*waves*
It’s the end of the term next week and I have 2 big assignments to write so sadly the writing (while still happening) is getting less time.
BUT! I got Google Docs on my phone so I can write on my lunchbreak. Maybe. Or yanno, late at night when I can’t sleep like last week.
Things are happening in the Valentine’s Day story and the Drunken Calling story as well.
^_^
We are now in week 5 of term 1 of my course.
The whole thing is 4 terms, in 2 semesters, with 2 weeks holidays between term 1 & 2 and 3 weeks holiday between the 2 semester. Each term is 8 weeks and this time I have my 2 week break at the same time as the kids have theirs. Later in the year, not so much.
On Monday we have Design. There are too many of use for the Mac labs so they split us in two groups, Graphic Design and Fashion Design. Unsurprisingly I picked Fashion Design.
On Tuesday we have what they call ‘Intermedia’. We made a soft cover journal and learned how to do drypoint (scratches on plastic that is then inked and put onto paper in a press). We had to do a playing card from Game of Thrones as a practice and the main assignment is to Photoshop ourselves into a (A3) scene from LoTR or GoT or Vikings or Outlander, then drypoint and print.
On Wednesday we have drawing and have become rather acquainted with the class skeleton, Flexi Fred.
On Thursday we have Art History and as part of that class we went for an overnight trip to the local Marae where we did some scrimshaw (inked etchings on bone) and visited a carved church.
On Friday I spend the day with my wife. ^_^
Here some pics of my work so far! Continue reading
I have enrolled for a Certificate of Art and Design through a local tertiary education provider (called UCOL, which stands for Universal College of Learning).
I was intent on looking for a job but then I found this and since I’m a big chicken and studying is (only vaguely) less scary that the whole job seeking process… (and at the moment, unless you are a nurse, teacher or manager, you’re out of luck).
I have done university before. Yanno, 20 years ago, when I finished high school… God I feel old. I never did all that well with studies, I have half a Masters degree in English from my university in France, I suck at essays, the translation class is the one that always saved my bacon.
This morning in the car I had a minor freak out.
I can’t do this. I suck at studying. I suck at essays. I’m 38, not 23 who am I kidding with this arts stuff?
Of course my wife will tell me I’m being silly and I’ll be fine. She’s probably right.
But it’s still scary.
At least I won’t be alone, a friend of mine enrolled to do the same course.
Finished my first week at work.
Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm.
It’d been so long since I’d worked a full day, I’m exhausted. I know we’ll get used to the way things are now, but it will take some time.
I take Miss11 to school and my wife takes the other 3 to their primary school in the morning.
Yesterday we let the kids have a water fight outside, the weather was so nice, then they put up the Christmas tree before we went to the beach with my boss for fish and chips. A lot of fun was had by all.
Monday is the day we have with just us.
There isn’t a cloud in the sky.
I wish my lower back didn’t hurt so bad!!
Last Tuesday my wife and I walked past the sex shop that opened a couple of weeks ago and saw they were looking for a store manager/admin person.
I sent my CV in on Wednesday night and the next morning got a call to come in for an interview that afternoon.
I went to my interview at 4.30pm on Thursday, slightly freaking out and wearing a dress.
Me, a DRESS!
I don’t ever wear dresses but that morning in the shower, the universe told me to wear a dress. It was a bad idea, Richie McCaw retired from all rugby that day, and as much as I was not surprised by the announcement, I was not ready. I am not ready for him to not be playing but that is a whole other post that I may or may not write.
Also, my back started hurting like crazy that day (I spent most of Sunday lying on the floor on my back not moving because of labour-type pain in my lower back).
Anyway, about an hour into the interview I was offered the job, because, my new boss said, I have a certain earth mother quality and was grounding him.
I spent all weekend freaking out about the job thing, because it’d been so long and I have no idea what I’m doing and OMG YOU GUYS I HAVE A JOB!!!
To put it into perspective, the last time I had a paying job (as opposed to volunteer work which I did for a couple of years a couple of years ago) was 2003 and I was getting paid about $9 an hour after tax… My last day was Friday 31 October 2003; two weeks later we moved to France; I was 25 weeks pregnant with Miss nearly 12.
On Monday I had a day of unpaid training. Today was my first official day and it was ok.
I even sold stuff.
The shop made the front page of the local paper because some people are in a huff about the kind of shop it is.
Oh yeah.
I’m the store manager of our town’s only sex shop.
^_^
and my wife’s and my son’s.
We got both of them a fluffy bunny for their (early) birthday.
Bunny McQueen
Thomas or Mr Fluffy Bum (there’s debate on the actual name)
Our new fluffy boys!
My wife insisted she buy me the teeny tiny baby axolotl I kept looking at every time we went in the pet shop…
HE’S SO DAMN CUTE!! AND TINY!!
I sat there this morning and started editing an excerpt from a story I’m writing.
Three paragraphs into it, I suddenly stopped and wondered, ‘What’s the point?’
I couldn’t find an answer.
It’s not a fun place in my brain at the moment, I feel like a huge failure as a mum, as a person. My wife keeps telling me I’m awesome but I really really can’t see it.
[I’m sure I was going to expand on this but we went out and I lost my ‘woe is me’ mojo…]
Anyway, we went to knitting group, I made a flower (ran out of wool for the last petal!!) for that tea cosy I’m making for my friend Sara. Then I found out a player I like made it onto the Rugby World Cup team, had a *squeee* and got myself dirty looks from some of the ladies at knitting group (oops!)…
Then we went for lunch and home where my brain was a douche again. Took the kids to netball after school, last game of the year, had to chat with my ex-husband who was sitting on the other side of Miss11 while Mr7 was playing for his team. My wife was on another court watching Miss8 play her game. ^_^
Miss 11’s team is in the final for their grade on Saturday. It’s very exciting.
Oh and of course now Open Office won’t open. Again. I’ll have to reboot my laptop. Again. It’s the second time in as many days.
Not like I need to fix up my CV to apply for that job or anything…
/rant
but it still beats staring at the wall, right?
^_^
I spent most of yesterday re-reading a story Bree wrote a while back, the one about Leah and Jane and Beau.
I love that story just as much as I love the story about Jenna & Lucas.
I did write a little bit on Thursday while we were at the library but nothing very important.
I got a LOT of traffic after I posted about my baby loss and now it’s gone back to normal numbers (around 10 views a day lol). The graph looks depressing but that’s only because I got 107 views the day I posted about Chloé and it kinda blew up my stats.
In RL news, pretty sure the gearbox of my car gave up on life. We had to ring AA (or AAA for you Muricans) to come get us. *sigh* I wonder how much I’d get if I sold a kidney.
You may remember I mentioned the knitting group having a Tea Cosy exhibition.
My wife and I manned the gallery for the first shift on the first day and we were there for 3 hours, during which we managed to sell a total of 8 tea cosies. We had a steady stream of visitors during those 3 hours and it was a lovely way to spend the morning.
There were around 80 tea cosies on display, of all shapes and sizes and colours — an amazing array of creativity and imagination and skills!!
There was a write-up about the exhibition in the local paper!!
I went with different flowers for my tea cosy in the end, and had a lot of fun making them. I was sewing the last 2 flowers on it AT knitting group the day before the exhibition opened and the lady sitting next to me absolutely insisted she had to have it so I told her to talk to the group leader to sort it out.
My tea cosy was displayed next to another one which was my absolute favourite in the whole exhibition.
^_^
I was checking one of the groups I’m a member of on Facebook, a group called “For The Love Of All Things Woolly”. It’s a NZ group for people who enjoy knitting and crocheting and stuff like that.
The poster was asking for patterns, she’s looking to make a baby blanket for her friend who is 17 weeks pregnant and has been told she might lose her baby.
So of course my brain went, “HEY!! REMEMBER WHAT NEXT MONTH IS?”
And now I’m trying not to cry…
It’s been 9 years this year and while I’m ok most of the time, it never really goes away, the grief, the sadness, the overwhelming urge to cry because you heard something or saw something or read something and suddenly it hits you like a ton of bricks again and you’re right there, in that room, with your dead baby…
I’m going to go sit and cuddle with my wife now.
DragonflyLady's Writey Ramblings 