"An artist in our midst..."

That was the subject of the company wide email that went out yesterday.  Unbeknownst to me my coworker Jane decided to share a piece of artwork that I did for her.

I wasn't mad about it, just caught off guard.  I don't usually do paintings for recognition purposes but because I enjoy them...I don't normally sell my artwork either...if I have a friend of family request something I'll charge them for the canvas and paint, but not for my time...If it is a painting that I just felt like doing and think that someone I know will enjoy...then I just give it away...

The piece I did for Jane was the first piece I ever sold.  I didn't charge her anything ridiculous (though when I got started on it good really kicked myself in the head for agreeing to do it in the first place, but it all worked out...) Perhaps I should start from the beginning:

Back at the end of September Jane, who works at our Jacksonville, FL corporate office came up to the plant here near Virginia Beach for some product testing and plant visits with potential customers.  I had just finished giving our break room a much needed makeover.  Our raw materials are dirty/dusty so everything inside gets dusty and built up overtime...combine it with about 10-12 guys who get filthy either from machinery or just the product in general, it's safe to say the break room need an update.  It looked dirty, no matter how clean we managed to get it.  This bothered me in general, but especially at the thought of potential customers seeing it and thinking that we're gross--when really our plan is the cleanest one I've ever seen considering the materials we use.

I did an accent wall in red, the other 3 walls a silver gray and on the wall that you see first when you enter the break room, I painted the company logo.  They didn't have a banner large enough in the marketing department at corporate so I took a normal size bumper sticker and blew it up to be about 2'x8'...

The CEO liked it when he came up on the same trip and Jane was really impressed.  She showed me a picture of a painting that is at one of her and her fiance's favorite Mexican Restaurant down in Florida... The owner of the restaurant had told them he bought it in Mexico City--three trips to Mexico City and they still couldn't find the artist and the restaurant owner wouldn't sell it to them...

So she asked me if I thought if I'd be able to paint it.  I don't typically copy other people's work, but figured hey what the hell...she really wanted to surprise her fiance for Christmas.  She thought it would be perfect since he's the most difficult person to shop for that she knows...

Well I gave it a go and I pulled it off.  I normally do paintings that are more abstract or "flowy" if that makes since... I like to take an object and do a version that isn't realistic at all...I'm sure there is a name for it but damn if I can think of it right now...

So the original:

And Mine:

I can safely say I impressed myself... I didn't know I could do something like that!!! I also impressed her... I was a couple days behind schedule but was able to get it shipped to her and delivered by the 23rd of December and a friend of hers who does custom framing... had it framed and wrapped for her by Christmas Eve so that it could be opened/unveiled on Christmas Day...

A success.  Her fiance said there was only one problem... he isn't sure how she is going to top this gift next Christmas, lol.  Some of the people who work for the company all over the country responded with how great it was...and even the CEO said, "Are you sh''''in' me? WUNDERBAR." Needless to say our CEO is pretty awesome if he'd say shittin' me in an email...lmao.

Apparently 30 is the new 93

Lil man had artwork that was selected for the Isle of Wight County Public Schools art show.  It started at five on Thursday and we were a little ahead of schedule--since we just so happened to be the same town as my two favorite thrift stores we decided to check one out and then head to the school.

While we were in the thrift store lil man was talking nonstop about anything and everything and he wandered off for a few minutes.  He came back and said, "Hey Tommy, they have the move The Mask over there, you know the guy with the green face..." he got distracted by something for a second and found himself back on the subject... "They are on those old kind of movies, you know the ones from back in the olden days when you were younger."

I paused a second and said "First off, they are called VHS tapes and second off, you make it sound like I'm 93 years old." He had a seriously puzzled look on his face when he said but you were around when they came out with those right...it's like when tv was in black and white like in the 17s, 18s, and 19s."

Skrrrrrrt, pump the brakes kid! Tv didn't come around until the 19s not too terribly long ago.... and how old do you think I am? "I dunno, just really old," He told me with the most serious of faces... "How old are you?"

"Dude, I will be 32 at the end of this month. I wasn't born until 1981 so quit making it sound like I'm 93...I'm not that old."

With that I heard a "Hmmmph" we paid for our finds and headed to the art show... I met his art teacher and saw his awesome castle complete with jumping alligators in it's moat... I figured it was going to be a drawing or painting or something---it was wayyyy more awesome than that.

FINALLY!.

So after all kinds of pain in the ass steps and hurdles I was able to close on the house.  My original date of Friday 3.25.2013 dissolved since my loan hadn't been approved yet and then there are steps after that to go through blah blah blah.  At 7:30 pm I was notified that the loan was approved, but by that time bankers hours were over so I'd have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to close.

Monday after I got off of work I drove to VA Beach and signed all the paperwork and made it official...Jen and I are now officially homeowners. 

So can I just tell you that when I went to Home Depot on Tuesday to buy stuff for work, everything looked different... seriously... I was thinking of all the cool stuff I could do to MY house that I couldn't do before because I was renting...it's amazing and the possibilities are endless... now I just need more money, lol.

AWOLNATION - Sail

Diggin' this one

Miranda Lambert - Mama's Broken Heart

Best line... "hide your crazy" lol... great song

Dan Seals - Bop

I remember listening to this song when I was younger--I was super excited to have it come on the radio the other day...hadnt heard it in YEARS!!! I wanna bop with you baby...all night long... I wanna bop the night away...

in laws

It occurred to me last night that Jen and I have well over four years together under our belts...only 3 months of that time officially married... and to this day I don't know what to call her parents.  We had this discussion last night after she hung up the phone with her mom.  As always Jen relayed the message from her dad saying, "Butch says hi."

Her dad is great, lol...he talks like he's in a cheech and chong movie and has a Fumanchu and is just funny.  He mom is the more reserved one of the two, highly opinionated, and knows what she wants and isn't afraid to express what she thinks.

I think part of the struggle I've had over the years in figuring out what to call them has to do where their age differences compared to my parents.  My mom will be 53 this summer and my dad will be 59.  Jen's mom will be 70 this May and her dad is a few years younger than her.

So, I guess it's always been kind of a "respect your elders" kind of thing... Calling them Mr. and Mrs. last name just seemed way too uptight and not personal... I mean I've been sleeping with there daughter for YEARS people...lol...

While I've talked to Gloria on the phone a few times, I'm not a phone person so I don't make it a habit to find myself on the phone with anyone, much less my mother in law--nothing personal, I just hate talking on the phone, I don't even like talking to Jen on the phone, lol.  Anyway, I've always managed to not call her dad by anything--I think i've always segwayed my conversation off of what Jen's Mom had said about him, so I could just follow up with a "he."

Well yesterday, I decided that I needed to find out from Jen what the hell to call her parents...I've gone long enough with this weighing on my mind.  She called them and laughed as she told them about my dilemma.  her dad very quickly in the background said to just call him dad, but then seemed immediately bothered by the fact he didn't know what I'd been calling him up to this point, lol.  Jen's mom said I could call her mom as well but I don't know it just doesnt seem as natural calling them mom and dad... I'll get there though.

Jen has been calling my parents mom and dad since the early stages of our relationship... historically my parents have always been easily labeled mom and dad by neighborhood kids, friends of us kids, and whomever we were dating at the time... so it was no biggie.

I've only brought one girl home who referred to my mom as "mom" and mom quickly informed me that she didn't appreciate it and that she didn't know what I was smoking hanging out with that chick anyway... could have been that she was only like 9 or 10 years younger than my mom and immature as fuck...but who knows, that's all behind us now, ha.

You see, my family is the laid back laugh about everything and joke on one another kind of family... Nothing is off limits... whether its my dad asking me "which tommy" he's talking to (he still jokes that I have multiple personalities--which I dont, he hasn't caught on to the whole bipoloar thing yet, lol) They all tell Mexican jokes in front of Jen because she's hispanic (though albino in comparison to what your first mental image of hispanic is, lol)... everything is a topic, we put the fun in dysfunctional.

Jen's family is more reserved and I recall the first time I was going to Colorado to meet them, Jen had me paranoid as hell.  She said that I couldn't cus and that anything I would normally say to my parents was off limits with hers.  (side note, I drop the f bomb ALL the time... it's my favorite word--my mom and my moms mom both say fuck all the time now because of it's stress relieving abilities, lol) I even have "fuckity fuck fuck" tattooed on my ass--though in a cursive script font to keep it classy, lol...

Moving on...

Perhaps its the huge paranoia she inspired with all the "prep" involved to meet her parents and family.  I will for the record add that for the entire week we were in CO, I did not cus at all.  I nearly died. Not even kidding.

Jen was baking cookies, chocolate chip to be exact and her mom wanted her to make some with just walnuts... her mom looked at me and said don't you just love walnuts? and not even thinking I responded, "Nuts aren't very conducive to my lifestyle" Jen nearly passed out, her mom paused for a moment before changing the subject with a hint of a giggle... I almost lost it, thats just a normal comment from me, but wasn't supposed to be normal I was there, lol.

They've kind of caught on that I am who I am and that Jen loves me and I'm not going anywhere so they are more supportive than I had originally imagined. 

Moral of the story, I must practice referring to my inlaws as mom and dad... they are cool with it so I guess I need to be too.

Can this just be over with already?

Let me just say that this house buying thing is not nearly what I thought it would be.  Our close date is March 22nd--coming up VERY fast... and there is all kinds of crap to do.  I had to provide a bazillion documents, 3 years worth of taxes and W2s, bank statements, paystubs...other usual stuff, but because the loan is a VHDA I had to take a first time homebuyers course online and pass the test to get a certificate to be submitted to the folks at closing....

I've endured the ratification process, the home inspection, the back and forth on what to fix and not to fix, the termite inspection, etc... I have been lucky in the sense that the people I'm buying the house from are ready to move into their new house so they want this one gone...they've agreed to all I've asked for which is awesome and they seem like nice people anyway...

The real pain in my ass though has come in two forms.  One, I can't move money around in my bank accounts like I usually do because I have to account for all of my income... because Jen's name isn't on my account it's now temporarily a problem if I deposit money into my account from her to help with bills... I can't shift things from savings... so basically it's just my paycheck and then my now limited spending.  I had to have Jen make my student loan payment because I can't shift money and now because I don't have her "help" in my account I don't want to be bouncing stuff... my check alone can't pay for everything... So I'm glad that she offered to do it and I appreciate it a great deal--I sure would hate to be told at close that it wasn't going to happen because I defaulted on my Student loan...

Two, homeowners insurance.  For some reason I just assumed that this would be an easy process--something like car insurance where you go online, get a quote, and buy a policy...

Not so much.

I was referred by Santa (the real bearded santa in my life who allows me to keep his hair and beard snow white instead of dark brown like it naturally is...) to a guy that he uses and is friends with. That guy is nice to talk to and great to work with, his policy is on the higher side of things which means my mortgage payment will increase as well...

I got a super low quote and attached to it a denial letter--really, why bother sending me a fabulous quote if I'm being denied coverage. 

I have one quote that isn't bad and running out of time rapidly.  The concern is that it's the original roof on the house so it's 20 years old and that makes most insurance companies pump their brakes a bit.  It's kind of a crap shoot as to whether or not the insurance inspector will go for it or not... and let me have coverage or deny me...

I contacted a guy my realtor/aunt suggested and he won't have quotes for me until Monday...he's pulling information for a side by side comparison of the "bigger" companies...

TO BE CONTINUED:

I started this blog last week and never finished it... long story short--it took me a week to decide on a quote that was good.  I was referred to this lady by the lady who's handing my closing... shes super nice and helpful so I went ahead and agreed--still running the risk of failing a roof inspection, but I can't lose sleep over it at this point... I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

For now, closing is at the end of this week and I'm super excited and ancy and have no idea when or how I'm going to move all of my crap.

I'm super stoked to soon be a homeowner, but OMG can we just get to that point already.  I'd like to skip all the "official" shit and go straight to playing house, you know...

another poem from Feb 2009

Tourist Season

Over 400 blogs... a journey back to the beginning

I started to look back into my blog history now that I've written over 400 blogs... the second blog entry I found was a poem I had written for Jen... It's crazy how in the day to day I forget to remind her of how special she is too me...

I wonder if she remembers this poem or not?

I Wanted, a poem I wrote 2-19-2009