Migraine, shiny happy things

Coming soon to JillHannah.etsy.com:

Looks like I'm doing "B" as my "Merry This & Happy That" card with recycled wallpaper envelopes...just as soon as I can get home and be productive without this stupid effing migraine ruling my life. I've was stuck at my parents' house from Monday through Wednesday because I was completely dead and couldn't drive, and now I'm at a friend's house for the same reason. Even being on the computer hurts my eyeballs and stabs my brain a bit, but I can only spend so many hours laying around dead with the dogs (thank goodness for dogs). I don't know how long I'll be stuck here now. Here is much closer to my own apartment and if I go really nuts and am well enough to do a big walk but not a drive I can walk home with my dog in the lovely 21° F (9° with wind chill) weather. But until then, I put a note up on my shop that I'm migraining and my shipping may be delayed. Fun. Good way to get sales. Wasn't the migraine thing why I started the shop in the first place? Well, this is my life and I have to deal with each piece of it as it comes.

A friend of mine from camp back in junior high also came down with a life-changing medical problem around the same time I did, but hers is much worse and had the potential to kill her. Now, she's getting sicker and sicker and she's been in the ICU for weeks and prayers and hope may be the only medicine left right now. My thoughts are with her, and I remember my own pain is quite managable by comparison.

Happy post!

vote vote vote vote vote

I want to make one version of my "Merry This and Happy That" card. Right now I have three finalists for the layout. The people in my family all like different ones, so I'm putting it to a vote. The winner of the vote is the one I will print. That simple. Your vote is way more influential than in any presidential election. You should feel special. Please judge each version on its own merits and not the lighting/photography since I'm still at my parents' and had to use my sister's camera with its complete unfamiliarity and lack of manual settings.

Thanks!

Cast Your Vote

Free Vote Casters by Bravenet.com

Merry This, Lacking That

Today, December 1, was supposed to be the big Coming Out Party for my "Merry This and Happy That" cards. Listing them on Etsy, photos up on Flickr, Twittering my brains out, and then dolling myself up in business cute (not to be confused with business casual) and hopping around to appropriate-seeming salons, coffee shops, and boutiques in the Andersonville, Lakeview, and Lincoln Park neighborhoods of Chicago (time and other life-factors to determine where and how many such places I'd hit before the day's end).

Today, December 1, I was still not quite happy with the cards when the cleaning people got to my apartment and I had to leave with the dog so he wouldn't eat them (the people, not the cards), and after digging my car out of the snow and heading off to run an errand or two, I rolled down the driver side window to help finish clearing the snow when CACHUNK the whole window fell off its track and down into the door where it stuck, jutting up slightly and uselessly. And it was cold. And wet. And I had the dog with me. And I don't have a garage or any indoor safe place to keep my car for any length of time other than my parents' house 45 minutes away.

So my car is in the shop and my dog and I are both back at my parents' where I'm trying to get work done. I brought a suitcase full of paper and tools and my computer and such and I'm hoping to be at least somewhat productive and double hoping that they can finish my car tomorrow (a maybe at best from the mechanic).

This is the kind of thing that is far from tragic or terrible. It's not a big deal and only a temporary annoyance, but it's still frustrating. As they say in Yiddish, "A mench tracht und Got lacht" (please note it rhymes), or, "A person plans and God laughs."

Cards may be up later tonight. Or tomorrow. Or the next day. But there should be cards.