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I got a packet from Valdosta State University's Graduate Admissions department in the mail today.
I'm accepted! Yay!
I'm accepted! Yay!
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For all that it was probably the best choice given the options, West Georgia could've easily been the school that inspired this video. Caution: NSFW-type language
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I caught the bronchial virus-thing that's been going around. Spent Monday and Tuesday out of work and in bed. It seems to be receding relatively quickly- right now I just have a nagging cough and no singing voice.
Art foo goes apace. I made it out to the craft store to pick up more acrylic, so I'm continuing with the big painting for my woman room/study space. Should have the first half of the diptych knocked out by early next week and be able to continue on to the second.
It's weird- I love costuming, but I never seem able to both dream up and execute something suitably awesome for Halloween. This year, Hil and I will be attending a party put on by his family. I'm thinking of just putting together some flattering casual duds, covering myself in ten tons of glitter, and calling myself a Stephenie Meyer style vampire. Can you feel the irony radiating off of me from here? I'd dress the husband up in the same way, but I dunno if his sister's high school age friends can handle a real live hot guy who can sparkle.
Art foo goes apace. I made it out to the craft store to pick up more acrylic, so I'm continuing with the big painting for my woman room/study space. Should have the first half of the diptych knocked out by early next week and be able to continue on to the second.
It's weird- I love costuming, but I never seem able to both dream up and execute something suitably awesome for Halloween. This year, Hil and I will be attending a party put on by his family. I'm thinking of just putting together some flattering casual duds, covering myself in ten tons of glitter, and calling myself a Stephenie Meyer style vampire. Can you feel the irony radiating off of me from here? I'd dress the husband up in the same way, but I dunno if his sister's high school age friends can handle a real live hot guy who can sparkle.
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Weekend was a mixed bag. I caught a short-duration but hideous stomach bug, so Saturday had to be written off as a total loss. That was probably my first time being both seriously ill and completely alone- husband, and most of my friends in the area were at a LARP- and I've come to appreciate the niceties of having someone around to at least make a run to the store for rice cakes and gatorade when you're not competent to drive.
Sunday and Monday were rather better. I spent most of both days tucked away in the studio, scaling up and then beginning to paint the first half of a big diptych that's eventually going to hang above the desk in there. Painting's still unfamiliar and a little scary to me compared to pencil/pen/marker-type media, but I feel like I'm gaining some skill at it. In general, I've been feeling better about/more fluent with creative things and more willing to take risks there since the end of last month. It's as if, in getting the grad school application process done, I did the freakiest thing I could think of (which sounded ridiculous at the time, and still does, but was true on some level or other) so, with that done, I'm free to do other things that I'd been avoiding. One of my worst habits is that I tend to avoid undertaking projects that I don't think I can do perfectly or near-perfectly in the first few tries.
Sunday and Monday were rather better. I spent most of both days tucked away in the studio, scaling up and then beginning to paint the first half of a big diptych that's eventually going to hang above the desk in there. Painting's still unfamiliar and a little scary to me compared to pencil/pen/marker-type media, but I feel like I'm gaining some skill at it. In general, I've been feeling better about/more fluent with creative things and more willing to take risks there since the end of last month. It's as if, in getting the grad school application process done, I did the freakiest thing I could think of (which sounded ridiculous at the time, and still does, but was true on some level or other) so, with that done, I'm free to do other things that I'd been avoiding. One of my worst habits is that I tend to avoid undertaking projects that I don't think I can do perfectly or near-perfectly in the first few tries.
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It's been an interesting few weeks. The process felt like riding an elevator up and down at about fifty feet per second, but I finally got all of my materials sent off for my graduate school application (recommendations included, which were the widgiest part for me) before the beginning of the month. I called yesterday to make triply sure that they need the medical form/vaccination records between acceptance and enrollment, not as a condition of application. So now I have an indefinite period of sitting on my hands and waiting. They said that they tend to notify applicants for summer and fall (deadline is March 15) around the first week of May; If the pattern holds, I should know something a bit before my birthday in the beginning of December.
In the mean time, I've been converting my largely unused loft space/studio/woman-cave to be used as a study. This, so far, is proving a good distraction to keep me from pulling out my hair and needlessly obsessing over things that are currently out of my control. the next steps will be to repaint my unused bookshelf/cabinet from the downstairs living room- I'm not satisfied with the color of the first repaint, so I'm doing another, to make a new set of floor cushions, and to paint something large to cover the wall space in front of my desk. Some or all of this will be accomplished while the husband is at a LARP this weekend and I have the house to myself.
Apparently I'm in a band now. One of my husband's friends and one of my friends met at a party we held back in May and collaborated, with others, to form a prog-art-blues mutt rock band, with all original songs and stuff. Their alto vocalist was having a lot of freak-outs and personal problems, so my friend, who's been singing with me since our ages were in the single-digit range, recommended me as a competent musician who's good at "keeping the drama in the art." We've practiced a couple times, and I enjoyed the chance to do something with my voice other than noodle around by myself or sing with my two-year-old client.
In five days, my husband and I will have been married for a year. It hardly feels that long at all, and I'm as certain as I was at the time that choosing to go forward together was a good choice.
In the mean time, I've been converting my largely unused loft space/studio/woman-cave to be used as a study. This, so far, is proving a good distraction to keep me from pulling out my hair and needlessly obsessing over things that are currently out of my control. the next steps will be to repaint my unused bookshelf/cabinet from the downstairs living room- I'm not satisfied with the color of the first repaint, so I'm doing another, to make a new set of floor cushions, and to paint something large to cover the wall space in front of my desk. Some or all of this will be accomplished while the husband is at a LARP this weekend and I have the house to myself.
Apparently I'm in a band now. One of my husband's friends and one of my friends met at a party we held back in May and collaborated, with others, to form a prog-art-blues mutt rock band, with all original songs and stuff. Their alto vocalist was having a lot of freak-outs and personal problems, so my friend, who's been singing with me since our ages were in the single-digit range, recommended me as a competent musician who's good at "keeping the drama in the art." We've practiced a couple times, and I enjoyed the chance to do something with my voice other than noodle around by myself or sing with my two-year-old client.
In five days, my husband and I will have been married for a year. It hardly feels that long at all, and I'm as certain as I was at the time that choosing to go forward together was a good choice.
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One of the neighbors talked up the idea of going to the Lake Claire drum circle on Saturday. Kitty and Jon, I know you've been there before and enjoyed it, so if you want to join me, I can provide foods and crash space. If you've got other plans for the weekend (I'm starting to feel like the only geek in Atlanta who's not going to Dragon*Con) I totally understand.
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Back from the beach. Overall, I'd say things added up to a mostly positive experience.
Hil and I had our own one-bedroom condo unit, a couple of floors away from his mom and stepdad, grandparents, aunts, and cousins, which was awesome. It had a balcony directly over the beach, which was double awesome, and I spent several mid-days sitting out there reading or handsewing, which was better yet. I suffered a bit from the lack of brain-candy, but otherwise was quite well off.
Relating to Hil's mom's family went smoother than it has in previous situations- Hil has acknowledged that their tendency to treat him (and by extension, me)like a cherished but bumbling/inept twelve-year-old isn't anything he's tried to remedy. So I basically set out to hack their matrix of "adultness" (Help with household-y tasks as soon as you sense a need to be fulfilled, especially as relates to care of the elders, make pleasant, affirmative, *direct* social noises, even when you're not an expert and feel a little at sea, take charge of projects that you care about before someone else decides they have a better idea of how to execute them, et cetera). Having the internalized voices of my parents, particularly my mom, in my head helped a lot. I'm actually thinking about writing a post to
intj about "How being raised by Extroverted Sensors did not Ruin my Life." :) My relationship with my folks has in many ways not been easy, and they will never be my "friends," but I am now more aware than ever that their corrections to my behavior were not about trying to turn me into something that I wasn't, they were in the spirit of "You are a wonderfully weird being who will need the tools to cope in a world populated mostly by other extroverted sensors." It seems to have worked. By the end of the trip, various members of the clan were commenting about what a perfect match I am for Hil, how well I fit into their extended family, and how "if you two break up, Hilary's going to have to get used to your other boyfriends, because we're keeping you."
One of Hil's cousins is both trained as a professional chef and married to another wheat-intolerant lady, so he kept turning out awesome things like bread, brownies, cookies, sauces, and salad dressings that I can eat. Needless to say, I consumed mass quantities. I'm going to to have to eat like a Buddhist monk for the next couple of weeks to make up for it.
We've been spending the drives between Atlanta, Columbia, and Myrtle Beach reading Budiansky's Her Majesty's Spymaster aloud. Tudor/Elizabethan history in general is fun to read, but Francis Walsingham is a fascinationg character in particular, and I mostly like Budiansky's voice. Hil, who resembles contemporary portraiture of Walsingham more than a little, now wants a set of Tudor-era Puritan (darkish, plain) togs. I might just have to take him up on that.
I got a letter from Valdosta State and their version of how far I've gotten on completing my Grad School Application and mine are congruent. Yay. I hope to have everything pretty much wrapped up in about a week and a half.
Hil and I had our own one-bedroom condo unit, a couple of floors away from his mom and stepdad, grandparents, aunts, and cousins, which was awesome. It had a balcony directly over the beach, which was double awesome, and I spent several mid-days sitting out there reading or handsewing, which was better yet. I suffered a bit from the lack of brain-candy, but otherwise was quite well off.
Relating to Hil's mom's family went smoother than it has in previous situations- Hil has acknowledged that their tendency to treat him (and by extension, me)like a cherished but bumbling/inept twelve-year-old isn't anything he's tried to remedy. So I basically set out to hack their matrix of "adultness" (Help with household-y tasks as soon as you sense a need to be fulfilled, especially as relates to care of the elders, make pleasant, affirmative, *direct* social noises, even when you're not an expert and feel a little at sea, take charge of projects that you care about before someone else decides they have a better idea of how to execute them, et cetera). Having the internalized voices of my parents, particularly my mom, in my head helped a lot. I'm actually thinking about writing a post to
intj about "How being raised by Extroverted Sensors did not Ruin my Life." :) My relationship with my folks has in many ways not been easy, and they will never be my "friends," but I am now more aware than ever that their corrections to my behavior were not about trying to turn me into something that I wasn't, they were in the spirit of "You are a wonderfully weird being who will need the tools to cope in a world populated mostly by other extroverted sensors." It seems to have worked. By the end of the trip, various members of the clan were commenting about what a perfect match I am for Hil, how well I fit into their extended family, and how "if you two break up, Hilary's going to have to get used to your other boyfriends, because we're keeping you." One of Hil's cousins is both trained as a professional chef and married to another wheat-intolerant lady, so he kept turning out awesome things like bread, brownies, cookies, sauces, and salad dressings that I can eat. Needless to say, I consumed mass quantities. I'm going to to have to eat like a Buddhist monk for the next couple of weeks to make up for it.
We've been spending the drives between Atlanta, Columbia, and Myrtle Beach reading Budiansky's Her Majesty's Spymaster aloud. Tudor/Elizabethan history in general is fun to read, but Francis Walsingham is a fascinationg character in particular, and I mostly like Budiansky's voice. Hil, who resembles contemporary portraiture of Walsingham more than a little, now wants a set of Tudor-era Puritan (darkish, plain) togs. I might just have to take him up on that.
I got a letter from Valdosta State and their version of how far I've gotten on completing my Grad School Application and mine are congruent. Yay. I hope to have everything pretty much wrapped up in about a week and a half.
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Please join me in raising a glass of your beverage of choice in memory of Les Paul. Popular music as we know it came about largely because of his genius.
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Been trying out more of the Black Phoenix goods. Dragon's Heart was a bit of a disappointment. I expected it to be more fruity/spicy from the description. It came off as dragon's blood resin blunted down/diffused with musk, was very "perfumey" (like, say, something by Guerlain), and took about half an hour to not smell sick-sweet. I'll have to try it again at a different time of month and see if my biological happenings are doing weird things to it.
Random thought: several of my friends have, independent of each other, expressed the desire to sound "scientific" or "empirical" in talking about things that don't have a lot to do with either. My first thought is, why on earth? The reason that so many laypeople try to make their ideas sound like research and end up with results that vary from confusing to hilariously terrible is that, generally speaking, laypeople aren't interested in, hence don't know what scientists have to say. They don't actually read published research, and they require one or more journalists or popular authors to (badly) translate and re-translate it before it becomes fit for their consumption. That doesn't seem like a level of credibility anyone would want to emulate to me.
Random thought: several of my friends have, independent of each other, expressed the desire to sound "scientific" or "empirical" in talking about things that don't have a lot to do with either. My first thought is, why on earth? The reason that so many laypeople try to make their ideas sound like research and end up with results that vary from confusing to hilariously terrible is that, generally speaking, laypeople aren't interested in, hence don't know what scientists have to say. They don't actually read published research, and they require one or more journalists or popular authors to (badly) translate and re-translate it before it becomes fit for their consumption. That doesn't seem like a level of credibility anyone would want to emulate to me.
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I has new smellpretties!
I've been slowly but surely collecting Black Phoenix's Ars Draconis line of perfumes (variations on the theme of dragonsblood resin) when they come up for sale at reduced cost on eBay. Having my own small horde makes me less likely to throw my money at other unnecessary things.
Dragon's Heart came in the mail today. I actually haven't tried it yet. it also came with freebie imps (tiny sample vials) of three others. I put Dragon's Tears on the husband, and will report on it once he gets back from an errand (Aquatic notes usually turn into cheap, stinky soap on me, but this one smelled much less offensive than I expected, in the bottle at least).
ETA: Hoojeez, that's happy. It's BPAL dragonsblood (which is drier/less sweet than the usual and has a whiff of a green-white, lily-like floral) with a slightly bitter/salty/metallic undertone. Totally hawt, and totally not what I was expecting. This should be the replacement for that generic, sickly blue-green-y smell that's used in men's hygiene products.
I'll try Dragon's Heart and Perfumed Garden at a later date. I'm currently test-driving Belle au Bois Dormant. My immediate reaction was "It smells like the Renaissance Faire! In a good way!" I can't remember which shop at GARF it is that tends to smell like this every year, but there's at least one. It has multiple notes- right now plumeria and damask rose are dominating.
I've been slowly but surely collecting Black Phoenix's Ars Draconis line of perfumes (variations on the theme of dragonsblood resin) when they come up for sale at reduced cost on eBay. Having my own small horde makes me less likely to throw my money at other unnecessary things.
Dragon's Heart came in the mail today. I actually haven't tried it yet. it also came with freebie imps (tiny sample vials) of three others. I put Dragon's Tears on the husband, and will report on it once he gets back from an errand (Aquatic notes usually turn into cheap, stinky soap on me, but this one smelled much less offensive than I expected, in the bottle at least).
ETA: Hoojeez, that's happy. It's BPAL dragonsblood (which is drier/less sweet than the usual and has a whiff of a green-white, lily-like floral) with a slightly bitter/salty/metallic undertone. Totally hawt, and totally not what I was expecting. This should be the replacement for that generic, sickly blue-green-y smell that's used in men's hygiene products.
I'll try Dragon's Heart and Perfumed Garden at a later date. I'm currently test-driving Belle au Bois Dormant. My immediate reaction was "It smells like the Renaissance Faire! In a good way!" I can't remember which shop at GARF it is that tends to smell like this every year, but there's at least one. It has multiple notes- right now plumeria and damask rose are dominating.