My dad is cool

Dads are so funny. They are gruff and withdrawn and hard to talk to, etc. And then -- they go and do something really incredibly nice for you - and I guess that is how they show they love you. My dad took my car and got the window replaced today. Then he got it detailed inside. THEN he got it waxed! So nice!! My dad freakin' rocks.

Forest sewed something onto his hoodie tonight with the sewing machine. I love that my son knows how to work a sewing machine.

I spent all day doing my half of the chore list. I was inspired by my husband who has totally kept up his end of the bargain all week. Now my house is clean and I can work on my biz all day tomorrow without any guilt.

I emailed with a woman tonight who said she would like to feature me on her segment on a tv news station up in Dallas. How exciting. I hope it works out! That would be fun.

I guess you could say it was a pretty decent day!

Margaritas and 42 = nice Saturday night with the parents

My son did such a great job in the school play. I found him to be pretty real as his character and I got chills during his dramatic monologue. So exciting to see him up on stage! On Friday night he said his friends were going to Kerby so we went over there with my parents and he sat with his friends. It is fun to watch him hang out with his friends and be a teenager. I remember how fun that was when I was his age. All the kids who were in the play seem really nice. The play was good too. It was about farmers in the 80's losing their farms. It was pretty sad. He played a 15 year old rancher's son. Anyway, we were proud parents. As a gift after the first performance we got him a copy of Rebel Without A Cause because James thought he should have a movie with a method actor like James Dean. Forest thought that was pretty cool. We also threw in some chocolate and he liked that too.

My show on Saturday was pretty awful. I have a big show coming up on Thursday of this week so hopefully that will go better.

We had fun with my parents and my brother. Saturday night we ate dinner at Hills cafe and afterward we made margaritas at the house and played dominoes (42) until late, laughing the whole time. James and I beat my parents! We listened to Leadbelly and Bo Diddly - perfect music for 42!

Today I taught a beading class and then we went to Curra's for dinner.

James cleaned all the broken glass out of my car while I was gone on Saturday. We are getting the window replaced this week! I put if off a really long time because we were considering getting a new car. We finally decided it would be more awesome to use that car payment money to pay down some of our credit card debt and to fix up the house. I like the idea of driving my car into the ground and saving the money for other stuff. We are kind of bummed not to get a new car though. We really want a hybrid! Once again, being responsible is hard!!

Oh and by the way the nurse at the school was so nice about the shots and said she was going to print up a full record for me so that I wouldn't have to go through this stuff every year. Yay!

Finally, James is totally doing an awesome job on the chore schedule. He is really on top of it. Kind of making me look bad! :)

Responsiblity n stuff

This is more dear diary than journaling - I am starting to get it. Dear Diary, I am waiting to hear back about whether I got into a local holiday art show and it is kind of hard to wait! They never actually seem to notify when they say they will. C'mon - aren't these people artists who used to have to wait to hear about shows themselves? Don't they remember the pain of waiting?! I just keep telling myself that it's not a big deal - I mean, I don't even care if I get in! heh.

The last few days have been filled with menial household drudgery. The husband and I are trying a new household chore system. Cross your fingers for us! We have tried schedules before and failed. It is so easy to let stuff go by. I usually end up spending like three straight days getting caught up and end up exhausted. So... the schedule. We'll see! I am always wondering how other people manage it. Every day my attitude toward housework gets worse. I swear - I used to have such a positive attitude about it. What happened?!

Yesterday I did finally manage to get some new bracelets onto the site. And, catch up my business accounting. Hopefully today I will get a bunch of new stuff made.

The school is calling me about my son's shots. I must be the most irresponsible mother ever. It seems like every year I have to go get him shots or pick up records from the doctor and take them to the school. Now they are saying they don't show that he got some shot he needed as a baby! What? Like, how would I even get that record. I am sorry but this whole shots thing drives me crazy! I know it is for the common good and all but it is such a pain in my ass. And also, why don't the doctors just put the info on the shot record I already have so that I can keep up with it instead of having like five pieces of paper to keep up with. Okay, sorry for the rant but it seems like I have to deal with this a lot. Probably all the people my age who are having babies now are so much more together about it - going to the same doctor, keeping the records all together - I started this mom thing at 18 so that is my excuse for being all disorganized. I didn't even know then that I was supposed to get shots for my son. I remember my mom telling me I had to go do it and I was like - What? My son has been in so many different schools and his shots have all come from different doctors. It is kind of hard to keep up with. Being a mom is hard! ;) Seriously, I feel like I hang on by the skin of my teeth sometimes. I try to keep a sense of humor about it.

Okay, I guess I better go be responsible.

Round Top was so freakin' great! An overwhelming amount of stuff! I got some great junk jewelry to work with. Plus some super cool sign stands for my booth. And also some little presents for my mom (the woman must be rewarded for raising me right by teaching me an appreciation for junk). I went with Melissa and her friend Mariana. They are such a riot. They had me laughing the whole day. On the drive there we all listed what we were looking for so that we could help each other shop. It worked out really well. Mariana found a great table for her apartment and Melissa found all kinds of great stuff including tons of Christmas balls for her coursages.

I had a lot of fun hanging out with my girlfriend from high school. We went out to dinner at a fancy Mexican restaurant on Friday night with her and her husband. Drank a bunch of margagaritas and laughed really hard. We suddenly looked around and realized the room was empty and they were closing up! Saturday we went to N0rdstroms and shopped. It was way more fun than it should have been. It is funny how we have grown up together. We seem to go through the same things together. I came away from our time together feeling really great. I think it makes me feel whole in some way and connected to the person I have always been to be around her. We have known each other since the first day of kindergarten. Like, the person you are is kind of fragmented into all these different experiences you have as you go along but somehow, being close to someone throughout all those times helps to connect them. Okay, I am trying to get deep and that never works out well.

This morning my friend Chad (another person I have known since childhood!) with his dogs and his baby. She is so sweet! James made faces at her and she laughed. He said that babies just think he is another baby because of his bald head.

Tonight I am working on jewelry. Working on one-of-a-kind stuff with vintage pendants. I have a bunch of shows coming up in the next few months so I want to be prepared.

My toe is healing quite nicely. Just a little purple today.

I gave notice at my part-time job today and I have mixed emotions about it! I was really nervous about telling her. I don't know why. She was super understanding. I have just come to the realization that I need to put in those extra two days per week on my own business. I really think I wouldn't have missed so many shows last month if I had just had more time to work. Anyway. I have really enjoyed this job. The woman I work for is super cool. She is such a nice person. I learned a lot from her and I enjoyed our conversations immensley. I will miss working for her! On the other hand, I am totally elated considering how much this frees up my weekly schedule for production, marketing, etc.

I am going to Round Top this Thursday and I am really excited about it. Hoping to pick up some cool materials.

My good friend from high school is coming in for the weekend. I am excited to see her. We were a group of four "nerds" in high school and she is the only one I keep in contact with anymore. We are both very crafty and interested in vintage stuff. We have a long history of escapades in high school. I introduced her to another friend of mine in college and they got married - which is pretty cool. So - I am amped to see her!

I am such a toe-stumper. The week we went to Greece for our wedding, while I was packing, I stumped my big toe on this huge gothic cathedral book I had just checked out from the libray. It was so painful! It got all purple and swollen. I limped onto the plane wearing one shoe and one flipflop. Fortunately having to sit still for countless hours helped my toe get better and I was able to put my shoes on by the time we arrived in Sweeden for the connecting flight.

I have a frequent history of less significant toe-stumping incidents.

Last night I stumped my little toe on a corner wall in my office. I must have been walking really fast because it really hurt in that shuttering, just-try-to-breathe-through-it kind of way. I put ice on it, moaned, took some ibuprofen and propped it up while we watched the Sunday night HBO shows.

It is feeling a little better this morning. There is a nice little purple bruise around the bottom side of it. Anyway, I guess I am kind of a clutz. James thinks maybe it is a sign to slow down.

Oh my goodness. I can't believe I am doing this. Actually typing on a blog. I don't even know if I will continue but I just thought I would kick it off.

I have actually always kind of had a problem with blogs - it started when an ex wrote an untrue history of our breakup on his blog. When I read it I was pissed - like how does he get to put personal stuff - and untrue at that - out there for anyone to read. I guess I missed the point that I could do the same. I started thinking that blogs were like id - like a place where people could just spout, un-edited a lot of stupid crap. I got a funny idea for a blog website called i.d. - internet diary. Id, get it? Then I started realizing that blogs could be really cool - like a place for friends and family to keep up with each other. I also realized that people do actually edit themselves a lot more than I thought.

I have kept a journal since I was 11. My first one was a little Chinese fabric covered blank bookthat I got when my family was on vacation somewhere. Wait, actually I remember before that, having a diary with a lock - maybe in fourth grade? Then when I was in high school the blank book market really exploded and you could get them in all different colors and patterns. I wrote a lot of poetry as a teen and in my early twenties so I have a bunch of those books with "deep" poems in them. I also have a bunch of blank books filled with my journals. My journalling has trailed off since I have been with James. I tell him everything now. Poor thing. For the past years, my journal is in a password protected .doc file on my computer and I write in it about twice a year.

Okay, I think that is good for a first entry. Now I am going to clean my studio and try to get some work done!