Philosophical Nonsense

My next completely off day is Thursday, the 17th. In looking at my calendar, the last time I was off of both work and school was Sunday, February 6. Life, as they say, is a box of chocolates...but in my case I seem to have acquired the mixed-nuts variety.

Let me see. Since I last posted, I have had about $8000 slip through my fingers, what with getting Boe a car, insurance, catching up on the utilities and mortgage, sending some money to my mom for safekeeping, paying for CNA classes, and getting new (much-needed!) glasses.

My sole splurge has been purchasing this and this.  They should be the last patterns I'll ever need to buy for SCA/Adria stuff.  So it was a worthwhile investment rather than a momentary pleasure.  I've been reading the instructions and the documentation and dreaming in my few off-hours, and I am really kind of hoping that this is my niche.

Boe's teacher's license will be in within a week.  My sister's giving me leads to jobs for Boe in Tampa Florida, where she lives.  My sister is lonely down there, she can be very shy and the only family down there are her in-laws.  So it would be pretty cool indeed if we wound up moving to Florida. 

Boe did not get the job in Vermont, or so we're assuming since we never heard back from that school.

Time for math class, gotta go.

OK.

So there's a possibility of a steampunk-themed masquerade ball in the upcoming months.  I'm attending if it takes place, mostly cuz Boe's in charge of putting the whole shebang together.  Well, I don't have anything in my costume closet (yes, I have a costume closet) that dates after 1600 with the exception of a quickie chemise a la reine.  Not gonna cut it for something steampunk-y. 

I did a bit of research and can't quite wrap my head around the general aethetics of steampunk.  I mean, all I'd wind up doing is slavishly copying someone else's brilliant idea and doing it rather poorly.  (Lookin' at you, jenthompson ...your steampunk outfit is just about the coolest I've seen Out There in the ether.)  So yeah, I don't think I can pull off steampunk.  However, I CAN pull off Victorian.  Screw it, if'n I'm gonna be working at this projected ball (because believe me, Boe's a great "big picture" guy, but I'm the "nitpicky details" half), I'm going to dress as I wish.  Straight up natural-form Victorian it is. 

For those on my flist who have done late Victorian costuming, what's your take on Truly Victorian patterns?  I'd like to use the Dinner Bodice (TV 422) with the Fantail Skirt (TV 225) in electric blue silk taffeta, with pleated navy blue velveteen sleeve cuffs and skirt hem trim.  A small amount of metallic gold trim stitched in the ditch of the pleating.  Navy blue velveteen covered buttons on the bodice.  Late Victorian Corset (TV 110) and Combination Underwear (TV 105) to go underneath it all.

Tell me what you think, flist!  This is my first foray into something that ISN't medieval or Renaissance, and I am TERRIFIED, OMG. 





If the steampunk masquerade ball thing doesn't happen, then I'll still have a perfectly good outfit to wear to, say, Costume Con or Costume College.

I can feel things start to go pear-shaped in my head, y'all, and I don't know how to avoid it.  This is not good.  Not with all the obligations I have, and with the knowledge that I don't have a single free weekend to just veg and get my head together until after the holidays.

Lemme see:

* I have 4 major sewing projects to get done before mid-December.  Do I have them started?  Of course not.

*  I have 1 psychology paper to write, and I won't know what I want to say until I sit down and do it.  Oh, and I sold my psych textbook to put gas in the van, so I'll have to borrow from a classmate to write the paper. 

*  Boe's temp job ended a couple of weeks earlier than planned, so that really screws with us.  At least we were able to pay the past due mortgage payments to keep a roof over our heads, so that's all right.  We also paid the water bill and have a payment arrangement set up with the electric company.  This just leaves the phones and the gas bill...and our phones were cut off yesterday, so I can't get in touch with anyone except via face-to-face and the computer -- when I'm at school.

*  I still want to sell off my stash, but without the phones, I can't take pictures and upload them to the internet.

* Because Boe was pulling 20 hour days, I was in charge of housekeeping.  I was keeping up with it all there for a while, but since things are starting to get a bit negative in my head, I haven't been able to get anything done...I just get home and sink into a stupor.

*  The brakes on the van are getting really frighteningly bad.  Grind grind grind grind grind. Oh, and the transmission is starting to go out, but in my mind that's not as critical as being able to stop when I need to.  At least it's just the front right brake, right?  Oh yes, and this *would* be the same van that we sunk $1000 into for brakes previously.  And the van won't be paid off til March.  Yeah, never buying from that place ever again.

So, yeah, that's what's going on in my little corner of the world.

All righty, folks, last night after my mini-breakdown, Boe and I dragged one of my fabric bins from the Tornado Room to begin the cataloging and photographing process to bring pretty fabrics to YOU!

Please note that my cell phone camera is the only one I have, and there's some weird lighting effect towards the center of each photo.  This means the best color saturation is at the edges of the fabric.  Dunno why, I don't get it either.  I'mma see what I can do about setting up a PayPal account to make payment easier on folks. 

All prices are negotiable to an extent.  All prices include shipping by USPS Parcel Post.  Comments are screened to keep negotiations confidential.

ALLERGY SUFFERERS:  I share my home with 3 cats and a dog. 

( Here we go! )

Had a great weekend with Mom, my sister, and a certain Adorable Niece! (Mom got a new car and sold her old one to my sister, who flew up from FL to pick it up and drive it back down south.) If we have to move, I am really really tempted to tell Boe that we start looking at Florida first.

But we still don't know where we're going to end up, and that's difficult. We have begun The Great Purge of 2010, though. Boe's game room is sparkling clean, as is our bedroom and the guest bedroom. That leaves the Dreaded Downstairs to deal with. Oh, and the Great Goodwill Dropoff of at least half of our closet contents.

After September 27, would anyone be interested in a gently-used 10x10 canvas wall tent? We've only used it 5 times in 2 years, and it comes with all ropes/stakes/poles. It's from Traders of Tamerlane, from back when they still made wall tents (they've gone on to focus strictly on yurts/gers since). I believe the canvas is fire-retardant, waterproofed Sunforger. We're asking $350 plus shipping (from 46808), or we can make plans to meet you halfway (within a reasonable driving distance) and transfer face-to-face.

...about starting school again. On the one hand, the 17 credit hours I'm pulling this semester cover all of the prerequisites for the RN program in one fell swoop.

On the other hand, Boe and I are probably (~90% chance) going to have to move in order for him to get work once he gets his teaching license in December.

So things are a little in the air right now, and probably will be for the next 6 months or so, at minimum. Boe really wants us to get to a place where his teaching position will cover all of our bills so I won't have to work while I'm in school. Cuz really, doing 17 credit hours at school AND 25 hours a week at work will probably have me ready to slit my wrists about 9 weeks into the semester.

Like I said, we're probably going to have to move, most likely out of state. We're looking in all 50 states, plus overseas. We have some preferences: we'd both like to avoid the Four Corners states, we like the Midwest, Boe is enamored with the East Coast, we both have family in Florida, I have family in Ohio, Boe has family in Kentucky and Texas. I have put my foot down re: Any place in Chicagoland, the metro LA area, San Francisco, and NYC. OMG property costs are insane in those areas and I really, really dislike HYOOGE metro areas.

Eastern Ohio/Western Pennsylvania would be nice (Y HELO THAR PENNSIC!), but anyplace with a really good SCA and/or Adria group would be lovely. But basically my general attitude towards moving is "whither thou goest" but HOLY CRAP I HATE THE ACTUAL MOVING PROCESS LIEK WHOA. However, it also gives us the opportunity to purge a good deal of stuff that we don't really use or need.

Yeah. That's my headspace today. Fun times, I tell ya!

I just mapped out my curriculum and course loads for the LPN program, and I won't be done until May of 2012. *sigh* This was longer than I wanted to take to get an LPN technical certificate. However, I also ran the curriculum and course loads for the Associate of Applied Science (RN) degree program, and *that* will take until late July 2012. A couple of extra months in exchange for 1. greater earning power and 2. an easier time finding employment? Yes please! (It's still irritating that it'll take me that long though. My life seems to be permanently on hold, and I am SO TIRED of it!)

 So.

When last we left our intrepid heroine, she was foaming at the mouth and not making much sense.  This may or may not have had something to do with my decision to try to go back to Brown Mackie College to finish my ever-loving occupational therapy assistant degree.

Hrmph.

Did you know, they refused to provide me a specific dollar amount for the tuition needed to complete my degree?  It's for a very good reason, I found:  I needed at least 80 credit hours to complete it, at $425/credit hour.  When I did *that* math, kids, I came up with a very, VERY disturbing figure:  $34,000.  To finish an Associate's Degree.  Uh...no.  Not when Boe's Bachelor's degree cost just a shade above that...no way, nuh-uh, no-how,  NO.  Absolutely not.

So.

I have applied to Ivy Tech Community College, where tuition is the much more reasonable $104.00 per credit hour, to join their Practical Nursing program.  It should take me a year, year and a half at the most (I plan to take classes next summer if that will hasten things along), I will spend WAY less money, and it's still the medical field.  So it's not all bad...*whew*

Mom offered to loan me some of the tuition costs with Brown Mackie (she really would like to see me graduate college some time before she retires -- I'm afraid I'm the child she worries about the most, since I'm the least practical), but when I crunched those numbers, I called her up and told her that there was no way in hell I was going to ask her to whip out her checkbook and write me a 5 digit loan.  I can't do that to my mom.  So I promised her that I would investigate three different schools (Brown Mackie, IPFW, and Ivy Tech) and let her know what I found re:  costs, programs/curricula, and transferability of credits.  What I found suggests that Ivy Tech's Practical Nursing program is the best idea, using those three criteria, for me to get out of this $10/hr ceiling that I've been dealing with since, well, graduating high school.

Since my depression began to lift back in February/March, I'm finding it easier to *be* practical...and this is the longest amount of time without a major depressive episode since 1998.  Maybe I'm getting back to being myself again!

So.

I started work on Thursday, and I finally have a day off today.  I'm a cake decorator now, and can ice cakes with the non-dairy whipped stuff with the best of 'em (which might be saying something about the quality of cake decorators that WM hires, but whatevs).   Buttercream icing is the bane of my existence.  Oh, and crumbs.

They have borked my schedule already, so I had to skip a couple of classes.  I am not thrilled at this development; I will be speaking to a member of management tomorrow Am to get this cleared up. 

Let me see, in other news, Mel flew out from Fort Wayne to Orlando Sunday; she will be living with her grandmother there while she tries to get work at Disney or one of the other amusement parks.  She's already looking into getting her driver's license, so if she can keep up this level of self-motivation, she'll be fine.

And on other news, the water pump on the car died today.  *sigh*  At least I'm working now, right?

If you were a newbie to medievalism and didn't want to/couldn't make your own garb, how much would you pay for an accurately cut T-tunic in cotton flannel?

How much would you pay for an early period tunic gown, also in cotton flannel?