ladyjanelly | Entries tagged with life school work

Feeling better this morning, guys. Thanks for the pep-talks.

I've decided to not drop anything I'm working on, only slightly scale back my goals so I don't make myself crazy.

I spent the early morning today snuggling Sami (she woke up early and needy so we had a couch-morning). Dropped her off at school at 8:30 then came home and shot 50 arrows. I need to make another arm-guard--this one doesn't fit anymore and moved between shots and I got myself good with the string. But it does feel good to start the day with 15 minutes of focused, semi-physical activity.

Working on my resume and business cards, and I'll get to the networking meeting next week.

I think I still have a model lined up for Friday, but I've scaled back my sewing goals and just need to finish one coat and hang the back-drop before she gets here. Depending on the estate sales that come up and how far along I get, I may sew or I may shop on Thursday while Sami is at school.

I got the first color done on the Devil's Trap denim jacket and so far I'm very pleased with the look. :) I need better brushes, but the opaque projector worked great, the paint additive worked great and I'll definitely try more of these.

Still working on the "Walk a While with Me" prequel, and also playing with a Jeff Morgan/Jensen Ackles artist/hooker AU that I think will play with some fannish stereotypes in an interesting way. If I can get them together in the end. Every Jeff/Jensen bunny that I come up with has this delicious build-up, with tension and attraction, and then this part when they dance apart from each other and a struggle to get them to close the deal in the end. :P

Anyway, thanks again for your support, guys!
How is your day going?

Crossposts: http://ladyjanelly.livejournal.com/214849.html

Feeling a tad overwhelmed lately.

Sami's going through a very trying time for a 3 year old. Contrary about EVERYTHING, yelling and angry. Not napping at all, and being sleep-deprived toddler. She started pre-school, which I have finally gotten the hang of (right shoes, right diapers, hair-clip, check in, check out).

I've felt a lot of pressure to use those 12 hrs a week in a productive way. Things I've been trying to do:

keep house cleaner
revitalize my etsy store
shop estate sales for vintage to sell
sew sweater-coats because winter-buying-season starts in October
start painting denim and other jackets (mainly because the cyst in my left wrist only lets me sew so long in a day)
setting up a photography area with professional lighting
Tomorrow I'm starting networking meetings for AutoCAD because that's guaranteed money if I find contract work
writing (not on Sami-school time). Still maintaining about 3000 words/week but it doesn't feel like it's flowing like it was.
try to spend some quality time with husband (hard to do with a toddler who sleeps less than either of us)

I volunteered to co-beta a fic and totally failed at it and I feel terrible about it. I just have no ability to concentrate.

My husband is wanting me to post my fic as original fic on Amazon, but I don't feel right just putting up the fic I've got with different names. I want to make structural edits and make the writing better before I ask for money for it, but getting crit is no fun. Making edits are no fun. It's boring and lonely and feels reward-less. Also, I really don't want to stop working on new fic to go back and mess with old fic. I don't think I"ll be able to work on 2 sets of characters in different fandoms at the same time.

I seriously need a break, but I feel like I lost half the year to the blahs and also, putting Sami in a good pre-school is going to tax our finances, so the getting-money stuff HAS to be done. I've got tons of material to make into sellable product, I've got AutoCAD skill I can get out there and market, I've got writing sitting around that could be shined up and sold.

Crossposts: http://ladyjanelly.livejournal.com/214651.html

( An astounding lack of news )

School:
Is tempting me to buy a goood digital camera. We've got a project due in Design that requires the use of our own photos. All that I have are these far-away shots on 3X5 prints and they aren't working well at all.

It looks like 3DStudio Max is gonna be a good companion to AutoCAD. It's a rendering and presentation program that makes cool videos and stuff. A lot of video games are designed on it (the ones that arent made in Maya, apparently). I think I can get in good with some interior designers with it.

Life:
I got into counseling. It's good so far. Going once a week, dealing with my stress and anxiety about being in the wrong program and having no future when I get out of it.

Sam and I went to the DMA last night. They had a showing of "Modernist" artists (1919-1925 or so). It's amazing how well some of those pieces still work today (and how many are being immitated by the company I used to work for). It was a really nice little night out.

Work:
Got a student membership to the IIDA (interior design group mainly focused on commercial interiors). They have monthly meetings that I can get into now. Researched some networking meetings. Planning to start going to those next Friday, see if I can't get some more freelance jobs rolling.

Fitness: So. I'm taking a P.E. class this semester (walking for fitness or some crap like that). And yesterday, our class merged with another one for Pilates.

Today? It hurts to breathe!

So.
In the interest of research, I've been re-reading "The Joys of Gay Sex." In the car. While I wait to pick people up and stuff.

So it's sitting there, and Kendra starts reading while I"m driving her to work.

And this guy in a tall pickup beside us looks over and looks down and does a double-take and almost swallows his tongue in shock. She's on one of the full-page, illustrations of two cowboys fucking.

So I'm pointing at Kendra and laughing my ass off. The light changes and she's all "Go! Go!"

Good times...

Splurge.
I like that word.
I splurged this week.

1-Bought one of those cool-spot things for the laptop. It's no longer too warm to have on my lap for more than 15 mins. No more using a muffin tin to give it room to breathe. :)

2-Bought the laptop a new carry-case. It's this foldy-thing that zips up the side. No shoulder strap ('cause I can't handle the weight on my shoulder anyways) and when I get to chick fil a, I just open it and the laptop stays in it, instead of digging it out of the bag and finding a place for the bag and stuff.

3-I bought a new pillow. Just like a little seven-buck deal, but yeah. I'm waiting until it's dark and then I get to go back to my pillow. I totally empathize with Ben in DA, his awe of the thought "We get to sleep as long as we want." Mmmm. sleep.

4-Aleve. Yeah, the little blue 12 hr pain pills. I notice I've been waking up when the advil stops working and my back/hip starts hurting. It's easier to keep from getting busy-brained and not-sleeping with the aleve, because my body's not distracting me from sleep with aches.

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Signed up for classes. Took forever. The college just went paperless with their catalog and so I had like 7 windows open, one for what classes I still need, one to search for classes available, one for adding classes, some others for I-can't-remember-what. Stupid paperless.

Didn't get as many classes as I'd like because they've got them scheduled over each other and they cancelled one at the LAST minute. Fuckers.
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A warm welcome to the people who just friended me. Nice to have you aboard. Feel free to say hi and stuff. I don't bite, promise.

No fic to post, ass kicked by life

Since yesterday at 6am:
got up, drove sam to work
went home took piff to vet for shots
went to school, dropped off homework
went home, worked on interior design final project for 2 hrs.
took kendra to job interview at 1
picked piff up at vet at 2
left to pick sam up at 3
got home, worked on ID project
helped Sam and Kendra clean out old car (but they did the lion's share of it)
6:30 pm took old car to dealer and bought new (new used) one
FOUR fucking hours later, left dealer
worked on ID project til 3am
laid down with sam until 6am (no sleep. shaking from caffeine/energy drink OD)
got up
cooked breakfast
worked on ID project
laid down for 20 mins (still breathing hard, twitchy)

to do in the next 12 hrs
11am: present project
3pm: take kendra to clothing store for her new work uniform
(sometime) pick up toll tag from car dealer (forgot and left it in car)
call insurance to change car
6:30 ish movie night planned with friends
OMG SLEEP!

Final in algebra tomorrow morning 8am, and then I am done with school for almost 3 weeks.

So. Thursday, my old boss calls me up and says "You do AutoCad, right?" Turns out this company that gets plans framed at his shop needs those plans drafted in AutoCad.

I call them, and talk to the guy on the phone. Their company designs water-detection systems, and basically I'll be taking the building plan that an architect sends them, delete everything but the walls and the pipes, and draw a squiggly line around the edge of the room to indicate where the water-detection line will be.

The guy asks me like 3 questions, turn around time, etc, then says "Um, we were paying the last guy $40/hr. Is that high, or low, or what? Would you be okay working for that?"

I tell him it'll do for now, since I have a lot of free time and want to build my resume. :)

Sigh. If only he was wanting more than 2-3 tiny jobs/month. He's supposed to send me a 'before and after' version of what I'll be doing on Monday, and I'll see for sure, but I can't imagine it's something I can't do.

So I'm having problems with my car's brakes.
If any of you know a mechanic, can you ask if they've heard anything like this?

The car in question is a 2000 Dodge Stratus with 127,000 miles on it.

( the problems )

Transformers. Awesome. Like that nostalgia rush but a good movie too.

Samantha Smith (AKA Mary Winchester) was in it as another soldier's wife, and the guy who plays Sucre in Prison Break got to have a big gun.  It was like old home week from last year's tv shows.

I was really pleased how they balanced the action and the story between the robots and humans.

It was cheezy in parts, but not so bad I can't live with it.

The only not-great thing about the movie was that it's sometimes hard to tell the bots apart. Other than that, the special effects were super-cool and the bots were alien in all the ways they should have been. I loved the way they moved.   In one chase scene, they're kind of "skating" with their car-wheels under their bot-feet. It was cool.

Glee!

The joys of working freelance.

I got a call at 2pm today, from a designer who needed 3, maybe 4 elevations drawn for a project she was doing.

I said "No problem, when's you presentation?"

She says " 8pm. Today."

I do quick math. "I can have them by 7:30 if you can approve them before 7."

Art is drawn. E-mail is sent and rec'd, corrected and re-sent.

$150 should be here tomorrow. Not bad for 3.5 hrs work.