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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 May 14, 2008 03:01 PM | categories: self-absorbtion
Comments
Twitter is totally weird to me, but I also recently signed-up [after following several people via rss feeds for several months and resisting for over a year]. I'm also in that weird period, between school and unemployment. Not comfortable so much.
Posted by: TheBon at May 14, 2008 04:56 PM
For what it's worth, I totally got your Midge Ure joke . . . AND I thought it was funny!
Happy May Two-Four, and I wish I were up there to party down with y'all (though I would probably fall under the "creepy stalker" category, ha!).
Posted by: chris at May 14, 2008 06:49 PM
Self-employed is a paradigm-shift. And scary. But so worth it. Vision. Confidence. Fake it until you make it, babe.
Posted by: claudia at May 14, 2008 10:08 PM
Welcome home! I mostly lurk, but occasionally come out of my shell. I don't have an MFA (or any related degree, actually - just an MD, the burden of which I finally cast off after 15 years) but am slowly making a go of it on my own. I would love to know if you find a way to use Twitter - I signed up and then the only people using it seemed to be IT folks and tech bloggers telling each other where to meet up for drinks at the latest conference. I let it slide.
Posted by: Ruth at May 15, 2008 12:37 AM
On being a working artist. I've done shows in galleries and they are good for the ego but lousy for the pocketbook. In my experience people don't buy art in galleries...at least not in the mid-sized towns that I've exhibited in. Plus the gallery commission kills me, and frankly I don't think that them paying the rent and (supposedly) promoting the show (I can send out a press release, and probably write a better one) doesn't mean they deserve 50% of my asking price...just sayin. So I'm doing the "art fair" thing. I only do higher end shows, and (so far) I'm only doing shows within a 100 mile radius, but even so, the money does trickle in. I'm not lying, it's not really a "living" but getting minimum wage for doing what you love and getting minimum wage for working at the local cafe schlepping lattes are two different things. I don't know what the logistics of doing this internationally would be. I've never done a show in Canada...but I do do shows in Detroit which is right on the other side of the river from you.
If you're not doing anything June 6th, 7th, and 8th, I'm inviting you to come down to the Detroit Festival of the Arts http://www.detroitfestival.com/08/ and say "hi." I'll be in booth 13. I'd be happy to talk to you about "the life."
Posted by: Ragnar at May 15, 2008 10:01 AM
I may not get your jokes, but I did get your song reference this time... :)
Posted by: Emily at May 15, 2008 01:49 PM