Iunno, man, maybe like six chickens worth?

sharks

 

Skillful holograms

 

my guess was larval eldritch abominations...

 

Sentient escaped jewelry

 

Went to a march against immigration abuses today. Little sister was one of the organizers. Did a walking and a yelling. Was good.

Throat hurts, worth it.

Now I am sitting in the dark back room on the floor with Rusty, who does not like thunder. Finally got him to lie down on some pillows and blankets. Yay dark corners.

 

Threw clay from 3ish to 9ish. Turned over half a big bag of clay either pot-shaped or slagged. More slagged TBH. But yeah, made some stuff.

Now my everything hurts.

 

And I spent all of today being useless!

Well, that’s what it felt like, anyway. I did feed dogs and cats, finished a little laundry, and clean up after Polly, who thinks pooping in the litterbox is for chumps who hate freedom.

And yesterday I spent another few hours at the clay center, trying to get a hopefully-future planter to look more like a flower than a bucket with petals, with debatable success. But it was something, so I’m putting the brakes on the negative self-talk for now.

 

aaaugh

I have pots I need to trim before they go completely rock hard, and I keep not doing it.

The ceramics center here is a rather harder sensory experience than the one in CR, guys. It’s bigger but the spaces are smaller, and there’s more noise and not many windows and there are so many people and it’s unpredictable. Also, there are no tables for sitting at to make stuff. Only for standing.

 

Soooo I finished my first pottery class. All but 2 pieces still in the kiln.

I wanted to sign up for the next class, but it turns out they cost over $400.

My sister reminded me last night that I am actually in charge of my own income right now, and I really should up it anyway since I keep running out before the month is up, but like. That’s gonna run out, and it’s not like I’m getting any more employable.

And I still get the feeling that Bad Things will happen if my income goes up too high... gotta look up the income cutoff for Medicaid again, I guess... oh, yeah, and maybe notify the medical community and the state of Minnesota that I’m not in Iowa any more. It’s getting to be a bit of a drag to drive an 8 hour round trip every time I need to pick something up from the pharmacy.

(I am an extremely efficient and functional adult human you guys.)

 

Today I did a whole lot of nothing.

I also watered the garden and likely overdrew my bank account buying lunch, and medicated the cat, but the rest of it was nothing.

Well, reading.

... I guess “did nothing” kind of isn’t a thing, unless you are nothing. Things do stuff. It’s inevitable.

Being nothing doesn’t sound that bad, really. Nothing can’t do anything, but that includes feeling guilty about it.

 

I saw a tweet somewhere recently that made the point that reading is actually part of working for authors, and I think that extends to all kinds of artists (gotta put ideas in head to get ideas out, probably). Although I don't think something necessarily has to be productive to be a good something! But it's a useful argument sometimes.

 

Bank account is empty, but not overdawn... which I think means the lady at the drive through paid the difference for me.

o.O !!!

that is so frickin’ nice, holy carp. I’m tearing up a little here.

 

I am sick, and it is pissing me off.

Like, the actual noticeable symptoms don’t seem so bad? Runny nose, sore throat. But also, everything is hard and I am so freakin’ tired.

A couple days ago, I honestly thought I was on the mend, so I did some stuff, and it wiped me out. Like, done. Spent most of yesterday in bed.

This is dumb. I have shit to do. Naaaaargh. Stop doing the thing, body.

 

I should post pictures of the pottery I’ve done since I got here.

... Guh, tired though. I’d have to walk downstairs and point the camera and stuff. Moar nap first.

 

Went in to GP because Mom got diagnosed with walking pneumonia the other day and this cold is being v tenacious

tests all came back clear which, on one hand, yay no pneumonia, but on the other hand, boo I can’t get this fixed with antibiotics

Feeling kinda better today, enough to start getting a little stir-crazy, so of course I have lost my car keys.

My brain feels all floppy, probably from disuse.

Either that or I’m misinterpreting sinus pressure as brain floppage.

Got some appointment stuff sorted out, though. So like, that’s not nothing.

 

I have done A Science!

Spot-testing cleaners on a carpet I’ve been working on rescuing from a few more than a few enough unfortunate cat incidents, I made a discovery:



The whole flower has been treated with hydrogen peroxide; the left half, with hydrogen peroxide and baking soda.

The effect was immediate. I was all, whoa holy crap.

Then I googled the reaction between H2O2 and NaHCO3 to see if it produces anything hazardous (which I probably should have done before mixing them together to see what happened, but oh well, the rug and I lived) and found out the mixture is actually pretty commonly used as a stain remover and whitening agent.

Hooray, I replicated someone else’s results! A Science!

Still testing for colorfastness. A few of the lighter, more delicate colors really do not hold up well, but dammit, there are definitely spots on this rug that are supposed to be cream and not brown. I’m thinking I’ll use it selectively in those spots, and figure out a gentler treatment for the places with subtler color variations.

this rug, it is now an art project.

 

Augh! Am upset!

The reason: I did some applications for insurance/medical assistance, and Filling Things Out upsets me terribly. Especially if they’re even vaguely related to Disability Stuff, or other stuff I need to do to stay alive. Part of me is persistently convinced that actually, I’m lying, and they’re going to figure it out any day now, and then I will be In Trouble.

I’ve been trying and failing to make myself go in to the clay center for just over a week... I even missed class last Friday, because I had to drive to Cedar Rapids again to pick up my medications, and by the time I got back I was too frickin tired.

Hopefully this will stop being an issue soon, because of the aforementioned applications, which mean I can start taking steps to getting prescriptions filled on the same side of the state line as me.

Today, I managed to make it all the way out to the clay center, only to find the parking lot completely full. I went home again, telling myself I’d try again in the evening, except then an Extremely Nice And Pleasant Political Canvasser came to the door and we had a Nice Conversation With Affable Facial Expressions And Appropriate Eye Contact, or my best attempt at the above anyway, and after that I was wiped for the day.

So, no clay center, and then bureaucracy. So, augh.