I don't want to jinx it...

But I think spring is finally here.   Everyone's cars are tinted yellow because of the pollen, and it's perpetually creeping in under doors and dusting windowsills. Dad left the door open the other day, and tons of it got on Carly's piano. Which I thought was funny, but I don't think she particularly appreciated it.

Mom has all of a sudden gone green!  She's checked out books on home-made cleaning solutions and skincare, and she's planting seeds. Dad built planting beds and a compost bin out of wood scraps, and the new official goal is to have only recycling and compost - no trash at all.

In a moment of expansion, she said she also wanted a goat to trim the lawn, but she's recanted that.  Which I think is probably a good thing, though it would have been marvelously entertaining to see how a goat and our dog and cats took to each other.   I think it would have chased us, which would have been fun.

Another reason to go green - you get the most adorable soap ever. 

I, for one, am all for these measures.   I'm always game for her adventures and schemes.  She says we would have been good hippy roommates.  Really, I just go along with anything she suggests.  I fought hard by her side in the war of "to buy or not buy a microwave" when we moved to Arkansas, because she is afraid of the "rays" they put out. I mainly fought against it because all microwaves are ugly and they cook your food in a weird way. Sadly, we lost that fight.

Employment History

1.  Childcare worker at my church
I got that job when I was 15 and a half.  I learned that, if I ever had children - which I wouldn't - they would never even know Dora the Explorer existed.

2. Gift-basket assembler
This seasonal job mainly consisted of very precisely taping boxes of crackers against each other.  I was introduced - thanks to damaged boxes that couldn't be used in the gift baskets - to the wonders of chocolate-covered caramel corn.  C.C. Winkle, baby.  Look it up.

3. Precinct walker
I had this job for, if I remember rightly, two weeks.  It involved going door to door and talking to people about a local proposition that I couldn't even vote for, as I lived in a different district.  I quit after realizing I was making less than three dollars an hour. I spent all my money at California Pizza Kitchen, and ate the entire pizza myself.

4. Cookie store
A remarkably stressful job, considering I peddled baked goods that had the word "hogs" written on them.

5. Anthropologie
I was technically employed for 2 days.  I realized I would never possess the drive to look cute every day and chickened out.

6. Hobby Lobby
A peculiar big-box retail store.  I bought a black santa that is clothed in cheetah prints instead of the typical red garb, a statue of an enormously fat pig with an American flag draped over its back, and a vase that looks like it's made out of cabbage leaves, and other such wonderful things at disgustingly cheap prices.  That's probably the best thing I can say about it.

7. Music Dept.
For a summer I worked as a front-desk person at my school's music department.  Meaning I played facebook at my school's music department.

8. Art assitantship
Perhaps the most varied job I've ever had - one day I take spray paint labels onto cabinets in the illustration classroom, the next I am scanning my teacher's family pictures.  People had some spectacular glasses in the fifties.

9. Bottled water label designer
I started this week.  So far, so good.  I design and print personalized labels for water bottles for things like banks and baby showers.  You wouldn't think personalized water bottles would be a thing, but apparently they are.  It's a fun job, really.  I get to be creative and make my own hours and I can eat snacks at my desk. You wouldn't believe how nice it is to get to eat when you're hungry while working.  And I get a comfy chair.  And more than minimum wage.  I could get used to this.

When I am old I'd like to be able to constantly surprise my children by suddenly chiming in in a conversation with, "No, when you're in a circus it isn't like that." Or, "When I was assistant to the princess of Sweden I tried escargot."

I'm beginning to think that, as far as jobs go, I could end up nearly anywhere.  Though, as my mother once told me, "I think you can do anything.  Except be a jockey."

(I'm 5'10)

from the Bauhaus to MY house, please.

Be honest now.  If you could have your tea in a teapot like that, wouldn't you feel like the future had finally come?  That you could just step outside and jet-pack on over to your friend's house for a chat?

I would.

Oh yes.

My school used to be called Little Rock University - or, more commonly "Last Resort University." However, if anyone still thinks that the re-named University of Arkansas at Little Rock is only a school for the dumb and/or desperate, think again.

WE HAVE THIS.

No more stress! Huzzah! Wait...

I had the last final of the longest, hardest, most rewarding, most tearful semester ever today.  I AM  DONE.

This was taken during a low point in the semester when I went around half the day with my sweater  inside out, and then after realizing this, removing it, and putting it on right side out, I went around for the rest of the day with it buttoned very wrong. The arm is my boyfriend holding me so he could send a picture to my mom. They tell me they love me, but I'm beginning to wonder if that's really why I'm kept around.

there is no such thing as free

Okay.  So, I've never actually been paid for any design/arty work I've done.  In my defense, I've only been doing arty stuff for like a year, and only with moderate confidence for like a month.  But!  I've had a slight disappointment today in regards to some free work I did and what they are (or more specifically, are not) doing with it, and I've realized that I need to make some rules for myself if I'm going to keep doing free work.

(And these rules apply after I've consulted the "Should I Work for Free" flowchart and it's a YES.)

1. You may not agonize unduly over the work.

2. You may not let free work get in the way of normal work you have to do.  Free work is the lowest priority, unless it's for something extremely important or a lot of people will see it.

3. You may not spend lots of money on free work.  Strive to spend no money, if possible.

4. You may not spend an unreasonable amount of time on free work, unless, again, it is extremely important or being viewed by many eyeballs.

5. Because it is free work, you will not subject yourself to too much direction or interference. If they want you to do work for no pay, regard it as a chance to have complete freedom with what you make.

6. Free work should be completed as quickly as possible. The more time it is left undone, the more time you have to think about it and let it worry you. Fast turnover is required.

7. Even if it's for a good cause, or a family member or some other deserving person, you are allowed to say NO.

okay... thanks mom

After seeing all the work it entailed, I decided a while ago that I probably wouldn't do scrapbooking. Ever.  I'm too self-critical and changeable, and I thought I'd always be making a page and then hating it and ripping it out. I told myself it was cheesy.

But when I started flipping through our family scrapbooks the other day, looking for a picture to draw for illustration class, I ended up sitting on the floor for like an hour and a half. 

 I never looked nice as a baby.

 Odd bonding between enemies over the automatic cat litter box.

 Bowling league. I thought that headband-scarf (the kind you tied round your head with little strings - remember?) made me the hottest thing on the planet.

 Sewing gone wrong.

 Childhood triumphs.

Grandpas.

Actually, scrapbooks are great.
Mom? I'm about to say your favorite words:

You were right and I was wrong.