next week is my last week of work. dang. the LAST.

Took down the knick knacks from my tetris shelves, packed up 3/4 of my books, and some shirts. It's still not a big chunk. But I guess I gotta halve everything and then halve it again. Just whittle it down instead of making final decisions at the get go, ya know? Anyway. Made some progress at that. I'll make more progress over the weekend. I don't want to take my art down, because that'll make it all barren. But I must!

Anyhoo. Talked to ma and pa. Had a nice little evening in. I'm planning on going to the dog beach tomorrow morning. Gotta see Janet and Joey!

Work was a shorter day. The job ran really well up until the printing over the zipper part, which is very difficult to do well. I coated screens. Refreshed Ryan in how to coat them. I taped and burned. I tided up. I counted. The weather was good. I took some photos with my new shmancy phone, because I have like...no photos of the studio. Even though after nearly two years, I could probably draw it all from memory.

smartiepants

I got up early and called Straight Talk and gave them the info to switch my phone over from Verizon. They said it may take a few hours, but up to 36. So I went to work eagerly anticipating the activation of my ZTE Savvy. Savvy, like a pirate. Hee. Yay.

Anyway, work was all right. Started cold but it warmed up. I peeled the numbers off this vinyl banner and applied new ones. And burned and taped. And did the tertiary stuff. Jeff has been teaching Ryan press & catching stuff. The day went by though, slowly but surely. I burned and double coated some stuff right at the end. Full 8 hours. And now tomorrow is Friday. And then it will be the weekend. And then my last week of work.

I spent the night playing and fiddling about with my phone. I got several apps running. Customized the ring tones. My text message alert is the bing bong from Cabin Pressure and my ring tone is Allam as Richardson singing Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. I got phones on the wallpaper and photos on the lock screen, and my own lock screen unlock! Anyway, I'm stoked on all the features and I'm pleased thus far. The layout will take some getting used to. Still figuring out where things go and how to turn this and that off. But yay, I am now a smart phone haver!

that's one of the big things ALMOST out of the way

Bought my phone! A ZTE Savvy. Hopefully it's good! I bought a warranty. $15 and it covers everything except if I lose it or it gets stolen. Works for me, don't wanna drop it and then it breaks and all that. Tomorrow morning I try to set it up! So exciting.

I packed up some clothes and mugs and took a few boxes to my storage unit. I like the storage unit because they have dollies free to use. Makes it so easy. Gotta just take all my stuff bit by bit and go through it. Just sit and sort. And clean out my art supply tackle box to put travel art supplies into it. Just what to take? Ahhh!

I've got two weeks. Dang!

Had pasta for dinner. Mm.

Work. We have a bunch of rush jobs. I counted out tons of shirts. I caught a job. I did banner rope on a banner, which was a multi layering process. Had to put down banner rope to reinforce the edges. Had to tape it down and put double sided tape on top of that. It doesn't stick totally well.

1 down

Officially declared May 25th as my last day at work. That'll give me 5ish days to pack up and clean, without having to rush my weekends.

9 days work days left. Wow.

I caught shirts for most of the day. We had to have the garage door shut due to Ryan sanding outside and us having a vehicle in the garage that couldn't get the sand shavings on it and stuff. Anyway, it got really really stuffy and hot for the majority of printing. We drank lots of water to keep cool, but uhg..

I cleaned some squeegees and floodbars, and coated screens. And told the boss the 25th was the last day.

Dang.

At home I got to work on an Odd Owl illustration, and I worked on it for many many hours. It took a while to draw, and I didn't get any packing work done. But I'm pleased with the drawing! Haven't heard back about it yet, though.

Watched the moon eclipse. That was neat.

green food

Made a necklace. Though I need to get a better clasp for it. The magnetic ones I have are not reliably strong enough.

I also looked into a Straight Talk phone. Hard to tell what phone would work best, but all I need right now is reliable GPS for my trip. Not signing up for a contract is significantly cheaper per month, but I have to pay for the phone so now fancy freebie phones. But... cheaper is better!

Anyway. Had to go to WalMart to look into the phones. There is one in Marina, about 40 minutes south. It was a nice drive, though the road changes the number of lanes frequently. And I was behind this BMW who kept going fast then slow then fast then slow. I guess they were lost or looking for a turn or something. Still... why is it always BMW drivers that are the worst?

WalMart was harmless. Big, but not crowded. I got a charm and some beads to turn into a necklace. Like I said, I need a better clasp for it.

Work was cleaning screens, reclaiming screens, cleaning more and reclaiming more, and then coating. Also some burning and counting in of shirts and cutting of vinyl thingy.

Jeff made all four of us dinner! It started with him being all "you want vegetables?" and we three said yes to veggies. Then BAM kale and chicken, artichoke, avocado, and brussel sprouts cooked in this specific way that was so damn good. SHHHH don't tell mom I ate so healthy. She must never know.

nice super hero butts

Whoooo! Saw Captain America. It really just proves that there needs to be a Black Widow movie. Had some great action scenes, and was pretty enjoyable. Worth seeing. I didn't see it in 3D.

I worked on my road trip plan a bit. Right now it starts Santa Cruz to Los Angeles through Las Vegas as fast as possible to Zion then Petrified Forest National Park then Albuquerque then Mesa Verde. From there? Hmmm. Not sure which states to visit headed East, and which ones to see going North to South and t'other way around. But yeah, got a start! What's in Oklahoma? Some places I'm just looking at the map and eyeballing the National Parks. Some I need to Google which cool museums are in which cities.

Work was pretty relaxing. Jeff & Ryan had been running the press for almost 4 hours when I arrived. They both like to start early. I come in, count shirts, do banners, tape screens, coat screens, burn screens. We run a smooth ship. I cleaned a bunch of screens at the end and got out at a reasonable hour. Hurray!