Behind the Pixels

Welcome to my first writing lapse of blogging.  I halfheartedly promised myself I wouldn’t allow it to happen, but I’m happy that it did somehow come about early. 

A legitimate excuse is in order, however: my job, up until this week, has worn me quite thin.  Mentally and creatively.  Between maintaining my own clients and prospects, plus fulfilling contract duties with a local company, I felt like I had been working 4 jobs at once.  Add to that the fact that a handful of them declined work that I busted my tail to make look FANTASTIC, only to prefer more remedial-looking layouts, many which were copycats of someone else’s work- my biggest pet peeve as a designer.  I even had one client who argued over the look of regular type in Verdana font- to a point where he decided to drop the project altogether.  Multiply that by about 10, and I fully understood the underlying meaning of “Over a billion served”:  put out so much crap to the point where you lose the ability to do good quality work.

It got so bad that for the past two weeks I spent a lot of time sandboxing designs, looking up tutorials and downloading all kinds of Photoshop goodies, just to get myself back into a creative, web 2.0 state of mind again.  I’m not there yet, but I’m coming quite close.

 Aside from that madness, life is still great.  In spite of the crazy workload, I am nowhere near wanting to walk away from designing.  On top of that, the company is working on an enormous boost:  The bossman came into the company with whom I was working for through contract, and snagged two of their employees, one being the marketing manager I answered to.  Add to it that we might (that’s a big MIGHT) be getting an office building in downtown Greenville- just in time for gas prices to spike well past the 3-buck mark- not cool when you have to drive an hour round trip to Anderson. 

Sienna is a munchkin face no more.  3 months old, 13 pounds, nothing but a baby genius in the making.  She can sit and shake on command; I can leave her in my second bedroom with training pads, and as long as I don’t leave my shoes in there, nothing gets destroyed.  She’s my beautiful, lucky baby.  The geek in me set up a Dogster page for her.

 And as of this day, it’s been a little bit over a year since my two lows of 2007: my mom’s stroke, and that bastard midget screwing me over at the unemployment office.  Thankfully mom is still doing fantastic.  Her eyesight is still a little bit off, but she is maintaining.  Her job doesn’t make matters better, but she is working on a game plan to get the hell out of there and give them a fat “fuck you” come the end of the year.  As far that other jackass, well, tragically he’s still in business.  I’m still considering sending him that “Congratulations” balloon when he has to close his doors.  I who hasn’t ever held that much of a grudge in her life.

 But to bring it full circle, April 2nd marked my 1-year anniversary doing Web Design as as job rather than freelance or a mere hobby.  And I still enjoy the ride down to the Electric City almost daily.  Hopefully I won’t get worn thin again to a point where I can’t update.

I’ve been given another hopeful promise that this year is going to be a great one.  Friday evening, I became the ”mommy” of a six-week old puppy who I’ve decided to name Sienna.  She is the runt of her little, and even still she’s pretty small for her age, but she’s been nothing but smiles and laugh and baby talk for me.

When I got her, I was a little worried.   For starters, even though she is the runt of her litter, she is still very tiny in size.  (I took her to the vet, who weighed her in at 1.2 pounds).  The lady who’s been taking care of her mom and the rest of the litter mentioned that she hadn’t really been showing signs of improvement, and that while she could get her to drink water, she was having a hard time getting her to eat food.  I get her home, and I had the opposite problem:  She eats like a pig, yet she showed no interest in water or even milk.  She was definitely dehydrated, so I couldn’t tell you what the woman was talking about.  I’ve been taking canned food I got from the vet yesterday and mixing it in with warm water and milk supplement, making what looks like oatmeal.  Regardless, she eats it up until she looks like she’s about to pop.  She’s using the bathroom like she should, and nothing seems problematic.

She also has a mild respiratory infection.  Her nose has been running since I got her, but my vet also gave me some antibiotics to give her to help clear it up.  Hopefully that will show signs of improvement within the 7 days of medicine that I have in my posession.

Aside from those two things, she is a serious mess.  She’s getting to a point where she can get out of the basket I set up for her to sleep in.  She hasn’t made any puddles or patties in the house; I’m quick to catch her and take her outside, and she is quick to use the bathroom as soon as she’s on the ground.  In her most playful moods, she’s good to growl and bark and bite like any puppy, but she can be just as sweet.  And even though she is still pretty young, she’s showing fantastic signs of being a little socialite.  So far she has not met a stranger, human or canine.

I can’t wait to watch her grow.  Of course, I’m already prepping for the terrible toddler phase.  My shoes are being kept farrrr away!

 Oh, and a friend introduced me to Dogster.  You know that I had to set her up her own page.  She may even be blogging soon!

In about an hour and a half, we will be 8 days away from scratching the first month off the calendar of 2008.  So far, I can say that I’ve had a lot to be happy about.  A new house (even though I’m still renting), a new dog next month, a new leash on my finances… hell, I even have a computer in the house and a functioning DVD player for the moment!  And of course, I’ve dropped 5 pounds since the holidays.

 Am I being happy too soon?

 I guess it’s not safe to compare years, but considering the rollercoaster ride of major ups and downs of 2007, you’d think that I should not be counting my chickens just yet.  However, I certainly have rid myself of the hard knocks I suffered from last year.
My mom’s doing fantastic- aside from the minor vision problems, you would have never known she had a stroke.  Her surgery was flawless, and she doesn’t have to take blood thinners anymore.  Of course, she did fuss that of all the odds to be favorable for, it had to be a rare heart defect instead of the lottery!  (CROSS REFERENCE: My MySpace Blog, where I spoke about mom’s stroke last year)

Jobwise, I am my bossman’s right hand man.  It’s been an extremely long time since I’ve been able to say that I work for employers that I trust and can rely on, and I can say that confidently now.  Even though I still love what I do, working for great people makes it much easier to continue doing so.  You would have thought that after I got royally screwed by my previous shithead employer, my trust factor would have been quite low.  Speaking of that evil imp, I’m just waiting to see that his store has closed down… I’m still sending a huge balloon with “CONGRATULATIONS” across it.

And of course, moving rid me of my disruptive, loud, bumming, theiving, alcoholic/crackhead neighbors, who I dubbed the “LesboNecks”.  I figured that epithet explains it all, even if I don’t get my camera/power drill/small space heater/wallet back.  I feel sorry for the next in line to get my duplex; but I certainly pray that they are assholes.

And then of course, O-Cha is returning to downtown.  Let’s give it up for bubble tea, son!

 So considering those factors have been eliminated, the outlook on the year is good.  I’m aware that I can always take on NEW  problems, but I’m trying to stay positive. 

 And so far, the worst case scenario is the big 3-0 to finish off the year.  La vida es buena.