In the last stretch of the weekend with my family off on a vacation. I kinda wish it was a bit longer so I could clean more. But at the same time it'll be nice to have someone else take care of the ducks and finish the coop for the chickens.
Been messing around with my new makeup from GlitterSniffer . Working with actual colors is a LOT different than the usual boring neutral tones I was always wearing only because I felt I HAD to.
For one, it definitely appeals to my artist's side where I WANT to play with the combinations of pigments.
But for another.... It's taking a LOT more practice at accuracy of application and blending.
I dislike wearing such outrageous stuff around my family because they have a tendency to mock anything different (thus why I'm so quiet and inhibited with so many things, something I've been trying to fight over the last handful of years).
I'm also playing around with some Manic Panic colorizing shampoo. We'll see if it makes any noticeable difference in my hair (which is nearly impossible to add colors to, being a natural auburn. It tends to hide stuff or turn grey if I'm using something like blue. At this point, I'm playing with a fiery red.).

Though I've been slow updating this blog, I've been updating my dream journal blog fairly regularly.

I need to set aside time to work on art projects and cleaning up my room. But by the end of the day I'm usually just too tired to do much more.

So, nothing much else is happening at this point.
Just felt like updating.
I really need to get my own camera (that isn't attached to my horrid phone and doesn't suck). So I can start posting pictures on here.
...and getting more interesting things to blog about.

Bunnies and Duckies and Chickies, OH MY!

Recently, stepping into our main living area and greenhouse would probably make you think you were in the middle of a petting zoo.
It all started with Momzilla bringing home a group of ducklings to raise for running around our yard and eating bugs.
The next day, I went upstairs and was handed a chirping box holding five chicks. These were going to be for egg laying.
THEN, we went to a bunny show, and I came home with the devil himself. A cute little Netherland Dwarf with a big social problem (He's VERY aggressive, and hates cages. Not very good qualities for a show bunny, thus he was going to be put to sleep if the breeder couldn't find a home for him). Momzilla wanted him to try to breed to our little Lion head mix that we have owned for a while now (I had to repeatedly put a stopper in her everflowing thoughts of this. Girl bunny is anti-social in the first place. Boy bunny is a nightmare to say the least. The spawn of these two, while deadly cute, would most likely NOT be very fun to handle. PLUS, I would rather adopt one or two more than get stuck with a dozen and trying to sell them off to good homes, There's already too many bunnies needing homes.)

We then thought it was all quiet on the front. But I was wrong. Oh was I wrong.

Since the bunny started attacking us, we decided to try for a bunny that was actually ENJOYABLE to own, rather than a charity case. So, we found a little black lop bunny from the town we used to live in. It is SUCH a sweetheart, but we have no idea of it's gender yet.

Well, all was quiet then.
Then came yesterday.

First run: Up to the same area we got the lop. Saving a Silkie hen that's been picked on by roosters in the flock. She was a sad looking case, giant sores on it's wing and back. But still very friendly to humans.

We brought her home, then headed out to a location that was about an hour away. This run was for a Flemish Giant bunny.
...We ended up with two. (We also stopped by my grandmother's nursing home. My grandmother was ELATED with the buns, cradling the little gray one most of the time we were there.)
Once we got those buns home, we got a call about the little Silkie chicks that my mother had ordered. SO, six more chicks on top of that.

It was insanity running around and juggling animals.
We moved the disturbed bunny down to the room kiddy corner to mine so he could roam freely rather than become more and more psychotic in a cage. It seems to have calmed him down a lot, and he was skittering all about while we prepped the room.

Then we had to jury-rig some enormous clear storage containers into makeshift cages for the new chicks and for the new bunnies.
All this on top of replacing old wood-shavings in the other cages, repairing leaky water bottles, and now currently trying to save one of the little silkie chicks (It's one I felt sorry for (not the wisest of choices when it comes to livestock, I know, but I'm just a total softy.) since when we were picking out the chicks, I suddenly noticed a blob of fluff sticking out of the hole of the feeder. It took me a moment to realize that this was the bottom of a poor little chick that had become trapped in it; we don't know how long it had been that way.), and keeping an eye on the ducklings that we moved out to the greenhouse.

So. With all this going on, as well as trying to keep up with regular chores, and with my own (mostly neglected) projects for my room, I feel as if this whole week has been nothing but a giant circus act.
Even today, when I've tried to veg out a bit with my new DVDs that arrived, I ended up working my tail off with more cleaning and rearranging of animals and such.

If she brings anymore animals home, SHE will be living out in the greenhouse.

I'll be trying to get a post up with more of the bunnies info and pictures soon!

Winter Blues and Other Depressing Ramblings

So it's been a whole month since my last update, and yes, I'm still probably insane. But one has to suppose that one has to be to survive my current living situation.
I'm thankful to my friends and boyfriend for giving me a source of social interaction that doesn't quack.

Lately the dreams I've been having are leaving me more tired than if I were to skip sleeping altogether.
They're probably due to cabin fever. But I'd rather suffer from that than trying to go anywhere in this cold, gray, overcrowded state.
I honestly don't think I could stand living in a big city if the semi-podunk population of Northern Utah is too much for me. My mind boggles that a few years back I was slaving away in DisneyWorld and managed to walk out of there upright.
Of course,  this paranoia of people is probably also brought on by my isolating myself.

I delight in the fact that we've finally had some sunlight in the last couple of days. It's giving me more incentive to get out of bed in the mornings.
Sunlight and my sweet Will. I am in great need of more of both.

Perhaps with another week or so I can finally come out of hibernation and get to work on some of the projects I've wanted to undertake.

I'm attempting to learn acoustic guitar. But it's dreadfully slow when I have no musical experience. I have to wonder just how I managed to get out of piano lessons when I was surrounded by friends who had to take them when I was growing up.
My mother would certainly have wanted to show other parents just how 'cultured' and talented I was. As was the case in my getting stuck in ballet.

I'm afraid I'm already falling away from the video games that Will got me for Christmas. I just can't seem to find the ability to sit and play by myself any more.

The ideas for the roleplay I was working on seem to just have fizzled out amongst other matters, sadly.
But then, I can't even come up with decent characters or storylines any more. It's all just half-hearted dribble.
Have I reached that state that I feared as a child? I always had the idea that is what happened when you 'grew up', your imagination just suddenly becomes crippled to where you can only take what you see on tv and go 'Omigosh, what if this happened?!'.
No more adventures when you close your eyes.
No more fairies watching you from under the leaves.
No more dragons in the clouds.

I will say I probably lasted longer than most 'grown ups'.
And I'm still trying to fight the mundanity.

I like to think... if I could escape my mother... and breathe in that desert air that I miss so much, it may heal me bit by bit.
But then, I may be beyond repair.

I see so many pretty things, but I'm already turning around to myself saying "Well you'd just look silly in that. Besides, you've nowhere to wear such frills."
But there's still a voice, though hushed, that retorts that I didn't used to care, why should I now?
Even sillier yet, I want to start making such things.

One of the first projects I want to work on is a half apron with a pocket large enough for my rabbit, Alice.
Interacting with her is difficult for me since my skin disagrees with too much contact with her.
But I want to get her used to being around people. Especially since she lost Tribble, whom she grew up with.
So, I figure toting her around in an apron pocket would be a good way to keep her company.
She'll probably hate it at first, as will I since I dislike forcing animals to be where they don't want to be.

Speaking of animals... I worry about Boog, my cat.
Lately, all she seems inclined to do is stare out the front windows of the house.
There's no real reason for this. And she had never done it before. And she's TERRIFIED of being outside any further than crawling under the back porch.
But hour after hour, she just sits and watches the world out the window, or sleeps under them tucked behind the couch.

It's after 2 in the morning now. I suppose I should let my unsettling dreams take me for a while.

Holiday Joy and Cheer (Is it over yet?)

Despite days of scrubbing, sweeping, and organizing... then re-scrubbing, re-sweeping, and re-organizing anything my mother had touched, the 'Thanksgiving Festivities' didn't begin until last night when aunts, uncles, hundreds of cousins, and other people who probably just happened off the street began to swarm through my front door and take up any space that may or may not have already been occupied.
Pies were everywhere, as were screaming children. I huddled in a corner staring in terror at these strangers who'd invaded the living space of my family.
But, the story of my Thanksgiving doesn't begin until that fateful moment that one of my numerous aunts catches sight of me and, in an effort to outsocialize the other aunts, snatched me into her claws of curious (but not truly interested) banter.
"So, I heard you're not going to be around for Christmas."

"Yeah. My boyfriend is having me over to spend christmas with his family." No guilt here. There's yet to be a christmas party where I'd been noticed at all. The family is too large, and most try to avoid socializing with my immediate family.

"Well that sounds fun. So what is your family doing for Thanksgiving?" She was smiling politely while scoping out the room for someone more interesting to talk to already.

I tried to look thoughtful and lied outrightly. "Not sure. Probably just a quiet evening at home."

I would have tried to answer a little quieter had I known that my mother was within hearing distance. Not one to pass up an opportunity to DAZZLE the relatives she so looked down upon, she coughed away a bit of the pie she'd inhaled in her hurry to answer then grinned up at my poor aunt who also hadn't realized how nearby she was.
"Andrea! We're going to Burger King! Remember?? And to a movie!!!" She lifted her chin in her 'holier than thou' manner (not realizing how much like a toad  this made her appear) and beamed. For who could be so clever as her to take her family to a fast-food joint on Thanksgiving day? She'd been raving about the brilliance of this plan since she'd received the neon green flyer stating they would be open attached to her sourdough burger.
I grimaced as my aunt tried to meet her gaze in a way that you would when a child that had just announced they found a strange color in a booger and were so proud of it. She failed. "O-oh... that's.... nice... ha..ha..." She suddenly let herself be distracted by one of the children falling flat on his face nearby and scurried away.

I sighed, thinking the danger was over, but, somehow, my mother had noticed the bemused reaction to her announcement.


I would not know of the change in dining plans until the next day.
Groggily, after yet another night of dreams that left me wishing I had not slept, I dressed and dragged myself upstairs to harrass my cousins who had stayed over for the night since they were headed up to Idaho for my aunt's Thanksgiving feast. Once reaching the top of the stairs however, I caught the snarling and cursing and the sounds of things boiling over and being chopped.
....Oh god.....
She was cooking.

Now, Thanksgiving, has never been a holiday that I enjoy. Ever.
From the time that we actually participated in further extended family festivites, where I would get stuffed into an itchy dress two sizes too big for me and crammed into a house too small for the people gathered there to eat bland, semi-cooked food, to now where I settle for semi-edible food at a restaraunt just so my mother doesn't have to put in any effort for the meal... I would much rather skip the holiday altogether.
I can be much more thankful for the things I have without indigestion and trying to keep her 'happy'.

Well, this year, she decided she must fulfill her motherly duties of preparing a meal for the holiday. Especially with the threat of my boyfriend beginning to 'take me away' for future causes for celebration.

Now, you must think that I'm being rather cynical and unappreciative about all this.
But I'll trade any one of you places.
I would rather have been somewhere else when my dad asked about the smoke seeping out of the oven door.... and doubly so when the door was opened and actual FLAMES surged out of the bowl that supposedly had contained the makings for sweet potatos with marshmallows on top. (I had seriously thought that only happened on tv.)

I am now reconsidering the knife set I'm giving her for christmas.
Perhaps a fire extinguisher would be more appropriate.

Happy holidays to any of you who may happen to read this.
Give thanks for what you have.
And give thanks that you're not eating over at my house.

Catching up

So this blog was lost in URL limbo for a long time. Really. No one could get to it, and I couldn't get in to update.
Not that I actually tried.

It is Several months later from my last entry.
And I'm still pretty much stuck in jobless/school-less limbo.
Ventured to the anime conventions that are in Salt Lake City and did... OKAY with the stuff we were selling. Could have been better but the Utah crowd is afraid of anything "Too Weird." 
(Scorchie and I just kind of stared blankly at a comment we got about the stuff we were selling being 'too weird' to wear here, because we both have lived in this state all our lives and wear it whenever we feel like it. Oh well. We always have been the outcasts I suppose.)

Things have been going well otherwise. I was able to travel out to see my boyfriend last month, and due for another trip out to see him next month over Christmas and New Years.
I also have an upcoming trip to California with my family through the week of my birthday. Landing me about a week in-between to unpack, pack, and run off to Virginia.

....
How I manage to land these trips so close together I'll never know.

Sorry if I ramble a bit (though I suppose that's what blogs are for).
A bit tired after spending the last four hours doing some power surfing in search of long 'goth' coats that might possibly fit my boyfriend.

It's no wonder goth guys often restort to something close to cross-dressing. Finding anything other than women's clothing in that style is nearly impossible unless you have plenty of money to burn and speak German.
You'd think with Winter just about here, there'd be a little more selection in trench coats and the likes.

Springtime:

Ah.. the weather is starting to warm up. That means my family will be trying to escape the frustration of being 60-70 degrees one day, then snow the next. (Friggin N. Utah weather.)
Friends so often stare in awe at how much I end up traveling. Most of them saying they've never even left their state. (Then it's my turn to stare in awe.) Traveling is just natural for me.
5-hour drives... baby stuff.
8-hour drives... not so unusual.
8-hour drives over the span of a week... That's my family vacation.

This year, we're keeping it small.
We're only going up to Canada. (as opposed to Hawaii or England, though Alaska was up for suggestion.)
People wonder how I can stand my family.
Sleep.
Headphones.
Lobotomy.
They work wonders.

Cute But Bitey . . . A crawling start.

I feel so strange getting into the whole 'Blogging' thing. But this is an attempt to get my website rolling, and, well, Blogs are 'people friendly'.
So we'll give it a try until I throw my hands into the hair and say "ARRRRGH!!!" like I usually do with most stuff.