Work and Poems and Cowboys and Stuff
Really, really great news today -- I passed my state exam for Insurance Investigator with a 94%. I have to wait another 4-6 weeks or so to b e called for an interview, but I feel like things are starting to move. It feels really good to finally feel like I have some traction in my life again, and to see that the work I've been putting in is finally starting to pay off.
The house is starting to feel comfortable, and I'm starting to get my things organized and later today I'll start spackling and sanding all the rooms. I want to sew, but my pedal and power cord are with Nick and I don't want to ask for them back. I've been working on my sweater and my quilt, and the house stuff will keep my hands full for a while.
Shooting the western has been lots of fun -- I met a few people I've been hearing about for ages, and have had a chance to catch up with some old friends. The food's been good, plentiful, and free, and the people have been nice. Lauren and I might have more work in another western around the end of the year, so that should be fun, too. And I got to ride a horse called Stetson! Pretty cool stuff. Paramount Ranch is really neat, especially late in the afternoon when the sun goes down and everything turns a beautiful gold color, and we've been really lucky with the moon this week -- it's been so big, creeping over the hills and pouring light down on us. Yesterday we arrived a few hours too early because they gave us the wrong call time, so Lauren and I took a drive through the hills in Malibu and spent a few idle hours at Zuma beach, lazing like cats and listening to the surf (and watching Lauren's back sizzle). After the beach, we cruised back up Kanan Dume road (with my feet hanging oh-so-illegally out of the car window), singing hillbilly boogies and stopped at the General Store and had watermelon and sweet tea (me) and a turkey sandwich and cream soda (Lauren). Yesterday was one of those strange days that are so full that they feel like several different, entirely separate days, strung together without ever feeling rushed or crammed with must-dos and have-tos.
Today, Lauren and I thrifted a little on the way home from Abbott Kinney and I picked up a few new books: a collection of Alexander Pope's verse, Berryman's Sonnets, the Early Works of Yeats, and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. I like my library, but it has almost nothing worth reading in the fiction section, and I tend to amass huge library fines anyway. Lauren scored some AWESOME 78s for $5, and promised I could listen to them when I go down to visit her next week!
I'm off to Target now to pick up a few important articles, then to the bank, then home to change before going out for dinner. I might go down to the QM for the art deco society thing they're having this weekend. We're shooting again next week -- the saloon scenes! Frilly underthings. Cowboys. Sasparilla.
How's that for an update? Phew.
The house is starting to feel comfortable, and I'm starting to get my things organized and later today I'll start spackling and sanding all the rooms. I want to sew, but my pedal and power cord are with Nick and I don't want to ask for them back. I've been working on my sweater and my quilt, and the house stuff will keep my hands full for a while.
Shooting the western has been lots of fun -- I met a few people I've been hearing about for ages, and have had a chance to catch up with some old friends. The food's been good, plentiful, and free, and the people have been nice. Lauren and I might have more work in another western around the end of the year, so that should be fun, too. And I got to ride a horse called Stetson! Pretty cool stuff. Paramount Ranch is really neat, especially late in the afternoon when the sun goes down and everything turns a beautiful gold color, and we've been really lucky with the moon this week -- it's been so big, creeping over the hills and pouring light down on us. Yesterday we arrived a few hours too early because they gave us the wrong call time, so Lauren and I took a drive through the hills in Malibu and spent a few idle hours at Zuma beach, lazing like cats and listening to the surf (and watching Lauren's back sizzle). After the beach, we cruised back up Kanan Dume road (with my feet hanging oh-so-illegally out of the car window), singing hillbilly boogies and stopped at the General Store and had watermelon and sweet tea (me) and a turkey sandwich and cream soda (Lauren). Yesterday was one of those strange days that are so full that they feel like several different, entirely separate days, strung together without ever feeling rushed or crammed with must-dos and have-tos.
Today, Lauren and I thrifted a little on the way home from Abbott Kinney and I picked up a few new books: a collection of Alexander Pope's verse, Berryman's Sonnets, the Early Works of Yeats, and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. I like my library, but it has almost nothing worth reading in the fiction section, and I tend to amass huge library fines anyway. Lauren scored some AWESOME 78s for $5, and promised I could listen to them when I go down to visit her next week!
I'm off to Target now to pick up a few important articles, then to the bank, then home to change before going out for dinner. I might go down to the QM for the art deco society thing they're having this weekend. We're shooting again next week -- the saloon scenes! Frilly underthings. Cowboys. Sasparilla.
How's that for an update? Phew.