I. Got two commissions today. BWA! *dances about happily*

...now, granted, I'm not being paid for either, but, y'know, experience and getting things out there etc. YAY!

Job 1: Nancy, one of the women I work with, was pestering Chad, trying to get a decent reprint of a photo of her son she'd had taken. So he reprinted it for her, but the trouble she was having was with the photo itself, not so much the quality - her son had had an unfortunate bit of breaking-out the day of the pictures, and while WalMart = waythefuck cheaper than the schools here for pictures, they don't do retouching. So she's trying to sort this out with Chad, and I leapt in to the conversation and was like OOO!!! LET ME LET ME LET ME! hee. After a bit of confusion as to how exactly I would be doing this (I need to start remembering the world is not as full of comp-saavy people as the media arts lab), Chad (with a long-suffering look, as always, heh) scanned it for me and flung it onto a disc. SO! I'm plugging in the Wacom again I think, as I've a hunch that'll make retouching way awesomer, and smoother than with a mouse like I've done before. I've done awesome jobs on shots for Mel and Erica, so, I'm pretty confident. :)

Job 2: Shannon dropped me a note on facebook today, saying she has a sudden desire to have an old-movie style picture of her, and wondered if I could do so - in trade for some craft supplies, YAY! (I need to have Tom help me set up that sewing machine, I've been doing far too much by hand for my Hallowe'en costume.) She'd thought of having it painted, or, as it seemed more my specialty, a digital thing. I've offered to do either, or a drawing, or whatever she'd like, really - making things look old is my specialty, it reallyreally is. ^__________^ So I'm pretty psyched.

In other news, work has been RIDICULOUSLY busy. Like I went to grab something downstairs..Thursday night, I think it was, and I couldn't even walk across the floor to get where I wanted, there were too many people. @_@ Saturday night was worse, but, I did get to gank a rental costume to wear, so I had on a pretty, old-fashioned, shiny lavender off-the-shoulder dress all night, which made me really happy. <3 I worked 39 1/2 hours last week. Only 34 this week, and then like 37 1/2 next. I have Tuesday (tomorrow, Hallowe'en YAY!) off, and then I don't have another day off 'til the following Tuesday. aaaack. Granted the later part of the week I typically work evenings, but, still, it's harder to scramble all over town and get errands done and grab the bus in time to get to work at 4... bleh.

Saturday night after work, I dropped by the Masquerade Ball on campus for awhile, though by the time I got there, they'd already switched over from the party/mingling part to the watching Rocky Horror part. But Katie and I still got to catch up a little and talk, which was very happy. :) And Joel came over and took my picture just because I was Rainbow Brite, and I got another random compliment from someone else. ^_______^ The costume looks really great, I'm wearing it around all day tomorrow (Tom's embarrassment levels be damned XD) so I'll be sure to get a picture to post at some point. Did a little tweaking here and there, as the shirt was a little short and there wasn't quite enough fabric at the top, and I need to find a way to get that ponytail to stay in the wig better, but, I have a little pouch full of "star sprinkles" and it is great. Originally I was going to wear my heels, with the black stars on them, but the weather and the walkability issue have led me to switch to the Mackie boots, which actually look really good with it, and really, are closer to Rainbow's boots than my heels are, so, yay.

NaNoWriMo starts the day after tomorrow, and I'm trying to reign in the panic. Spent my lunch break today doing some more brainstorming, and I'm closer to getting the main character down, but.. still having some issues. hmm. Today or tomorrow, I'll get the blog for that started, and post my overall idea, so y'all can start flinging ideas/critiques/suggestions/attacks at me. :)

...I actually *said* "y'all" a few nights ago, and Tom flipped shit at me. He's scared to death of being "countryfied" by me. He says even the cookies I bake are "country cookies". I finally asked last night what the difference is between "city cookies" and "country cookies", and apparently country cookies have less flavor than city cookies. Admitedly, the current batch (these) were not at ALL as flavorful as I'd expected, so I had to remedy by making up a random glaze, of brown sugar and maple syrup and a bit of milk and confectioner's sugar.. but the ones I'd made before were chocolate with peanut butter in the middle. According to Tom, THOSE ones were "city cookies".
I think it really just comes down to the things I like vs. what he likes. *giggles and rolls eyes* (Note, of course, that he's still eating the pumpkin ones I made, even though they have faces and things and are fuuuull of pumpkin spice, which he claims he doesn't like at all, but doesn't know is in these, hee.)

So, yes, things are going well as always with him and I. *giggles* I've no idea if it's coming through that way or not, but whenever I talk about him making fun of me about something or another, it's completely in fun, believe me. Rarely does he take it too far, and when he does, I let him know, and he stops and immediately starts apologising all over. He's very good to me, all-around. :)
(As well he should be, given the amount of time I spend making him food, hee. ;p)

There was something else I was going to post about the other day, but can't remember. Just as well, this post is long enough. Be on the look-out for a link to this year's NaNo blog! :)