whassup lounge?

[mopinko]

i'm just hangin around, swimming in my little sea of bullshit, gettin through the days.

was super looking forward to taking a art class w my youngest. she is working on a drawing certificate from the school of the art institute, continuing studies. great little department in a great school.
she is working on becoming a tattoo artist, and wanted that piece of paper.
the fall class we were gonna take was portrait drawing, which i was super looking forward to.
but the poor kid tripped over her own feet and broke 6 bones in one foot. took an mri to show the breaks after a month of hobbling around on a badly swollen foot.
she may or may not need surgery, but she def is not in any shape to be schlepping around at school on top of the apprenticeship that she is doing.

other than that, things are going. recently adopted 3 parrots. fun times. one is plucked to death, but i think she will break out of it here. the other 2 are former breeders, not tame, but getting quite attached to me.
i have one more parrot that is also a rescue.

my little farm is doing fine in spite of a terrible year for tomatoes. great year for chickens, tho. raised some truly beautiful chicks.

so, whaddup with you?

[annabanana]

1. Your poor kid.

I hope she doesn't need the surgery and that she heals quickly!


What kind parrots you got? I almost got myself a double yellow head that I would have named Esteban. But then I started worrying the damn thing would outlive me (I was a wild & crazy kid at the time) and chickened out.

[mopinko]

3. i have a pair of orange wing amazons, and 2 greys.

a timneh, and now a congo.
dont understand why the orange wings arent more popular. they are very sweet, and quiet by zon standards.

and yes, they will outlive me. my kids will have to figure out what to do w all my animals. i have 3 dogs, 6 budgies, and a backyard full of chickens, too.
if they want the house, they will have to take the critters. i dont worry about it. 3 of the parrots are already in their 20's. but they will still outlive me, tragic accidents aside.

[pinboy3niner]

2. Bad break for your daughter

But at least you'll always have parrots.

[mopinko]

4. nice.

[irisblue]

5. .

best movie ever

[pinboy3niner]

6. Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship

[mopinko]

7. it is. just watched it a couple weeks ago.

delish.

[mopinko]

8. morning bump.

[Tobin S.]

9. I'm doing well, mo.

I'm turning into a health nut. I've got a lot of weight to lose, but I'm one week in now and excited about the process. My brain is okay now days. Now I just need to get my ass to follow.

[mopinko]

10. good luck my friend.

i lost some weight last year the hard way-sick and depressed and stressed half to death. starting to creep back in, but am trying to prevent that.
not that i was fat, but i did have 30 lbs that i didnt need.

my head is also pretty good, but yeah, getting that ass to follow is not easy. even tho i am a little stir crazy, taking that step out the door is hard some times.

[fizzgig]

11. hey, you

your poor kiddo, i hope she heals up quickly.

things here are pretty ok right now. i haven't had a cig in 18 days (cheated and had a few cloves a few days ago) despite some pretty strong cravings and work being miserable bullshit has made it that much harder.

we took an adventure to western nebraska last weekend and we're heading down to a funky little town outside colorado springs next weekend. husband grumbles about my adventures, but he's never told me no. he just drives where i tell him to drive and (mostly) stops where i tell him to stop, all so i can take pictures. i can't say how lucky i am that he is so supportive of my hobby.

head space has been pretty good, but i need to start getting my ass in shape. i am starting to really not like what i'm seeing in the mirror.

good to see you

[mopinko]

12. yeah, i saw the pics. looks like fun.

i miss traveling w the hubby, tho i am sure the reverse cannot be said. i was the grumbler, because i could never keep up w him.

keep up the good work. when i get to 18 days w no cigs, i think i might start blowing things up.

good to see you, too.
back and

[fizzgig]

13. he thinks i over-plan

i think he's too disinterested in planning and we always end up arguing about it. we made it 15 miles before i was looking for places to dump his body last weekend this happens every time, but we always wind up having a lot of fun.

i'm already planning a Grand Adventure for next summer and he's rolling his eyes at me and telling me he'll worry about it when it's a week away.

[mopinko]

15. i know about 100 choruses of that song.

the last trip we took was a blissful 10 days. 3 days after we returned home, he wanted a divorce.
take from that what you will.

[denbot]

14. Hi mpk

Sorry about your daughter, all is well at casa de denbot (knocks on wood).

[mopinko]

16. knocks wood for you.

thx

[F4lconF16]

17. I've been better.

I recently took a job with a new local company, and it was looking pretty good until recently. I was just starting full-time work, with a promotion on the table and likely training to become a "higher-up" (the company only has 9 people, maybe fewer now). It was a really good opportunity, and the company was exploding in growth.

Unfortunately, a large corporation famous for screwing its workers ended their business with us after an article accused them of screwing its workers. This did, of course, result in lots of people losing their jobs (not sure what their PR department was thinking). Their business was a substantial chunk of the available hours, so mine got drastically cut. I'll be lucky if I get 5-10 a week, now.

So things aren't looking so great for the foreseeable future. I think I can get help paying for rent this month (that looks like it will work out), but I can't figure out how I'm making it through the next. Some bills are just going to have to go unpaid, I guess, and I'm probably going to be asking my parents for help as it is (though I don't know if I can do that right now for other reasons).

Things have been better. Just on the edge right now, and kinda falling apart mentally. I really need some sort of work, part time or anything, just so i feel like I'm at least not losing ground.

But thankfully I have some good friends and an amazing girlfriend who's been nothing but supportive. We went down to Portland recently, which was a lot of fun. She had never been there, so it was cool to take her to Powell's, Voodoo, and the food carts. I had a couple of free streetcar tickets so she got to take a tour of a lot of the city and see all the bridges. And of course, spaghetti dinner with my parents back home.

I'm hoping I can attend a teaching conference in Portland soon, too. It's all about teaching with a purpose and integrating social justice issues into our classrooms. With luck, while i'm home, I can snag a bit of the quarter-pound of herb my ex just got too. It would be nice to have a bit around the house.

My roommate and I built a huge box fort for the cats last night. I think it's too imposing for them--they've been sidling around the edges kinda nervously.

What kind of tattoos does she want to do?

[mopinko]

18. sorry things arent working out on the job.

i worked construction for a time, and having to be constantly looking for new jobs took a huge toll. i settled for a lot less money working as a cook. at least it was steady. (tho no less rife w the sexism that made construction work suck.)

she is as disappointed as i was about the class because she says the super big money in tattoos is portraits. especially color portraits.
so many artists try to do portraits from pics without ever learning from live models. you can usually spot those people from a long way away.

but she is also a nerd who has designed some science based tats for friends. those are just flat out fun for her. and not something a lot of tattoo artists can pull off.

trying to convince her that just because we arent in class doesnt mean we cant have a regularly scheduled time to draw together.
i told her that i always thought it would be fun to go hang out at the firehouse around the corner, and draw the hunky firefighters. she thought it was funny, but thought she would feel creepy. i dunno. i had a few conversations w the guys when i took a class on leeds design and researched their building, which is leeds gold.
they were all very nice, didnt seem to mind at all. and i know they get pretty bored between calls.
plus- hunky. who doesnt love firefighters?