Sunday, October 31, 2010

Where the Heck Have I Been?!

Okay, so I know I haven't written on here in forever.  I had a couple really bad migraine battles, which span several days each and then kind of ruin the next few days, and it just snowballs, and I totally lose momentum with the stuff I like to do, like write on my blogs, do art, make zines, etc.

That's one of the hardest things about living with migraine disease.  I lose momentum. I actually like structure to my days, but migraines just knock everything all wonky.  But in September I volunteered to host a chunky book for an art group I'm in, with a Halloween/Day of the Dead theme, and I'm really happy right now because I just finished binding them all and they look fabulous.  I'll try to get some pics on here soon of those.  I know, today is Halloween!  It would be nice if I could them up today, but  I am on narcs right now for a migraine, and sitting or lying still is the best thing for it, so I may be stuck just writing today without any visual aids. 

I'm not getting any exercise outside, but I have been doing the Wii Fit games, and it's really fun.  I find myself running for 30 minutes without realizing how much time has passed.  So I've just ordered another Wii game, the Dance Dance Revolution game and mat.  I have seen kids playing it at arcades and at the Fair, and thought it looked like a lot of fun to do, but not in public.  Hey, I'm not a teenager anymore, I'd rather climb the learning curve in the privacy of my own living room, with only my toddler laughing at me! 

So one thing I've done to climb out of the pit of migraines is propose two community ed classes.  I love being Mommy to Lily, but I am really missing doing some other kind of work.  Unfortunately the job of parenting is not a confidence booster.  And I need to feel like I have skills again, and share them with people. 

The two classes I'm proposing are "Artist Trading Cards: Make a Little Piece of Art" and "DIY Publishing: Make Your Own Zine."  (I love subtitles.)  I taught the ATC class four years ago and the class went really well, although I totally brought too many supplies to the class and kind of overwhelmed myself.  I plan to cut back this time.  It's a one-evening class, so I can only do so much.  The zine class will be longer, 3 sessions, and is something I've been thinking about doing for at least a year.  I'm really looking forward to it, and the idea of creating more zinesters makes me very happy.  I've even dug out my zine collections from 15-20 years ago when I did my first zine, called Every Girl's Dream.  I'm thinking about reprinting it.  There's one thing I'd have to rewrite, but I think everything else would still be fun.  I have a lot of mass transit stories from back when I had no car, and I think those are timelessly entertaining.  One of my favorite current zines is called Constant Rider, all true stories about using mass transit.  I don't use mass transit much right now, but I still love stories about it.  You meet such a fabulous variety of people there!

So my classes will be next Feb.and March, if enough people sign up. (they'll be in the Bloomington Community Ed class catalog for Winnter 2011, and I'll post links here when the catalog comes out , in case any of you reading this are interested and near Bloomington, MN.)  I thought about proposing these classes for Minneapolis, since I live in Minneapolis, but I've worked with Bloomington before and they were really nice.  And when I tried proposing the ATC class four years ago for Minneapolis, I had a huge hassle.  I remember when I finally got a call back at the last minute from someone I'd been trying to reach for weeks, he practically begged me to teach the class, but I was so disgusted with the run-around I'd gotten, I just said forget it.  I don't like the way their system is set up, where you have to apply to each class location separately, and the coordinator of that school's program might call you.  Stupid.  Why can't they have a central coordinator like Bloomington and put me in the location they think best?  Grrr.

I have enough material now to put together another issue of Bookstore Thief, and probably two issues of the migraine zine.  My material has been languishing, but now I have a deadline of sorts, as I want to have them done by the time I teach the zine class.  I'd like the students to see that you can do a zine on anything that you're interested in, and you even do more than one! I'm also thinking that making some new zines will spark ideas for sharing in class.  I mean, it's been 3 years since I put out the first Bookstore Thief, so I'm sure I'm a little rusty.  I just wish I had a big white table to spread out on and leave stuff as I worked on it.  No such luck!  Well, no, actually I do have a big white table.  In fact, I have two that I got last year for the two art festivals I did with my buddy Sue.  But is there anywhere to put one where it won't be disturbed for several months? Hmm.  I would have to move some functional furniture out of the way, but really it's chairs that only get used when we infrequently have a lot of people over.  They look nice, but who cares about that?

2 comments:

Parabolic Muse said...

Oh, this is so good! Getting tables to work on! Zines!!! Classes!!!!!!

I wish I could be there. I'd take both those classes and maybe even more than once.

Sharon Parker said...

I checked my list of blogs I follow and suddenly there you are like, a gazilion times! Way to go. Now I have some catching up on reading to do.

As for where to put the tables where you can leave them up, is it possible to carve out some space in the basement that would work for you? Maybe if it's not so inviting, it won't work right now, but have you ever considered making a finished room down there for an art room? That's our plan, anyway, so, just thought I'd mention it.