Can you hear me now?

I think I need to start yelling at people.
No, I really hate that idea. It does something to my insides.

I purchased a card to send something to a friend of mind on Tuesday. She lives north of San Francisco. I live north of Nashville, TN, in a rather small town. But we do have a local art gallery. So I bought a card with a reproduction of a watercolor, an autumn scene in Kentucky. Very nice. I talked to the gallery director about the weather (here and in San Francisco), upcoming art shows, and the current requirements for art reproductions for sale.

I wrote a message to my friend inside the card. I labeled and sealed the envelope, and then I waited in line at the post office. There were liberty bell stamps and flag stamps in the vending machine, but I wanted something pretty and different for the card. My friend notices things like that. Thinking of the smile that would be on her face when she saw it made me smile, too.

"Can I help you?" said the woman at the counter, when it was my turn.

"I'd like to mail this card," I said, extending the envelope. "I didn't want to get one of the stamps from the machine. What kind of stamps do you have today?"

She punched a button swiftly, tore off the stamp that popped out, and slapped it on my card. I watched as the envelope disappeared into a slot. She looked back up at me.

"Anything else? You need a book of stamps or anything?" she asked me, obviously unaware I had been saying anything of importance.

"No, nothing," I said. I left.

The woman at the gallery must have better hearing or something.

Getting CREATIVE for the holidays

I have had an ongoing grumble about shipping. I know any kind of shipping (any kind of **delivery** for that matter) is generally a pain in the tooshie, but UPS and I have this love-hate thing going on.
http://www.squidoo.com/road2CP/

As it happens, this year, July 4th falls on a Wednesday. Even if it didn't, Kentucky Downs Race Course would still be open. I work there as a parimutuels teller.

We asked Ryan, our GM, if we're allowed to wear patriotic t-shirts that day, and he said yes, that would be fine. This weekend, we found out they'd decided to have an actual contest.
Since I'm considered the creative, artistic one, there's pressure on me to do this.

I looked up costumes. Pfft. Not really my cup of tea. (Sorry, Adam -- I had to say that.) I made wisecracks about perhaps showing up as a 1776-era Quidditch player. I don't think everyone got that. **sigh**

I looked up dresses online (pre-Regency era, with fitted waistlines and 3/4 length sleeves) and fabric types, but I don't really have the time to create my own dress. I even thought of dressing as a Native American, but I do really want to do the red-white-and-blue thing.

My original intention was to wear this t-shirt:
http://www.cafepress.com/americolors.85242846




It really does look cuter in person. I need to take a photo of it, too.

But I uploaded a new design using an older drawing of mine, last week, and I find that it has shipped. It was in Lexington (Lexington??), and it was due to arrive tomorrow. Maybe it will actually arrive in time for me to wear it Wednesday.
http://www.cafepress.com/lorilei.134173546





I wanted to get the red one, but I think I'd better go with black. I'm not sure how vivid a white Lady Liberty would be on the red shirt, honestly. I may experiment and try making her grey or a pale copper-green.

I also considered doing this shirt ~ http://www.cafepress.com/lorilei.145764524 ~


and using iron-on rhinestones and t-shirt paint to jazz it up. But I'll do that later. I'd never finish that by Wednesday.

Anyway, is that going to be creative enough? I'm afraid it pales in comparison to Kayla's appearance as the actual Statue of Liberty last July 4th. She's a statuesque young lady of 19 with long, wavy auburn hair, and her costume just really suited her.
This year Ryan suggested someone could come as Betsy Ross (which had also occurred to me, obviously!), but Kayla confessed that she doesn't remember who Betsy Ross was. It pains me to think how many things kids are not taught (or do not remember) from 12 years of school. :(

Anyway, presuming the new t-shirt does arrive and is in good shape, I think I'll wear it with white slacks and red/white/blue shoes I usually wear only on patriotic holidays. I also have star-shaped red and blue clippies I'll wear in my hair. They're great for keeping the hair out of my eyes when I'm punching tickets.

So, even if I'm not Betsy Ross or Lady Liberty, or Paul Revere... do you think that will be acceptable, taking into consideration the time restraints? Or is my reputation as the creative teller doomed?

Lorilei
http://americolors.us

Chocolate Moose - dog art

You have to see this one. It is too cool.

There's something in the BLOG....

Since we've been talking about blogs in my online group lately, I thought this article might be interesting to anyone just now sticking their toes into the bog -- uh -- *blog* pool.

I subscribe to the SiteProNews newsletter, and I actually read most of the articles. Sometimes they contain information I have the ability to use. Sometimes they just give me some goals to work toward.

http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2007/mar/16.html
"How to Create Your First Blog" (by Donna Gunter)

The title of this article sounds embarrassingly elementary, but the artictle itself is filled with information that might be good for even the experienced blogger to take into consideration.

When I started my first actual blog, I called it an online journal. It was a LiveJournal account, courtesy of my daughter Eve. I experienced some heavy-duty writer's block and froze up. I still have the account, but I don't think I've posted there in... years. It was sort of like when I joined the "serious" writers in a class at WKU as a dewy-eyed seventeen year old. (One class in, I panicked and dropped the creative writing class.)

Now I'm not quite as scared. The experience-hardened, mean-looking, carnivorous fellow creative writers aren't criticizing my looks and/or age, belittling my views on life, or chewing up my work.

At worst, my blog may get ignored. But sometimes people find it while searching for something we have in common. They often click through to my store after reading what I've written. How cool is that?

I'm bookmarking Ms. Gunter's list to remind me what to keep trying to do with my blogs.
Then I'm going to take off with the creative writing for Painters Bluff. -- They don't allow those writer types from the WKU class there.
Besides, now *I* have been published, too. Take that, you old meanies! :Þ

(Wow. This post was so much fun, I'm blogging it, too.)

Lorilei
http://lorilei-tees.com