Sloppy Studio Annex & Archives: March 2006

2 weeks ago I got an email asking me the techniques I used for my June 2005 Journal quilt - this was Pandora's head with Angelina, printed from my original painting.

Yesterday I got the email that my Journal Quilt was going to be used in the Journal Quilt Book - very exciting news. A little later I got an email from Pamela Allen, sending congratulations to me on having 2 quilts in the book - so I went back and reread the letter - They are using June (Pandora) and Feb 2005 (Snowy Gates). This makes me very happy! DANCE, DANCE ~ TWIRL!!!! Pandora has been a really long project - she was started May of 2004 and was finally finished being beaded, bound and sleeved in March 2006! She is huge which was part of the time-thing but more importantly I wasn't totally healthy during this time. Tomorrow, I'll post the rest of my update . Having Snowy Gates accepted really excited me - this quilt was printed from a photograph I took of The Gates, in February right after the first snowfall. I was with Karen Cote and we walked through Central Park taking lots of photos, trying not to fall on the not yet shoveled walkways, loving the bright orange Gates against the grey snowy backdrop of the park. My quilt has the Gates thread-painted in Bright PolyNeon threads so they stand out - just as they did on our walk. The Bethesda Angel is called "Angel of the Waters Fountain". Congratulations to everyone who got their quilts accepted into the book~ Let's Happy Dance Together!

So did any of you miss me? I haven't been in the studio, except for a quick afternoon since the middle of February! A couple of things have kept me busy - The office that I work at is located in an old factory, we have 3 rooms out of 8 that we haven't used in about....6 years! No shit - except for me keeping quilting supplies, magazines, ebay items and old singer sewing machines (AND TABLES/CABINETS) in them we really didn't use the space. Another office opened up which was about 1000 square feet less than we have now. In theory the space would be great - to make that theory work however, requires purging 1000's of files, folders, boxes, desks, supplies, etc... and all the while continuing to run a PR firm SEAMLESSLY. The coordination of the technical move should have been perfect - however.... did you know my last name used to be Murphy? However.... between the phone company, the cable (TV and internet) and the IT stuff - it was a fucking god damn nightmare - causing me many tears (no shit actually tears and screams of frustration). Everything was coordinated around the fact that I was scheduled to have surgery on Wednesday, March 1. This surgery required several pre-op appointments, a series of CT-scans (for the Super Duper GPS navigation system). The surgery took 5 weeks to get scheduled with the hospital, doctor, office, etc. On Monday 2 days before the surgery - I had installers scheduled for the Cable/Internet and the phone company. Both should be there between 8 and 5 - I was there are 7:30. I got into the office and started working on getting my "stuff" in order. At 11 I tried calling to find out when anyone might show up - Cablevision told me that I could call at 5:45 because until 6pm they were not late - I mostly was nice saying they had to be here by 5 because I had things I needed to do for my surgery. The person the phone company was very helpful earlier in the week, the service guy had even come in on the previous Friday to look at what was needed - we had just had the Wiremold put in and everything was ready to go. 4:30 - I call the phone company woman - she says - Oh I thought you were going to call me earlier today Deirdre - the tech said you weren't ready for him so we had to reschedule - what day works for you? I went nuts - wanting to know what the tech didn't approve of - maybe he was upset that the final coat of paint wasn't on the walls. Ok this is now reschedule for the Monday AFTER surgery March 6. 5:00 - Cable tells me again that they aren't late and no one can help me 5:45 - I call Cable and they say within the next 90 minutes the tech is running late. 6:30 - No tech yet - I call my husband and tell him I'm at the office because I HAVE TO DO THIS 7:00 - 2 Techs show up. I explain we have Cablevision IO Digital cable in suite 210 and we are having it installed in suite 108 - we also have cable TV currently and will keep it. They are supposed to keep both services active for 3 weeks. The short story is that the techs, ran lines into suite 108 - I was supposed to provide a TV and computer so they could check the signal. They never needed it downstairs. They came up into the old office and asked for the laptop. I told them I was going to move my car to the front of the building - if I wasn't back soon, please call 911. I came back upstairs to find that one guy is on my boss' phone talking to his girlfriend, and the other one is blocking my view of my laptop. They say they're done, no I tell them, I have no internet on my main computers - you weren't supposed to do anything in suite 210. Well we unplugged some stuff but you can call in the morning because we can't figure it out. it is now 9:30! They leave, I leave and in the 10 minutes it takes me to get home I have totally worked myself into a manic state, I'm screaming out loud in the car asking myself why I need this shit now, blah blah blah. Then I start to get pissed because of the guy on my laptop. I come into the house and turn it on - look at the history and find that it is full of black websites, black porno websites and the guy has left his passwords on my laptop and I have logged into his email! I am ballistic! TOTALLY FUCKING NUTS - while I am screaming at the Cablevision people, my boss calls to tell me that he can't log onto the computer and he needs a document off the server - I tell him I am freaked out and that I will go in early to send it to him before he leaves for the meeting. 7:30a - I go back into the office with my laptop. My plan was to fax the document to him. Well the server doesn't have Office on it - we have it on the workstations and guess what - not only have the assholes blown off our internet they have totally fucked up the network and it will not connect at all. The Cablevision guy said do you have TV working - I go and check but the guys that came the first time cut the fucking wires right out of the wall - RIGHT off and they are flopping there not connected to ANYTHING! This takes 4 hour to fix - Our IT guys come and fix the problem - the Cablevision supervisors show up a while later and I explain to them that I will be out of the office but I am going to file a report with the FBI because this is total bullshit and I don't need this crap on my laptop - my husband and daughter don't use my laptop ever and now I have porno on it - no fucking way! I went to the new office (down 1 flight of stairs) with the cable guy and when I came up the woman I work with said that the doctors office had called, I was expecting them to call to tell me what time the operation was scheduled, I listen to the message and they say - remember to bring your scans - what scans? I had them taken on January 15th but I don't have them - so another hour or 2 and I am told to go and pick them up 2 towns away - can you tell this is a bad week? I get the scans - I get back to the office and now its 5pm. Wednesday - time to go to the hospital - I have my paperwork, my scans, everything - Tom is with me and we set off to St. Vincent's' - its ash Wednesday so we are the only people besides the doctors who don't have ashes. We are all set - the doctor comes in - now this is a Catholic hospital - this means the room you are in getting ready to go for the operation is a curtain draped changing booth - slightly wider than the one at the Gap, smaller than Chico's. Everyone is very nice - we are told the first operation was easier than expected and we will start early - things are looking up. The doctor was in to talk to us and he said we should be ready to go soon. Then he comes back - he says I have some bad news. Well I'm not dead so what's the deal - it seems that I have 38 fuzzy scans instead of 300+ finely focused ones - so they can't use the new and improved technology. FUCK - we can reschedule - the doctor is pissed, tom is freaked and I am really not ready to rearrange schedules again. I ask the doctor if he can do it without the new machine - he says yes, that is how he has done it for years - I say lets do it. A few minutes later a very nice Nun with Ashes comes over and tells me the doctor is really mad because he's giving the F-bomb to the radiology place that screwed up the scans. Operation over - I am totally packed and spend the worst night of my life (and I'm assuming Tom's life) trying to sleep without using my nose. The next day I'm scheduled to go in at 3 to have the packing out - its snowing HARD - I call at 9 and they say they will see me at 3. Then call 5 minutes later and ask if I can come right in - sure - not like I could sleep or anything. Morgan calls family and friends to tell them I'm fine - I pick up the phone to call tom (he is in the garage) to make me some soup - because he will be pissed if I do it. There is no dial tone - I know morgan is in her room I can hear the music through the wall, I say Tom. I hear Tom? Apparently I sounded like Tom, because Tristan didn't know it was me! LOL. I get some soup from Tom. Taking the packing out hurts terribly - it sucks... I am medicated, I go home and sleep and sleep. I have a couple of days when I slept a lot - it felt good and I even went into the studio for a few hours on Saturday. Monday I go back to the office at 7:30 - remember I have to meet the phone company. I come into the old office and pick up phone - its dead... seems they mixed up the work order and decided to terminate service before they installed the new one. This was fixed at 1:30 - but at noon I have a doctors appointment - I'm thinking just a check up - I almost died it hurt so bad! I burst into tears, i don't know if it really hurt this much, but I was not expecting it and with all the stress I totally broke down. I was a mess. I've had 2 more appointments these didn't hurt as much - but the doctor gives me tissues before just in case. Last Thursday we get a bill from the Cable company - $300 for that installation! I will deal with this later. Friday we are in the new office - everything is working well. I go upstairs and see a cable truck pulling away - I go back downstairs and we have no internet or TV. Seems the installers spliced off the line they cut and when that was terminated... goodbye cable. Hours again to fix, I do get the installation charge, and overlap charges removed and I will be sending them the bill from our IT people. This is going to be a good week - maybe even a great week right? I have 2 1/2 weeks until my friend Timi and I head off to take a week long class at Asilomar with Hollis and you know what - I don't even care that I won't have internet access maybe I'll toss my phone into the ocean. So that is part of why I was gone - we also actually had the office move in this time period - now its just a small matter of cleaning up the old place.

Sloppy Studio Annex & Archives

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Happy Birthday Adam

A is for .....

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Happy Dance and back in the studio

Friday, March 17, 2006

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Thursday, March 16, 2006

The dog ate my homework

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