Ouch.

I'm in the process of buying a new car, so I spent a few hours yesterday preparing my old Honda Civic to be sold. As I was arriving home after washing it, it started to rain (that always happens). It was also just about too dark to take pictures and I wanted to get a pic of the car before it rained too hard and the car no longer looked clean. Therefore I ran in the house, grabbed my digital camera and ran back out the front door, down the walkway to the edge of the driveway where there was a large puddle. I jumped over the puddle and landed on my left leg which has a knee that has been giving me trouble of late. Well, it buckled and I totally bit it, landing on the cement in the street. I know it is mid February and they are predicting snow but for whatever reason I was wearing shorts. When I fell I had my camera in my hand (turned on so the lens was out) and after smashing it into the ground I was amazed to find out it didn't break (maybe that extended warranty wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all, ha ha). Well, I didn't fare as well as my camera. My knees hurt like Hell and it is a little hard to walk and very hard to sit down. Consequently I have stayed home from work today (after bragging to my boss last week that I hadn't used a sick day in the 8 months I've worked there). In all fairness it wasn't just the animals that kept me awake last night (see post below). It is hard to comfortably be under covers when your knees are smashed. Happy Monday.

Last Night

I couldn't sleep very well last night. I'm sure this had nothing to do with it.

California, there and back!

So I know you are all anxiously awaiting the update on my trip to San Diego to visit my friend Teagen. Here are the highlights:

Mid 70's, short sleeves, wishing I had brought shorts and flip flops, estate sale (ceramic Corgi and Siamese cat family), garage sale (books and glass paper weight), swap meet (large, heavy, old set of metal letter dies, DVDs, miniature dishes, new in package Ikea drawer pulls), drive thru vegan BBQ Bacon Burger, fries and chicken tenders, vegan black forest strudel, biscuits and gravy, vegan fish tacos with tarter sauce, spinach empanadas, home cooked roasted veggie squares, 6 foot tall Poinsettias, shabby chic bedding consulting, broccoli eating big dogs, evasive cat, a mouse in the house, Valentine's presents, vegan thrift store (CDs, books), vegan retail store (shoes, candy, vegan marshmallows, baked Tings,lip gloss), discount grocery store (cheap vegan jerky and sex lube), mail art making and mailing, ATC viewing, apartment shopping for Teagen, touring Old Town, house sitting where the ugliest cute dog Sammy lives, trying to pack everything I bought into a duffle bag plus a messenger bag, and the dreaded layover coupled with a delayed flight that made for a 7.5 hour journey home to torrential downpours.

A great trip. Yes, I shopped a lot. That is what Teagen, her mom and I do. Hunters of thrift. And eat. Due to being denied so much I find that most vegans are obsessed with food. I'm interested in the fact that Portland has such a great vegan reputation. Frankly I think San Diego kicks Portland's vegan ass!

Good Karma

I had beer and pizza with my friend Matt today. He and his wife are adopting a baby from Vietnam. They chose not to have any children biologically wanting to instead give a home to an unwanted child. Apparently, unlike China, when adopting from Vietnam you are more likely to receive a boy than a girl. Matt and his wife were matched with a baby girl, however. Now Matt is just waiting for the Vietnam government to stamp the seal of approval on their application so that he and Melissa can fly over and pick up their child. The little girl was born in November and has either been in an orphanage or a foster care system since (Matt is not completely sure). The mother of the girl has an older son but cannot afford to keep both children so she was forced to give the newborn up for adoption. Hearing this story absolutely broke my heart. To think of any child spending time in an institution, away from a family is completely inexcusable in my mind. The international adoptions program in Vietnam was cancelled for five years due to allegations of human trafficking and abuse but has been allowed to resume adoptions.

I applaud my friend and his wife for choosing to open their hearts in such a manner.

Best Buy Members?

Hey any Best Buy Rewards cardholders out there? They are having a presale for The Police concert tickets. I don't have a card. Makes me sad. I'm planning on seeing them in Vancouver BC and in Seattle and it'd be nice to have good seats.

Sisters

My cats are a source of never ending entertainment to me. Max the oldest (14 I think) is my sleeping companion who lays right by my head for the entire night (mostly because he gets attacked by the youngsters if he roams around without me as an escort). Jingles (the very photogenic one posing in the first picture) is a demon (nicknamed "The Jinx") who will bite anyone who gets close to her yet she is the most entertaining and unique cat I've ever met. She will catch pieces of cat (or dog) kibble if you throw them to her. Sometimes she uses her paws like she is catching a pop fly at a baseball game, other times she runs across the room to chase after them squawking along the way (I don't know how to spell her noise but it goes something like "mrat mrat"). My very favorite though is when she catches the kibble in her mouth. I'm amazed at her ability to do it. She often surprises even herself...looking around from side to side wondering where the kibble went only to then realize it is in her mouth. And my youngest Zoey is the one who looks like she is mortified in the picture (she was afraid Jingles was going to smack her of which she probably did after I took the picture). Zoey was born to a feral mother under a tree in the back yard of a woman who chose to capture the kittens (she got three, the mother and one kitten got away before she got to them). She raised them and domesticated them from practically day one so Zoey was very socialized when I adopted her at 8 weeks. I'm convinced she is part Maine Coon due to her coat, the "snowshoes" on her feet and her personality. Zoey has to help you do everything whether it be making the bed or posting on your blog. These photos illustrate the sibling rivalry between these two youngsters. They aren't related but have the relationship of any other siblings...they enjoy each others company but would never admit it.

I'd rather be rummaging.

My friend Norma is always bugging me to post pictures of things I buy at Goodwill on my blog. Part of me likes the idea but another part likes the secrecy of not exposing the trinkets. Partly I suppose because some of the items I buy are intended as a future gift, but mostly it is probably because I fear people will think I'm nuts. Since I am not supposed to be driving for yet another month I haven't been able to do my weekly gleaning sessions. This has meant I spend much more of my weekends at home tinkering around with miscellaneous projects rather than out finding more stuff to potentially craft with. Well Norma took pity on me the weekend before last and chauffeured me to as-is. This is a photo of what I purchased. A large piece of oil cloth (a crafters dream these days) of which I have plans for but cannot divulge here, a vintage net Xmas stocking (these are so fun to stuff with little gifts for friends), a discarded old embroidered cloth of the U.S. (this will no doubt make it's way into a pillow cover at some point), a brand new rope dog toy with tag (this one has already been put to use extensively...quite popular with the corgi), 6 Celtic rubber stamps, a cow rubber stamp, 2 brand new packages of Post-It notes (I have a tendency to take salvaged office supplies to work rather than use new bought ones), an unopened package of crystal cat eyes (these I'll probably pass on to a friend who makes things that need eyes more than I do), a blue silvery lipstick holder to hold my Merry Hempsters vegan lip balm, a package of never opened ribbon, 5 gel pens, 1 perfectly new black Sharpie (one of my favorite finds), several sheets of craft paper, several envelopes with a cute logo on them (I have a huge box full of envelopes if you ever need some), a collection of ephemera for collage purposes, a random collection of beads and googly eyes for crafts, a few old calendar pages with pictures of Corgi's to use in Twinky's scrapbook, a mini version of Erotica Universalis with some pretty naughty pictures if I do say so myself, an industrial tape dispenser (these are gold to hard core eBayers), a piece of rock painted to look like a gold nugget and a large 1940's photograph of a convention. All of this for $6.52.

Dreams and Nightmares

I've been sleeping like crap lately, dreaming like crazy (although some of you are saying we always dream, only sometimes don't remember it...okay fine), crazy, crazy dreams, nightmares too, waking up crying and upset. It really is quite unpleasant. My subconscious is busy at work processing my life as it is at the moment. I had an absolutely awful one involving a research lab with monkeys and cats locked in cages together and for whatever crazy reason I was getting a tour of the lab and then the vivisector decided to illustrate their research and started carving into a cat with a giant kitchen knife right in front of me. Yeah, gruesome. I suppose that was my conscious (am I using the right word there? Or should I be using conscience? Not enough time to check out dictionary.com) processing my guilt for no longer protesting animal research and the fact that I have taken on the project of caring for a trio of feral cats living in my yard. Not to mention seeing a dead cat that morning in the road, body intact entirely but head absolutely exploded...run over by a car. And later on a walk with my dog, two dead birds.

Then, Sunday night I caught part of 60 Minutes and it was a story that will haunt me the rest of my life (that is what I get for watching tv some of you are saying). They did a story of a mentally ill 21 year old who was in jail for shoplifting and then pulling out a knife. In jail he had tried to commit suicide several times as well as flooded his cell by clogging the toilet. To keep him from further acting in ways they disapproved of the guards chained him to his bed. Chained him. His legs and feet and torso so that he was laying flat on the bed. Heavy, heavy looking chains, like what you would tow a car with. The "rules" say prisoners shouldn't be locked down more than 4 hours at a time. These guards had him locked most of the day for four days, one time for 17 hours at one time (the Feds had previously required cameras to be set up in the cells so all of this was on tape and they played it on the show). Within days they showed the guy falling down in his cell with his hands chained together and dying. He died of dehydration. This was truly the most upsetting thing I've seen in a long while and now that is messing with my sleep and dreams. I just can't get those images out of my mind. Doesn't help that I go see my friend Darren in jail on a weekly basis who is due to be transferred to a federal prison (which is way harsher than a little county jail) to finish out his sentence. Jails are horrible, horrible places that have become a place to house the mentally ill and those who just don't fit into society the way that some in power have decided they need to. They are awful places where horrible things happen (I hear stories every week that just shock me).

It's a wonder that any of us ever sleep at night much less not have nightmares that wake us crying on a daily basis.

Sorry for the downer entry, but frankly these thoughts have been heavy in my heart lately and I'm not thinking about much else.

Holidays and Curmudgeons

Holy crap! I can't believe it has been three weeks since my last post! I knew it had been awhile but I didn't recall it being that long of a while.

Lately I've been crafting a lot. Collage. 2007 has apparently brought with it tons o' inspiration for me. All I can say is bring it on. I moved my craft table out from the corner of my den/craft room to the middle of my living room last week when my crafty soul sister Norma came over and I haven't put it back since. Littered on the top are dismembered 1950 magazines, bottles of salvaged fingernail polish (no, I haven't gone girly, I use them as a top coat to some of my work), sequins, glue, scissors, random construction and scrapbooking paper, Valentine's stickers, my very favorite "pattern ladies" which are torn from vintage clothing patterns and more.

I know a lot of people hate holidays, particularly ones like the one looming this week. They think it is just a marketing ticket for Hallmark stores and rose growers. Perhaps they are right but for me holidays represent just another excuse to make things for people. Gift giving is one of my favorite things in life, just following a little behind cats, chocolate, movie theaters that sell beer and on occassion, road trips. First I completed my obligation to the Valentine's Day ATC swap. For the unknowing, ATCs are old playing cards redecorated and swapped with other crafters in person and over the internet. I needed to make 4 but ended up making nine. Some cards that I felt were okay until I created the next one. I made some that I feel were my best ever (and I have made over 100 in the past three years since I discovered them). My extra ones were mostly sent out as V-Day gifts to friends.

The inspiratioin didn't pass me by this last weekend either. I spent the great part of Saturday collaging post cards that I am going to send anonymously to one of my favorite Portland indie stores. For the past few years I have talked about doing it, in fact even attempted a cigar box shrine for them once but it has sat on my shelf because it didn't work as I had hoped. One thing I have recognized is that I can't force my projects, they just have to come to me. The entire project was inspired by a little illustration I had found in a 70's children's dictionary (one of my favorite craft supplies). This led to one post card which I loved and seeing that I still had more applicable materials to work with I made another. And another. The third won't be sent because it only passes my standards on one side. I might use that side on a future project however. The point of sending things like this anonymously mainly comes from me enjoying the idea that people receive things just for the heck of it. I love the element of surprise that mail art provides. It isn't about the feedback that I receive. The benefit truly is in the giving. For my friends I don't bother trying to hide who the sender is as I think most of them would guess right away. I am somewhat known for giving good gift, as it were. Frankly that is a label I wear proudly. I'm a little baffled by it as it comes easy for me, always has but I'm recognizing that it perhaps isn't as easy for others. I have a drawer in my house (no, I'm not going to tell you which one...I don't want any peekers spoiling the surprise) where I collect things throughout the year that seem appropriate to give a particular friend or acquaintance. This has been the best idea I've come up with in ages being that, as many of you know I have a basement that could be a museum of toys, art projects, craft supplies and material scraps which often leaves me puzzled looking for "that thing I bought for so and so."

My advice therefore is to embrace the gifts that you have, regardless of what they may be. I can't cook, garden or work on cars to save my life. Buy hey if you want to do a trade for a personal shopper shabby chic decorator or handmade item maker I am your gal!