Writing and Moving and Projects Oh My!!

I've finally decided to make a blogspot! Or use it anyway. I always viewed blogspot as being a more serious blogging platform compared to Tumblr, and recently I've just been handwriting my serious thoughts in journals and leaving my fangirlism to Tumblr. My inspiration for this blog came quickly. Alex and I busted out both of our journals while unpacking and read them both to each other. Afterward, Alex had left for work. "What am I going to do all day without the car?" I asked before he left. "Write," he answered, "You have a good head. You think things through, you're a good writer. You always have been." He was, of course, referring to A Writer's Notebook, a creative writing journal in which my mom gave me around 3rd grade that I only wrote in for a short period of time.

"If I were ever a woodchuck and got fed by a human with gum, I would fly away and never come back again, because I'm a bird!! Birds don't eat human sweets. However, if I were a human, which I am, I would love that nice, tasty, Juicy Fruit."

It's not perfect, but in my opinion, okay for a 7 year old. The commas are all in the right places and nothing is misspelled. I've only noticed recently how I've been recognized throughout school for my writing skill. I wrote a short story in pre-school about a magical clam, presented it at a school assembly, and I always had journals upon journals. I failed my 9th grade English class, but my teacher signed me up for 10th grade Advanced English anyway ("I can see you have the potential"), which I also failed. My teacher was rather frustrated with me at the end. "You're smart, and you can write damn good. The chapter summaries of Jane Eyre that you did do were perfect, but I could tell you hardly put any effort into them. They were good anyway. You just needed to put in the work. That's it. It's not that hard!" I never did like writing if someone was telling me what to write. I paid for it later in the end, barely graduating high school in time. My first college English teacher referred me to a publisher after reading the first paper that I had turned into her, but I pushed the thought out of my mind. I still wasn't convinced my writing was any good.

Right now, I'm barely starting to get settled in this duplex I like to refer to as a house. I'm stealing Wi-Fi from the cheap hotel from across the street and taking in my landlord's second-hand cigarette smoke (or it may be the smoke from the nearby wildfire) as he assembles the water pump for the swamp cooler. Once we have a sofa, cable, internet, and the dog run built by the side of the house, will I really feel at home, hopefully. In all honesty, I haven't felt "at home" since we lived in that castle of a house in Lake Elsinore. Since my parents' divorce, moving to a different house every single year, I've left more and more things that made me feel at home in boxes, and prepared myself for the next time we've had to move again. And again. And again. This time I'm on my own, without my dad or my brother, Greg, or my mom. But...I'm not alone. I have Alex with me, away at school or work as often as he is. I have my cat, Bridgette, and my dog, Angelo. I just need to find activities to distract me. Usually Greg is here for me to say "Let's do something!" and we'd go and pass time at the mall, Hastings, or just to go out and get some frozen yogurt or boba. I do not have the luxury of Greg being present anymore, and my dad now lives at the apartment I just moved out of across the city and gas prices don't agree with my budget at the moment. I do have some DIY projects in mind.

This little guy was a Christmas gift for my best buddy Sean. That's what we're calling it now, right? We were Skyping last night and he told his navy friends that I'm his "best buddy." Rad. Anyway, this is a bigger version of the classic zombie doll from the book Zombie Felties by Nicola Tedman & Sarah Skeate. I'd like to make my own custom felt dolls, but first I'd have to design them, which would just add more fun to the project.

This is a bowtie collar I made Angelo to make him look "classier." Uggie from The Artist was my actual inspiration for this, combined with Josh Macedo's signature look thing (badcgijosh.tumblr.com). It'd be cool if I could make more for other dogs and maybe even sell them. So far, a lot of people have told me that they think he looks silly, but I love it. 

I have a lot more projects in mind that I want to do about the house, like making my own custom made blinds and turning the heater in the living room into a shelf. We'll see what happens with our budget, I suppose. Our landlord seems open to any type of renovation, what with this being an old adobe house and all.

Subscribe for more "living on my own this is so scary help me jesus christ" adventures. Maybe I can even add some of my Tumblr blog's humor to this more serious blog to bring in subscribers. Who am I kidding, no one cares. I should make some music or do something to make myself more popular in the meantime.

xoxo

Angie