waving, not drowning

I’m not dead. I’m still here. Things have been rather overwhelming these last few months, but I’m still alive and kicking. As per my usual modus operandi, what follows is a list of what I’ve been up to, and what I have planned:

1. Roller Derby – Keeping me relatively sane since 2008! I’m on the Old Money Honeys again this season (hurrah!) and we’ve started off rather well, having recently beaten our old nemesis, The Mob Squad, at the Providence Roller Derby home season opener. The final score was 98 – 75. Go TEAM!

   I also play for the Killah Bees, and we’ll be heading off to Canada again in July to play in Montreal. We’re playing a 30 minute exhibition mini-scrimmage and the Riveters get to play a regular 1-hour bout. Alas, we’re just the opening entertainment, but oh well. We got to play a full bout in Ottowa in May, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. It’s going to be a great time anyway.

   I’m a bit behind in the behind-the-scenes derby business for which I am responsible: archives and rookie wranglin’. The rest of my life has been dragging me down, and I’m finding it difficult to force myself to do the things I need to do in my spare time. But things are coming together, slowly but surely.We’ve got a recruiting event coming up on the 18th. It’s an informal meet-and-greet type thing at an open skate, where we get to chat with potential recruits in a low-key, hopefully non-intimidating setting. It’s our first one of these, so we want to make a good impression.

2. Jobs, etc. – This part of my life is saturated with uncertainty at the moment, and I’m doing my best to not be overwhelmed. I’m losing one job at the end of June, and I’m losing the other job at the end of August. Meanwhile, my hours at the latter job have been cut from three days to two. I’m still applying for jobs, though. Nose to the grindstone, chin up and all that. I’ve expanded my job search to include the Washington, DC area. If we have to move to find work, it might as well be where I have friends and family, right? On the bright side, JeT just got word this week that he’ll definitely have a job in his restructured company. Depending on where I find work, we may have to live apart for a while. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.The impending unemployment has actually gotten me to think more creatively about how I spend my time, which leads me to:
3. Ahts and Crayafts – I’ve been looking into setting up a home screen printing studio and finding outlets in which to sell some home made things. I have had an Etsy account for several years and have never gotten around to listing and selling anything in it. Which is a shame, because I’ve got some pretty good ideas. Potential items to sell firstly would include upcycled t-shirt dresses, calico-print summer wrap dresses, note cards, stationery kits, homespun yarn, etc. Oh, and I’ve also been thinking about resurrecting “J-Star Skateboards,” which was a little business I had way back in the day doing custom painted and screen printed skate decks. So, the creative juices are flowing, indeed.
4. Books – I’ve barely read anything this year. Seriously. It seems that reading functions as a happiness barometer. The more I read, you know I’m functioning fairly well. (The same can be said about knitting, really.) I used to read on the train all the time, now I just sleep or zone out to music. An easy way to break out of this rut (which I feel like I’ve been in FOREVER, even though I know it hasn’t really been that long…) is to start reading again. I’m too lazy to go look up things to read, so I’ll just take recommendations here. Tell me what I should read, and I’ll get right on it. I’m participating in the “Infinite Summer” read-along, so that should be fun, but I’ll be wanting to read other stuff as well. Hook me up!
5. PURGE! – Not to sound all emo or whatever, but I’m feeling rather existentially claustrophobic. I’m absolutely smothered by my stuff. I have so much crap, I can’t get to the stuff that I’d actually use. I think getting rid of a bunch of things, and seriously organizing the house would do me a world of good. A happy me is an organized and productive me. Right now, I’m neither happy nor productive, but I’m really looking to change that. I think some selective purging is definitely in order. It’ll give me a bit more breathing room.

That’s it, I suppose. Life moves along at its ridiculously fast pace as I struggle to keep up. Been treading mud for a while, but doing my best to break out of bad patterns, which do not serve anyone’s best interest, and find a niche in which to thrive. Really, things could be a whole lot worse, and most days I can function as a proper adult. Though I’d rather just eat popsicles and go play outside. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to be an adult and still find a way to have fun. I’m still determined, however, to find a way to combine it all.

Other things on the perifery: tattoos! Yes, yes! Been planning them for years, and I’m finally going to get around to it. Though they’ll have to wait for when I actually have proper income, but still. There it is. I’ll post a picture of some sketches shortly. The first one will be a stylized version of my initials, and it’s rather small. (So, who knows, I might get that one sooner rather than later.)

I’ve also been meaning to update my Flickr account, and keep more up to date with that. It’s just one of the general organizational things that I’ve let slip. I’m still doing stuff and photos are still being taken, but it’s mostly been my friends taking the pictures instead of me. I’ve been around on Facebook and Twitter, though, so you can still keep track of what I’m up to, even if this blah blah blahg is woefully neglected.

Hearts and Stars, friends. Hopefully I’ll see you around.

Woe is our car

Wednesday night, driving back from Northampton, I managed to hit some debris in the road. It kicked up and damaged something related to the transmission fluid lines. Not the line itself, but the recirculation/collection pan thing. So, unbeknownst to me, the car was leaking transmission fluid for the rest of the drive home (about 45 minutes or so). Due to my exhausted state when I got home, and the 4 hours of sleep between passing out and waking to take JeT to the train station the next morning, I had forgotten all about the debris incident. When it happened, there was no indication that something was amiss. No weird sounds were made, no odd feelings, all seemed well. Until the next morning, that is.

We borrowed his Dad’s van so I could get to the train station for my first day of my shiny new job (which went well, by the way; more on that another time), and JeT took the day off to deal with the situation, which is thus:

Due to my having driven the car with diminishing transmission fluid, said transmission will have to be rebuilt. To the tune of $1600, which we will have to put on our already overburdened credit cards. (I should mention that I hate having credit cards as much as I hate having a car. Someday, we’ll live without either, but there’s no time for daydreaming now.) The work will be done by Monday, so I’ll still be able to drive out to Holyoke for my summer class, which is a relief.

Before we got the final quote for the transmission work, we were also considering the possibility of trading in the car for a new one. But since we are able to afford the work (with fake money, but still), we didn’t want to just treat the car as some disposable thing. And it’s really annoying when you want to talk to an appraiser, and all you get are salespeople on the phone trying to convince you that your car isn’t worth much, and that you’d be better off just getting a new one. Our car is going to be paid off by November, and I’m going to have to start paying back student loans soon after, so I really didn’t fancy having another car loan for another five years.

Argh. Ok, enough whinging about cars and money. I’ve got cupcakes to bake! That’s right, I’m distracting myself with sugar. Oh, and I think there’s still some New Castle in the fridge. Yeah! Beer! Cupcakes! Right, that cheered me up.