No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on May 17, 2016

Or probably closer to 10 days and two puppets.

Which is my current goal for puppet making.

So a little over a year ago I met Billie Piper at a convention. She adored the puppet that I made for David to give to his wife Georgia of her character in Doctor Who. David told her about the puppet that I had made of his doctor. I asked her if I was going to make a Rose Tyler puppet, which outfit would she like?

Without a moments hesitation she said the 1950s outfit from The Idiot’s Lantern.

(For the VI this is a still from that episode. Billie and David are on a motorscooter. David is in front in a brown suit with light blue stripes, sunglasses and a white helmet with a black brim. Billie is behind him wearing a pink dress with a purple jacket and putting on a pink helmet. She is wearing pink framed sunglasses)

I said next convention we are both at, I’ll have it for you.

Well the next convention is MegaCon and that’s in 11 days.

So I am off to the races on this one.

I have done my preliminary research on the dress and jacket and have a pretty good idea how this is all going to go together.

The dress is relatively simple to make. The jacket is going to be a bit of a challenge but nothing absurd.

I am lucky that they had the dress on display a while back and there are plenty of pictures on the Internet. This seems to be one of the more popular cos-plays for Rose so some of my questions have been answered for me.

I am going to have to do one slight difference to make this look right but it will be under the jacket and not visible unless you take off the jacket.

No helmet.

The second puppet that I want to make in the same time period is a commissioned piece that the to be owner has been beyond patience with me.

(This is the cover of Aquaman #1 written by Peter David. Aquaman is being sucked into a whirlpool. He had green gloves, orange shirt, green pants, gold belt. His hair is blond and long and he has a beard.)

(Aquaman surrounded by predatory fish. He has a gold harpoon on his left hand and silver armor on his right side.)

I have the materials for this one and will be putting it together for Martin.

So by next Tuesday I will have progress photos and the Tuesday after that maybe some puppet adventure stories.

I am grateful that is it possible to find decent pictures on the Internet to recreate costumes.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 16, 2016

This week my word count was about 4000 on a project I have not got any interest in but won’t get out of my head. And 0 on the two projects that I do have interest in. about 5000 words in web log entries. I did, however, figure out a problem I was having in one of the stories I should be writing.

Art wise, pretty much a big fat goose egg and there are things that are starting to get a little too close to the deadlines.

But the house is clean and the laundry is done and we have food pretty much for the week.

I also, as I stated yesterday, have not been in my best frame of mind and didn’t recognize it until the other day that I had been sitting on the couch pretty much wasting my time on the iPad.

Today I have to pick Peter up from the airport and I have bowling this evening. I want to get the clean laundry out of the basement and into the various drawers and closets that it is suppose to go into. I have their dinner sorted out and ready to go. I have lunch worked out.

I do like that I can track Peter’s flight and see when it leaves and when it is about to arrive. Right now it is scheduled to get in 40 minutes ahead of the original arrival time.

So this week I want to get projects off my list and a lot of relevant words written.

My motivation is not working so we are going to discipline this week. 1500 a day on whatever but 1500 words. Web log entries do count towards the total.

I am grateful for the ability to see when Peter is arriving so I can adjust my journey accordingly.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 15, 2016

I am warning for discussion of depression and possible triggers for depression. This entry is form my Point of View and your mileage may vary greatly.

I had a depressive episode yesterday that I recognized as the beginning of the slide into not caring about anything and the dark pit of despair looming in front of me.

So I worked back to why I might be depressed and tried to figure how to keep from going further into the slide.

It could have been the bad news we got in the mail. It could have been the end of that ‘time of the month’ although if I am sliding then it tends to be right before. It could be some bad news I got on the Internet several times yesterday. Or it could be a chemical imbalance in my brain that I need to counteract in some way.

It could have been all of the above or none.

All I knew was that I was sitting on the couch with no will or wish to do anything.

I went back through my day and found that I had been pushing myself to do things all day. I got up after not a good night’s sleep. I got Caroline’s breakfast and my coffee. We went to the gym. I fixed the broken toilet seat and a clogged drain. I loaded the dishwasher and wiped the counters. We got Caroline some clothing that fits since her legs seem to be lengthening each day. I dealt with dinner. I made sure that the cats had food and water.

But things fell to the floor and I left them there. I just dumped things in the living room without putting them anywhere proper. I tripped over things and did nothing.

No writing except my earlier blog entry and that was pulling teeth to write. No puppet work. No work on Caroline’s project that she now has a week to finish and I am the reason she is not working on it. She needs my help and I am not being the best at giving it to her.

I have so much to do and no will or want to do anything. I am stuck in neutral at best.

And that’s my form of depression without the suicidal component. Don’t worry, I am not thinking of harming myself in anyway. I have too much to live for. I have a husband who loves me and a daughter that I have promised to be there for. I have puppets to make and words to write. I have friends to celebrate with and new friends to make. I don’t feel desperate, I feel numb and a little sad because I feel numb.

After another night of not great sleep, I got up this morning. I picked up the stuff that had fallen on the floor. I cleaned up the kitchen. I made Caroline breakfast and myself coffee. Caroline has a Girl Scout activity sorting food at a food pantry today. I need to get some food into the house for the week.

I sat down and wrote this out. I will probably post it next and then go onto the next thing that needs to be done today.

One foot in front of the other and moving forward.

If that is the best I can do today, it will be enough. I can take care of that which must be done and work on what should be done.

I’ll take my little victories like clean counters or a coffee table that the cats enjoy because it is clear. I will try to get other things that should be done like clean laundry upstairs and the grocery shopping.

I will not worry about what other people haven’t done or should have done. I have no control over that.

I will do the best I can and try bring myself back out of neutral and into drive.

I am grateful for each thing I will get done today.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 14, 2016

Peter wrote on his website about his working on weight loss and what he was doing to improve his health.

There has been a lot of work on that with all of us. I have to cook to the things he can eat and figure out what Caroline and I will be eating as well. He has a regiment of medications he has taken since the stroke along with vitamins and supplements.

Exercise is a must for him and he has gotten back into the habit. He has found things that he can do and not have to worry that he is going to injure himself.

And it is working. He has lost about 30 pounds in three weeks and his energy is feeling better.

He might have lost more but he got sick with a GI virus that has been making the rounds so his routine exercise gave way to being ill.

I have been being more aware of what and when I am eating. I don’t tend to snack during the day and if I am hungry in the evening, I am drinking water rather than eating something. I try to get 12 hours between the last thing I eat one day and the first thing I eat the next day.

But for me the more important component is exercise. I figured out right after college when I was using the gym to get rid of my frustrations that when I exercised, I lost waist. I slimmed down but also my muscles bulked up. I was pretty ripped there for a short period of time and then I went to grad school and it all went out the window.

After that I had periods in my life where I managed to maintain an exercise program and would look pretty good. I was proud of my triceps and biceps. My legs had a muscular look to them. My calves were things of beauty.

Then something would happen and I would get out of the routine.

This year I have some motivation to get all these things back in order so I am doing just that.

What I have figured out is that I can’t look at the scale or rather I weight myself once a week just to see what my weight is. I have to go by how my clothes fit and my body feels.

Since I have been consciously working my core, I have had few back problems. Most of these manifest after sitting for a long time. I can bend over and pick things up easier. Picking not light things up is easier too like the water bottle for the water cooler.

Legs and arms are getting workouts too. My calves are starting to take form as are my legs, which look more compact than they did at the beginning of the year. Arms are making is easier to bowl. My ball feels lighter than it did at the beginning of the season.

I have less chin than I did and my cheekbones are making a reappearance.

Overall I am looking more fit and people have commented on how much weight I must be losing.

But the scale says that I have lost 12 pounds total. So I look better but I do not weight that much less because I have put on muscle which is more compact than fat.

I know I look better so I don’t worry as much about how much I weigh.

I plan to keep this up and continue to shrink my waistline.

I am in the groove again and hope to stick with it because I am feeling pretty good right now.

I am grateful for how my body works in this matter.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 13, 2016

I know there are a lot of people who really don’t like this day on the calendar. As a kid I always found it funny when Churchy would duck and cover anytime Friday the 13th roles around on the calendar. I think the best was when he flipped out because he realized that Friday the 13th was on a Wednesday that month which made a strange sense to me.

For me I have no problem with today. I think I have received pretty much both good and bad news in equal amounts.

Most of the superstitions that I still adhere to are theater related and that’s because then I don’t accidently commit an error when on or back stage. I remember that Peter had to explain to Ariel why I said the Scottish Play rather than Macbeth. I remember telling her why we say break a leg before a performer goes on stage. There are a couple are more in-jokes than superstitions and mostly specific to a certain theater. There is always a great story behind those.

Today Peter is in Des Moines for the Wizard World convention. He will be there all three days. If you are going, say Hi.

Caroline is going to do some community service at a food pantry this weekend along with some other activities that she is looking forward to.

I am going to try to get a short story done for an anthology and Aquaman moving along. First I want to pick up around the house, clean the cat boxes, and deal with the kitchen. I might go outside to work since it is lovely this morning. I opened a window for the cats and they are sniffing up a storm.

There is a quiet in the house this morning. Almost an anticipation of things to come. No lawn mowers going yet. No hammering for roof repair or house building. I can hear that the train is in the station by the hum of the engine. I can hear the sounds the computer makes. There is an occasional goose honk and the cooing of a dove. Last night we could hear the frogs from the canal two streets over.

I feel no need to add sound to the world around me right now. I am just listening and sorting out what I am hearing. Later I will probably listen to music of some form or another while I do chores but right now I am enjoying the sounds that are just part of the world.

I am grateful for my hearing.

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