What Stef is up to

[firecat]

Here's some stuff I've been doing over the last little while:

Watched Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown. Judi Dench rules.

Went to San Mateo County Fair. I have never been to a County Fair before. Pretty much as I expected, and yet not... Fucking AMAZING quilts.

Saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Great music. I didn't know punk was still alive...and now married to glam/genderf*ck.

Signed up for a lampworking class at Public Glass and spent several hours thoroughly mining the Sundance web site.

Went to a Big Moves drumming and dancing retreat in Santa Rosa. It was ~100 mile drive and I was feeling really whiny about it but I dragged myself and I am really glad I went. The group of women was really fun, and Joyce and I drummed well, and the dancing was hot!.

Spending an hour a day with Silver, the scaredy cat I am fostering. Don't you want to adopt her?

Read Lord of Light by Zelazny because Neil Gaiman recommended it. It's good, but not nearly on Gaiman's caliber, so it's interesting that it's one of his favorites. I read a lot of it out loud, which I started because I wanted Silver to get used to my voice, and then I felt like doing most of it that way. I am not very good at reading out loud.

Trying a lot of things right now that I'm not very good at.

Felt alternately depressed and excited about turning 40.

Yank. Yank. The puppet
Jerks this way and that
Invisible puppeteer

Finally updated the Adoptable Cat site.

Comments

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Signed up for a lampworking class at Public Glass and spent several hours thoroughly mining the Sundance web site.

Sweet! I've been tempted to take a lampworking class myself... it'll be a while before it's practicable for me, though. Let me know how it goes. :)

Went to a Big Moves drumming and dancing retreat in Santa Rosa. It was ~100 mile drive and I was feeling really whiny about it but I dragged myself and I am really glad I went. The group of women was really fun, and Joyce and I drummed well, and the dancing was hot!

That sounds really nifty. I wish there was something similar up here in Seattle; Misty loves belly dancing, and I bet I could convince her to take me with her to such an event. More for my sake than for hers - she loves belly dancing, drumming, and wearing skimpy outfits. It's me that has the hangup about being big and awkward. :\

Trying a lot of things right now that I'm not very good at.

Of course, you get good at them by trying first, and then practicing. ;) But you knew that!

Felt alternately depressed and excited about turning 40.

So far, I'm mostly excited about turning 30 later this year. Occasionally, I sit down and wonder if - well, I'm so used to being me, I don't think of myself as being any particular age; but my life is similar in many ways (and different in many ways) to what it has been for the last few years. I wonder sometimes if I seem to be trying to hold onto my youth, "pretending" to be young twentysomething when I "should" be settling down and growing up and all that stuff.

And then I remember: oh, right, I'm still me. ;)

[firecat]

Re lampworking. I discovered that a basic beadmaking setup costs a lot less than the class ($80 at Sundance, plus the cost of the propylene tanks, I think they are about $8 each). But I think I will take the class anyway. Probably better to be supervised at first so I don't burn the house down. ;-)

Re trying things I'm not good at. Yeah, I know that. But when I am not good at a lot of things I'm doing, it accumulates and I end up feeling like kind of a failure for that period of time. But I feel like challenging myself with that right now, so it's OK.

Turning-40 is being a transition period for me. Turning-30 was too although I didn't realize it until a little while later.

[xp85goblin.livejournal.com]

I hope you find your creative "true north". You are kind of stuck with lots of social engagements which it is probably too late to prune unless you really want to be ruthless (I'm sorry, I can't date you anymore....downsizing)

Still, I know you want to /create/. I would kind of like to see you take on something a little more rigorous, creatively. I think it would be more satisfying in the long run.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I am once again reminded that I've been meaning to take a lampworking class for over a year now. I emailed Wim about it just yesterday, in fact. I'm going to do it this fall. <--that is a period

Yay for the Adoptable Cat site! It looks like there are quite a few of them right now. Good luck, cats.

[firecat]

Wow! All these lampworkers. (Fantasizing about having a Lampworking Studio at that con we all go to.) *grin*