If this slows down Kevin's plane, I'll hurt someone.
9:00 a.m. Still snowing, but the forecast claims it'll stop around noon. The rest of the week is just rain and clouds, so it should theoretically just be the one day of snow; my flowers may survive. I suppose I should have waited a few more days to plant, but it's April, dangit. This is ridiculous.
Not so much fun stuff to do today. I did finish my taxes yesterday (though I'm waiting on the first half of my BW money before I can afford to actually *pay* the taxes), but I didn't do any of the class stuff. Tomorrow is going to be busy with various errands and such, so I really ought to try to get the rest done today. Finishing re-reading Ada shouldn't be too painful, but I'm not so looking forward to writing the paper (I think I'm going to hold off on the library research until I'm doing the final paper for the course, the big one). It's only six pages or so; shouldn't really be a big deal. I'm just not in the mood for it. I also have a pile of student websites that I really must finish grading, and a quiz to design -- that last shouldn't take more than an hour or so. Not too bad, truly. I'd just rather lie in bed reading more Terry Pratchett. :-)
Maybe I'll take a little while and make another collage today. I finished the one based on the bones want to fly, and one for And the sea is shaking..., and I've almost finished one for Beneath the Lemon Tree. I'm not positive which one I want to do next -- I have some ideas for Sitting Under a Tree, in the Rain, and also for Her Body Awakens, so it'll probably be one of those. I'm mostly decided that I'll be taking at least some of these to WisCon to try to sell them there; we'll see what people think of them. I rather like them, to be honest -- I could see buying them if they were someone else's. :-) I'm not sure how to price them -- the supplies cost between $5 and $15 each, but then you factor in my time, plus the worth of the poetry, and the trouble of hauling them around, and WisCon's percentage...art is complicated! It's a lot easier to just sell text, in a lot of ways. I think they're going to range between $30 and $50; that won't make me a profit, but it'll pay for my time and supplies; since it's not my main livelihood, I can afford to not make a profit on them. Besides, there's always the chance that people will love them and bid against each other, and that they'll end up going for more. :-)
It's interesting thinking about how unique they are -- even if I used the same poem and a similar style of collage, it wouldn't be the same piece at all. And I don't think I'm likely to repeat poems, actually -- part of the fun is designing a collage that suits a particular poem, and I don't know that I'm interested in doing it more than once for each poem. And the gods know I have plenty of poems to keep me occupied for a long time without repeating. :-) Hmmm...I'm guessing most of you won't be at WisCon. If any of you are really interested in buying one of these, let me know, and I'll take some more photos of the completed works and put them up so you can get a good look. Not sure I'll bother otherwise. Though it might be interesting trying to do a page that shows them off well; a record for myself, in case I sell them. I'm finding myself rather absurdly fond of each one; part of me doesn't want to let them go at all. But it feels odd decorating my walls with my own work. :-)
4:30. The snow stopped around noon, as predicted (I was kind of impressed by their accuracy, actually). I just took a long, hot shower, washed my hair, and am now sitting at my computer in a beautiful patch of sunlight. I feel so much better. I'm not usually so dependent on sunshine; I think I may have been spoiled by the Bay Area. Although it's been almost two years now; you'd think I'd have gotten used to having winter again...and the winters here are pretty sunny. I dunno. Maybe I'm just weird.
I've been reading Ada on and off -- it's not so much that the book is long, but that it's incredibly dense, much more so than Lolita. Even though I'm re-reading, I have to pay a lot of attention to follow what's going on. Slow going. But I have tons of material for my short paper; in fact, I could probably stop at any point and write it. I think I'm not going to try until tomorrow morning, though. I'll just see how far I get in the book today.
I got a request for photos of the collages, so I'll put those up soon. It'll be first-come, first-served on buying them, I think -- can't think of a fairer way to do it. I started doing the one for "Her Body Awakened" this afternoon -- two sheets of glass, with stained glass water behind, and the poem and crimson stained glass in front. I think. I'm not sure how the crimson will look over the water...will just have to try it and see. I get these ideas, and I *think* they're going to look good, and then I find out that they're just goofy. :-) Anyway -- if you have any requests for poems you particularly like, that you'd like to see as collages, drop me a line and let me know. I won't do them unless I feel like it *and* I come up with what seems like a good design for it, but suggestions are always welcome.
8:15 p.m. I'm going mad waiting for Kevin to arrive, mad I tell you. His flight gets in at 9:20, so it'll be close to 10 before he gets here. Eep eep eep. I'm trying to distract myself, but it's awfully hard concentrating on anything. Making collages seems to work best -- but there are long periods when you just have to wait for glue or paint to dry. So I take photos and download them for you instead. Take a look.