too much?

thank you for all your kind replies to my last post!  i was positively giddy at work today, and even though i have to wait almost a whole month (boo!) to move into my new cubicle, it feels good to know that i'm not doomed to answer phones forever.  hooray!

to celebrate, i just booked a slightly fancy hotel for D and i this saturday night.  i can't recall the last time we had a grown-up, romantic date night, and now just seemed like the time.  we have something to celebrate, it's before the real tourist season makes everything in town crazy expensive, and a night to ourselves just sounds like fun.  in the other house, when i was working at the hospital, we were spoiled with more afternoon alone time.  i forget that being just alone with him is a good time, and i'm not just talking sexy-time.  honest! the hotel is in downtown anacortes, where we can walk around for dinner and spend sunday goofing off.  i've always been a huge fan of anacortes (remember when i lived there?), and while i've lived in the area most of my life, i've never stayed at the majestic, so that will be fun. 

needless to say, i'm feeling pretty good about stuff right now. 

i got it!

i found out today i got the new position i applied for a few weeks ago!  more than anything, i'm glad that interview didn't just feel good but went well.  there's also the not-so-small fact that i will be making considerably more money, and get to do a lot more of the parts of my job i really enjoy, with less phone call answering.  to me, that is a bonus.  there are a few parts of my job that i seriously dig, which involve researching issues and crafting emails, and i will be doing a lot more of that. 

i also feel good to have made this kind of move up in the ranks.  i don't think i would have been this motivated or encouraged to do more at work if i didn't have a few people at home pushing me gently.  the support i get at home has really changed the way i view work.  i still feel weird thinking of anything as a "career" but from the very beginning i thought of this job as a great opportunity to do more.  i just took it seriously in a way i haven't taken anything in a while. i'm so glad i did. some of it was small things, like making sure i dressed up every day, and trying to learn as much as i could all about the different parts of my company, and some of it was definitely attitude based. i honestly think of this job as valuable, in that i have a real, direct effect on people's lives, often in a positive way.  i'll be in my current position for another month while i make the transition and tie up my own loose ends, and then! i get to move to a bigger and better cubicle, and listen to music while i work, and not have to log out of the phone when i have to pee.  delightful!

keeping up with the jones'

i had the greatest conversation today with my across-the-street neighbor.  she's an older lady, with kids my age up through D's age, and a grandkid about the girlchild's age as well.  she's super nice, and i always see and her husband out working on stuff in the yard and being generally adorable.  today i ran into her when i got home, and we started talking about all the lovely weather, and i showed her what we're working on in the garden, and she was super surprised to know that i sew and knit and all that stuff.  i told her that i had my own little nook for it, and that there was pretty much always something going on over here.  she seemed super excited to hear that.  she also told me about her luck with blueberries and how she and her husband had a bumper crop last year so now i want to make my own hedgerow of blueberry bushes!  it was such a nice talk, i'm so glad she stopped to say hi today.  i really love this neighborhood.

there was also a chance i'd hear about the job as soon as today, but alas, it was not to be.  so i guess i have a few more days to worry about it!  although right now i'm trying to stay perky, and remind myself at least i didn't for sure not get it, right?  i'm still in the running for all i know!

more sewing

remember how i said a while ago i thought D wouldn't be stoked with all the sewing going on?  i was totally wrong. he's even talked about putting up a table in our bedroom just for fabric cutting, so i don't have to do it on the iron.  i mean, the ironing board is an okay place to cut small pieces, but it's a bit wibbly-wobbly and sometimes the lines aren't as straight as i'd like. i thought it was really nice of him to accommodate me like that, and he said he just likes how happy i am when i'm sewing.  plus, he thinks i'm good at it.  i love that man.  moreover, i love living in a home where this kid of stuff, making things, is so appreciated and encouraged.  we're our own arts and crafts studio over here.  i need to have people over more for making stuff! 

interview!

a position opened up at work that sounded super interesting, so i applied for it.  like every job at work, i had to take a test after the application (to show off my awesome typing skills and researching abilities) and for a week i worried about passing it.  when i was taking it, i felt okay, but then i started worrying about being dumb and maybe it felt easy because i wasn't getting the questions, etc.  my brain is a real asshole sometimes.  in any case, i passed the test and they scheduled the interview for this week.  i had it this morning, and thought it went really well.  i felt fortunate that one of the interviewers was part of my original hire interview, so i kind of already knew how she asked questions.  i won't know until next week if i got the job, but even if i don't , i'm pretty sure i didn't totally embarrass myself.  working in this new department would be a lot of fun; it's a lot more research and written communication, the pay is a bit better, and i'd be on the phones a lot less.  if you feel like crossing fingers for me, i won't be offended! 

coasters

well hello, totally adorable way to use up fabric scraps.  i played around with some bits of leftover fabric and my machine this afternoon, and after a few false starts i finally figured out how to make some cute coasters.  i wanted one for work, because i use a big stainless cup that leaves terrible marks all over my desk. also, for catching drips, of course.  i want to make a billion of them now, though, so if you end up getting some for xmas, please pretend to be surprised. 

ugh, selfies

 i got new glasses!  again!  my health insurance is pretty good about glasses; i get $250 a year for hardware, so i use it.  i've said this before, and i'll say it again: when you wear glasses every day, and are a girl who likes to accessorize, then you will end up owning a lot of pairs of glasses.  there is nothing wrong with this.  these ones are ridiculous and i love them.  they were on sale at paris miki, so the frames were only $40.  for that kind of money, i can afford to look like a hipster doofus.  D calls them my "shop glasses," and he's right; if they had the bits on the side to keep splinters from flying into my eyes, they would good for wood working.  he's not a huge fan of them, but he likes my face, so he's learning to adjust.

these are the fancy, name brand pair i bought.  ray-bans! i love them because they're two tone, kind of cat's eye shaped, and a bit larger in the lens area.  i've been liking that in glasses lately.  i've worn about a billion pairs of smaller glasses, and they are cute, but sometimes it's nice to have a gigantic field of vision.  these are the ones that D actually likes, of course. 

still reading tons of comics from the convention, along with dune.  i've never actually read that, and it's come to my attention that i really should.  being at the convention also got me kind of hyped up to make more comics, so i've been trying to do more of that.  honestly, though, i have so many things going on!  the sewing/quilting, the reading, the drawing, and the hangover i am currently nursing.  someone thought vodka sounded delightful last night.  i have a pizza on the way, i'm going to watch a movie, and then maybe take a nap.  hooray!

johnny boo!

yes, look at johnny boo, the cutest ghost on earth.  this is one of the comics i bought this weekend, mainly for my niece, but you know i read it too!  it's a sweet little story, about johnny and his pet ghost squiggle, and eating ice cream and a monster they think is mean but who really isn't.  the colors are bright and the images undeniably adorable, and at 7 i think maggie will be able to read most of it herself.  i bought all of the johnny boo books they had there, which was everything but the halloween one.  she's getting one today, and the rest throughout the year.  added bonus: if she digs them, she'll read them to calvin and he'll get into comics and my mission to innoculate all my nieces and nephews will be complete!

i love comics for kids because it encourages them to read for fun.  i think once that becomes a habit, they read more and more for pleasure, not just because they "have" to.  it's true that i'm biased about comics, though.  i never realized how reading them as a kid was so influential later.  i mainly read archie comics (superhero comics in the 80s were really very macho), and then about 12 i discovered mad magazine, which was disgusting and wonderful.  to this day i think lying down on the floor with a comic book is about the best way to spend an afternoon.  kids who get to read comics like to draw, and learn about the interplay between visual and verbal communication, and spend time engaged in important imaginative thought.  they are also just a good time.  they can be art or they can be just big dumb fun, like anything.  what's more fun than spending a happy afternoon with a kid and a comic book, though? not much. 

comicon!

 these two handsome young men and i went to the emerald city comicon this year!  we went for all three days, and i will admit, it was both amazing and exhausting and holy shit i'm glad to be home. 

 i didn't take nearly as many photos as i normally do.  in fact, the entire three days i took 19 pictures.  which is crazy.  when we have an outing during the day here i can come home with upwards of a hundred!  it was just really packed with people, all the time, and visually overwhelming for me.  there wasn't an inch of space that didn't have something cool on it, in it, walking through, you get the the idea. 

this is maybe a third of the stuff i bought.  part of me thinks "oh my god amanda!" and part of me is happy i can support comic book artists and writers.  while i bought some stuff from artists i knew, i also picked up a fair amount of of things from people i had never even heard of.  seriously talented, nice, wonderful people.  that was probably my favorite thing about the con; getting to talk to the person who made the book you're looking at.  asking them questions, talking about things they're into, learning about books/writers/stuff that is brand new to you.  i met so many great people making cool stuff it was ridiculous.  i feel all inspired to do and make and create things now, and to hunt down some more of the new artists i was lucky enough to meet.

one of the highlights of the weekend for me was meeting kc green, of gunshow the webcomic.  i love this guy's work SO MUCH.  i couldn't find him the first day, but the boychik and his friend knew where he was so they brought me right to him the next day.  he signed my books and did sketches for me, and one of the things that that really made it awesome for me was when i asked him to make the sketches "extra satanic."  he came through, as you can see.

honestly, spending three days with a huge mass of people who are into the same kinds of comics, movies, music and art that i love felt good.  being able to go to back to our tiny hotel room at night and watch cartoons and read comics and order pizza with the boys was even more awesome.  it was a great vacation.  i can't wait to do it again next year!