A few weeks ago, I did something very stupid.
I signed up for the employee art fair at my new job.
This art fair is awesome, because the proceeds will go to help build a new tiger exhibit for us. It won't make NEARLY a dent in the total we need, but every dollar helps, right?
So I decided, "Hey! I'm a crafty person. I like making things. How about I make some things and try to sell them?"
That was my first mistake.
My second?
Waiting until yesterday to start working on them.
The art fair is this Friday.
So, that's what I find myself doing right now. Working on egg after egg after egg. I've got about 8 done so far out of the dozen I was shooting for having. (I just thought having a dozen eggs would be... appropriate?)
And here I am. Four eggs left. Three days to make them. And these are the biggies. The super-duper secret eggs I won't be telling anyone about because if I can't make them I don't want to be all disappointed.
So that's why this blog post is empty of anything but filler. Because, like the eggs I should be decorating right now, my mind is empty of anything but air.
If you guys don't mind, I'm going to go back to doing that now, okay?
I will try to have something more writerly for you next week. :)
Showing posts with label Bits of Fluff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bits of Fluff. Show all posts
Monday, June 6, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Purchasing of Watches, and Other Assorted Bits of Fluff
First of all, thank you so much, everyone, for your kind words on last week's post. This job truly is a dream come true, and I'm so glad my journey resounded with all of you. I still can't believe it's real! I might believe it once I start my training this week, but who knows? The mind is a varied and fickle beast. For all I know, it was just a really awesome dream. One I still haven't woken up from.
At said new job, cell phones in public are strictly forboden (is that really a word? Does anyone know?) That's a little sad because I just got the World's Most Awesome Cell Phone last week (it was a REALLY awesome week for me), but it's a completely understandable (and agreeable) policy. However, even educator/ animal caretakers need to know what time it is, so I have done something I haven't done for a very, very long time: I bought a watch.
Not just any watch, though-- a Timex Expedition. (How bad-ass is that name? Aside from sounding like an SUV, which it kind of looks like, I just like it. Very fitting of the whole zoo-keeper theme). I'd show you a picture, but my patience has run out after ten minutes of google searching. There are apparently about two-hundred-thousand different models of this watch line.
Anyway-- moving on. The watch is pretty, and it took several minutes of careful deliberation for me to select among its varied and numerous brethren. It was down to a choice between two. One had a simple rotating dial alarm, and the other had a much more complicated one. An alarm would come in handy (having a reminder to finish up your work before the gates open is sometimes mandatory), and since cell phones are not allowed, I thought a watch with that feature would be nice. However, not having worn a watch in YEARS, I decided the simpler one would be better and bought it.
After I got it home, I spent another ten minutes rotating the little wand dealy to get it set to the right time, day, and date. Then I tried to use the rotating alarm (okay, okay, "chronograph"), and ... it wouldn't turn. To be fair, I only tested the complicated one in the store. The other one looked like it worked, so why shouldn't it?
The chronograph is a FAKE. Ugh. I feel so cheated. All that deliberation, and now I have to panic about whether or not the other, more complicated watch will still be there by the time I can get over to the store and exchange it.
So that is my overdramatic and tiringly boring watch sage. You're welcome!
Okay, no, but really, I have a point. Ever go into a bookstore and pick up a particular book because it has a kick-ass cover and great blurbs and awesome back copy? Yeah, me too. Ever get that book home and read it and be.... disappointed? Feel cheated?
Yeah. Me too. Recently, there was a book that I was VERY excited about. I asked for, and received it, for Christmas. And I read it right away. It was a long, somewhat slow book. But I held out. Because surely with all the tension building, the ending would be AWESOME, right?
Wrong. I was shattered. Well, as shattered as I'm likely to get over a book. But still. I couldn't go to sleep for hours after that because I was so mad at the author. They went through all this buildup, and then didn't even bother to finish it. The story ended about where it felt like it should have begun, which, if it was the first in a series, I really would have had no problem with. But this was a standalone, and therefore very, very disappointing.
Unlike the watch, I can't take it back for something better. And I don't really have any advice for aspiring writers to avoid this, or pleas for the author in question, because, hey, you have to write the story you're writing, and what's done is done. But when I think about it now, even three months later, it still makes me mad. And chances are that I unfortunately won't be picking up anything else by that author in the future, which makes me sad, but it's not worth my time investment to read their work, you know?
What disappoints you in a book?
At said new job, cell phones in public are strictly forboden (is that really a word? Does anyone know?) That's a little sad because I just got the World's Most Awesome Cell Phone last week (it was a REALLY awesome week for me), but it's a completely understandable (and agreeable) policy. However, even educator/ animal caretakers need to know what time it is, so I have done something I haven't done for a very, very long time: I bought a watch.
Not just any watch, though-- a Timex Expedition. (How bad-ass is that name? Aside from sounding like an SUV, which it kind of looks like, I just like it. Very fitting of the whole zoo-keeper theme). I'd show you a picture, but my patience has run out after ten minutes of google searching. There are apparently about two-hundred-thousand different models of this watch line.
Anyway-- moving on. The watch is pretty, and it took several minutes of careful deliberation for me to select among its varied and numerous brethren. It was down to a choice between two. One had a simple rotating dial alarm, and the other had a much more complicated one. An alarm would come in handy (having a reminder to finish up your work before the gates open is sometimes mandatory), and since cell phones are not allowed, I thought a watch with that feature would be nice. However, not having worn a watch in YEARS, I decided the simpler one would be better and bought it.
After I got it home, I spent another ten minutes rotating the little wand dealy to get it set to the right time, day, and date. Then I tried to use the rotating alarm (okay, okay, "chronograph"), and ... it wouldn't turn. To be fair, I only tested the complicated one in the store. The other one looked like it worked, so why shouldn't it?
The chronograph is a FAKE. Ugh. I feel so cheated. All that deliberation, and now I have to panic about whether or not the other, more complicated watch will still be there by the time I can get over to the store and exchange it.
So that is my overdramatic and tiringly boring watch sage. You're welcome!
Okay, no, but really, I have a point. Ever go into a bookstore and pick up a particular book because it has a kick-ass cover and great blurbs and awesome back copy? Yeah, me too. Ever get that book home and read it and be.... disappointed? Feel cheated?
Yeah. Me too. Recently, there was a book that I was VERY excited about. I asked for, and received it, for Christmas. And I read it right away. It was a long, somewhat slow book. But I held out. Because surely with all the tension building, the ending would be AWESOME, right?
Wrong. I was shattered. Well, as shattered as I'm likely to get over a book. But still. I couldn't go to sleep for hours after that because I was so mad at the author. They went through all this buildup, and then didn't even bother to finish it. The story ended about where it felt like it should have begun, which, if it was the first in a series, I really would have had no problem with. But this was a standalone, and therefore very, very disappointing.
Unlike the watch, I can't take it back for something better. And I don't really have any advice for aspiring writers to avoid this, or pleas for the author in question, because, hey, you have to write the story you're writing, and what's done is done. But when I think about it now, even three months later, it still makes me mad. And chances are that I unfortunately won't be picking up anything else by that author in the future, which makes me sad, but it's not worth my time investment to read their work, you know?
What disappoints you in a book?
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