How's the zine going?

This week has been crazy. On Memorial Day I recorded a youtube video for Etsy's collection series, but I never edited and uploaded it. During the afternoon we went to see Indiana Jones...if you can imagine how excited my grandfather was to see it, check this out!

As for the movie...well....oh well. It was cool to be a part of the crowd that can be like "I REMEMBER GOING TO THE THEATER TO SEE LAST CRUSADE AND NOW IT'S SO COOL TO SEE INDY ON THE BIG SCREEN AGAIN" but the whole premise of the movie wasn't an Indy movie. More like Indiana Jones meets Ed Wood. Yikes. Though I definitely liked the part with the atomic bomb. As for Cate Blanchette, she was a lot better in Babel...if that gives you any idea. Nevertheless, it was worth it just for seeing my grandfather so happy! If you ever wanted to meet a true Indy, well, this is the guy who got me into urban exploring. Looks pretty good for 77! Can't wait to climb Lantern Hill with him this coming Father's Day.

As for the zine, I worked on it during my lunch breaks for the post office orientation this week. Got a lot of writing done, but I'm not sure I'll be able to finish up and crank this zine out by June 5. There's just so much work to be done, nevermind the fact I can't come up with a decent title or a good place to start it. I've just been writing ideas ALL week. It will come together.

So now the rest of the week: Post Office orientation! Holy Cow...here's what my schedule was like...
Tuesday: up at 5:30AM, left the house 6:15, arrived in New Haven 7:40. Left New Haven 4:00, returned home 5:30. 170 miles round trip.
Wednesday: see Tuesday. 170 miles again.
Thursday: Slept in! Awesome! Then got a phone call that I was supposed to be at Norwich PO Annex at for training at 8:30....well somewhere that call got missed. Got to Norwich 10:00, left 1:20, lunch at 2:30, headed to the Bella Earth in W. Warwick for 4:45, dropped off earrings and headed home for 6:15. Over 150 miles driven.
Friday: up at 4:45AM. Left the house 5:20, arrived in Hartford 6:15...had to be there for 7 but Hartford is funny in that if you don't beat the traffic in, you WILL be late. And if you beat the traffic, you're ridiculously early. Returned home 4PM, 102 miles round trip, promptly passed out.

Next week's schedule:
Monday: New Haven 8-12
Tuesday: Hartford 7-1
Wednesday-Friday: Putnam 8-4:30. Putnam will be the easy one (32 miles round trip, LOL).

The worst part about orientation is getting up that early and driving for an hour or more just to get to where I have to be. The good news is they'll pay me 50 cents per mile, minus the mileage between here and Norwich.

Sophie Saab needs a trip to the car doctor. Needs a new oxygen sensor, which I've known for about a month but have been putting it off because I don't know any good Saab mechanics locally, and it's going to cost a pretty penny just to fix the car. Yeah she runs. But she's eating gas because she's not well (she ranges between 20 and 26mpg, but I'd much rather see it in the 26mpg ALL THE TIME). So I'd better eat the repairs instead of putting it off and eating the gas. And she stalls on start up and backing a lot more often--yesterday some guy beeped and yelled at me because the car stalled 3 times while I was trying to back out of a parking spot and he wanted my spot. So I figure if people have road rage this bad, I better fix the car before someone shoots me through the head with a crossbow. The truth is that I don't trust any mechanics with my car. Not this one. And you wouldn't trust anyone with it either if you drove all the way to Boston just to get it!!! lol

Today is Mom's birthday...Happy Birthday MOM! Sushi for dinner tonight!

Memorial Day Weekend

Yesterday while I was making my rounds to the local Salvation Army I found an old veteran sitting next to his car with a big sign that says "HONK IF YOU SUPPORT OUR TROOPS". Hey, I might not agree with this war but I've had a family member serve over there and wish we would just bring them all home already. Did I beep? You bet.

So much to do before I start post office training on the 27th. No big family picnics, no big nothings going on actually. I have to run some earrings over to the shop I'll be consigning them to today. Not to mention hope to get gas for under $4/gallon, because here it's $4.05 (as of last night).

I'm really REALLY not looking forward to spending the money for gas to get to New Haven for my post office training. Yes, I'll be reimbursed for it...but in the meantime...I just hope I don't have to go to New Haven every day this week.

I'm going to be starting work on a new zine this weekend. It's going to be done by June 5. I've needed to make this zine for 2 years. I had made a related video in late 2006 and haven't really gotten the courage to show it to my family. I actually made it as part of a contest entry relating to My Chemical Romance's album the Black Parade (it was something like "Show us what the Black Parade means to you") and I've always wanted to make a longer video but felt I really couldn't.

Why is it always easier to show extremely personal stuff to strangers and not my own family? There was a story I'd written in 2002 called "Death of a Boy" which was about the death of one of my old friend's little brothers whom I hardly knew, and it sat online for 2 years till one of my family members stumbled upon it and showed it to his family. When I found out they all knew about it, I was absolutely terrified having to face them about it till I found out they were all happy with it. I ended up re-writing that story and posted it on lock-down in my livejournal. So I unlocked it this morning, if anyone wants to read it.

Death of a Boy

As for the video, it's the same deal now, only it's not "someone else's" family I'm worried about, it's my own. Even I can't believe I still keep it hidden from them. Maybe I should just release it and get it over with?

Changing my life

Something that getting laid off from ITema has taught me: to be more resourceful. It's more rewarding, more fulfilling, more fun than just floating along ignoring your world.

I have a lot to do as this is my last week before I start post office training, which I fear will make me completely disappear for the next couple weeks. Hopefully I'll have time to make a fantastic post with many pictures of bottle and Salvation Army finds, but today I need to make 10 pairs of clock hand earrings to put in consignment at the Bella Earth in West Warwick.

I've also had a very busy Etsy week, going on 5 sales this week alone. Business is picking up! Here's my tallies so far:

January: 2 sales
February: 9 sales
March: 9 sales
April: 12 sales
May: 8 sales so far

(What am I doing right?)

Etsy, "show me how you rock it" feature #2: Isabelle's Steampunk Prom!

I hadn't had a sale in a few weeks, which made me sad, until I got the order from Isabelle for Number 59 - Sunset Butterflies Clock Hand Earrings. At the bottom of the order was a note which read that she wanted to wear them to her prom the following Friday. She mentioned that she and her date, Harper, were going to go to the prom in steampunk style. These pictures are awesome, I'm so glad they had a great time! Isabelle wrote the following: "Thank you for making sure the earrings arrived on time. They went perfectly with the dress. Prom was absolutely amazing, especially since me and my date were fabulously steampunk. I hope you enjoy the pictures, I'm sorry I forgot to take a close up of the earrings, but they are visible in all the pictures (unfortunately, they take the back seat to my date's top hat in them, damn large accessories). I received lots of compliments on them throughout the night."

I particularly like this photo myself :D. (You rock!)

In other Steampunk news, I joined the Etsy Steam Team and we have a new blog. Check it out!

Creatively not having it lately

So the flea market is done (for now) and the auction is tonight. I'm still going, since the owners of the flea market will hopefully be selling me a kicking metal detector (as long as they remember to bring it). I used to have one of those crappy Radio Shack ones that didn't even work...proof that it didn't work was scouring the soccer field in 1997 when I lost a sterling silver ring, and didn't find it...yet the ring turned up 2 months later completely unharmed, and was found on the soccer field.

Gahhh. Sold that sucker metal detector at the next yardsale. This one is going to be a bit more expensive but with metal detectors, you really do get what someone else initially paid for ;).

Anyway, I spent this week jumping through post office hoops. Because if my carpal tunnel/ulnar neuropathy history they sent me for a physical on my dime. More like 1,760 dimes. Since when did simple physicals get so expensive? I could go into the details of how lame the physical was considering what I paid, but the doctor was nice and I got my clearance that the postal nurse required.

But I'll keep jumping through those hoops because if I flub this, I'm not going to have very nice things to say about myself, and the next time I go digging for bottles I'd probably bury myself in a ditch. LOL.

Next hoop to jump through: 90-minute driving test tomorrow in New London at 9:30. I'll admit I'm pretty nervous about it, sure I consider myself a very good driver, but I'll be the first to admit my driving scares everyone in my car. Just because I know what I'm doing doesn't mean others have much faith in me ;). And so what if I hit the curb every now and then ;). I'm kidding but I'm still nervous...and now I'm sick to boot. Either allergies or a cold, but I can't taste anything or breathe through my nose.

Maybe I over-did the digging this week. There was one sunny day (Tuesday) where I checked out a possible maybe on a new place to dig, and dug for 4 hours at the place I was digging last week. I was sneezing and coughing up all kinds of dirt, so I'd imagine that's what started it. I had some finds but didn't really take many pictures... I still need to clean & photograph last week's digs & finds too.

Tuesday night we raided the neighbor's front lawn because they had a bunch of boxes of free stuff, like old 45's and toys and stuff. Mom and I tore into those 45's like no tomorrow and we scored some awesome finds, like the Safety Dance. And there was much screaming when I found my favorite 80's song (below)...a little warped, but still plays perfect!


And then once Mom and I were done sorting out the warped records, we broke into our own 45's that we probably haven't played in 8 years but it was still tons of fun :).

One day we went to the Mystic Aquarium :).





We had such a lovely day. My grandparents took me (they have a lifetime membership so we get to go for free) and the weather was perfect too. :)

Edit: I just realized the title of this post has nothing to do with it. Mainly I was going to gripe about how little I've been inspired to write or make jewelry lately but I don't feel like it. lol. I sat in the flea market from 9-4 and everything I wrote, I ended up crossing out. I have to make a zine or something. Or just catch up in my journal. I'm getting so wrapped up in the thrill of doing stuff that I'm forgetting to write it all down.

Monday

So here's an update: I got the post office job!

And I went digging the day after I had food poisoning, I guess that was Wednesday but my mind is a bit fuzzy. I have to admit I was lazy the last part of last week and still haven't cleaned up the bottles that were dug that day. Some interesting ones popped out of the ground. :D

Today I'm moving out of the flea market. Maybe I'll head out to dig afterwards...I have several new places to check out from talking to people over the past week. Even Nick gave me a spot to go check out! This, coming from someone who I would think hates to get dirty...and last week you all should have seen me covered in dirt up to my ears...lol

Pictures coming eventually. I'm so busy today because moving out of the flea market will take a couple hours to pack up and leave...at the same time I get to leave some stuff there for the next people who are inhabiting the spot. I need some coffee...it's going to be a long day.