New Work

Well, now I am really excited!!! I am seriously into jobsearch mode. I finally realize that my years as a decorative painter are in the past...all the supplies and equipment are moving elsewhere. Don's friend and neighbor came and took ALL of the Mosaic stuff away and tidied the area as well...so my back yard is almost empty...all the books have been donated to the Library except the ones I will give to Students on the first day of school at Otis...teaching "Art Furniture" this semester. The change in my life goals is being realized. I have signed up to get some help from Worksource and the State to get help with my resume and also to help me focus my energy. I need to find out where I fit in. Todays job market is not the same as the last time I looked for work. I have been self employed for 25 + years, after all. I am hoping to find something that will require me to venture forth and use more of my skills and creativity. My only worry is my age...but surely there is a place for all my experience...I am hoping that teaching might work out..I am starting there, at least. I do love to teach...love to see that little light go on in someone when they do "get it"...but, I will consider something else if it is a good fit and stirs my excitement. The house is getting ready to go on the market...I have a little fear of calling realtors to get feedback because my past experience with the whole thing was not good....BUT I am older and wiser now, so maybe I will be better at it. Anyway, it must be done and no one else to do it but me. No one else to do anything that needs doing now...(how lovely it would be to put on a 50's face and let some big strong man handle it for me)...whoops...that is exactly what got me into the pickle I am in...so, like Melissa I will be the "Reluctant Decider" and forge ahead...a grand adventure awaits and I am sailing into it with 'elan and panache (whatever that means). So I sally forth and will post again with the results of the sallying.

I move my butt

So, my daughter, Melanie, gave me Liz, her Nanny and Noah, my grandson to help me get all the crap out of my house so I can sell it and move to a smaller (?) and nicer place...the old house is really getting hard to care for, a lot of stuff needs repair and the tree is so huge and becoming a problem...too much for me right now. SOOOOOO.....Liz and I worked for a day and came up with a plan and moved garage stuff into the yard and Noah came over and convinced me that a garage sale was a lot of work in the hot sun and would not, in the long run, be very profitable...I sat like a dying lump for a while and agreed...he took most of the stuff to Thrift shops that day. Don came over and took all the videos and he knows a guy who does Mosaic work and will ask him to come for stuff...I said if he would take it ALL...he could have it ALL...but, no picking through it and leaving a mess for me to deal with...also going to try to do the same thing with my paint supplies (that is real hard) Painters have all the paint that I have and more and do not want it and everyone else has no use for such a quantity. I either have to schlep it to recycle 15 gallons at a time or pay someone to haul it away. PLEASE let me remember this as I go into a new phase of my creative self...DO NOT collect an ENORMOUS pile of materials that I MIGHT need to use...it is not just the waste of money paying for this and that....The real torture is trying to deal with the stuff that I just never got around to using...it is "good" stuff (in my mind) and dealing with it seduces me into thinking that I might just get back to that particular idea and actually produce it. The trouble is, that I have an idea a minute...they fire through my brain constantly...I would need the speed of light to actuate all of them...and I have to remember that as I divest myself of the latest collection and be firm with myself about any future thing I think I want to do. My new living situation will probably be an Apartment or a Condo and there will simply not be enough room. LET ME REMEMBER THIS TIME...LET ME REMEMBER THIS TIME...LET ME REMEMBER THIS TIME.
This is Saturday and Noah comes again on Monday...maybe we can haul it all and be done with it (or maybe not) I am hoping we can do it and then I can truly be free to move, to roam, to travel light into this new future..I did change my name to Free for a reason...maybe now the power of the name will keep me moving my butt forward.

Hey Hey

So, it is now August and I have had a hell of a month in July...had my leg in a cast, had walking pneumonia, had a big portion of a tree fall into my yard and block my entrance, got a parking ticket and ran out of money...also had another mri of my head to see if the lesion has grown...now it is August and my cast is off, the tree is taken care of and paid for, the cough is subsiding and the mri of my head showed no growth of the lesion and I sent in the check for the ticket...thank God for August...I am now looking for a job and that should help the money problem...so onward and upward...Hey Hey.