Isn’t my boyfriend the most beautiful man ever?  ^_^

Anyway, to my life: something I’ve been noticing lately is that the general arts community in Sudbury has been pretty much dead for the past couple of years. Sure, there are artists, and yes, they show off their stuff, but it feels like a lot of the time these “artists” are either rich kids with nice cameras and no artistic talent whatsoever or old ladies making artisan crafts (so quilts and stuff). Which is nice, but very, very boring. However, it seems that in the past year the artists in Sudbury have really been coming together in order to save the artistic community here–the other day in fact, I went to visit my friend Chelsea at her summer job (an arts-related one) and discovered “Le Crac.” For those who don’t live here and/or don’t know, Le Crac is this beautiful little oasis next to the YMCA in downtown Sudbury that a beautiful woman named Dineen made. It used to be just a fenced off alleyway where the inhabitants of 122 Durham could smoke, but after three years of tenacity and green-thumbs, Dineen has turned it into a leafy paradise for those who want to create (or at least that’s where she’s hoping to take it). And this concept of an artist’s oasis (where she’s hoping to eventually hold shows and such) is a wonderful idea, I think. Mainly because it’s something made by an artist for artists, and most of what Sudbury’s had recently has all been things that are put on for the rich who want to pretend they appreciate art, but don’t really care either way.

In any case, I’d just like to say that my discovery of Le Crac and the awesome people who live in that building (all also artists themselves) has really restored my faith in the fact that Sudbury may actually have a vibrant, talented arts community once again.

Thanks, Dineen.

To be fair, though, I haven’t done much of anything (yet again) save working lately, and I keep finding that even now, at work lately I haven’t done anything save, well, working. Which sucks. Does anyone out there know how horrible it is to have to work nine hours straight without anything but pee breaks–no lunches or fifteen-minute breaks. And even then, when you want a pee break, you have to wait until everyone’s left? And, of course, it’s so busy with you just there by yourself that NOBODY EVER LEAVES BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE HAS COME IN. My job stresses the shit out of me. And I’d get a new one, but there are no jobs in town at all. Sucks.

Anyway, I’ve really been working hard at improving my photographs–it’s going somewhat well. The only issue is that every time I improve, I want to buy more gear. Right now I’m drooling over a Nikon D700–which is a beautiful camera, really, but definitely not something I’ll be able to afford until I’m out of school three years from now… which sucks even more…

I don’t really have much else to say… life’s just been work lately, and I won’t bore anyone with all of those horrible, horrible details.

After reaching my second goal weight, I haven’t lost (or gained) anything. I’m going nowhere in that sense, but I’m hoping to renew my weight loss efforts and hopefully lose some more. I’m going to try starting now, but I’m expecting my 43 hours that I have to work next week to get in the way of any real progress for the simple reason that I’ll only have two days off and they won’t be a weekend at all. Oh well. I’ll try anyway.

Photography-wise I’m making a fair amount of progress, actually. I haven’t been learning very much from the course that I don’t already know, but it’s nice to have assignments that challenge me at least a little bit. I’m enjoying the assignments, at least. One thing I’m not enjoying as much, though, is the fact that the teacher seems to be ignoring me. I think it’s because she knows I already know most of what she’s teaching us, but even when we’re showcasing our photographs, she just looks at mine, says, “That’s the assignment,” and moves on. For others, she points out things she likes and doesn’t like, but for mine this week she just skipped over them. It sucked. We’ll see what she does this week though. However, I kind of have the feeling that other than pointing out that I did light painting and explaining to my classmates (once again) how to do it, she’ll probably skip right over me again. Shitty.

School-wise, I’m going to be paying my tuition the Monday after next. . I hate spending large amounts of money all at once when it’s something that I don’t get to keep for myself. Ugh.

Hopefully I’ll post again soon with some updates. Maybe not. I don’t know–I don’t foresee anything interesting happening in my life in the next three or four weeks aside from me overworking and being undervalued (and underpaid), anyway.

I’m extremely nervous, however, because someone’s going to be stabbing ink into my skin over and over and over again. That’s terrifying. Not necessarily because of the pain but because I’m a really big baby and build things up in my head. The day before I get this done, I’m going to be telling myself that everything that could possibly go wrong will and that I’ll have a terrible experience. I’ve done the same thing with the multiple piercings I’ve had–even though every single one of them has been fine. I’m ridiculous, but I’m still nervous.

But there’s not much I can do about the nerves, I suppose.

In any case, here’s what I’m getting tattooed onto myself (on my right shoulder):

Exciting, isn’t it? That, my dear friends, is a camera aperture. I thought it apropos since the chances are I’m going to be deeply in love with photography for the rest of my natural life. Not to mention, I actually find the symbol for a camera aperture generally quite beautiful–especially in black and white (at the moment, I have a black tattoos-only rule for myself). Gorgeous, no? I’m excited about it.

I’m really sorry for not updating in about ten days, but I’ve been working like crazy lately. In all reality, it’s only been like a real full-time job (33 hours last week, 36 this week), but when you’re working until midnight all of the time, working five shifts is definitely draining. Hopefully I can organize my schedule with my bosses so that Reed and I get more days off together, too. That would be really, really nice. ^_^

Anyway, last week I signed up for a photography course being offered by Cambrian (my soon-to-be college!). It starts on the 28th (so, the same day that I get my tattoo), and I’m super excited for it. Because, while I know enough to get by and take nice photographs, I’d really love to learn more on the technical side of things, and a teacher will make that so much easier for me to do. So yes–photography course starting soon in my life.

That’s about it, unfortunately. I haven’t done very much at all lately due to the fact that I’ve been working so damn much. Anyway, talk to you all later! (I have to go to work in an hour and a half).

Anyway, weight loss aside, I’m also feeling really frustrated with Reed and my jobs lately. I was so excited when I realized that Reed got a job at a convenience store because it meant that we would get to spend more time together since we’re both working convenience store jobs. Unfortunately, for some reason, our bosses are conspiring against us to make it so that we only ever get to see each other one day a week. And we live together.

If I work from four to midnight, Reed works from eight to four. I only ever work from four to midnight, but it seems Reed’s boss has other plans for him–plans that make it impossible for us to even get a day together. We only have Saturday together this week, Saturday, and Friday morning. Like, wtf? One evening a week just isn’t going to cut it, I’m sorry. I need at least two. And given that I usually have three days off a week, it doesn’t make sense at all that we only get one day together. I hate it.

So, I think I’m going to talk to my boss today when I see her at work and ask her if it’s somehow possible for her to make the schedule so that I have the same set of hours for the summer. Even if she can’t accommodate me next week or the week after or something, having the knowledge that I’ll have a regular schedule (preferably with 30+ hours a week and three days off in a row) will be good enough for me.

I mean, one of my coworkers is leaving after he finds an apprenticeship, and they’ll be hiring a new person, and my other coworker is going to be working more dayshifts than anything. So shouldn’t I be able to have my choice of shifts? I don’t even care which days my shifts fall on, as long as I can work four days straight and have three days off. Because then that way Reed can schedule his shifts so that we can at least get a couple of days together. Doing together things. I just want some evenings with my boyfriend, you know? And when we’re working opposite shifts, that’s pretty much impossible.

In other news, I have a PAP test scheduled tomorrow morning (before both Reed and I have to work–he from one to six and I from four to midnight). While I know it’s not how Reed would like to spend his morning, I think I’m going to ask him to go with me anyway. It’s at ten-thirty, and it should only be half an hour or so, so I think he’ll be alright with that.

In any case, that’s about all I have to say for now, but expect a bit more frustration to come–a lot of crap’s been going on in my life lately, and it’s a lot of crap that I think I’m going to need an outlet for.

Now I have my belly-button ring, and I’m super looking forward to reaching checkpoint number two, which is a little while from now, but still, I’m excited.

Getting closer to reaching goals, yay!