Martha Hull's Wicked Juicy Panfried Fluffpocalypse

Clearing the Closet (of Clouds, Clutter, and Corporateness)

Last week, I gave away all but three items of gray clothing.  I am done with it.  Sadly, gray is no longer a color I can enjoy wearing- I'm surrounded by it 6 months of the year.  Rainforests are green on the ground, but gray above.  A great big ol' blanket o' gray.  Which is better than a blanket of white on the ground, don't get me wrong, but I just can't wear it any more.

The same can be said about blazers.  I'm kind of over them.  Well, actually, I always was.  Only now I realized that not only do they make me unhappy (not wired to do corporate well, except as an act), but they are taking up much needed room!  The house has a second bedroom, which primarily houses blazers (and robot parts in boxes).  I need that space to set up an office so I can move business operations (left brain) out of my right brain creative studio space.  I've always been a space hog- it's how I work- but this ephiphany is making it abundantly clear that I need to find the way to a blazer-free life sooner rather than later.

The SBDC (small biz wizards) has deemed me worthy to have my very own business counselor!  So they also want to see me live in a blazer-free world.  I will be practical and try to sell said blazers when the time comes (money good), but perhaps I will burn at least one.  I am sure it will stink, but be very beautiful. 

If I ever go all crazy hippie-dippy, I might change my name to Phoenix.  It's a bit trite, but I like it and I'm tired of worrying about if I'm trite or not.  I might start collecting vintage salt and pepper shakers, too.

The Fluffy Don't Stop

It has been a challenging last three weeks, trying to focus all my non-day job energies (which  sadly do NOT come from a bottomless well) into doing businessy things for my SBDC guided self-study, wherein I teach myself a DIY business degree of sorts.  Real business people will be offended no doubt that I compare my rather painful learning curve to their years of study, but considering I'm starting from Reverse to 60 mph, not just 0-60, I'm going to call it whatever I need to to make myself feel good that I'm really learning necessary things.

If you had told me as a teen I would be doing financial projections one day, I'd be sobbing into my Wheat Chex about what will happen to my soul as a grown-up.  Because although I still don't feel mature, I guess doing this "taking my art seriously as a business" thing means I've decided to grow up.  Boo.  

But the good news is, once I get the grown up parts of my day over with, (once I'm really and truly doing art as my job,) I get to be totally un-grown up for vast spans of time, too!  The hard part is that right now, there is WAAAAY too much grown up and not nearly enough silliness. 

And it is still raining.  I still prefer the crushing depression of the clouds to the shivery rage of the great white north, but it does not make it much easier.  The good news is, the rain is warming up and we see glorious pockets of sunshine many days now!

Do we ever not obsess about the weather?  I guess in Hawaii, where it is almost always perfect, you obsess about other things.

In exciting, less grown-up feeling news, I meet with the owner of a neato restaurant next week to see if he would like to hang some paintings of yours truly up as a show!  Woo hoo!  My first real Portland show!  I guess it is official - the years-long mild depression from the earth-shattering move across country during the Great Recession is over!  Now all I need to contend with is the normal amount of cloud moroseness.  I seem to be handling that.

And I am looking forward to this aspect of getting a handle on my business model soon:  I want to see Vermont again this year.  It's not "home" any more, but it is "the homeland."  Makes sense to me.  September seems cheapest - now I just have to figure out if it will become a business trip or just a social call.  Order up some extra humidity for me!

Portlandia Sad-eyed Cat in a Basket in the Rain!

Will this "bad" painting of a cat in a basket in the rain in a puddle be humiliated on Portlandia?  Stay tuned this Friday night (February 3) to find out! I found out that Portlandia airs at both 7 and 10, PST.  Woot! This early show I was not aware of helps for those of you who either a) have a life and need to go out and party on Wayne, or b) don't have cable and can't manage to make it out of the house after 9 (Hello, me. Of course I don't have cable - I live in Portland. It's one of our "things.")

How can they not humiliate it? I mean, look at it! It is a giant kitten in a basket in the rain in a puddle... and what's that? I think it might be crying!

It's ridiculous, and it can be yours.

C'mon, you know you need a print of Kitten in Winter. Why not be the first kid on the block to have one? (5% of profits will go to the Humane Society of the United States, so no more cats need live like this!)  The humans in Portland are, of course, doomed to this existence- but only for eight months of the year. But this is not about me. This poor kitten needs a home. Won't you give it one?

Or at least watch Portlandia with me? How many seconds of fame am I allowed?

Bring on the clouds... I mean palm trees!

Aloha! I have become "that guy" who can't ask anyone about holiday plans without sounding like a total DB, because when they ask me what I'm  doing, I have to say that I'm going to have the Christmas of my dreams by going to Hawaii!!!!!!!!!

Commence hating me... now.

I don't care what the weather does here while I'm gone, of course, as long as the cat doesn't suffer, but I am fed up with our current freezing weather.  The folks who get to go outside during the day are all happy about the sun, and while I will probably eat my words, I today said that I hope the clouds come back soon so that it will warm up.  Nothing inspires looks of horror and shock like wishing the clouds to come back. 

I never want them to lock in in the fall, but if the only way to get it back up near 50 is to have them, I'm ready.  Its so dark anyway...  I am really counting on this sun lamp working, you see.

Remember how I told you Death's Daughter and the Basket of Kittens was complete?  So, when you show your writing to a writer, you sometimes get constructive criticism.  Stupid constructive criticism.  Thank you, Brigid.  So it is NOT done, although I have had my epiphany about how to solve the huge gap in motivation about why this nice little girl is psyched to have a fluffpocalypse happen -"because I said so" didn't work for me as a child and I can't pull do that to my readers now.  This thing is going into Ver. 3.0 (1.0, 2.0, 2.1 being previous iterations) and I think it is finally getting ready to kick ass out in the world.  As soon as I draw about eight new panels and chuck some of my favorite existing ones.  I think 3.0 will no longer have conjoined twins in it.  Sorry.  I will need to bring them in in a later book.  But Death will be watching TV or some other silly activity, so there is THAT to look forward to, gentle readers.

Meanwhile, please continue with the hating of me being in Paradise for the Baby Jesus' Birthday.  and Bobofest, of course!  I think it was warm in the City of David, so is this not the most approriate celebration?  I know Santa likes him some hula from time to time...

Aloha and may you have warm holidays.  Happy Bobofest, all!