R.i.P. General…

I went to bed early last night so that I could get plenty of sleep before getting up at dark-thirty to go to Harpers Ferry with my dad on my day off today. General YumYum woke me up 4 hours early, crying out and clawing at my face. He had been doing that for the past couple of days…pretty much since he got his vaccination shot. But I continued to keep him close until he decided he wanted to leave the bed, or lay down at my feet.

When we got back into town, I checked up on him before heading over to my parents’ house to move a headboard. Since Dad and I were heading over to the ski resort to look at this…unbelievable view…Mom offered to watch over the General while we were gone. Heading back to my house, I wrapped him up in the blanket he was delivered in to me when I first got him. Upon the leaving the house, he wriggled and squirmed, trying to lurch out of my arms. I caught him…and next thing I knew…he was gone.

We thought there were signs that he might revive, the way his body twitched, his mouth opening as if to try and breathe. The vet had me check for a heartbeat and movement in his eyes. He figures, though without a proper autopsy we can’t be for sure, that he might have had a pre-existing heart or liver condition, which might have been the reason why his mother abandoned him.

We buried him in my parents’ backyard.




It was just only two days ago I was saying how lucky it was when I took him in, or else some mean dogs might have gotten to him in my manager’s neighborhood. The few good things we could say is that he was cared for…happy during the short time he had…and didn’t die alone.

Meet General YumYum!

And this here would be the picture I sent to my friends and family over the phone the first day I got him! HE’S SO TINY!



He’s relatively 6-7 weeks old, and he was found by my assistant manager. While we were busy busy busy stocking up this week’s inventory, she calls out seeing if anyone wanted a kitten. She had found him in her cat’s cubby, and the little dear wasn’t coming out for anything. Her daughter managed to get him out, but he wouldn’t eat…probably intimidated by the other cats that wanted to sniff him. Even though my baby girl Calista has been very happy with the fact that she hasn’t had to share me or the house with any other felines, I caved and said I’d take him in.



I can’t help it! Where my sister goes and gets two kittens at a time from co-worker’s litters, I have to take in the singled out strays that appear out of nowhere! And for a lot of them, it feels like destiny. They found their way to people I know, be it friends, neighbors, or co-workers, only to wind up under my care.



And ooooooh how he is a charmer! Get down to his level, and he’ll come up and nuzzle in beneath your chin! Let him tumble around in your lap and he’ll fall asleep once he’s tuckered himself out. Then there’s his purrs! Endless! And he loves to hide! Usually beneath the dressers, but he’s managed to burrow into the folds of the blanket and hide in there while keeping all good and warm at the same time! He’s fur is super soft as well! He’s amazingly adorable, and kneads a lot…but I imagine that’s a kitten thing…to get milk and such. And he likes to nibble on my fingers! SO CUTE!



Kitten love is the best!



Oh right! You’re probably wondering why General YumYum?! Ha! I’m such a dork. So, I missed out on the chance of naming Ko-Ko YumYum…because neither I nor my boss could remember the female cat’s name from ‘the Cat Who’ murder mystery books with both read. So the last kitten I got was named Ko-Ko because that name just stuck out. So I figured that if this one was a girl, I could just name it YumYum and be done with it. But then I thought…well, what if it’s a boy? But I still like the name YumYum…so, I figured I would add General in the front. It makes it masculine PLUS it ties in the fact that I got it through work…being Dollar General. SOOO that’s where I got General YumYum!



Also we’ve got my friend’s voice in there! Taxim is from England, and I’ll occasionally video chat with him. Well…he’ll talk, as I don’t have a microphone for my laptop yet…and I’ll just grin stupidly at him because I’m a sucker for British accents and chocolaty brown eyes. Though honestly, I think this kitten is going to give my friend a run for his money. Soft little fluffy bundles of purring are for more adorable than silly English guys!

Anyways…on a different note, as this little bundle of joy has pretty been the one good thing to happen in a couple weeks’ worth of not so good things…you might find me blogging less and less. I’m going through some personal changes that require a lot of my free time outside of work. Consider it as a cleansing period as I purge myself of the clutter that’s been bogging me down, and removing myself from the art world. My ‘Big Brother’ considers it as a sabbatical, until I can get my artistic fuse back…but since I’m downsizing so much of my stuff, I’m sending my art supplies to my sister and her kids to play with. They’ll make better use of the stuff instead of letting the paints dry up…waiting for me to decide if I ever want to use them again, and such. I’m hoping that in the end of it all, it will help me to focus on getting my candle business up and running more so than anything else.

Carved Candles.

I’m telling my friend Keni about my carved candles, and eventually had to show him a picture of one just to give him a better idea of what the hell I was talking about. The first impression most people seem to think is…”Oh neat! Could you carve me a wolf?”

No.

Those are molded candles, for the most part. I’m sure there’s someone with the skills to go take a chunk of wax and go about carving the figure of whatever’s heart’s desire and all…but since most 3D related art and sculptures have never been my forte, I can guarantee that I will not be making such candles without the aid of a prefabricated mold. End of the discussion.




However…THIS…the image above…is what I’m talking about. Carved ribbon candles! This one up above in fact was carved by myself probably about a good six or so years ago. The white wax unfortunately has started to fade at the bottom, but time will do that to anything that involves dyed colors. BUT THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF MY LIFE.



Karper came over one time and took a look at one I had managed to have unpacked at the time, and instantly wanted to learn how to make it. He’s got a lot of energy about him, wanting to learn and teach…but it was good to see the enthusiasm in his eyes when I talked to him about the processes that go into making these candles. Even one of my managers was happy to hear that I have a plan…or a hope, or a dream to work towards. She says too many people don’t have them around here; that…or don’t express them so openly.



And I honestly wouldn’t mind teaching other people how to make them! It’s really a beautiful and relaxing craft to learn, and great for someone like me who wants to get things done quickly…as you don’t have much time to mess around with it to begin with! Back in the day I was the one teaching the roommate I used to work with at the time. The company I want to order my supplies from does things just a little differently from what I learned, but only to be conducive towards not using full length wicks, but instead using oil wicks…which in my opinion is a lot better because then you don’t have to worry about accidently burning or melting the design. I learned that as much as you can give people instructions on how to care for your candle when burning it, they never pay attention to what they’re doing.



BUT OH! When you do light them up! The way the colors glow! It’s the most enchanting thing! I swear, I could get lost just watching the flames flicker from deep down inside a well burned candle and just marvel at the way the colors light up. Truly a beautiful sight to see, but not so well captured on the camera…at least not by myself. And there’s so much more you can do with them! If the well inside is deep and wide enough, you can plop a smaller candle, like a tea-light or votive, inside and let it burn…even the scented ones! It becomes a candle holder! How many candles do that and still look just as pretty, huh?



Do you see what it is I’m saving my money up for? I heard there’s a shop in Hawaii that sells them, but there isn’t one in Savannah anymore! I left the shop I used to work for roughly 2-3 years before they closed down. That place had stayed open for…roughly over 20 years. And then…the original older sold it…to which it was given as a wedding gift by the bride’s father. Apparently the husband and wife who I used to work for used to work for the original owner. I was told it was thriving back in those days, before they were given ownership of it. And somehow, they ran it into the ground! How sad, right…but it was primarily because they never got anything shipped out on time. How do you expect to keep happy customers if you don’t get their order done in time, right? Plus…you don’t see these kinds of candles everywhere. Scented candles, you see them all over the place! But these? Hardly anywhere, right? I’ve searched online, and can’t find a place that carves a decent one. Always someone’s attempt at them, but nothing as well crafted as what I’ve seen and made.

I plan on starting out small. I won’t be able to open a shop right off from the start, but my sister’s been telling me that as a female making less than the average yearly income, I should be able to get some grants to help start a business up. But all the research I’ve done in the past has left me rather confused as to how to get it. Honestly. Something always made me hesitate in taking that step forward; probably all the legal mumbo-jumbo that’s written in such huge and complicated words that I can’t understand what it is that I’m reading. Why can’t lawyers and government officials use laymen terms?

I think I need to have a garage sale…get rid of the crap I’ve got stored away with absolutely no use for.

So Easily Discouraged.

Which is not something that my sister Statler wants to hear about, as she knows too many people who express the negative side of things so often that she herself is having a hard time keeping positive for them. And yet, I’m the same way as I convince my friends to vent it all out in hopes that at least expressing their frustrations will help to ease a weight upon their shoulders that simply listening is the only way that I can really help. Then an intense force drives me down as things start turning sour in my direction…



This month’s First Friday was a rather low blow. The past couple of months, sales had increased by a little bit, but with the lack of anything new to show and still no real interest in the character prints or comics (except for the two guys that want me to draw up their stories for them, which I’m still quietly excited about), I had a gut feeling that things would go well this month. I really need to listen to my gut feeling more often. One could easily blame it on the weather this time around, though I honestly think that last month’s location was rather ideal over where they normally hold the show. They tried to make it better by blocking off one of the streets to help deal with vehicle traffic…but that’s neither here or there right now. This time around it was rather windy, which grew to be so strong that it not only managed to knock my canopy over, but the display wall, easel, and table over. It was a mess…but on the bright side, my windows didn’t break. I lost a stein, which no one seemed to have much interest in anyways, my framed prints need to be cleaned up a bit…and after trying to set things back up again and helping my neighboring booth deal with her canopy and other things that had fallen, my stuff got blown over again. “I think it’s time we pack it up for the night.” We only had a half hour before the show was over anyways, and by the time we got home…it started to rain. I suppose the gods were just looking out for me and didn’t want my stuff to get wet, but did they have to cause such a mess?



I’m sure I wasn’t alone in being discouraged by the evening, as the cute blond guy I shall name Karper sat with me at my booth for a good portion of the show when people who were suppose to speak at his reading and discussion at the library canceled on him. We talked about it…he bought a couple of comics, who’s proceeds went to buying my lunch the next day at work…heh…that’s twice now that he’s paid for lunch. I really ought to return the favor sometime. Hmm…right, so then I got to meet his cousins, and when things just fell apart on me, he and his family helped to clean and pack things up. I attempted to read the first poem in a book of poetry he had left at my booth when he went off to chat with people, but I kept on getting interrupted by the wind; first in helping the food vendor cleaning up some chips that had tried to make an escape, and then by my booth deciding that flying away was on its agenda as well. For what little of it I read, I liked the point of view of the poem!



Karper is one of the two guys that want me to draw up their stories for them. The other is ET, who amazingly is unable to stay awake through the movie by the same name, and thus has been unable to see it in its entirety. The same movie that I cried through the ending of because I didn’t want ET to go home! ET has a great story idea that just puts me in a fit of giggles every time I look at the synapses, however…I’m finding that I’m having difficulty figuring out what the characters are suppose to look like. I don’t know if it means that my imagination is broken due to years of…? I honestly don’t know what the problem could be. The idea behind it is neat, and I think it would be a fun read…but…I have more questions behind the development more so than ideas of how it could look. I’m taking this as a bad sign. My dad suggested to just draw up something that first comes to mind to see if it goes along with what the guy wants…but I can’t even do that. I look at the list of characters, and then at the drawing of the vehicle he sent me…and everything just goes blank in my head.



But I’m trying to use such developmental inquiries on yet another project that my friend Keni wants me to write with him; a three book series on the adventures of two of our characters that we play on a game. But even this I found myself getting annoyed with because while he focuses on developing the two main characters (which is fine and important ), I’m trying to get him to focus on developing the world! I can’t think about what a plot or character might be if I don’t know what the world is like? What’s my character’s views on this…well how the hell should I know if I don’t know what this is?! Heh…but I went and took him by surprise by shooting off a bunch of none descriptive questions/options to him over text message while he was on a house hunting trip. From this, I’ve created the skeletal basis of a world for him to peruse when he gets internet access again. Here’s hoping I can get him to focus on that for a bit.



The lack of sales in my shops is discouraging as well, though I half expected it. I don’t have any ideas on how to cheaply advertise a bunch of products online, and the grapevine seems to have shriveled up and died on me. I should forewarn Statler of this before she has me painting anything wine related…out of fear that such ventures will look rather desolate.



Anyways…how do you like the random, old and new art that I have floating around on my computer. Some of them are projects I picked up from friends and family, others were just random things that I might do something with later down the road. We’ll see.

Elderly Man…

…heh…he’ll get the joke.

Though really, my dad isn’t elderly. Far from it, having survived a heart attack and does his best to walk every morning, test himself on the fitness trail at the local park, and continues to work and play with his trains; along with help me go about maintaining a house.

For those who don’t know me, I’m a Daddy’s Girl! I adore him to no end! Why? Because somehow he understands me enough to make me laugh at my own quirks. He’ll occasionally call me his son, vaguely due to the fact that in high school I picked up a nickname of the male gender; because…well…I’m not all that feminine personality wise! When he bought the women in his family porcelain pendants, he was so dead one with the dragon (as I’ve seen them around before but couldn’t decide which one I wanted if I ever could afford one) that I haven’t taken it off since. And though he occasionally forgets that I understand logic and physics (a class I should have taken in high school instead of chemistry), it’s fun to see the delight in his eyes when he’s reminded and reiterates how I’m not all that girly.

I LOVE MY DAD! And I have some really fun memories that even revolve around his previous birthdays!

I spent my first summer as a SCAD student at home with my parents. By the time Dad’s birthday came around, I was working the graveyard shift at a nearby gas station. It was pretty fun, despite being left in the sub-station making coffee and muffins in preparation for the morning rush that I was normally gone in time for. I had worked the night before and into the morning of his birthday, and had asked for his birthday night off so I could enjoy the day with him, Mom, Statler, and Kermit’s godparents at…HERSHEY PARK! Why there? BECAUSE WE LOVE ROLLERCOASTERS! Mom doesn’t, but Dad and his girls do! OH THE FUN!

So I get home from work at around 6am, wonder into my room to find…!!! A computer game I had been obsessing about (I can’t wait for Dungeon Siege 3 to come out next year!) all summer and a DVD drive for my computer! That’s right! Dad gave me gifts for his birthday! How awesome is that?! My friends still can’t figure out how that works, but I’m not going to question it. All I know is that when it comes to his birthday and X-mas, all he ever wants is to spend time with his daughters. No other gifts really matter as much.

Excited about the DVD drive because I had gotten a movie that I couldn’t watch because…I didn’t own a DVD player; I accidently woke him up trying to install the damn thing into my computer. Sadly, I couldn’t remember how to open my computer to install it. He had been hoping to wake up to find me playing the game so he could watch me play it…just to see what it was like, but of course…that wasn’t the case. “Go make breakfast and I’ll have it up and running by the time you’re done!” The computer was put back together and the game was up and running like I said it would be! And I was overjoyed when I got to get past the part where the DEMO I had normally stopped me. Basically, my convincing argument for getting the game: I work overnight hours. None of my friends are up that late to chat with, and I don’t want to keep you and Mom up watching TV. What better way to keep my sleeping schedule in tact by playing a video game on my nights off?

Now, I know what you’re thinking, as my sister didn’t understand why I worked the night before Dad’s birthday and not ask for it off along with the night after. I didn’t want to risk for asking for too much time off then. Heh…I knew what I was doing. Basically I took a catnap on the drive up to the park (hour long), to which we went around riding roller coasters, including a kiddy one that was like taking a trolley around a western themed area that helped to settle our stomachs for lunch. Seriously…it was that tame. Then there was the original Mighty Mouse that Mom rode because it didn’t have any loopty-loops; she can’t handle the good stuff. And after some disappointment in waiting in line for a coaster ride that had been on and off all day, they went to ride the teacups with Mom and then drove home. Hour long actually dead asleep nap in the car again, and then I was up all night playing my game. That’s right! I had the college student stamina back then to endure being up over 24 hours, take a short nap, and stay up another few hours…all to spend time with my dad and play a video game! WEEE!

But the best birthday was his 60th! It was the first time visiting my current home town, seeing their new house, and going to the local tavern. And the way Mom set it all up was amazing! Two weeks earlier we were all in NYC to watch a Yankees game for the last time in the old stadium. Dad with all three of his daughters, one of which lives in NM while I was living in GA, so he really didn’t expect to see either of us for his birthday. The boyfriend at the time and I drove up with the cats, cause Mom said we could, with the money she gave us to cover gas and food.

Before that, she had been emailing a close friend of Dad’s about coming up to visit, and he, the Giant Leprechaun, changed the title and format of the email to make it look like he was up and coming for a visit, kind of like a last minute decision. There’re plenty of Civil War battlefields to visit in the area, and he and Dad are into the history of it all, so it made sense. Dad was excited; he got to hang out with his buddy for his birthday. Passing the house in the car, GL parks it up the street and meanders into the yard…knocking on the door when he says Mom through the window. So he and Dad go to the tavern for a drink and don’t get home with his car until JUST after me and the bf start unloading ours of the cats and luggage. “What a surprise! What are you doing here? And you brought the mangy beasts?!” “Mom said we could!”

We were in the middle of talking about something in the living room…as we normally do…later that evening when the bf goes to put a can in the recyclable bin out back. As Dad has his back to the doorway, and the bf just so happens to be out back in time to let her in, Kermit quietly sneaks in with her newest baby...who is sleeping so he’s obviously not loud enough to draw Dad’s attention. She stands there for a minute or two before announcing her presence; to which Dad nearly has a heart attack! It surprised him so much to see my sister there, because she lives so far away! Again, Mom fronted the money for her plane ticket…just to have the three of us there for his 60th! Statler picked her up at the airport and let her borrow one of her cars to drive into town.

The following day, GL, bf, and Dad go walk Antietam Battlefield and later go to the tavern again for a beer and oysters. On and on Dad talks about this Beer Tasting Dinner that they occasionally have and how he’s never been to one but they sounded great, with good food and beer from all over the world. Five course meal cooked fresh with produce from the local farms and a different kind of beer to compliment each course. Oh! I can’t remember everything we had, but the dessert was my favorite! Flakey kind of pastry with cream and fruits! I wish I could have it again…

Low and behold, the next day, for Dad’s birthday, more people show up by surprise, and not only that…they’re there for a BEER TASTING DINNER Mom had arranged for the big day! He’s declared it the best birthday of his life. Mom really outdid herself this time around, with all the surprises and having his daughters there to share it with. Hee!

Happy Birthday, Dad! Can’t say today is going to be as good as two years ago, but I’m sure you’ll love it either way!