Where have I been?

D'oh.

It is apparently exceptionally easy to get out of the habit of blogging. Probably because blogging is kind of hard. I mean, if I went out and took fabulous beautiful photos every week and spent a lot of time on "social media" making nice with everyone else - then people would visit here and leave nice comments.  Or if I was famous - well, I imagine that simply helps — assuming it's like good famous and not D-level reality tv also ran famous or something.  If I was into fashion — you know, I guess that's what the young ladies do... except that just not my thing.

So, I'm guilty of not blogging here and I do openly admit that not writing anything and just posting a something on tumblr seems to be a lot easier. That and tumblr is searchable so random people have a greater chance of finding your content. 

But anyway, it's September because I dropped off somewhere in August. It would be nice if I had some story or pictures about some fabulous vacation. But I don't. I didn't go anywhere. I was somehow busy between work and life and home.  There was a lot of overtime (aka 6 day work weeks), and some home drama. The latter I should have probably not mentioned, because apparently it's an unmentionable thing. It's not a divorce or domestic incident or fire or natural disaster, and no one is injured or ill or fired or boozing it up or anything particularly interesting... it's one of those dumb things that apparently you're never supposed to speak of. And I know this because I have mentioned it casually to a number of people that I know and they look at me as if I just told them that so-in-so is (insert scandalous thing). 

Let's just say that in the month of August, as I have been doing in very small increments for the past year, there was a sudden burst of cleaning... because someone seems to have a little problem parting ways with things that ought to be thrown away. Before there were tv shows we just called it the Mess. There's less of it now. There may have been some words exchanged and some strained faces every time Wednesday rolled around. And I may have gone on clandestine missions and snuck garbage bags out of the house, but there ought to be a clear path to the fuse box. And we are no longer not throwing out junk mail, because that was some moronic bullshit. If I am writing out a check every couple of months for the garbage man to come take away 3 bags of trash every week, then, 3 bags of trash are going to leave every week until I run out of stuff that needs to go.

Otherwise, in another 10 years we would have qualified for an episode of one of those shows, although we don't have any cats or rats or insect problems... although someone may be crushed to death someday by totes of craft supplies.

It's difficult to explain to non-relatives how there have been arguments and hurt feelings and dirty looks over throwing away empty shampoo bottles and milk jugs and  plastic bags.

So, that was August: work, cleaning, and exhaustion. Also, it was still too frigging hot.

And now it's September.

Anyway, I have been drawing and writing on and off when I'm not trying to catch up on sleep or think of how to better organize the thousands of things we have in this house... and one of the things that I endeavored upon was a new etsy account. Yeah, I know, like I really need another one.

esotericSarah — my photography will be slowly matriculating there because I actually opened the account with a completely different intention, and maybe, just like I thought last year - I'll get back on track with that project in January when my schedule clears out...

I laugh as I type that. But all the cleaning that I did in the month of August and throughout the past year was a bit of a journey in an attempt to live a happier, neater, better life; with some level or organization and planning. So, while I may look back on my summer and recall it being too hot to do anything and spending a lot of time with a the vacuum cleaner and a spray bottle of cleaning fluid - it was a path towards a more functional home and a more functional home life, where things get put away and there's a place to put things that we actually use.

Plus, I have 12 pictures to draw in less than 3 months. Eek! Good thing I have most of them sketched...

Hope everyone had a good summer!

the last day of vacation...

The last few moments of vacation, those final hours before everything has to go back to normal, those are always the best. There's something frantic and calm about them simultaneously. Don't get me wrong, I could sit at home and do nothing infinitely, because well, I have a lot of stuff and enjoy such infinite pursuits as art and writing and watching tv...

Today was a better morning than yesterday. I went for a bike ride, and while I was winded by the time I had completed the second lap — I wasn't winded nor had I significantly slowed down on the first lap. I wasn't thinking that maybe it was the prescription or the weather or messing with my sleep or that the tires needed air... nope, everything was just fine. So, fine that I decided to do the second lap using the route with the hill. The hill always kicks my ass. That's what it's there for.

Aside from cleaning the house, I just took a vacation of nothingness. My largest excursion was to drive to Adrian, mostly to put gas in the car and buy cleaning supplies for my impending house cleaning bender. Yes, we now have bathroom Lysol. Exciting, I know. Oh, and mostly everything is clean. 

We don't have a cat or a dog or any other furry house pet (this is a fish-only household), so, really, it was just dust and however crumbs get behind canisters that haven't moved in years, and the occasional cobweb. Everyone has spiders... and considering that they eat most undesirable bugs, other than destroying their less than ideally placed webs, there's really no point in hating them. Although, spiders, please beware that your life may depend on when you decide to suddenly appear in my vicinity. There are times when I am less apt to go get a cup and a sheet of paper and generously liberate you to the great outdoors (I know you really love that in the snowy winter)... I am not edible, and I am sometimes unapproachable, so be careful...

And really, spiders, if you see me turning the shower on, you have up to 2 minutes to vamoose! I'm waiting for the water to heat up, and when I am wet I do not perform animal relocations. You will find yourself in a rapid flow of water being directed at the drain... I love you for eating other bugs and all, but not when I'm naked.

So, yeah, the place is clean. And my vacation is almost over. And other than finally watching the last 4 episodes of Fringe — BTW, that time travel episode? Meh, — I can't really say that I did anything. Except that sometimes doing nothing is doing the most... in which case I declare myself the victor and champion of "not doing anything." Ironically, the level of nothingness is so high that there is no crown or medal or blue ribbon... victory is really just not doing anything.

Besides, I did stuff last week:

Yeah, it was father's day. So, not only did I have to come up with a gift (yes, I drew that), but I also spent 4 hours sifting through the hundreds of photos on my iphoto to make an album so that we had something to fill the time between sitting down at the table at Big Boy, half of us ordering the breakfast bar and then waiting for the food of the non-breakfast bar members of the party to arrive... Oh, look, pictures of flowers and leaves and the occasional insect or bird!

There's a collective sample of a couple of pages...

Anyway, I'm going to have some more chips and salsa and maybe some ice cream or orange sherbet (I have both: decisions, decisions...) and then call it a day and go to bed and get up and go back to work.

Play time is over.

Have a fun weekend : )

hoping for rain...

So, it's my birthday. Yes, 33 years ago at something after 6am I was born on 21 June 1979...

Normally, this festive occasion is celebrated with a cherry chip cake with cherry frosting (Betty Crocker, yo)... except last year it was like 89˚F when I baked the cake and it got kind of sad and melty and the frosting continued to drip and droop even when I put it in the fridge. So, this year we are celebrating with some Edward's Key Lime pie. Yeah, it conveniently thawed on the ten minute trip home from the grocery store... but it's refrigerated, so, it's fine, and tasty.

Google apparently also knows it's my birthday. As when I put my cursor over the graphic to see what the occasion was, the little yellow box popped up and said "Happy Birthday, Sarah!"

My etsy accounts are also aware of the holiday nature of this date...

 

The family pets, however, not so much in the Happy Birthday mode... it was more like what is that flashing light thing, and where is my food. Yes, that's Clive - the blue one, Crowley the purple one, and Juni the female (who is mostly known as Juni Juni Juni). Crowley and Juni arrived last Friday after a visit to Petco.

So, that's today's forecast. And really, I hope it rains. In fact, if the temperature drops to 59˚F and it just rains for like 4 hours, then that would be awesome. I would also accept an entire day of rain. It was 93˚F here yesterday when I bothered to google it, and since I live in a house with no air conditioning - well, that is not my desired temperature. If it was like 68˚F year round - I'd be good with that. Sadly, it isn't.

Anyway, I'm on vacation, or staycation as the kids apparently call it. I have 5 days off from work. No, I haven't been fired or suspended. I filled out that little form on the request thingy... so, yeah, day 3 or 4 — they all start to blur together. Anyhow, I spent the first day mostly sleeping, and then the rest of my time at home, aside from that trip to the store, has been spent cleaning or recuperating from cleaning. I cleaned my bedroom (6 hours, and yes, I washed all my sheets and vacuumed under the bed), I cleaned the bathroom (and why does that always take 2 hours?), and then I started cleaning up my living room but ended up spending 4 hours cleaning the kitchen. Of course, really, it took 6 hours, but only 4 actually involved cleaning. The rest of it was me stopping and swearing at the heat and the wheel that fell off my vacuum cleaner...

Yeah, thanks, Sears. What the hell did Kenmore do to the Magic Blue? I bought the original model back in 2001, and it still works. It has all its part — in tact, and it sucks like a mofo that knows no ending to suction. So, I got a newer model 2 years ago, and the fucking wheel broke off, I can barely manage to get the thing open to change the bag, and the second time I put in a new bag - the clip that holds the bag down broke off. Jesus Christ. It sucks, literally and metaphorically, but what's up with all the easily breakable parts? People buy cannister vacuums to abuse them - do drag them down hallways via the tube / handle and to drag them weightlessly up and down stairs. The new magic blue is now like a lame 1-legged dog... It works, but not the way it should.

Thoroughly cleaning a house with no AC w/ a fragile vacuum cleaner in ninety degree heat is probably not going to be the most awesome vacation I have ever endeavored... but, well, it's almost done... except I have a network of spiderwebs to take out in the basement as well as a living room to clean and make orderly.

Anyway, I can't say that I've been sad to not wake up to an alarm clock for the last several days. And I did purchase the obligatory chips and Mrs. Renfro's peach salsa (aka the greatest salsa ever, and once you've had it everything else pales in comparison). Plus, I had birthday dinner w/ Mom at Sal's last night — lasagna, the best in town, and they were playing seventies music (which would be preferable to hearing anything by Taylor Swift)... Yeah, they even played the radio edit of "Inna Gadda Da Vida" — heh. I was -11 years old when that song came out, I think my Mom was 10.

Yep, everything ages.

So, anyway, have some cake today, and hopefully it rains.