inkgrrl's inkblog

WOWEE!!! Just sent out e-vites for our housewarming party / Geminifest, and heard back from an old and very dear friend whom I only see once every umpteen years anymore, but who, despite that, is still one of my all-time favorite people. She’s preggers!!!! WOWEE – those kids are just a’poppin outta every available orifice. I better cross my legs, stat! I just had to put some of my email to her up here, as it pretty much conveys some of my recent befuddledness…

Okay, where do I start? Hmm… everybody I know’s having kids, but I refuse to get knocked up just for the fun accessories. Anne’s pregnancy has just enabled me to put off the reproduction for a bit longer, as I’ll have another kid to get accessories for – yay! I do so love those fuzzy little chew toys. In an wholesome, apple-pie Americana sort of way, of course – I mean, I’d never get one in a particularly lovely shade of turquoise just so I can pet it and make myself feel better. Nope, not me.

I’m continuing to be astounded at the extensive time and money suck that a 50-year old house with negligent former owners can be (it’s a mess, but it’s our mess only goes so far) as well as impressed with my hubby’s extensive repertoire of home-improvement skills. I love handymen ;->

Even though I finally have a room of my own to write in, I hardly ever enter it to write because I’m usually working on a project around the house that doesn’t involve writing. But! I am in workshops and hang out with lots of published authors who nag me to write always, and have work in the works (am researching for a novel at the moment, about to start outlining and writing… big whoopdydoo) and can therefore delude myself that I’m pursuing writerly stuff even though few words make it to ink.

The hubby got laid off in February – one of the many hazards of having the sexy dot-com job – and has been completing my extensive honey-do list around the house which is great except for when he falls off a ladder and damages himself and won’t stop bleeding, like he did yesterday. I finally had to tell him that if he bled on the couch, I was gonna go out and buy all new stuff this weekend, to the tune of about four grand, so he obligingly stopped making a mess and now he just has a spot that continues to ooze blood and lymph. Ow. I don’t like it when my sweetie’s damaged

For the time being I’m the sole wage earner which I kinda like in an empowering it’s-all-about-my-credit-rating sort of way (‘cuz I finally have credit – heh), except for the part where I can’t just flake and take a month off to write something. Interesting power and gender role issues around that one, especially with a man from a severely traditional society, but we work around everything, somehow. That seems to the the best explanation for marriage – you work around everything, somehow. Even when you’d rather throw pudding.

I am still so happy that I changed jobs and got back a few hours a day there where I’m not sucking someone else’s exhaust on the 101! The tech writer thing continues to proceed apace, and the only fly in my ointment here is that Lotus Notes went wacky with the notion of my keeping my maiden name as part of my identity – bet it was programmed by men. And I like what I do, especially the way it leaves me lots of brain space to be creative. So creative that I’m considering going back to school – I’ve either gotta finish my thesis at UCSB or start a new degree program somewhere else so I can attain the higher halls of learning someday. Mount St. Mary’s has a nice weekend program, but it’s that whole kid-in-a-candy-store thang – I want to study everything all at the same time and never sleep. On the third hand, I’ve been thinking about taking up the violin just because I have my own room to practice in, but there’s the novel staring me in the creativity chakra.

*mumph*

*licks eyebrows*

I either need to clone myself immediately and get cracking on that whole immortality thing, that or stretch time. Note to self: make both of those steps #47 and #48 in my plan to conquer the world.

Here’s the Friday Five:

1. What are your hobbies? Crocheting – mostly baby blankets. Refinishing furniture, often with dimension-bending results. Doing my physical therapy – I call it a hobby, because I’m not consistent in taking care of myself ;-> For that matter, I guess being in pain is a sort of hobby, when I don’t do my PT… yeah, coming up with non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical ways to manage arthritis pain. That’s kind of a hobby. Writing short stories – I guess that has to fall into the hobby category until I get paid for it. *sigh*

2. Do you collect anything? If so, what? Pens, really good fountain pens. And journals. Mind you, I never write in them, just like to have them around me as glimmering potential in yummy wrappers. Also camels and dragons and elephants – statues, mind you, not the real things. And books – have a first edition of a Tarzan book, and lots of signed first editions of more modern authors. And boxes – I love having places to put stuff, even if I never do.

3. Is there a hobby you’re interested in, but just don’t have the time/money to do? Jewelry making – no time. And actually getting my greeting card business off the ground – again, a distraction from writing. And building more websites – I love that, but again again, a distraction from writing.

4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity? Writing snarky stuff – made a nice little chunk of change from Universal writing columns on Things That Can Kill You, and Horrorskopes, and episode reviews of Buffy, Angel and X-Files.

5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to? Not much of a joiner – tend to agree with Mark Twain’s opinion on that sort of thing – wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that would have me. Unless there’s feather boas and ball gags and lots of pretty shiny things… ahem. Yeah.

Once and again, Mark Morford says good things (I really gotta stop using his stuff as filler, but he’s soooo good):

“World War III will not be two egomaniacal superpowers battling for supremacy and bragging rights. It will be scattershot and bewildering, a hundred different battles fought on a hundred different fronts for a thousand ever-shifting reasons, each and every one twisted and distorted by regulation GOP spin doctors who somehow convince the bulk of the populace that it’s somehow patriotic to be cavity searched and fingerprinted and beaten with a stick when you buy groceries.”