The summer of all the things

Yes, I know, perfect grammar with that title, but I can't think of anything else that would work. We've really had a hodgepodge of a summer so far.

Since our last episode I have officially finished and graduated with my Master's degree. It is SOOOOO nice to not have to come home and do homework on the evenings and weekends. I need to savour that for a while before I start into a Doctoral program. Yes, I do have plans to finish off my doctoral degree because I am just crazy that way. Don't know how long it'll take me, but it is in the works. I need to be able to get out of the public secondary education system somehow.

J and I have done a few more events, but we finished Salt Lake Comic Con 2016 last week. So glad that is over with. This year they decided to combine all the Star Wars groups into one large group and while the booth looked amazing, there were issues with it all that need to be addressed for next time. I didn't get too many pictures because I really wasn't there all that often. I'm hoping to find somethings soon that has to do with the panel I spoke on and what little I did with the booth. J did a lot since he has an easier time getting time off for the event.

However, J didn't have it all that easy considering he is currently in a show that plays nightly. We were hoping that it would be double cast so he would just have his double do that weekends' shows, but the entire show ended up being single cast so he had to go back every evening to make it. He is looking forward to this all being done at the end of September. I kind of am too. I'm used to being on my own with the shows that J has to do but this one has been a bit harder.

I've also had a bit of a health scare the past month. Starting after Springville Folk Fest, I started having issues with shortness of breath and dizziness. It still hasn't been resolved so I am still going through all sorts of tests and x-rays and the like to figure it out. What is funny about it all is the fact that my O2 saturation levels are between 97-99%, yet I am having a hard time breathing. After a couple of x-rays, there is no damage to my rib cage and no lung damage that they can see. Bronchial tubes are clear, as well as no blood clots. So strange. Next week we start with an echocardiogram and some stress tests to see if there is anything with the heart, then another full blood work-up. I'm getting sick and tired of being poked and prodded and having to go to doctor's offices where most of the time is spent waiting. I swear I am going to scream if I am kept waiting in a room for a half hour again.  But I really want to figure it all out. We've changed the diet up as well to increase iron and B12 complex in case of anemia. The shortness of breath has lightened (now it's every 5-10 breaths instead of every one), but it is still there. I exercise like normal and didn't notice anything worse than the fact that I am a little out of shape.

But things continue to move forward. Costumes need to be made (I've got a shoot later this month), Sadie and Jimmy are cute and annoying as ever, jewelry business start-up, and I am still teaching---hoping to remedy that soon enough.

Sadie decided that she wasn't going to bed one night and snuggled down into one of my shoe boxes.

The Masters of Dueling at the Ren Faire at Thanksgiving Point. J wasn't able to do any of the shows there because of his other show, but they still had time to get some goofy pictures taken.

Jimmy being helpful as always. He loves it when I pull out fabric. He goes straight for where I'm working and plops down.

This was the surprise waiting for me when I got home one day. Because the show is set in the 1940s, J had to lose the hair and beard. Yeah.....I can't wait until they come back.

Springville Folk Fest went this year rather stressfully. We had about a 12 hour rehearsal plus same-day show due to the 24th of July being that Monday and the show starting on Tuesday. These costumes look great on stage, and that is all that mattered (they don't look that great close up).

One picture from Comic Con. My mum came up for a couple of hours and went around with me. Her favorite character is still R2D2 and when she heard that these are all fan made, she is warming up to my idea of making one myself. I'm excited. Plus, my dad is interested as well. Something for him to do.

Summer

Summer has progressed on and I really haven't done much.

Which is F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C!! I deal with my anxiety and depression throughout the year while I teach and this year was tough; so summer is the one time that I can somewhat start to feel more like myself. I even crack a smile or two when I can manage it. With the new "principal" that didn't pretty much screwed me over with my end-of-year evaluation (even though she never stepped foot in my classroom for more than 5 minutes) to failing to secure another job and worrying about actually surviving my Master's program. Well, I'm on my last 2 classes of my Master's (which are the hardest two that I've had). I'll be finished by July 31st. I'm hoping that with that credential under my belt I will have an easier time securing another job that I actually look forward to going to on a daily basis.

But for now, I am enjoying my summer by doing very little. I think I've left the house only a couple of times, and those have been for charity events. The rest of the time I've just been reading, sewing, or being a "gamer" (or at least as close to one as I can get with my measly skills). But it has been fun.

Here's a little view:

I really haven't had the drive to sew for myself since I've gain so much weight lately that I don't like to see things on me or my size. But I wanted to get this Jedi costume out of my brain and into fabric. I've had these fabrics in my collection for years and finally decided on what I wanted to do with them.

I despise baseball, but we had an event at the Orem Owlz for the Utah Special Olympics and so we went. I didn't have to sit through the entire game considering we were up on the concourse taking pictures with the patrons.

We had another charity event for the Princess Millie Foundation. Each year they select two kids (a Prince and Princess) who are going through cancer treatments and give them the "royal treatment". There is a 5K and fun run that benefits the cancer research that these two kids are going through. This year's event fell on the 3rd anniversary of Millie's death and so it had special meaning for Millie's family. The medal that the boys are wearing was one of the last drawings that Millie did, so it has special meaning. We didn't run the race but the dad insisted we take the medals for all that we do.

Currently, the only costume that fits me is the corset Padme since it is a little bit adjustable but people here in Utah have an adverse reaction to it because it is "immodest". Yeah, I find that a little weird, but whatever.

Quick story behind this photo: the little girl was a little scared of all the characters in helmets and the size of the Wookiee and the dad walked her forward and I could see that she was very nervous. The dad was trying to calm her down enough to try and take a photo with us but she wasn't having any of it. So I got down on the floor and started talking with her and told her that there was another girl in the costume: the TIE pilot (the one in black by the Wookiee). Her eyes lit up and she smiled. I then asked if I could have her picture and she hugged me and sat down right next to me. When we were done she hugged me again and waved to everyone else.

Again, I hate pictures of me lately but this is kind of cool.

Jakob loves things like this and this boy was so curious about his helmet. He spent a good 10 minutes looking at the helmet and all the other buttons and toggles on Jakob's costume.

The weekend

Another convention has come and gone. And I am exhausted. Sunday I slept for about 11-12 hours and Monday when I arrived home from work around 6 I fell asleep until Midnight, then shuffled downstairs and didn't wake up until my alarm this morning. I guess all the stress from the convention and my job is finally catching up to me.

Anyway, back to the weekend.

J took lead on a lot of this--again--because I can't get work off in order to make it all 3 days. Wednesday set-up didn't go exactly as planned, but they ended up figuring out something to make it work. Thursday I made it up there in the evening and they seemed to be doing okay. We had some people working the booth that their costumes really weren't up to snuff (meaning they weren't members of Rogue Base but they were telling people they were) and that drive me bonkers. J said he took care of it and when I saw these people again on Saturday, it was a little better.

This convention is a bit smaller than the one in September, but it seemed just as packed. I wasn't able to make it away to any of the panels (and Twisted Toonz was at a time I could actually make it) because we didn't have enough people to cover the booth, but Z went and recorded bits and pieces for me. Loved it.

The hardest part of the weekend for me was to drive an hour up after teaching, then realize that I forgot my food and have to buy something there; and believe me, finding something safe for me to eat was hard! And I failed. I'm still dealing with the consequences, but I'm hoping in the next couple days my system will recover and I can move forward again.

I'm just happy this weekend is over and we don't have to deal with another one until September.

On a more personal front, I'm 4 classes away from finishing my Masters. YAY!!! I have liked the format of doing it completely online. I feel like I can take my time with things that don't make sense to me and not feel like a fool in front of everyone else. I can also speed through things I understand without having to wait for anyone else. Maybe in a year or 2 when I've recovered a bit, I may start on a doctorate. We'll see. My mom wants me to since it'll open up other opportunities for me outside of public education, but I'm not sure if I can just yet. This master's has kind of killed me and I need a break.

My vehicle has decided that I needed new tires, and it did it in spectacular fashion. For the past couple weeks, my tire monitoring system has been giving me a "tire fault" warning. I kind of ignored it because a visual look at the tires, I didn't see anything wrong. Apparently 3 out of the 4 tires had grown extremely thin. 1 wasn't holding pressure for long anymore, 2 were on the verge of shredding. And then over a bump I go and gone goes one tire, then the other, then the third. So $700, an hour, and 4 new tires later, lets just say that I'm happy to pay attention to my tire monitoring system now. My mechanic was surprised I didn't roll or cause any bigger damage; although we now need to take a look at the transmission and the coolant system. Ugh, this is not what I had planned for the money.

Other than that, life moves on. It's really rainy here which brightens my mood. I love the rain. This morning when I arrived at work, I arrived just a bit earlier than normal and sat in my car, listening to the rain. Nice way to start the day. I just need the snow to stay up in the mountains and not make it's way down here to the valley.

Most of the people we had at the booth. This was Saturday right before we finished.
We're all getting a little goofy.

The four who were there most if not all of the three days and the majority of the time at the booth.

Yes, the flip side. This was about 6:30 on Saturday. 

March

So, seems I've been ignoring things lately. Well, not really; I've just had other things on my mind.

For a good portion of February I was sick. And I mean "doctor-wants-me-in-hospital-but-I'm-stubborn-that-way" kind of sick. Mix of Influenza A/B, Bronchitis, double ear infection, sinus infection, mild pneumonia, and asthmatic constriction of the bronchial tubes. All. At. Once. Yep. Almost 2-3 weeks of being completely sick. And I blame my work environment. Between the extreme stress and the kids who have been coming to school hacking everywhere (and not using basic techniques to keep it from spreading) it hasn't been the greatest of months. I'm not going to bore you with all the details of how my work environment has slowly been killing me or how the administration has decided that I am a horrible person (yep, not just teacher but person in general).

Anyway, I digress.

J did have a show with his Masters of Dueling buddies the day before Valentines Day. I ended up going, but wasn't able to enjoy most of the ball because I felt horrible. I ended up spending mos of my time back in the greenroom laying on the couch. But the show went well. The boys were able to use microphones this time around and they enjoyed not having to spend their projection voice to fill a small gym-sized area.

Other than that, things have been pretty unremarkable.

But Jimmy says "Hello Outside!"

Welcome to 2016

Wow. 2016 already. I still think of the 90s when someone says "a decade ago". Time sure flies.

We rung in the new year with friends again (although we forgot to snag a picture at Midnight with everyone). We did ring it in with a reading of the first part of the Star Wars Shakespeare The Jedi Doth Returnth

Seems to be the traditional thing to do right? Well, when the majority of people you know are theatre/film people, they love doing group readings and dramatic stuff, so we all grin and bear along. There is the second half to do during J's birthday celebration in June, so it isn't over yet. And the majority of people there that night will be the same people from the New Year's Eve celebration (and hopefully we don't get rained out again like we did this year).

As far as 2016 is concerned, things are moving along. I will finish my Master's in July/August and I may start right into a Doctorate program (that is yet to be seen). We are hoping to pay down a few more debts (mostly J's) to be able to qualify for a larger home loan. Its not like we don't like where we are, but we both feel like we are ready for something that is a bit more spacious and in a better neighborhood. We had a good run in this place for the past 6-7 years, but we feel like it's time for us to try for something bigger and better.  There isn't anything currently on the market in the area that we are looking for that we both have said "yes, this is it" but we're not exactly in a hurry to move. We're not underwater with this mortgage, we aren't going to be kicked out of our home because of missing payments, but it is always good to be looking for something better when you have the resources to do so. I also may be getting a better job in August, so that is playing a little bit with our timing as well (for more on my teaching thoughts, you can head to my teaching blog--just message for the address if you don't have it).

Here's to 2016 being a better year than 2015.