A few other odds and ends later, and I moved out of the kitchen. I snatched this pristine American Tourister train case and was thrilled to see the tray and mirror still intact inside.




In a bedroom I was immediately drawn to a black leather coat (all right, I have a thing for vintage coats), but I didn't think there'd be a chance that it would be a ladies coat and vintage, as that's a rare find. Wonder of wonders, it was vintage, it was a ladies and it fit me. This doesn't give the whole picture, but it's a little longer than mid-thigh, a nice soft and thick leather and again has those handy high slits on the side to make it comfy in the car. And check out the close up of the vintage Wilsons label.




As if this wasn't enough, on the floor of the other bedroom's closet I spotted a tangle of shoes that looked tantalizingly good. I could hardly believe it when I pulled them out and saw that they were so good.

I believe these were custom made, judging from handwritten lettering on the inside and the nature of the labeling on the insole. Here's a close up of the medallion adorning the bottom pair.

Oh, and they fit me.


As if that all wasn't enough to make it a good day, we headed over to Euclid Records to hear Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple of the dB's play a set. While there I got to partake of some delicious home made Indian food hand delivered by Patrick Hawley (thank you Patrick!) and visit with some friends I don't get to see very often.

Then, once we were home, I was confronted with this image.

Lydia claiming her spot atop the clean laundry. Is that some kind of cute face or what? I think she looks like a lemur here.