Hey guys! In case you don't know, but I think you do, my travel journal for our trip to NZ is at http://trippingvine.livejournal.com .. I know, I have a thing about vines. Can't help myself..

Hope everything is going lurvely for everyone! Talk to you guys soon! :-)

I know I'm shit for keeping in touch, and I really do apologize.. I doubled up on classes this term, and things have been insane trying to get ready for NZ.

Just wanted to take a sec and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY JJ AND XTINA! I love you guys, even though I'm terrible at showing it. I hope you both go out and have a great time, and I'll be thinking about both of you! :-)

.. This is the one I really love..

... I really want to be involved in.. There's another United Airlines Commercial I just saw with lots of sea creatures performing a symphony as the plane flies over.. It has the same paper cut-out illustration kind of look, and I just think it's the loveliest, most detailed thing I've ever seen..

Thought I'd post a pic, because in 3 days it'll be a pale, silvery lavender, but it looks really good when it's fresh..

Also, it's a rare thing to see me out and about in the sunlit hours. :-)

OH! And thank you Xtina for the lurvely teas!! I'm going to call you and say thank you, but I wanted to say it here too! I really love the Mexican Sweet Chili one from Yogi Teas.. There's a strong cocoa base that isn't overwhelmed by the slight bit of spice.. And it's a really pretty golden color when brewed..

We've GOT to get together tho! Maybe dinner sometime down your way? I'd still love to try the Indian vegetarian place you were talking about..

...I swear..

This is the project we've been working on in my Design Principles class. We had to come up with a musical event (real or imagined), and produce a flyer for it that would be a normal 11x8.5 page, folded in 1/2.

This is where I took it. The top 2 are front and back of the flyer, and the bottom 2 are the inside.

..that Navarre got a job! She's teaching swimming lessons at the Y! Which she did for 13 years while she was in school. It won't pay shit, but any $$ is more $$ than we're bringing in currently. We're both just trying to save enough to buy food and gas in NZ, and that's pretty much all we care about right now. The house is paid off, the cars are paid off, the bikes are paid off, so the rest is gravy.

It's kind of her 2nd choice as far as dream jobs go, and I'm really happy for her. She'll be doing what she loves. How fuckin' kewl is that? It gives me some hope..

I'll prolly start doing customer service from home, because it will give me enough time to do my homework, and will make enough $$ for NZ. NOT what I want to do, but if it gets me to NZ, and then after NZ, gets me to graduation, that's good enough for now.

..again.. Strange how I only post after I've been drinking lately. I've been feeling a tad sorry for myself, looking for a job, not finding a job, so bored I can't bring myself to wake up before 2pm every day. I'd wake up earlier if we were doing anything worth waking up for. But we've mostly been playing these epic Everquest marathons, mostly because they're cheap, and it's nice to reach goals. OK, we're not actually reaching goals in the real world, but it feels really good to power level our characters, because at least we're getting something accomplished dammit.

I'm also kinda bummed because Beltane was boring. Beltane is always boring for me. It's supposed to be the one holiday that's about letting loose, doing things we would normally be ashamed of, sex, food, frolicking, general revelry, etc. Well, I've been married for almost 7 years now. There's not a lot of frolicking/sex/revelry. I ate a lot tho. Got pasta mi kota at the Greek restaurant, followed by a somewhat orgasmic coconut sour cream cake. Still doesn't replace the frolicking, but beggars can't be choosers. We wanted to go to a gathering this weekend, but we decided to be responsible adults and stay home.

I've just been feeling a little deadened.. A little numb. I miss the days of abundant sex and abandonment. Add to that the fact that we don't have any $$ to spend if we intend to make it to New Zealand in October, and it makes for a lot of boredom and apathy. Even riding isn't that stoke-worthy lately. We only ride to biker night every Wednesday, and this past Wednesday I spent the entire fucking time studying.

I need a big tattoo or another unusual piercing. Or to go wander through the woods for a week. Something transcendent. Something to wake me up again. Something to make me remember that I'm not dead.

Oh well. I'm watching Mission Impossible 2. Tom Cruise doing ridiculous motorcycle stunts. I know enough now to know that they're not possible. The movie should be Motorcycle: Impossible. Unitooth at his most fabulous.

Enough bitching. I have homework to finish. Yep, that's right. Homework on Saturday night. I'm a wild child. Prolly shouldn't have drunk the mead. (Thank you JJ! It was fabu! :-)

Wow, what a relevant question right now. One word. ME.

I really wish that there had been a class in school about how to actually GET a job you don't hate. Seriously. I don't know if it's a confidence thing, but I seem to look and look and look, and then just accept whatever I'm offered because by the point I get the offer, I'm desparate. Then I stay for several years, 'cause I'm stubborn that way, and just get more and more miserable.

I know people who love their jobs, I just don't understand the steps to take to get there.

I'm doing the right thing by going to school, even though my head really hasn't been in it this quarter. I think I have a lot of potential to be a kick-ass graphic designer. I'm creative, and if I don't know how to do something, I will figure it out. But I worry that when I finish up, my little confidence issues will resurface, and I'll have difficulty finding the right connections and selling myself. So in the meantime, I'm working little by little on doing my portfolio, and I'm hoping that the job placement department at school will be able to work some professional miracles for me.

'Cause something's gotta give. :-|

http://www.carbonrally.com ..

I'm trying to get Navarre to join.. It gives you small little challenges that you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. It's just small things like turning off your computers at night, not idling your car, adding air to your tires, stopping the incessant deluge of catalogs, etc.

Pretty kewl. I want Jimmy to have a pretty world to live in. Now if they'd stop plowing down all the fucking trees to build ugly neighborhoods and strip malls..

...that 100.9% of my pages have foul language? I mean, where does that .9% come from? Seriously?


Created by OnePlusYou

Thanks ying_ko_4! :-)

I'm not a black sheep, really, but I'm definitely the family member that forges her own path, and a lot of times they just don't understand me. I'm the only Democrat in a sea of Republicans. They just don't understand why I keep bitching about this whole 'Gay Marriage THING'.. And I get really fucking tired of explaining.

I'm pagan, where they're all some sort of combo of New Age and Christian thinking. I'm the only gay in my familial village, except for my stepbrother, Yancey, who lives too far away. I'm stubborn and independent, which throws everyone off. They don't seem to understand why I don't appreciate constant criticism disguised as advice. I also don't shop much, which seems to be the preferred social activity amongst the women in my family. They all want me to grow my hair out, and don't understand why I keep getting so many tattoos. The idea of a girl that doesn't necessarily care about looking girly blows their minds.

They also don't understand why I hate talking on the phone. They spend HOURS talking about how everyone else is so fucked up, 'Thankgawdwearen'tlikethat, wehaveourshitSOtogether', and it seems to surprise them that I don't enjoy participating in malicious gossip and self righteous verbal preening. They get pissed if I don't answer my cell phone. Just because it rings does NOT mean that I have to fucking drop everything to answer it. Most folks don't GET that. And they get REALLY pissed if I don't return a call within a few hours. The idea that I might be out doing something FUN just doesn't compute.

Unfortunately, to my grandparents, I used to be the fun little girl that they took to Disney World every year and was happy and cute. In my teenage years, I was a lot more rebellious, but we were still really close. Now, since I've come out, I'm a complete and total mystery. They think I don't date, and I don't invite them to my house because it's too messy. (Which is true, but I am capable of cleaning. The MAIN reason they're not invited is because of Navarre and the effort it takes to de-lezbify the house.) They think I'm this miserable spinster, who *gasp* has a tattoo on her arm. My grandfather noticed it a few months ago, and we were all waiting for him to blow his lid, but he didn't. He's very old school. But he's FINALLY starting to figure things out. I wore a Harley tshirt to dinner a couple weeks ago, and Grandma asked when I was going to get my Harley. I told her I was riding Navarre's (a little white lie), and Papa freaked. He kept shaking his head and muttering under his breath. He didn't say two words at dinner. Later, around the fire pit, he asked Roger why I was dressing so 'Butchy'. Roger gave some noncommital answer, and I haven't heard anything since then. It's really sad, because we WERE so close at one point. Ah well..

That isn't to say that any of them are bad people. They're just really, really different. When the chips fall, they'll be the first person to step in in a crisis, and they really love me a lot. I just get tired of having to explain myself so often to everyone, and I'm DEFINITELY sick of lying to my grandparents.

... a few traits that define me, Amie, as a person.

1. I lose important shit. If it's important, be assured, I have absolutely NO idea where it is. I need to apply for a new passport since I realized that I lost mine when we went to the Bahamas in October. Fine, no biggie. I had to go get a birth certificate to take with me since I couldn't find my passport, and I just take that birth certificate down to the PO and get my new passport, right? Wrong! Now I can't find the fucking birth certificate. Soooooo sadly typical.

2. I will spend my last damn dime on a book that looks interesting, even though there's no chance I'll be able to read it anytime soon. I have like 40 books in queue. They're all stacked into my 'Haven't read yet' bookshelf, under my end table, next to the bed, etc. Seriously, it's an issue. I worry that I'm turning into my packrat grandmother who kept food from the 1960s in her fridge well into the early 90s when we finally convinced her to move into a retirement home. I'm not THAT bad.. Yet..

3. I can't keep up with housework for shit. At any time, if you were to drop in at my house, you'd find it in some various state of post-apocalyptic chaos. Why? I just can't be bothered. Seriously. Why clean and stress over that shit when there are so many other FUN things to do with my time? Like go buy more books. And right now we have a 'mystery funk' that gags you when you walk into the front door. We've searched and searched. I honestly think that something crawled into the wall and died. I HAVE found that Febreeze room spray works better than Oust. And the lavender/vanilla scent is really good.

4. I loathe talking on the phone. Which is why I never call any of my friends. I love you guys dearly, think of you often, but will rarely, if ever, call you. That comes from years of working in customer service. The phone rings and I cringe. Sorry, but it's true.

Now, I do have my good traits. But right now I'm really pissed off at myself for losing my birth certificate, and I'm having fun berating myself for being useless and scatterbrained. I'm sure if Navarre was to log on to HER Live Journal, she'd have a whole slew of annoying traits to add to the list..

Oh well, back to sifting through shit, trying to find shit. Wish me luck!

Oh man, great question.. I'd have my main house up in the Canadian Rockies somewhere. I'd also have a nice house in Asheville, NC, and some little shack in Key West. I'd spend my time traveling all over the world, occasionally taking a break to take some art class here or there. In fact, when I got tired of traveling, I'd probably just be a part time student and part time artist..

I'd love to buy Malaprop's bookstore in Asheville too. Maybe show up once or twice a week to say hi and get coffee, but not really take too much of an interest.

OH! I forgot, Navarre would INSIST we get a place in New Zealand too. Prolly in Christchurch or Queenstown. Nothing too fancy, just a house.

Hot toddys. MAN I'm sounding like an alcoholic today!

I just got 'Sapphics' today. It's my latest BPAL. It's not so great going on.. It's really floral, which I was hoping it wouldn't be. Bummer. Oh well.

Cute fuckin' bartenders. Will get you every time. Blue margarita thingie? SURE! Load me up! I'm an idiot. Now I can't even think str8.. Great. :-|

Will be hungover and miserable tomorrow.. Great. Bleh.

A cure for all web designing woes. :-)

Right now I'm completely neurotic about my portfolio. I have this VISION, you see.. And it will be WONDERFUL! I'm learning Adobe Dreamweaver, and I've gone through their tutorial with their sample page, but my little wee brainy can't seem to translate what I've learned into a way to create what I'm envisioning. I'm losing sleep over this. Seriously. I woke up last night trying to turn my ovals and swirls into a table, because so far that's what I've learned.

One really kewl thing, tho. I registered http://www.amiebrannon.com for 5 YEARS!!! IT'S MINE BABY! Right now there's just a placeholder page with my email contact, but I think it's kewl nonetheless. I may just put something relatively generic together just to have something better than the placeholder, and then pursue my vision once I've gotten more comfortable with Dreamweaver.

I'm also trying to find a good webhost. I wanted to go with Yahoo, but they're expensive. I found another one that looks good, but I've never heard of them before. They have a 99.9% guaranteed uptime, 24 hr phone support, lots of bandwidth and storage space, and they're like $5/month. So they seem good, I just wish I knew what other people use.

This is what I want to use for my background image. Which is another thing I can't figure out how to do. NOWHERE in the tutorial does it give any instruction on how to use an overall background image. Bleh.