Tonight I got to have dinner with Krys to celebrate our shop. This weekend we'll be doing the Washington Womens Show, so we had plenty to talk about.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Day 76
Nothing much to report today, but I did take a photo of the lantern now that it's settled down a little bit - I wasn't expecting this change. And I like it even better - it's less pineapple and more draping hanging plant of some kind. In a few days I'll have lanterns to put in it and I'll be so excited to see what happens then.
Tonight I got to have dinner with Krys to celebrate our shop. This weekend we'll be doing the Washington Womens Show, so we had plenty to talk about.
Tonight I got to have dinner with Krys to celebrate our shop. This weekend we'll be doing the Washington Womens Show, so we had plenty to talk about.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Day 75
The long skinny one has been spaced out on steroids for the past few days. If you need Earl, this is where he is. All the frickin' time. But he's been eating like a horse and evacuating fine, so I'm just going to let him be - except when I pick him up and throw him out of the room on occasion just to get him to move around. He's also got dry mouth, which is kind of funny in a cat, in a sad way.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Day 74
Today was Dan's birthday! We spent the whole day together, breakfasting, going for a nice long walk, relaxing on the couch, going to lunch and dinner and a movie and generally having a wonderful day. Fitting for his 30th!
My next spike lamp will be made from many like these.
My next spike lamp will be made from many like these.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Day 72
One of the things I've so thoroughly enjoyed about being on this Facebook group of henna artists, is the little projects like a Valentines Day card exchange. My last card arrived today, from one of the premier henna artists in the United States!!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Day 70
Today it was vet day. Earl has been dealing with dermatitis, hardcore, and Chelsea has a lipoma that needed aspirating. The twitchy black cat gets to get pills every day for a few weeks, and the fat tubby mcfatso (she gained a POUND in a year!) is benign.
Both cats, posing for the camera...
Chelsea giving me the "oh no you DI'NT" look...
We got back home and she loves her box so much she hung out in it for another couple minutes before finally deciding it was ok for me to put it away...
And got plenty comfy on the couch tonight.
Both cats, posing for the camera...
Chelsea giving me the "oh no you DI'NT" look...
We got back home and she loves her box so much she hung out in it for another couple minutes before finally deciding it was ok for me to put it away...
And got plenty comfy on the couch tonight.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Day 69
One word for today: Rollercoaster
This morning when asked how my family was doing, the answer was "not too good." We had gotten news last week that my dad's t-cells were flaking out - especially his brothers'. What had been a great prognosis to begin with, and donor cells at 68% had suddenly turned bad, the cells plummeted down to 38%, his lungs had a huge mass so far down in there that they couldn't reach it through his air-ways. We were going to have to do another mini transplant that would increase his chance of getting acute Graft Vs. Host Disease up to **90%** and they weren't sure that the new dose of cells would fare any better then the old ones. This weekend my mom and I were gearing up for the worst, she was looking up papers and results of the studies they wanted to put my dad on, and fretting horribly. This morning he went in to get a fine needle aspirate at the UW, to see exactly what the big mass in his lungs is.
12 noon - scratch all that. Throw it all aside.
Earlier in the day we'd already gotten the news that (as per the CT scan for the FNA this morning) the mass had reduced down to 25% of it's size from last week. They canceled the procedure. Send him and my mom away. They came back to my house, my mom went in to work, and that's where she got the phone call that his donor cell percentage had gone up to 55%. Therefore the donor lymphosite infusion that they were going to do is unnecessary. Therefore his prognosis just shot through the roof.
And that's my story of the day. Down, then up! I came home after work and my dad and I spent hours playing Sports 2 on Kinect - he golfed (photos below), skied, played darts. Every time he'd get a good score, or hit a good golf swing, the game told him to "celebrate". He was dancing like a happy fool. And so was I.
This morning when asked how my family was doing, the answer was "not too good." We had gotten news last week that my dad's t-cells were flaking out - especially his brothers'. What had been a great prognosis to begin with, and donor cells at 68% had suddenly turned bad, the cells plummeted down to 38%, his lungs had a huge mass so far down in there that they couldn't reach it through his air-ways. We were going to have to do another mini transplant that would increase his chance of getting acute Graft Vs. Host Disease up to **90%** and they weren't sure that the new dose of cells would fare any better then the old ones. This weekend my mom and I were gearing up for the worst, she was looking up papers and results of the studies they wanted to put my dad on, and fretting horribly. This morning he went in to get a fine needle aspirate at the UW, to see exactly what the big mass in his lungs is.
12 noon - scratch all that. Throw it all aside.
Earlier in the day we'd already gotten the news that (as per the CT scan for the FNA this morning) the mass had reduced down to 25% of it's size from last week. They canceled the procedure. Send him and my mom away. They came back to my house, my mom went in to work, and that's where she got the phone call that his donor cell percentage had gone up to 55%. Therefore the donor lymphosite infusion that they were going to do is unnecessary. Therefore his prognosis just shot through the roof.
And that's my story of the day. Down, then up! I came home after work and my dad and I spent hours playing Sports 2 on Kinect - he golfed (photos below), skied, played darts. Every time he'd get a good score, or hit a good golf swing, the game told him to "celebrate". He was dancing like a happy fool. And so was I.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Day 68
I can't help having the feeling today that everything is going away. They've already taken away the Greenwood Market, and at the end of the week they're taking away MY Fred Meyer (anyone who knows the comfort of knowing EXACTLY where everything is in a store knows my pain. I've been going to this store since I can remember, and it was my go-to place when I was a teen, hell, even in my 20's. There's nothing quite like going somewhere that's so familiar, that makes so much sense just because you've been there for so many years. I've gone when I really just needed to relax, not necessarily to buy anything, but just to be surrounded by that which is familiar. Of course, since they tore down my highschool I felt like I needed a replacement...
I went there for the last time today. Just like the greenwood market, it was depressing as hell, all the lanes half full and nothing where it's supposed to be. Was anything I could do to get out of there...
I know in a way I'm projecting my stuffed feelings (Cancer is taking away my daddy) onto this relatively insignificant event, but it's still upsetting. :(
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Day 67
I enjoyed my walk around the farm today.
The ice storm had left a lot of damage. Whole trees were uprooted and large branches came down to destroy everything in their path. But such is nature, and it'll make for oodles of firewood.
The grass at the far end of the field was really cool looking - like a tan brown sea of frozen waves.
The ice storm had left a lot of damage. Whole trees were uprooted and large branches came down to destroy everything in their path. But such is nature, and it'll make for oodles of firewood.
The grass at the far end of the field was really cool looking - like a tan brown sea of frozen waves.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Day 66
I wandered down to Olympia today and hung out with my parents. Ed and his family were there when I arrived, and we had fun having lunch and exchanging stories. Then my mother and I went to get our nails done (I had my first pedicure since the summer.) and we all sat around and watched movies and ate dinner. Relaxing, troubling, not at all exciting. There's going to be a lot coming up, it's nice to have a few days before the storm.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Day 65
Happy Sweetie Day! 6 years ago today, Dan and I officially crossed the Rubicon and knew we were Sweeties. In honor, I got myself all dressed up and did my hair and makeup (Dan loves it when I wear contacts).
Earlier in the day, my Dad and I hung out. We went out for lunch, then went down to Golden Gardens and wandered around before it started raining hard. We discovered there are beavers down there, and a new playground too!
Earlier in the day, my Dad and I hung out. We went out for lunch, then went down to Golden Gardens and wandered around before it started raining hard. We discovered there are beavers down there, and a new playground too!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Day 64
Migraine. In bed since four. Guts better, back bad, labs inconclusive. Going to go curl back into a ball now kthxbye.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Day 63
Well, today is a day for celebration! It's the one year anniversary of my shop officially opening. It was still very much in the works, but I could (and did) receive clients at Latona one year ago today.
I was planning on going out to dinner with Krysteen this evening, however early this morning I started not feeling good, by mid morning I was at the doctors, and this afternoon and evening has been spent pretty much either on the floor or the couch. There's no diagnosis for my symptoms yet, we're waiting for the blood work to come back, but the unofficial summary is it could be Bladder, Liver, Pancreas, Intestine, Gall Bladder, Appendix, or Stomach. (Um...that's close to all the organs, right?) BUT I'm not pregnant. o_O
I also have severe back pain both in the lower back (I've been battling that for the past month or so) and the middle back, which has only really surfaced as this illness has surfaced as well. I feel like the mid back pain is a referred pain, but right now as I write this I essentially can't twist my torso beyond about 2 inches to the right. Um...not cool, ok?
I was planning on going out to dinner with Krysteen this evening, however early this morning I started not feeling good, by mid morning I was at the doctors, and this afternoon and evening has been spent pretty much either on the floor or the couch. There's no diagnosis for my symptoms yet, we're waiting for the blood work to come back, but the unofficial summary is it could be Bladder, Liver, Pancreas, Intestine, Gall Bladder, Appendix, or Stomach. (Um...that's close to all the organs, right?) BUT I'm not pregnant. o_O
I also have severe back pain both in the lower back (I've been battling that for the past month or so) and the middle back, which has only really surfaced as this illness has surfaced as well. I feel like the mid back pain is a referred pain, but right now as I write this I essentially can't twist my torso beyond about 2 inches to the right. Um...not cool, ok?
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Day 62
So something's been bothering me for a couple of days. I'm part of a group of henna artists on facebook, which I wander in and out of depending on how much time or interest I have to spend on them. A goodly portion of them are newbies, and then there are some who've been doing it for longer then I have. There are ones that, based off the photos they proudly post, have no business charging people as much as they do (or some of them even at all) and ones like Neeta Sharma and Kim Brennan who have at least a dozen books between them and are flown around the world to henna clients.
Anyway, back to what is bothering me. One of the frequent members of the group (who's not half bad, but lives in a small midwestern town) posted the other day
"Stupid question time:
When do you give up? When does it become time to just throw in the towel and move on to something else?"
And the first response (from someone who is also not half bad but hasn't been doing this for more then a couple years) was:
"Never. Never give up, never surrender, always eat the worm ;) the determined will inherit the earth!!"
While I appreciate the go-get-em sentiment, that comment (and the question in general) really really rubbed me the wrong way. The original poster went on to write that her winter was very slow (MANY people replied that it's ALWAYS slow for henna artists) and that she lost a lot of money last year.
So my response was slightly different then this, so as to not hurt the feelings of either of them, but the general feel was the same.
There CAN be an appropriate time to give up, and theres NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. There's a societal taboo against throwing in the towel, which turns us into slaves to jobs, ideas or goals that don't necessarily work. You have to weigh your pros and cons and CHANGE what you're doing, and again, there's nothing wrong with that. We have such a strong aversion to change in our society, and the idea that by changing we are FAILING. This is far from the truth.
If you are losing money in a business, (significant amounts of it, because we all know it is hard to start up a business and make money from the get go) if you are worried that you can't feed your family and that you are going down the wrong path, it's certainly time (long past due, actually) to re-evaluate whether this is the right thing to be doing. It might not be because you're not worthy of the title "henna artist". It might be because your clientele isn't there. It might be because you're spending your energy in the wrong places for marketing (or not doing it at all.) It might be because you're completely clueless what it means to run a business.
Whatever the reason is, it's not failure if you say "wow, I gave it a try, and it didn't work out. Now I'm going to do something else that will work for me." You can always continue to do what you love to do, but go get money some other way (MOST people do it this way.) This "Never give up" attitude will do nothing but drive you to despair, and it will RUIN the thing you love to do.
I am actually really proud of myself for starting up Red Wolf Reiki, getting a space to do it in, sticking it out for 8 months and then saying "you know what, I can't spend my energy on this AND henna, and I have more vested in the henna business so I'm going to set the reiki business aside." All I can think of from that time now is how much I'm happy that I didn't keep on paying money for a space that I wasn't able to devote time to, and that I was able to prioritize my goals and needs. I remember how I brought all this to Dan and explained it, and how he gave me that certain head-jerk expression that means he's surprised and said "Wow!" And he was proud of me.
Anyways, I just had to get this off my chest. I did post a couple of times on the thread for the original question (it turned out she was just fishing for "pick me ups" and compliments) but it wasn't satisfactory enough for me.
Anyway, back to what is bothering me. One of the frequent members of the group (who's not half bad, but lives in a small midwestern town) posted the other day
"Stupid question time:
When do you give up? When does it become time to just throw in the towel and move on to something else?"
And the first response (from someone who is also not half bad but hasn't been doing this for more then a couple years) was:
"Never. Never give up, never surrender, always eat the worm ;) the determined will inherit the earth!!"
While I appreciate the go-get-em sentiment, that comment (and the question in general) really really rubbed me the wrong way. The original poster went on to write that her winter was very slow (MANY people replied that it's ALWAYS slow for henna artists) and that she lost a lot of money last year.
So my response was slightly different then this, so as to not hurt the feelings of either of them, but the general feel was the same.
There CAN be an appropriate time to give up, and theres NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. There's a societal taboo against throwing in the towel, which turns us into slaves to jobs, ideas or goals that don't necessarily work. You have to weigh your pros and cons and CHANGE what you're doing, and again, there's nothing wrong with that. We have such a strong aversion to change in our society, and the idea that by changing we are FAILING. This is far from the truth.
If you are losing money in a business, (significant amounts of it, because we all know it is hard to start up a business and make money from the get go) if you are worried that you can't feed your family and that you are going down the wrong path, it's certainly time (long past due, actually) to re-evaluate whether this is the right thing to be doing. It might not be because you're not worthy of the title "henna artist". It might be because your clientele isn't there. It might be because you're spending your energy in the wrong places for marketing (or not doing it at all.) It might be because you're completely clueless what it means to run a business.
Whatever the reason is, it's not failure if you say "wow, I gave it a try, and it didn't work out. Now I'm going to do something else that will work for me." You can always continue to do what you love to do, but go get money some other way (MOST people do it this way.) This "Never give up" attitude will do nothing but drive you to despair, and it will RUIN the thing you love to do.
I am actually really proud of myself for starting up Red Wolf Reiki, getting a space to do it in, sticking it out for 8 months and then saying "you know what, I can't spend my energy on this AND henna, and I have more vested in the henna business so I'm going to set the reiki business aside." All I can think of from that time now is how much I'm happy that I didn't keep on paying money for a space that I wasn't able to devote time to, and that I was able to prioritize my goals and needs. I remember how I brought all this to Dan and explained it, and how he gave me that certain head-jerk expression that means he's surprised and said "Wow!" And he was proud of me.
Anyways, I just had to get this off my chest. I did post a couple of times on the thread for the original question (it turned out she was just fishing for "pick me ups" and compliments) but it wasn't satisfactory enough for me.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Day 61
Man, I could really do without these roller coaster days.
My dad still groggy from anesthesia.
My dad still groggy from anesthesia.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Day 60
After my productivity yesterday, I took the day off today. I laid in the bed for long hours, trying to fix my back. I spent hours cooking good food from scratch. I spent a bit of time on festival applications, I spent a bit of time cleaning the house for my parents to come stay tomorrow. But mostly...I hung out with Superman Blue Cat. (He LOVES the light box.)
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Day 59
When my cats do this, it makes me ball my heart into a super-dense little mass of joy, because if I let out how happy it makes me to see them being so adorable, they'd freak out and the moment would be gone.
Also, I love it when Earl sits like this...
Also, I love it when Earl sits like this...
Friday, February 10, 2012
Day 58
Being immersed in all these words, comforting motivating words, has been a bit of a life saver today. I cleaned my house, with much screaming and cursing and back-aching, and then I went down to the shop and relaxed into my mandala. I've been enjoying the large size of the piece, and the repetitive motion of the detail work. Soon enough I'll be starting in on the written words. In the meantime, I've been jotting notes and soon will start writing what will be the booklet to go along with it...
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Day 56
The new painting and the resulting project around it is coming along nicely. Here's a sketch I made to help myself organize the mandala, including some of the ideas for the book.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Day 51
This is the view from the 14th (and top) floor of my building this morning. Excuse the reflection on the window. 
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Day 50
Today is groundhogs day. How do I celebrate? By seeing similarities in yesterday...
...and today.
(and I think it's funny that I relate "repeating the same day over and over again" to groundhogs day more then I do the actual "6 more weeks of winter" thing. Seattle doesn't play by Phil's rules. Ever. We ALWAYS have 6 more *months* of grey.)
...and today.
(and I think it's funny that I relate "repeating the same day over and over again" to groundhogs day more then I do the actual "6 more weeks of winter" thing. Seattle doesn't play by Phil's rules. Ever. We ALWAYS have 6 more *months* of grey.)
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Day 49
This year is one of new good habits, am I right? And now for some pretty photos of today's sky. 
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