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May 26, 2008

baby steps

I'm trying to get some space carved out in the front room to set up a work area for myself, since it seems all the bedrooms will be occupied next year and there's really no other space in the house for me to have a studio. It's slow going, and today I'll be shunting around the huge piles of books that Peter and I have decided to get rid of (and the smaller pile that we're keeping) in hopes that I can pull the last of the shelves out of there and bring in my work table. We pretty much have to get rid of 80% of the stuff we own in order to have a habitable house. It's hard work, agonizing and freeing at the same time, and is going to take a long, long time. But if I can just get the table in place to spread my work out on I'll be satisfied for now.

Coming home from the Printmaker's Forum the other day (I got my key! and as soon as they tell me where I can store my ink and stuff I can get down to work) I found a young bird flapping around in my hollyhocks trying (unsuccessfully) to fly. As I crouched down to take its picture

[please don't say anything to me about the grodyness of our basement window and the Sanford-and-Sonesque collection of garbage; we're working on it]

it got spooked and flapped and crawled its way up onto my shoulder, where it proceeded to work itself up into a panicked frenzy. Silly thing.

[that's not our foundation behind me, it's the neighbours'. Ours is painted shiny silver, baby!]

Posted by jodi at 10:38 AM | Comments (4) | categories:  in the studio

May 15, 2008

last goodbye to my old studio

So, comment moderation is a pain in my arse. Movable Type is no longer e-mailing me the comments, so I have to log in all the time and check whether or not there are comments awaiting moderation (even though I still have the "e-mail comments" option selected). However, when I did check it this morning there were eleventy-jillion spams in amongst the handful of real comments, and since those spams weren't able to ugly-up my site I'm going to keep the moderation on until I get a chance to upgrade my Movable Type. It means I can't reply to comments in e-mail for a while, but I'm sure we'll all live.

Posted by jodi at 04:40 PM | Comments (1) | categories:  school

May 14, 2008

someone else to catch this drift

file under: chicken shit

Thank you all so much for your encouragement, your congratulations, your pats on the back and best wishes; they're a firm yet soft cushion at my back as I sit riveted in this chair gazing terrified at my new life of unemployment. I'm sorry that I'm too big a schmuck right now to reply individually to each and every one. No, wait. I'm too busy schlepping the boxes that contain the last three years of my life up to the musty third floor for storage. Actually, I'm a schmuck AND busy schlepping. And I'm going to kvetch about it too, if only because all those jumbled piles of clashing consonants turn me on so. BABY!

Okay, seriously. I'm scared shitless here. The ink is drying on my master's degree, I'm back home and I am not applying for jobs, because there aren't really all that many jobs available to me in this town that wouldn't be a proof of failure (I'm not going to be the woman with the MFA who is serving you coffee, and I am NOT going back to the party store, thank you). On Friday I'm going down to the Printmaker's Forum to pay for studio rental and then I'll be printing there a couple of days a week. I'm going to set up a work space in the house where I can draw, sew, knit and bind books. I'm going to work my arse off and make things that can bring in some money while I start my next big research-type project; I'm going to apply for shows, look for opportunities and learn how to schmooze better (and not only to satisfy my consonantal lust). Now that I've been back in my own house for a few days, sleeping next to my beloved again and easing back into my space here, I can't really just slip back into my old life, because I am a different person now. But nor is this a totally new life. I have to work to build something in between and even though I have some sort of vague plan in my head about that, I'm really at a loss for what to actually DO in order to get that building started (other than keep schlepping those boxes and try to clear some space in the room I hope to soon be working in). I'm not even sure how to write about how scared I am right now, because I'm not looking to garner a bunch of sympathy and more back-pats; I know I'm lucky to have the luxury not to need to look for a real job for a little while, to take the time to see if I can't build a career out of mostly nothing. But if anybody out there wants to give me a show or invite me to come teach a workshop somewhere or commission a sweater or anything else that might help me to start paying off my student loan, I'm all ears.

file under: this is party time

The main reason the last three years of my life must be relegated to the attic for the time being is not for the sanity of my family who have to live here, but because we're throwing a party this Saturday. A party for which I created a facebook event page, sent to most of my friends there, and then promptly forgot about, not actually inviting anyone outside of facebook (ugh, I know). So if you actually know us in person or live in Windsor or otherwise feel you should have been invited, consider yourself invited, and as long as you're not a creepy stalker you can e-mail me for our address and I'll give it to you, or you can just look us up in the phone book. Saturday, the 17th, seven-ish. It's a sort of combination May two-four/graduation/glad to be home thing. We'll be serving up a mess of Southern food, I tell you what. And we brought home a two-four of Terrapin (the local Athens beer) and a frighteningly huge bottle of Makers Mark which I was going to hog all to myself until Peter mentioned bourbon aplenty in the short-notice party invitation he sent out yesterday, so, what the hell. Learning to make a perfect whiskey sour is on my Überlist for this year, so making that this party's theme drink will give me lots of practice and, I hope, leave our kitchen less sticky than the last few parties' theme drinks. Whiskey sours all around! Y'all oughta come.

(for no reason other than that words are better when accompanied by pictures, and i like this one)

file under: nobody gets my jokes

Way back when we were talking about the Midge Ure thing (no link, because I know y'all really don't want to be reminded) I said, the thirty somethings would be going "wha?" and the younguns would be all like "who?". And I thought that was so funny, because remember when we were kids and it was always "he goes, she goes then I go. . . " in the same way that kids now are "all like, and I'm like, then he's like. . . " when recounting conversations? Then when I complained to Peter that nobody got my joke he said (went) "yeah, that one was too subtle for me, too". Frak. (yes, weeks later I still think about this shit. I'm unemployed now, what else have I got to do but obsess about stuff?).

file under: more wastes of time

So that I can keep track of how I spend my time now that I'm unemployed (I'm going to have to train myself to say "self employed". TCB!) I signed up on twitter. And put it in my sidebar so y'all can keep an eye on me and make sure I'm working. Because I know that people have nothing better to do. Actually, the twitter thing may (or may not, I might just be deluded or lying to y'all outright) have something to do with a project I'm going to start working on soon. Maybe. We'll see. Right now I have a lot of ideas and not a lot of focus. Could you tell?

Oh. Also. I've switched to moderating my comments for a while to save myself the ongoing agony of being constantly and totally slammed with spam comments. I think I set it up right but I'm not sure, so please let me know if you experience any difficulty with it. I had Peter send me a test comment hours ago and still haven't received e-mail notification to approve it, so I'm not sure I'm going to end up liking how this works. I'm trying to avoid having to upgrade my Movable Type, which is scary to me only because I still allow technology to flummox me. But still.

Posted by jodi at 03:01 PM | Comments (6) | categories:  self-absorbtion

May 12, 2008

home. sweet.

Posted by jodi at 03:13 PM | Comments (5) | categories:  jet set : windsor

May 11, 2008

8 am, lexington kentucky

I'm halfway home. It's a beauty way to go.

Also, because it's no fun to have a post without a picture: I wish the Canada flag was as easy to buttonize.

Posted by jodi at 08:18 AM | Comments (3) | categories:  jet set

May 09, 2008

don't cry for me, athens georgia

file under: leaving

I'll be happy to finally head home for good tomorrow, but I will miss some of the people here in Georgia terribly. This week has been one long drawn out goodbye, with more social engagements packed into these last few days than I probably attended all this last semester: supper with school chums, lunch with the Athens knitbloggers, supper with Hockey Mom and family, and more lunch with some of the same school chums just to drag the goodbye tears out a little more. It's excruciating. For three years I've thought of this part of my life as temporary and have craved my home so much, but it's going to be so strange on Monday morning to make my breakfast and carry it out to the porch (will it even be warm enough to eat breakfast on the porch yet? I doubt it) and watch the neighbour children get on the school bus knowing that I'll be doing that every school day for the rest of my life, not just grabbing time at home before heading back to Athens. There won't be any back to Athens. And yes, despite all of my bitching, that will make me sad. So, Georgia friends, consider this your open invitation: come to Windsor any time. We're good cooks, and we have a fold-out couch.

file under: durrow

I've received a lot (a lot a lot) of e-mails and ravelry messages since the demise of Magknits from people hoping to still have access to my Durrow pattern that was hosted there. I'm pleased to announce that Durrow is now available, still and always for free, over at Knotions Magazine. Thanks, everybody, for your continued interest in the pattern. And I promise that now that I'm done with the nuisance of grad school I'll soon have some brand new stuff for y'all.

Posted by jodi at 11:15 AM | Comments (6) | categories:  athens : knit design : school

May 03, 2008

shill out

Some new prints up in the etsy shop, extras I made while working on a big book project (which I'll show you later in the week when I get better photos). This will be the last shop update before I go home; first up once I've got my sewing machine set up again: bags and aprons!

Posted by jodi at 09:15 PM | Comments (4) | categories:  capitalist pig

May 02, 2008

may 1, 2008: last day of grad school

things I will miss about Athens, GA:

-the fact that it's warm right now while still cold back home (I know, shut UP, yes I bitch and complain that there are no seasons here and that the "winter" isn't cold enough. Whatever. Everybody's a hypocrite about something).

-kudzu

-the close proximity to Hockey Mom and all of the other fabulous internet people I got to meet and hang out with while here (not nearly often enough, especially in this last year)

-tofu fried in nutritional yeast. be still my heart.

-the north Georgia accent, which has grown on me these past three years (after initially driving me up the wall)

-Lamar Dodd School of Art people, some of whom are leaving Athens when I leave, some of whom are not

-free buses

-red iron oxide coloured dirt

-pints of imported beer that are about half the price I'd pay for them back home

-walking through the woods to get to the studio

-all the crazy decorated cars, and old trucks that never die because the roads here aren't salted

-pecan trees

-how every restaurant has mac 'n' cheese listed as a vegetable side. Still funny after all this time.

Posted by jodi at 10:33 PM | Comments (7) | categories:  athens : school