When I got up on Sunday morning, Mr. Boyfriend was laying on the living room floor. Poor Mr. Boyfriend has now been relegated to cat toy. He's shrunk down to his original size, but has lost his protective coating, so now he is squishy sponge. I put him back on the windowsill, but Spit nabbed him and was playing with him again this evening, so he's Spit's boyfriend now and she can be in charge of where he stays.
Every time we made rice, Frank used to tease me about burning the rice. I never once burned the rice, so I was pretty indignant about it. He must have tuned in to some inherent tendency, though, because I really do have an issue with putting pots on the stove and walking away and forgetting about them. I usually set the timer or stay in the kitchen, but lately I've been under so much financial stress that I'm even more absent minded. Saturday I set water to boil and then decided to finish vacuuming. Oops. Fortunately it was just boiling water that boiled down to the last inch, but I got the message to be more careful.
I'm still pondering that study and I am close to finishing the other painting, but I took a break last night and watched the Academy Awards. I heard a lot about people living their dreams (and dream jobs) who are now being recognized for their work. (I am going to count watching the awards as my Artist's Way artist's date, since it was all about artist's dreams.) I liked Cate Blanchett's dress, but what was that acid yellow doing on her pink dress? My favorite dress was award winner Melissa Leo's. The hosts were terrible. They should not have done a tribute to their prior host, Bob Hope, it just made the current hosts look even worse. My favorite host was Johnny Carson, but I am a bit too young to remember Bob Hope.
Today I went to Idaho's Department of Labor for a resume writing workshop. Idaho still has Department of Labor offices, unlike California that closed all of theirs. They had people you could talk to and a room full of people using computers, and even printers! The workshop was excellent and another thing I wish I'd done months ago. I talked to the presenter afterward about my resume and have some resume reworking to do. I can even send it to him once I fix it and he will edit it again. He talked a bit about the scanning process most employers use on your resume now, and gave some tips on how to get through it. (He also said some people are messing with it now by including keywords at the bottom of their resume in white type. The type gets picked up on the scan, but doesn't print when they print your resume. Why did this resume make it through the scanner?!) But in the end, he said 75% of jobs are found through networking.
I talked to the girl next to me while I was waiting for my personal resume review and she gave me a long list of places to try and took one of my studio cards. We were the only people in the room that got interviews during our current job search, and we both did not get the job because they promoted someone internally. She does medical billing and coding, I thought those jobs were abundant, but I guess not. In the end the best thing about the workshop was that it changed my attitude. I was feeling angry and wasn't even going to go, but I felt optimistic when I left.
Tomorrow is another appointment with another employment agency (and probably another set of tests!) and some resume revisions. Tomorrow is the 1st of March and it is just about a year since I decided to leave California.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Cold Weather and Fat Bird
On Thursday, for the first time in three days, I did not have to go anywhere when it started snowing. It has been below average cold all week and back into the 20's at night. Dad sent me an email about the low temperature at his ranch predicted for this weekend, at the time I got the email it was 13 degrees here. He called late this afternoon and he was actually getting snow. Friday morning I woke up to a blanket of snow that fell overnight, but it is mostly gone now and it is just plain cold.
I did on-line applications to various places most of the day on Thursday. Kelly referred me to another agency and I filled out their application on Thursday and then made an appointment to meet them next Tuesday. I could not find the phone number for the Arts Commission, so I sent the Deputy Director an email and she promptly responded that she will be scheduling interviews in the next two weeks. Not very informative. Then I called the Department of Labor about one of the state jobs where I had a 98 score and asked if my score was high enough to get me an interview. Nope. First comes the veteran's preference, then the 100 scores, 98 doesn't cut it. I registered on the regular Idaho Department of Labor site and they have some workshops, including a resume workshop on Monday and I think I will go.
Thursday night I took a break and met with my Artist's Way group. Margo made meditation CDs from the writings of Diane Mariechild and gave us all one. One meditation is on Letting Go, good choice for me. Margo is a radio personality and when I listened to the CD this morning I figured she must have recorded herself reading the meditations and she sounds great. I was impressed. (KTHI/107.1 K-Hits morning show co-host Margo Vaughn, Weekdays: 5:30 AM - 10:00 AM Saturday: 6:00 AM - 12:00 PM.) I have to admit I am really struggling with the Artist's Way and working on letting myself be creative/having my dreams versus my reality, which looks like impending financial disaster and never-ending unemployment.
By Friday morning I was tired and out of ideas. I started a painting a week ago and I worked on that yesterday afternoon and this morning. Then I decided to do a study for my commission to work out a few issues, like what in the world to do with the background. This is going to be tough, the reference has interior lighting, a dark brown background that I can't quite make out, and I need to change the color of a shirt, which is really pea green. I'm glad I did the study, because so far I do not like my alternate color choice for the shirt.
A group of birds came and hung around my backyard this afternoon and stayed long enough for me to get my camera,
Pretty fat bird considering it's Winter. He actually came up close to me in the yard, but it sure can't be because he's hungry.
I am holding up surprisingly well under the circumstances.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Taking Tests
Yesterday morning I spent two hours completing tests for Kelly Services, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and typing. I have a habit of clicking around in computer software until I find what I want, but Kelly's tests do not like this, two wrong clicks and you're out, next question. After going through this with the PowerPoint test, I decided to open my copy of the program, clicked around until I found what I wanted, and then went back to the test and made the right clicks the first time. I was glad I could complete these at home, and when I went to Office Team yesterday afternoon I was even more glad.
Yesterday afternoon I went for my meeting at Office Team just after it started to snow. I spent almost two hours doing their tests in their office using an old sticky keyboard and a mouse on an old sticky mouse pad. Yuck, aren't there health laws about that stuff? This time the tests were on office skills (meaning math, grammar, spelling), data entry, typing, Word, and Excel. My data entry is slow, hey I don't do 10 key by touch, typing was 28 words per minute (that sticky keyboard!), office skills were far above average (100% correct on all the math, spelling errors brought me down a bit), I think I was intermediate Word and Excel again, but I can't remember. By the time I got to the Word test I was really tired and I just didn't really care anymore. I can do a Mail Merge when I have time to research it, but not at 4 pm at a computer with a sticky keyboard after four hours of taking tests.
The best part was that the entire time I was taking tests at Office Team, I could hear the receptionist from Office Space answering the phone. I'm not kidding, you remember that woman answering the phone in the movie, "just a moment" over and over, with a high pitched squeak on "just"? This time it was "how may I direct your call" over and over, with the high pitched squeak on "call". Fortunately I kept thinking of the movie, so I could find some humor in it.
I talked to the rep at Office Team and reviewed my scores and talked about what kind of jobs I want. Right now I'm really not feeling very picky. By the time I got home close to 5 pm, I was just exhausted and that was enough for one day.
Just as it started to snow again, I went to meet with the Kelly rep this morning and test results were, typing 38 words per minute, Intermediate Word and PowerPoint, Advanced Excel. Kelly is the agency with connections to Micron. The rep reviewed what he currently has open, asked me about one job that might be a good fit, and gave me some other places to apply. I liked his attitude, he seemed to think I was the prize that I am.
In between everything else yesterday, I called one of my references. I've left her name and number all over town and I thought I should call and make sure she's even still there. I was lucky to catch her answering the phone. She said she has not received one call for a reference. Oh well, it was good to talk to her anyway.
Every once in a while I turn on the TV to see what new country, or which US state is going down. There are teachers protesting at the capitol here in Idaho, too, but Idaho never makes the news. The congressman that introduced the education cut bill had his car graffitied and his mother harassed. I could not figure out why on-line learning was promoted as part of his education cost-cutting bills, until I read the congressman has a long association with on-line learning companies. It starts to make you feel like government will never learn. At least the car that is now covered with graffiti is a used truck.
I think it is laughable that teachers protesting over paying more for health insurance and/or retirement and losing their union representation are associating themselves with Egyptian protesters. How many Egyptians have health insurance or retirement at all? How many of those Wisconsin teachers had family members disappear in the night, never to be seen again? If I was Egyptian, I would be looking at those protesting American teachers and thinking they were a bunch of spoiled prima donnas.
It is weird to be reading the book Reading Lolita in Tehran right now. The author was a teacher in Iran and I'm in the middle of the part where Iraq and Iran are at war. She has just run into one of her old students, who has been in prison for handing out leaflets. She was grateful she was only imprisoned and not executed like most of her friends. If you want to read about real oppression, and oppressed teachers, pick up the book.
Last night I was too tired to do anything else, so I watched most of the movie, Amadeus. I thought I was pissed off at God, but I am no match for the fictional Salieri. Did you know Amadeus means "love of God", derived from Latin amare "to love" and Deus "God"? I'm no Mozart and I related to Salieri. I better be careful.
Yesterday afternoon I went for my meeting at Office Team just after it started to snow. I spent almost two hours doing their tests in their office using an old sticky keyboard and a mouse on an old sticky mouse pad. Yuck, aren't there health laws about that stuff? This time the tests were on office skills (meaning math, grammar, spelling), data entry, typing, Word, and Excel. My data entry is slow, hey I don't do 10 key by touch, typing was 28 words per minute (that sticky keyboard!), office skills were far above average (100% correct on all the math, spelling errors brought me down a bit), I think I was intermediate Word and Excel again, but I can't remember. By the time I got to the Word test I was really tired and I just didn't really care anymore. I can do a Mail Merge when I have time to research it, but not at 4 pm at a computer with a sticky keyboard after four hours of taking tests.
The best part was that the entire time I was taking tests at Office Team, I could hear the receptionist from Office Space answering the phone. I'm not kidding, you remember that woman answering the phone in the movie, "just a moment" over and over, with a high pitched squeak on "just"? This time it was "how may I direct your call" over and over, with the high pitched squeak on "call". Fortunately I kept thinking of the movie, so I could find some humor in it.
I talked to the rep at Office Team and reviewed my scores and talked about what kind of jobs I want. Right now I'm really not feeling very picky. By the time I got home close to 5 pm, I was just exhausted and that was enough for one day.
Just as it started to snow again, I went to meet with the Kelly rep this morning and test results were, typing 38 words per minute, Intermediate Word and PowerPoint, Advanced Excel. Kelly is the agency with connections to Micron. The rep reviewed what he currently has open, asked me about one job that might be a good fit, and gave me some other places to apply. I liked his attitude, he seemed to think I was the prize that I am.
In between everything else yesterday, I called one of my references. I've left her name and number all over town and I thought I should call and make sure she's even still there. I was lucky to catch her answering the phone. She said she has not received one call for a reference. Oh well, it was good to talk to her anyway.
Every once in a while I turn on the TV to see what new country, or which US state is going down. There are teachers protesting at the capitol here in Idaho, too, but Idaho never makes the news. The congressman that introduced the education cut bill had his car graffitied and his mother harassed. I could not figure out why on-line learning was promoted as part of his education cost-cutting bills, until I read the congressman has a long association with on-line learning companies. It starts to make you feel like government will never learn. At least the car that is now covered with graffiti is a used truck.
I think it is laughable that teachers protesting over paying more for health insurance and/or retirement and losing their union representation are associating themselves with Egyptian protesters. How many Egyptians have health insurance or retirement at all? How many of those Wisconsin teachers had family members disappear in the night, never to be seen again? If I was Egyptian, I would be looking at those protesting American teachers and thinking they were a bunch of spoiled prima donnas.
It is weird to be reading the book Reading Lolita in Tehran right now. The author was a teacher in Iran and I'm in the middle of the part where Iraq and Iran are at war. She has just run into one of her old students, who has been in prison for handing out leaflets. She was grateful she was only imprisoned and not executed like most of her friends. If you want to read about real oppression, and oppressed teachers, pick up the book.
Last night I was too tired to do anything else, so I watched most of the movie, Amadeus. I thought I was pissed off at God, but I am no match for the fictional Salieri. Did you know Amadeus means "love of God", derived from Latin amare "to love" and Deus "God"? I'm no Mozart and I related to Salieri. I better be careful.
Monday, February 21, 2011
6 Month Anniversary
It appears that my first Winter in Boise will be framed by snow. We had far above average snow in November, almost no snow in December and January, and now at least a week of snow in February. One of my favorite things here is waking up in the morning to a fresh blanket of new snow, which I did on Saturday. By Saturday afternoon it was all melted, but it snowed off and on yesterday and today. I have seen snowflakes before, but I am still amazed that they really are lacy star shapes, every single one of them.
Cruiser and Spit still don't like it, that white blanket over the grass is just wrong, grass is green, not white.
After completing my no shopping challenge for January, I went across the street to the antique store and bought myself a hurricane oil lamp,
The base is nice and heavy glass, but the shade must be new because it is light and thin. I love the warm light. I did not realize how hard it would be to find lamp oil. I finally had to go to WalMart. I hate WalMart. After a trip to WalMart, I am convinced that civilization needs to end. I ran in, found the lamp oil, noticed they might be a good place to buy camping/survivalist gear and ammo, and left. The screaming kid that I heard the entire time I was in the store followed me out into the parking lot with his amused parent. WalMart is not different in Idaho.
I have all that Italian cheese, and Mom gave me a pizza stone that I hardly use, so last night I made a pizza,
I am still working on the best pizza crust, this one is too thick, but on this one I even used cornmeal between the crust and the stone, just like at Round Table.
I rescheduled both of my temp agency appointments to Tuesday and Wednesday and they both sent me the emails today that they were supposed to send Friday. Both reminded me how much experience I have dealing with unemployed difficult and emotional people and how I might be good at it, since they are not.
The drawing for my commission was tough, much of the reference is hard to see, but I finished the drawing and transferred it to watercolor paper.
Today I just met with my friend to do some spiritual work. (And help change my attitude before I have to meet these temp agency people.) She reminded me of one of my favorite phrases from the Big Book, which I forgot,
"We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does he enable us to match calamity with serenity."
How quickly I forget. It's a good thing I have people around to remind me.
I forgot today was a holiday. That happens when you are unemployed. I did not forget that today is my 6 month anniversary in Boise. I still like it here. I like having seasons and like a bit of snow, although I am really looking forward to seeing Spring. I have many friends and great support. Someone on Sunday described me as "warm", as in kind. I was surprised again, "who me?" It was nice to hear. I am more than half way through the Artist Way. I've finished many paintings and I am better at multitasking, meaning I can paint, then stop and do something else I need to do, then go back to painting. I have a painting in a show next month and entry forms for three more shows between now and May. I still have a long list of things that I would like to do, like finish that children's book, but I also realize I used to have more energy.
Except for financial fear, the last eight months have been just awesome. Today I am back in one day at a time, doing the next right thing in front of me. I'm trying to remember myself at Dad's and full of the adventure.
Cruiser and Spit still don't like it, that white blanket over the grass is just wrong, grass is green, not white.
After completing my no shopping challenge for January, I went across the street to the antique store and bought myself a hurricane oil lamp,
The base is nice and heavy glass, but the shade must be new because it is light and thin. I love the warm light. I did not realize how hard it would be to find lamp oil. I finally had to go to WalMart. I hate WalMart. After a trip to WalMart, I am convinced that civilization needs to end. I ran in, found the lamp oil, noticed they might be a good place to buy camping/survivalist gear and ammo, and left. The screaming kid that I heard the entire time I was in the store followed me out into the parking lot with his amused parent. WalMart is not different in Idaho.
I have all that Italian cheese, and Mom gave me a pizza stone that I hardly use, so last night I made a pizza,
I am still working on the best pizza crust, this one is too thick, but on this one I even used cornmeal between the crust and the stone, just like at Round Table.
I rescheduled both of my temp agency appointments to Tuesday and Wednesday and they both sent me the emails today that they were supposed to send Friday. Both reminded me how much experience I have dealing with unemployed difficult and emotional people and how I might be good at it, since they are not.
The drawing for my commission was tough, much of the reference is hard to see, but I finished the drawing and transferred it to watercolor paper.
Today I just met with my friend to do some spiritual work. (And help change my attitude before I have to meet these temp agency people.) She reminded me of one of my favorite phrases from the Big Book, which I forgot,
"We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does he enable us to match calamity with serenity."
How quickly I forget. It's a good thing I have people around to remind me.
I forgot today was a holiday. That happens when you are unemployed. I did not forget that today is my 6 month anniversary in Boise. I still like it here. I like having seasons and like a bit of snow, although I am really looking forward to seeing Spring. I have many friends and great support. Someone on Sunday described me as "warm", as in kind. I was surprised again, "who me?" It was nice to hear. I am more than half way through the Artist Way. I've finished many paintings and I am better at multitasking, meaning I can paint, then stop and do something else I need to do, then go back to painting. I have a painting in a show next month and entry forms for three more shows between now and May. I still have a long list of things that I would like to do, like finish that children's book, but I also realize I used to have more energy.
Except for financial fear, the last eight months have been just awesome. Today I am back in one day at a time, doing the next right thing in front of me. I'm trying to remember myself at Dad's and full of the adventure.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Mr. Boyfriend Finale
Mary Kay suggested giving Mr. Boyfriend a good scrubbing with soap. Here he is after almost five days in water and several hours after a good scrubbing,
Still no hands, but the leg is looking much better.
Wait! Here he is waking me up this morning,
OK, that's enough fun at Mr. Boyfriend's expense. After six days in water he made it to maybe five inches and I want my sink back.
I have appointments on Monday at both Kelly Services and Office Team for temp work, but neither sent me the emails they were supposed to on Friday. I dropped a resume off at Office Team last Thursday. Someone was supposed to call me that afternoon, so when they didn't, I called them Friday morning. Someone finally called me late Friday afternoon. They wanted to be sure I was interested in having them help me find work. Gee, no, I just wanted to hang out and talk about how my money is running out. I had that "why are you working and not me?" feeling again.
Mary Kay's daughter was nominated for a national teaching award and the daughter doesn't think she will get it, "why me" she said, and Mary Kay said, "why not you?" So when I was telling Mary Kay about the Arts Commission job, she said, "why not you?" Why not you, chosen for that job? I saw her last night and she reminded me, "why not Shelly?" I now have it written on a note on my refrigerator, along with my fortune cookie fortune, "You will receive a prestigious prize or award within the month." I bought a Idaho Powerball ticket, too, just in case. Why not Shelly winning the Idaho Powerball? Monday is supposed to be a holiday and the Arts Commission is supposed to start reviewing resumes on Tuesday.
Remember the State of Idaho job application that I got a 100 score on and then they froze hiring for the position and then they canceled it? They re-posted the job as limited to existing state employees only.
I found several jobs via Careerbuilder and HumanResourcesJobs.com that seemed to be a good fit for me, so I spent most of Friday applying for jobs online. It still feels like a waste of time, but I was out of ideas on Friday and the weather was terrible. At least these had me sending a cover letter and a resume to an email address instead of spending hours completing hundreds of individual fields on their website.
This morning I did my volunteer job for the Idaho Watercolor Society, which included going to the post office, and wrote and mailed my unemployment denial appeal.
When I drove to Ketchum/Fairfield I had the chance to listen to AM radio for a few hours. Whatever you may think of the radio personalities, AM radio is the only place I hear news that makes any sense. News that fits with the reality around me. I heard real unemployment is 22% and real inflation is 9%. I heard the U.S.-Egypt Military Cooperation Committee was meeting in Washington DC at the same time the protests started in Egypt. Did you know we have 625 American military personnel stationed in Egypt? And no one on the committee or stationed in Egypt had any idea massive protests were coming? Really?
The price of gas was holding since I arrived in Boise at $2.95. Over the last few days it rose to $3.17. The price of cotton rose to an all time high last Thursday. The only reason for this that I read that makes any sense is,
Robert Antoshak, managing director at Olah, a US-based denim maker, said: “The unknown has bred a psychology of blind panic in the market. You are getting the whole supply chain elevating prices more than you would see based on simple economics.” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ec725da0-3a77-11e0-9c65-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1ESWLJXGP)
I read a few articles about how the price of clothing will be increasing by 10% this Spring and they start with something like, "clothing prices have dropped for a decade..." Talk about spin! I have not been able to afford very much new clothes over the last ten years, but during my annual birthday shopping trip with my Mom I did not notice we could buy any more over the last few years. All I noticed was that everything was getting more cheaply made and ill-fitting, fabrics were getting thinner, and natural fabrics were disappearing.
I didn't realize that I needed to stock up on 100% cotton underwear, which is now almost impossible to find. Ladies, you should be wearing 100% cotton, so you can breathe! Like that slinky modal stuff? It is made by spinning reconstituted cellulose from beech trees, as is rayon, and is heavily processed using chemicals. Wood and chemicals?!
I wonder what the higher price of cotton will do to the price of watercolor paper?
Still no hands, but the leg is looking much better.
Wait! Here he is waking me up this morning,
OK, that's enough fun at Mr. Boyfriend's expense. After six days in water he made it to maybe five inches and I want my sink back.
I have appointments on Monday at both Kelly Services and Office Team for temp work, but neither sent me the emails they were supposed to on Friday. I dropped a resume off at Office Team last Thursday. Someone was supposed to call me that afternoon, so when they didn't, I called them Friday morning. Someone finally called me late Friday afternoon. They wanted to be sure I was interested in having them help me find work. Gee, no, I just wanted to hang out and talk about how my money is running out. I had that "why are you working and not me?" feeling again.
Mary Kay's daughter was nominated for a national teaching award and the daughter doesn't think she will get it, "why me" she said, and Mary Kay said, "why not you?" So when I was telling Mary Kay about the Arts Commission job, she said, "why not you?" Why not you, chosen for that job? I saw her last night and she reminded me, "why not Shelly?" I now have it written on a note on my refrigerator, along with my fortune cookie fortune, "You will receive a prestigious prize or award within the month." I bought a Idaho Powerball ticket, too, just in case. Why not Shelly winning the Idaho Powerball? Monday is supposed to be a holiday and the Arts Commission is supposed to start reviewing resumes on Tuesday.
Remember the State of Idaho job application that I got a 100 score on and then they froze hiring for the position and then they canceled it? They re-posted the job as limited to existing state employees only.
I found several jobs via Careerbuilder and HumanResourcesJobs.com that seemed to be a good fit for me, so I spent most of Friday applying for jobs online. It still feels like a waste of time, but I was out of ideas on Friday and the weather was terrible. At least these had me sending a cover letter and a resume to an email address instead of spending hours completing hundreds of individual fields on their website.
This morning I did my volunteer job for the Idaho Watercolor Society, which included going to the post office, and wrote and mailed my unemployment denial appeal.
When I drove to Ketchum/Fairfield I had the chance to listen to AM radio for a few hours. Whatever you may think of the radio personalities, AM radio is the only place I hear news that makes any sense. News that fits with the reality around me. I heard real unemployment is 22% and real inflation is 9%. I heard the U.S.-Egypt Military Cooperation Committee was meeting in Washington DC at the same time the protests started in Egypt. Did you know we have 625 American military personnel stationed in Egypt? And no one on the committee or stationed in Egypt had any idea massive protests were coming? Really?
The price of gas was holding since I arrived in Boise at $2.95. Over the last few days it rose to $3.17. The price of cotton rose to an all time high last Thursday. The only reason for this that I read that makes any sense is,
Robert Antoshak, managing director at Olah, a US-based denim maker, said: “The unknown has bred a psychology of blind panic in the market. You are getting the whole supply chain elevating prices more than you would see based on simple economics.” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ec725da0-3a77-11e0-9c65-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1ESWLJXGP)
I read a few articles about how the price of clothing will be increasing by 10% this Spring and they start with something like, "clothing prices have dropped for a decade..." Talk about spin! I have not been able to afford very much new clothes over the last ten years, but during my annual birthday shopping trip with my Mom I did not notice we could buy any more over the last few years. All I noticed was that everything was getting more cheaply made and ill-fitting, fabrics were getting thinner, and natural fabrics were disappearing.
I didn't realize that I needed to stock up on 100% cotton underwear, which is now almost impossible to find. Ladies, you should be wearing 100% cotton, so you can breathe! Like that slinky modal stuff? It is made by spinning reconstituted cellulose from beech trees, as is rayon, and is heavily processed using chemicals. Wood and chemicals?!
I wonder what the higher price of cotton will do to the price of watercolor paper?
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Mr. Boyfriend and Dreams
Mr. Boyfriend continues to age, his polio-ridden leg become more obvious, and he is gaining weight in more of a puffy way than a growing way. After 48 hours,
After 3 days,
He doesn't complain and he doesn't watch football, so we will give him a few more days, but he better grow some hands. I like a man with hands.
We had four days in Boise with temperatures up to around 60 degrees. People were not out in flip flops, but I did see shorts and capris. Everyone here said this always happens, Boise gets a few warm days in February and everyone thinks Spring is here and then it snows again. Yesterday the temperature plummeted and I woke up with a headache. As soon as I set out in the morning, it started to snow. Then we got hail, thunder, and more snow for the afternoon and I woke up this morning to a two inch blanket of snow over the yard and rooftops. I was hoping it would snow again. Even though it was warm, it was still really brown and grey and I prefer white. This is Tia yesterday, caught in the hail storm,
I had a dream last weekend that Mark Zuckerberg and I were making chocolate truffles in my kitchen. I've been dreaming more, maybe because of all that writing for the Artist's Way, or maybe because I'm painting so much. Some dreams don't really seem to mean anything and some are obvious. I have a dream on a regular basis that I can't wake up. Something good or bad is happening and I can't wake up no matter how hard I try. That is a frustration dream. It has the same meaning as the version I used to have where I'm trying to dial 911 and I keep misdialing over and over again.
Even though there are lots of universal symbols in dreams, I look for what the symbols represent to me, personally. To me chocolate truffles are the ultimate comfort food and in my dream we are making them by hand, so we are creating. Mark Zuckerberg was a bit harder to figure out. He is the ultimate computer geek and in some ways he represents the irresponsibility and lack of morality or social responsibility that technology can bring. I am pretty anti-technology. To me, the world seems to admire technological innovation without ever asking, do we really need this? Is this a good thing? But then, Mark Zuckerberg is talented, lucky, super successful, and honestly in most of his pictures he looks really happy.
So my dream seems to be about some successful union of technology and creativity and the result is comforting.
Yesterday I dropped by another ad agency (while it was snowing) and talked to the creative VP, who happened to be an Art Center alumni. I left some cards, but he was not very encouraging. He does his own storyboards, but he suggested getting a rep and gave me some names of art galleries.
Then I talked to a graphic design professor at Boise State University, who returned my call. I told him my background and that I was interested in graphic design classes, but I didn't know if that meant I should enroll as an undergrad or a grad student, since I already have a BFA. He suggested undergrad and said that most of the required classes could be waived. Masters students can often pay for school by teaching, but not undergrads, and I can't afford this right now anyway. I thought learning the basics of graphic design would be useful and I thought finding a way in to BSU, so I could teach, might be useful also, but maybe later.
Then I went to Kelly Services. It was so great to talk to a real person. She was excited to see my call center/software support experience, they have lots of call center work in Boise. She gave me the name of a company that might be interested in my background. I left her my resume and she sent me a link to fill out all my information again on-line, which I did last night.
I am amazingly calm under the circumstances. I keep getting up and hitting another dead end with a good attitude and a smile on my face. I've been able to keep somewhat structured and productive day, write, paint, work on my commission, go out and talk to somebody, check jobs, call someone, and all the while remembering to stop and eat. If life is an adventure, or a path to being your true self and not ego, or just walking around being a good person, then I seem to be doing that right. If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it.
After 3 days,
He doesn't complain and he doesn't watch football, so we will give him a few more days, but he better grow some hands. I like a man with hands.
We had four days in Boise with temperatures up to around 60 degrees. People were not out in flip flops, but I did see shorts and capris. Everyone here said this always happens, Boise gets a few warm days in February and everyone thinks Spring is here and then it snows again. Yesterday the temperature plummeted and I woke up with a headache. As soon as I set out in the morning, it started to snow. Then we got hail, thunder, and more snow for the afternoon and I woke up this morning to a two inch blanket of snow over the yard and rooftops. I was hoping it would snow again. Even though it was warm, it was still really brown and grey and I prefer white. This is Tia yesterday, caught in the hail storm,
I had a dream last weekend that Mark Zuckerberg and I were making chocolate truffles in my kitchen. I've been dreaming more, maybe because of all that writing for the Artist's Way, or maybe because I'm painting so much. Some dreams don't really seem to mean anything and some are obvious. I have a dream on a regular basis that I can't wake up. Something good or bad is happening and I can't wake up no matter how hard I try. That is a frustration dream. It has the same meaning as the version I used to have where I'm trying to dial 911 and I keep misdialing over and over again.
Even though there are lots of universal symbols in dreams, I look for what the symbols represent to me, personally. To me chocolate truffles are the ultimate comfort food and in my dream we are making them by hand, so we are creating. Mark Zuckerberg was a bit harder to figure out. He is the ultimate computer geek and in some ways he represents the irresponsibility and lack of morality or social responsibility that technology can bring. I am pretty anti-technology. To me, the world seems to admire technological innovation without ever asking, do we really need this? Is this a good thing? But then, Mark Zuckerberg is talented, lucky, super successful, and honestly in most of his pictures he looks really happy.
So my dream seems to be about some successful union of technology and creativity and the result is comforting.
Yesterday I dropped by another ad agency (while it was snowing) and talked to the creative VP, who happened to be an Art Center alumni. I left some cards, but he was not very encouraging. He does his own storyboards, but he suggested getting a rep and gave me some names of art galleries.
Then I talked to a graphic design professor at Boise State University, who returned my call. I told him my background and that I was interested in graphic design classes, but I didn't know if that meant I should enroll as an undergrad or a grad student, since I already have a BFA. He suggested undergrad and said that most of the required classes could be waived. Masters students can often pay for school by teaching, but not undergrads, and I can't afford this right now anyway. I thought learning the basics of graphic design would be useful and I thought finding a way in to BSU, so I could teach, might be useful also, but maybe later.
Then I went to Kelly Services. It was so great to talk to a real person. She was excited to see my call center/software support experience, they have lots of call center work in Boise. She gave me the name of a company that might be interested in my background. I left her my resume and she sent me a link to fill out all my information again on-line, which I did last night.
I am amazingly calm under the circumstances. I keep getting up and hitting another dead end with a good attitude and a smile on my face. I've been able to keep somewhat structured and productive day, write, paint, work on my commission, go out and talk to somebody, check jobs, call someone, and all the while remembering to stop and eat. If life is an adventure, or a path to being your true self and not ego, or just walking around being a good person, then I seem to be doing that right. If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Mr. Boyfriend and Self-Image
Dad sent a Valentine that arrived yesterday, right on Valentine's Day. (Thanks, Dad!) Last week, Mom sent a card and Mr. Boyfriend. Mr. Boyfriend (actually, "Grow Your Own Boyfriend") is a red spongeman that you put in water and after 3 days he grows to 2 1/2 feet tall. I decided to grow him in the kitchen sink, since he will get so big and this is Mr. Boyfriend first entering the water,
After almost 24 hours, Mr. Boyfriend appears to have only aged and suffered a bout of polio during the night,
Mr. Boyfriend's behavior is in perfect keeping with my feelings about Valentine's Day. (Although it is much more humorous than if he just followed the directions.) I've hated Valentine's Day since 1991. My ex-husband did all the right things for Valentine's Day, but with no heart or soul. I left in 1990 and I think by Valentine's Day 1991 I had already been replaced. I try to treat the day like any other day, but somehow it always ends up being worse than other days, like it was yesterday. For years Dad gave Mom and I giant yellow spider mums for Valentine's Day. That was a long time ago, but I still miss it.
The next enlightenment topic is Self-Image, with a piece by George Bernard Shaw,
This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I've got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
Shaw won and refused the Nobel Prize for Literature for Saint Joan and wrote many well known plays and other books, such as Pygmalion. He was also a Socialist. Somehow the author interprets this to mean keeping your ailments, fatigue, and fears to yourself. If you say them out loud to someone, they will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I am all for positive thinking, but I find this dishonest. If I had not shared my weariness and fear yesterday, I would still be sitting in it, and not had the benefit of people helping me turn it around. No man is an island. A better topic for this quote might have been Hard Work, or Life is an Adventure, or Stop Looking for the Destination.
Today I am off to drop by an ad agency on a fact finding mission to find out if ad agencies in Boise still use illustration and if so, what do they use? Then more coffee and more friendship.
I will leave off with a very different quote of Carl Jung,
The biographies of great artists make it abundantly clear that the creative urge is often so imperious that it battens on their humanity and yokes everything to the service of the work, even at the cost of health and ordinary human happiness. The unborn work in the psyche of the artist is a force of nature that achieves its end either with tyrannical might or with the subtle cunning of nature herself, quite regardless of the personal fate of the man who is its vehicle.
After almost 24 hours, Mr. Boyfriend appears to have only aged and suffered a bout of polio during the night,
Mr. Boyfriend's behavior is in perfect keeping with my feelings about Valentine's Day. (Although it is much more humorous than if he just followed the directions.) I've hated Valentine's Day since 1991. My ex-husband did all the right things for Valentine's Day, but with no heart or soul. I left in 1990 and I think by Valentine's Day 1991 I had already been replaced. I try to treat the day like any other day, but somehow it always ends up being worse than other days, like it was yesterday. For years Dad gave Mom and I giant yellow spider mums for Valentine's Day. That was a long time ago, but I still miss it.
The next enlightenment topic is Self-Image, with a piece by George Bernard Shaw,
This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I've got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
Shaw won and refused the Nobel Prize for Literature for Saint Joan and wrote many well known plays and other books, such as Pygmalion. He was also a Socialist. Somehow the author interprets this to mean keeping your ailments, fatigue, and fears to yourself. If you say them out loud to someone, they will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I am all for positive thinking, but I find this dishonest. If I had not shared my weariness and fear yesterday, I would still be sitting in it, and not had the benefit of people helping me turn it around. No man is an island. A better topic for this quote might have been Hard Work, or Life is an Adventure, or Stop Looking for the Destination.
Today I am off to drop by an ad agency on a fact finding mission to find out if ad agencies in Boise still use illustration and if so, what do they use? Then more coffee and more friendship.
I will leave off with a very different quote of Carl Jung,
The biographies of great artists make it abundantly clear that the creative urge is often so imperious that it battens on their humanity and yokes everything to the service of the work, even at the cost of health and ordinary human happiness. The unborn work in the psyche of the artist is a force of nature that achieves its end either with tyrannical might or with the subtle cunning of nature herself, quite regardless of the personal fate of the man who is its vehicle.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Temporary Reprieve Denied!
The neighbor's grey cat was outside for most of last week and through the weekend, which just terrorized Cruiser and Spit. The grey cat prowled their backyard and sat at our backdoor. Even Spit trying to attack her through the door did not deter her. In response, both cats turned into dogs and started burrowing under the fence to get at her, or at least to see underneath and give her the stink eye.
I went to the Idaho Watercolor society meeting this afternoon, which lasted about 3 hours. They really are very nice. It was definitely not the worst of meetings that I've seen, but I have the control freaks to avoid pinned down. Dwight Williams was the only guy and he sat in the back and drew cartoons that he passed around. He questioned the legitimacy of the guy who is doing the annual art workshop, because he was not born until 1951! I am helping with the annual workshop, but I said I can't commit to much in June, given my circumstances.
Then I got home and opened the unemployment reject letter. Temporary reprieve is denied. The State of California can't give money away fast enough, but not to me. I had a good cry and went to a meeting. I shared my experience and that I'm tired. I already took the job at less than half of my salary, I already worked a job I hated for more than 5 years, I already sold my house at a loss, I already let go of half of what I own, I already filed for bankruptcy and lived without credit. Each time I've picked myself up and tried to move forward, but I'm really, really tired.
Someone described the feeling as weary, which she felt also and I think that is the perfect word. Someone said everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and thought it sounded like I was past the middle. (Some hope there!) Someone mentioned the first Beatitudes,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 3)
Since I don't know my Bible very well, here is comments on the first Beatitudes from New Advent.org (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02371a.htm):
The word poor seems to represent an Aramaic 'ányâ (Hebrew 'anî), bent down, afflicted, miserable, poor; while meek is rather a synonym from the same root, 'ánwan (Hebrew 'ánaw), bending oneself down, humble, meek, gentle. Some scholars would attach to the former word also the sense of humility; others think of "beggars before God" humbly acknowledging their need of Divine help. But the opposition of "rich" (Luke 6:24) points especially to the common and obvious meaning, which, however, ought not to be confined to economical need and distress, but may comprehend the whole of the painful condition of the poor: their low estate, their social dependence, their defenceless exposure to injustice from the rich and the mighty. Besides the Lord's blessing, the promise of the heavenly kingdom is not bestowed on the actual external condition of such poverty. The blessed ones are the poor "in spirit", who by their free will are ready to bear for God's sake this painful and humble condition, even though at present they be actually rich and happy; while on the other hand, the really poor man may fall short of this poverty "in spirit".
I know enough to know that often when poor or meek is used to quote from the Bible, it does not mean the same as what we think the words mean today, it means something more like humble.
And then there is Psalm 34:18 (English Standard Version)
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
I feel much better now. People always talk about letting things go, easy to say and hard to do. If I really knew what that meant I would do it right now. Someday I am going to look back on the last 7 years and it will all make sense. All I can say today is that I learned a whole lot and I'm still here and I know people that are worse off than me.
I'm sure there is some connection between what I am going through today and the work I am doing for the Artists Way and the creative work I have been doing since I lost my house. I feels very strange to be working on something telling me let myself be myself, to follow my life's purpose, and pay attention to what that means, and then feel like I am getting absolutely no help in being that person, like I will forever be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Reading about synchronicity is really starting to piss me off.
The bright side is that was me today, going and sharing my resentment and anger and crying in front of a group of people that are mostly strangers, and feeling understood and not judged. Thank God I have that today. I guess I am not done crying.
I went to the Idaho Watercolor society meeting this afternoon, which lasted about 3 hours. They really are very nice. It was definitely not the worst of meetings that I've seen, but I have the control freaks to avoid pinned down. Dwight Williams was the only guy and he sat in the back and drew cartoons that he passed around. He questioned the legitimacy of the guy who is doing the annual art workshop, because he was not born until 1951! I am helping with the annual workshop, but I said I can't commit to much in June, given my circumstances.
Then I got home and opened the unemployment reject letter. Temporary reprieve is denied. The State of California can't give money away fast enough, but not to me. I had a good cry and went to a meeting. I shared my experience and that I'm tired. I already took the job at less than half of my salary, I already worked a job I hated for more than 5 years, I already sold my house at a loss, I already let go of half of what I own, I already filed for bankruptcy and lived without credit. Each time I've picked myself up and tried to move forward, but I'm really, really tired.
Someone described the feeling as weary, which she felt also and I think that is the perfect word. Someone said everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and thought it sounded like I was past the middle. (Some hope there!) Someone mentioned the first Beatitudes,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 3)
Since I don't know my Bible very well, here is comments on the first Beatitudes from New Advent.org (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02371a.htm):
The word poor seems to represent an Aramaic 'ányâ (Hebrew 'anî), bent down, afflicted, miserable, poor; while meek is rather a synonym from the same root, 'ánwan (Hebrew 'ánaw), bending oneself down, humble, meek, gentle. Some scholars would attach to the former word also the sense of humility; others think of "beggars before God" humbly acknowledging their need of Divine help. But the opposition of "rich" (Luke 6:24) points especially to the common and obvious meaning, which, however, ought not to be confined to economical need and distress, but may comprehend the whole of the painful condition of the poor: their low estate, their social dependence, their defenceless exposure to injustice from the rich and the mighty. Besides the Lord's blessing, the promise of the heavenly kingdom is not bestowed on the actual external condition of such poverty. The blessed ones are the poor "in spirit", who by their free will are ready to bear for God's sake this painful and humble condition, even though at present they be actually rich and happy; while on the other hand, the really poor man may fall short of this poverty "in spirit".
I know enough to know that often when poor or meek is used to quote from the Bible, it does not mean the same as what we think the words mean today, it means something more like humble.
And then there is Psalm 34:18 (English Standard Version)
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
I feel much better now. People always talk about letting things go, easy to say and hard to do. If I really knew what that meant I would do it right now. Someday I am going to look back on the last 7 years and it will all make sense. All I can say today is that I learned a whole lot and I'm still here and I know people that are worse off than me.
I'm sure there is some connection between what I am going through today and the work I am doing for the Artists Way and the creative work I have been doing since I lost my house. I feels very strange to be working on something telling me let myself be myself, to follow my life's purpose, and pay attention to what that means, and then feel like I am getting absolutely no help in being that person, like I will forever be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Reading about synchronicity is really starting to piss me off.
The bright side is that was me today, going and sharing my resentment and anger and crying in front of a group of people that are mostly strangers, and feeling understood and not judged. Thank God I have that today. I guess I am not done crying.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Fairfield and Creative Solitude
My trip to Ketchum started with mules,
How would you like to live here?
And then endless snow for hours,
I don't know the reason, but after an hour of driving in solid snow covered mountains, and about an hour from Fairfield, I started to get nervous with my gut telling me to turn around. I tried to ignore it and then to understand it, but by Fairfield I decided to just pay attention to it and turn South. I took some great pics in Fairfield, like this barn,
I am amzed at the variety of color in the grasses coming up out of the snow, they range from lavender to maroon to red. There are some bare trees that are bright yellow. Then I turned South and in 10 minutes I was out of snow. I ended the trip with sheep, this is in Gooding,
I did not read about an avalanche in Ketchum, but it was about 10 degrees in Fairfield and Ketchum would be even colder. The roads were clear with no weather on the way, but I do not have a snow car. When I was stoppped in Fairfield taking pictures, some guy in a giant truck stopped to ask me if I needed help. He said no one parks on that road unless they are having car trouble. I will try Ketchum in the Spring.
I did not think that the Gandhi quote was really appropriate for the topic of Privacy, but the Artist's Way Week 5 sure is. The author talks about the Virtue Trap and the necessity for an artist to withdraw. Artists need down time and they need time alone to work. "An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude." Non-artists don't like it or understand it and they take our withdrawal personally, so we try to do what they want and we call ourselves virtuous. (We also use our virtue as an excuse not to do our art for various other reasons.) And then we get depressed and hostile and we take that out on the people who demand our time and attention. I lived this years ago. My need for down time was selfish and worthy of punishment. I was living the life my ex-husband chose for me, but he would still say today that I am selfish and always get what I want. No wonder I ran.
We need some human interaction, too, and it takes a great deal of practice to know when I need creative solitude and when I slip over into living in my head with doubt and worry and it is time to go out. Someone told me once that they did not know anyone that isolates as much as me, and in this case "isolates" meant something bad. Today I say yes, I have trouble with isolating, but I am a painter and I work on the wisdom to know the difference between "isolating" and creative solitude (or privacy).
At least I do not have trouble with the Virtue Trap right now. The biggest demanders of my time are my cats, who sure are self-centered and demanding, but they take a lot of naps.
How would you like to live here?
And then endless snow for hours,
I don't know the reason, but after an hour of driving in solid snow covered mountains, and about an hour from Fairfield, I started to get nervous with my gut telling me to turn around. I tried to ignore it and then to understand it, but by Fairfield I decided to just pay attention to it and turn South. I took some great pics in Fairfield, like this barn,
I am amzed at the variety of color in the grasses coming up out of the snow, they range from lavender to maroon to red. There are some bare trees that are bright yellow. Then I turned South and in 10 minutes I was out of snow. I ended the trip with sheep, this is in Gooding,
I did not read about an avalanche in Ketchum, but it was about 10 degrees in Fairfield and Ketchum would be even colder. The roads were clear with no weather on the way, but I do not have a snow car. When I was stoppped in Fairfield taking pictures, some guy in a giant truck stopped to ask me if I needed help. He said no one parks on that road unless they are having car trouble. I will try Ketchum in the Spring.
I did not think that the Gandhi quote was really appropriate for the topic of Privacy, but the Artist's Way Week 5 sure is. The author talks about the Virtue Trap and the necessity for an artist to withdraw. Artists need down time and they need time alone to work. "An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude." Non-artists don't like it or understand it and they take our withdrawal personally, so we try to do what they want and we call ourselves virtuous. (We also use our virtue as an excuse not to do our art for various other reasons.) And then we get depressed and hostile and we take that out on the people who demand our time and attention. I lived this years ago. My need for down time was selfish and worthy of punishment. I was living the life my ex-husband chose for me, but he would still say today that I am selfish and always get what I want. No wonder I ran.
We need some human interaction, too, and it takes a great deal of practice to know when I need creative solitude and when I slip over into living in my head with doubt and worry and it is time to go out. Someone told me once that they did not know anyone that isolates as much as me, and in this case "isolates" meant something bad. Today I say yes, I have trouble with isolating, but I am a painter and I work on the wisdom to know the difference between "isolating" and creative solitude (or privacy).
At least I do not have trouble with the Virtue Trap right now. The biggest demanders of my time are my cats, who sure are self-centered and demanding, but they take a lot of naps.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Italian Cheese and Networking
Coco sent Italian cheeses and chocolates all the way from Italy,
I can't really read the packages, they are all in Italian, but there is romano, mozzarella, what has to be parmesan, ricotta with capers (think that's why it's black), chocolate, and espresso chocolate. I'm already into the chocolate, which is less sweet (and more chocolate!) than we make it here. I will have to make lasagna, although I am suspicious of that ricotta. Thanks, Coco!
Here are the crocus trying to come up,
And Spit excited by the warmer weather,
I took my letter of interest, resume, references, and a promo card to the Arts Commission this morning and dropped it off. The Arts Commission is in a funny old house next to the Bishop's House and I almost couldn't find it. I said I was interested in upcoming workshops and talked to someone for half an hour about opportunities for artists in Boise. I gave her my email, so they can add me to their mailing list, and my website. She answered some of my questions about artist's grants, I missed the visual artist fellowship grant deadline, which comes around again in 2014, but there are project grants every quarter of $1500. I did not talk to the director, but I hope I made an impression on someone and she gave me some other organizations in Boise that have workshops and grants. We ended talking about my Prius, who would have thought it would be a conversation piece.
Then I went next door to the Botanical Garden to sign up for their painting botanicals class, which was full. I will have to wait until it is held again in the Summer, I was thinking February was too cold to be painting outside anyway, and I need to remember to sign up early.
The co-chairman of the Idaho Watercolor Society called and invited to me to their meeting on Monday and asked if I would help put on their annual workshop in June. I said I would if it was something I could still do if I was miraculously working by then, and someone else will call me about it. I think I will go ahead and go to their Monday meeting and network some more.
I checked for ad agencies in Boise and found three. I wrote down names and addresses and I am going to drop by those on Friday and next week. I don't know if there is any illustration work here, but I am going to try to talk to someone and ask what illustration work they might use, so I can do some appropriate samples. It seems to me that if the city and the state are doing so much to support local artists, maybe ad agencies are, too. I'm thinking of doing some renderings of historical architecture in Idaho.
But the Arts Commission was enough networking for one day. Tomorrow is my one day road trip and I'm still not sure where I want to go.
Counting down to enlightenment, there are 12 topics left, and the next is Privacy with a piece by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also know as Mahatma),
Strength of numbers is the
delight of the timid.
The valiant in spirit glory in
fighting alone.
The author starts his opinion on this piece talking about quantum physics, which I do not understand. He then goes on to talk about sharing your dreams with people, which invites your ego and their opinion, which invites your defenses, which moves the dream from the spirit to the ego-centered real world. I liked that idea. I had to share my idea of moving to Idaho for practical reasons, but I did not ask anyone to co-sign my dream. Some did anyway, although I hope that now that I am at some financial 11th hour they are not regretting it. I'm not sure what that has to do with privacy, though, except that we all need some privacy to connect with our spirit, our dreams, and our beliefs that we are willing to defend even if we have to do so alone.
I can't really read the packages, they are all in Italian, but there is romano, mozzarella, what has to be parmesan, ricotta with capers (think that's why it's black), chocolate, and espresso chocolate. I'm already into the chocolate, which is less sweet (and more chocolate!) than we make it here. I will have to make lasagna, although I am suspicious of that ricotta. Thanks, Coco!
Here are the crocus trying to come up,
And Spit excited by the warmer weather,
I took my letter of interest, resume, references, and a promo card to the Arts Commission this morning and dropped it off. The Arts Commission is in a funny old house next to the Bishop's House and I almost couldn't find it. I said I was interested in upcoming workshops and talked to someone for half an hour about opportunities for artists in Boise. I gave her my email, so they can add me to their mailing list, and my website. She answered some of my questions about artist's grants, I missed the visual artist fellowship grant deadline, which comes around again in 2014, but there are project grants every quarter of $1500. I did not talk to the director, but I hope I made an impression on someone and she gave me some other organizations in Boise that have workshops and grants. We ended talking about my Prius, who would have thought it would be a conversation piece.
Then I went next door to the Botanical Garden to sign up for their painting botanicals class, which was full. I will have to wait until it is held again in the Summer, I was thinking February was too cold to be painting outside anyway, and I need to remember to sign up early.
The co-chairman of the Idaho Watercolor Society called and invited to me to their meeting on Monday and asked if I would help put on their annual workshop in June. I said I would if it was something I could still do if I was miraculously working by then, and someone else will call me about it. I think I will go ahead and go to their Monday meeting and network some more.
I checked for ad agencies in Boise and found three. I wrote down names and addresses and I am going to drop by those on Friday and next week. I don't know if there is any illustration work here, but I am going to try to talk to someone and ask what illustration work they might use, so I can do some appropriate samples. It seems to me that if the city and the state are doing so much to support local artists, maybe ad agencies are, too. I'm thinking of doing some renderings of historical architecture in Idaho.
But the Arts Commission was enough networking for one day. Tomorrow is my one day road trip and I'm still not sure where I want to go.
Counting down to enlightenment, there are 12 topics left, and the next is Privacy with a piece by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also know as Mahatma),
Strength of numbers is the
delight of the timid.
The valiant in spirit glory in
fighting alone.
The author starts his opinion on this piece talking about quantum physics, which I do not understand. He then goes on to talk about sharing your dreams with people, which invites your ego and their opinion, which invites your defenses, which moves the dream from the spirit to the ego-centered real world. I liked that idea. I had to share my idea of moving to Idaho for practical reasons, but I did not ask anyone to co-sign my dream. Some did anyway, although I hope that now that I am at some financial 11th hour they are not regretting it. I'm not sure what that has to do with privacy, though, except that we all need some privacy to connect with our spirit, our dreams, and our beliefs that we are willing to defend even if we have to do so alone.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Painting Struggles and EDD
Today was one of Idaho's most beautiful Winter days. The sky was half clouds, half blue, and this morning it rained, then snowed, then rained again, and this afternoon we got tiny hail. Snowing while the sun is out is amazing.
It does not seem much warmer to me, but the cats want to go out all the time now. Maybe the neighbor's cats are out more and both cats need to stake their claim on their yard. The neighbor's grey cat was in our yard a few nights ago and both cats were standing at the back door watching. Spit was keeping track by moving from door to window and back to door, and Cruiser was making a noise I've never heard him make before, it honestly sounded like a yodel.
My call with the CA EDD was this morning between 8 and 10 am. I did not realize until close to 8 that that meant 8 California time, or 9 am my time. The woman that called was really nice and took a long time answering my questions. To be eligible for unemployment I just have to have good cause for quitting my job or not have been fired or laid off for misconduct. Here's the section of the California Unemployment Insurance code:
1256. An individual is disqualified for unemployment compensation
benefits if the director finds that he or she left his or her most
recent work voluntarily without good cause or that he or she has been
discharged for misconduct connected with his or her most recent
work.
An individual is presumed to have been discharged for reasons
other than misconduct in connection with his or her work and not to
have voluntarily left his or her work without good cause unless his
or her employer has given written notice to the contrary to the
department as provided in Section 1327, setting forth facts
sufficient to overcome the presumption. The presumption provided by
this section is rebuttable.
I made it clear in my exit interview with the County that I could not afford to make the additional retirement contribution of over $300 per month that was starting in July and still live in California. I explained to the EDD rep how I looked for cheaper housing, but she lives there and I did not have to explain that much. I consider that good cause. Funny, even the EDD rep asked me why I chose Idaho. Next she calls my employer.
When I got fired from my last video game job and filed for unemployment, my employer tried to get EDD to deny my claim by saying I was discharged for misconduct. (He was a cheap SOB.) EDD must not have given it any credibility, because I did not have any delays in my claim and I only learned about the dispute later. When I looked back at my call with the EDD rep that time, I thought she sounded amazed when I told her I was not given a reason for being fired. Private employers are allowed to do that, fire you for no reason, but they are not allowed to make up another reason for EDD later and deny your unemployment claim to save a few bucks.
I got half way through another painting and don't like this one either. I learned something about landscape and color on this one, but I think I am in the middle of some kind of artist growth or change thing, so I am moving on to something completely different. This week I will take an artist road trip to Ketchum or McCall and get some more snow pictures while it is still Winter.
From Ketchum's city website and their "Take a Hike ad campaign":
We offer your employees clean air, pristine mountains, immediate access to stellar trails, streams, and world class skiing. We also have excellent schools and a vibrant arts community.
• We also afford your brand the panache of an authentic mountain town.
• The cost of relocating has never been less.
The Economics? Idaho’s per capita taxes, property taxes, electricity
costs and crime rate are all lower than Oregon, Washington and California.
You don't hear the word panache used to refer to Idaho very often, but Ketchum is right next to Sun Valley.
For the last two Sundays I got stuck behind the same royal blue Porsche 911 Carrera. The first time it was raining and the Porsche was going super slow. If you are going to drive a new Porsche 911 Carrera in Idaho at any time of year, you might as well get a matching sign that says, I'm an idiot. This is the Flying Grit State, don't you know? But if you insist on having that Porsche in Idaho, you have to at least be able to afford to put it away for Winter.
Another failed painting made me depressed and waiting for the EDD call made me anxious. I will finish my letter of interest for the Arts Commission tomorrow and take it over in person in the morning. I just wasn't up for it today and I want to give my letter one more look when I am in a better mood.
I did get a commission, though, through Mom. Mom is my biggest, and my most successful, promoter.
It does not seem much warmer to me, but the cats want to go out all the time now. Maybe the neighbor's cats are out more and both cats need to stake their claim on their yard. The neighbor's grey cat was in our yard a few nights ago and both cats were standing at the back door watching. Spit was keeping track by moving from door to window and back to door, and Cruiser was making a noise I've never heard him make before, it honestly sounded like a yodel.
My call with the CA EDD was this morning between 8 and 10 am. I did not realize until close to 8 that that meant 8 California time, or 9 am my time. The woman that called was really nice and took a long time answering my questions. To be eligible for unemployment I just have to have good cause for quitting my job or not have been fired or laid off for misconduct. Here's the section of the California Unemployment Insurance code:
1256. An individual is disqualified for unemployment compensation
benefits if the director finds that he or she left his or her most
recent work voluntarily without good cause or that he or she has been
discharged for misconduct connected with his or her most recent
work.
An individual is presumed to have been discharged for reasons
other than misconduct in connection with his or her work and not to
have voluntarily left his or her work without good cause unless his
or her employer has given written notice to the contrary to the
department as provided in Section 1327, setting forth facts
sufficient to overcome the presumption. The presumption provided by
this section is rebuttable.
I made it clear in my exit interview with the County that I could not afford to make the additional retirement contribution of over $300 per month that was starting in July and still live in California. I explained to the EDD rep how I looked for cheaper housing, but she lives there and I did not have to explain that much. I consider that good cause. Funny, even the EDD rep asked me why I chose Idaho. Next she calls my employer.
When I got fired from my last video game job and filed for unemployment, my employer tried to get EDD to deny my claim by saying I was discharged for misconduct. (He was a cheap SOB.) EDD must not have given it any credibility, because I did not have any delays in my claim and I only learned about the dispute later. When I looked back at my call with the EDD rep that time, I thought she sounded amazed when I told her I was not given a reason for being fired. Private employers are allowed to do that, fire you for no reason, but they are not allowed to make up another reason for EDD later and deny your unemployment claim to save a few bucks.
I got half way through another painting and don't like this one either. I learned something about landscape and color on this one, but I think I am in the middle of some kind of artist growth or change thing, so I am moving on to something completely different. This week I will take an artist road trip to Ketchum or McCall and get some more snow pictures while it is still Winter.
From Ketchum's city website and their "Take a Hike ad campaign":
We offer your employees clean air, pristine mountains, immediate access to stellar trails, streams, and world class skiing. We also have excellent schools and a vibrant arts community.
• We also afford your brand the panache of an authentic mountain town.
• The cost of relocating has never been less.
The Economics? Idaho’s per capita taxes, property taxes, electricity
costs and crime rate are all lower than Oregon, Washington and California.
You don't hear the word panache used to refer to Idaho very often, but Ketchum is right next to Sun Valley.
For the last two Sundays I got stuck behind the same royal blue Porsche 911 Carrera. The first time it was raining and the Porsche was going super slow. If you are going to drive a new Porsche 911 Carrera in Idaho at any time of year, you might as well get a matching sign that says, I'm an idiot. This is the Flying Grit State, don't you know? But if you insist on having that Porsche in Idaho, you have to at least be able to afford to put it away for Winter.
Another failed painting made me depressed and waiting for the EDD call made me anxious. I will finish my letter of interest for the Arts Commission tomorrow and take it over in person in the morning. I just wasn't up for it today and I want to give my letter one more look when I am in a better mood.
I did get a commission, though, through Mom. Mom is my biggest, and my most successful, promoter.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Progress, Not Perfection
It is hard to believe that I must have been in one of the warmest places in the US this week. I drove home from the Eagle gallery last Friday night without the temperature light on and then it rained, which means it stayed above freezing overnight. No natural gas shortages here.
Contrary to the magazine articles I've quoted about economic conditions in Idaho, the Idaho Department of Labor released this on 1/7/2011:
"Idaho Jobless Rate Rises for Fifth Straight Month, Exceeds National Rate
Idaho’s forecasted seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged upward for the fifth straight month in December, leaving a record 71,900 workers without jobs.
A tenth of a percentage point increase to 9.5 percent ran counter to a four-tenths drop in the national rate to 9.4 percent and broke a nine-year-two-month streak where Idaho’s rate was lower than the national rate. December’s rate matches the recession-high set last February and is just one-tenth of a percentage point below the record in December 1982 through February 1983.
December's forecasted rate and preliminary rates for the rest of 2010 will be subjected to review over the next two months as additional economic information becomes available and is analyzed and adjusted to more accurately reflect the economic circumstances of 2010. Based on current data, Idaho's unemployment rate for 2010 averaged a record 9.2 percent, breaking the previous record of 9 percent in 1982 set in the midst of a double-dip recession. New hiring by employers statewide in 2010 was at its lowest level since businesses began reporting in 1997 – 141,100."
I do not believe the national numbers, they are based on a government "survey" and I figure government spins the numbers how they want. I don't know how anyone could count the number of people that have given up finding work or the number of people underemployed.
According to an Oregon columnist, Idaho is called "the flying grit state." There is a regular problem of flying rocks and broken windshields in Idaho. Oh, that is why last Fall there was a free windshield repair truck on every corner.
I am glad to be back to reading after a week of reading deprivation for the Artist's Way. I did not refrain from reading, I practiced reading awareness, since I really have to read job postings and apply and I can't do that without reading. I did stay off of reading Internet news and opinion for a week, I did not buy last Sunday's paper, and I did not read before bed. All of these were surprisingly difficult, but honestly, all I did was watch more TV. If you really want to practice deprivation that makes you aware of how you use something to distract yourself from yourself, try shopping or TV deprivation, those were real eye-openers for me.
Now that I can read again, the next topic in Wisdom of the Ages is Highest Self, with a poem by Rabindranath Tagore,
I came out alone on my way to my tryst.
But who is this that follows me in the silent dark?
I move aside to avoid his presence but I escape him not.
He makes the dust rise from the earth with his swagger;
he adds his loud voice to every word that I utter.
He is my own little self, my lord, he knows no shame;
but I am ashamed to come to thy door in his company.
This is from Tagore's book of poems, Gitanjali. Tagore won the Nobel prize for literature in 1913 and was a contemporary of Gandhi. In 1883, at the age of 22, he married a 10 year old. (Just a little bit of background on some of these spiritual poets and their work goes a bit sour.) I think this poem is about the battle between your spiritual self and your ego-centered self. In this poem, the ego-centered self seems to be inescapable. Tagore's text following this poem is a bit confusing and all over the place, but he talks about the borders of physical existence, and I like this, towards the end of the essay following this poem,
"As progress is never made at a constant level, he should remain undisturbed by the ebb and flow of his spiritual life. During the period of ebb, he must hold to the progress he has already made, and during the flow he must move forward swiftly."
It's progress, not perfection.
With watercolors, it is important to know when to give up on a painting and when to keep working. I gave up on the Crouch barn, the background got too dark and there is no lightening a too dark watercolor. I quickly moved on to something else, since it has been a discouraging week full of rejection and painting makes me feel optimistic.
Contrary to the magazine articles I've quoted about economic conditions in Idaho, the Idaho Department of Labor released this on 1/7/2011:
"Idaho Jobless Rate Rises for Fifth Straight Month, Exceeds National Rate
Idaho’s forecasted seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged upward for the fifth straight month in December, leaving a record 71,900 workers without jobs.
A tenth of a percentage point increase to 9.5 percent ran counter to a four-tenths drop in the national rate to 9.4 percent and broke a nine-year-two-month streak where Idaho’s rate was lower than the national rate. December’s rate matches the recession-high set last February and is just one-tenth of a percentage point below the record in December 1982 through February 1983.
December's forecasted rate and preliminary rates for the rest of 2010 will be subjected to review over the next two months as additional economic information becomes available and is analyzed and adjusted to more accurately reflect the economic circumstances of 2010. Based on current data, Idaho's unemployment rate for 2010 averaged a record 9.2 percent, breaking the previous record of 9 percent in 1982 set in the midst of a double-dip recession. New hiring by employers statewide in 2010 was at its lowest level since businesses began reporting in 1997 – 141,100."
I do not believe the national numbers, they are based on a government "survey" and I figure government spins the numbers how they want. I don't know how anyone could count the number of people that have given up finding work or the number of people underemployed.
According to an Oregon columnist, Idaho is called "the flying grit state." There is a regular problem of flying rocks and broken windshields in Idaho. Oh, that is why last Fall there was a free windshield repair truck on every corner.
I am glad to be back to reading after a week of reading deprivation for the Artist's Way. I did not refrain from reading, I practiced reading awareness, since I really have to read job postings and apply and I can't do that without reading. I did stay off of reading Internet news and opinion for a week, I did not buy last Sunday's paper, and I did not read before bed. All of these were surprisingly difficult, but honestly, all I did was watch more TV. If you really want to practice deprivation that makes you aware of how you use something to distract yourself from yourself, try shopping or TV deprivation, those were real eye-openers for me.
Now that I can read again, the next topic in Wisdom of the Ages is Highest Self, with a poem by Rabindranath Tagore,
I came out alone on my way to my tryst.
But who is this that follows me in the silent dark?
I move aside to avoid his presence but I escape him not.
He makes the dust rise from the earth with his swagger;
he adds his loud voice to every word that I utter.
He is my own little self, my lord, he knows no shame;
but I am ashamed to come to thy door in his company.
This is from Tagore's book of poems, Gitanjali. Tagore won the Nobel prize for literature in 1913 and was a contemporary of Gandhi. In 1883, at the age of 22, he married a 10 year old. (Just a little bit of background on some of these spiritual poets and their work goes a bit sour.) I think this poem is about the battle between your spiritual self and your ego-centered self. In this poem, the ego-centered self seems to be inescapable. Tagore's text following this poem is a bit confusing and all over the place, but he talks about the borders of physical existence, and I like this, towards the end of the essay following this poem,
"As progress is never made at a constant level, he should remain undisturbed by the ebb and flow of his spiritual life. During the period of ebb, he must hold to the progress he has already made, and during the flow he must move forward swiftly."
It's progress, not perfection.
With watercolors, it is important to know when to give up on a painting and when to keep working. I gave up on the Crouch barn, the background got too dark and there is no lightening a too dark watercolor. I quickly moved on to something else, since it has been a discouraging week full of rejection and painting makes me feel optimistic.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Star House and Yellow Leaves
I cannot get a glass of water without having to share with Cruiser,
Cruiser has his own water, but mine seems to be better. This is now an evening ritual, Cruiser comes running as soon as I run the water, I have my water, then he has his out of my glass.
When I went out to the Eagle gallery, I took some pictures, but it's looking pretty bleak,
When I buy a house in Idaho, I am going to buy a house that is a color. The landscape is so brown and grey here in the Winter that it seems depressing to drive up to a white house, like this one, in Winter. A red brick house with white trim and a few blue spruce in front sounds good right now.
Then I went over to Star. Eagle is just northwest of Boise and Star is just west of Eagle. Star has mostly big properties, is less pretentious, and older. I went and looked at a house I saw on Realtor.com that I thought was close to my dream house,
It is too big, 4,000 square feet and 3 stories, but it is on 5 acres with a running stream. My dream house is an old restored farmhouse on at least 2 acres with a running stream. This house faces Northeast and that 3rd floor looks like it would make a great studio.
Here is a great example of the job opportunity spam I get because of CareerBuilder:
"This entity seizes an opportunity to suggest Ghost Shopper post at the Creative Minds INC. With your resume being found at CareerBuilder, the personal branch of given enterprise went the extra mile to look into the personal history report you placed at the job connection web-resource and went to be contented. This organization harbors a hope that your accomplishments will find application to the general benefit of the whole entity.
Essential requirements to be employed:
1. Age qualification: older than 27
2. Accession to Internet
3. 3-5 hours of Spare time daily to exercise your specific responsibilities
4. Non-conviction certificate
Appointment odds:
On its own, this appointment makes a wonderful medium of itself of obtaining profit for regulars while taking to to the enterprise. If keen on reveling stuff cared for most of all by you and push fortune in this business, being a Mystery Consumer is a real challenge for you. As an example, you can have a nice meal in eatery you like or purchase belongings in hypermarkets contributing to entity."
Whoever this is needs a better translator. Would anyone really interpret this as a real job?
Here are the yellow leaves,
I intended this to be more abstract and less busy. Oh, well.
It has been much colder, which makes me lazier and the grey landscape is getting to me. Idaho has no Winter flowers. In So Cal at least the camellias would be blooming. The paperwhites I had indoors finished, so now I go out and check the progress of those crocus bulbs every day and dream of Spring. The Idaho Botanical Garden has a class on February 15 called "What's Blooming Right Now" and I think I will go. Something out here must be blooming, maybe I just need them to point it out. They also have a class on painting botanicals this month and I think I will go to that one, too.
The Idaho Arts Commission posted an administrative job opening and I am going to work on my letter of interest today. Then I am going to print it out and go there and try to hand it to a person that will talk to me.
The Master's show is back at the Autry,
http://theautry.org/masters-of-the-american-west-2011/masters-2011-overview
There are only 8 women out of 75 artists and 3 of the women are sculptors. This seems like a poor showing for women painters and being part of this show is another one of my dreams.
Cruiser has his own water, but mine seems to be better. This is now an evening ritual, Cruiser comes running as soon as I run the water, I have my water, then he has his out of my glass.
When I went out to the Eagle gallery, I took some pictures, but it's looking pretty bleak,
When I buy a house in Idaho, I am going to buy a house that is a color. The landscape is so brown and grey here in the Winter that it seems depressing to drive up to a white house, like this one, in Winter. A red brick house with white trim and a few blue spruce in front sounds good right now.
Then I went over to Star. Eagle is just northwest of Boise and Star is just west of Eagle. Star has mostly big properties, is less pretentious, and older. I went and looked at a house I saw on Realtor.com that I thought was close to my dream house,
It is too big, 4,000 square feet and 3 stories, but it is on 5 acres with a running stream. My dream house is an old restored farmhouse on at least 2 acres with a running stream. This house faces Northeast and that 3rd floor looks like it would make a great studio.
Here is a great example of the job opportunity spam I get because of CareerBuilder:
"This entity seizes an opportunity to suggest Ghost Shopper post at the Creative Minds INC. With your resume being found at CareerBuilder, the personal branch of given enterprise went the extra mile to look into the personal history report you placed at the job connection web-resource and went to be contented. This organization harbors a hope that your accomplishments will find application to the general benefit of the whole entity.
Essential requirements to be employed:
1. Age qualification: older than 27
2. Accession to Internet
3. 3-5 hours of Spare time daily to exercise your specific responsibilities
4. Non-conviction certificate
Appointment odds:
On its own, this appointment makes a wonderful medium of itself of obtaining profit for regulars while taking to to the enterprise. If keen on reveling stuff cared for most of all by you and push fortune in this business, being a Mystery Consumer is a real challenge for you. As an example, you can have a nice meal in eatery you like or purchase belongings in hypermarkets contributing to entity."
Whoever this is needs a better translator. Would anyone really interpret this as a real job?
Here are the yellow leaves,
I intended this to be more abstract and less busy. Oh, well.
It has been much colder, which makes me lazier and the grey landscape is getting to me. Idaho has no Winter flowers. In So Cal at least the camellias would be blooming. The paperwhites I had indoors finished, so now I go out and check the progress of those crocus bulbs every day and dream of Spring. The Idaho Botanical Garden has a class on February 15 called "What's Blooming Right Now" and I think I will go. Something out here must be blooming, maybe I just need them to point it out. They also have a class on painting botanicals this month and I think I will go to that one, too.
The Idaho Arts Commission posted an administrative job opening and I am going to work on my letter of interest today. Then I am going to print it out and go there and try to hand it to a person that will talk to me.
The Master's show is back at the Autry,
http://theautry.org/masters-of-the-american-west-2011/masters-2011-overview
There are only 8 women out of 75 artists and 3 of the women are sculptors. This seems like a poor showing for women painters and being part of this show is another one of my dreams.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Boise's Inversion Layer
Here is Cruiser and Spit sharing the chair to stay warm,
This is the neighbor's grey cat,
She hung around in the neighbor's kitchen windows all afternoon last Sunday and terrorized Spit. Here they are pretending to ignore each other,
Later Spit moved behind the wall at the edge of the window and kept peaking around the corner to see if the cat was still there. Spit likes to play hide-and-go-seek, except that she only likes to hide.
Boise gets an inversion layer that hangs over the valley and traps cold and pollution. I guess the inversion layer has been bad and that is why everyone is complaining about the cold this Winter. I don't know any better, since I don't know what Winter is usually like, but for the last few days I can smell dust. I cleaned the furnace filter and was tempted to do early Spring cleaning, but it is not my house, it is dust outside hanging in the air, trapped by the inversion layer. It reminds me how dusty Simi gets during the Santa Anna winds, and boy, do I not miss the Santa Anna winds. It is not windy here, which I really appreciate.
Darcy picked up a Heloise Hint for me. You know those little plastic bags covering your newspaper during wet weather? Well put them over your socks before putting your feet into your snow boots and you will stay warmer and dry. I don't get the newspaper, so Darci sent newspaper bags, thanks Darci! It does not look like it is going to snow again, although I am sure that it will. It is colder here this week, but no forecasts of snow. I'm glad I do not live in the Northeast.
Mom sent part of an article from Sunset magazine that includes the best city not to have a car, Portland, and the best city to start a business, Salt Lake City, with first runner up, Boise. The article talks about Salt Lake, a place where you can have a real job and 20 minutes out you can be skiing or mountain biking or fly-fishing or at the airport catching a direct flight to Paris. Boise is the same way, except for the direct flight to Paris, and who really needs that?
The CA EDD keeps sending me stuff and my unemployment application is looking good. I checked the CA Codes, hey that Master's degree is good for something, and I think I really do qualify. This is a great relief and I do not feel the financial panic that I did a few days ago.
I applied for a job with the Idaho Department of Labor last Sunday and that should be one that gets me another 100 score. It is limited service, but that is fine with me for now. With unemployment I will probably have to register with the Idaho Department of Labor anyway, so I can check out how it works before they give me a job.
Otherwise, I am working on approaching the job applying differently. I'm working on finding good companies to work for in Boise and then finding people that work there that will help me get a job there and if I can't find someone that works there I am going to just drop in and hang around until someone will talk to me and take my resume. I need to practice networking and I just suck at networking.
Today I'm taking the Ponies and Glenn's Ferry to the gallery for First Friday, which is this week. When I get my first unemployment check I am buying more framing. I finished the yellow leaves painting, which came out a bit busy. I will post that tomorrow. Now I am moving on to a painting of a barn in Fall from a picture I took in Crouch, Idaho. Now that they are framed, I notice that some of my paintings look much like my very favorite painting, one of Frank at the Grand Canyon with puffy clouds and the edge of the canyon behind him. I have not been able to get back to painting the same feeling in that painting until now and I painted that painting in 1995. I am very pleased.
It's February already. One more month and it might start acting like Spring.
This is the neighbor's grey cat,
She hung around in the neighbor's kitchen windows all afternoon last Sunday and terrorized Spit. Here they are pretending to ignore each other,
Later Spit moved behind the wall at the edge of the window and kept peaking around the corner to see if the cat was still there. Spit likes to play hide-and-go-seek, except that she only likes to hide.
Boise gets an inversion layer that hangs over the valley and traps cold and pollution. I guess the inversion layer has been bad and that is why everyone is complaining about the cold this Winter. I don't know any better, since I don't know what Winter is usually like, but for the last few days I can smell dust. I cleaned the furnace filter and was tempted to do early Spring cleaning, but it is not my house, it is dust outside hanging in the air, trapped by the inversion layer. It reminds me how dusty Simi gets during the Santa Anna winds, and boy, do I not miss the Santa Anna winds. It is not windy here, which I really appreciate.
Darcy picked up a Heloise Hint for me. You know those little plastic bags covering your newspaper during wet weather? Well put them over your socks before putting your feet into your snow boots and you will stay warmer and dry. I don't get the newspaper, so Darci sent newspaper bags, thanks Darci! It does not look like it is going to snow again, although I am sure that it will. It is colder here this week, but no forecasts of snow. I'm glad I do not live in the Northeast.
Mom sent part of an article from Sunset magazine that includes the best city not to have a car, Portland, and the best city to start a business, Salt Lake City, with first runner up, Boise. The article talks about Salt Lake, a place where you can have a real job and 20 minutes out you can be skiing or mountain biking or fly-fishing or at the airport catching a direct flight to Paris. Boise is the same way, except for the direct flight to Paris, and who really needs that?
The CA EDD keeps sending me stuff and my unemployment application is looking good. I checked the CA Codes, hey that Master's degree is good for something, and I think I really do qualify. This is a great relief and I do not feel the financial panic that I did a few days ago.
I applied for a job with the Idaho Department of Labor last Sunday and that should be one that gets me another 100 score. It is limited service, but that is fine with me for now. With unemployment I will probably have to register with the Idaho Department of Labor anyway, so I can check out how it works before they give me a job.
Otherwise, I am working on approaching the job applying differently. I'm working on finding good companies to work for in Boise and then finding people that work there that will help me get a job there and if I can't find someone that works there I am going to just drop in and hang around until someone will talk to me and take my resume. I need to practice networking and I just suck at networking.
Today I'm taking the Ponies and Glenn's Ferry to the gallery for First Friday, which is this week. When I get my first unemployment check I am buying more framing. I finished the yellow leaves painting, which came out a bit busy. I will post that tomorrow. Now I am moving on to a painting of a barn in Fall from a picture I took in Crouch, Idaho. Now that they are framed, I notice that some of my paintings look much like my very favorite painting, one of Frank at the Grand Canyon with puffy clouds and the edge of the canyon behind him. I have not been able to get back to painting the same feeling in that painting until now and I painted that painting in 1995. I am very pleased.
It's February already. One more month and it might start acting like Spring.
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