Game Over

So, The gathering was a lot of fun and very successful. I actually picked up some fabric which should help me a bit with my ancient postcard swap from the african fabric lady and a few packs of scraps from Fabrics to Dye for. I brought my postcards along and there was a LOT of interest in them. People just went mad about them (these were mostly NOT the ones I had made, but the ones that were sent to me) we sold a lot of postcard sized timtex and some fabric packs to make them and tons and tons of fibers. It was a lot of fun and I was so exhausted when I got home and finished dinner (around 7pm) that I went STRAIGHT to bed. And...here I am. WIDE awake.

Unbelievably, when I woke up a few minutes ago, I started thinking about work. This is something I haven't done for a long time. When I worked full time on dayshift, work and/or the people I worked with, were never very far from my mind. It was almost second nature to work them into nearly every single conversation and have it be the most natural thing in the world to me. Now that I work just a few days a week, it has come to be almost a foreign thing to me...I start to muse upon it on Fridays just before I have to go back to work again, but mostly NOT the rest of the week. I'm pretty sure that this is a good thing. I hate work! Not that I hate my job, I actually am very GRATEFUL to have a job that gives me the flexibility that I do and pays enough for me to be able to do it in fewer days than normal. It's just that doing these quilt shows has always been something which gets me to thinking about how I could possibly do LESS nursing work, and much MORE art work. Either selling supplies or making it. I am not silly enough to believe that I will get to the point that I could support myself by creating artwork in anything but the remotest future, but I would love to just immerse myself in that community and leave the nursing community so far behind. I am always so intrigued by the fact that so many fiber artists that I meet are or were nurses. I only ever meet them online, really, because I definitely don't work with or around any.

NO ONE that I work with has the slightest clue about the type of work that I do. They assume I make quilts, and trying to explain it to anyone is invariably an exercise is watching eyes glaze right over. I bring in the postcards or blocks that I am working on (not the self portrait, though, because...ICK?) and I see flashes of inspiration at times, but it never fires into anything. I happen to work with a particularly UNcrafty crowd. Many of them don't even appear to have hobbies when they leave work and I have to wonder what it is that they do? Not the ones that have small children, I KNOW what they are doing! One of my closest friends at work has children that are older and she spends a lot of her time at home. Not cleaning, although her house isn't a total disaster, and usually not visiting with other people. She described to me being at home alone (the kids had gone to stay with their father) sitting at her kitchen table and smoking cigarettes the whole night long. Not reading, not watching tv, not listening to music, not talking on the phone. Just sitting! I was totally incredulous at this, and tended to want to put her under the scope as it were. Probably the same thing others want to do with me about my weirdities with crafts/art, I suppose. I have always been someone who needs to be occupied with something ANYTHING, just as long as I'm not bored. Luckily, when I am home, I am seldom bored. I surround myself with THINGS; the computer, my animals, books, magazines, crafts, etc. Anyway, I don't think I had a point with all of this, just random musing. I'm thinking I ought to at least TRY to get back to sleep, anyway. Thanks for listening, and it was nice seeing some of you in New Hampshire!