... a deviant path is the only way ...

Just got back from the Imperative Reaction, God Module, and System Syn concert at Numbers in Houston. It was awesome! I also enjoyed my first experience of Numbers. I love goth bois: All dolled up as I was, *no one* approached me or spoke to me unless I spoke to them first (in order, the merch guy, the lead vocalist for God Module, the parking lot attendant. Oh, one guy did ask me the name of one of God Module's songs. I guess he thought I was previously well-acquainted with their music :-D ).

( Review of Numbers/Triptych concert )

So, at work we've had a bunch of skunks living under my booth, and on Tuesday one of the site crew guys figured out where their nest was. He called his boss, and at the end of the work day, the site foreman came over and removed them. Texas style. The mother and three juveniles were killed, and the father and one juvenile got away. They pulled up four floorboards to remove the bodies, and should be putting those back in place this morning. My shop reeked. The site crew guy showed me his special solution for removing the oil and odor (three parts water to one part each of bleach, degreaser, and tequila). I've put about five gallons of the mix into the floor, so hopefully it smells better today. I've put out a number of bowls of vinegar to help absorb the smell as well, and since I can't use vinegar on the crowns, I'll be making up a vodka solution to deodorize ribbons and velvet. I was also directed to speak to the wonderful people at Crystal Mountain, and they supplied me with a cup or so of orange oil to help mask and residual scent this weekend.

I had an awesome time at the VNV Nation/Ayria concert last night. Alas, for some silly reason Ayria is the first of the two openers, and we ended up getting to the Gothic halfway through their set, but I dashed to the dance floor and thrashed around to the last four songs in their set. The other opener was not my thing - War Tapes is rather more traditional rock and not at all danceable (or, at least, my kind of danceable). Then VNV rocked of course. Ronan spent a lot of time chatting between songs, exhorting the YouTube junkies to stop watching the concert from their video cameras and watch it in real life, telling the pot-smoker in the audience that it smells like burning piss to him, and even dropping back into an Irish accent when introducing Illusion. After the concert I bought Ayria's 2-disc Flicker, and then left right away, because I didn't really want to wait in line with 50 people to get it autographed.

The after party at the Church was a lot of fun. I did a lot more dancing, and I was able to tell Jennifer I want to see Ayria headline the next tour.

Reading: I finally got to the Holmes story of The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, and was a tad disappointed (though not surprised) to find there was nothing supernatural to it. I've been on the waiting list for a few other books at the library and probably won't get any of them before I leave, alas.

Weekwork is getting rolling. I'm less than pleased with the sewing I'm doing - my boss is too busy to slow down to explain the details of what she wants me to do, so it's all been trial and error. I'm only going to sew one new cloak this week, make certain it's right, and then I'll probably only do maybe 5 a week after that, just so there aren't many more of these issues. And besides, why would I want to work a lot for a crazy lady when I can work for awesome laid back artists?! I've cut some mats for prints and they've mentioned possibly 1) stretching canvases, 2) making little hanging thingies on commission, and 3) doing airbrush tattoos for parties next year.

You all rock! Have a wonderful day!

FYI for socraticlaughtr and starlyn_monster: Lycia is going to be playing their first concert in a decade on January 3rd.

Well, unless something comes up last minute for New Year's Eve, I'm done babysitting for the time being. My family (...?) decided to cut their vacation in half because the 2 year old wasn't reacting to the climate well. So, I got tipped groceries to feed a family of four for a week (yay Trader Joe's!), and have an open invitation to stay in their guest house should I ever find myself in LA. If I go I'll have to make sure to bring the little girl fairy wings.

I'm sad to see them go. It was interesting, and strange, to be involved with children like that. I could see myself in a potential future helping to raise a child, I think. What was really strange was singing the children the same bedtime song as my mother sang me.

So, the big news is that I leave on Monday to spend the next three weeks in Santa Fe, NM. I'm going to be sewing and organizing for the owner of Flying Cloud Trading Co, as well as doing a few babysitting jobs over the holidays. It's going to be an interesting three weeks - I've only been to Santa Fe once before, for Cindy's graduation from St John's, and never in the winter, so mountain living is going to be interesting for the next few weeks... also, I have yet to encounter my boss at a time when she's not frantic, so that will be interesting... if it's really bad, I can always come back to Texas. Or go to AZ early.

And speaking of Cindy, she is coincidentally going to be flying into Houston tomorrow, so I get to spend one of my last nights in Texas hanging out with her! We haven't gotten to hang out for years! Yay!

So... plans for the next week or so:
Today: Clean condo in Houston for new boss
Tomorrow: pack trunk, backseat, front passenger seat. Dinner with Cindy
Sunday: Entheon's birthday buffet at Madras Pavilion. finish packing kitchen into car topper.
Monday: leave. drive 10 hours or so to Amarillo, get a hotel.
Tuesday: Get to bosses home (how do I punctuate that?) early afternoon, let myself in, get settled.
Wednesday: Babysit for one of her friends.
Thursday: day off. do some sewing, cleaning, maybe join the xmas crowd for a movie.
Friday: Meet the mother for my primary babysitting gig, babysit in evening
Saturday: Babysit in evening.

My project for my sewing boss is to make these nifty reversable hats out of old sweaters. For Dickens on the Strand, I also made a bunch of muffs, which ended up 1-2" too small, grr. But anyway, I also combined the projects, and made these gorgeous matched hat/muff sets. I hope the people who get them love them as much as I do! (Especially the one on the left! I love that dark starred pattern!)

It's a rather odd feeling to be homeless.

I know I'm not really homeless - my mother's house is always open to me, and I have my tent and car, but the feeling I had after turning in my keys to my landlord... of not having a permanent home base... very odd.

Well, I haven't really given you guys a proper update in quite a while, so put on your reading glasses - this one is going to be a doozy.

I am now permanently out of my apartment. No more landline, no more regular internet access, no more refrigerator even. The current plan is to spend about half the week in my tent, and then on Wed and Thurs nights stay at my mom's - Wed night gaming goes until midnight, and I have class on Thurs nights. But, we'll see. I'm already getting tired of the 75 minute commute from site to work, so I may end up staying at my mother's more often.

I do have a cell phone now. I was originally going to go on a family plan with Verizon, but it turns out that between my mother and my brother, they come within an hour of the plan allotment, so bumping up the minutes plus the addition of a second line would have been $40/month and for that I figured I should just get my own plan. So I went with AT&T because that way I can take advantage of the free in-network calling to my boss.

Which brings me to the next big thing... Ernesto kicks so much ass! First weekend he introduced me to a woman he knew from Texas... she was running a new booth here at MNRF, and looking for more employees as they are expanding their shops, particularly roadies, with an eye towards future managers... *grins*

So, I'll be working at The New World Crafts, and hopefully managing soon, as well. They sell lovely wooden items - bowls, plates, vases, etc, as well as carved fruits, flowers, and animals. They're all made from South American woods like ebony and purpleheart and others that I'll learn the names of soon, and usually many woods are incorporated into the same piece.

So, that's my *really* big news. It's also the driving force behind my getting a cell: When I assumed I'd just be a shop slave somewhere, I couldn't really see how having a cell phone would be all that important. Managing though, is an entirely different story!

*grins*

*crosses fingers*

So, wish me luck on that... I know I'm looking forward to it... it's neat and exciting, but scary too.

Other news...

I changed my cars oil on Friday, and she has a name now too.

I still have *way* too much stuff... now I'm going to need to spend a good bit of time weeding out crap from what I'll be bringing on the road... at the moment it looks like I have my tent, sleeping bag and mattress, 2 tubs, a backpacking backpack, and a couple grocery bags of stuff, which is far too much.

I'm looking forward to having work and class done and over with so I can only have a few things in my life... *nods* much less confusing, much less stressful. One hopes.

I'm sure there're other things I could update on, but I spent 20 minutes trying to compose a short email on my cell phone, and my brain is kinda fried... feel free to ask me about anything I missed!