Vacation, all I ever wanted

Six o'clock PM tomorrow evening begins my summer vacation. Woohoo, right? Yes, it is exciting to have a week ahead with no CEO, no CEO's wench, no "Let's be careful here, Kate, that bird drawing is just a little bit toooo contemporary, and I just think that we reeeeeally have to be very careful about that, we need to keep it wayyy more French Country, more designer-y, um, because those are the only buzz words I know. Can you draw a frog drinking a glass of merlot and give it a Tuscan flair? Tuscan, that's another good one." I was fortunate enough to have 3 extra CEO-less days this week because he got stuck in a few delayed layovers when returning to PA from China. He's here today and I have decided to make like a mouse and hide inside the walls in order to avoid all potential name-dropping recaps, new buzz word speeches or any spirit crushing criticism. I listen to my new Cure songs in my earbuds and imagine myself somewhere else. Right now I'm front row center of a Cure concert in 1997 and the lights are all glowy and smoky. That's it.

Meanwhile, in my real life, I've been busy as usual. I have new images to add to my landscaper's website, I have a book I want to write and illustrate, I might have someone else's wonderful book to illustrate but I don't know yet and so I wait and brainstorm on the illos in the meantime, I want to learn CSS for easier updating of my website, I have another SCBWI-EPA newsletter coming up, Maggie starts puppy kindergarten next week and I have to teach her to walk nice on a leash before our first class, I continue to read "Living Your Joy" which inspires strange dreams--literally--where I am a grade school art teacher, rather than a design slave, for my day job. This made me think. Why couldn't I be a teacher? How about a substitute teacher? Which means I have something new to research online.

I am also designing a logo for this lovely lady in time for Fashion Week in San Francisco. A friend who owns a bridal salon has asked me to make Thank You cards for her store, I am a bridesmaid in my future sister-in-law's wedding in December and the preparations have begun. I'm sure there is more that I am forgetting but if I remember I'll let you know.

OH! Next week I may have the pleasure of meeting Michelle in person, and that is very exciting. Maggie is particularly waggy about it, especially because she caught word of a possible surprise for her. She thinks it must be one of her favorite things--possibly a pig's ear or a cricket to chase, but I am not so sure about that.

So next week is vacation. There is a 99% possibility that we will not go anywhere vacation-y all week. Maggie is still banned from the in-laws' shore house and it has become a sore subject between Andrew and his parents. And of course we made no back-up plans--nothing else is budget-friendly enough. We started contemplating kennelling Maggie for 2 days so we could take a mini-trip to the house in Avalon. And the thought of it makes me want to cry. Not to mention that she needs certain shots prior to boarding, and she is only 4 months old. The whole combination just seems not right. We talked about having a neighborhood boy come over and feed and play with her 3 times a day for 2 days, but this also worries me. She's not just a dog. She's a puppy. My puppy. She is teething, very awnry, bitey and barky, and what does a 14 year old boy know about these things? And what if something happened? I'd never forgive myself.

So the word "Vacation" does not sprout thoughts of pina coladas and bad Jimmy Buffet songs by the water like it usually does. No shopping in Stone Harbor (where we were married), no breakfast pancakes at Brian's Waffle House, no lazy hours on the beach or late nights at the bar. In order for this coming week to feel like a Vacation we will need to get very, very creative. There's Philadelphia, but... we're there all the time.

Any ideas?

"I couldn't love you more..."

The Cure has a new album out. It's been out for a month now and I didn't know it until yesterday. This is a first for me--the first time I was completely unaware of a new Cure album and not counting the days until its release. So yesterday, also for the first time since I got my iPod, I purchased a few songs through iTunes. I'm listening to them now in my earbuds and I must say, I am surprisingly delighted. The self-titled album is said to be "the best since Disintegration," which is a very big expectation to lay out for old fans like myself. So far I wouldn't disagree completely, though "Wish" is the consituent for that honor. There's something fantastic about the energy in these songs that has been lacking from every Cure album in the last 10 years. I had truly thrown in my sad mopey hat and given up on Robert after the last two (but in all fairness, in part because they bring back unhappy memories from a time I'd rather forget). Now I think I might have to download the rest of this new album, even the songs whose little snippets didn't interest me the first time.

God, I can't believe they've been around as long as they have. The band has broken up, reconfigured itself and morphed continuously in all its 25 years of existance. I guess I've been following them for the last 15. I think the first Cure song I ever heard was "Why Can't I Be You" on a local high school radio station and from that moment on I was hopelessly obsessed. Oooooh, the eyeliner, the lipstick, the floppy mop of hair on that strange, strange boy. I wanted to tear out my heart and place it at his feet, offering him all the love he seemed to be lacking. So sad, poor Robert, so sad! So squishy dark and wonderfully creative and tortured and... Oh yes, I was obsessed. I had the posters, the CDs, the colored vinyl, the t-shirts, the bootlegs, the song books, the unauthorized biographies, the locker full of Robert in high school, everything. In college my collecting included "real" photographs taken by myself and other fans, closeups of Robert and crew, plus backstage passes and front row ticket stubs. My Cure collection remains the only surviving evidence of many years of my life, other than my yearbooks and artwork. The only parts I have discarded in recent years are the crumpled up, faded posters that were thick with tape around the edges (to prevent inevitable nicks and tears), including that giant "Boys Don't Cry" black and white beauty, the quintessential staple of every gloomy girl's and boy's 1990 bedroom.

My high school friends and I must have resembled a little black cloud, hovering low and pouring rain all the time. In college I delved deeper into all things dark and Goth. There was something I was sad about from age 15 on, and I didn't really understand why or how it came about, but the pain was there, sharp as diamonds and somehow woefully beautiful in these gothic things. Fifteen years and three long, torturous relationships later I would come to understand the pain and try to fix it, my husband the catalyst for the healthy change. Funny how the healthier I've become, the less I listen to the Cure. But this song I'm listening to right now--"The End of the World"--is a perfect example of their happy-pop-tinged-with-sadness that I've always loved. "Just Like Heaven" is the most perfect example, they can't beat that, but the essence of it is there. Cure "purists" are not so happy with the happy-go-luckiness of this song, nor the "under-processed" sound of the album, but I have to disagree. This album, plus the corresponding cover art and website, have evoked a familiar swoon--just a little one--for that sad boy once again.



Still, I remain much, much happier than I have ever been. Change can be very, very good. So can a few years of therapy and letting go of an obsession.

Nervous Nelly

I had a great day on Friday. Too great to even describe. Just me, the dog and pencils and paper on a breezy Summer day with a cool dampness in the air. I felt like I was at the beach right before a storm as I sat at the dining room table, breathing it in, letting it out, sucking on some ice cream. I had vanilla fudge swirl with jimmies right after my crispy warm grilled cheese sandwich. Mmmm, comfort food and puppy love. It doesn't get any better.

But today I am nervous because I submitted the drawings I finished this weekend to a certain dear friend whom I haven't heard back from yet and so that gremlin of self-doubt is dancing around backstage, waiting for her next opportunity to appear, on or off cue. She's warming up, doing her stretches, checking her lipstick in the mirror, putting on her broadway melodrama. I can hear her practicing her lines through the muffling of the curtain: "What did you think would happen? Did you reallly think she would like it? She's probably crying from the agony of that hideousness that you call 'illustration.' We've been over this before, but you never listen. You will never be a published children's book illustrator. Give it up! There there, little failure. Come let us run to a greasy fast food café and feast on salty lard until the pain subsides.


And while we're at it, let's pick up a six pack of hooch."
...

Time to go home soon. This is a good thing. I think there is half a bottle of pinot grigio left over from the weekend. Me 'n Maggie will chase the gremlin away together.

Speaking of Maggie... here's a happy thought. Or just a funny one. She's learned a new trick: burying things. I gave her a piece of pig's ear over the weekend and she just kind of whimpered at it. Then I realized that's she's teething, big time. She's lost at least 3 front teeth and she's got molars galore coming in at the back. Within 2 months she will have grown 42 brand new chompers! This, of course, means she's growing up. A "rapid growth spurt" they call it. No no no! I'm not done with the puppy body yet! I need this girl to stay so tiny I can hold her with one arm! I need that puppy softness in her ears, the puppy freshness of her breath, and the puppy pitch to her little voice! She cannot go through puberty already. She's just a baby! Help, someone help!

Oh. So when I gave her the piece of pig's ear she mouthed it lightly, whimpered, then jumped off the couch and ran outside. I watched in amazement as she dug a hole, gently and gingerly placed the piece of ear in it, then used her snout to push the dirt back over it. After that she camouflaged it with a few strands of grass and a tiny twig. I never would have known it was there, nor believed it happened, if I hadn't witnessed it.

Now of course this is the cutest thing I've ever seen, because everything she does is the cutest thing I have ever seen, ever. Day after day she manages to out-cute herself with a new trick, feat or talent. I'm working on "roll over" with Maggie because sit, sit beside, lay down, come, and speak are not challenging enough anymore. It is almost as if she begs to be trained party tricks. Could she become a Hollywood dog? Why yes, I think she's got "it."

Ok, a little baby bragging always helps to keep the gremlin at bay. She's jealous for the attention and moping in the broom closet.

Nighty night.

Thursday is Distraction Day

Today's favorites:

New shopping hub: I Buy D.I.Y.
"This site is to promote all the wonderful craftpersons that are in the DIY community ...to celebrate what happens when someone puts their mind and heart into their passion."

A place for you 'n me: The Switchboards
"The Switchboards began when a group of indie business women decided that there needed to be a place on the web where they could talk 'shop'...creative shop, that is! Eventually their idea grew to encompass a forum..." of which I am now a member.

Some fellow members who make me drool (in private):
Stacy is a total girly girl who makes really pretty pretties (I like her "about me" page)
Rue who makes super-squishy Lumpling Rag Dolls. (Rhya, you gotta see these!)
Deborah is a girl way too creative for her own good. Learn to make a like, totally rad 80's fashion statement from a faded old t-shirt, or just admire her cute merlot bird.

Cute as all hell illustrations: Sujean
Which I found at: Daily Candy (which every shopping addict needs)

New blog to watch: Monkey Forms
By day she slaves away at her "daily insult™" in a one-person marketing department, filling in "monkey forms." By night she runs her own creative design business and cares for her two bouncy Beagles. I feel you, S'monkey.

Speaking of munkies, here are some "wee" ones: tinymonkeycards ;)

Have you ever gotten excited about rugs? I did today: The Rug Company
They must be expensive because they don't list prices. I don't really wanna know.

And finally...
CSS Zen Garden, where I will learn the art and zen of CSS web design so I can apply it to my site.

Ok, time to go home... making this list almost took me all day. Not that I'm complaining. Tomorrow is Snowbird Says Eat Ice Cream Day! Yay!

I have made an important decision.

And there's nothing you can say or do about it. Who says so? Snowbird says so.

In honor of this declaration I am unofficially naming this Friday, July 23 as "Snowbird Says 'Eat Some Ice Cream' Day." And in honor of this occasion I am taking the day off. I will stay home all day, draw and eat ice cream. The weather man says it will be a good day for it. Scattered thunderstorms, highs in the low 80s and lows in the upper 60s... that falls into my Ice Cream Weather Guidelines just perfectly. So does "partly cloudy," "chance of snow" and "hot and humid." There really is no better time than anytime to have a gloriously creamy, melt-in-your-mouthy hands-all-sticky treat. With chocolate jimmies on top, please. I think on Friday I may do a butterfinger blizzard or a chocolate-vanilla twist in a cone, dipped in chocolate sauce with a perfect point at the top. Something in soft-serve or frozen yogurt. (Gosh, don't I sound like an advertising copywriter? Sorry.)

Now drawing--drawing is task best done on rainy days, in my opinion. Whenever the rain came down in my childhood town the crayons came out with the construction paper and those "just add water" magic coloring books. I wish I was in possession of some of my old coloring books. My mom has a stash of "Katie's Art" stuffed somewhere between old halloween decorations and birth certificates, probably in the deacon's bench. That's where it's been since the day I created it. It probably all has that old paper library smell now, and falls apart with the touch of a finger. So old am I.

Today's nostalgia has been brought to you by a few stolen scoops full of vanilla fudge twirl ice cream at the tail end of my Me-n-Maggie lunch hour. Oh, yummers. I can't believe I have forgotten how much I love, love love ice cream this summer. What have I been doing?

We cannot trusts it, it wants to hurt us

I've decided to do a scribble of my inner critic, my self-doubt gremlin. I'm going to draw her and give her a name. I started to doodle her this morning when I got to work, and she looked alot like the Bride of Gollum, if ever there was such a bride. Same pose and everything. Funny thing is, I exaggerated all the features that I like least about myself and that's how she turned out. I wonder if there's something there. Gollum was an evil Smeagol who had his own inner dialogues with his negative thoughts... just out loud.

I'm going to lunch now to visit Maggie, and on the way there in the car I plan to poke more fun at my whiny tiny alter ego in hopes I will take a little power away from her. She may make an appearance later.

Jittery Jumping Beans

I have been having very vivid nightmares lately. My nightmares invariably involve one of two things, or both: the horrors of my job and/or tragedy involving my puppy. Last night was particularly disturbing. I dreamt that my boss forced me to leave Maggie at work overnight and on weekends in a cage in the basement. I could only see her when I was at work. This was very, very upsetting to me so I formulated a plan to dognap her and bring her back home.

In my dream it was winter and I was walking to my office in the middle of the night. I wore summer clothes despite the weather. In short it was a long, arduous journey. I used my keys to get in to the office and find Maggie. When I found her, I also found a dozen or so more animals waiting to be rescued: Beagle puppies, Dachshund puppies, a big Golden Retriever and a litter of kittens. They all wanted out. Just in time my husband arrived with our SUV and we packed the animals in as best we could, sticking puppies with kittens and dogs with dogs to fit them all in. While I was at it, I took everything I owned out of my office (for some reason I owned a lot of mugs and glasses in this dream). Andrew assisted me in covering our tracks, taking care to leave things a mess as they always are in that office. If I left it too neat it would be incriminating.

We took all the animals to my parents house to see if they wanted to adopt any of them. I knew my dad would go for the Golden, as we had one when I was young. To my surprise my mother had installed a chicken coup in the living room, full of baby chicks just hatched from their eggs. Andrew wanted to take one home to be Maggie's friend.

While this was truly nightmarish in the sense that Maggie was trapped and I had to save her, in the end I felt a sense of liberation having saved all those animals from the notorious CEO. I was also relieved to finally have left my job for good. I didn't leave a note, I didn't give two weeks notice, I just packed up and shipped out. My plan was to never have contact with the CEO, wife, or business again. It felt good.

When I woke up this morning the dread of reality hit me like a fire in my bladder (my usual wake up call). I have to go to work. I did not escape. Maggie must still spend the day without me. And I don't know what to do about it. I mean, I know what I want to do. I want to drop everything and just make a full-steam-ahead sprint into children's book illustration, shedding all the ties that bind me. I need to do it. But I keep waiting for the right moment, because it seems like the least sensible thing I could do right now--to leave the security of the paycheck, the benefits, the bills paid on time. Especially when Andrew's job is on the fritz. I keep saying this and feeling like it really doesn't add up, it still doesn't seem worth it, it seems phoney to me. Then, to top it off, I receive two e-newsletters in one day that say, "Take a leap into the unknown!" One from Alex, who is taking new strides of her own, and the other from SARK. One thing that struck me is this particular list of quotes that Alex offers:

I’d like to leave you with some words of people far wiser than I. They’ve been a comfort to me once I trusted the words and believed them enough to make them true. Perhaps this will be the same for you.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. - Henry David Thoreau

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. - Goethe

If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin. - Ivan Turgenev

Leap, and the net will appear. - John Burroughs

SARK has offered her insights on a similar topic on the same day but with a different twist:

I am confident that we must flail and stumble as often as we are called to. I propose that we surrender any big, proud ideas and inch along whenever inching is called for. Surrendering also involves accepting the gloriousness of ourselves and living in that glorious light.

Out of the ground of not-knowing will come new growth. Brave little green shoots might tenderly peer out past the bigger, more well-known plants. A leaping bean may take root!

Can we allow unfamiliar, uncomfortable, or unusual growth?

Can we hold ourselves as tenderly as tiny baby angels in the midst of not-knowing times?

I don’t know.

It feels liberating to not know! I will frolic in these expanded spaces and allows as much not knowing as I am able. Meet me there, and we’ll flounder along together, shaking our heads, and saying sweetly, “I just don’t know …”

I think with a little of this and a little of that I might be moved somewhere soon, even if in inches.

Do you ever get tired of hearing me complain about all this and not going anywhere soon? Sometimes I wonder. My critical gremlin murmurs in my ear, "Whoever reads this stuff day after day must really be frustrated with you for not doing what you keep saying you want to do. Eventually no one will even care. Give up and change the subject already."

That gremlin is particularly loud today. The more I write about it, the louder she gets. Shut up shut up shut up!

Time for lunch with Maggie. Bye bye.

Pin it up on the fridge...

Penn & Ink is here!

This is my first ever job as the Editor of the SCBWI Eastern PA Chapter Newsletter. Look for illustrations by the lovely Penelope and my dear old friend Jennifer Martorello. I think Maggie may have snuck her way in there too... she is very good at such sneakery.

Have a very very happy happy Friday and a great weekend.

swoon

Maggie is getting sweeter and sweeter each day. It seems that the better we communicate, the happier she is. When she tries to get me to understand something and I get it, she is elated. It's really funny. I think her routines really help. Repitition and routine give her a sense of security, she seems to like predicting what happens next. Like this morning, after our regular go-outside-pee-treat-poo-treat, a little training session, and then our wanna-take-a-walk-let's-go walk, with a lets-go-upstairs-and-see-Daddy-plus-shoe-chewing thrown in, she knew exactly what would come next. Next I pick up her Puppy Kong, bring it to the kitchen and stuff it with yummy treats and kibble, then lead her to her cave where she will spend the next few hours until I come home for lunch. Usually this step is the hardest because when she senses that the time is coming, she immediately initiates a you-can't-get-me chase around the house and yard. But today she amazed me--she watched me take her Kong out of her cave and into the kitchen, then she wandered off. I stuffed it with her favorite things in a way that would make her work for it to come out. Then I called, "Maggie!" as I went back into the living room, ready to put up a fight--but she was already there, waiting for me. Sitting patiently. She looked up at me, tilted her little head and seemed to say, "Go on, put it in the cave, I will be sad when you leave but I really want that Kong and I'm ready now." Oh my gosh, it melted my heart.

Yesterday after work Andrew and I met up at a local restaurant for a couple of drinks before heading home to Maggie. We talked about his job, my job, how miserable both jobs are and how we are both ready for a change. Then we jumped to Maggie. "I really miss her during the day," I said.

"Yes, me too," Andrew replied.

"It's funny how she really has a personality. Like, this creature, she seems like a person to me. She's not like any other dog I've had."

"Yeah, I know, I mean, cats have personalities too but they're so..."

"So subtle."

"Right! You almost have to give them a personality. Exaggerate what they do. But with dogs, it's so different. She has a distinct personality. There's nothing left up to interpretation," Andrew said.

It's really great how much of a "dog person" Andrew has become. This little girl has turned a whole world upside down for him. I'm so happy when he's flicking through the channels and stops on a show about dogs. He never would do that before Maggie. Now he's just as infatuated as I am. We both love her so much. It really is love.

Lemonade and peanut butter

Things I've accomplished under no watchful eyes:
1. I designed and edited the SCBWI EPA Summer Newsletter on Thursday and Friday. I am working on corrections and it should be finished today, and released by the weekend.
2. I've helped Maggie with her newest blog entries.
3. Worked on children's book sketches.
4. Found a great new site and forum for creative business women.
5. Have become inspired by all the exciting links on the aforementioned website. I could surf and surf and surf and surf all day and not get through them all.
6. Have been making mental notes for future updates to my site and have brainstormed for the makings of my store.
7. Very little else.

I really should do some of the day job work I have sitting on my desk. Really. It is just so damned hard to force myself to do it when there is no evil presence watching my every move. My mind daydreams and wanders to my oversized, antique oak drafting table at home. I imagine myself sitting at it, fully encompassed in the makings of a meticulously illustrated children's book. The kind that you open and get stuck on every page because there is just so much to see. Little details, little sub-plots and hidden treasures that add something special to the story. I am surrounded by a creative flow of energy that seeps through my fingers into the paint and onto the paper. I can hardly keep my ideas from spilling all over the place. But they do. I have buckets on the floor to catch the rainbow drips from my head. Maggie is running around in the puddles, splashing and leaving puppy prints on the floors, tracking the energy all through the house. We take a break outside by the babbling creek and have lunch with the ducks. After some puppy games I put her to sleep and get back to work, freshly inspired and jotting things down for future fun. Music fills the room, sunshine and comfort, lemonade and peanut butter, fresh flowers and pillows. All is as it should be and I am happy.

Then the office phone rings and I answer in a daze, someone is owed money and CEO has been putting him off for over 90 days. I try to explain that I'm just a designer and take a very unhappy message for him. I realize I have to use the bathroom but there is no running water today. There is just a pile of crap to do, a pile of useless images--not art, just images--even that might be too generous. What am I to do, what do I need to do to get out of this place? I do not want to be here when CEO returns in 2 weeks. I want to be GONE. I feel a wall of stone behind me and a bottomless pit at my feet. The only way is up, but I am convinced that I cannot fly. I will not. I am scared. I don't know what to do. We are sinking in bills, my husband is about to lose his job and has no prospects, I am stuck on this ledge and going nowhere soon. Please, God, help me.

Red-Eyed Friday

Yesterday I got in an accident. Disregarding a little voice in my head that said, "Don't bother now, go back to work already!" I stopped at the Camera Shop to drop off 2 new rolls of Maggie film. "Her fans need these!" I explained to the little voice. "They're dying to see them!" "They can't wait another minute!" After I dropped off the film I got into my car and put it in reverse. I looked briefly over my shoulder, saw nothing, and stepped gently on the gas. BUMP. Oops. Someone else had backed out their car at the same time, and our cars' rear ends were one. No one was hurt, no damage to my car, but her car had a nice $800 dent in the trunk. (Doesn't take much to be a $800 dent, by the way. It's really a minimum.) The woman driving the other car was a very, very pregnant girl and she decided that we had better call the cops. Not because she was injured, but because of her dent. Blah. So we waited and 20 minutes later a bicycle cop showed up--a bicycle cop--have you ever seen one of these guys? Bright yellow shirt with a matching mountain bike and his name embroidered on his heavyweight chest. He was kind of comical really, he reminded me of that guy who was one of the Bob's in Office Space and is the really cocky doctor on Scrubs. Anyway, when all was said and done he sort of hinted that we had wasted his time. No cops were really necessary. Not for a fender bender. Don't bother next time. Well thank you. Get on your bike and go, go fetch your free coffee from Wawa. Sorry to keep you waiting. It wasn't my idea.

So the moral of this story is, I have new Maggie photos coming this afternoon. Hopefully the pickup will be easier than the dropoff. And these pictures better be worth it. Actually no--scratch that--the true moral of the story is that I NEED A DIGITAL CAMERA. And I'm only whining about it because I am frustrated that I cannot afford one right now. We are in the red. So I have the blues.

I am tired. That is really why I am so cranky. I was up until three in the morning designing/editing/writing the summer newsletter for the SCBWI EPA. I promised I would have it done way earlier than humanly possible. So it was late, but it turned out pretty darned good so no one really minds. Plus I've completely volunteered my time... all 40 hours worth. When it is up on the website I'll be sure to toot my horn for you so you can print out a copy for yourself. Thank you Penelope for lending me your illos! They really iced the cake.

ready, set...

In just an hour and a half I will have total peace and quiet at the office for almost 2 whole weeks. CEO and his Mother are flying to Vegas for business, and I am left happily behind. CEO's Wench will linger around, but I predict her visits to the office to be seldom and brief. Just sort of "checking up on Kate to make sure she's coming to work every day" visits, disguised as accounting tasks and photocopying documents.

So what, you say, shall I do with all this unsupervised time? Well of course I will attend to the tasks at hand that I have been given to complete before the entourage returns. I have lots of drawing to do. Lots. Tons. Fortunately it is all pretty simple and my scanner and G5 will make creating repeat patterns that much easier, leaving me with a little idle time to fill however I wish.

And in case you're thinking, "Well you had better be doing work-related things, Kate, that is what you are paid to do!" then I reply "Of course I will," and to further prove my point, I will let you know that the following items will qualify as "work-related," as defined by the Free Kate Hamilton Act of 2004:
1. Sketches for children's books (perfecting my drawing skills is essential to this business)
2. Web site updates (you want to see what I've been working on here, now don't you? This could be categorized as PR or somesuch)
3. Blog entries (I do these on my morning and afternoon "breaks." Also essential to my mental health, therefore affecting how I work)
4. Reading up on Living Your Joy (I'm getting to the part that talks about the quintessential "day job," henceforth complete relevance)
5. Preparing some PenguinArt prints and drawings for sale on ebay or via penguinart.com (retail research--very important)
6. Helping Andrew on his job search--he is bound to be laid off in the scarily near future (therefore familiarizing me with the current job market and world economy)

I probably won't be able to do all of these, but at least I can get up and rolling without interruption. So off I GO!

Penguins and their Tales

If you think my penguin tales are nice, check out these tail feathers... I highly recommend the tale of the Little Blue Penguin on the Beach. These stories and poems were written by 2nd graders 4 years ago so I suppose they're not 2nd graders anymore. At least I hope not. I really don't think so. Their stories are too good. And so are their drawings. Gee kids are creative.

I am so tired again. Can you tell? I am not good on the Maggie sleeping schedule. This schedule allows me to sleep 5 to 6 hours a night. I have been eating Power Bars and drinking Yerba Mate and coffee and water and I had a banana at breakfast and I had a whole tomato at lunch with a hotdog and chips but I still fall asleep over and over and over at my desk. It is getting really difficult to keep my eyes open right now... and every day from 3pm til 6pm...