We went to Target for simple, everyday human being items and got totally caught up in the necessity for some new pumpkin lights, purple and orange Halloween lights, spiderweb dishes…Wait!  What did we come for again?  Holidays are clever in that they keep happening. Around the corner is another one.  And each one has its assortment of goods and foods and stuffs. 

But really, how can you not indulge in the magic and fantasies that transforms an ordinary, routine-filled day into a day of flying witches, glowing pumpkins, and never-ending streams of candy? A day where it’s encouraged to don a mask, to masquerade your identity with a garish glimpse into your alter ego. A day where cartoon characters and demons and pregnant nuns unexpectedly mingle and socialize. A day where you let your children knock on stranger’s doors and ask for candy. A day that is an excuse to do something wild and crazy, as if a get out of jail free card for you to be who you really want to be, or at lease as absurd as you want to be. How do you explain Halloween to an alien? Kinda like that!

Well I have been out of commission for the last week and I never thought I’d disdain lounging around as much as I do now.  Being stuck (and dizzy and nauseous) indoors is no fun.  Even in the company of Dances With Wolves, Happy Feet and Mr. Mom.  (As you can see by the spitting resemblance, I think watching Mr. Mom as a child has had an extremely lasting effect).

Alas, I finally had my wisdom teeth removed.  I still have a knot in my jaw, but I’m on my last day of antibiotics, and my oral surgeon said things look good!  I feel a million times better.  I’m not sure what was worse: the oh-my-gosh it’s going to pop swollen cheek, not being able to open my mouth more than a few centimeters, or the extreme nausea the pain killer stirred up (I couldn’t even look at the Netflix menu and definitely couldn’t watch any hand-held camera sitcoms), but I’m glad to say I’ll never have to experience that again.  And I really did feel like David after Dentist: I asked many times in horror, is this feeling forever now??  Thankfully not.  First day of coffee.  First day of normal cereal and fruit.  First day of Good Old ME!  OK.  So on to other horizons, I have a lot of classes that start next week.  So here’s the run down…

Bosatsu Factory Art Studio in Upland, I have three art classes that start Monday!  Ages 4-6, 3-4 p.m.; Ages 7-9, 4-5 p.m.; Ages 10-12, 5-6 p.m.

Huntington Beach Art Center in HB, I have my Drawing for Little Tots that starts Wednesday, September 15, three time slots, Ages 4-6, PLUS I have a Water-Mixable Oil Painting class for teens/adults that starts that same day 6:30-8 p.m.  Also at the HBAC starting Saturday, September 25 I am taking over another teacher’s Mommy and Me Art Class for the Fall and there are two time slots to choose from.

In the meantime, I am ordering supplies, and getting ready for the classes.  I’m also still house hunting, and now that G-puffy is back to just G-puppy, I am beginning to make the rounds.  Gotta say, it’s hard when your loving, sweet boyfriend offers a rent-free place to live, cooks and cleans, even does my laundry! (I’m seriously spoiled here) but it’s my calling to get my own place/workspace and reunite with my 15-year-old feline companion/child Lily who has been cooling her paws at Grandma’s.  Boyfriend is allergic, what can you do?  Did I say, this was my first day of coffee?

The disaster that is moving:

Well I never thought I could get that place empty, and I had to enlist a LOT of help because a 1444 square foot house is not easy.  In 100 degree weather.  Without a fun, new place to bring things.  (For the time being, I’m staying at the BF’s)  But really, everything went swimmingly and it did seem like the stars had been aligning for little old me.  I just need to keep positive and figure out how to be grounded in an utterly ungrounded situation.  That is where kid’s classes come in.  Kids, with all their mini melodramas and the funny things that they say, and their undeniable creativity, seem to bring a lightness and a quirkiness to the situation, especially when you only have them on loan for a few hours, and get to return to a quiet place afterwards.

These are some glimpses of the “Exquisite Corpse” project with the Huntington Beach Art Center’s Art Camp kids, which turned out amazingly awesome and I just had to take pictures.  I sure can’t wait til the day I can actually make art again!  Only the universe knows that answer.

Today, me and the BF are going to hit the OC Fair to see our friend’s band play, Hell and Half of Georgia, and also mosey on over to the Children’s Art Exhibition section where many of my students will have work on display from my “Drawing for Little Tots” drawing class.  Can’t wait to see and take pictures!!

I have been so busy with packing and moving and all that goes along with that stuff, that I thought I should pop in and announce a show I will be in in the Czech Republic!  I just sent a big box of eight smallish paintings overseas for a show titled “Inland Empires” at Galerie Califia which is organized by Barbara Benish (who incidentally showed at the Huntington Beach Art Center when I worked the front desk).  My former UC Riverside professor Jill Giegerich will be the Artist-in-Residence there for the summer.

Besides that, I’ve been packing and packing, when I’m not teaching at Art Camp, which is the one thing keeping me sane right now!  Kids are funny!  And so is my cat…

For a good week, this paper was a HUGE hit.  Constant entertainment.  Seriously the best cat toys are the unexpected ones.

Gonna miss this place.

Packing is so hard.  And it’s so hard because I don’t know when I’m going to be able to open these boxes again…some are sadly going to storage until we can find the right place.

And students, and everyone else in SoCal or the Riverside area, there are low-income programs to assist you.  I have been applying for all these programs recently (and used to be on them in Long Beach) as being an artist and a student sometimes just doesn’t translate to economically sustainable.  I was always a little perturbed that because I don’t have dependents, I don’t qualify for health care and other assistance as easily as people with children, but there are still things out there to help you childless citizens.  I have rounded them all up for you, one easy stop:

California Lifeline offers low-income assistance telephones.  I had to cancel my telephone service with Charter because they couldn’t get an application out to me, and kept giving me the corporate run-around, so I went with AT&T.

Riverside Public Utilities assists qualified low-income residential electric and water customers with their utility bills and deposits with their SHARE program.

Southern California Gas Company has the CARE program which offers income-qualified customers a discount of 20% or more off their monthly gas bill. Plus they have a one-time assistance of $100 starting in February 2010.

Also, I just found out that Bank of America, who has been steadily beefing up my Cash Advance balance every month with their sneaky 19.99% APR, is changing their policy the end of February, where now any amount you pay over your minimum balance will go directly to paying down the Cash Advance balance.  Before, it only payed your Purchases balance, which for me has a much more respectable APR.  So come March, pay those suckers down and get out of debt for reals!

No matter where you live, seek out assistance as it is there for income-qualified residents.  And if you’re an artist or a student, surviving on student loans and or credit cards, that is YOU!