the past few weeks

Well, the short story is, a guy I'd known for a few months was continually replying to my Facebook posts in a possibly flirtatious way. He finally asked me out. It quickly felt as though I was floating on air - a feeling I hadn't felt in many years. I was "an amazing woman" and "adorable". And then... he decided he "no longer felt a spark". And that was it. I fell crashing to the ground. Still trying to pick myself up. Worst of all, we belong to the same group, with mutual friends, so I must see him every so often at group events. Eats me alive every time. Next time will be this Saturday.

my studio

Figured I'd post a few pictures.
THIS is how my studio SHOULD look (but sad to say, rarely does):

BUT - here's how it USUALLY looks <sigh>...

(my workdesk is somewhere under there).

Tucson -> March 2011

The short report on Tucson 2011 is:
The Tucson gem/mineral show continues to be very quiet, perhaps even more so than last year (which was less busy than the year before THAT). Most of the shows were noticeably smaller than previous years, with empty space in the back of some of them.

Dealers who had unusual and one of a kind items, like Gary Wilson (http://www.garywilsonstones.com/Show_Schedule.html)  still had crowds around their booths, but those who had the usual stuff (for example, small calibrated common gemstones, like the sheets & sheets of 6x8 and 8x10 amethysts, garnets and such) just sat there looking sad & lonely.

Most of those dealers were Asian. I saw a lot fewer of them than last year, and I expect to see even fewer of them NEXT year. I don't know if they will be able to adjust to the changed economy, especially now with the Japanese crisis.

The upside I guess, is that it was a LOT easier to drive around Tucson than it used to be (especially now that the I-10 reconstruction work is just about done). I'm not sure if the locals liked that or not. I suppose that those whose businesses have nothing to do with the Gem Show liked it, but I felt sorry for the restaurant owners.

As for ME...sorry to say, I have done NOTHING in the creating end. All I've been doing is (sporadically) trying to make a 5 room house fit into a 4 room house, aka trying to fit a size 16 body into a size 10 dress.
At least one of my friends says I need to break down and rent a storage space again, but:
- I hate to spend the MONEY for that - $40/month for anything near me.

- I'm really afraid that once I PUT everything in there, it'll be 'out of sight, out of mind'. I'm ALREADY bad about remembering what box something is in, and so I go ahead and buy ANOTHER. I don't even know how many packs of jumprings and findings I have. Even when I DO know where something is, I can't GET to it because of the boxes in front.

I have a ton of stuff, especially clothes, I should put on EBay/Craigslist, but don't have the motivation to do so.

So here I sit, fooling around online, drinking my cawfee.

mto

everyone ELSE has a blog....

...so I figured I might as well too.
After all, the other day I read that people are reserving URLs of their baby's full name at birth, in case they want a website later on.
(In fact, I suspect my SON wishes we had thought of it sooner, because someone ELSE with the same name got the URL first.)

But as far as this blog...I'm just not sure I want to expose the inner workings of my mind to anyone else. It might scare others.
And, I really should be DOING things instead of effin' around more than I already AM.

For example, I'm trying to get sales paperwork of the last 5 years organized. I'm finding bits and pieces in countless cartons, stuck in with totally unrelated stuff, etc.
I get 'totally organized' (or at least as close as I'll ever get) about once every few years.

I DID finally get my house fairly well organized with the help of two very nice ladies last April - for about 4 weeks. It cost me good money, but I was so proud of us all when we were done.

Then my son graduated college and moved in with me til he could find a job.
So....I had to move things AROUND, QUICKLY, and put a bunch of stuff into a storage place...and it got worse when my daughter came to visit, too. <sigh>. Then my son got a job out of state, but had no time to help me move things BACK before he had to leave.

And then my eye took a turn for the worse (i.e. I couldn't see well).
And then I developed Guyon's compression of the ulnar nerve (like carpal tunnel only they don't make any hand braces designed for it).
Then my insurance kicked in, so I FINALLY was able to get my cataract done. Then I had to heal, and wait til I could get a new prescription (I'm blinder than the proverbial bat).

And THEN...I went and decided to get my bathrooms remodeled....
so now I'm right back where I started 1-1/2 years ago. No, worse.

And here I sit effin' around.

Hmm...I shoulda called this the Bitching and Moaning Journal.
I'll try to be more positive after this!

Okay, I DID make progress on organizing my financial paperwork.
Not DONE, but almost....