h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'll think about your colors when I can think again, might be a couple of days. The Naples event was kinda harrowing, rode over with a total dingbat who arrived for me an hour and 1/2 later than we'd agreed upon, then drove crazy 100 mph across the state, swerving all over the place and babblin on and on and on about how great her body is, but how she's not stuck up about it any more and about how she needs to find a husband who will take care of her and not ask anything more of her than that she get out of bed in the morning. She's *definitely* not part of the reality-based community, and is rather astoundingly stupid. Naturally, she got pulled over by the cops for speeding, and had the nerve to try to blame *me* for not making her watch her speed, even though I had mentioned that accidents at that speed were often fatal (and I have too many projects in process for that right now) and when I pointed out the cop when she swooooshed past she didn't even slow down. Then when she passed our exit and we went to a gas station/store to get directions she had to hang arounf for 20 minutes flirting with the rednecks and trying to get them to buy her beer. GAAAAAAAAA! It was almost midnight by that time, I was a tad grumpy, to say the least.

So the next night we were all whipped, perfectly happy to laze by the pool and munch on the buffet and have too many cocktails, and she tried to manipulate all us old farts into going out, which didn't happen. I get soooo irritated with idiots who won't just go and *do* what they want to do, instead hang around whining about how they need to eat a proper meal or they'll pass out from anemia...on and on and on...gaaaaaaaaa.....

Finally she left and we were having fun chatting with the people at the tiki bar, and she came back and was dancing for dollars. Funny, but it got really bad and she was drunk and acting like a total whore, which I don't like to associate myself with. Makes me cringe when a woman asks a man how much money he has on him, and if it's not enough tells him to get lost, nastily. So I was beat, desperately needed to sleep, and I went to the room. Nice place, two bedrooms with a living room and kitchen as common area. After the bar closed she brought one of the drunks up to the room, was making a bunch of noise in the comon area, so I went out and snarled that I needed to sleep. The guy apparently didn't want to leave (surprise!) and he even wandered into my bedroom. I was furious!

So in the morning I ripped her a new asshole about it, and she totally didn't *get* it that there's a problem with keeping co-workers awake in the wee hours when on a business trip. She thought I was inconsiderate for being royally pissed, and that since the guy had apologized for coming into my room that it was all ok. She said that since she hadn't 'done' anything with him, and didn't take him into her room, she was totally within her rights as an adult. I explained that I didn't care if she wanted to go and have a screaming orgy with ten guys at once, but that *I* don't want it affecting my life by waking me up or putting me in a position of potential danger. God, this girl is stupid. She asked me on the ride why white women (she's black) often tell her she should be a blonde. She didn't even get it, just didn't think blonde hair would suit her coloring. I explained the dingy association with blondes, and she was adamant that she's not dingy. So I'll never ride with or share a room with her again, but it made a really stressy trip which would have been otherwise really fun.

What an idiot! I can sure understand never wanting to repeat the experience. I remember once having to explain to a flatmate when I was living next door that bringing home total strangers from bars was definitely *not okay* in my home (after it seemed that this was a habit of hers). She tried to convince me that her intuition about people was always 'right on' and so I didn't have to worry about her bringing home a weirdo . . . yeah right.

I'm shocked that guy walked into your room! F**k, what a couple of morons. Well, at least you weren't killed on the way there or back.

Do you have a bit of time off now - at least the weekend?

I've got an appointment with another possible sewer this morning - details here: F119314?thread=831527&post=22752012#p22752012

Just remembered the other day that we have tickets for the Cirque du Soleil for the 31st - bought in November. In fact, Noggin has had to postpone his ear operation because of this - apparently he will have to stay indoors and as immobile as possible for two weeks after it's done. So we'll look into getting the op done first week of February.

Made lentil soup again yesterday and thought of you . . .


az

ps
last cig was a week ago yesterday . . .


az

Hola!
It looks like the universe is starting to kick in with the opportunities, az. It's HAPPENING! Woooohooooo! Just make sure you have all your end totally ready to go at the drop of a hat and you'll make your time goal.

Still no time off--I'm working in Bal Harbour this weekend, looks like I'll be off on Monday and was hoping to get my passport stuff taken care of and get the Seville tickets purchased, but it's Martin Luther King's birthday, so all government offices are closed. I've *gotta* get that stuff done. But at least on Monday I can complete my paintings for the showing, so it'll not be a wasted day off.

I was adding up the hours/wages I'm earning this month, I'll hit my goal range! How cool is that? I set it kinda highish just to make *sure* I'd be able to do everything I need to do, have proved to myself that I can. Now I need to get some bookings arranged for myself for next month so I can have some big pay days in there and make it happen again.

Excellent news about the cigs! Well done! I need to do the same, think of it in terms of generating additional income rather than stopping a bad habit since that's where I'm focused right now.

Time to get ready for work now... I can make it through two more days. Chooooo choooooooo. Remember the story about the little train that could?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I'm having a 'normal' morning, at last. Sitting here having coffee, relaxing, reading through my usual stuff, then I'll have some time to paint before I get ready to be at work at 1:00. Bliss!

It got cold last night, have a bunch of candles burning on the window sills to cut the nippiness, will make another pot of soup tonight and I'm OFF tomorrow!

Amazing what a difference this little bit of peaceful time in the mornings makes to me in keeping myself calm and focused. I get too agitated and frazzled when I don't have it, must work on my practice more so I can keep the calm even when I *do* have to be immersed in people who aren't like me for extended periods.

Are you having a Sunday in bed or are you bouncing around today?

Sunday morning in bed . . . quite nice. Coffee, brekky, reading, hootooing, cuddling . . .

It's so damp and chilly today that staying snug and warm under the duvet until noon seemed just the thing to do. Took a couple of cosy photos of my boys:

http://public.fotki.com/azahar/gatitos/my_boys_001.html

Plan is to start bouncing again tomorrow. Though I did ride the bike for half an hour (more to keep warm than anything else) and finished American Gods (fab!) and now we're just playing lunchtime scrabble.

Glad you got some time to yourself this morning. Agree that it's very necessary, especially when you have to go out and, um, mingle with The Others.

Well, back to the game . . .


az

Sounds like you had a lovely Sunday of rest before gonzo time. The boys all look very cozy and well taken care of.

Today was good, did a bit of organizing at work (they'd let everything go to shit since the last time I did it) and then I was busy with makeovers right up til the end, which made the day pass by beautifully. Just made another pot of experimental soup, this one with pork and veggies and a panang curry/coconut milk/tomato bisque base. This one is totally awesome, very spicy and flavorful with a hint of sweet. I'm getting pretty good at this soup thing.

Now an evening of relaxing and piddling around, then early to bed so I can get up and paint my butt off, spend a few hours at the gym and maybe do a bit of cleaning/excavation in the apartment.

The change of diet and gym is woking its magic, I'm now able to comfortably zip my leather jacket and even move around without worrying about busting a seam. Wooooohoooo! Still plenty more to go, but it's been completely painless so far and I don't feel at all deprived. Seems I'm staying right on target with the weight loss plan, am only weighing on Sundays, but I seem to be dropping about 2 lbs/week.

Losing two pounds a week sounds very good. I lost one kilo this past week without really trying, so this week I plan to pay more attention to my food and keep up the daily exercise. Like you I am only weighing myself once a week (Monday mornings).

Well, off to work . . .


az

Ahhhhhhhhhh.
I feel like a human bean again, mostly finished a painting that ended up being about my thoughts/feelings on women like the lil idiot I traveled with. Most necessary, as I was obsessing a bit and needed to get it out of my head.

*Finally* had a proper conversation with my agent, we've reached an understanding, he says he's going to do his very best to keep me booked enough to make my financial goals (and I got another pay increase) and he wants me to consider helping him to establish a west-coast branch of the agency if/when I move there. So that's another thing off my mind.

And then, last night I decided to be a total nerd-slob, had rushed right out and bought a special edition of Scientific American that's devoted to new developments in physics, and I went to bed with it at 9pm (unheard of) and read for a while, then slept for 10 hours straight. Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Now my aura is fully fluffed again.

I'll look at your colors now, will give you my input tonight.

Well, *that* was quick. So I re-read your colors post, what popped into my head was that soft green background, maybe subtly textured with a canvas filter. Rather than having the logo pure white I'd make it the merest hint of peach, the contrast to the green would bring it out, but it would still *look* white for all practical purposes. I'll get on the flower design asap, probably Sunday when my showing is done with and I can focus on other things. I think the logo text is good in that font but personalized a bit so the lines which make up the individual letters have thicker and thinner bits, not uniform width all through. I'm thinking the upper horizontal arches and the top part of the z would be good thicker. It would make a neat balance in the text as a whole, bring it toward the middle of a vertical-height thing, if that makes any sense.

Glad you got things sorted with your agent. Also that you got the bimbo out of your system - I totally understand how things like that can linger.

Your colour ideas sound quite nice, though not sure about changing the font - mind you, once I see it I might well like it enough to change. Christoff (our webpage designer) says the bulk of the page should be white as it's more professional looking, but we wanted to use the colours in the banner with the logo and maybe as highlight colours on the page. Anyhow, looking forward to seeing your ideas. Thanks.

Meanwhile, still on the hunt for a sewer. Late this morning after classes we went to the 'Women's Centre' and also to an immigrant help centre with our job offer. So we shall see if anything comes of that. I actually like the idea of helping someone out who is new in the country, having been there myself.

We ended up not far from where the Cirque du Soleil is set up and so went to check out pedestrian access as it is also located at the crossroads of two busy motorways. Didn't want a repeat of our experience trying to get to the wholesale trim place and not being able to cross the road. We saw that there was actually a set of traffic lights but no safe way to get to them. Then I noticed a group of workers putting the finishing touches on a new sidewalk and I thought . . . could they really be putting in a new sidewalk just for the circus? So I went over and asked them and sure enough . . . new sidewalk and traffic lights are being installed so that people can get to the circus on foot. Amazing!

After that we walked home through Triana and stopped for lunch at the most fabulous place - haven't been there in over a year and definitely have to take you there while you're here! To say the place has character is a total understatement. And the food . . . . Their speciality is 'solomillo al ajo' (chunks of beef tenderloin with garlic). A simple stew with melt-in-your-mouth meat and creamy-sweet whole garlic cloves in a very tasty sauce. So we had that with a mixed fried fish plate that was also delish. Remembering that I said I was going to pay more attention to my food this week I made sure I REALLY enjoyed every mouthful as well as every sip of . . .

Well, never mind. The two hour walk probably helped a bit, as well as riding ten kilometres on the bike this morning.

The food/diet changes are more obvious at home. And of course not smoking is a huge change too. Well, poco á poco . . .

Gotta get back to work now.


az

oooooh, I'm feeling good now! I've delivered the 6 (!) paintings and easels and lighting, now all I have to do is print the price cards and show up for the event. What a load off my mind!

I took pics of the new paintings, maybe I'll crop 'em and load 'em into fotki tonight if I have enough time once I've cleaned up the rubble here somewhat. This time all but one of the painting will be priced at under $100, so hopefully some will sell. I have a good feeling about this showing, partly because I'm not making a 'debut' out of it with all the arranging involved. I've just told people, whoever wants to go for cocktails and a nibble afterwards can meet me when it's over, so no worries with that, either.

If you'll send me a jpg file with the azahar text I can pop out a quickie of what I meant about the lettering for you to see.

Today was so cruisy I actually had some extra time on my errands to go and buy a new phone! Well, actually I just upgraded and renewed my contract, but I now have a bunch more minutes, it's a wee bit cheaper monthly, and the free phone works like a charm. Only spent $18 for the upgrade, and bought a headset so I can yak with my wordy friends while doing other things as well.

Almost want to mix a nice kahlua cocktail to celebrate the release of stress now. Another cold front blew through this evening, would be good to warm the cockles of my heart.

When will you be meeting your team of sewers?

mmmmmmmmmmmm
You must try this on a snuggly evening:
1 part kahlua
1 part vodka
2 parts cream
1/4 raspberry di amore

crush some chocolate-mint leaves, shake it til frothy, then take out the leaves and sip-n-slurp.

Heavenly!

To be honest that drink sounds totally VILE . . . then again, I don't like sweet things much. And what the heckity is raspberry di amore?

Great news about getting the paintings done - let me know when you get them put up on Fotki.

Interesting couple of days here. LOVE it that Noggin is now doing the hospital classes. Meant that yesterday I didn't have to interrupt my day between 3-6 and could stay focussed on the last few samples I'm making. N is enjoying it too. The more he teaches the more confident he feels - which of course is a GOOD THING.

Interview this evening with two sewers from the immigration place. Another one tomorrow morning from someone who got my name from a friend of hers (?) and another on Monday morning with someone recommended by my student Manolo's exwife (yes, I am asking *everybody*).

So if we get one (and possibly two) people sewing by next week then we can probably still 'open' mid-February.

Of course I still have to finish the patterns . Main stumbling block there has been not being able to find the pattern paper I like using - and NOBODY here has even heard of it. Well, my friend Patricia used to use it but she is now living in Argentina and I have no way of contacting her to find out who her supplier was.

Anyhoo . . . when we were out at one of those schools last week I noticed a roll of normal brown paper sitting out in the hall and copied down the name of the supplier (just in case - we had previously tried several others without success), googled and then emailed them and they sent me a catalog which arrived yesterday and . . . there it was! MY PAPER! So I've ordered a roll but don't know yet how long it will take to arrive.

I've also misplaced my instructions for grading patterns . . . . . .

Otherwise and that, new healthy living thing is going okay. Haven't stopped drinking completely, but have certainly cut down. I'm eating somewhat lighter and doing more exercise (10 kilometres/half an hour a day on the boring-as-f**k exercise bike from HELL). Am presently going through a serious jonesing-for-a-cig moment but it will be two weeks tomorrow that I had my last one and I'll be derned (dang nabbit) if I'm going to blow it now. This is one of the benefits of being a totally stubborn Capricorn - once my mind is made up that's it baby.

Well, Noggin is busy peeling prawns and so I should start doing my bit - prawns in hoisin sauce (with spring onion, green & red peppers, broccoli) served with basmati rice. We couldn't find snow peas, hence the broccoli.

with the sale!



az

Sounds like an abundance of sewers are starting to gravitate towards you. YAY! Now, this might be sacrilege, but couldn't you maybe use some less-than-perfect paper to make a prototype set of patterns and then transfer them to the glorious stuff when it arrives? That way the work would be basically done and not drive you into a last-minute frenzy. I bet there's also some pretty good instructions for grading the patterns out on the internet, just in case yours don't appear right away. I have a feeling that you'll have enough competent sewers to get the production back on schedule in the beginning so you don't have to worry about somebody getting sick or having complications while there's a time crunch on at the end.

Your 'opening' is though internet sales, right? Or are you still thinking of distributing through physical shops next month?

That drink tastes like a raspberry frappuccino with a kick, darlin'. It's liquid dessert, not booze. But if you don't like sweet things it might not be for you. Raspberry di amore is a raspberry liquor made by the same folks who do amaretto di amore.

I ended up going to bed earlyish last night, had some last-minute changes to my schedule that'll have today and tomorrow long days at big events rather than short days in a slow store, and then Sat I go right from work to my showing so I figured I'd give myself a bit of surplus fluffage to draw upon.

I kinda like having the empty spaces on my walls where the paintings used to be, makes me re-arrange my personal gallery for a while, and is a reminder that I need to keep on producing. I'm amazed that I've made so many paintings over the past month, even though they are smaller and less involved. Totally different from doing one big therapy painting over the course of 3 or 4 months. Talking to my folks last night about the more marketable stuff I'm working on, my dad *still* suggested I work on more generally appealing things, like apples and landscapes and still lifes. *snort* He knew that was a lost cause, of course. Though a MoGgish fruit bowl might be kinda cool.... for some reason I'm envisioning apples with teeth.

In fact, MY PERFECT PAPER is marked working paper. Meaning, the stuff I do the first drafts on. I don't tend to ever get to 'perfect pattern paper' though I may have to start transferring stuff to more solid paper for production cutting purposes. No, this paper I love is simply very comfortable and user friendly for working on original patterns and also doing size grading. Helps keep things as EXACT as possible.

Yeah, have been looking on the internet for pattern grading info - no luck yet. The instructions I had before were very simple and easy to follow. Just wish I knew where the hell I put them . . .

Apples with teeth sound good. Or conversely an image of a certain person being attacked by fruits (seen her latest homophobic diatribes?).

Anyhoodle, lunch and scrabble are now over (fab prawn hoisin and I totally cheesed the Nogster at scrabble again - yay me!) so time to get back to work. Trying to decide how I want to finish an armhole . . .


az

Well, the Senegal Connection looks quite interesting - a real family affair. I was quite surprised to see five of them trudging up the stairs. The 'spokesman' (salesman?) is very charming. A musician who's been living in Seville the same amount of time as me - thirteen years. The rest of the company was his pregnant wife, his sister, a brother and a cousin. It's the brother and cousin who are looking for work. They know I only need one full time person, though I may need a second person part time to get the first production done on time(ish). So the plan is that they're both coming back tomorrow evening to sew a couple of samples each and then - eek! - I'll have to choose between them. Well, if I like their work.

Meanwhile, still have the other woman coming for an interview tomorrow morning. Then I'll be busy cutting some samples for the guys and then lowering one of the cutting tables so they can sit down while they sew.

Well, not going to get my hopes up too much until I can see what they can do. But one of them already gave me some advice on how I should be preparing my 'fairy dress' for production. So we shall see . . .


az

This is starting to sound like something from a John Irving novel. Did they bring along a bear?

Now, why do you want to bind yourself to making permanent hiring decisions tomorrow? Mightn't it be easier to have, say, 3 of the good ones come in for 6 hour shifts, at least for the first week or so? That way you can run production for the full 7 days of the week until you're caught up, and they can sort out days off and such amongst themselves. Then you would know them better and would know who's going to be best suited to stay on with you permanently, you'd be able to give everyone some work, and you'd get caught up. If it's all labor that has to be done anyway, the wages would be the same at the end *and* you'd have some back-up help to call on when demand for your product explodes or if somebody can't make it for whatever reason.

Not much fun for you and Noggin to have factory running every day at first, but it would be short-term and you'd reach your goal without things getting hectic. Besides, you've had plenty of time to relax over the last several months, so sometimes gonzo is the price you pay for it. At least, that's how *I* figure my work schedule when I decide to go off on adventures or need to make some serious money.

Today was pretty awesome. We sold almost $18,000 of CHANEL cosmetics. That's a *lot* of lipsticks! Definitely wasn't a slow or boring day, they had bellydancers and stilt-walkers and clowns, photoshoots for a magazine, horsd'oeuvres, martinis, bubbly and wine (but not for us, alas). Tomorrow another big event in south Miami. I've gotta remember to cake on the black eyeliner. *sigh*

Well, maybe not *that* many lipsticks considering they cost, what, something like $300? Anyhow, sounds like it was an interesting and entertaining day.

Re: the bear. They're bringing it today - apparently it's a whizz at sewing on buttons.

Yeah, I wasn't going to make any hiring decisions until I can test all four people. Good idea to hire them all for awhile until we get caught up, but first I need to get caught up with the cutting, which means finishing the patterns. Apparently one of the Senegal guys (I'll have to write their names down today as they are unusual and now I've forgotten them) is an experienced cutter as well so maybe he can also cut as each pattern is finished. We'll see. I have enough pattern paper left to make up a couple of the styles - anyhow think I'll start off the production with two styles that are only being offered in two sizes (S-M, L-XL). I can get those sorted over the weekend, even without my grading instructions.

We don't mind at all having a 'factory' running here during production times - it was always understood that this would be the case until we can afford to use the space next door. In fact, I think I'm going to have the sewers at the living room table this weekend so I can keep the cutting tables set up at the proper height in Lua's room. Next week they'll have to move into Lua's room because I'll have to teach my classes in the living room. In any case, it's certainly do-able.

It feels really good to finally have things rolling . . .

Have fun in Miami!

az

Daaaaahlink, the lipsticks are a *steal* at a mere $23. Especially since the right one is guaranteed to change your LIFE! Take 10, ok?

How'd the bear and the rest of the circus do? Was it good or another good story?

Miami was....Miami. I had a good day though, had the glow of perkiness about me (I do that when I work with one of the guys there, it drives him insane and then he goes totally bonkers when I make huge sales and the customers hug me when they leave hundreds of dollars lighter, but goooorgeously coloful and feeling fluffed. For some reason they don't respond as well to his cynical, oh-so-bored-artiste-who-doesn't-*care*-how-*they*-want-to-look act. Oh well.)

Just created the title/price cards for my paintings, now nothing but to see what happens tomorrow night. Maybe I'll do the perky thing there, too.

I've been a slob about going to the gym this past week, must get back on track starting Sunday. If I can't get taller I'll just *have* to get leaner. I'm almost tempted to try chanting myself taller, just to see if I can. For sure I can realign my posture, which helps. I managed to shift my period by 5 days this month by putting in a mental work order, kinda took me by surprise as I didn't expect it all to happen at once. I didn't want to be crampy/pms-y/exhausted right when I was going to be flying over, so I gave it a shot and it worked! This mind/body stuff is pretty powerful.

Bedtime now, it's been a full day.