How about some good news for a change?

These were my July goals:
Finish page 1 of Iris, adapted by Jill Oxton and based on the art work of body paint artist Emma Hack.It was originally painted on the bodies of two sisters embracing, and Jill Oxton adapted it for cross stitch. I'm actually doing it as a wedding present for my friend, S. I wanted to stitch something, but I know anything with a ''wedding'' theme will freak her out. Hopefully she'll think it's nice, different, unusual. _ DONE
Uh ... walk four days a week and (when I go back to work) bike to work. Not home, because I finish at midnight but I can bike TO work. _ Eh ... not so much.
Read and write reviews for three review books. _ No, but I think this is unrealistic
Keep blogging twice a week and leaving comments on others' blogs. _ Did okay, I think.
Tidy up a short story. _ DONE
Measure and cut fabric for vase patterns and for quilt squares. _ DONE

For August:
Stitch one charity quilt square
Walk to work, weather and health permitting
Read and review ONE review book
Keep blogging twice a week and leaving comments
Work through another story; I'm not sure whether it's a short story or a novella or some other animal yet
Do one thing from my 101 things in 1001 days list

Compression

It's like deep-sea diving. Only it's money and there's no water involved. Just lots and lots and lots of bills. I try not to go on about it too much, because J will end up feeling guilty about not working at the moment and your friends really don't want to hear it. But between the $500 power bill, the $1000 vet bill and negotiating each week what to pay and what can be left for a bit longer ... it really is like being slowly compressed. And I really don't have the energy for it at the moment. I don't.
The vet bill wasn't supposed to be $1000. It was a simple tear on Chloe's leg to start with. Then the vets said she had been limping for too long. Turned out that she had torn her cruciate ligament and got bone in her joint, or something. She also lost a tooth and the vet thinks she may have been hit by a car. On the bright side, after two days at the vets, she's home _ Elizabethan collar and all.
This will pass this will pass this will pass ...
We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean today. I'm determined that although I'm taking my tea to work most nights and we've pretty much given up takeaways altogether, that we're not going to be entirely joyless. Besides, with my movie pass, we only had to pay for one ticket. One ticket, for J, and food _ $20.
Time out from the compression? Priceless.
I also spent most of this evening (it's my night off) reading PS: I Love You by Celia Ahern, about a woman who loses her husband to a brain tumour. He gives her wee notes to follow for the rest of the year. It was easy to read and made me cry in places but ... eh. I'm still a little down I guess. Or it annoyed me. Or something. And we're off with the whingeing. Again.
All in all, I've had a pretty good day off. Chloe came home, I had lunch with my friends, J and I saw Pirates and I read a whole book.
Sigh.
Two of the three friends I had lunch with today are pregnant and the third, her father is getting married for the second time tomorrow. So not a lot of room at the lunch table for me and my little problems. I just wish I had someone I could vent all this crap out to. And I wish this crap wasn't going around and around in my head all the time. And I mean all. the. time. Except when I'm in my study writing, it's going around in my head all the time.
I guess putting it up here is in lieu of having that completely unselfish person to unload on.
Of course, I don't want it to all be negative whingeing about money.
I could whinge about a whole host of things: work, the weather, my weight ... all the w's.
This will pass this will pass this will pass

To blog or not to blog ...

... that is the question. Especially when I just seem to be talking to myself on the internet. Which, if you ask me, is more than a little weird. On the other hand, I'm mightily stubborn and I hate to give up. So here I am, back again.
I was sick last week _ twice. The second time, I ended up in the emergency room at 4am with chest pains. I'm 35 and I thought I was having a heart attack. Turned out it was indigestion, thankfully. I've never been so relieved in all my life. Since, as my mother cheerfully informed me, I'm a sitter for gallstones. Both my sisters have had their gallbladders out. Anyway. It was horrible and hopefully it's over now. I had Friday off work and went back on Sunday.
My irritation threshold is pretty low, though, at work. I try and tell myself that the stuff doesn't matter, and I know it doesn't but when you're right in it, as it were, and it's right in your face, it's nearly impossible to just shrug it off. Now, of course, sitting in front of my home computer in my own peaceful living room, I can see how stupid it is. Wait until tonight though, it'll all come back.
Let's see ... health, work, money ... ah, yes. Money.
Because of chronic underestimating, we owe the power company more than $500. Which they are kindly letting us pay off over three months. I'm relieved on the one hand but on the other hand ... it was their mistake!
Chloe is back at the vet for more surgery _ on her cruciate ligament this time, and for a bone fragment in her joint. We still owe the vets $200 from her last foray.
I'm trying not to let all of this stuff pile on top of me and stay relatively positive, but sometimes you just want to sink, you know?
On the bright side ... I have my health, a good job, a mostly-good husband and a roof over my head. So I have a lot more than a lot of people.
I'm making pretty good progress on the Iris picture for my friend's wedding and it's still nice not to have to get up early in the morning.

Holding pattern

Week two of nights has started and things are going ... okay. No stress in the morning, which I like, I've started writing again, which I also like. I'm hanging out with my friends and I still have time to read and stitch. Only about 30 minutes a day on work days but that's not so bad.
For myself, I feel a little more human, too. Of course, the fact that we're living very quietly these days and seem to have given up takeaways might have something to do with that. And I'm walking to work most days.
So most of the stuff I wanted to do for myself is coming together.
Let's see ... what else ... h'm. That's all I can think of for now.

It's Friday, finally

It's been kind of a long week. First week back on nights, trying to get into some good habits, the usual. Didn't help at all that we had to take Chloe to the vet on Friday with a nasty wound on her side and that a bank is chasing me.
Sigh.
This Too Shall Pass. It had better. I'm not getting into this kind of financial situation again. SAVE money, not spend it, that's the key.
Apart from that, things seem to be trotting along smoothly enough. I don't have the stress of trying to get up early any more and I've found that I'm not getting half as wound up over stupid work things as I was.
That's gotta be good, right?

It's not a conspiracy

It's the evil little aliens living in my head, who mock me every time I try to do something constructive for myself. Like walk every day. Or write. The song is always the same: you're stupid, useless and fat ... why try?
Oh, I hate those evil little aliens. And all I seem to be doing is proving them right. Pretty much all I've done this week is sit around.
I've edited _ and finished _one short-short story and I'm working on another but I"ve hit a major plot blockage and I'm not sure where I'm going from there.
Why do the evil little aliens poke you at your weakest spots? And why are they so hard to get rid of? Grrr ... next thing you know, I'll be on the poor-me slide.
I refuse to be beaten by evil little aliens. I do. I don't know how I'm going to defeat them, but I will.
I pitched my stitching across the room last night _ I haven't done that since I was working on Frederick the Eternal, er ... Literate. It's no coincidence that this one is on black as well; it's the Jill Oxton one I'm doing as a wedding present for my friend S.
I have three choices:
1): Persist with it
2): Set it aside temporarily for another WIP
3): Start something new
The last isn't that viable, especially if I need to go and get new supplies because J isn't working at the moment so it's all on me for now (hooray), which means No New Stuff.
But you know what, that's okay. Our rent is paid, our fridge and pantry are full and as far as I'm concerned, the rest is gravy.
So no 2 is viable. I certainly have plenty of WIPs that I could work on until I was ready for the Iris again. I have about a year to get it done, although as far as I know, S hasn't set a firm wedding date yet.
But then it becomes ... which one??? I have WAY to many choices.
Let me see ... I have ...
Margay Cat from a UK magazine
Fairy Moon
Circe from a Jill Oxton magazine
Madonna of the Garden
Monet Impressions from a UK magazine
EMS Kitchen Alphabet
Romany Caravan from a UK magazine
The Eight Immortals
Amid Amish Life
I have more than that, but those are the most "active" ones on the list.
Sigh.
I have evil little aliens to battle.

Panic stations!

Well, okay. Not really.
I went for a walk yesterday, did everything that I wanted to get done _ writing, etc.
This morning? I wake up in one of those stupid panics. I kept falling asleep and having stupid dream-snippets. For some reason, this made me panicky, and go wake up J to make me feel better.
Sigh.
So, this is my skip-day. I'll be having them on my days off when I go back to work, where I just plan to lie on the couch and read or something. Skip-day. What am I saying. SLUG-day. This is my slug day.

A vast universal conspiracy

Or just random chance?
Every time I make a half-assed resolution to get some exercise, it starts raining. I think it's a conspiracy because walking is my favourite form of exercies and there's nothing more miserable than the rain.
This time, however, I Will Not Be Beaten! I don't have an exercise bike for nothing so if it's still raining tomorrow like it is today, I'll get on the bike for a bit.
Ha! Ha ha! Take THAT, evil universal conspiracy.
I also have a morbid fear of being one of those people who has to be saved by Jerry Springer. *Shudder*.
No point whining about it if I'm not going to get off my larger than it should be ass, now is there?
You know the saying, where there's a will there's a way? Well, I do have a strong will. I just need to start using it for good. Good for me, that is, instead of bending it towards stupid things like (so far) imaginary fights over my desk at work. Like exercising and writing again _ properly that is.
I have a week off before my new shifts start so I'm going to use it to (hopefully) get into a routine and adjust my body clock.

No clever title comes to mind

I guess I'm just updating. Thursday was my last day in Communities and we had afternoon tea _ they also bought me a gift, which was a really nice gesture.
Yesterday was supposed to be the first day off of my holiday, but the chief sub rang and asked me to work last night. It wasn't too bad. It's certainly going to be busy and it looks like I"ll be embroiled in Desk Dramas when I go back in a week.
It's funny. I don't care about the stupid desk, but at the same time, I keep obsessing over it. Now, that's a weird feeling.
J and I went to the Superman Returns preview on Wednesday night. It's good. Not great, but good. Too long and Spacey is a bit of a letdown, but visually it's beautiful.
What else do I have.
Oh yeah.
I'm going to trial a monthy goals thing. See how far I get.
So for July:
Finish page 1 of Iris, adapted by Jill Oxton and based on the art work of body paint artist Emma Hack.
It was originally painted on the bodies of two sisters embracing, and Jill Oxton adapted it for cross stitch. I'm actually doing it as a wedding present for my friend, S. I wanted to stitch something, but I know anything with a ''wedding'' theme will freak her out. Hopefully she'll think it's nice, different, unusual.
Uh ... walk four days a week and (when I go back to work) bike to work. Not home, because I finish at midnight but I can bike TO work.
Read and write reviews for three review books.
Keep blogging twice a week and leaving comments on others' blogs.
Tidy up a short story.
Measure and cut fabric for vase patterns and for quilt squares.

That's all for now. More later. There's always more later.