Good morning from Austin!

My amazing day started yesterday morning when I finally finished sewing my Amy Butler rural messenger bag. I finished the topstitching at 9:15 but still had time to spare for my 11:40 am flight to Austin. The plane was full of Quiltcon attendees from Anchorage, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver.

I arrived in time to register for quiltcon and get my beautiful luscious gift bag and program before hitting the bars on 6th street and finishing off a lovely evening with ceviche at parkside. This is the electrical panel at Burnsides.

This is the view out my apartment window this morning. I am rooming with 4 women I met yesterday. Quilters rock!

I finished my last breadtab this morning over coffee. I barely slept and was inspired that my newfound friends liked my offbeat and completely loopy rambling. I’m so thrilled to be travelling on my own and meeting so many new people. Now I have to come up with a new Austin-inspired applique project to reflect my joy. I am off the convention soon, do happy to be able to take this time to be me.

Still too powerful a movie for a 4 year old

even ours. It’s not the violence but even the story and the imagery. Plus, now that Ti has expressed her supreme desire to be Darth Vader for Halloween and her father went out and got her a ridiculous mask that breathes and has a microphone to alter your voice, I don’t want her to decide he’s too evil. Although I have a kid who wears all black to pretend she’s a ucking dementor sometimes, so hopefully even after Halloween Revenge of the Sith will be a story she enjoys, how much older she needs to get, I’m not sure.

Oh, and fuck Lucas for even thinking my piracy will hurt his DVD sales. Puh-lease, like we won’t buy the DVD when it comes out anyway…

I am in total denial that we have to be out of this house in 3 weeks and we don’t know where we’re moving. We aren’t even packed because there are *hopefully* movers coming that someone else is paying to do it, but that means at the last minute we will be stuck busting ass over everything and I’m not ready.

Immigrating

What a rocky year its been. The day after we heard immigration was delayed, we were told it was denied, and now 4 days later we are cautiously optimistic that the review will overturn it and we will be able to immigrate. But in the meanwhile the weekend sucked, both kids were sick, the CEO presidency continued to play PR games and hope the national disaster would go away and be replaced by more palatable news, and my littlest one got a kink in her neck on top of developing bronchitis. You ever have a bad sleep and wake up with a tender, sore or stiff neck? Imagine how terrifying this was or our two year old and then imagine how long it took us to figure out what was wrong and stop picking her up in a way that made her scream in pain. But she’s adapting quickly and now simply refuses assistance when she fears it will aggravate her neck and repeats “My neck hurting” about 30 times a day. I don’t have a lot of free time and am holding her a lot which results in my playing a hell of a lot of WoW and feeling like an extreme loser that we’ve waited nearly a year for this job and I know I wouldn’t really mind if we stayed in Seattle so my daughter could go to school with friends. But I think I will send her to a month of last year’s preschool just for the confidence and continuity.

To say nothing of money. I think the application fee I sent for a Canadian preschool is going to bounce. Way to make a first impression and guarantee they’ll bend over backwards to hold a space for your child…but for now I will just cross our fingers that immigration either goes smoothly or is again denied BEFORE we have to be out of this house.

Up and Down and In the Beginning

Yay! There was a check FedExed to our house yesterday, so Happy Muppet Dance! I am so kermit the frog. What a relief, the January pay makes me feel positively wealthy and buys us another month. Meaning his job search suddenly feels less desperate and more manageable. I have to work again today, and working both weekend days sucks, I am so glad I don’t have to increase my hours next month, although I agreed to work a three day weekend for our Sewing Expo. But then I get to take a seminar on AA quilts during and after and then it will be less than a week until our vacation. How can I not feel good about all these events? The moon must be out of Aries.