NOISE UPDATE

I thought the peace and quiet would be good but the crickets sound like jackhammers. The peeptoads also sound like jackhammers.

RETREAT!

I couldn't take another day of jackhammers and bulldozers. Construction has been going on in my neighborhood for the past 4 months or so. Monday through Friday. And now illegally on Saturdays. I have called 311 to complain about the illegal jackhammers on Saturdays but they continue anyway. Sigh. The evil noise starts at 7 am like clockwork. The city is replacing all of the water pipes and tearing up all of the sidewalks and streets and who knows what else.  I came out of my apartment this morning carrying all of my dirty laundry and my laptop and other belongings and walked the plank... literally... and stuffed all of my belongings into the car and drove off into CT, got stuck in hours and hours of traffic, and moved slowly towards peace and quiet in RI. 

I was not kidding about walking the plank. I didn't take a photo of "the plank" because my arms were filled with stuff but the side walk was no more (the photo above was from a few weeks ago) and there was very a long skinny board to walk across to get from the door to the street. I wondered if I fell off "the plank" carrying all of my belongings if I could get the city to pay for my medical bills. I feel bad for the businesses in my hood because I'm certain they've lost a lot of profits. One day the door at store across the street was blocked off completely by jackhammers and the like. Ugh! I'll be glad when this thing is finished. Whenever that is. Right now I'm listening to crickets chirping. And the hum of water int he distance. It's very calming. The photo above is not so I don't want to look at it anymore! 

RED ALIEN SHIRT

This shirt was spotted at the 2012 Georgia Children's Book Awards and Conference. 

Pretty nice, eh? Well... an author always thinks it's cool to see her book 

cover on the back of a shirt. Okay, this has only happened once. 

VINNIE'S PIZZA BOARD

Vinnie's Pizza is right across the street. There is obviously a great artist working there because every time I go in there the white board has some new art on it with a funny catch phrase to go with it. 

Here we have the "Loaded Landscape" slice.

And the "Freaks and Geeks" salad...

STUFF ON MY DESK

I found these two heads at an antique store. 

MY ARTWORK IS DIRTY

I turned in my artwork last week. Wait... no... it was this week. I don't know what's going on anymore. I turned it in on monday. My issue is that I'm not very good about keeping it clean--dust free, dirt free, paint fleck free, etc. So I guess when they scanned in some of it there were some issues with specks and such showing up. IF I bothered to cover my artwork with sheets of paper and nicely put it away instead of throwing it all over the floor then this wouldn't be a problem. I never learn my lesson. Maybe I will next time around?

ART I DID AS A KID

Below are a few drawings I did as a kid. The first are some clowns. I remember doing these at Grammy's house. There was Grammy and Grandma. Grandma used to be called "ma" for a long while. She was "ma" and my mom was mom. This is because she took care of me while my mom was at work so I considered her another mom. One day the boy I played with next door asked me why I called her "ma." He said,"She's your grandma not your mother." I felt embarrassed so I started calling her grandma after that. Anyway, at both grandmothers' homes I did a lot of art. I loved doing it. 

This one is a tracing of my foot and hand. It's shiny because it's covered in plastic wrap. I loved covering things in plastic wrap because I thought that was like laminating my art. Someone should have bought me a laminator!