No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on February 2, 2017

I’m still writing 2016 on things. Usually by this point my brain has switched years but not this year.

Yesterday was not a great day for getting things done around the house. Peter and I had some errands to run so that was most of the day with the latter half being driving people to their various activities and then picking them up. Today I will do better. I did get all the laundry where it needs to be.

I belong to a mental health list that had all kinds of articles and tips about dealing with various things. They also have a challenge for the month. For February it is happiness, which can be hard when stressed. Some of the tips are useful and others are not. One thing that they suggest is to write down each day something that makes you happy and place it in a jar so at the end of the month you have 28 happy thoughts that you have had that month. Another thing they are stressing is self-care that I have talk about before as not being selfish but self-preservation.

There are times that I forget to take care of myself in the manner because of all the things going on and everyone who needs my help. But eventually I realize that I am not doing them any good because I am so run down so I take my ‘me’ time and regroup.

I have come to the conclusion that I like certain forms of stationary too much especially little/compact notebooks. I have so many of them with only a couple of pages written it. Now there are some that have served me well over time including my personal journal. I am going to get back to that because I think I need to brain dump some stuff that I really can’t put out here or on a computer where it can be found. So I am going to pick a journal and try to write at least something in it each day for the next month.

I have to clear my head somehow or my brain is going to melt.

I am looking forward to the release of the Doctor Strange DVD. It is nice to have things to look forward to. Back in the day that’s how I got from day to day by focusing on that which I was excited about. Now I have a husband and a family that keep me focused on the now.

I know this is random but it says it in the title of this essay.

Talking about mental health and trying to get rid of the stigma of mental illness is something that I believe in. I think that people are scared to admit that they have a problem for fear that it is going to label them for life and people will look at them differently. It’s not and if it does, well were they worth knowing? Everyone has problems. Everyone has down days. Many struggle to get from one day to another. And ‘just cheer up’ or ‘you have so much to be happy about’ doesn’t cut it. Not all scars can be seen.

I have done something to my right shoulder that is rather painful. Makes picking things up an adventure. I am doing the usual things that help me make it through the day and, in some cases, just sucking it up and doing what I need to do. This has happened before so I know what is going on and in a day or so it will be fine.

So a little self care and some housework is my plan today.

I am grateful for friends who understand.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 1, 2017

I haven’t been exactly secret that recently sleep has been elusive for me. Until recently any stay up was because I wanted to not because I couldn’t fall asleep. Insomnia was an occasional problem not a regular one. I seem to be falling into a pattern of two nights of bad sleep or next to no sleep and then one good night and then it starts over. It is rather stressful in its own right.

I have been reading up on the subject only to find that women have more trouble falling and staying asleep then men and it only gets worse when we get older. Great, something else to look forward to.

We say that getting old certainly beats the alternative and I agree whole heartedly. But there are times I wish I could go back and tell my younger self the consequences of what I was doing to my body at the time, or not doing depending, would be severe.

So this maybe the lack of sleep talking or I am just in a bad patch right now and given the time of year it could very well be a revisit of SAD because it has been rather gloomy the past month with very little sunshine.

Motivation has been necessity more than anything else. But at least I am getting things done. I have been writing down what I am doing in a day just to prove to myself that I am getting things done. Like yesterday, I got the kitchen cleaned up, the laundry done, and unpacked from our weekend in Connecticut. Today I plan to clean up the living room and get rid of the recycling that is picked up today and get those clean clothes into the rooms rather than in the basement. I also have some packages to pack up and some letters to mail. Let’s see how much can get done today.

I am trying not to think about Farpoint in about two weeks but I am going to have to. I have some puppets I want to finish for that. I might make another Capaldi Doctor puppet.

Inky and Fig are sticking near me today. I have Fig at my hip and Inky has her head on my shoulder as she is on the couch cushion behind my head. I know she is asleep even though I am typing because she is drooling slightly which she has always done. I am going to have a damp spot on my shirt when she moves her head. But it is comforting.

I have a new book I am reading that came back into print “A Study in Celluloid” by Michael Cox who was one of the producers on the Granada Sherlock Holmes. It is about the making of the series and a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. Parts of it are painful to read because of what happened later but I am learning a lot about the making of the show.

The NFL season ends this weekend with the Superbowl. I grew up in Atlanta and watched the Falcons when they were one of the worst teams in the league. I took a friend, who had never been to a football game, to see the Colts vs. Falcons game where the Colts were a game away from having the worst recorded ever in the NFL. The Falcons were a hot mess at the time and the Colts won the game breaking their very long losing streak short of being the worst ever. They just tied for the worst. So I am cheering for the Falcons, which has previously been a bad thing for the previous teams I have declared I am cheering for but I cannot cheer for the Pats. Sorry, that team irks me in so many ways.

Baseball will be starting soon. Or rather the pre-season where every team has a chance at winning it all. Since the Cubbies went all the way, there are no teams that are cursed anymore according to baseball lore.

I consider Farpoint the beginning of our convention season. We tend to keep December and January free from conventions although this year was a little different.

I am grateful for anything that gets done right now.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 31, 2017

Each done pretty much in record time considering. Gives me hope for some other projects being done in time for Farpoint.

I went to the Women’s march in New York City on January 21, 2017 and marched with some friends and made some new friends during the march.

Now a number of months ago on Samantha Bee’s show, she had David Tennant read the tweets from the Scottish about Trump congratulating Scotland on voting for Bretix which they had done the exact opposite. The phrase you touped f**ktrumpet stuck in my head.

So I created the Donald Trumppet. The hairpiece is a second puppet on top of his head like it is an alien controlling his brain.

I lucked into the fur for the hairpiece. I could not believe my good fortune and it was on super sale too.

(for the VI: On the left is orange fleece and on the right is a white/orange/unknown color of fun fur)

Got the body done in a day or rather half a day

(This is an orange skinned puppet with black eyes sitting on top of one of my notions boxes)

Got the hair puppet and suit done in a day

(for the VI: Same orange skinned puppet with a hair piece puppet on top. He is wearing a white shirt, red tie, and ill blue suit.)

And took him to the march

Photo credit and copyright Michele Serchuk all rights reserved
(for the VI: This is the Drumppet and me at the march. I am wearing a Rally to Restore Sanity hat, blue hoodie and a black t-shirt that reads “keep calm and puppet on”)

A lot of pictures were taken and the puppet was mentioned in several articles which means it made an impact.

The second puppet was for our friend James who is leaving his role as the Genie in Aladdin, the role he won a Tony for, and going to take over in Hamilton for Seth Stewart (Marquis de Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson). This was another two day puppet.

Face shot of the puppet before I made the costume

(For the VI: This is the puppets face, his eyes are brown, his van dÿkë and eyebrows are black felt)

The costume took some doing but I got it to a point that I like

(for the VI: This is the completed puppet. He is wearing a blue tunic with gold accents and trim, gold arm and wrist bands, and a gold collar)

The completed puppet

Next I am going to get a few puppets done for Farpoint. Let’s see how that goes.

I am grateful that I have the skills to do these sorts of puppets in a very short time.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 22, 2017

Yesterday I marched in the New York City Women’s march with over 400,000 other people. It was amazing but only the start to what we need to do to help our country.

I went with some friends who introduced me to their friend and we managed to stick together and walk our way most of the way to Trump tower.

I am hoping that what we did yesterday will be like the stone dropped into a calm pond and that the ripples continue to move us forward.

I built a puppet for the occasion. I called it a Trumppet and it amused people as we walked.

I met a lot of people on this march. There were a lot of pictures taken of the puppet. I got a lot of compliments, freaked a few people out (sorry for that), and the puppet got hit with a cane once and punched once.

I am glad that I went. I went for my daughter and my step-daughters. I went for those who could not. I went for those who cannot speak for themselves. I went to prove that what happened in the last election is not normal and we can never start thinking of it as normal.

My back locked up and I had to bail. By the time I got home I was in agony. This morning I am dealing with shooting pains down one leg and my back is not happy with me. My arms are on fire. But I am not at all sorry about going and pushing myself to my limits.

I do have photos but I am having trouble getting my photobucket to cooperate with me. Hope to have this sort out by Tuesday.

I would like to compliment the volunteers and the NYPD for all their hard work to make this march happen and keep it peaceful and relatively organized. The police took the time to give people information if asked and posed with parade goers. They went to extra mile to make sure that we felt safe.

I am grateful for everyone I met yesterday and everyone who marched all over the world.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 17, 2017

Warning for frank talk about depression so I am putting it behind a cut

(more…)

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