But baby, it's for science!

I did a doodle in class last week about the Scientific Method. I decided I wanted to color it and make it pretty before posting it. I had my hair pulled up and thought it looked pretty awesome.

This week has been good. I actually had an almost real work week since I worked 4 days...granted the shifts weren't full shifts but still. Saturday, however, my boss made a scheduling mistake and needed someone to partner up with the ASM so he wouldn't be handling the store on his own, on a Sat night. I had been working since 10:30am and quickly volunteered for the hours, giving me a double shift. As tiring as it was I actually enjoyed myself and I actually kept up to speed with my ASM in how many customers I got to reserve something or subscribe to our discount card. Go me! The icing on the cake was when I overheard the ASM tell the boss this on the phone and hearing his response...

I actually thought Friday would be my toughest day, but it turned out to be really nice. The 25th of Feb is my mother-in-law's birthday. Unfortunately though, this Feb 25th marked the 10yr anniversary of her eldest son's murder (Hubby's older brother). I never had the pleasure of meeting him but everything I hear from anyone seems to be nothing short of awesome. I've never experienced something so horrible but it always angers me to hear of such amazing lives being taken from this world by such senseless acts.

It truly was a situation of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and since knowing Hubby and his parents I try hard each year to help them achieve more happiness than the year prior, because I know it's still very painful at times.

This year, since I knew it was slightly more important, I decided to get a really nice bouquet of flowers that were chosen specifically by me instead of a florist. I know flowers aren't always the most thoughtful of gifts but it happens to be one of the things my mother-in-law doesn't ever seem to receive much. It took me several days to find a florist I liked and then it took me about 40min of comparing flowers up against each other to see if the colors were what I wanted. I finally opted for some peachy-yellow roses with some dark pink carnations and some small white flowers and greenery. It looked perfect.

And the best part was, my mother-in-law loved them too. :) I'm happy I was able to bring her some small happiness on such a painful day.

If it wasn't already obvious I've been experimenting with coloring some of my work. Not sure if it will end up being a permanent thing with all doodles or just something I do for ones I deem more important. Probably the latter for now. It started earlier this week when I had begun working on another drawing in class (after the above one) and decided it and it's previous doodle would need to be colored. The proportions aren't perfect, but I was doing it from memory so can you blame it? I'm pretty happy with it's turnout though, and glad that after so many years of my graduation from art school that I'm still able to draw more realistic cartoons pretty well.

Sorry this week wasn't more exciting. Next weekend will be fun though so I'll save it that for next weekend's post. :)

Loads of doodles!

Like my last post said, it's been a bit rough. I truly did want to post, but 4 weeks ago I was still pretty sick and spend Sat going to the doctor, then work, and finally dropping off my prescription and then picking it up on Sun.
I also found out I have a good chance of having exercise-induced asthma. He asked a bunch of questions and did a minor breath test. He said he was pretty sure I did, but because I'd gone 26yrs without any serious problems that he'd just give me an inhaler to "be safe". So it's not like I have to take it, but it just makes things nicer when I go running....which I have to pick back up now that the snow and ice has melted off the sidewalks.
So then, speaking of which, 3 weeks ago the snowpocalypse hit the mid-west and there was snow up to my waist! I'm 5' 8" by the way, so it's not like I'm short. I could have posted but I haven't seen this much snow, this deep, since I was in high school. I was giddy to say the least.

This last week I was actually in the midst of drawing, to recap, when my brother-in-law came up to me, and I guess decided it was his business to tell me I need to look harder for a full-time job. Then 3 days later he brought it up again, asking for a report by tomorrow on my job situation. The second time I spoke up and told him that it wasn't any of his business. It ended up going back and forth with him trying to pull the card of we're in his apartment and therefore I should go by his rules, and I reminded him that half of it is paid for by his parents...yada yada. Most of it was complete stupidity and I just kept standing my ground that it wasn't his place to demand anything from me and I wasn't going to report anything to him. It finally ended when I guess he gave up and left.
Now I will speak honestly. Yes I'm not looking as hard as I could. It's hard when I see Hubby, who's got way more job-happy qualifications than me, get refused and then expect to get anything myself.
However, BIL also has a shitty part-time job that can't even cover his rent and he takes music classes that are also paid for by his parents. So it's pretty clear he can't stand on his own either.
While he might have been right, on some level, he doesn't know anything about me and clearly needs to get his own life in order first. So he has zippo rights to say anything to me about what I should be doing. These are things my mother, father, husband, or good friends can say. I don't give a damn if he was right, wrong, or talking about purple sheep. He shouldn't be telling me what to do because he holds no authority, friendship, or kindness with me.
So yeah. It's just been really stressful for the past few weeks with school, no hours at my current job, and living with someone I can't stand.

There was some good that came out of last week though. I've been thinking about where I should take my career as a psychologist, job wise. There's private practices, hospitals, joining a group, teaching, research, or having my own business. All of those, except the first one, didn't seem to connect. But then I thought about doing it for the military. My entire family is Navy; both grandfathers, mother, father, uncle, and first youngest brother. Even now my youngest brother is looking at the Air Force as a radiologist. So, since the lifestyle has been what I've known and am used to, I began to think more about it and look into it. I didn't say much to anyone until I was sure about it, and even then I only called my dad for his opinion. Like he did for my youngest brother he suggested I too look at the Air Force because it would suit my personality better.
But there was one problem I worried about as I looked to contacting a recruiter....

I was certain they would disqualify me, but I was determined and decided it was better to hear "no" than not try. Turns out, the decision I made 5yrs ago to stop taking medication worked to my favor...and the fact that I haven't had a need to see a neurologist in that long as well was good too. Basically, the recruiter told me that they normally like to see that you aren't on medication for at least a year and are still able to function. Because I stopped well over that it shows it was a life-style choice and not one to just gain acceptance. So all I need to do, when I'm able to apply, is get evaluated by someone who can then write up that I am indeed not on medication and can perform the tasks required without problems. :)

So that was my past 3 weeks. I'm going to look into ways to make myself update every weekend until I'm used to it and just do it instinctively. I've been thinking of maybe updating with a drawing a say and then posting on the weekend...just to keep me in the mood for drawing and posting. :)

Oh last week Hubby and I were walking back from the local coffee place, at night, when a large gust of wind came up and took my favorite hat from me. It blew it right over the side of a hill leading down to a ravine. Hubby didn't really have any time to realize what happened before I was already making my way down the dark and very muddy slope, yelling "I'm coming hat!!!" Happily I triumphed and saved Hat. My hands and feet were covered in mud and I had some mud spots on my clothes, but I had my hat :)

For now here are some doodles I did in class the other night, which is awesome by the way. My teacher is 100 times better than the one I had last semester. :) Plus, as an added bonus, he tends to say pretty funny comments without realizing it. You could fill a book on the random hilarious stuff he says.

Busy

It's been a rough couple of weeks. I'll post more when I'm able. :(