Oh, to blog! perchance to dream!


HAPPYHAPPYHAPPYHAPPY! this is one of my top three best Christmas presents for sure!*
The site has been down for various reasons, all of them to do with natural disasters and the lack of money that comes with them.
To catch you all up - while the site is still up (and Kevin, I will call you on Tuesday, as soon as the holiday is over and get square with you. BLESS YOU! :D Thank you!), on October 7, I was in Myrtle Beach with Chris, it was our anniversary weekend, and he had to go on this loathsome Bike Week shoot, so i decided to go with him so we could be together and lessen the overall yuck of the job. Things were tight-ish (slow at the gallery, and I'd just started taking on more days there...) so Chris' sweet folks lent us 50$ for a nice seafood dinner while we were there (no, W!@V did not give him any allowance. The didn't WANT to pay for a hotel room, but instead to try to get a room with strange biker women. Hm.***). We started 'rolling' around 11am. The day was cold, there were drunken bikers EVERYwhere, it was souvenir strip-mall hell, there were issues with the talent - it was hard to maintain the perky - but we were doing ok. We knew that at 6:30pm we were OUTTATHERE and on our way to a good seafood dinner, then a long drive home with our lovely Tamagachi (Chris' mp3 player, loaded with all our faves...). HOWEVER, at about 6 pm, I was standing inside a booth, actually, inside, in-between TWO booths, tents, one with little handmade hats and the other was a guy who sold clothing and patches and did patch stitching on an antique Singer. I was just pointing the hats out to Chris when I heard someone yell "HEY! HEY!" and I turned just in time to see a man coming toward me on a motorcycle. He hit me head-on, knocked me about 4 feet through the air - and several boxes full of beer - so I got to land on tarmac, amidst broken beer bottles - yippee. The man got off of his 1938 Indian motorcycle (which he parked carefully after hitting me) and and then rushed over and pulled me up off the ground. He said "God, it's a good thing you've got a few extra pounds on you!" and then the fun began...
Needless to say we spent all evening in the ER, i was beer-wet and cold the whole time, and though they x-rayed me thoroughly they did no internal injury checks. Then they doped me up and sent me on the 5-hour ride home - which turned into 10 hours because Chris was so exhausted, and I was unable to drive or stay completely awake, so we spent a couple of hours here and there sleeping on the roadside.
The next two weeks were tough. In pain, out of work, unable to care for myself and Chris unable to miss work to care for me. If it weren't for my girlfriends, the beloved Valkyries, i don't know what I'd have done... Finances started slipping more, I couldn't even do my jewelry work, much less manage the shop. Our computer was down, so I had to outsource all my press work, and then Chris got the shingles. Despite the pain, he never missed a day of work, and kept pushing through, because things were getting so lean. A little over a month later - I had been sitting the shop for two weeks and starting to get mobility/feeling/coordination back enough to do my work - we went on our first outing since the accident. We went to the Charlotte ren-faire with the Stewart and the kids. It was a nice day. We got home late-ish, and right as we were heading to bed, there was a bright flash, the walls began to sizzle, the lights got brighter and then all of our electronics exploded. Let me just say at this point that there was MAJOR freakage on my part. We were trapped inside a dark, sizzling, smoke-filled house - with both of our animals - and couldn't go outside because of the live wire sizzling on the ground outside. The wind had dropped a limb and knocked out our ground wire. The firemen came and told us that it wasn't safe to live there (this was less than 2 weeks before Thanksgiving) anymore.
O' the freakage had only just begun.
SO. We began to pack up my life of the last 8 years. I've never lived anywhere longer. I was still feeling the effects BEING HIT BY A !@#$ MOTORCYCLE****, Chris was struggling to work more than full time and help me cope with the disaster. The computer - which we had JUST had Kevin repair - the TV, DVD player, etc - everything that was plugged in - were destroyed, and we had no place to put all our stuff, no place to comfortable be together... it was pretty damned bad.
We kept working though, and good fortune sent us a comfortable rental with a woman willing to lower the rent to help us. We had to borrow money from his parents to pay the rent because my landlord had already spent all of our Nov. rent (this happened on the 12th) and all the money Chris had made in overtime working at both stations full time in the summer was in our propane tank (and we thought we were being so smart..) at the old house and he was unable to reimburse us for that as well. About a week after we moved in Chris' car - our only working vehicle at the time (the Duke power guys and our neighbor had to PUSH my truck across the road at 2 am on the night of the !@#$ because it wouldn't start... that was a low moment, lemme tellya.) - just died. Engine froze. Never to be repaired. Two days after that, his boss called him in EARLY to fire him. Our power never got reconnected in the new place (they claim we never called), so when our new landlord had her name taken off - as we asked her to do per the Duke Power instructions from the call they claimed never happened - they charged us 250$ to reconnect.


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As they say, when you're at the bottom, there's only one direction...
I started working my @$$ off because Christmas is a good time for my work. We both started taking any and all part-time work we could get, and feeling thankful that we had some choices.
We started saving, we made some phone calls and found another car that we were able to 1/2 pay, 1/2 barter for. We got my truck running, we were gifted with a tv and dvd player from a couple of good friends, and his parents gave us their old pc - all three of which are key to my work. I have been working from before sun-up to late every day making things to sell, doing commissions, making Christmas prezzies and working for The Shepherds' Feast, which is a Christmas day feast for any and all, with music and prezzies for children and poems and all good things. I'm tired, but it's been worth it. I'm really lucky that my work brings me so much joy. Chris has been working his @$$ off too, pulling all my slack. I took on extra delivery routes and baking days and babysitting, so Chris had to watch the shop and help make the Christmas prezzies and keep up the house and make sure I was eating. His family were more than kind and helpful and thanks to them and good commissions, we were able to fill the propane tank at the new house (which, by the way, is beautiful and big and full of light. I wish we could keep it. We have until April. If you know of any nice rentals, call us!). We have socked away enough for rent and basic bills for the next two months. We're not paying for the internet, we got rid of our storage place, we're using less gas - because we can walk to work every day. We have yet to pay back the parentii and the WebClaus, but they are on our list, and little by little, we are rebuilding our media empire. We were even able to splurge a little at Christmas. I used my generous and kind bonus from the bakery to buy myself a pretty pair of dress Keens (in black - so now i have summer outdoor ones, closed/winter outdoor ones - good for work and in the kitchen and dress ones! happy feet!) and Chris bought a ticket to Filmapalooza in March. We're saving for his plane ticket now, but his grandma lives in the city, so we don't have to pay for his room or car!

One of the things that has hurt me the most through all of this, was the loss of the computer - and specifically of my website. Not only was the computer essential to my work, but there are so many people with whom I can only reliably and inexpensively stay in touch through the 'net. I have felt starved for their contact. And I was able to see how much my website means to me as an ability to express myself and make sense of my life and the pain that comes at hard times, both new and remembered. The fire brought back hard old memories - the oldest, in fact. The moving, the desperation... and I could only reach out so far. It was hard. I intend to write my webhost - who has been a friend and has posted my page for little - really nothing - for years and see what I can do to thank him and reimburse him for this gift. It was so good to sign on (we're at Sarah's, Raven-sitting while she's away) and see messages to my blogspot... it made me feel REAL again.
I will do what I can to keep Sam's Day Off alive... 'cause it's plain to me how much Sam's Day Off helps keep me alive, and from the messages, some of you, too. Not only alive, but updated. Stewart has been promising me that as soon as we can, we will update, but neither hid not Kevin's kindness has been enough in the face of this steaming pile of adversity.
However, it's a new year, and I am blogging right now (HUZZAH!) and things are already looking better, so ONWARD AND UPWARD!
Thank you all! We love you and are grateful for you to the last molecule of us!
XOXOXOXOXOX
Sam and Chris and George and Luna


*Aunt Sue's happy news, my lovely warm shawl from M-O-L, and I'll put in Stewart's happy news to make it FOUR! Four best Christmas presents! *Oh, !@#$.* **
**Sorry Python joke.
***by the way, this is absolutely true.
****(his clutch broke, btw. I mean, the bike is !@#$ 68 years old, hello! AND he was being filmed by the !@#$ Discovery Channel when it happened. They INTERVIEWED ME - in THAT STATE. My !@#$ luck, huh?)