debxena

Kinda random updatiness. You have been warned.

Work
I gave my first solo presentation/party last weekend! It went really well, both in feedback and in sales. I guess I can do sales after all, provided it's product that I am interested in and genuinely think will make a difference to people.

The average sales for each party is about $1k, assuming 10-20 people. I only had 8 people there, no eftpos, and still made $1k - and gave lots of advice and answered lots of questions. Go me ;)  Got all my admin paperwork to balance the next day, as well!

I was on my feet for a lot longer than I'd anticipated, though. There's the presentation, of course - but for the next two hours of questions and sales I was also on my feet. Wiped me out for all of the next day - although I treated myself to a bath, and that helped. Sunday is very definitely a stay-home-and-recover-and-spend-time-with-Ben day, these days.

Al
He's still missing Lloyd, which is entirely to be expected. For the most part he is 'okay'. The hospice arranged for him to have a blessing/tapu lifting done on his bed, and that's helped somewhat - he's more comfortable being in his sleepout, and can actually sleep in the bed again. The sheets were washed twice and put in a clothing bin, though. Fair enough, I guess.

Unfortunately, one of Lloyd's siblings (out of four) has been causing trouble: she was texting Al last weekend and being very nasty and unpleasant indeed (of the 'so, have you killed anyone this week?' variety). He's taken it as an opportunity to change cellphone numbers and networks - if you're a friend of his and you didn't get the text with the new number, drop me an email and I'll ask him to get in touch with you.

Lloyd's mother and one of his brothers is still getting on well with Al, though - the latter visited Al yesterday afternoon, and he talked to his mum on the phone a few times a week. So it's the shame that the sister in question is being so hateful and blaming. I can understand wanting to blame someone - but it's a real shitter that it's Al she's putting it on.

Anime
The anime film festival is on! Ben is going to quite a few, but we're going together to the double-feature on his birthday (Blood: The Last Vampire and My Neighbour Totoro). Funnilt enough, we've either seen or own everything they're showing - but most things we haven't had the pleasure of seeing on the big screen (Appleseed and Howl's Moving Castle I have seen at the movies, and they're both worth it).

Incidentally, did anyone else know there was a second Appleseed movie out (Appleseed: Ex Machina)? Deb wants!

Voting
Well, Al and Ben and I all went and did our voting duty. I am unimpressed at the outcome ... but it's only three years. Yay Greens for getting a larger proportion of the vote!

Family
Dad would have been 61 last Saturday. Which seems really strange to me, as he never had his 50's (he died at 47). His mother's birthday is the day before, and my mother's father's the day before that. They're both dead too. Why do I remember the birthdays of people who are dead?

While Ben and Al and I have all been invited to Wellington for a BIG shindig celebrating my aunt and uncle's combined 60th birthdays, we won't be going down. It's a bitch trying to plan ahead anyhow, and it sounds like it's going to be way too rambunctious and noisy for any of us. Hopefully we'll make it down for a visit early next year instead.

It occurs to me that people are going to start asking us about Giftmas plans shortly. Eep.

This week's post is brought to you by the image of me dancing across the living room to 'They Might Be Giant's (Flood), in order to kiss Ben on the nose.

The media thing worked well last week, so here's something sort-of similar. My week was a lot more social and a lot less media-full, though.

So:

Media of the week
~ BOOK: The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson (not to be confused with Frederick Pohl).
I generally like Anderson's writing, but ultimately I only liked about half of these stories. Still, that's what you get when you purchase second-hand based entirely on the author's name. 'Time Lag', the final story, is the one which impressed me the most. Bittersweet yet compelling.

~ BOOK: Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia: how the whole world is conspiring to shower you with blessings, by Rob Brezsny (whose name you may recognise from his Freewill Astrology column, which has been running for many years).
I haven't finished this yet - I'm reading a few chapters every day, and savouring them. Nonetheless, I think I want to own this book myself - it makes me happy, I smile more, and I walk with a swing in my hips that isn't always there otherwise. Non-fiction often doesn't appeal to me as often as fiction does, but I am making a gleeful exception in this instance :)

~ MOVIE : Ben and I did mean to go and see Dark Knight returns, and didn't get around to it. Hopefully this week.  But we did sit down on our new couch and watch Thank You For Smoking. It took a while to get going, but we found the satirical take very amusing, and Aaron Eckhart an excellent actor. Rob Lowe's character eccentricities also amused us greatly. (And yay for William H. Macy! I've been a fan ever since ER.)

~ TV: You know, pretty much nothing. Other than the usual Buffy - two episodes (I'm rewatching S2 for the umpteenth time: mmm, Spike) meant I got all the ironing done on Tuesday afternoon.

Funniest Social Moment of the Week (just because I feel like sharing)

Saturday morning started with a bang - between 10:45 and 11am, the following cars/people arrived at our house (which, before the influx, contained four adults, two cats, and one small dog):
1: car + trailer, containing four adults, one couch, and one washing machine
2: car, containing one adult, one pre-teen, and one toddler
3: car, containing one adult and one HUGE dog

cue: chaos. Big dog and little dog played excitedly on the lawn; toddler was shood back in car after pre-teen was deposited, old washing machine was moved out of the way, new washing machine and couch were installed, old couch was carried onto trailer. Coffee and tea and V was distributed and drunk, the sun shone, and general madness ensued.

Also, I got LOTS of hugs, as pre-teen, all adults except pre-teens daughter, and both dogs wanted love and cuddles :)

And by 11:30? Everyone had buggered off - including me, as I went to help a friend move house. Leaving Ben to plumb the washing machine in, and enjoy the piece and quiet ...

And there really is! Split into sections for easy reading/skimming purposes. Assuming there's anyone left who's interesting in reading/skimming...

Work
Some of you know that I've been job-hunting since the end of last year, looking to find part-time work I can do from home. The reasons being a) migraine and b) spending time with my brother while I still can.

The hunting was profoundly unsuccessful. There was a lot of looking at potential jobs on the jobsites and finding yet-another-make-thousands-per-week-automated-bullshit scan, a lot of checking the local papers, and a few applications and interviews. Bugger.

Eventually, come the end of May, I had a big talk with Ben, ex-co-worker Muirie, and friend moonspirit43. The upshot of which was the decision to take the plunge. The next day I handed in my month's notice, with no work to go to. The vague plan was to be at home, and to pick up the occasional 1-day job or short-term temp position or inveigle friends to hire me for business-y stuff I can do at home.

Cut to this week, with 4 days left to go. My boss has (finally) figured out that me leaving leaves a big hole with no-one else able to do the work. We negotiate, and instead of being resigned, I'm going to stay on working 10 hrs a week - 5 in the office (on one day), and 5 at home (spread out how I like). I also negotiated myself a pay-rise, which makes me happy.

The advantage of this is some regular guaranteed income will still be coming in, and I still have plenty of time at home to either faff, work, or pick up small jobs outside of work. And it all changes next week!

Brother
Alex aka bigtaz is still deteriorating, albeit slowly. He appeared on Close Up a few months back, having attended a big hospice-organised day at the Pukekohe Raceway - it was very cool! (that link takes you to the segment in question - just click on the link for 'Close Up: Racing Hospice', under the 'Related Video' heading.)

Since then people have been just amazing in helping him achieve the goals on his bucket list. A few weeks later he went up in a helicopter and flew over Auckland for 2 hours, which I gather he thoroughly enjoyed. Then a few weeks after that, he and I attended the matinee session of 'La Boheme', at the Aotea Centre. It's his favourite opera, but he'd never had the pleasure of seeing it live - he was working backstage when it last was put on here in Auckland. We were driven there in a Cadillac as well, which was a huge treat!

Right now he and his best friend are in Queenstown, for five days. Qantas paid for the flights there and back (and gave them access to the Qantas lounge), while Destination Queenstown have been just amazing - organising primo accomodation, lots of activites (shotover jet, gondola, cruise, 4WD to Macetown, onsen hot pools etc), and most of the meals as well. Initially I was going to go with him, but we had a big talk, and he really wanted his friend to go - they've been mates for about six years. I was okay with that, especially having had the holiday to the Gold Coast with him last year. So they're down there, over the winter festival (even better!), and having a blast.

But he is getting sicker. There's still no time-frame for how long it's going to take him to die, and we just live with that. He goes into the hospice for respite every 2-3 months for about a week, and he also attends their social day, Opening Doors, most Tuesdays. I've been once (and will be going more, now), and it's great - a bunch of sick folk and their carers, lots of nice food, massages, haircuts, chatter, and the occasional guest speaker. It's fantastic, and he often comes home with little gifts, and with his nails repainted :)

Migraine
Still got it. Still mostly able to live with it. Still taking a lot of different pills to help minimise it.

Been over three years now. Go away, pesky chronic migraine!

Love
Ben and I are still doing really well - I do have an amazing husband, and I'm delighted that he puts up with me. Given that he's the primary support for me, Alex, and two mad cats, he does remarkably well. I tell him I love him often, and show my love with good cooking and lots of cups of tea. Among other things.

My poly loves are still doing well - along with Ben, I also have my lover and four 'friends-with-benefits' (all of whom read this *waves to them*). As such, I now refer to my dance-card as 'full' ... and to my google calendar a lot!

I love my life. I love having lovers who are friends with each other (and me). And I love being able to be open about it.

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I've undoubtedly left a lot of stuff out, here. Which will give me an excuse to post again, soon!

Tour of Bogachiel
It was quite the full and sociable weekend. Here's the short version:

Friday evening: a visit from muzzybee, and then from colitis, whom I persuaded to stay for dinner (mmm, nachos). We introduced him to Daria, that wonderful ironic 90's cartoon.

Saturday: Ben and I discovered that the Cow-Fundraising Picnic (which had been postponed due to inclement weather) was un-postponed. We were caught a bit short, so faffed and got ready eventually, and I made a pasta salad. We made it to Cornwall Park about 1:30. It was very pleasant in the shade, and lots of friends were there. Nice to finally meet mirabrito, though - we have been missing each other at gatherings for about a year now. When the weather started to pack in we all headed off to doc_spatial's pad, and board-gamed there. Well, I played 'Greed', which is a dice game, but it was mostly board-games.

Sunday: Ben went off to the art gallery and thence to a DQ meeting while I took it easy at home (and wrapped his birthday present). Then once we came back, mid-afternoon, we went off to the Cock and Bull to help a friend celebrate her birthday - her husband had organised it, but he'd cunningly organised it a week early (he got his Wednesday's mixed up). Still, it was pretty cool. We only stayed an hour, as the small children (all under 3yo) nearly outnumbered the adults. It was quite disturbing really. So many peers breeding! Ah well - they make up for us deciding not to make use of our loins in such a fashion, I guess.

Capnodium Birthday
Today is Ben's birthday! He is 34.

The plan was for a lovely sleep-in until 9am. That was cruelly circumvented by Mama Bear 'reversing the flow' (ie: upchucking) at 6:30. I wasn't with it, and Ben cleaned it up before I could think enough to get up and do so. However, I made him tea, and attempted to crush his groin by dumping his (wrapped) present on his lap once he was back in bed.

He is astonishingly impressed with his gift - 40-odd issues of 2000AD monthlies from the 80's and 90's. Those'll keep him occupied for a while. The monthlies are good as they collect complete stories, which would have been spread over quite a few issues of the original comics. He tells me that generally they're re-printed in the monthlies 6-10 years after originally coming out, so it doesn't detract from the sales of the weeklies. Me, I'm just glad I got the right things :)

Tonight I'm taking him out to dinner at Da Sette Soldi, one of our favourite restaurants. Should be lovely. And then, an early night!

( Wikipedia Baldwin )