Return from Hiatus

Hey all,

I am alive and well, with very little time to write. I am working as a figure model in Santa Fe, and it is going very well.

Stay well!

Big Bro is Coming!

With the continuation of the Holidays progressing, we've got Christmas up next this week. As such (you know, upon checking upon whether or not I was using this phrase correctly, I found that I was not. However, I will leave this up because I thought it was right at the time, but now I can perhaps educate you, too, as to the proper usage: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/grammarlogs4/grammarlogs536.htm), my non-blood-but-still-vital-to-my-life family is getting together here in Santa Fe. I am utterly stoked about festivizing with them this week. There's going to be one bun in the oven (well, technically it's already there), three little kids, four big kids, a set of grandparents and a set of great-grandparents running around!!!!! I can't wait. And really, I don't have to wait long because my "big brother" and his son are arriving tomorrow! (When I was smaller, when the couple I am living with used to babysit me, their daughter also babysat me and told all of her friends that I was her little sister. She even brought me up to UVM for a sleepover when she was an RA, once, and we bragged to all of our friends that we were having a sleepover with our big/little sister. When I got back to school the next week all of my fourth grade friends were absolutely awestruck that I had been to college. So I just extended that to her older brother, and also to her children, who I refer to as my nieces.) So... WOO! And that means I'm cleaning my bathroom. I'm working up until Christmas Day, and then I have that Saturday and Sunday off. I'm grateful to be working so many hours (and let's face it: I really love working Holiday rushes in grocery stores. Wicked adrenaline, silly people, Holiday Spirit, really good food and Holiday Sales). But I'm working shifts that are prime visit-with-your-family-and-eat-delicious-meals time - most days being a 1400-2230 shift. Laaaaame. But, it is money in the bank, and that translates into what money brings: Happiness. Ahem. ...and that translates into what money brings: Freedom. Yeah, freedom to eat decently, live under an air-conditioned roof, pay off school debt (which means travel in a couple years) and money to pay for a running car. So..... happiness! ; )
So, I am cleaning my bathroom. Because Big Bro and R will be using it, too. I have found so many pink-tinted areas and pink hair, it is ridiculous. Because this is intense cleaning, I needed a headband. A magic headband. A kittycat headband.
Also, here's my new hair.

Cooked to perfection.

Cooked breakfast all day over the campfire. Bacon, eggs, corned beef hash, homefries, bell pepper and onions. Fantastic.

Filler Post

Hi everyone!

I'm still alive, and doing fairly well. Lots of ups and downs and changes!

I plan for a real post soon.

Be well!

test post.

this is a test.

we are testing this.

i like it.


yay santa fe.

The Butterfly emerges.

Embellishing "The Butterfly" on canvas.
Contact Jeff Tabor via http://aegallery.com/ to order your print. Prints are made to order, embellishing available. All are signed and numbered, and have accompanying certificates of authenticity.

This has been a serendipitous labor of love, and a joy to work on.

Title of piece refers to Shinedown's song "The Crow and the Butterfly." "The Crow and the Butterfly" is a song that often plays in my mind's jukebox, and as it's a contemporary piece to mine, I saw it fitting. The image is inspired by the ravens I love so much, here, in New Mexico. I am constantly doodling crows and ravens, so I figure I have got to be resourceful with the names of my crow and raven pieces. Crows have been a favorite animal of mine ever since I was a little bitty girl. My Nana would shoot at them with an air rifle or BB gun from her bedroom window back in Massachusetts because they seemed to believe that they were the roosters of Acton, Massachusetts, sent to be Nana's personal alarm clocks. I felt compassion for these animals being shot at, and admired their wit. They had either great courage or great stupid* to continue coming back. I think it's important to note that Nana never killed any, and that she was truly shooting at the ground in front of them, and tried not to hit the actual bird. She didn't want to kill them, she just wanted to scare the "peerooney" out of them. Still, I always love[d] hearing their caws either from overhead or in the yard. I enjoy[ed] watching them on the side of the road, scavenging. I find it fascinating to witness their contemplation as they observe humans, carrion, cars, fellow birds. My first love is for crows; second, for ravens. They are related, yes, but have wonderful and unique characteristics that separate them. I am pickingup and puttingdown a book by Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds. Fascinating stuff, really ('though, to be honest, I wish it was Mind of the Crow: Investigation and Adventures with ... Whatever-Nickname-Crows-Have). My spirits feel uplifted when I see crows, without exception. They are incredibly inspiring and their spirit, attitude and approach to life resonate with me. One could say the Crow is my totem. Another could say I'm just silly about crows and they don't belong in your yard at sun-up, and my love for them was only spawned by guilt for their wellbeing once-upon-a-time. Whatever. I like them.


Thank you. GoodDay.


*some words are used incorrectly, strung together or made up purposefully, typically.

Namesake

I just realized that I never explained why TNF is titled The Next Forever.

First, let's examine how we use the term "forever." We use it in a figurative way fairly often. "Man, it's been forever since we last spoke." "Geez, I haven't eaten in forever." I've moved a fair amount of times in my life, at least twelve times and I am nineteen. When I moved to Texas at the angsty age of thirteen, in eighth grade, very much against my will, my friends threw me five going away parties. One of those parties was an excuse to get the entire eighth grade out of class and into one room to watch a slideshow of photos and videos of my life at Ayer Middle School. Yes, I had awesome friends who organized this. Awesome friends who were crafty enough to make a long PowerPoint presentation and also include an ice cream social that included two homebaked cakes. Oh yeah, these were awesome. As I recall, the frosting was awesome. This was one of five going away parties, all thrown by the same friends (pretty sure they were going to miss me as much as they loved eating cake and springing surprises on me). When I moved to Texas, I begrudgingly and resentfully thought that I would be gone forever. Literally, forever. I thought I was moving to a hot, sweaty, backwards, buggy, scorpion- and roach- and fire ant-infested, cheerleading-loving, dry Hellhole.
I was right. (Okay, so Texas does have some magnificent things to offer. It is sooo not my cup of tea, but I do enjoy passing through there. And leaving. But it's fun to go see. I seem to learn a lot about United States politics and creepy bugs when I'm down there.)

I moved to Vermont last summer, and it's the place where I want to call home forever. (Obviously a statement that will most likely change, and is also not possible. You cannot spend forever somewhere; that is, not unless you stay in the place you were born all of your life, and are buried there and there is no afterlife, and if there is, then your afterlife must therefore be spent there, too.)

So, when I announced to my friends back East that I would be moving to Santa Fe, the most common first question was: "Forever?" (The second being "Why?") I began to answer, "Well, forever until the next time I move somewhere else forever." And this became shortened to, "Well, the next forever."

And there you have it. So much of our lives feel like little Forevers, right? It feels like it takes forever for your partner to get home from a business trip. It feels like forever until you have another vacation. It seems like forever since you were proud of yourself. It feels like forever since you were last able to fit into those awesome jeans of yours that make your butt look great without having a "muffin top." Okay. So maybe those are my projections of what Forevers can feel like. Simply, an "era": a period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) that feels like an eternity.

So, welcome to my current Forever. Where I will most likely often reminisce about my last Forever, my previous Forevers and fantasize about my next Forever.

Now that I have written and said in my head "forever" so many times it doesn't even seem like the same word or hold the same meaning any more, I bid you adieu.