So Very Dark

Nigh…is that right?  I feel like I’m missing a vowel or two…but when I throw in an ‘e’ I get ‘neigh’…and I know that’s wrong…

So, I’m on the home stretch of my break.  This time next week, I’ll be back in school.  I think…um…lessee…Tuesdays I actually get out of class at 3:09, so I I won’t be  IN school, persay, THIS time next week, but you get my gist.

As is usually the case, I accomplished much less than I might have hoped over my break — though I did get the house at least nominally clean.  It is, of course, quickly disintegrating back towards dirty, but still, better than it was.

I have gotten some art done, though not nearly as much as I might have.

I got no writing done.

I had my boyfriend remind me that, before I graduate, i really need to put together something…how should I put this…sequential?  Something that’s more than random school projects and occasional personal works, but something cohesive that shows what I want to do, illustration-wise, that shows I’m capable of a continuous something — like, an illustrated children’s story or a graphic novel.  But no pressure.

I worked on getting used to my tablet, but am still not totally comfortable.  One of my BIG issues is that a lot of key-command shortcuts I’m used to having are no longer available — in some cases aren’t even options on my programmable buttons…for example, I could program Ctrl+Alt+Z (undo) without a problem, but for some reason, I couldn’t program the command ‘Shift’ to any of my buttons at all, and though I COULD program Alt (which I use like all the time), I can’t use it for most of the stuff I am accustomed to using it FOR…like, quick-selecting colors.  It just doesn’t register.  Anyway, there are other ways to do these things…I just have to get used to doing them instead of using the keyboard.  Other than that, it is just taking a little while to get used to the format, just like it took a little to get used to drawing on my Wacom…but I’m getting there.  *sigh*

I still never managed to go swimming — the closest I got was a creek that was occasionally, for brief distances, deeper than my waist, but was more often shallower than my ankles.  This week really warrants swimming, too.  The temperature is at least in the 90s, and the humidity is oppressive.  I am NOT enjoying it, and if I had access to somewhere to swim, i would be fully immersed for at least…oh, 10 hours each day.  Instead, I’m sitting in my air conditioned house, wanting to nap, and not doing anything even slightly active for fear of counteracting the less than robust cooling.  (And absolutely not doing anything outside, oh golly no!)

Also, my goal of ‘getting a lot of exercise and eating right so that by the end of my break, I’m toned and fit!’ was probably counteracted entirely yesterday at our session of Game, when one of the edible offerings set out for us tabletop adventurers was curly fries with malt vinegar to sprinkle upon them.  I haven’t had said treat in YEARS and my GOSH it’s gotta be one of the yummiest things EVER, and I was pretty much unable to resist at all.  So yeah.  That, and a couple other Fourth of July weekend indiscretions, pretty much guarantee that any forward progress I made towards not totally hating my body was undone.  And this whole week is supposed to be miserable and gross like it is now, so getting any real outside exercise is…unlikely.  (Of course, it helped greatly when a friend of mine told me the other day, in response to my frustration with my less-than-ideal body, ‘oh honey…we’re just getting to that age where our metabolisms are starting to slow down, and we just have to accept it!’  Well…I refuse.)

Other stuff…um…not nearly where I want to be, art-skill-wise.  I was pretty much in a slump throughout spring quarter, got nothing done on spring break, and not a whole lot past the beginning of winter quarter, so…yeah…a lot of it is just being a little rusty, but I know my art isn’t where I want it to be.  I also know that the main cure for that is PRACTICE, which I haven’t gotten to much this break, between cleaning and Briggs’ break, and just general blah…oh, and by the self-defeating cycle of making something, not having it come out as well as I want, and then not really feeling inspired to make anything else.  Which I know is stupid and the opposite of what i should do.  Anyway…that’s about it here.

Hmm…I think hot weather makes me cranky.  Just a little…

Um…lessee…good stuff…I made really yummy eggs for breakfast yesterday — with sauteed onion, fresh tomatoes, dill and low-fat Swiss cheese. (There’s other good stuff, really there is, I’m sure…but that’s all I’ve got at the mo’.)