and the point of it all was art

Lately, life has been incredibly busy:
(1) Work is busy. For the past several weeks, I've been in my office about three days a week and my case load has expanded from 15 to 25 over the summer. There's a lot to do in general. Accomplishing it in 3 days-- eek.
(2) I've been shopping for a car. Turns out it's not an easy thing to do leisurely; thus it became something I did every possible moment for 1.5 weeks. In the end, I bought a Hyandi Sante Fe but 8 days after signing papers and making a down payment, I still don't have my truck. A key feature I wanted was a sunroof. This truck didn't come with one so I'm having it added. The completion date has traveled, a day at a time, from Thursday to Monday.  When I called on Friday to check on the progress, I was told it should be ready on Saturday by 9am.  Saturday, a Hyandi manager looked at me like death had happened and expressed disbelief that no one called to tell me my truck wasn't ready. I practiced assertiveness and got a Sante Fe on loan and the "promise" that my truck will be delivered to me at home or work on Monday. We'll see. They've changed the completion date so much I don't have much faith.
(3) I participated in an art fair.The show was called Art at the Market and was organized by a quasi-friend of mine in Jackson. The entry fee was only $5 and I regained that at the event. I was no where near reclaiming the $400 spent preparing for the event, supplies only. I attempted to utilize PhotoShop (failed), transfer images to wood (poorly done), and made frames from craft sticks and bottle tops (beautiful) in addition to printing fresh images. I also had magnets and bookmarks created whenever I did the last event. I had 2 images blown up to 16x20 and framed, making them appropriate for hanging in a living room or utilizing for some other main wall piece in one's house. I feel I learned some things/made some commitments this time around:
1. Work on art year round. Staying up to midnight/1am, working art 4-6 hours AFTER coming home from a day job isn't for me. I'm proud of myself for pulling it (with the help of a lot of Dollar Tree energy drinks) but I'd like to need it less next time.
2. Art should be part of my monthly budget. I may still end up spending $400-$600 towards a show but it won't hit my account at once. I can slowly add to my supplies.
3. I should buy a hanging rack. It should decrease my fear of someone breaking something and make it easier to display my work compared to trying to represent everything on a couple of tables (I think).
4. I might gain more of my money back per year if I do many events per year. I felt a lot of anxiety about putting out new images because I had the same shots, for the most part, at Art for Hope 2011 & 2010. Today, there was a new audience but I wanted to make sure I had something new to offer in case anyone that has already seen my pieces showed up. Doing more shows allows for more opportunities per year to sell the 6-12 new poses I might opt to put out in addition to the poses from years before.
5. I will take a class on photoshop. I utilized online tutorials and got my sister to do the same but either my software is broken or we are missing something. Mostly, I just want to remove extra people that are in a frame (e.g., the person's hat on the front row of a show).

Today's excitement is that I met Valerie June's mom. She walked up to my table and asked, "Do you know that woman?" I gave my typical spill about who VJ is and she said, "I know. That's my daughter." Small world! She's a painter. I gave her a shot of her daughter. She "earned" a shot of my turtles and said she's going to paint them and send me the image. Cool.

Another contributor of recent business (#4): I'm shopping for a new place to live. Tomika and I are trying to use 1-2 days per week to view housing. Another way to save on cost.

And today (#5), surprise, surprise, my hot water tank burst and drowned my kitchen and living room. Turned out to be a blessing that we left the chairs at home when we went downtown to set up at the art fair. Tomika returned home and discovered the mess. It's a nightmare. My house looks like a natural disaster hit it. I came home while someone watched my booth but Tomika insisted I return to the fair and see what I can sale instead of packing up to help clean. She cleaned up the water and removed things from the soaked areas while I was at the art fair. After posting this blog, I'll spend some time cleaning the living room in an attempt to move things towards normal.

Boy am I sleepy! I've been going like mad for weeks now. I pray that my body (illness) does not catch up with me. Blessed be.