Update

Ummm from April to now, what significant has happened?
umm...

I still nanny for two awesome kids. I am still applying for more "career" oriented jobs, just to keep my options open, but if nothing comes along, I wouldn't be heartbroken. I LOVE nanny-ing, my stress is much lower, my back pain is often better (go figure), and apparently, I'm actually good because the parents love me and even recommended me to someone else.

I now attend a Zumba class at a nearby studio. It's not the same as the dance classes I'm used to, but it's lots of fun, great exercise, very close to the house, inexpensive and the teacher is a 5'4" ball of party energy. I miss the more traditional/technical dance classes I'm used to, but seriously the instructor rocks, and plus that, I have a friend who I wouldn't normally see very often that comes with me most of the time.

I have laid low on the local craft/vendor fairs since the beginning of June because my body just can't handle the heat.

Yesterday, I got my hair done by my good friend Zaque. A couple months ago he started the appointment with "I want to cut your hair really short..." to which I said "It's a good time for it. Alabama summers suck." and we ended up with almost a pixie in the back with some length still in the front. This time, we didn't change much, just cleaned it up a little. Here's the end result:

It's piece-y, messy, asymmetrical, and uber-cute. I totally love it.

And no, your eyes are not malfunctioning, I am wearing makeup in this picture. I still don't wear it often, but, I found an awesome tutorial on pin-up makeup that I was able to tone down for regular wear. Sadly, it's no longer online so I can't link you to it, but if I ever come across something similar I will...
Anyways, where I was going with that is that I was looking at the pin-up makeup tutorial because the dress I had for Arty Party was very retro. Yes, I attended arty party even though I don't work at BAO anymore. Arty Party was and still is one of my favorite events of the year, and the money goes for a great cause. So, I went, and had a blast, and the best part was, I didn't have to help check out guests or load stuff into a truck afterward. Maybe next year I can be helpful and volunteer-y and stuff, but this year, I just wanted to go and enjoy myself (and I totally did).
So um, that's my rambling, chronologically jumbled update for the last couple of months. see you back, umm whenever I feel like wasting time blogging instead of doing housework ;)

one, two, skip a few, 99, APRIL 2011

yeah, so the updates haven't been weekly, or monthly or at-all-ly. oops!
Life has been busy. Some dya I may ge back and recap, but right now, I'm frickin busy.
Here are the important things you need to know:
-For lots of complicated and personal reasons that I prefer not to get into on the blog, I am no longer at Birmingham AIDS Outreach, however, I still wholeheartedly support what they do and would encourage anyone who has or would like to volunteer or donate money to absolutely keep doing so.
-I still play board games on a regular basis and have even started writing for my husband's gaming blog, Meepletown.
-I still create, jewelry, paint and otherwise pursue creative endeavors (haven't gotten back to dancing/pilates/etc. yet.
-I recently got a part time job nannying for a family that lives close by who has two adorable, well behaved very young preschoolers.
-On the weekends, I have been trying to do more craft shows and such.
Speaking of, this weekend I will be at Art on the Side, a new local art show that will be taking place from 8-4 on the second weekend of every month.

events 9-27 til umm wow 11-9-10

I uhhhh....
Oct 2nd was The last Tragic City Rollers home game of the season and was quite awesome. "Psycho B" injured herself, got annoyed with the refs because they didn't call it after she had laid on the ground for way more than 3 seconds, got up and skated holding her arm and then decided to slam in to someone with it. Even better she was laughing manically as they were popping her arm back in to her socket.
Oct 8th and 9th was The Birmingham Area Board Gamers Mega Meetup,
which I had a ton of fun at.
I also got my hair done that weekend and it looks FABULOUS as always


Oct 15th, 16th, and 17th, was Poctoberfest, a preview event for the local gaming and sci-fi convention, Play on Con. It was so much fun the entire weekend is a blur except that I vaguely remember almost forgetting to come home and let the dog out on Saturday. At some point saturday, i left Poctoberfest for a while and went to the Junior League Market and ended up with the best purse ever thanks to my friend Brandy(sorry, no pics yet).

The next weekend we went to visit family in Huntsville and ate at Mikawa again. Seriously, anyone in the huntsville area needs to eat at Mikawa for every meal they are open for every day.

Halloween weekend was busy. On saturday Christian went to the puzzle party in auburn and my friend Melody and I went to the pumpkin patch! We talked to the goats, and took pictures of pigs, and walked through a corn maze and spent probably an hour poking around the pumpkin patch for just the right pumpkin.
Later that day was Helena's Trick-or-treat. I gave out an ungodly amount of candy.
Sunday was halloween proper and we had a friend over to watch the Rifftrax of "Troll 2" and play Rock Band 3

At some point in all this mess, there was a painting class or two.

The last six weeks has been packed and it won't get any calmer before about january.

events 9-7 to 9-26

Life has been busy and awesome, I can't even remember all of it.
Work is busy right now with AIDS walk today, Crestwood crawl in 2 weeks and a bunch of events for fall and winter coming up.

Tues 9-21-10 Chris and I both went to tye die class at Daniel Day Gallery and made awesome shirts:

Thursday I put up a page on first giving and managed to raise $300 toward AIDS walk in less than 24 hours.

Friday, I baked all day for the cakewalk fundraiser at AIDS walk.

Yesterday was our friend Joe's birthday and we played a ton of rock bank and a board game called homesteaders. He had an EXCELLENT Mocha Caramel Sea Salt cake from Dream Cakes.

Today was AIDS walk and I walked in the drippy, humid weather with my friend, Kat and her two babies and we talked about roller derby and how babies change your life. More importantly, We honored the millions of people who live with, have been affected by or have died from this disease, many of whom I have known personally because of my work at Birmingham AIDS Outreach by being one of the many pairs of feet in the walk.

AIDS Walk is Sunday!

AIDs walk is Sunday and we can use all the help we can get!
here is my fund raising page

Painting from 9-7-10

The inspiration for this was... don't know. Originally, I wanted to cover up something colorful with shades of grey and black, which I did. I made some veiny/nervy looking jaggedy lines all over the blank canvas in bright colors, dried them with the hairdryer and then started putting white, grey, black and a very light grey/blue all over the page so and then scraped it with the ruler like I normally would for the background of the picture. Then, I kapt adding blue and pink and yellow accents by walking my fingers all over the one edge. Then, I tried to create a splotch or a puddle of dark/muddy colors in the middle and it didn't quite look the way I intended--I wanted a void in the middle of the page but it. SO then, I scraped a heart into the cloud and it just evolved from there.
The words on the picture are from this song:



This is probably one of my favorite paintings and it really really wandered waaay away from the original idea, but somehow still has the same essence.

9-1 to 9-8

Um...
Labor Day weekend we played a lot of video games and
Art class was this past Tuesday and.... that's about it.