Keys

Keys to the house my sister closed on today.

The house for me, my aunt, and all my critters.

It's kind of a short Cape Cod house (not quite as tall as most Cape Cods so the upstairs room is not good for tall people -- luckily I'm short). All the living areas Di will need are on the main floor, and then there is an additional bedroom or office (I'll use it as an office I think) upstairs, and a mostly finished basement (with second full bath). Hardwood or tile floors on the main floor, carpet upstairs, carpet in part of the basement (tile in the bathroom), concrete in the laundry room and work room (in basement). Small deck and patio out the back door (we will also put a wheelchair ramp out this door too I think). One and a half car detached garage with an additional carport. Decent sized (for the area) fenced yard -- plenty of room for Zeke to wander about and even room for a nice garden.

This is what I was referring to a while ago when I said something is going on which could be very good for me, but could be difficult and maybe bad for others. For me this house will be much easier (especially with Di) and less expensive than where I currently live which will help me out a whole lot. However, where I currently live is in one side of my brother's duplex. I pay him the same rent the last renters paid and he depends on that money. Now if he can do some minor repairs/painting/etc., and get this place rented quickly, he could do ok...he should be even be able to get more for it than he's been charging me. However, if he can't get it rented quickly, he doesn't have a lot in reserve right now.

So I hate to be the straw that breaks his back so to speak, but I also couldn't afford my current expenses for a whole lot longer. My sister's offering me the chance to get back on my feet financially as well as have a suitable place for Di. I certainly can't pass that up.

Now I have to move all my crap over there. Luckily it's only a few miles away, but it's going to be a VERY busy several weeks.

Pics the next week! I hope.

How do I get myself into these things?

Last night I managed to find myself responsible for manufacturing, assembling, and packaging a cd and small prints package deal highlighting Steve's current exhibition in time for their US tour in early June.

I mean we were just chatting away about how great it would be to package the cd of spoken word pieces over music (one to go with each painting) with small prints (5x7s) of each of the paintings and have it for sale at the merch table on the US tour when all of a sudden I hear Steve say something like "maybe this could be your baby...we could sell it on the art site and you could take care of it. Wouldn't that be good?"

Now the sensible part of my brain (which is apparently really small) was saying "What? Oh no no no. No no no no! You do not want to get stuck doing all this yourself. No siree Bob. No, no, no." But the rest of me (which had control of my mouth, by the way), piped up with "yeah! I could do that!"

So I actually do know how I got into this. And I have to admit I'm kind of excited about it. But I just know I'll end up pulling much of my hair out...and I bet I'll be mighty twitchy by the time the tour rolls around too. And I just know there will be plenty of fans who will bitch about all aspects of the damned thing (price, production, packaging, etc.). I'm not really looking forward to having it ripped apart. I just wish some of these people would realise there are real people behind the projects they so happily shred. I think I might just not even read any threads or posts about it.


* edit/update

This project is getting going and I think it's going to be very cool. In reading back over the initial post I should have made it more clear that I didn't get talked into doing anything I didn't want to do. I'm thrilled to be doing it and it's a huge honour to be trusted with it.

My problem is based in insecurity -- I fear I really won't be able to do as good a job with it as I want. There is always that nagging feeling that I've been faking it all along and now I'm going to be unmasked as the fraud I really am. I think this is where the concern about others picking it apart comes from -- I'm always a bit afraid they could be right when they say "Oh that sucks!" Now when people say the same things about something I think is good that someone else has done I just think they are full of shit. But when I've done it -- even if I really love it and think it's great -- and it gets ripped apart, I can be really devastated. Shaky self confidence sucks big time.

I want to do this project enough to do it anyway. I'm not sure I'm tough enough to read what people say about it though. The thing is I know most people who buy it will be happy with it...but the ones who bitch seem to have much, much louder voices.

My Church excursion

Talked to my sister tonight and it looks as if I might be able to go to five or even possibly six gigs. The pretty definite ones are Falls Church, VA; Annapolis, MD; Philadelphia, PA; Foxborough, MA; and Londonderry, NH. Pittsburgh, PA is a maybe depending on when she can fly in. Actually, now that I think about it, the Londonderry one might be a maybe because of when she has to fly out. It's an 800 mile drive back home, so that will take a while. If I do that show I might have to see if my brother can hang out at my place if I don't make it back in time for my sister's flight. I probably should be an adult and just come home after the Foxbourough show, but I'd love to see this one too! I'm also going to feel out my brother about him baby sitting for an evening or two and maybe trying to hit the Cleveland show or possibly one of the Michigan shows. I could do either Cleveland or Ferndale (MI) as quick up and back trips, so I might be able to squeeze one of those in. Getting to one of those shows would also break me out of the social anxiety panic I tend to get at the start of one of these trips.

This time I'm having to pay for the hotels myself (my sister has given me hotel points before for some of the dates, but this year she is running low on them -- plus she's coming out to hold down the fort so I can go, so she's doing quite enough!), so I'm really going to scrounge for the best prices. I might splurge on a hotel in Philadelphia close to the venue because I suck at getting around in big cities (hell, I suck at getting around in any city...) and that way I could get to my hotel and just walk to the venue. Most of the rest of the venues are either more suburban or are in much smaller cities which I generally find easier find my way around. I figure with the GPS unit I'm looking at I should be more comfortable finding my way a few miles to my hotel after a gig than I usually am too.

I realise I'm really lucky to have someone willing and able to take over for me while I take off on this little excursion, and I'm very grateful for that. I'm still not quite sure how I'm going to pay for it yet, but do a bit of scrambling and will manage somehow.

whew!

Just finished and filed my taxes. No too bad this year. My income was just about the same as it was in 2007, but my expenses were higher last year (that SK exhibition was expensive!), so my taxes were lower this time. I'm self employed so I have to pay estimated tax payments quarterly. Well with the extra expenses I had overpaid last year, so I got a refund!!

Unfortunately that refund isn't quite as much of a thrill as it is for many people because I just applied it to this year's estimated tax. So I won't actually be getting anything back. However, I also don't have to make an estimated tax payment right now (which I usually do), and my next estimated payment will be lower than usual too (unless I suddenly make substantially more than I have been for the past several years), so that's a big financial help right now.

I'm proud of myself -- I got it finished and filed over 42 hours before the deadline! That could be a record for me. :-)

Now if my car doesn't fall apart on tax day (this one shouldn't!), I'll be way ahead of last year. :-D

splurge

I'm going to splurge and buy a GPS system. I figure with any luck I'll be doing a lot of driving to unfamiliar areas this summer and since my sense of direction completely sucks I need all the help I can get. I've gotten by without one for years, but I just checked some out and the prices have dropped to the point where they are really quite reasonable, especially if you go for a more basic model. I figure with a GPS system, good maps/road atlas, Mapquest or Google directions (or maybe even a AAA Triptik -- I'm a AAA member so I might as well use it) I should be able to find my way around without getting lost too many times.

Of course, going to see The Church will be a splurge too. I've been doing a little checking on hotels in the various possible cities and the cost for those will add up pretty quickly. Several venues I'm considering look fairly suburban though, which means parking will be fairly easy which is always nice, especially because suburban hotels are often less expensive than downtown ones. And I'll be renting a car if I go to several shows. Although my car is now running pretty well (it should be after what I just spent on it!), my sister will need a car to get around while she's here taking care of everything, so she can use mine and I can put all those miles on a rental instead on my car. Besides, rentals have cd players and my car doesn't. :-)

I've been making prints and cards for SK's Pittsburgh show. Right now it's slow going as I'm having to set up every single piece and I'm still learning how to do that. It's not hard, but it's still really new to me so I have to think my way through everything. But the prints and cards are beautiful and it's going to be wonderful to be able to provide better (ie., faster) service to our customers. Plus it will be less stressful!

Church Tour Dates

They are up on the official site now, so they are fair game. Nothing for people in the southern portions of the country (except southern CA). That kind of sucks because I know it's tough for many people to travel to see them, especially so far.

JUN 10 WED BELLY UP TAVERN * SOLANA BEACH, CA

JUN 11 THU THE ROXY THEATRE * WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA

JUN 12 FRI SLIM'S * SAN FRANCISCO, CA

JUN 14 SUN ALADDIN THEATER * PORTLAND, OR

JUN 15 MON THE TRIPLE DOOR * SEATTLE, WA

JUN 18 THU GOTHIC THEATRE * ENGLEWOOD, CO

JUN 20 SAT HOUSE OF BLUES CHICAGO * CHICAGO, IL

JUN 21 SUN VARSITY THEATER * MINNEAPOLIS, MN

JUN 23 TUE SHANK HALL * MILWAUKEE, WI

JUN 25 THU THE MAGIC BAG * FERNDALE, MI

JUN 26 FRI BEACHLAND BALLROOM * CLEVELAND, OH

JUN 27 SAT REX THEATRE * PITTSBURGH, PA

JUN 28 SUN THE STATE THEATRE * FALLS CHURCH, VA

JUN 30 TUE RAM'S HEAD ONSTAGE * ANNAPOLIS, MD

JUL 1 WED THE TROCADERO * PHILADELPHIA, PA

JUL 2 THU SHOWCASE LIVE * FOXBOROUGH, MA

JUL 3 FRI TUPELO MUSIC HALL * LONDONDERRY, NH

JUL 8 WED IRVING PLAZA * NEW YORK, NY

JUL 9 THU THE RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE * RIDGEFIELD, CT


* early, early morning edit: This could also be called "The Blue State Tour." There isn't a single gig in a state that voted Republican in the 2008 US Presidential Election.

It figures

June 25 -- The Magic Bag, Ferndale, MI
June 26 -- Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH

US Church gigs!

Yippee!!

...except my sister, who said she'd come and take care of Diane and the cats and dog for while I go see some gigs, can't do it that one week. And you just know a Chicago show is going to be either the 24th or the 27th. While I hate getting into and around in Chicago (I always get lost there and drivers in Chicago honk at everything -- actually I think they just honk for the sheer hell of it...I'd like to cram their freaking horns down their throats), the gigs are usually really good. So that's totally sucking.

However, I've heard the tour is supposed to begin on June 10 in San Diego and run until about July 11th. So I'm thinking they will continue east, and then may go down the east coast and perhaps even circle back west to end. So I figure I should be able to catch up with them somewhere along the east coast. But they were supposed to check with me before scheduling shows in the midwest, damn it!

Hmm...maybe I could get my brother to take care of things for me for a show or two during this week and then have my sister hold down the fort while I catch other shows the next week. I like that plan. I'll have to work on that. :-D


Oh my god...I'm listening to a bootleg of MWP's Winchester Tavern gig from last year and it's hilarious! That was my first (and so far, only) solo MWP (or any Church member) gig, and it was such a good time. I absolutely adore the shows by the whole band, but Marty is a hoot. He played for about three hours and told stories and jokes all through it. A couple people said they would have rather he played more and talked less, but I love the chatter. And he did play a shitload of songs. I certainly hope to be able to catch more solo MWP gigs. I'm pretty sure I'll never see a solo SK show since I can't see him doing any here. Can't have everything I suppose.

Well I'm doing MY part to stimulate the fucking economy!

Yep, over the past couple of months I've stimulated:

-- the veterinary industry. Zeke, Oscar, and my brother's cat Annie all needed some pretty major workups. Good news on Zeke, ok news on Oscar, bad news on Annie. All damned expensive. And Oscar could cost substantially more over the next several months/years. Annie won't cost much more, but the near future will be sad (she has a large mass -- almost certainly cancer -- and any treatment other than pain relief would just be futile).

-- the "make-nice-art-prints-on-your-own" industry. A couple of items in this section. For the past four years I had been having someone I thought was at least a friendly acquaintance do this work, but early this year I could no longer tolerate her taking months to do jobs she promised within a week or two. She would also not respond to repeated attempts to contact her when she was late on jobs, so I never had a clue when my work would be finished. Not at all cool when people are waiting for orders. So I had to do something else.

1) Entry level large format printer, plus a stock of papers and ink to keep it going. This has the potential to be a really worthwhile investment, but right now it's a huge drain on my finances. Will enable me to provide much better service at an attractive price down the road.

2) Image capture for Steve's art. I found a local company which specializes in large format scanning and has scanned many artworks for local museums. They also do all the colour correction and give me a disc with a high res scan for each piece. It costs more than what my "friend" was charging, but the quality is higher, and when I take in several pieces at a time (which is typically what I do with SK's art), I get a discount on the work. However, it's still more money than I have been paying, and I just had a batch of 16 pieces scanned. Ch-ching!

-- the local framing industry. You would think I'd be all set with all the frames I have left over from Steve's exhibition last year, but nooooo, for his new exhibition he did five paintings in a larger size (22"x30" before framing vs a previous largest size of 18"x24"), and the larger the painting the more expensive they are to frame. Plus I had to get a few new frames for the smaller sizes because I didn't have quite enough. And we decided to use black mats for the paintings this time (instead of white), so I needed to get new black mats for all 20 paintings. (the black mats look fabulous though!) Let me tell you -- framing ain't cheap. If you go to the exhibition, want to buy a painting, and are ok with the frame and matting it's in (which granted is a basic exhibition setup -- they are designed to be consistent and make all the paintings look good together), you will get a good deal. I've only charged enough on the framing to not lose money.

-- and last (so far anyway), but certainly not least, the car repair industry. Fuck. The car has a broken spring, shot struts, and a bad gasket/seal which is causing a vacuum leak which in turn has made the mpg plummet. The broken spring obviously has to be replaced -- you hit a bump just right and you're in trouble. Since there are lots of bumps and potholes around hitting a bump just right is very possible. And I pretty much knew from the way the car was handling (and the overall mileage) that the struts were probably bad. And it's still cheaper than making payments on a new/good used car. But damn...I really don't need this big-ass repair bill right now.


So there. I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy. Shouldn't I get some kind of prize or something?