Dream night of May 23rd

A very vivid dream last night. There were multiple stages.

I was flying a plane. A little biplane. I believe other people were with me, flying their own planes. I kept going up too quickly and stalled out my plane a number of times.

A some point my father went missing.

It was nighttime. While I was in my plane, or perhaps atop the roof of my parents house, I looked out and in the distance I saw destruction. There was a large... tripod like monster/robot. Very tall. Much taller then in my sketch. Very War of the Worlds. It was sweeping the land in the distance, burning everything.

I was with my youngest sister. We were going through a city, gathering supplies. The tripods were coming and we needed to hide. We came across a coworker of mine who has a leg brace and I was concerned he wouldn't be able to escape in time. As we were parting ways Lindsey fell down an embankment and hurt her leg and I knew we weren't going to be able to get back home in time.

I went and ran around, looking for somewhere safe to go. Somewhere below ground. Where I was searching was this open boardwalk space with lots of outdoor restaurants and hedges. I went down a narrow brick staircase and found a tiny room and... an astronomer? living there. He said we could stay the night (which is when I knew the tripods would reach us). We piled down into the tiny space.

Before night fell I realized the world would be burned to ashes when the tripods passed-- or at least our immediate area. We would need supplies if we were to last more then another day. I ran up above ground and began to gather greens. There were lots of pea pods and vines which I started tearing down can piling in my arms. In the back of my mind, I knew that this would not be enough to survive. I uprooted some plans with the thought of replanting them the next day in the ashes but... I knew that they would be unlikely to live.

I returned, arms full of greens. Eventually the tripods came, which we could tell by the immense heat and great shaking and sounds. They had passed and things quieted. A worry rose within me- how deep did the burn go? Had our stairwell been filled in? Were we trapped by ash? If so, we could probably dig ourselves out and would eventually die if we didn't.

The dream ended with me convincing everyone in the bunker to go back to sleep, that we would investigate in the morning. I didn't say it, but I thought that if we were blocked in by ash we probably would be better off dead, dying peacefully in our sleep, then struggling to survive in the remaining baren world.

Thoughts:

• Again I start a dream flying, but doing so poorly
• Again my father goes missing
• Again witnessing a destructive & horrible thing behind my parent's home
• Again in the company of my family
• The bleakness towards the end is... uncharacteristic of me. I'm a fan of post-apocalyptic stories, but mostly to embrase the spirit of survival and hope from starting anew. This had a feeling of The Road, which I found horribly depressing.
• I do not wish for more dreams like this. Would much rather get back to my classic dream themes- rescuing children, hiding, searching, etc. Stressful, but not nearly so... devastating.

Spring Delights

The weather has been lovely lately. A lot of tasty food as been consumed. Suko let me steal some of her home made lemon curd and so I had to make a batch of scones to make use of it. (picked up some Rhubarb Grapefruit jam at the ferry building for Adam. Turned out to be far more tasty then it had any right being)

Finished the quilt remains pillow from last post. In further efforts to clean the basement up, I've put more things on the wall. A hoop with some colored threads was easy enough and a sunny afternoon with a dremel enabled me to mount the random collection of pencils (mostly colored) that I've collected so far. Both projects use hatpins as the key component.

The pencils have a thin hole drilled through them and they hang on a hatpin. There's a loop of thread that is tied to the pin on one end and a button on the other. The pin goes through the button and the weight of the pencils (and the tilt of the hanging) keeps the button in place.

Have I mentioned how awesome our back deck is with the hammock up?

I continue to have low level anxiety in my life. Perhaps work related? Perhaps turning-30 related? Its source remains unclear but its effect is becoming a bit more noticeable. I feel... "frayed"? when my mood manges to swing up. This just means I'm bit wackier then usual I'd say-- as would others. This week's evenings so far have been very delightful, which made me very happy, which resulted on my actions being commented on by others. Oh well. There are worse things to be then a happy spaz.

Mary Robinette Kowal was at Borderlands and was about as awesome as expected. In fact, I'd give her an "Exceeds expectations" review. (This being the lady that wrote Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories) [and I will punch the next person who makes a 50 shades of gray reference. That horse is dead, ok?]) She kindly signed my copy of the 3rd book as well as the new copy of her 1st book I picked up. I love my Kindle, but it does sort of happer the lending of good things... So now I have a copy of the first book! And would love to lend it to anyone who'ld read it.

Tuesday was once again Dr. Sketchy's, with a theme of Morocco. I think the return to twice a month is good for me. This month's model was Aja, who we've had before and is a talented lady. She struck a number of poses with lifted arms or turned heads and did not budge an inch. A real pro!

Sadly I don't think I really made the most of the session-- my drawing mojo wasn't with me that night. As I commented to a fantastic fellow artist [Elle?]-- I've no problem with voluminous folds of fabric if they're done up in Wester fashion, I've figured out how to draw that. It's that I don't understand what's going on with the outfit and that's what's making it hard to draw. (Which I guess just means I need to perhaps practice a bit with the classic pile of fabric draped over a chair? Or perhaps a greater study of fashion) Anyway, something for me to think....

Scattered Focus

I keep starting things and then not quite finishing them. Or not doing that great of job if I get close enough to pretend to be done. I can't tell if it's the result of this general anxiety I've been feeling recently or the cause of it. Let's start with the positive and work my way down. Made some not-horrible bread recently and shared it at work. I let it raise too long and it sort of deflated a bit. I also didn't make as much as I had wished. Alas. Anyway- I called it Vdio Bread because it shares the color scheme of our recent product at work. The black is from the ever wonderful squid ink and the yellow from turmeric which was an interesting and new (to me) flavor. I also threw in a handful of other things but in the end the overall flavor was very mild. I wished both the color and the zing of the flavors was a bit stronger.

My sister gifted me this rad raptor particle board "skeleton" thing. I've never assembled one of them before (Adam comments he did a number of them in his youth) and it was a lot of fun. Hard not to be somewhat downed by following a pre-fab thing though... if only I had my scroll saw here! I'm hoping to put it in the back yard and entice my pea sproutlings to grow up/around it. Sadly my sproutlings have sprouted and passed their peek. Am really not in my gardening grove this year, despite my wishes.

The dino bones reminded me of my sister and spurred me on to finally make use of the scraps from her Christmas quilt. I came up one square short and made the most of it. I'm saddened that it took me all of an afternoon to do this piece work and that several days later it still sits in my basement, with no backing. We have company coming in two weekends so hopefully it'll be done by then to spruce up the basement, where they are staying. My first basement guests! (sister Lindsey doesn't count)

One of the reasons I'm having difficulty focusing is probably in part due the fantastic weather. It has been super nice lately (though today, Tuesday, the streak has been broken). This weekend I finally figured out how to mesh my desire to craft and my desire to enjoy the outdoors. Here you can see my diversions in the sun- the hammock, my camera tripod, and my sewing machine. All happily inhabiting our fantastic private back porch.

The tripod is because I've got a nagging urge to do some animation. Why? I don't know. I'm doing sewing projects, gardening projects, cooking projects... clearly what I need now is something else shinny to distract me. I'm not even good/trained at animating so why I think I should even try is beyond me.

Aaaaaanyway, I picked up some velum paper from Office Max and found that my hole punch made perfectly sized holes for some bullet casings I possess. (finding that out was an odd adventure through the basement). With the paper cut down and the casings in place it makes for a perfect flip book that can be reshuffled as needed. My Eadweard Muybridge: The Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs book also proved key to the process. And by key, I mean I basically copied one of the sets directly.

Dr Sketchy's : Girls on Bikes

Dr. Sketchy's this week was awesome. There were bikes. There were girls. There were girls on bikes. Not only was there some fantastic sketching to be had, but it was also a fundraiser for the AIDs Lifecycle ride one of our branch's founders is partaking in. A good cause and finally a chance to combine the joy of eating and sketching at the same time. Fresh grilled cheese! Yes!

I was rocken the short poses but my mojo ran out for the 10 minute ones.

Didn't win the contest but felt good about my entry. I never have a enough time to finish my coloring though, damn! Upcoming themes are apparently "Circus" and "Desert Princesses"?



I'm not sketching as much as I'd like (when am I ever?) but I do a little here and there. It helps to have material and/or motivation. Haven't had vivid dreams for a while, but this week they've popped up again. Vivid, and frequently unpleasant. I think it has something to do with high temperatures... anyway- dream from the start of this week.

I was a jetpack rental place. I had visited it at some point earlier and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was renting a pack for a brief period of time before the start of work one day, taking it up above a hill and looking over a forest. It was so lovely... There was a sunset/sunrise with purple clouds. I wanted to take a panorama photo of what I saw with my cellphone, so I fumbled with my phone. Every time I took my hand off the left controller to take a photo I started to fall from the sky. I'd switch back to the controller and rise back up, and then fall back down to the ground again when I again went for a photo. Eventually I ran out of fuel and slowly sank back to the ground... ...it was sad