The Monkey And The Plywood Violin

I got tired early last night and crashed by about 11, apparently doing a really poor job of closing the rat cage. About an hour later, I woke to the distinctive sound of a rodent trying to eat my bed. Midnight rat chase ended up scaring rat seriously, and I now have several really exciting holes in my hand (not really bleeding anymore, mostly just sore, etc, but the mess was impressive.) Eventually I got everything cleaned up and went back to sleep.

At 4:30 am, my girlfriend butt-dialed me. Twice.

Typing is an adventure today, but at least it's possible. Drawing is probably right out, unless I'm like Yuko from Johnny Wander and suddenly develop Secret Left Hand Powers.

1. I am very tired. I blame this in part on moving stress, in part on the greyness, and in part on how bad my sleep has been lately. No insomnia, no nightmares, but plenty of stress dreams. Also a bit on frustration at several difficult to alter situations that are rather important, and at people treating my friends badly.

2. My rat is sick. Vanya has been losing weight and seeming anti-social for a while, but I thought it was because Petya was routinely bullying him and the Romans kept stealing his food. Fighting started early last night and Vanya got moved to his very own cage. When I woke up this morning, he was lethargic, hadn't eaten and didn't object to me picking him up. One vet visit later, I have the standard cocktail of Baytril and Doxycycline, which he's to get 2x day for the next two weeks. I hope that it works; sick rats tend to improve significantly or go downhill fast, with little to no middle ground.

3. I did no real work today. It really seems as though I ought to feel guiltier about that, but see #s 1 and 2. Also, I did just finish a giant job last night and am something like 3/4 of a week ahead, reduced slightly after rat expenditure. Hopefully I will perk up a bit this evening. There are light bulbs to change out, floors to scrub, dishes to stuff in boxes. M minus 4 days.

4. Sweater coat is well underway. I've managed to get the skirt lining 1/3 finished, which sounds less impressive than it is. This coat will have a double-circle skirt and all the pieces are hand-hemmed, then whipped together, because the fabric in that construction fails before the stitches do and I want this thing to last forever. Am terribly afraid that my aesthetic sense is going to demand the chevron pattern on the outside. It would look lovely, but take a gazillion years. Will post design drawings when i figure out what the heck I want.

5. I am pretty sure I have done permanent damage to my face. When I look in the mirror I have pretty much textbook rosacea, down to the strange proto-acne. I am lucky in that my case is currently very mild and localized to the center and outside of my cheeks. However, this is a progressive condition that you can't make better. Controlling the damage is about the best option and the best way to do that is by keeping the skin unflushed and unirritated. For the past four or five years I've also been having weird mini-fever things that turn me pink, elevate my temperature slightly, make me tired and anxious and produce back pain. These happen semi-weekly, daily on occasion. Still not sure why, currently investigating possible food intolerance. So that's fun.

What a difference the light makes. I woke up late to sunlight streaming in my window, and I have energy to Do Things. I have two applications out to new writing gigs, one of them even reasonably prestigious. I may have solved one of my fiction writing problems and expect to experiment with it this afternoon.

Things learned:
- I hate cover letters
- After 15 years, my resume actually looks pretty darned good - even in chronological format. This is startling.

Sun is delicious, one-eyed jacks are delicious. Rats are not delicious, but they are adorable and playing on my bed. I have hopes for a good day.

And I feel fine.

Ok, so that's a lie, really. I feel like a soggy bag of potatoes, but votcha gonna do? Creativity is at a nadir, days are both passing slowly and disappearing with great speed, and I seem to be plaguey on top of it. sfogarty is coming in at 2 pmish on the 21st, though, and the apartment needs cleaning! Also, bread needs made (and it's a good indicator of how much better I am this year that I can not only make bread, but wash all the dishes just 2 days before the solstice. )

What I do seem to be able to do is sew. And thus I have made my yearly mega fabric orders to keep myself tolerably dressed. It helps if I keep my closet not-too-full, so I am putting some guarding on the hems of a few skirts to extend their useful lives, rather than make new ones. Also making some winter presents and some nice underthings from a small bolt of habotai and organizing the sewing basket. I need to find someone wispy and faery-like to use my collection of bedraggled lace on. It's lovely stuff, age-stained in ways that people elaborately tea-dye to mimic, but it doesn't work on me. Perhaps I can incorporate it into Miss Havisham's Window Dressing. When you can do naught else: sew!

I did get all my commission emails replied to, however. Because working to spec is a completely different process than having to come up with ideas, commissions are actually much more doable, even when I'm batty. They let me get my fingers all in the paint without having to fret over whether something is conceptually good.

Had to separate poor Hector-rat from the others. Pyotr was beating the crap out of him, and Hector is too old and amiable to have to put up with that. May try to integrate the Tsars and Aeneas, though - 3 cages for 4 rats is just silly.

The radiators in the building have only two temperatures this year: "Naked!" and "Shiver under all the blankets." I find this disappointing to say the least.

Hope you're all okay out there. Don't let the winter eat you.

As of this afternoon, Aeneas, my little brown shelter rat, has his own digs. He's not happy about this, but he's going to have to spend some quality time in Rat Jail, since he and I have a strong disagreement about how many holes there should be in the other rats. He hit six months and decided that the entire cage was his territory. Cue progressively bigger rat fights and squeaking that can wake me up through earplugs. Eventually, queue nasty bleeding all over the cage. I'm unwilling to spend the ~$250-$300 it'd take to neuter him, especially since rat surgeries are tricky at best, so he gets to live on his own until he can stop being a jerk. The other two are squabbling lightly, but it's just the usually "turn over the other rat, then sit on him" stuff.

In other news, things have been quiet over here because I've been distracted by fabric. In the interests of eventually having less stuff, and because my current wardrobe is kinda sad, I'm going through my fabric stash and making things into useful clothes. This is the roundabout way to get rid of fabric, of course, but it seems to be working. I now have two partial blouses to replace one two that only fitted so-so and where the fabric had worn so thin it wasn't holding stitches anymore. One of them is complete except for sleeves, which will be added when I dig down to that other chunk of black linen. The other one just requires a lot of sewing. I also have a new summer skirt/petticoat out of light silk habotai, which needs dyeing, cause white isn't going to last.

Once I'm done, perhaps I'll take pictures. And maybe someday, I'll post them. Given that I have plenty of ancient photos sitting on my camera which I've not bothered to put up.

And now, more rat bothering!

Don't worry, the two aren't related. I completed a minor project last night, which had been waiting around for about six months, since the first time I flaked on it. So, of course, I hate most of it and went into the Art Angst Spiral. I've pulled out of the despair section (mostly) and have entered the grim "guess you'd better get to work" portion instead.

Let's see if it'll last through this day's quota of nonfic writing to become either fiction or visual art. At the moment, yanno, I'm a failure, and merely mediocre at everything, and I ought to have specialized and become really good at something, so as to be marketable. Also, I should be less of a flake. (No, I don't need anyone to come talk me down off anything. This is just a case of the hacks. They happen, usually immediately following completion of a project).

In rat news, I adopted a baby from the shelter about a week ago. He's my dominant-gene rat - standard coat agouti top-eared, or about as wild-type as a domestic rat can be. He's also half the sizeof my biggest older boy, shiny, friendly, and incredibly hyperactive. I have named him Aeneas, as he's a later, unrelated addition to Paris and Hector. Right now I have all three of them out, and have discovered that three rats constitutes a swarm. I have Lap: the Scampering. Photos if I ever remember to take and upload them.

Back to work!

In a week, I get to have these:
( Read more... )

Have been cryptic here recently because of the rushing around. For anyone curious on the status of my colony:( Read more... )

Clearly, I won't be updating every day, the way I'd hoped. It's too easy to get distracted by work and other things which must be done. However, I'll try to keep up a reasonably frequent schedule of weird stuff. No promises on specifics, especially since I'm headed to Houston as of Wednesday, and won't be back for a week. In good news, I've finally managed to set up my electronics shelves and will be able to disassemble the big printer and also scan the pre-Gencon work I've been sitting on.

I haven't added many new projects to my roster at the moment, at least, not ones that are at a point for blogging about. Therefore, have some photos of something I've already done! ( Wardrobe trunk! )