At the beginning of August two of my friend's grandchildren were involved in a drive by shooting. Both of them are going to be fine, but they had to leave the home very quickly and ended up having to leave most of their belongings behind. There is a go-fund-me (which I posted on my Facebook a bit ago) to help by necessities for the kids. One of them, Ray-Lynn, is living with her grandmother, my friend. I met her a couple of months ago, and I had my dog-friend with me. Ray-Lynn immediately loved Jester and wanted to keep him. But he's not mine to give and I wouldn't give him away anyway. Though I did find this stuffed dog that looks a bit like Jester to give her. She had a large collection of stuffed animals and was only able to bring one with her. Now she can have a stuffed sort-of-Jester. I think Jester will be happy when sort-of-Jester is gone. He's not really sure what to think of it.
I have been working, at least a bit, but I have also been going out to dance, going to parties hosted by my dance friends, where there is more dancing, and I spend a lot of time tired now. I also seem to be getting fitter, though all I do is dance, my gym has been neglected. Every time I consider staying home from a party I remind myself that for many, many years, I wasn't invited at all. When I had my kids people assumed I wouldn't be able to go out, so I never got invited to go out, or to parties. It would have been nice to be asked. Travis has been coming to dance with me, and he loves it, and has been accepted by, and included in, the community. He also is included in pretty much all of the party invites, so I make sure that we go. Plus I have to get in all of the staying out late and fun now, because once school starts it's back to going to bed at 8:30 and only having maybe one day a week when I can go out and do fun things. The need to have a job sometimes really sucks.
I have been trying to find motivation to work, while also trying not to work too much. Summer, and the 3 vacation weeks we have during the school year, are about all the free time I have. I am trying to get in as much relaxation and fun as I can. I have been working though. The last couple of weeks I was working on some orders and, now that those are finished, I am back to making whatever comes into my head. The struggle this week was I had no idea what to make. So I started just making pieces. I made a bunch of chaps, haired a bunch of heads, and then started cutting out different pieces of clothing.
Today I worked on sewing the batch of clothing pieces I cut out, but all of a sudden, inspiration struck! I knew just what to make so I sewed the pieces I needed and made a western pleasure doll. I also dremeled a bunch of dolls, so I have them ready, and I got a lot of the clothes sewn that I cut out yesterday. I'm in a good place to get at least one more doll finished tomorrow, but maybe two, if I start early enough. At the very least I can probably finish one and a bit of another. So after struggling a bit to get much of anything done I am finally in a better groove with things.
I go back to work on the 27th and I really don't want to. Not that I don't love my job, I am just really currently loving not having to go. Plus I have no idea what to expect this coming year. The teacher I was working with, who was completely awesome and amazing, took a different job. I have no idea who we will get or if they will have the idea they need to "fix" our program. Which would be silly, our program is amazing and has done great things for all of our kids. I get that every teacher has their own way of doing things, but I don't know if we will get someone that thinks our program is broken. So I am struggling a bit with doll work and vaguely concerned about school. But I still have 13 days before I have to go back.
