It’s been ages since I did one of these. It has been the craziest year I have had in a long time and this was just sort of tucked away in the back of my mind, waiting to find time to escape.
I suppose the most important things that happened this year should be brought up. In August 2008, Dan proposed to me on a boat in the middle of Silver Lake, NH. It was beautiful. I said yes.
In September, we lost our cat, Ding. She’d had cancer for a while though wasn’t symptomatic and mainly just had a limp. Our vet friend. Dusty. had amputated her leg a few months before and said she’d be happier and boy was he right. She learned to run on those three legs, at 18 1/2 years old and got around far better than when she had the big bandaged leg. She could also curl up more to sleep. I think she was happy those last months. One morning, however, it was time. It was obvious without a doubt. We called Dusty but there was no answer. Dan drove to their house (5 minutes away) and knocked. It was early morning and when Dusty came to the door he was already pretty sure what it meant.
He came to the house to examine her. Agreed with our assessment, and went to the clinic to get the stuff. We all took turns holding her and saying goodbye. Finally when Dusty came back, he put her to sleep quietly in my arms. It was very sad, but I know she had lived her full life.
Then came wedding planning. I hired a friend of a classmate who runs a business as a wedding consultant. She gave me a “friend discount” which was cool. Her name is Carmella and her company is Style Nine Events. I recommend them highly. We had a rather specific set of needs for our wedding. High ceilings (for juggling), not in a church, ceremony and reception in the same building, serving alcohol on a Sunday (in Ohio it’s a separate license, so some places don’t bother.)… screen for a projector…anyway she snapped up a place within days that was perfect.
The date was set for Sunday, May 24, 2009—the day before Memorial Day. This gave us a three day weekend so that out of town guests would likely not be missing work. Unfortunately, May was packed with Dan’s cousins’ graduations and weddings and so on, so it was hectic for the whole family. Since Dan was starting his residency in late June, there wasn’t really a better time to do it, especially if we wanted a honeymoon.
The end of 2009 spring was a crazy time. I was majoring in art with a concentration in sculpture (though I prefer painting, I didn’t prefer the painting instructor at CSU) and I was taking the advanced class PLUS independent study. I had a LOT of sculpture to crank out. One of my projects was an 8 foot high, four foot wide, two feet deep box with widows on the front. inside on the back wall were pictures of figures streaked in paint [life sized photos] taken inside a similar box. The effect was that you were looking in and seeing actual people cramped into this small space. The illusion was a “play along with it” one, not an “oh my god, How did they do that?” kind of thing. I also had a bronze piece to cast; I learned to weld; I learned a lot about a lot of things.
Then came time for me to make my extra heads. It was May 4—just 20 days before the wedding. I wanted to make them out of this really hard industrial wax. It’s like plastic until you get it above 250° at which point it begins to melt. I used the head molds I already had and poured the wax in. Unfortunately I also spilled it on my hand.
The burn put a lot of things off track. I had to scale back my sculpture ideas, I couldn’t practice my wedding first dance with Dan with a sore, blistered, bandaged hand… the stress nearly killed me but finally it was over. I got everything handed in. I got an A in all of my classes but for the first time ever, I also got an A- (in independent study. I don’t blame her—after the burn the work I produced was not up to the quality she knows I could acheive. An A- is still an A though, so I still have straight A’s.)
May 16, 2009 I graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in art. Less than a week later, on May 22, Dan graduated from podiatry school, officially becoming Dr. Dan. Saturday night we had a party for our out of town guests, and then Sunday evening, we got married. What a week!
The wedding was a blast. I have a few videos up on the site, but the official videographer’s cut should be arriving the first week of January, so I hope to put a highlights reel up. We updated Facebook as part of the ceremony, did some juggling, popped bubble wrap, and our minister juggled knives while riding a unicycle with a guest on his shoulders. I juggled knives, too, though not as well as my husband. It was a memorable wedding.
We went on a Mediterranean cruise for our honeymoon, which was amazing. Then, when we got back, we immediately moved to Massachusetts, so that Dan could begin his residency. More accurately, HE moved. I stayed behind for another month packing the house and cleaning things up. We are finally settling into our new rented house in Massachusetts, though. We’re about a half hour from Boston. Beautiful scenery.
On the technology front. I’m looking to hire a programmer who can do iPhone and/or Droid apps. I have the ideas, the graphics, and the logic, just not the programming experience. I want someone who is willing to do the work and then receive a percentage of revenue. If you know anyone, pass them along to me. I have to stress, however, that this person would be creating the app for me, not creating their own app and licensing it to me. I have already had to sue people to get them to stop using my graphics and ideas and I don’t want that anymore.
I’ve been working on my other site, the virtual bubble wrap site a bit. It still needs some tweaking. The revenue has dropped with the new layout so I need to play some more. I have some new things planned and hope to have some new versions of the game out soon, so keep an eye on it.
On this site, I’ve been posting a lot of recipes lately. I have also been doing videos, and posting them both here and on YouTube I am considering starting a video blog about either art or mental illness… or possibly both. It may be a fairly random blog, but maybe someone will find it interesting.
In future news, I’m scheduled to teach community painting classes at the community center in Ashland, MA, and at the arts & crafts store in Framingham, MA. The Ashland classes start in January and the Framingham ones at the end of February. Cross your fingers that people sign up! I think it would be great.
Dominic has been doing ok in school but still struggling in some areas. We had some testing done and they are going to implement some changes at school in the way they deal with him which I hope will be a positive influence. He’s a bright, sweet, and funny kid—he just tries too hard, is socially awkward, and has become almost addicted to lying. He always wants to tell you what you want to hear. It’s frustrating. Love him to bits, though.
Well, that’s all my fingers can take at the moment. I’m going to try to do this newsletter update thing once a month. If I do it that way it won’t be this disastrously long next time. My apologies. It’s just been crazy busy.
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— 04:14:47 AM
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