so last night, I fell asleep on the sofa watching 'Fringe', a new show we DVR'd. I passed out, then woke up a little after 10 and crawled in bed to sleeeeepppp..... the body is such a cool thing. I recorded a couple of hours of narration yesterday, went and recorded three radio commercials, took Chi to the vet... and when I got home I already felt pooped and wrung out. I think my body's shutting down and choosing sleep is helping keep me from getting sick... little sniffles and a general achy-ness make me think sickness wants to move in for a few days, but I've got some work to wade through here. so today, as I prepare to go read more chapters of a business course, I'm very grateful for the good sleep.
I've gotten more of the long-project narration work... this week's business course is just the tip of the iceberg. I spend next week in Dallas working, so right now we're just trying to manage how to get all of the recording done and satisfy the Indians (this is how we refer to them... an American company outsources these courses to some companies in India, who then turn around and contract this studio for the audio portion. weird.).
I didn't set out to do voice work, not originally. I mean, it's not all that I do - I do on-camera work and anything else I can book as well, and I've been writing anime on the side lately - but voice acting has certainly come to make up the lion's share of my income for awhile. college was mostly about theatre and local commercials... I was known far and wide as the Mitchell Pontiac Toyota Girl. ;) the first time I really thought of the possibilities of making money with my voice was in grad school... our voice teacher, Bob, told us about the Folger's guy - he had a house on Long Island with a studio in his home, and recorded his spots there and sent them in. it sounded crazy to me, but... awesome. I did a few spots in Baton Rouge, and then when I moved to Houston and signed with my agent, I quickly booked voice work. from there, it's been like any other business - if you stick around in one place long enough, you work with people, you try to do a good job, they like you, they hire you again. you develop a reputation and relationships, and try to build a base of clients that bring steady (as steady as it can be) work. it's pretty cool, and I'm so blessed to be able to act full-time. it was a colorful road getting here:
high school: I worked for an older couple from church who owned a gift shop and a florist.
college: I was an Arts at ASU representative, and waited tables at Mejor Que Nada during the summers.
grad school: I was on the publicity team for the Dept, and cleaned house for a semi-retired LSU professor. God love Mrs. Simms.
after the move to Houston:
I was hired by JW Productions, a company that co-produces some of the big festivals in town, to be a Production Assistant, and then I was hired across the hall by a woman who owns a sponsorships and promotions company, as an office assistant (I would work for JW, WP, and the festivals on and off for years and sometimes still do, doing various event prep and odd jobs). I left there and went to work briefly for a PR firm, and then heard that a job-share team at a radio station was looking for a part-time assistant. I was with those ladies for 5.5 years, and during that time also had a short stint doing bookkeeping for a local photographer. the component that all of these jobs shared, aside from working with great people, was flexibility... I've gotta have it to pursue acting. and everyone I worked with was so wonderful about understanding this requirement and working with me. there were some crazy times, when I was working three and four jobs at once... whew. it was a good way to learn to be a private contractor... I've done it for so long now, I can't imagine another way to work.
anyway, I'm just feeling blessed today. work is a funny thing... I'm always still looking around for something else to catch my eye. I like change in my work-life, and I'm curious to see if something new will come along that I really want to try...
and now I have to fill this coffee mug and go read 14 chapters about business.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
tgif
portrait of a feline taking it all in:
portrait of a happy dog:
portrait of flowers cut out of the backyard this morning:
*****
here's the trailer for the awesome independent film M and I met on...
awesome.
*****
*MAJOR Office spoiler ahead*
*I'm warning you...*
Jim proposed last night!! I literally stood up and clasped my hands to my mouth. so sweet! I made M back the DVR up so I could see it again... and he didn't delete it so I can watch it again if I want to! if I can figure out the freaking DVR...
to commemorate a new season of The Office, I gave myself a pedi! it was much, much needed.... been walking around with chipped and sad looking toes for weeks. I used to get them done regularly at University Nails on Bellaire, and then Magic Nails on Shepard when I moved to Montrose. Somewhere along the way in the past year and a half, my priorities shifted...
anyhoo, they look spicy. ;)
happy weekend!
portrait of a happy dog:
portrait of flowers cut out of the backyard this morning:
*****
here's the trailer for the awesome independent film M and I met on...
awesome.
*****
*MAJOR Office spoiler ahead*
*I'm warning you...*
Jim proposed last night!! I literally stood up and clasped my hands to my mouth. so sweet! I made M back the DVR up so I could see it again... and he didn't delete it so I can watch it again if I want to! if I can figure out the freaking DVR...
to commemorate a new season of The Office, I gave myself a pedi! it was much, much needed.... been walking around with chipped and sad looking toes for weeks. I used to get them done regularly at University Nails on Bellaire, and then Magic Nails on Shepard when I moved to Montrose. Somewhere along the way in the past year and a half, my priorities shifted...
anyhoo, they look spicy. ;)
happy weekend!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
mmmm....
every so often, a moment in time... or in a month... comes along where a woman might not feel her very best. rare, I know, but it happens. at those times, it is a truly decadent and comforting thing to partake of this breakfast: a cup or two of creme brulee coffee and a couple of pieces of vitamin fortified edible gold:
don't judge and talk to me about the benefits of oatmeal and orange juice today. I know you feel me deep down.
M actually thought to pick it up for me at the grocery store last night. it is good to live with someone who knows about these things.
*****
adios, Suede. project runway will miss you. I want someone to smack Kinley. nobody sasses t. gunn!
*****
how do you know if and when grocery stores double or triple coupons... and which ones will they take?
*****
finished one episode of baseball anime, and on to another. oy. I'm finding myself sluggish this week. getting out of bed is hard and everything seems to take longer to accomplish than it should. I told M this morning I think it's my body's way of recovering from the pre-hurricane/hurricane/post-hurricane schedule. I'd rather think that than believe I'm just sleepy and generally undisciplined.
*****
my friend SKG is heading to nepal next week to film footage for a documentary about the indentured servitude of women there, and she'll be living with women who've been rescued. such a huge and exciting venture into the unknown! I have so much admiration for her... so brave, and so curious and passionate about life and people. I'll see you saturday night in your backyard, girl! may God protect you on this journey...
don't judge and talk to me about the benefits of oatmeal and orange juice today. I know you feel me deep down.
M actually thought to pick it up for me at the grocery store last night. it is good to live with someone who knows about these things.
*****
adios, Suede. project runway will miss you. I want someone to smack Kinley. nobody sasses t. gunn!
*****
how do you know if and when grocery stores double or triple coupons... and which ones will they take?
*****
finished one episode of baseball anime, and on to another. oy. I'm finding myself sluggish this week. getting out of bed is hard and everything seems to take longer to accomplish than it should. I told M this morning I think it's my body's way of recovering from the pre-hurricane/hurricane/post-hurricane schedule. I'd rather think that than believe I'm just sleepy and generally undisciplined.
*****
my friend SKG is heading to nepal next week to film footage for a documentary about the indentured servitude of women there, and she'll be living with women who've been rescued. such a huge and exciting venture into the unknown! I have so much admiration for her... so brave, and so curious and passionate about life and people. I'll see you saturday night in your backyard, girl! may God protect you on this journey...
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
for my toi-bird...
just got off the phone with one of my dearest friends, telling her that M and I want to crash at their house outside of Philly and take in a lot of American History touristy stuff next month. I cannot WAIT to see this girl and her pregnant belly! oh, and her rockin' husby, J. ;)
this is her website... her designs are sooo beautiful!
this is her website... her designs are sooo beautiful!
love you, faithful friend. 'member this?
celebrating the new fujiya & miyagi...
these guys are fun and make me wanna groove... I first heard them at the Pitchfork Music Festival last year in Chicago, w/ M. thanks for putting the new stuff in my tunes, honey!
I would also like to give a shout out to my new favorite cleaner:
it's a good thing, as M.S. would say.
I would also like to give a shout out to my new favorite cleaner:
it's a good thing, as M.S. would say.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
omg. (that's gosh, by the way...)
today's goings-on:
* I am currently writing an anime about baseball, and desperately trying to recall every little tidbit I learned when playing elementary girls softball... because I was so awesome at it..??
* Ike left me with an insane amount of laundry. mostly because I can be a little crazy about spores and bacteria and anything else that might try to tickle my allergies, so if there's a woven fabric in this house it's going into the washer.
* I can't wait for Pam and Jim to get married on The Office.
* We watched American History X the other night, and now I have a little crush on Ed Norton. I know he's crazy and made out with Courtney Love. it's a talent-crush and I can't help it.
* whilst writing baseball anime, I've also taken in a lot of CNN today and the congressional hearing about the bailout. I'm glad they're arguing about these things. I am highly awfully amazingly against a fear-driven, reactive pledge to Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke for 700 billion dollars up front to just 'fix it' as they make up a plan as they go along. holy moly. that's probably not an accurate depiction of what they're doing but that's what it feels like.
> this next part turned into a rambling, opinion piece... feel free to skip to the next asterisk if you wish.
interestingly, yesterday I wrapped narrating an online finance course, 20 long chapters *coughdrinkmorewater* of terms that have been all over the news for weeks. though there was much I didn't grasp (so many formulas!) and even more I needed further instruction about, I managed to follow a lot of it. one of the things I took away was the number of new credit 'instruments' that have been created for more people to be able to purchase things like homes and businesses and funds for operating costs of their various businesses. it all boils down to a lot of creative financing, to get more people in the credit pool so that ultimately lenders can bundle the notes and investors can.. well, invest in them, and money begins to flow in and out and up and through all sorts of echelons of markets. a lot of you already knew that, but it filled in some gaps for me... and I still have lots of questions for someone smart in these areas. being a person who enjoys paying things off early - cars, mortgages... I'll even pay insurance off every 6 months, because it saves a little $$ and it's one less bill to pay a month - it interested me to learn that lenders generally don't want you to pay anything off early, because their investors are in the game for the 30 year mortgage-plus-interest return or whatever.
anyway, I'm following all of this pretty closely, trying to keep up. I'll say this... I used to sort of blindly believe that people elected to office must be privy to information I don't have, that they were hired for their wisdom and commitment to their duties and that they were generally, probably right when they acted. I no longer believe that. The reactive nature of Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke's 'plan' completely scares the crap out of me... mostly because I can't see logic in it. "The government has to bail them out, they're the only one who can and the world market is at stake!" is panic-speak, not a logical economic plan, and does not explain how such action will create some sort of sustainable economic stability while dealing with all of the mess that caused the meltdown. I'm afraid what they're considering is just prolonging the inevitable... which is that something, somewhere, will have to bleed from these gaping economic wounds. I think I get it... the plan would be for the Gov to have access to a lot of taxpayer money and buy up a ton of bad debt from these institutions, so the banks and whatnot could feel free to extend themselves again and the Gov could sell the debt later for a profit... so theoretically, later the funds would come back as 'income'. However, I also read that it was leaked that the Gov was going to offer above-market price to banks and such for their crappy debt, and if that were true I say 'NO!' to it. Banks do not get to profit, do not get to prosper from these times, and neither does Wall Street or any CEO. Not with my self-employed tax dollars. another term I picked up from reading the never-ending finance course... 'RISK'. They've all taken huge risks, and enjoyed the spoils of bubbly hybrid credit instruments for a long time, and if they have to tighten up and credit is a little harder to extend for awhile... well, that's called a consequence. a really sucky one for small businesses and people whose lives and livelihoods are dependent on credit. thank you, lenders and investors and Wall Street and anyone elected to an office whose job is to pay attention. same for citizens... if it's tougher to get credit for awhile while things stabalize, how can we really complain? we helped create this bed. look at the hundreds of thousands of people around you choking under the weight of their debt... or who walked away from their homes with crazy interest rates, homes they paid no money to get into so why SHOULD they feel invested in them? oh man, I remember vividly the day I gave what seemed like a huge money order to a title company... it wasn't fun. it was stressful and the magnitude of the obligation I'd just entered into sent me straight to my bed for a few hours. I guess my biggest issue is this: you cannot float bad behavior and hope it will change into good behavior. there is no incentive. painful consequences don't have to be the end of the world, and can turn the tide. 'rock bottom' and all. and lessons learned, though sometimes really, really painful, can grow into some amazing, hard-earned wisdom on the other side. I just can't see the other side yet.
observation: apparently, there are no fiscal conservatives left. and that bumms me out.
and by the way, if ANY presidential candidate even hints at 'cutting taxes'.... HAAAAA!!!! tee-hee and holy smokes, that WOULD be magical math! and after I stop laughing... I'll get sober fast imagining what the babies being born now are going to inherit from all of this. and of course, fiscal matters are just a piece of the picture. Father, what would YOU have us do? what would you have me do, as a follower of yours, in a time like this?
okay, all of that was just.... whatever. that was purely for my psyche. and I'm sure it's very lopsided all over. and later I'll want to edit. *first edit... after convo w/ my husband about the day, I feel the need to write down some things that came up - are people who run banks/treasuries/etc. capable of making choices that cut out their fiscal arteries? at what point are possible solutions limited by self-preservation? and how much of the $700 billion do you suppose would be used to prop up the U.S. in the global market... and the other day M proposed that the gov use their power to do something like freeze credit scores or something for a period of time, so people who lose their homes can at least go qualify for an apartment. anyway, just some thoughts.
* dangit! I only meant to do a fun little post and my husband will be home soon and there's still stuff to do around here! arghhh.
* I forgot to mention... we got power Saturday. we had come over here to the house to do a little cleanup, and it came on while we were here. there is no other word for it... I felt RICH in this house, where you flipped a switch and a light came on, water turned to ice in the freezer, and the ceiling fans dispersed the blessed air-conditioning. then I got crazy and started cleaning like a fiend... more physical labor than I'd done in awhile, apparently, because Sunday I could barely move.
* write softly... chino is doing well, thank you for asking! he's playing and sleeping a lot and generally enjoying his life. at least, that's what it looks like from here. I love your baby's soft spiky hair!!
* lilacsonthegrill... the latest Real Simple is good! I cracked it open last night!!
* lovely blue skies... gets a huge congratulatory hug!
* and yoshimi gets to go fold laundry.
bonus: because I know everyone wants to know how many actual hours it takes to read 20 chapters of a finance course...
ten. and a half. is it too late to invest in Ozarka? ah... maybe I'll just buy a Brita. with cash.
;)
* I am currently writing an anime about baseball, and desperately trying to recall every little tidbit I learned when playing elementary girls softball... because I was so awesome at it..??
* Ike left me with an insane amount of laundry. mostly because I can be a little crazy about spores and bacteria and anything else that might try to tickle my allergies, so if there's a woven fabric in this house it's going into the washer.
* I can't wait for Pam and Jim to get married on The Office.
* We watched American History X the other night, and now I have a little crush on Ed Norton. I know he's crazy and made out with Courtney Love. it's a talent-crush and I can't help it.
* whilst writing baseball anime, I've also taken in a lot of CNN today and the congressional hearing about the bailout. I'm glad they're arguing about these things. I am highly awfully amazingly against a fear-driven, reactive pledge to Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke for 700 billion dollars up front to just 'fix it' as they make up a plan as they go along. holy moly. that's probably not an accurate depiction of what they're doing but that's what it feels like.
> this next part turned into a rambling, opinion piece... feel free to skip to the next asterisk if you wish.
interestingly, yesterday I wrapped narrating an online finance course, 20 long chapters *coughdrinkmorewater* of terms that have been all over the news for weeks. though there was much I didn't grasp (so many formulas!) and even more I needed further instruction about, I managed to follow a lot of it. one of the things I took away was the number of new credit 'instruments' that have been created for more people to be able to purchase things like homes and businesses and funds for operating costs of their various businesses. it all boils down to a lot of creative financing, to get more people in the credit pool so that ultimately lenders can bundle the notes and investors can.. well, invest in them, and money begins to flow in and out and up and through all sorts of echelons of markets. a lot of you already knew that, but it filled in some gaps for me... and I still have lots of questions for someone smart in these areas. being a person who enjoys paying things off early - cars, mortgages... I'll even pay insurance off every 6 months, because it saves a little $$ and it's one less bill to pay a month - it interested me to learn that lenders generally don't want you to pay anything off early, because their investors are in the game for the 30 year mortgage-plus-interest return or whatever.
anyway, I'm following all of this pretty closely, trying to keep up. I'll say this... I used to sort of blindly believe that people elected to office must be privy to information I don't have, that they were hired for their wisdom and commitment to their duties and that they were generally, probably right when they acted. I no longer believe that. The reactive nature of Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke's 'plan' completely scares the crap out of me... mostly because I can't see logic in it. "The government has to bail them out, they're the only one who can and the world market is at stake!" is panic-speak, not a logical economic plan, and does not explain how such action will create some sort of sustainable economic stability while dealing with all of the mess that caused the meltdown. I'm afraid what they're considering is just prolonging the inevitable... which is that something, somewhere, will have to bleed from these gaping economic wounds. I think I get it... the plan would be for the Gov to have access to a lot of taxpayer money and buy up a ton of bad debt from these institutions, so the banks and whatnot could feel free to extend themselves again and the Gov could sell the debt later for a profit... so theoretically, later the funds would come back as 'income'. However, I also read that it was leaked that the Gov was going to offer above-market price to banks and such for their crappy debt, and if that were true I say 'NO!' to it. Banks do not get to profit, do not get to prosper from these times, and neither does Wall Street or any CEO. Not with my self-employed tax dollars. another term I picked up from reading the never-ending finance course... 'RISK'. They've all taken huge risks, and enjoyed the spoils of bubbly hybrid credit instruments for a long time, and if they have to tighten up and credit is a little harder to extend for awhile... well, that's called a consequence. a really sucky one for small businesses and people whose lives and livelihoods are dependent on credit. thank you, lenders and investors and Wall Street and anyone elected to an office whose job is to pay attention. same for citizens... if it's tougher to get credit for awhile while things stabalize, how can we really complain? we helped create this bed. look at the hundreds of thousands of people around you choking under the weight of their debt... or who walked away from their homes with crazy interest rates, homes they paid no money to get into so why SHOULD they feel invested in them? oh man, I remember vividly the day I gave what seemed like a huge money order to a title company... it wasn't fun. it was stressful and the magnitude of the obligation I'd just entered into sent me straight to my bed for a few hours. I guess my biggest issue is this: you cannot float bad behavior and hope it will change into good behavior. there is no incentive. painful consequences don't have to be the end of the world, and can turn the tide. 'rock bottom' and all. and lessons learned, though sometimes really, really painful, can grow into some amazing, hard-earned wisdom on the other side. I just can't see the other side yet.
observation: apparently, there are no fiscal conservatives left. and that bumms me out.
and by the way, if ANY presidential candidate even hints at 'cutting taxes'.... HAAAAA!!!! tee-hee and holy smokes, that WOULD be magical math! and after I stop laughing... I'll get sober fast imagining what the babies being born now are going to inherit from all of this. and of course, fiscal matters are just a piece of the picture. Father, what would YOU have us do? what would you have me do, as a follower of yours, in a time like this?
okay, all of that was just.... whatever. that was purely for my psyche. and I'm sure it's very lopsided all over. and later I'll want to edit. *first edit... after convo w/ my husband about the day, I feel the need to write down some things that came up - are people who run banks/treasuries/etc. capable of making choices that cut out their fiscal arteries? at what point are possible solutions limited by self-preservation? and how much of the $700 billion do you suppose would be used to prop up the U.S. in the global market... and the other day M proposed that the gov use their power to do something like freeze credit scores or something for a period of time, so people who lose their homes can at least go qualify for an apartment. anyway, just some thoughts.
* dangit! I only meant to do a fun little post and my husband will be home soon and there's still stuff to do around here! arghhh.
* I forgot to mention... we got power Saturday. we had come over here to the house to do a little cleanup, and it came on while we were here. there is no other word for it... I felt RICH in this house, where you flipped a switch and a light came on, water turned to ice in the freezer, and the ceiling fans dispersed the blessed air-conditioning. then I got crazy and started cleaning like a fiend... more physical labor than I'd done in awhile, apparently, because Sunday I could barely move.
* write softly... chino is doing well, thank you for asking! he's playing and sleeping a lot and generally enjoying his life. at least, that's what it looks like from here. I love your baby's soft spiky hair!!
* lilacsonthegrill... the latest Real Simple is good! I cracked it open last night!!
* lovely blue skies... gets a huge congratulatory hug!
* and yoshimi gets to go fold laundry.
bonus: because I know everyone wants to know how many actual hours it takes to read 20 chapters of a finance course...
ten. and a half. is it too late to invest in Ozarka? ah... maybe I'll just buy a Brita. with cash.
;)
Thursday, September 18, 2008
okay, so...
we made it through the hurricane. it's not over yet - the aftermath - but we're blessed to be on this side of that storm. I've been touched reading my friends' accounts of their experiences, and thought I'd add my own.
and here is the sky when I got home four hours later:
we mostly waited Friday, listening to the wind and watching for signs of a hurricane. we ventured to our neighborhood Kroger and ran into B.Simms, a fantastic, funny older woman from our church, who also lives over in the east end. when we asked if she had boarded up her windows, she wrinkled up her nose and said, 'Naaaawwwww.... been there, done that." very non-plussed, that one. we went back to the house and hung around, watching local tv stations try to outdo each other with amazing, technicolor visual representations of the approaching weather monster. I did dishes. twice. I just didn't want Ike to catch me with dishes in the sink. we checked our prep: flashlights, batteries, lantern, candles, bottled water, various tools, trash bags, plenty of food, a couple of bags and a bucket of ice in the freezer...
and I filled buckets with water just in case we were without and wanted to, oh, flush a toilet or something...
it was fairly peaceful.
we lost power around 11ish. we looked at each other and said, 'okay!'. candles were lit. the wind was pretty strong by that point... I eventually drug our comforter into the dining room, the center and most temperate room of the house, and we all fell asleep on the floor - 2 humans, a dog, and a cat. I was awakened by a loud 'slap!', and as I bolted upright my first thought was "our cars!". not our cars, it turns out. yay! but water was coming into the house on the second floor and dripping down onto our ceiling tiles, and one had gotten heavy enough to drop out of the grid onto the floor. I scrambled to pick up the wet carpet runner and called to M to come help face rainwater in our home, and thus began 3 or 4 hours of dealing with buckets and towels and blankets and pots and pans and flashlights and teamwork and the blessed lantern and shifting, howling winds outside... that were less frightening because of the steady work and troubleshooting we were having to do inside. the place we currently live was built in the 30's I believe, and the winds seemed to dump gross-looking water into every crack and crevice. as we ran around trying to save our space and keep our things from being ruined (nothing was), I kept stopping to sweep and clean here and there... weird how such things make you feel better and more in control. sometime around 7 or 8a, when the weather was dying down a bit, we assured my family in west and central tx that we were alright via text and fell into the bed for a very welcome sleep.
I think we woke up and went back to sleep a couple of times. that's a surreal day in my memory. our backyard looked like this:
we did take the car (with it's rad air-conditioning and phone charger) and go drive around a bit, checking various neighborhoods, M's shop, auntie's house. the trees were definitely the most arresting things to look at. this city has beautiful trees. it made me sad to see how mangled they've become. we went back to the house to endure hands-down the WORST part of the experience... it was stiflingly hot that night, awful, with little wind blowing through the window I asked M to wedge open, and with the house still damp I began to feel like I was coming unglued. it was small comfort to think that I shared such discomfort with over 2 million people. sometime during the night it began to rain, and we decided to just open the back door and let the rainy wind come on in and bring us what relief it would. we lit a couple of citronella pails to deter pests (I'd bought them for our wedding but they never got used... they rule!), laid on the floor in the dining room again, thanked God for a breeze, and slept.
Sunday. I have to say, the morning was sort of fun for me in a 'roughin' it' kind of way. though we never lost water, I was impressed with the cautions of our mayor about boiling water just in case, so I boiled some on the gas stove and made a little candlelit bath for myself in the kitchen sink, washing my hair and everything. then I boiled some more and made oatmeal and coffee with my little drip cup thing. M and I knocked around a bit, playing solitaire and listening to the news via a walkman radio I found and hooked up to some speakers.
we drove over to check out our house on woodfin and the church. the house came through the storm awesomely, I am soooo thankful. our renters take such good care of the property - they'd put up boards on the windows and everything, and had even gotten their power back. the church... well, it was a strange combination of destruction and blessing. wall down, water damage, yet power and air-conditioning and ice, resources to bless and help our family and our neighbors. it was heartening and affecting to see friends working to help our building recover. I have been a member of SWC for... 8, 9 years now? that place, that family, has been a safe and rich harbor for me. my heart said 'amen!' when I read these words written by a friend of ours on his blog: "I dare you to find a group of people who love the Lord and serve him unfailing more than these folks. There are many who are equal, but none who are more." so sweet, JB, and I feel the same. M, B and I went to get food for the hard workers, and we finally made our way back home. we learned that M's parents had gotten power, so we packed a bag, cleaned up our place, threw all wet ceiling tiles in the trash bins outside and all wet towels and blankets in laundry baskets to wash at their house, and took off with the animals. I might have obsessively sprayed everything with Febreeze first.
I have to say... having family to stay with has been such a tremendous blessing. not just for the physical things that are wonderful... air-conditioning, a freezer to store our rescued veggies and meat, tv (somebody needs to restrain wayne dolcefino), a fabulous hot tub. just the support and help, the freedom to lay down and sleep on the couch without that 'I should be doing something' feeling, the shared meals... it all makes such an emotional difference.
No work could be done on Monday, as both studios I was booked at had no power, but we cleaned up our yard and M's parents' yard, and I did manage to finagle 6.5 hours of narration work Tuesday... mind-numbing. a finance course. reading pages and pages of terms and percentages and whatnot... exhausting, but it felt good to work. afterward, I found gas at 59 & Buffalo Speedway -15 minute wait, $30 limit, cash only. score. went by the house to pack another bag and Febreeze everything again... since we got everything that was wet out of the place, it's starting to smell normal again. I'll say it... I'm proud of M and I. We saved our living space... only the ceiling in one of the closets will have to be replaced. I made my way back out to my in-laws, to a wonderful steak dinner and a soak in the hot tub, before getting up at 4a yesterday to drive up here to Dallas to make up the work I skipped out on last week. let it be known - I'm not a morning person, and would not arbitrarily choose such hours. but sometimes it just seems to make the most sense, time-wise. L.B. woke up, too, poured me some coffee, and helped pack my food for the trip. then M got up to say goodbye, too. it was nice, being sent off that way into the dark morning. as I drove and gulped coffee, the sky slowly lit up:
I eventually made it to the studio and got crackin' at 10a, and I left last night at 10p. I worked again today, and will be happy to head home after another 7 hr stretch tomorrow. I'm blessed that other Houston sessions thwarted because of the hurricane were able to be rescheduled for Monday. I don't mean to be work-obsessed, but I own my biz and the husband and I have big dreams, see, so it's easy for me to stress about losing opportunities.
And speaking of the husband, here he is cooking me a lovely hot dog after the storm… the gas stove is a must for hurricanes! Your fancy bourgeois electric contraptions are useless!
some things I haven't said yet:
I'm sad about Galveston. how awful for the people there to lose so much.
we still don't have power.
the storm was humbling.
and a good distraction from the sad news about chino.
I hope our city recovers soon, and I hope the people continue to learn to make innovative lemonade with soggy, powerless lemons.
if I were of a different persuasion, I would totally launch a fence-building business right now.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST BROTHER EVER! I LOVE YOU!
that makes it my half-birthday, too.
I'm very, very thankful.
first off, I was in Dallas working. I ended up cancelling my afternoon/evening recording hours Thursday and Friday to drive back to Houston to ride out the storm with my husband. one might think... you were somewhere safe, and went TOWARD the storm?! yes, yes, because my family is in Houston. the house I own is in Houston. and Houston proper was being told to stay put, prepare, and dig in, not evacuate. so, I hightailed it home. I did think to stop in Centerville and fill up my car with gas... I evacuated during Rita and learned my lesson. not my first time on the hurricane turnip truck. you get gas at every opportunity.
it was a gorgeous day:
it was a gorgeous day:
and here is the sky when I got home four hours later:
we mostly waited Friday, listening to the wind and watching for signs of a hurricane. we ventured to our neighborhood Kroger and ran into B.Simms, a fantastic, funny older woman from our church, who also lives over in the east end. when we asked if she had boarded up her windows, she wrinkled up her nose and said, 'Naaaawwwww.... been there, done that." very non-plussed, that one. we went back to the house and hung around, watching local tv stations try to outdo each other with amazing, technicolor visual representations of the approaching weather monster. I did dishes. twice. I just didn't want Ike to catch me with dishes in the sink. we checked our prep: flashlights, batteries, lantern, candles, bottled water, various tools, trash bags, plenty of food, a couple of bags and a bucket of ice in the freezer...
and I filled buckets with water just in case we were without and wanted to, oh, flush a toilet or something...
it was fairly peaceful.
we lost power around 11ish. we looked at each other and said, 'okay!'. candles were lit. the wind was pretty strong by that point... I eventually drug our comforter into the dining room, the center and most temperate room of the house, and we all fell asleep on the floor - 2 humans, a dog, and a cat. I was awakened by a loud 'slap!', and as I bolted upright my first thought was "our cars!". not our cars, it turns out. yay! but water was coming into the house on the second floor and dripping down onto our ceiling tiles, and one had gotten heavy enough to drop out of the grid onto the floor. I scrambled to pick up the wet carpet runner and called to M to come help face rainwater in our home, and thus began 3 or 4 hours of dealing with buckets and towels and blankets and pots and pans and flashlights and teamwork and the blessed lantern and shifting, howling winds outside... that were less frightening because of the steady work and troubleshooting we were having to do inside. the place we currently live was built in the 30's I believe, and the winds seemed to dump gross-looking water into every crack and crevice. as we ran around trying to save our space and keep our things from being ruined (nothing was), I kept stopping to sweep and clean here and there... weird how such things make you feel better and more in control. sometime around 7 or 8a, when the weather was dying down a bit, we assured my family in west and central tx that we were alright via text and fell into the bed for a very welcome sleep.
I think we woke up and went back to sleep a couple of times. that's a surreal day in my memory. our backyard looked like this:
we did take the car (with it's rad air-conditioning and phone charger) and go drive around a bit, checking various neighborhoods, M's shop, auntie's house. the trees were definitely the most arresting things to look at. this city has beautiful trees. it made me sad to see how mangled they've become. we went back to the house to endure hands-down the WORST part of the experience... it was stiflingly hot that night, awful, with little wind blowing through the window I asked M to wedge open, and with the house still damp I began to feel like I was coming unglued. it was small comfort to think that I shared such discomfort with over 2 million people. sometime during the night it began to rain, and we decided to just open the back door and let the rainy wind come on in and bring us what relief it would. we lit a couple of citronella pails to deter pests (I'd bought them for our wedding but they never got used... they rule!), laid on the floor in the dining room again, thanked God for a breeze, and slept.
Sunday. I have to say, the morning was sort of fun for me in a 'roughin' it' kind of way. though we never lost water, I was impressed with the cautions of our mayor about boiling water just in case, so I boiled some on the gas stove and made a little candlelit bath for myself in the kitchen sink, washing my hair and everything. then I boiled some more and made oatmeal and coffee with my little drip cup thing. M and I knocked around a bit, playing solitaire and listening to the news via a walkman radio I found and hooked up to some speakers.
we drove over to check out our house on woodfin and the church. the house came through the storm awesomely, I am soooo thankful. our renters take such good care of the property - they'd put up boards on the windows and everything, and had even gotten their power back. the church... well, it was a strange combination of destruction and blessing. wall down, water damage, yet power and air-conditioning and ice, resources to bless and help our family and our neighbors. it was heartening and affecting to see friends working to help our building recover. I have been a member of SWC for... 8, 9 years now? that place, that family, has been a safe and rich harbor for me. my heart said 'amen!' when I read these words written by a friend of ours on his blog: "I dare you to find a group of people who love the Lord and serve him unfailing more than these folks. There are many who are equal, but none who are more." so sweet, JB, and I feel the same. M, B and I went to get food for the hard workers, and we finally made our way back home. we learned that M's parents had gotten power, so we packed a bag, cleaned up our place, threw all wet ceiling tiles in the trash bins outside and all wet towels and blankets in laundry baskets to wash at their house, and took off with the animals. I might have obsessively sprayed everything with Febreeze first.
I have to say... having family to stay with has been such a tremendous blessing. not just for the physical things that are wonderful... air-conditioning, a freezer to store our rescued veggies and meat, tv (somebody needs to restrain wayne dolcefino), a fabulous hot tub. just the support and help, the freedom to lay down and sleep on the couch without that 'I should be doing something' feeling, the shared meals... it all makes such an emotional difference.
No work could be done on Monday, as both studios I was booked at had no power, but we cleaned up our yard and M's parents' yard, and I did manage to finagle 6.5 hours of narration work Tuesday... mind-numbing. a finance course. reading pages and pages of terms and percentages and whatnot... exhausting, but it felt good to work. afterward, I found gas at 59 & Buffalo Speedway -15 minute wait, $30 limit, cash only. score. went by the house to pack another bag and Febreeze everything again... since we got everything that was wet out of the place, it's starting to smell normal again. I'll say it... I'm proud of M and I. We saved our living space... only the ceiling in one of the closets will have to be replaced. I made my way back out to my in-laws, to a wonderful steak dinner and a soak in the hot tub, before getting up at 4a yesterday to drive up here to Dallas to make up the work I skipped out on last week. let it be known - I'm not a morning person, and would not arbitrarily choose such hours. but sometimes it just seems to make the most sense, time-wise. L.B. woke up, too, poured me some coffee, and helped pack my food for the trip. then M got up to say goodbye, too. it was nice, being sent off that way into the dark morning. as I drove and gulped coffee, the sky slowly lit up:
I eventually made it to the studio and got crackin' at 10a, and I left last night at 10p. I worked again today, and will be happy to head home after another 7 hr stretch tomorrow. I'm blessed that other Houston sessions thwarted because of the hurricane were able to be rescheduled for Monday. I don't mean to be work-obsessed, but I own my biz and the husband and I have big dreams, see, so it's easy for me to stress about losing opportunities.
And speaking of the husband, here he is cooking me a lovely hot dog after the storm… the gas stove is a must for hurricanes! Your fancy bourgeois electric contraptions are useless!
some things I haven't said yet:
I'm sad about Galveston. how awful for the people there to lose so much.
we still don't have power.
the storm was humbling.
and a good distraction from the sad news about chino.
I hope our city recovers soon, and I hope the people continue to learn to make innovative lemonade with soggy, powerless lemons.
if I were of a different persuasion, I would totally launch a fence-building business right now.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST BROTHER EVER! I LOVE YOU!
that makes it my half-birthday, too.
I'm very, very thankful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)