cross stitch

Dragon’s Horde 0048: Genius At Work

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Genius_At_Work

Title: Genius At Work
Stitched by: Jennifer Conley
Completed: December 8th, 2015

 

This is the Christmas gift I stitched for my older brother. I was going through the cross stitch patterns I have, trying to find something I wanted to work on when I found a Loony Toons book. As I flipped through the pages, looking at all the characters I saw this one.

 

My brother has always had a thing for Wile E. Coyote, and for some reason this pattern called out to me. I remember one time while I was at girl scout camp I made a bead lizard during one of the arts and crafts classes and put it on a key chain ring and gave it to him. He still has it on his key ring to this day. It makes me feel loved and cared for. Something so small to me at the time has come to be such an important and sentimental object for both of us.

I don’t know. Seeing the pattern made me want to do something for him. Something to show I love him. I enjoyed working on this piece, and I’m looking forward to creating the frame and sending it on its way.

Dragon’s Horde 0047: Patience

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Dragon_Virtures_Patience_Clavan

Title: Dragon Virtues – Patience
Designed by: Jennifer Aikmen-Smith
Stitched by: Jennifer Conley
Completed: November 18, 2015

Stitched for Clavan

This is the cross stitch I made for my boss as a way to say thank you for putting up with me. I know I haven’t been all that outgoing work wise (or really any wise) for the past few months, and it’s only been recently that I have started feeling like I’ve shaken the depression that I had been living in.

Through all of my ups and downs, through the information about my mom, through my week off for mental health, and my putting in the bare minimum during my work days he has been supportive.

I have an amazing supervisor, and I am grateful I can call him “boss”, but friend as well.

Daily Post 040:Wednesday’s Research

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I didn’t really put my to-do list in it’s place from yesterday, but overall I feel today has been pretty alright, even with the news of the December schedule finally being released.

 

I had breakfast this morning with Zane then dashed out the door. The bike to school was nice. It’s becoming more of a warm up than a workout. With the doors fixed for the break room I was able to drop my backpack off without issue, even retrieving a bottle of water from my stash.

 

Terri was waiting for me when I got to the gym. We went to the back room where she had me focus on upper body with core thrown in at the end. My triceps are the worst. But that’s nothing I didn’t already know.

 

She also had me go through different exercises, instructing me to do as many as I could, with my max reps being 20. I was able to do the full twenty for all but two of the exercises. The dips I could only get up to 10, and then surprisingly the leg raises, my last exercises for the session, I was only able to get to 7.

 

I wonder if that has anything to do with biking the six-ish miles to the gym and then doing the previous core exercises. I would have liked to at least have gotten to 10. A nice solid number. Seven just seems so eh to me. It’s an odd number though, and those guys are weird.

 

Oh well.

 

After stretching I bit I sat outside finishing off my water bottle and enjoying the morning, watching people coming and going from the gym, going about their day.

 

Eventually I got back on the bike and went back to school. I’ve finding the rhythm for traveling on the bike. I know when traffic starts to pick up on certain streets, when to expect the school buses to be coming. What times the sun will be in my eyes, and what directions to avoid. I have duly noted all of the potholes.

 

Frank and Seth were in the break room when I got there. We actually had a pleasant conversation this morning rather than bitching about the work environment, so that was really nice. I had a protein bar with more water before changing and heading to lab, which was uneventful.

 

The few questions I had I was able to answer fine.

 

I did spend a bit of time looking at bandanas, and then purchasing four new ones. The other night when I went to dry the clothes at the laundry mat I think I lost my favorite bandana. The one without holes in it. I can’t find it anywhere and I know that I pulled it out of the dryer along with my compression sleeve. It’s not in the car though, and I didn’t see it when I was putting things away.

 

I wanted to wait until Friday to do this, but honestly there isn’t a difference between doing it now, and then, except that by doing it today I might be able to get them before the end of the week. I’m super hoping. I feel so awkward without my bandana. ;-;

 

I did expand on my color selection. I got purple, red, green, and blue. I am hoping that I like them. I told Zane that I’m going to feel not right about spending the money on the bandanas until they come in and I try them out. It’s just like my car, or the shoes, or the stuff for the bike. Until I fall in love with it, until I feel like the money was well spent and a good investment, I’m going to have iffy feelings about it.

 

So that’s in the works.

 

While I was in lab I got a reply from Marcus. I had sent him a message this morning asking if I could do more of a chibi style for his commission rather than a more formal / serious style. He was ok with the change so I went ahead and started working on the pattern.

 

I wasn’t able to finish it before heading home, but I got almost all of it done. Just some lettering left to figure out.

 

I biked home. Another good ride which left me hungry. I had my salad almost as soon as I walked in the door along with more water. I called Paul, the Verizon dude, and got more information from him, mainly the actual costs of the phones.

 

The denial will last for roughly three to six months, and even then our credit with Verizon would be “reviewed” so there would still be the chance of the payment plan being denied, so there’s really no point in waiting for that to clear.

 

We’re still able to turn our old phones in for store credit, and there’s a $50 rebate on Zane’s phone, so that could help negate a fair amount of the initial expense.

 

Zane went online through his employee thing and checked the discounts on the phones he’s able to buy 3rd party. The deals on those phones aren’t as good as the deal we would be getting in the store, so Friday we’re going to set that up. Hopefully.

 

That was my main thing for today, along with the pattern. I finished that off and sent it to Marcus for his opinion. He asked if it could be changed to include another character, which, yeah, it can. But that totally negates all of the work I did. Lame. >.<;

 

I told him I could change it but I wouldn’t be able to finish the new pattern today. I also said I would most likely sketch it out first to get his approval on the concept before turning it into a pattern. He was fine with that.

 

I like my original pattern, which I based off of a cute cartoon of Smaug. I think I’m going to stitch it for myself eventually. The new concept for Marcus is to have a chibi version of Smaug and Bilbo fighting over a gold coin with the title of The Hobbit underneath them, possibly in a frame, but I’m not sure on that yet.

 

I cooked bacon since I didn’t want to have to do that in the morning for my breakfast. I also cooked a burger because food. I showered at some point and also logged my riding since I haven’t been using RunKeeper to track my travels. I get impatient waiting for it to start up. I’m not sure if it’s a wifi issue or a processor issue with the phone. I’m hoping whatever is causing the lag goes away since I’ll have better coverage with Verizon as well as a more up-to-date device. #firstworldproblems

 

I did look up the difference between male and female bikes, as well as the difference between male and female bike seats.

 

So… the difference for the bikes themselves has to do with the cross bar. Guy bikes normally have a straight bar while girl bikes have a bar that is angled down. This actually doesn’t have any mechanical function. Like… it’s not because girls bike differently or anatomically need the bar to be angled differently.

 

It’s actually due to the fact that when biking first became popular girls still wore skirts and dresses more often than not. Wearing pants was a huge no-no, so having to lift their legs over the crossbar was pretty scandalous what with showing off so much leg and stuff. And I mean, come on, if you saw that ankle you had to get married and stuff. Talk about moving fast on a first date…

 

So the cross bar on girl bikes was angled down so girls didn’t to lift their leg as high to get onto the bike. That’s seriously the only difference. It was to accommodate fashion. And actually with cycling picking up more, a lot of female bikes have a straight cross bar just like guy bikes, with the differences being in the dimensions to support the shorter torso / arm length of females.

 

As for the seats. Since females typically have a wider pelvic structure “female” seats tend to be wider, however some girls find “male” seats to be more comfortable, and vice versa for guys. Some like the wider cushion.

 

I actually just switched out the seat that was originally on Zane’s bike for the one that was on Frank’s bike; a female seat. I actually don’t like it much. I feel like it puts more pressure on my sit bones and it actually becomes sort of painful on the longer rides. I feel like I can’t bike as strongly because of the discomfort. I can’t use as much force or power because the seat isn’t distributing the pressure properly, or at least not the way that Zane’s seat did, which is a guy’s seat.

 

I’m most likely going to switch the seats back. Not right now since it’s already 11:30, but before next week.

 

I ended up napping. That seems to be a new habit. I get so tired about six-ish hours after the gym. Not just tired like I can keep going I just need a cup of coffee. This is like, “The apartment could be on fire and I wouldn’t care I’m not leaving the bed and you can’t make me,” sort of tired. Zane came home but let me sleep for roughly three hours.

 

Eventually he woke me up. He also cooked dinner because he’s amazing like that.

 

I was setting up the computer to do some grading, but the internet was being hardcore lame. It took me 15 minutes just to get my Google Drive documents open. Motivation killed.

 

I did check my work email. The schedule for December finally came out. Zane wanted to get money from the ATM to put on the laundry card. I originally had gotten a $20 to do that, but the laundry had to be dried elsewhere because there wasn’t money on the card and we couldn’t leave the clothes wet overnight. That meant I had to use the $20 at the laundry mat, which normally isn’t a big deal because I would have gotten three $5s back, but for some reason the machine turned my entire $20 into quarters, which I can’t use to put on the laundry card for the apartment… Arg.

 

At the moment I don’t have anything clean to wear to bike to work in tomorrow. Not cool, and so not going to happen. Zane said that I could use his card to get another $20. I can put the money on the card when the office opens, do laundry, and still have some time to kill before having to go to work. Everything ought to work out. Fingers crossed.

 

Since I was out I stopped at the school to grab the schedule off of the server. It sucks. I would be working 5pm to 1am for the CRI1 labs. I’m really hoping that it goes down to one lab. With it being the holiday season a lot of people take leaves of absence to go back home and stuff. Shading and Lighting is 1pm until 9pm, which isn’t bad, but still would be lame if I’m working until 1am because I wouldn’t be getting home until around 2am, and not getting to sleep until at least 3am most likely 5am. I haven’t figured out when I want to schedule my training with Terri in this giant mess.

 

I will most likely try to keep it on Wednesday. I’ll have a better idea on Monday what the labs will actually be like. Hopefully there’s only one. >.<;

 

That’s it though. The kitchen is a mess. I’m not going to clean it until tomorrow morning. Same with my to-do list. I’m tired again. Sleep sounds good.

Dragon’s Horde 0046: Strength

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strength_shrew

Title: Dragon Virtues – Strength
Designed by: Jennifer Aikmen-Smith
Stitched by: Jennifer Conley
Completed: October 26, 2015

Stitched for Shrew

Hey Shrew,

I stitched you up a little something. I hope you don’t mind. I love reading your posts and I always enjoy your comments on mine. You are such an amazing person. You are strong and determined and you inspire me. You show life isn’t about being perfect. It’s about trying and doing your best.

I wanted to make you something to show that you’re a light for me, and for others. You’re not backing down, and that’s awesome. Thank you so much for being who you are and for always being free with your words.

I would like to be able to send this little guy to you. If you wouldn’t mind sending me an email at conley.setup@gmail.com I would appreciate it.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. : 3

Daily Post 023: Monday Madness Sprinkled With Productivity

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I’m slightly bothered at the moment, but I’m not going to let that ruin my day. I’ve had a pretty full day even though I’ve only gotten up to around 25 tasks so far. I already wrote about some of my morning.

There was the hitting of the snooze alarm, there was my shower followed by breakfast and coffee. There was the ride to work and then the normal tasks of setting up my computer and checking email.

I wrote my blog from yesterday. In my quest to find headphones I ran into Luis which lead to about a 30 minute conversation. While I was writing my blog I actually got an email back from one of the places about my certification. The contact has been super friendly and full of amazingly useful information.

Apparently Autodesk discontinued the Certified User test and only offers the Professional test now. No wonder I haven’t been able to find it. At least someone finally gave me a straight answer. My contact mentioned that there would be a testing day on November 12th. The test would be $135 (ouch), paid on site, and that the time frame was any time between 9am and 3pm. I would have to drive to Jacksonville to take the test, but that’s not bad. Only an hour and a half drive.

Since I had only bought the Certified User test booklet I asked if the Professional test booklet was an acceptable resource to purchase. I was told that it would be a good resource, so I’ll most likely buy that tomorrow.

I know I’ve been spending a lot of money lately. I got new workout stuff. I bought the body pillow, highlighters, the bike stuff, Zane and I have gone out a few times. I upgraded my workout apps. Now I’m looking at dropping more money for my certification.

A few weeks ago I would be beating myself up so hard mentally that I would most likely be so depressed I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed. But I don’t feel depressed right now. I don’t feel like what I’m doing is wrong. I feel like it’s ok if I spend the money because Saturday Zane is going to deposit his first paycheck and buy groceries for the first time in four months. I don’t have to pinch pennies and freak out over how I’m going to cover everything, because I don’t have to do it by myself any more.

I feel like I’m able to get the things I want, and in the case of the bike, need, without having to sacrifice other things to do it. I like the fact that I can spend my money on me. And I’m not going to be sorry about that.

It helps that I actually feel like I’ve been earning my paycheck recently. Today included. I’ve begun working through the new content and Tony is already super appreciative of the changes I have suggested. Yay positive reenforcement.

He also loved the new podcasts and has already added them into the podcast playlist for the students. On top of that he gave me the green light to create pdfs for the assignments, which is what I spent a majority of my day doing at work.

I had admin hours all day today, so I didn’t have to worry about going to a lab. That meant I had roughly 10 hours of work time.

After getting headphones from Luis and talking to him about the certification information I had just received I went back to the break room. I ate a quick snack of a protein bar, made my official to-do list, then finished designing the lettering for my cross stitch project.

When that was done I typed up the descriptions for the Digital Art and Design classes I have been taking. Of course I forgot my password to the Career Path system and got myself locked out, so I couldn’t actually make any of the entries today, but I did go through the process to change my password to something I’ll remember… hopefully…

I’ll most likely finish up that task tomorrow morning. Or try to at least. I want that off my to-do list before the end of the week.

During my lunch break I created a recipe entry on my AllRecipes.com account for the Cajun pasta I made a few weeks back. I’m really looking forward to having it again. It’s on the menu for this week.

I finished stitching the lettering for my cross stitch project, so that’s completely done. I ended up having to redo some of it three different times. I kept getting the spacing wrong, and even now, I don’t think it’s actually centered and I can’t figure out why. Maybe today just wasn’t my day as far as counting goes.

That took me up to around 2ish. Still four hours to go before Zane came to pick me up. I decided that I would start brainstorming the pdf design for the first assignment in SAL. I figured if I got a template going I could get that approved and use it for the later activities.

Since I didn’t have extra food with me I had planned to go to Crispers for their happy hour, where a bowl of soup is only $3. Of course I started working first, so it became a, “I’ll pack up as soon as I finish this section… and fix that font… and I think this would look better if it were arranged a little different… I really ought to change the color scheme to the school’s colors…”

So at 5:30 when I realized I hadn’t heard from Zane yet and that I was about to starve I actually did pack up and head outside. Normally he is able to text as long as he has access to Wi-Fi, but not while he’s out and about. One of the many downsides to him not having service to his phone. I had been expecting a text from him before he left work to let me know he was on his way, but I figured it was possible he accidentally forgot.

I sat outside for a bit, waiting. It was over cast and wet feeling. Like it should rain, but it never did. As I was waiting all sorts of horrible thoughts were going through my head. He forgot he was supposed to pick me up and is sitting at home, nowhere near his phone so I don’t have a ride home. He got into a car crash and is dead. He wrecked my car so I’m going to kill him myself if he survived… You know… stupid, irrational shit like that.

It was only about 10 minutes before he pulled into the parking lot. I sheepishly admitted to my thoughts after we exchanged greetings. I felt guilty for thinking them, and I wanted him to know that. That I was sorry. I was also sorry for being ridiculously tired and hungry. Grouchy dragons are grouchy.

I knew the kitchen was a mess from this morning, and I knew that there wasn’t anything already cooked at home. No matter what there was going to be a wait time. So we ended up going to Moe’s for dinner instead. It wasn’t the amazingly fantastic experience I was hoping for, but then with how tired I was pretty much anything that involved people and sound was going to be less than perfect. Hunger outweighed the need for solitude though, and so we had dinner there, after which I drove back to the apartment and almost instantly fell asleep in bed.

I slept for about four hours before waking up on my own. Scarlet was curled up beside me. I petted her until she got tired of the attention and got up, going to the closed door and looking back at me, making it abundantly clear that I was slacking in my “cat servant” duties.

I got up and went out to the living room, letting Scarlet believe that I opened the door solely for her pleasure. Zane had taken his laptop out of the room so I could sleep. He was on the couch watching something. Not wanting to interrupt I walked up behind him, rubbed the top of his head for a few seconds, then went into the kitchen to start on the chores.

I unloaded the dishwasher, and had begun to load it. Zane came up behind me, hugging me, and I asked if he was planning on finishing the peanut butter tomorrow, which you would have thought was the worst thing I could have asked because he got super upset.

I admit that I didn’t say much when I first came out of the room. He had said “hi,” while I was touching him, and I said something like “hi, love,” back to him before walking away. I was still waking up. I had tasks on my mind like cleaning, getting more food because I was hungry again, packing his lunch for tomorrow, prepping the eggs for breakfast, [insert 9 billion other things that need to get done], etc…

And the whole peanut butter thing. I’m not sure if I wrote about it or not, but Zane likes to make home-made peanut butter. I guess it’s a bit of a process. You have to roast the nuts, then blend them, and with my mini-blender it takes a while. He had started doing it Saturday, but never got a round to finishing it. He didn’t finish it Sunday, and today we both had work and when we got home I went straight to sleep. So all of the things have been sitting on the counter for days without a chance to really do anything about it.

I wasn’t asking him to finish it tonight. I was asking if he was going to finish it tomorrow. Otherwise I would plan to do it before I went to work. But I guess my question super upset him because he was trying to be intimate with me, and my mind was on chores and I wasn’t registering his advances correctly.

He walked away, leaving me standing there feeling dumbfounded because I hadn’t though my question, or tone, had warranted his angry reaction. Confused and kind of hurt I went back to rinsing the dirty dishes and loading the dishwasher. Being depressed wasn’t going to make the sink empty itself.

A few minutes later Zane came back and asked how much longer I was going to be. I didn’t know how to answer because I was still trying to figure out what I had done in the first place. He looked in the sink and said that he would finish it for me and that he knew I was still tired and that I should go back to sleep.

What the fuck, dude?

Firstly, I’m not tired. I was feeling a lot better until you blew up at me. Secondly, I’m hungry so I feel like I’m being treated like a misbehaving child and being sent to bed without dinner.

So, that whole encounter made me angry. I did go back to the room, more for space than to actually comply with what he wanted. We ended up talking it out, which is how I found out about the feeling rejected thing. Zane also mentioned that he fought with Uke Sunday night while I was out getting the tacos.

He said that he’s still be sort of edgy from a few weeks back where we had a conversation about parents. It brought up a lot of old feelings for him, and I guess it’s still bleeding over into things.

I can’t blame him for that. At the time of the incident I felt like all of it was uncalled for, or a huge over reaction. Understanding that his reaction had nothing to do with my actual question helps immensely.

So the situation wasn’t fun. And he’s already said that he’s going to sleep on the couch tonight, which sucks, but I think maybe it’s for the best. I think right now he’s still pretty raw and that alone time is what he needs. Space to figure it out and let the emotions do their thing.

After some down time in the room I went back out to the kitchen where I cut up the strawberries for Zane’s snack tomorrow, prepped the egg mix for breakfast, and cooked the rice for the remaining curry in the fridge. That way we have dinner for tomorrow with no excuses.

After that I came back to the room and finished working on the pdf for the first lecture activity. I’ll email to Tony once I get to work tomorrow, since the OWA site won’t attach files properly for me. Because it’s lame.

I’m writing my blog, I will make my to-do list. I may even still do my weekly review since I never got around to it. I have a challenge assignment that I ought to do, but I’ll most likely skip out on it and do it tomorrow at some point. Most likely over coffee. I think that would be a good game plan.

I’m getting tired again. It’s already almost 2am and I want to be awake tomorrow morning to make breakfast for Zane and I. Tonight was rough. I know I wasn’t the most sociable person when he picked me up from work, and I apologized for my tired, anti-social behavior, and for triggering the reaction that he had over my question once we were home.

None of that should keep us from having a good morning together, though. I want to be able to hug him goodbye before he goes to work, and he’s already said he would like to have a good morning with me, too. So for now we’ll both go to sleep, and hopefully wake up less tired.

Daily Post 019: Is It Hot In Here?

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I’m mildly sunburnt right now. Which is frustrating. I don’t want to be warm. I want to be cool and to stop sweating since I haven’t been outside or really moved around for almost four hours now. I might try taking another shower just to see if that helps lower my core temperature down a bit. I’m literally sitting here in front of my computer with a giant blue gel ice pack sitting on my head, most likely looking completely ridiculous, but even with it I’m overly hot. And before you think that I’m over heating from not having enough water, I’m almost up to a gallon on my intake. I don’t know how much more water I can drink before my very being liquefies…

Other than the whole being too hot thing today has been amazing… and actually while I am writing all of this Trevor just came home and said that he felt warm too, and then looked at the AC and informed everyone that the AC is broken… wooo… at least it’s not just mean being a baby. So I guess we’ll figure that out tomorrow when I turn in the lease. Which, surprise! I was approved for the lease so we have a new lease papers for everyone to sign, and once it’s handed in I can get a parking decal for my car and not have to park forever and a day away from the apartment and worry every morning I wake up that it will have been towed away during the night.

And now everyone is out here around the kitchen table chatting up a storm while I sitting here trying to do my own thing… so I’m going to put this on pause so I don’t end up killing people since I can’t here myself think.

Intermission

Alrighty. Now that I can hear the voices in my head again. Today has been great even though I thought it was going to be awful when I realized I had left my phone and wallet in my car… which Zane had driven away with for work. How was I going to have music on my bike ride to work without my phone?!?! Queue worst morning ever from which the day shall not recover.

If only there were a way to keep my MacBook from going into sleep mode… To the Internet.

Me: Google. Is there a way to keep a MacBook from going to sleep when you close the lid?

Google: Why, actually there is.

Even though Apple hates us and doesn’t offer any sort of functionality like that through the OS, there is a program called NoSleep which will keep your laptop “awake” even if you close it down.

Further testing was required, but after finding some tracks to stash in my iTunes I was able to verify that I could indeed use my laptop as a stand-in DJ while my phone was MIA. Day saved!

With the most important aspect of my day figured out everything else seemed ridiculously easy. And, might I add, once again productive.

I’ve started dividing up my to-do lists into four sections: Pre-work, Work, Post Work, and Reminders.


Pre-Work
Roughly 8:30am – 12pm

I started by cleaning the cat’s pan because Zane ran out of time to do it himself. I had set some pinto beans to soak overnight, so when I made it out to the kitchen I put them on the stove to cook since that was going to be a few hours. I took the laundry out to the wash, cooked the rice for the curry we were going to have for dinner, as well as the Spanish rice I’ve kept meaning to cook for the burritos I have in the freezer. I unloaded the dishwasher, cooked my own breakfast finally, even remembering to take my blasted vitamin pill.

The wash needed to be switched by then. I wrote for my 30 day challenge as well as posting the abstract piece I completed for my class.

I looked into canceling the domain for my 3D Blitz event. I got an email from GoDaddy a few days ago saying the domain is about to expire and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t set to auto-renew, which it isn’t. I’m going to let it expire I think, at least for now. While I’m not using it I can’t really justify paying for it again. I do think I will be running the event again next year, though. I’ve had a several students over the past few months ask me about the event.

I looked up information about the Warrior Dash. There’s a race in Florida… in February. I’m not sure three months is enough time. : x

There’s another race in North Carolina in June.

I don’t know what to do. Having dates makes it seem more real. Is it bad to sign up for a race even if you might not be able to do all of it? Is there a “failure” group that I’m going to get tossed into where people talk about how I couldn’t make the cut? Is there a path of shame that I’m going to have to walk if I can’t do it?

I need to figure out what I’m really doing in that area. Knowing me I’ll most like pick the Florida race, not only because it’s here, but also because it’s closer time wise. The sooner I try to do a race, the sooner I can get over my irrational fear. Who knows. Maybe I’ll do both of them and Florida will be my trail run. I’ll have a better idea of what to expect for the next one and my nerves won’t be as stressed.

So good information, if a bit scary.

I packed the mounting board and cross stitch projects that I want to mail out so I could take care of that while I was at work and had access to a mat cutter. I put the clothes away while I had time to, cooked the green curry, then showered. This whole time the beans had been going and they still seemed a little underdone to me. After four hours? I have no idea what I did wrong since they were supposed to cook in two… But either way I didn’t have time to let them cook longer so it had to be good enough.

Work List
Roughly 12:30pm – 5:30pm

I biked to work, with music, clocked in, had my tuna lunch with water again though I stayed inside this time. It was warmer today without the breeze so the AC seemed nicer against my skin after the ride.

I checked my work email. My Leave of Absence is underway. Huzzah for less stress.

I talked to Frank about buying the crate he had for the bike. I’ve been wearing by backpack as I ride, but I would like to try to keep it as sweat free as possible, which isn’t going to happen if I continue to wear it during my commute. I would most likely want a net of some sort to go over the create as well. Frank said he would check out Amazon for me and get back to me about the price for the crate. I guess they come in sets of two?

Eh. I’ll most likely do my own search tomorrow since he didn’t get back to me about it today. We had a fair amount of questions in lab though, so I can’t really blame him. I took a second to go through all of my Skype contacts and delete the people I never talk to on there. Much like what I did with Facebook before deactivating it. I measured out my dimensions for the mounting board, then went to one of the art rooms to cut it.

So far three of four projects are done. I just need to write letters to go with them. : 3

While I was in the art room one of the students was really interested in looking at my work. We ended up having a fantastic conversation. She’s still a ways away from any of the classes I teach, but I gave her my contact information and said if she ever needed anything or just wanted to chat again to feel free to reach out to me.

With my cross stitch endeavors done for the moment I started working on the lesson one activity for the Shading and Lighting class. I already have a list of notes on how it can be improved as well as a two podcasts I want to make to help support it.

I ended up staying at work a bit late since I wasn’t able to complete the activity during the lab. I also wanted to take a look at what needed to be done to add the classes I have been taking to the Career Path system we use at work.

One of the things was knowing the start and end dates for all 13 classes that I’ve taken… Shoot me in the face now… The start date actually ended up being easy to find. I was on my “Grades” page. The end dates were a little trickier, but I ended up finding them through the school’s calendar.

I also had to calculate how many hours I spent on the class work. I decided to go with 80 hours per class. That’s 4 hours 5 days a week. That’s 80 hours less than what I really ought to be spending on my work. I’m not sure how accurate that needs to be in all honestly. I guess we’ll find out during my yearly review.

With all of that done it was time to head home.

Post Work List
Roughly 6pm – Now-ish-thirty

Zane was home by the time I got to the apartment. The first thing I did after saying hi to him was eat. It felt like I was starving. I also drank more water. I could tell I was a little sunburnt with how warm I was. I showered shortly after eating then watched the final episode for Arrow’s third season.

I took the time to call my mom since she’s back from Germany. It was a great conversation. I got to tell her about my vacation and all the stuff I got done. I got to tell her about Zane’s first few weeks of work and biking to school and the Warrior Dash. She got to catch me up on her end of things. And none of the conversation was about emo, depressing stuff.

Since then I’ve had some of the green curry for dinner. I’ve cooked bacon since Zane and I are going to be doing BLTs and I like having two slices of bacon with my egg in the morning. I’ve logged my rides on RunKeeper, and here I am writing my blog.

Everyone has signed the lease so I can hand that in tomorrow, get my decal, and find out what can be done about the AC. Trevor gave me the list of expenses for this coming month, which I’m going to continue to cover so Zane and put all of his first pay check towards his bike. That’s going to be next weekend. So much excite.

I still need to make my to-do list, and I would like to sit and cross stitch for a little bit since I actually haven’t stitched at all today, and I’m a little wired still.

Tomorrow is a day off where I’ll have the apartment to myself. So much space and quiet and alone.

I will be biking to the bank to get a money order for the expenses, but I plan to do that shortly after waking up so it’s still cool outside, at least as cool as it gets in Florida in the middle of October.

So I guess I’m going to go, that way I can enjoy my night. I feel like I’ve earned it, what with getting 40 things on my to-do list done.

Dragon’s Horde 0044: Greatest Treasure

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treasure

Title: Greatest Treasure
Designed by: Jennifer Aikmen-Smith
Stitched by: Jennifer Conley
Completed: October 16, 2015

Stitched for Mama Spike

Hey Mama Spike,

I know things have been rough for you. They have been for me, too. Life just can’t seem to take a hint can it?

I finished this piece yesterday but never got a round to posting it for you, and then I read your post just now and I feel if there was ever a time to post, now it is.

I know this can’t make anything better. It can’t help do a load of laundry for you, or cook dinner, or any number of the other 10 billion things that we manage to bend time and space to get accomplished every day. Hopefully, what it can do is let you know that I care about you and that I am so incredibly thankful for your friendship. With every stitch I thought of how happy I am that we stumbled into each other in the vastness of the Internet.

I would love to be able to send this piece to you so you can have it. If you could send me a message at conley.setup@gmail.com I would super appreciate it.

You’re always in my thoughts, and I’m wishing you, Spike, and the girls the best. You’re awesome, and amazing, and even though things aren’t always easy, or graceful, you’re getting stuff taken care of, and you aren’t giving up.

You’re strong. You’ve got this, and I’m cheering for you every step of the way.

I hope you enjoy your evening. *cyber hug*

Dragon’s Horde 0043: Wedding Gift

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2014-12-22 18.23.25

Title: Dragon Love
Designed by: Jennifer Aikmen-Smith
Stitched by: Jennifer Conley
Completed: November, 2014

I was going through all of the files on my computer, basically cleaning house, when I stumbled upon this little guy. I completely forgot that I had this image. It never made it to my Facebook album or my Dropbox folder, much less my blog.

It’s been almost a year, but I still want to post it. It was stitched for one of my best friends from high school, Joe, and his now wife, Katy. : 3

Dragon’s Horde 0042: Time Well Spent

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time

Title: Time Well Spent
Designed by: Jennifer Aikmen-Smith
Stitched by: Jennifer Conley
Completed: September 29th, 2015

Stitched for Seven Years

Hey Seven Years,

So I know this isn’t an origami crane, but with every stitch I thought of you and your amazing friendship. I thought about the support and kindness you have given me. I thought about every time you gave up part of your day to respond to one of my posts or comments.

I thought about how you’re a fantastic person and how grateful I am that I have been able to connect with you through our little blogging sphere.

I would love to be able to send this to you so you can have it. If you don’t mind sending me a message at conley.setup@gmail.com we can figure something out. : )

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. *cyber hugs*

Daily Post 006: Wrapping Up with a Movie

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Coffee was had. Zane and I were able to spend about an hour together this morning before I had to get ready for work. We sat in the living room where we chatted while I stitched a bit. I’ve been making a lot of progress on this most recent pattern, which is nice since it’s one of the larger ones I’ve done in a while.

I showered and headed to work which was uneventful. More stitched when I should have been arting it up, but I’m ok with that since that’s what Zane and I talked about all morning. We were brainstorming different ideas for what I should do with the playing card.

I’ve done research into the evolution of playing cards and how a regular deck of cards lines up the tarot cards and what the page of hearts means and different symbols associated with that particular card, and other symbols of love and romance along with different color associations. I have all of this information, but I didn’t really have any ideas that I wanted to work with. I want to do something unique, but all of the information I have is boring and unoriginal. Blah…

So I was talking to Zane about that. Through our conversation I figured out the piece I’m going to do. I’m going to take one of the characters from Ergo Proxy and create a portrait of him in an Art Neovou style since I feel, if the characters of the show were to be translated into playing cards, that this character would be the Jack of Hearts.

Now that I have a direction to go with I feel more on top of the assignment. Tomorrow I will work on it after taking Zane to his assessment thing at 11, and our lunch around noon. I also want to do laundry at some point.

Back to today. Lots of stitching.

There was a shooting near the school. I don’t know many details, but an officer was shot. They closed off both major roads where the shooting happened, so not only was there awful traffic due to the road closures, but it was in the middle of rush hour as well.

Instead of sitting in my car for hours trying to fight my way home I went to Crispers again, with Ari this time. I made plans to spend tomorrow evening with her playing Magic the Gathering. We talked pretty openly about it. It’s not a date. It’s supposed to just be hanging out and spending time together. I’m really hoping that’s how it stays. And at the moment there’s where I am with that. Holding my breath really.

Eventually traffic was clear enough that I figured I could get home without too much stress. I went the long way and still ended up getting snagged by some traffic, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.

I had a card from my mom when I got home. She had emailed me a few days previous saying that I should keep my eye out for something from her. It was a card saying how she loved me and that she knew things were a little rough for me at the moment but that she was thinking of me and to basically keep my chin up.

In the card was a gift card for $100 to Publix. I curled up next to Zane and cried a little. I feel guilty for having talked to my mom. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to send me help. I know I didn’t ask for it, or even think of it. I know I shouldn’t feel guilty. I know my mom is like me, and that she thought of this all on her own, and that it’s her way of showing that she cares.

I also know that I’m going to pay her back in some way. Because that’s how I roll. And it’s going to be something she’s totally not expecting. I just have to figure out what first.

I feel loved and thought of and I have so much respect and gratitude for my mom. I wish I could repay her for her love and support. I wish I could give her happy news more often that what I do. I wish I had something to make her feel proud about. Right now I feel like I don’t have much to show for myself. I still haven’t figured out where I can take my certification test. That would at least be something. A step in a direction, maybe not really the “right” one, but one towards bettering my skills in something.

I made the Cajun pasta for dinner tonight. I didn’t realize it needed heavy cream, so once everything was done cooking Zane and I went to the store to pick up a cup of the cream along with garlic toast to go with the dinner. We talked about the dinner I had planned with Ari. I said I was giving myself a curfew so I wouldn’t be out super late.

When we got back home I finished making the dinner by stirring in the cream and parmesan cheese. We watched Inside Out while eating. That was a pretty awesome movie. Zane is totally Joy right now, while I’m Sadness. At least that’s how it feels. He’s constantly trying to cheer me up while I’m determined to make everything blue.

But I think there’s a moral in our story. Not all sadness is bad, and sometimes you have to have that perspective to relate to people, while not all joy is annoying and frustrating and deserving of being punched in the face.

I really enjoyed the movie though I do feel it could have gone a bit deeper on some of the psychological aspects of memory and personality. Though I do have to keep in mind that this was geared more towards a younger audience. Overall, worth seeing and I recommend it from not only a CG artist, psychology buff, stand point, but from a “I just want to see a cute movie” stand point as well.

And that’s been my day so far. Not all that exciting really. I’m already pretty exhausted. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be awake. I’m hoping I’m able to sleep for the night rather than waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning.

I want to go running tomorrow, then laundry, then Zane’s appointment, then lunch, then completing the grading for my class, then working on homework. Then dinner with Ari I guess. It’s a pretty full day. At least it feels like it’s going to be full. With the heaviest thing saved for the very end.

I’m hoping it goes well. I’m hoping that I’m not being stupid. And yet there’s a part of me who knows. There’s part of me who has already analyzed everything. There’s a part of me, my Scientist, who has already crunched the numbers and knows how this is going to turn out. So really, I’m doing this to be proven right because I don’t want it to be one of those, “I wonder what would have happened,” moments.

I am going to do this and then I’ll know, one way or the other, if the dynamic is worth the stress and anxiety every time I see her car in the parking lot. Every time I happen to be caught alone in the break room.