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Window is done!

But I like it so much that I can’t sell it! I know, I’m so lame! It’s the last 6 pane window I have and the design came out great, so I’m keeping it for my front porch – assuming I can figure out how to hang the damn thing. Sorry, MINT Gallery! It’s called “Le Jardin.”

Heh, I wonder if this happens often with artists? You make something really cool and then can’t sell it. Ha! Emily tells me that her brother has some old windows at his house, so I’ll try to get those, but it’s too late for the MINT show.

Today I’ve got to work on the Tornado Benefit piece. It’s a skylight and I plan to paint a rainbow on it and entitle it “Over the Rainbow” – oh, and there will be glitter! Squee!

I’ve also got pix of my 5 current rings that are just soldered for you to see. I’m going to document the making of the jewelry for you. :-)

Pix of all this arty goodness later today as well as the Citizen Cope video for Emily. Stay tuned!

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A touch of grey

So, another couple I know has gotten knocked up. I’m happy for them, truly I am. I’m happy for all my friends that have chosen to breed. I truly am. I must establish this before the rest of this post is read because the post sounds bitchy, but it’s not meant that way. It’s just a little venting of my feelings about what it’s like to be a confirmed non-breeder in a world that BREEDS. It’s not easy being so completely, abjectly and thoroughly disinterested in breeding when you are surrounded by those who live for it.

One more thing: no one and I mean NO ONE has offended me in any way. I’m not all torqued up by this, it’s just hard, that’s all. As you who read me know, sometimes writing a thing out helps me deal with it. That’s all this is: me dealing with it.

It always leaves me a bit melancholy when I hear the news: “We’re Pregnant!!” It’s not that I am not happy for them, but I’m sad for me. And not because I chose not to breed shutyo’mouth! It makes me sad to lose yet another set of friends to the gibbering delirium of parenthood.

I do not care who you are or how rich or smart or well adjusted you think you are, you will be a gibbering, delirious, forgets to bathe or do laundry parent. ALL new parents are this way. Women are much worse than men, simply because the care of an infant is typically put on the mother while the father goes to work (Even now. Amazing! The 50s live!). I’ve seen perfectly capable career oriented women devolve into unwashed baby slimed incoherent nannies. I’ve seen very intelligent women become incapable of finishing a single sentence or even a thought. I’ve seen otherwise lovely well kept women go into the world in baby slimed sweats, dirty hair and no makeup. Every waking thought is subsumed by THE BABY.

I suppose it’s an evolutionary thing, but damn, it makes me want to shake new mothers really hard and yell “Snap out of it! Take a damn shower!”

I know all females are supposed to have this overwhelming urge to adore babies and all things kid related, but lemme tell you: that ain’t me. I’ve never liked children and I’ve always loathed babies (they gross me out, man). I just don’t like them! SORRY!

I am happy for my breeder friends, truly. But I can’t do anything about the fact that I find the whole making babies thing a complete bore that lasts for 18 years. I can’t change the way I’ve always felt. With every “We’re PREGNANT!!” announcement I see, all I can think of is “Another one bites the dust!” I’m down to less than 5 friends who are not breeders. And it’s because they are young, not because they are not interested. They’ll succumb. ::sigh::

People who breed have the overwhelming belief that having a kid is something so spectacular it should be a spectator sport.

I know new parents don’t mean to be, but they are the biggest bores on the planet to those of us who are just not interested. It’s not that I think you’re an asshole or your kid is butt ugly or anything of the sort. It’s that I cannot muster enthusiasm for something that I am completely uninterested in. Babies especially are not that interesting. They are drooling, non verbal little beasts. They make their parents drooling nonverbal beasts as well. What’s to like? What’s so damned intriguing about how much the thing eats and spits up? WHAT? Did I miss a memo?

It’s really hard to be adult only in this world of breeders. I have to find a way to be interested in the fine details of childbirth, breastfeeding and all things BABY – whether I give a shit or not. I have to steel myself for the devolution of my wonderful, bright friends. I have to realise that parties are not gonna happen for them any more without logistics that would make Ford Motors proud. No more spur of the moment anything.

All I ask is a little understanding when I get frustrated. All I want is to have my friends! I miss them when they are sucked into the vortex of parenthood. I just hope everyone will cut me some slack when I really don’t want to talk about your baby. Sometimes I’d like to talk about the government. Or art. Or old cars.

Their silver lining is definitely my touch of grey.

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Much to do!

Thanks to running the roads and then feeling crappy, I’ve gotten way behind with the window projects. Today will be the watershed: either I get them well on their way or I’ll just do the tornado one and skip the windows show. Tomorrow I’ve got jewelry class and much soldering to do and if I decide to do the six pane window, I’ll have to go to Michael’s to get various hardware and beading for it.

The trip to Knoxville was too quick, but fine. We have procured the kegerator and will be getting it up and running very soon. I discovered that the poor little Flower Power iMac my brother has is dying. The monitor has a cyan cast over the whole right hand side. :-( Poor little thing! We are going to snatch it out of there and retire it ASAP before it dies completely. We just happen to have a G4 tower sitting around that they can use. We’ll have to go back up there again in the next few weeks to do that. Thanks to the extra travel, we may not have the kegerator party until June, sorry!

My niece’s acting debut as a street urchin in Oliver! was the main event on Saturday night. Karns High School put on a production of the play that spanned all the schools from elementary to the high school. The high school kids were very impressive. The leads had awesome voices and the music director did a good job with the choral arrangements, as well. The rendition of “Food, Glorious Food!” was a bit slow and tentative, but I’m sure nerves were the main reason – it’s the first song of the play. As everyone warmed up, the play went very well despite some sound issues and a lackluster band for accompaniment.

The Ranger is still at Ford. They can’t figure out what’s wrong with the tranny. Eh, if it’s not giving any error codes, then it is probably not anything too serious. ::fingers crossed::

Oh, and Happy Tax Day. We will get about $2400 back including the “stimulus” payments of $1200. That is our bankroll for Comic-Con!

I’m on an Emily Dickinson binge, so I leave you with a rather whimsical poem (for her, anyway):

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him, -did you not?
His notice sudden is.

The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn.
Yet when a child, and barefoot,
I more than once, at morn,

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun, –
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone.

Several of nature’s people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;

But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.

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Back from Knoxvegas [More!]

And I’m sick with a cold. We’ve got to take the Ranger to Ford so they can check out the tranny noise and fix the Cruise Control that they disengaged when they were working on it before.

MORE: Ford actually took apart the Cruise Control but neglected to tell us. They did it because they were catching fire, apparently. Hmm, glad we weren’t flambeed the last dozen times we used it… They cannot figure out why the tranny is whiny, so they kept the truck.

Other than that, I’ll be right here at home today. No Vortex, sadly.
There’s lots more new stuff to tell, but not right now. Perhaps I’ll feel like writing all about it later.

MORE: Nope, still feel crappy, no more writing today. Now I’m another day behind on the two windows. I may drop out of the Windows 2 show… We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.  I’ll be carless so hopefully I’ll feel better and get some art done. Bleh.

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I love Nina Hartley!

There is a wonderful interview with Nina over at Suicide Girls – and it’s PUBLIC and FREE. We have a subscription, to ogle the pretty girls, but the content is pretty good, too. I’m surprised this interview is public! Go read it. Nina Hartley is a truly fascinating woman.

Anyway, Nina is talking about herself and her sexuality and this quote almost knocked me off my chair:

“I beat myself up for years because I wasn’t multi-orgasmic. I read in a book women are multi-orgasmic and for years and years I tried. I did all the masturbation workshops and all of that and I discovered that I am not a multi-orgasmic woman. Once I realized that, a big load was taken off. Quite frankly, I only need to come a few times a month.” – Nina Hartley from the Suicide Girls website

Finally, I can stop feeling inadequate because I am a one orgasm kind of girl.  So is Nina Freaking Hartley, bitches! W00t!