June 30

It's been a year and three months now. The last two months have not been easy. My husband has been through a couple of intensive medical problems and it willl be some time until he's entirely back to normal. I am thoroughly impressed with the NHS. I think we would have had to sell the tiny house I "own" (meaning I'm still paying on it) in the US to pay for comparable care in the US.

Otherwise, things have been slowly but surely improving. I have a job. It's only part time, doing the "fiddly" little jobs that come up for a company that does impressive custom electronics for a very narrow range of customers. Some of it is soldering, which I have learned is called brazing here when it involves high melting point silver solder. Some of it involves office work. I've had the opportunity to learn Visual Basic on my own to do part of it. I've also done two cheap shows, which together resulted in my selling one major piece. I'm doing some freelance work that is actually related to my textile design skills. I've taught a workshop on basketry to little kids. And I've just begun learning how to build a web site, so perhaps I'll have to learn how to set up links on this site.

The best thing though, may be something I instigated. I saw an article in a free advertising paper that comes every week about a local building I'd had my eye on for my pie-in-the-sky idea of an arts center with studios, a gallery/shop, rooms to give classes, etc. The owners of the building, who had been supposed to develop it but hadn't, had decided to give it up. Now what was to be done with it? So I thought what the heck and wrote the two people mentioned in the article and one of them, with an organization to back him, took up the cause. He got an article in the local real paper along with a supporting editorial and sent a letter to the owner. I haven't heard whether he has managed to get an answer back or not.

I'm feeling relatively secure with the various resources and relationships I have been forming. On of the very best things that has happened is that I realized a friend's husband (who had advanced degrees, but like many of us among the over-educated had been searching for work for some time unsuccessfully) had the right qualifications for an opening at the company where my part time job is. The connection has been made. It feels good to be able to fascilitate such things.

Between that and the arts center initiative, I'm beginning to accumulate a history here that includes having contributed to the well being of some of the people I've met. That's when I begin to feel that I've earned my place here.

My plans? More networking. More relationship building. More follow up on every opportunity I can find to develop my art or to use the skills I would like to use to earn my living. I bought a minimal set of acrylic paints today which I'm hoping will let me paint as I see the world, dark with lights on top, instead of the other way around as you must with water colors. I guess you could say I think shadows and distant to close and light instead of the other way around. For me, it feels really strange to paint the dark parts to define the light parts. A website through which I can sell. A really good source for beads. Some killer beading/embellishment/whatever pieces. Completing my AA2A pieces whether they make it onto the website or not.

And the aim at the very top? An actual holiday. It's funny that a part of the reason we came here was the balance of life and the time allowed by employers for holidays, yet we have not yet managed a single one, unless you count a day at a time on a weekend at one of the beach towns, and very few of those. Still life is good.