The Big Ol' Dork Show

I just want to start by letting all of you know that I'm old enough to remember when Fandom was singular.
We were all fans, or rather Fen. The star trek fans, the Star Wars fans, the Gamers, the literary fans, the battlestar Galactica fans, the comic book fans; we were all one big melting pot of Fandom.

These days I'm a big MCU fan, but I used to be a hardcore DC girl.
But here's one of my favorite moments of beauty from an old animated film, The Last Unicorn. Keep in mind that a group of the animators from the studio Rankin Bass was using went on to form "Studio Ghibli".

https://youtu.be/NUGZoG9KPnY

I was about 8 years old when I saw this in the theater with my best friend. It was formative. I knew two things in that moment: That magic is real, but so rare that (like Molly True) I would never find it.

So I was determined to bring magic into the world. That's why I created a performance troupe and toured the ten faires and othere events performing as the queen of the Fairies for 15 years.

Joy comes to me in many forms:
Visiting Lake Michigan in any weather.
Sitting in the dappled shade and eating cold fruit on a warm day.
Stepping onstage.
Reading a great story.
Telling a great story.
Singing in a place with good acoustics.
Back scritches.
Tasting something indulgent.

Hey there! I'm boycotting Tumblr for today, so I thought I'd return to this platform.

I still don't have regular keyboard access, so expect brevity in the future.

I'm a busy bee making embroidery projects for clients and gifts.

More soon!

So it happens that if I wanted to actually sew for a living, there are jobs available. I'm planning to see if any of those opportunities would be open to my S.O., since he has actually done factory assembly for clothing. (Me, I'm a custom-art-project worker.)

However, I am not sure that a sewing job is what I want at this time. It's becoming clear to me that the work I do is valuable to me, I love my customers, and I appreciate the challenges that are thrown in my direction.

My problem is in how I'm treated, and how I'm managed.

And that one worker who can only do the sales portion of our job. The latest weirdness? She recently whined to anyone who would listen about how *TIRED* her arm was after dusting the whole department. She came up with a "Dusting Chore List" divvying up all the items in our newly-expanded area amongst the various members of our department. As she is NOT my manager, I politely declined. What's weird is that I was the only one to politely decline.


The other thorn in my side is my S.O.'s P.O.
I think I've complained before about her, but it's just frustrating. She's a short, slender blonde woman who adds extra "s" to all of her siblants and often uptalks... while being nasty and exhibiting bully tactics when dealing with my S.O.
And my immediate knee-jerk reaction to bullies, and particularly Mean Girls is to pull out the STOP THAT cannon and open fire.

We've butted heads.

Which is a shame. I should be her ally, but she worked really hard to alienate me immediately. She's even gone so far as to say things to my S.O. like, "Well, if I were her that would be a deal-breaker".

Because people in his position clearly don't *deserve* a partner.

And since he can't use any of his marketable skills due to the restrictions placed on him by the system, he's working minimum wage physical labor jobs and taking home peanuts. She wouldn't let him take a promotion at the factory because he'd have to push the "Enter" button on a computer to confirm weights on the line. BECAUSE ITS A COMPUTER AND OMG YOU ARE A SMART PERSON AND I DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HOW COMPUTERS WORK AND YOU'LL USE THE ENTER BUTTON TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD AND EAT A BABY.

And that's the other thing that completely chaps my @ss. She's clearly threatened and intimidated by intelligence.
And assertiveness.

You can imagine how she sees me.

She has threatened him with re-incarceraton more than once. She has used the threat of federal searches to tell us that our home is unsafe and unsatisfactory. (Gee, the FBI didn't seem to have any trouble searching our property when they blew down our door at 6am with a warrant.)

The other day, I was at work and my S.O. was watching Anime with a mutual friend. She had been kind enough to bring her copy of Black Butler so that he could see it. The P.O. shows up, and gives him the third degree about "What are you watching?" and also, "Why is SHE here? Where is (Kukla)?"

I sent her a letter, last year. In it, I let her know what my general schedule is, particularly that I'm at work in the evening on Mondays and Thursdays. I've repeated this to her in person several times.

She couldn't be bothered to keep track of this stuff. I'm willing to bet that she doesn't even really know what my S.O. was convicted of, what the circumstances were, or anything about his life. She's just in charge of bullying him so that he won't EAT A BABY.

*sigh*.

We have discussed complaining about her to a supervisor, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I found a friend of a friend who is a P.O. and her opinion is that we're being mistreated. I intend to talk to that person about how I can register a complaint.

My S.O. says that he's worried that we'd be getting rid of "King Log."
I pointed to the beak marks on our life and said, "Oh, no, honey. We've got King Stork now. I'm personally ready for a more different stork, or a new log."

Thing is, I just threw a reading with my cards and got really positive outcomes. But we're being crossed with The Empress.


Thoughts?

I've got some time to do some blogging finally. Brad had his second knee replaced on Tuesday. I'm his Joint Coach (and being a Joint Coach on April 20th is likely to be funny to certain people) which really means that I help with his physical therapy and I fetch and carry for him.
It's vacation for me; this is a lot less than I deal with on an average day.

On the other hand, I did have to pull the trigger on vacation pay so that I could take the time necessary. I was kind of hoping that my S.O. would get a two-day schedule (as he has been getting for almost a month) so that I could get some hours in and reserve that other week of vacation pay, but no. His employer suddenly needed him five days this week.
Ugh.

OH, well. I get to spend quality time with Brad, get some sewing done for him (and me), soak up the internets (MMMM SWEET DELICIOUS INTERNETS) and the like.

I do have an event on Saturday, which will get its own post.

Part of why I've had no time for all this is that we ran our BJD Convention back-to-back; The first five years it was in November, then this year we hosted it in March.
Woof.

BUT that means that I won't be as insane this fall, which will be nice. March is a good time for it, so long as we do NOT schedule it opposite NakaKon again. (Not that NakaKon has paid the slightest attention to St. Louis events in the past...) The super good news is that Naka took the weekend of St. Patrick's Day, which is sacred to me for SO MANY REASONS so I can camp out on a different weekend next year. WHoo!

Our financial situation is still dicey. For those of you who are taking a big breath to join in, I want to be really clear about this: Rent is one of my whole paychecks. I get paid every two weeks. For the last month, my S.O. has gotten a schedule that included two whole days each week. This is "Choose which utility to pay based upon when they're shutting it off" poor, not "Oh, no, I can't afford to buy that fun thing" poor. This is "Choose between food/gas and insurance" poor, which is part of why we don't get a tax refund. We actually get the best deal if we file as "Married, filing separately" which almost never happens.

I'm trying to get more embroidery work, but my employer has basically told me that I'm not allowed to consult on the side anymore. Apparently, there was some employee at the other store who seriously said, "Oh, you don't have to buy that machine. I own it; I'll do your project for you for $$."
Which, let's be honest, is not professional or appropriate. However, the Powers That Be (who can afford their own insurance even if they don't provide any to us) also object to the following conversation:
"Kukla, you're a great teacher. I really need some help with my machine."
"NO problem. Bring it in and I'll do a one-on-one class with you here at the store."
"Yeah, but I just had knee surgery and I'm not supposed to be carrying it around. I was kind of hoping to have you come to my house and help me?"
"Sure, but I charge a consulting fee since I'd be driving to your house during my personal time."
"No problem. I'll pay you whatever you want to come over and help me in my own sewing room one-on-one."

I'm no longer allowed to do that.
I tried pointing out that our store only does in-home visits once per purchase of the big expensive machines. (Giant quilting machines set up on a frame and professional embroidery machines.) It's part of our deal. However, there has never been a fee schedule set up for customers who want additional in-home classes. I've even been told, "No, we don't want to do that."
So I did it on my own as a consultant.

Now I'm being told I'm not allowed to do that at all, but we still don't have a rate to charge customers for it!

It gets worse.
That in-home visit? That's me. I drive there. In my car.
I've been informed that my employer will reimburse me for mileage OR pay me for my time driving. I'm not allowed to be paid both.
That's some old bullshit.
When I was doing that once or twice here or there, it was less of a big deal. I've now driven to Eureka, Troy, Pacific, and the like. (50 mile radius is the theory.)
So I have to drive to work, clock in, then drive to Eureka (for example) but I don't get my mileage reimbursed. I pay for the gas out of my pocket.

So I'm going to renegotiate my deal with the owner.
The fact is, I'm their only full time educator. I'm the only one who can teach these big machines, particularly since our professional quilter retired. If they want me to pay for the gasoline and wear and tear on my vehicle, I am not going to do on-site visits anymore.
They can find someone else to do it.
What's more, the idea that I can't teach on my own time is ridiculous. I have worked very hard to avoid conflicts of interest; I'm not going to sell myself at the expense of my employer. However, my time is my own. I'm not working for another dealership; if nothing else I'm promoting my employer. I have never consulted with a client without recommending some particular product or service. I don't service machines in homes, I recommend bringing in the machine to be serviced. I don't sell clients thread or stabilizer out of my stash, I suggest products we carry in the store. On a couple of occasions, customers asked me to buy things on their behalf and hold them at the store; I do the transaction over the phone once I'm back on the clock and the customer picks up their goodies the next time they come it.
I also have particular customers who bond with me personally and don't want to deal with some of the other employees. One young professional was treated very discourteously by the actual store manager (which surprised me until I found out that the reason she was snippy was something my immediate supervisor screwed up.)
Some of the ladies "feel uncomfortable" around the current management. Some of them straight up don't like a particular employee. When someone like that asks me to help them out, I don't object to that. I should be paid for my time, and I'll use it as an excuse to sell them some stuff from my store in a way that keeps them from having to deal with the people they don't like.

Yet, somehow, the owner has been persuaded that we're stealing from her.

I know who did the persuading, too.

I may have to have a parachute ready. I need to be able to say, "Or I'm out of here." I might be able to work in sewing or something; one of my newly former coworkers has a great job doing alterations and I could probably get in there doing that work.

But I did this dance at the end of the year, and while there was a slight improvement, things are getting awful again.



Psst: Someone find me a job that pays well enough to support my household, offers good insurance, and uses something from my amazing skill set? Please?

The season is in full swing by the look of things.

I joined a church choir, and I admit that I missed singing in a chorus. We're working on the Christmas Musial, and it sounds great. A couple of weeks ago was the annual Choir Banquet, and a "Christmas Music Night" at the church as well. Yay! Singing! Yay! Eating!

Anyone who wants to hear me sing in the choir on Christmas Day is welcome to the services at Overland Baptist Church. The party starts at 10:15am and on Christmas will include the musical presentation we've been working on. It's been really fun putting it together.

(I should amend that; everyone is welcome at OBC. For real. More on this in a different post.)

I'm looking around at New Year's events. One in particular stood out: Casaloma Ballroom is having a "do", with a 20's theme and burlesque show. It's around the corner from me so I can stumble home in peace and get a nap before going to work on New Year's Day. (Don't have to be in until 11:45, though...)
Also, there's been discussion of a party at the dwelling of the Curious Cat, which would likely be another excellent option.
On the other hand, my S.O. can't attend either one of those.

So if you know about some New Year's Eve revelry that does not include sexy shows OR children in the house, let a Kukla know!!

Oh for crying out loud.

The truck, my beloved green Sonoma mini-truck, needs to be taken behind the shed and shot. It's been driving badly for a while now, and I finally took it in to get it looked at. Verdict?

Brake cable snapped; needs to be replaced.
Rear brake cylinder also needs to be replaced (probably due to damage from when the brake cable went. It's leaking brake fluid.)
That, alone, will be around $600. If that was all, I'd have blown everything I have to get the work done. I need a vehicle that runs.

BUT.

It also needs new tires. Why?
The front alignment is completely wacky. What's more, it's old enough that the parts in question are rusty, so my mechanic will really have to replace things like tie rods and whatnot rather than adjusting them, to the tune of about $1000.

He actually opened the conversation with, "So, how much money do you want to sink into this truck?"

Engine runs ok, transmission shows no issues... so far. BUT there's another problem:
The odometer is... perhaps compromised. There's been a strange electrical problem in the dashboard for a while now. Periodically, there's a rave party in there, and everything lights up randomly. Sometimes the odometer is blank. Sometimes it shows a reading and changes as I drive. Sometimes it shows unparsable symbols and does nothing. The trip odometer resets each time I start the vehicle.

But, if the odometer (which is weirdly working today) turns out to be accurate, I'm at about 127000 miles.

It's an 03.

And here's the awful part: I still owe $2700 on it. Kelly Blue Book won't even give me a value on the damn thing in its current condition. I'm behind on the payments, too. Plus my credit is wrecked.

I talked to the Fusz network, they had a vehicle I wanted. However, they won't sell me something for less than about 10K. I don't really want a $10K vehicle. (Frankly, I don't want another vehicle, but I don't see a solution.) So I could get into a car I don't want for a price I don't want to pay, but it will likely be reliable for a couple of years while I figure my stuff out. I could maybe trade it in later for something more in keeping with my needs, I guess. They really want to shoehorn me into a Chevy Malibu or some such.

I went to Carmax; they have options, but the options are similar to the Fusz network. To be fair, I decided that the Dodge SUV/Wagon? wasn't too bad, although it was SILVER which... BLEAH.
Plus Carmax prices skew high; I have fear of my car not having any value after two years, compared to what I will have paid on it at that point.

I went to a little buy-here-pay-here place, they had the car I wanted, though not in the condition I would prefer. High miles, cheap price. I'd be paying $135... every two weeks. (Which to be fair is what I was paying before, split into two payments instead of coming due at the same time as RENT all the time...)
But they don't want my truck.


So it looks like I can:
Let Wells Fargo eat my truck. Volunteer to let them repossess it. Hope it doesn't wind up costing me money after they sell it. To be fair, my credit is already wrecked; I might as well just let them have the damn thing since I can't get it street-safe. (BLARGH.)
Then I could save up the $1000 that the corner place wants for their POS I'm trying to buy.

I could try to get Fusz to eat the truck, and drive something I don't like for too much money.
Ditto for Carmax.

Can I curl up in a corner and die now?

August 9th, 2016
Dear Mr. Page,
I am a St. Louis resident, and I have attended various theatrical productions over the years. I have been privileged to see you perform in many shows, and I always look forward to more. You have a magnificent stage presence and a truly beautiful voice. I ought to have written you a fan letter long before this.
Tonight I was witness to an unusual event. Protesters came and staged a revolt at the back of the Muny, just after the intermission. Having never seen Aida, at first I thought it had something to do with the show, but it quickly became apparent that this was an outside contingent. While I applaud their message, I was saddened by the choices that the protesters made about how they presented their appeal. Their interruption was disrespectful to the show, the performers, and the crew who work so very hard at the Muny to provide entertainment.
And this particular show was important, for a variety of reasons.
Once things calmed down, you stepped onto the stage with Michelle Williams, and addressed the crowd. For years, I have seen you transform yourself into a variety of characters for amusement. However, tonight I saw you transform into a spiritual leader for all mankind, and for a moment, the air shimmered.
I agreed with every single word you spoke. You reached out and embraced us, reminded us of our humanity, and reminded us that the show we had all come to see had an important message, too. With enormous dignity and grace you smoothed over the interruption and you wove your audience (and fellow performers and crew) back together into whole cloth.
Your words touched me, personally, in a way that I am not sure I can ever explain, but I wish to try. You see, I arrived at this performance pondering a personal issue. I am contemplating a career change, and a drastic one at that. I feel that I am being called into a life of non-denominational religious service. You spoke from the heart, and touched my spirit. You reminded me that we are all in service to each other, every day, regardless of who we are or what our job might be.
Thank you, Mr. Page. Thank you for being such a kind, thoughtful, understanding human being. Thank you for sharing your gift of eloquence with us tonight. Thank you for your ongoing performances. Thank you for reminding me that the divine speaks through us at the most unexpected times, even complicated ones. Thank you for being yourself. You are a star, and a hero.

Your fan very truly,
Kukla

"GOOD LAWD THAT'S A LOT 'O MONEY!!!"

I looked up tickets for Young Frankenstein. See above. The "cheap" seats are going to be like $50.

The awful thing is that the show is absolutely WORTH that. I'm serious; it's a fantastic show. I loved it immensely when I got to see it at the Fox, several years ago.

However, that's like my entertainment budget for the month, most of which I already blew last night at Sanctuaria. (I bought a pitcher. Of gorgeous goo. I regret nothing.)

Now, if I could get to the line early enough, it might be worth trying to get to the free seats. However, I'm not sure that's going to work. I do have to be at Jackman's until close on Friday, which is 6pm.

So my thoughts are as follows:
I could try for the Saturday night show, get there REALLY early with a picnic lunch and hang out in line for hours to see the show for free, and then hit the Tiki Bar afterward for a Swinging Saturday Night Crowd...

OR

I could bat my eyelashes at my friends and see who wants to buy me a ticket in exchange for, say, a ride, and then hit the Tiki Bar afterward for a Frolicky Friday Night Crowd...

OR

I could give this show a miss this time (oh no!) and just hit the Tiki Bar for a delicious cocktail. After all, I can't bring The Sig Other to the show; he can't go to parks, and the Muny is located in Forest Park...

OR

I could see if a certain REALLY close friend of mine could maybe swing me a ticket for Friday or Saturday. Said friend has... connections. Heck, if she can't get me a seat, I have a second friend who isn't as intimately close to me but REALLY likes me (and hey, it's even possible that she'd LIKE to be that close to me, heh) who also has connections.

Weigh in, if you have opinions.

EDIT:
WHOOPS. Turns out that Twisted Tiki is indeed closed on Tuesdays. Therefore, we are moving the party to Sanctuaria, the Tappas place across the street.

Speaking of social time, bradhicks has a birthday on Monday. Unfortunately, I work late on Mondays, and I'm broke as a joke. (Three or more months of not being able to do my embroidery business has HURT.)

I get paid on Tuesday. I'm also OFF on Tuesday. I proposed a gathering at Taha'a Twisted Tiki in the Grove. So let's celebrate his birthday (albeit slightly belatedly) and enjoy some food and Mai Tais!

I'm not sure what times he's posted on The Book Of Face, but basically consider it a "Happy Hour" arrangement. I'm game to be there from about 5pm until close to midnight, but I'd say to feel free to swing by for an hour and toast the Birthday Brad.

And yes, I'm using him as a lure to get my friends to come and play. Or maybe I'm using me as a lure to get him a Birthday Party. Hint: My Significant Other will be there, so maybe leave the kids at home for this one? Also, it's a bar?

So put on a summer sarong, Hawaiian shirt, or just a lei (over your clothes) and join us for some Twisted Tiki fun!

Oh, and if you don't own a Hawaiian shirt, perhaps you need to contact Curious Cat Clothing and pick one up. Just saying.