Power Hours

My waitressing job isn't tough. It's even pretty fulfilling and good for my social development. It's also a compressed three hour (sometimes a little longer) shift, which is so much better than running around or standing for an 8-hour shift. On a slow day, I still pull $50.

But damn, it drains physically like I ran a marathon. Not quite tired enough to nap, but not really awake enough to do more than vegetate with Netflix or Hulu. At best, I might sit up to scribble down notes on what I'd like to do when I have more energy.

Well, last night, I printed off and added borders to another 100 business cards. That took about two and a half hours so it wasn't too time-consuming. It was pretty much the slow wait of them printing then folding and perforating, followed by sorting border colors, rolling on tape, cutting excess, rinse repeat. I like the sort of mindlessness of it because it gives me room to daydream or just quiet my thoughts, sort of meditative.

Tomorrow, I'm going to peruse website layouts, pick those out, pick HTML colors (they'll match my business cards; a mix of cream, warm browns, and a dusty purple accent), organize photos, then let Joe do his magic. I was only putting that off until I could test print the business cards, make color adjustments, then decide how the site colors would play into that.

Writing might happen, but really, I'm anxious to finish Totem. Writing is something more natural to step away from but art seems to have a window for whether it will be finished or I'll get distracted by a shinier visual desire.

I'll be ordering a doll base soon, with the hopes of customizing her to look like one of my female characters. It's difficult to find the right male doll parts. They tend to be generic, boyish (rather than masculine adult), and limited, which is why it's much more tempting to customize a female. Now, Iplehouse, one of my absolute favorite BJD manufacturers, sells the most amazing male forms, but I'm not quite in a place where I could display, protect or maintain such expensive dolls so that option is not a short-term goal. If I had the room for a big display cabinet and even more to spend on the base bodies, let alone outfitting them, I'd have two foot tall versions of at least a few of my characters, but for now, I can dream. It's a much higher priority to juggle inexpensive hobbies with my career ambitions than it is to blow every cent on showstopper pieces.

Of course, there's crochet too. I'm still waiting on a few yarn colors to come in the mail so that's on hold until then too. I tend to buy inexpensive but ridiculously soft milk cotton yarn from overseas. Unless I can hit a yarn sale locally, most US companies charge more for less impressive yarn. As much as I love to support local businesses, especially since I'm leery of supporting countries where labor laws are inhumane, yarn is one of those supplies that goes fast and takes a lot for anything but small projects, so it's just as distasteful to spend more for less quality and yardage. Yarn production isn't one of those things that even needs heavy manual labor to produce, just someone to inspect and fix the machines that spin, color and label yarn.

Time to stare at some show I'm only half watching for now. Much to choose from but I have a good idea where to focus my priorities once I've rested.

It Was a Cold and Rainy Morning...

Despite my resolve to never start a story with such a cliché, in reality, days don't escape the mundane quite so neatly. We all got up and donned our shirts for the Spirit Walk for the boys' school. My sister had to work, but she still wore her shirt to work. After dropping the boys off, I came home and got ready then headed back up there.

The rain came and went... And came and went again over the course of the walk. I let Dameon go off on his own as usual, but Marcus hung back with me and we talked about video games and having to pee. My bladder started feeling heavy into the end of the first lap, but Marcus felt it into the third and we constantly debated ducking into a restaurant or running home for the bathroom. Luckily, sweating made the urge less urgent and we finished the walk. Being cold and still bladder-heavy, I kissed the boys and told them I'd be back to pick them up later. The kids were eating popcorn and drinking slushies, but I was hyper-focused on hitting a bathroom.

Took me a while to thaw out once I got back, but hot coffee and scrambled eggs helped. After making a beeline for the toilet, of course. Still have to walk again, but I'm enjoying some relaxation time.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to give the new tablet a whirl. The effort it would take to set it up is minimal but between antihistamines to calm the allergy symptoms and all of the running around this week, I'm just happy to keep diving back into bed before passing out.

I have found some good deals on printing my work onto big tapestries at least. I'd like to work on some new drawings to use for them, although the greyscale one that I use as a cover backdrop on social media might be one of them. I'm always looking into ways to dress up my future ComicCon booth, looking at ways to expand my brand. My workload in the social and temp arena will be lesser, giving me more time to rest and create. Once the boys are out of school for the summer, that is especially true.

Hoping to pick up on blog ideas and things to share soon, but rest and health are in order. I'm not unique in the respect that while I do have some downtime creatively, I tend to obsessively binge once I get going. The ideas have been pouring in, along with the piles of scrap paper containing their hasty semi-permanence, so there will be no staring contests with the always-blinking cursor nor the pathetic mini-triumphs of telling the cursor 'you blinked' once I get to it. Just periods of zoning out with passive mental reminders wondering how long it's been since I've eaten or used the bathroom. Liquids only work as a timer if you don't forget they're there when caught up in the moment.

But first, rest. Creative marathons await!

Weekend Warrior?

I have done nothing since 2019 switched over, though not for lack of wanting to. Previous posts already saying as much, I had a big dental surgery on the first of the year and today was my first day without painkillers. Those that made me extremely drowsy, by the way, so I was semi-functional having cut myself off today. Spent a few days gaming, although I can't rightly remember much about what I played, but that's fine too. I always game in a half-focused state...

Tomorrow isn't looking better for it. I haven't slept well since the surgery and if I end up sleeping a ton tomorrow, I'll be happy. Again, Mondays tend to be my 'let's kick ass' start-up days so why not aim for that to start hitting the keys in earnest?

I'm happy that I'm healing without complications so far. I still have to be wary of dry socket for the next few days, but should be out of the water by mid-week. The clotting looks embedded but I'm not taking chances. 

I guess I'll update again Monday night, see where that day ended up. For now, much needed rest! Also have a birthday present to make this week for my friend Liz's daughter Ana. Crochet is one of those efforts I can usually swing no matter how I feel (barring stomach flu but let's not jynx it).