Go time

Okay, I’m still ironing out how to link Instagram marketplace, but the site is ready to go if you weirdos want a look. hollybraffet.com

Studio sale

There have been some subtle red-flag behaviors happening, and my internal warning system says it's time to ramp up my efforts to handle the household on one income, just in case. 

Also there is Zenny’s surgery coming up, I broke the dresser, and now the stove is on the fritz. 

There was an episode of Top Chef where they had to cook on stoves like mine, and they all cried. 

So it's time to get my shit together and sell some paintings. I'm putting together a studio sale this week, and if it works out alright, it will become a regular thing. (I redid my website and added a store.)

What I’ve got listed so far

I’m nervous nothing will sell. I’m nervous everything will sell and they’ll all want refunds when they see how much cat hair is in the varnish. Social media marketing is a nightmare. I'm just going to do it and pretend it's great and that cat hair adds artistic value.

More on that later.

Unrelated news: went for a walk with my mother after Sunday dinner at her house, and found another baby bird in the road. 

I made my usual joke about how I can’t take her anywhere without birds falling out of the sky onto her head, and on cue a cardinal shot out of a bush and went straight for her head. She ducked. I don’t know how they know.

 

Easter 2022

Jury duty was a bust. I tried to appear blandly neutral, but I guess accused child rapists just don't like having children's librarians on their jury. The defendant asked his lawyer to give me the boot, along with the elementary school teacher. FINE. Probably the correct move, actually, because while I was sincerely trying to be a good citizen and an unbiased judge, my brain kept whispering Chester the Molester every time I looked at him. Thanks for that, brain.

Easter was three days of bread baking, tie dying, egg dying, roasted meats, chiffon pie, and childhood trauma mitigation. On Easter morning, Zenny mistook the cats triggering the motion-activated light in the kitchen for me making coffee, got out of bed at 3am, wandered around in the dark, saw the couch blanket on the floor and a rabbit-shaped shadow sitting on the ceiling fan, and ran crying into our bed, terrified. I told her the darkness turns thoughts into monsters and we fell back asleep until the cats jumped on our heads at 6am.

I have a difficult relationship with Easter. Bad things have happened on Easters past, and my mother has childhood neglect issues that come up, so I throw a lot of effort into making everyone happy with good candy, good food, new clothes, and fun activities - then crash down after the kids are in bed with relief that all the major holidays are over until next Halloween. 

It’s over, folks. Good job.

Eggies 

Eggie handlers

Leif experiments with alcohol markers 

Sassy the Mynah 

Tie dye 

Chocolate buns, meats, Yorkshire pud, etc 

Droopy tries his best to carry the basket, eats it instead 

Waiting for bread to rise with a drink and a photo app 

My mother trying to teach Sassy how to bird 

Just frisbee this straight into my chest next time, thanks 

Found the film for my Polaroid 

New duds

Happy Easter, everyone.

things happening and not happening

It will surprise nobody that I was not chosen to attend the PLA conference. Evidently admin was looking for someone with work ethic and career goals to represent our library system.

That is the last time I try to win a popularity contest with sing-song animal noises. For a while. 

I was, however, selected for jury duty. That still counts as a field trip away from work, so I'll take it.

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Grandfather-in-law died this week. While the man is in New York for the funeral, I am solo-parenting - which is mostly the same as regular parenting, but with relaxed nutrition. 

Actually, the real difference is how the tension in my chest loosens, like when the dryer shuts off and you're shocked by the silence. I have learned not to examine that feeling too closely, though.

 

On the way to school, Zenny and I found a baby mynah in an open field. There were no nesting trees close by, and no parents looking for it, so I picked it out of the grass like an angry Easter egg and drove across the island to ditch it with my mother, the wild bird rehabber.

tired mad baby

 

It tried to climbs my arms like a velociraptor while I was driving, and is feeling much better now. These birds are like crows - very smart and talkative and strong. It's unusual for their parents to lose them, so it's neat to have a chance to get to know one.

Working on Saturdays means that grandma keeps the kids for the weekend, and my exciting child-free time alone involves:

* Installing new hardware to the freshly-painted cupboards.

* Varnishing paintings.

 

 

 

* Destroying the garden; I got mad at the rickety plastic trellis for falling over in the wind and trying to kill the chickens again, so I cut down all the lilikoi vines and removed it. Now I need to figure out what to do with it. FREE DANGEROUS TRELLIS, neighbors.

 

 

Thinking about replanting the gardenia bush and lilikoi in the sunny corner of the back yard so I can line the fence with hibiscus, but I'm afraid of digging up a dead pet. Maybe I can add two more feet of dirt back there and go vertical, instead.

 

Feeling pretty good, overall. At work yesterday, after cleaning up some pee in the kids' section, I watched a 4 year old slowly drag his nose back and forth across the edge of my desk and then lick it to get the trail of snot off, and realized that I have gotten used to peoples' gross faces again. I don't know why this is a situation that everyone has been excited to get back to, but okay. It beats standing at the door all day.