Tale of a Shooting Star…

You know, I’m just extremely proud to be able to say that. I can’t put it into words, but it’s quite a feeling. There was actually a line extending out the door of our polling place, which I have to say is a first for me to see. I was also pleasantly surprised at the number of young people who showed up to vote. Another first. It’s nice to see that there actually ARE young people in our little district. 😉

Let’s see, what else is going on? Well, yesterday was the beginning of week 5 of my current 5.5 week long Perspective drawing course. I have 100% in the class so far, but that just gives me a little wiggle room for the home stretch. This last week is going to be pretty brutal, with my final project due just one week from today. Huh? How’d that happen? Eeek! Time to buckle down.

Next up is Drawing. I placed a bunch of orders yesterday, for drawing supplies, books and software. I don’t need the software yet, but Adobe just released CS4 of their products, due to ship this month, and the school’s software store is offering the old version (3.3) to ship now, plus a free upgrade to CS4 when it comes out. You can’t really beat that, plus the $1500 savings on the software package doesn’t hurt, either. But that’s the standard academic pricing. Practically worth the price of admission in order to get academic pricing on software alone. Okay, not really, but you know what I mean.

Not much else to report today. I have all of my current project photos from my Perspective class uploaded to my gallery, so I’ll start slipping in some posts with pictures here and there to add some interest. For now, though, I think I’m going to lay down. I’m home today and not feeling the greatest, so methinks a little nap is in order.

Yes, it’s true. The rumors of my complete abandonment of blogging are untrue. I’ve just been as busy as a bee lately. Between work, school and some issues I’ve had lately with excessive sleeping, I just haven’t had much time for… well, ANYTHING! 😆 I just happen to have a little bit of time today to catch my breath at work, so I thought that I would blog. I owe some pictures of the work I’ve been doing for my art classes, so I’ll try to post that in bits sometime in the near future, if at all possible.

So, one week ago today was my birthday. Thank you for the birthday wishes for those who remembered. It’s kinda hard to remember when I don’t put my countdown ticker up, I know. Sorry about that. See above about that busy stuff. 😉 Anyway, Terry got me a Wii Fit so that I can work on improving my balance, plus exercise in a more fun and interesting way, plus practice my yoga moves. He also got me a kit to make my own paper. Yes, I can make my own paper and cardstock now. We went out the next day and bought some more goodies to go with it, like mica powder for some lovely shine, iridescent flakes for sparkle and flower petals for some added interest. I’ve stopped for now because I need to create some sort of setup that will allow me to press dry the sheets instead of ironing them because ironing curls the paper. So, I have 3 sheets and 1 envelope of only semi-usable paper sitting upstairs. Okay, 1 envelope, 1 sheet of paper, 1 sheet of cardstock and 1 sheet of something in between. I’m enjoying this way of recycling paper from my shredder, though!

First of all, let me just say hi! I’m still here and kicking; I’m just very busy with school and work right now and it’s leaving me no time for stitching, blogging or any other extra-curricular activities. I will try to do better than to blog once a month, though. I just can’t guarantee that I’ll have anything to say. 😉

Anyway, on to my topic for the day. I’ve been thinking of writing to Dr. Phil for years about my relationship (or complete lack thereof) with my brother, asking for help. Well, I finally scrolled through their list of upcoming show ideas and I submitted my information. I really, really hope that someone will contact me because my family sure could use some serious help. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it here because I don’t like to air our dirty laundry, but I will say that I haven’t seen my brother in over a decade and I have never met my sister-in-law, my niece or my nephew. I would have to look up the birthdates of my niece and nephew, but I think that they are about 10 and 8 years old now. My brother refuses to speak to me, our mother or our father. We’re not even 100% positive where he lives. It’s just a pretty sad situation for our family, as we all three miss him a lot.

BTW, for those of you who live outside of the U.S., Dr. Phil is a psychologist who is on t.v. everyday and helps people across the country with their issues. He has a lot of resources at his disposal to be able to find and reach people that no one else can, so I really think he might be able to help.

We could really use this kind of help, so if you feel so inclined, I would appreciate your positive energy and good thoughts towards getting the Dr. Phil show involved so that we can resolve this mess.

A new era of education begins today. Yes, it’s my first day at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Online Division. Otherwise known as the Art Institute Online. We have two chapters to read this week and 3 assignments, one due Friday, one on Sunday and the third on Monday. I guess this really is going to be an aggressive timeline! I’ve already completed all part of the first assignment and “handed in” the first part of the second assignment. I even started on the third assignment, but I think I need to read the book to figure out the rest of that assignment.

In my haste to get everythign completed and turned in, I forgot that I have to participate 4 out of 7 days a week, so I really should have paced myself and turned in the second assignment tomorrow. Oh well, this way I’m ahead of the game. I have to say that being the first person to post the second assignment was a bit nerve-wracking, though. I’m a little unsure of whether or not I did it correctly. And I would hate to get less than a perfect grade, though I think I’m going to have to get over that soon. While I’d like to have an A average, and there’s nothing to say that I won’t, I do need to make sure I’m being realistic. I came out of college the first time with a B, so I need to remember that less than perfect is okay, too. 🙂