too much to do, not nearly enough time

My crafts fair success, plus the fact that a first-rate photographer has offered to photograph my work, means I'm going to open an Etsy store. I was going to set up my own website, but started poking around online to find out about web hosting and web hosting software, and felt like I was drowning. Etsy is much easier, to start. Eventually, I want to sell OAK (one of a kind) items at Etsy, and have a website with my basic designs which people can custom-order in different stones and lengths.

But I have to make quite a bit of new jewelry, since I sold a lot of my best pieces at the crafts fair and after. Also have to make holiday gifts for Judy and Lucie.

Also - someone planted the idea of reselling beads in my head. My idea here is to do it on Ebay, to specialize in fancy cuts and hard-to-find stones. I've been checking Indian bead websites, and there's some pretty eye-popping stuff that can be broken down into smaller lots and sold at a profit. I think I'll start my selling some of my own overstock - I have a bunch of big rhodochrosite tabs and have never figured out what to do with them. And since I got a very generous bonus from work, I have some seed money for starting to buy from overseas.

And I'm also getting closer to knuckling down and writing the novel that's been floating in my head for a few years. My problem with writing a novel is to come up with a plot which is not too embarassingly close to my own life. I've been floating an idea with a couple of characters based on people I've known (and one kind of like me), but a plot very dissimilar to my actual connections with those people I've known.

One of the people I plan to borrow from is W., and I don't think I've ever discussed him here, and that will take another chunk of time, when I get around to it.

I'm madly excited about getting service on my new phone on Saturday, I've already started to enter some contacts. I'm just happy every time I turn it on, and look forward to being a textin' fool, getting a cool ringtone, taking pictures, and so on. (I'm going to try to do the bead photography on my own.)

I recently read an amazing book, Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, and recommend it wholeheartedly. I wish I still had that Amazon widget or could figure out how to get it back. I'm definitely confused with all aspects of "monetizing" my blog, although I guess I do have some ads on here. I doubt I've made a dime, but that's not what I'm here for.

Yaarana, K3G, and a nice start to the new year

Between last night and this morning, I watched Yaarana (1981), which I found to be a very sweet and entertaining movie, despite the confusing and sometimes bizarre plot.  So many of the Indian movies I've seen focus on family, but this was different: all about friendship.  There is something very old-fashioned about the movie.  Early on, Amitabh plays the country-boy-in-the-big-city, which I like just as much as the angry-young-man.  His relationship with his best friend's son is charming; he works really well with children.  And he looks so very handsome in this film.  I've also become very fond of the song "Sara Zamana."

I also finally finished watching Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (2001), which was very much to my liking.  Since Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was the first Indian movie I ever saw, that became something of a baseline for me, as far as "masala" movies (that is, Indian movies that mix comedy, drama, romance, and a lot of music).  KANK is packed full of wonderful stars, a lot of color, and some great music.  K3G is very similar, with some of the same stars.  And I cried a lot at the end.

For those of you who are reading this for the film-related content -- I wanted to mention that my number-one online reference is the Internet Movie Database.  If you need the year of a movie, the name of a cast member, and particularly to see what other movies an actor or director has made, you can't do any better.

This has been a great long weekend -- unexpectedly long, since I didn't get the OK to take today off until Saturday night.  (Email issues.)  I've taken some long walks, watched some movies, and have been generally calm.  My mind seems to be free of static and of bad thinking.  Terrible how badly I can upset myself with the junk between my ears.

I made eight bracelets yesterday.  In looking for some cheaper materials to conserve my supply of silver, I went back to memory wire bracelets.  I made a set of three with soft fluorite nuggets (which is green and purple), a little amethyst and a few Thai silver beads, and then a set of five with small faceted round rock crystal and smokey quartz.  I love wearing bracelets, since bracelets and rings are the jewelry I can see best on myself; I can see and enjoy what I'm wearing.  I'm also a fiend for earrings.  I wear fewer necklaces because sometimes they just seem too busy with printed tops and being so close to the earrings.  But that's just me.  I also love anklets and can't wait until they're back in season again.  But it's December...I'll have to wait a bit.

Also -- right under the wire for 2011 -- Barry's gotten himself a bit of work.  Our lovely downstairs neighbor, Johnny, who died some weeks back, was on disability; since the landlord doesn't live on premises and this building is too small to have a super, Johnny was kind of Carmine's assistant.  He did things like put out the garbage, washed the floors in the hallways, let the meter-readers into the basement and let Carmine know if there was any problem in the building (blown light bulbs, etc.).  I had suggested to Barry that while he isn't working, he could ask Carmine if he could take over these tasks.  I didn't know if Carmine was paying Johnny anything (although I guessed that he was), but I figured it would at least be a goodwill gesture.  So Barry is now the new Johnny, and will get $100 a month from Carmine, off the books.  Even though it isn't a significant amount of money, Barry will feel good that he's doing something and bringing something in.  I'm very glad about it.

Oddly, I haven't heard from the "EF" woman who offered to take me to the MOMA movies on her membership, although I posted my email address some days ago.  Don't think I can afford any $12 tickets if I don't hear from her -- $5 is hard enough, this time of the month.

I've also decided to pinch pennies even more and join the gym -- there is a Lucille Roberts in the building where I work, and it doesn't get more convenient.  It's under $30 a month, which even I can afford.  I dropped my Filesonic membership, which I mostly used for downloading ebooks (I have more now than I'll be able to read for years and years), which puts another $9/month back in my pocket, and will probably also drop Pogo (the casual-games site I subscribe to, also around $10 a month).  I'll make it work.

i haz a Kindle/more beads

Too bad my Amazon Associates app has crapped out just when I'm singing the praises not only of a book or album they sell, but of a product you can only get from them.  The Kindle might be my favorite high-tech gizmo ever.  Honestly, it was easier to start using it than it was with my mp3 player.  And it's insanely cute.  Beats out my beloved mp3 player as far as what it does compared to its size.  Best.  Present.  Ever.  Best. Husband. Ever.

So I have a really interesting task for Monday.  There is a sample necklace with ten different beads, and they need to be sourced locally, to facilitate quick reordering.  The thing is, they're pretty unusual beads, ten different ones, and I only know what three of them are.  I think most of them are weird jaspers and agates.  It seems like the sellers of beads and stones are always finding some variant of jasper and making up a name for it.  When I started beading, there weren't quite so many jaspers running around.  There was picture/landscape jasper (tan with dark brown stripes), poppy jasper (brown with some reddish and whitish markings), red jasper, dalmatian jasper (white with black spots, natch), ocean jasper (mostly green with distinctive markings), fancy jasper (I now see this labeled "Indian agate"), and not too many more I can think of.  Leopardskin jasper.  But now there are more and more; I see some of them at work.  And I'll be seeing a lot more on Monday, when I have to go to vendors in the city and see if they can match my samples.  Kind of a bead treasure hunt.  I get to bead-hunt a lot, with our vendors and sometimes online, and it would be a little more fun if I didn't dread not being able to find a particular bead.  But it's sorta fun anyway.

So it's my birthday, and there was a cake at work, and a Kindle and some very fine cheesecake at home.  Lots of nice wishes on Face-itty Book-itty.  Not a bad day at all.

rocks and cell phones

I was given some, well, clerical work yesterday afternoon that also consumed a lot of today and will probably take a chunk of tomorrow.  (I don't in any way resent it -- most of us have to do some form of paperwork and/or record-keeping.  This job involved a huge stack of papers concerning OAKs (one of a kind pieces), and the job was basically to unstaple it, write the OAK number from the work order on the photo, and restaple it with the photo on top.  (Then I get to put them in numerical order, punch them and file them in looseleafs.)

Of course, the OAKs are made with unbelievably beautiful stones, and looking at them all day was mesmerizing.  More stones than beads, but I love stones, even if I don't use them.  I don't think I mentioned that I stopped into Bergdorf Goodman on Saturday (I had been in Manhattan to see Herb), to see Stephen's jewelry there.  It's actually the first place I ever saw his work.  His space has moved since I was last there, maybe 1996 or 97.  But his new space is beautiful, the OAKs were jaw-dropping, and everything was well-lit and beautifully displayed.

Barry and I are real knuckleheads when it comes to cell phones.  We've always kind of dragged our feet on them.  We've had them a few times, for very short times, but truthfully, neither of us found the need to use them very much.  I can be in a store and call Barry to see if he needs anything.  I can call him from the city -- or vice-versa -- to tell him when I expect to be home.  He can call a car service and go downstairs, and call if the car is late.  But that's about it.  We recently got a pay-as-you-go phone which we share.  It can do all kinds of fancy shit, but I haven't taken the time to read the teeny little booklet, and can't even program in phone numbers.

So Barry e-mailed me at work today, and that said I'd gotten two texts, one that said "Hi" and one that said "Hi Jennifer."  They were not signed.  Not many people have our cell number.  So I took a look at the originating phone number, and sure enough, it was Herb.  So I kinda figured out how to reply, and texted "Hi harold, i'm not very good at texting but it was nice to hear from you jen."  People, this is the very first text message I ever sent in my life.  That phone is a little more intuitive than I'd realized, and I'm fairly good with computers...but that thing is so tiny.  And the instructions are tiny.  It's not that I can't read the small instructions and keypad, it's just that I'm somewhat intimidated or put off.  I'm not yet ready for this:


It took me a couple of viewings to realized that this isn't really a phone for cell phone dummies -- it's a phone for older folk.  Maybe older and cellphone dummies.  But hey, young folk are not going to get excited about the "jitterbug" music, even though jitterbugging was hip for about twenty-five minutes in, I think it was the late 90s.  Anyway, I'll probably need one in about 30 eyars.

mad about jewelry and very crazy

I'm enjoying my job but the work is hard and complicated.  The people are very nice and a half dozen women -- basically all of the female staff -- eat lunch together in the lunchroom every day.  Nice having lunch with women, even if I am the eldest.

I have to say it's very cool working around a gazillion beads every day. For a lot of this morning, I seemed to be mostly running around bringing beads from one place to another, and I felt like I was living a charmed life.  But today did get very busy when I had to start doing some very complicated pricing paperwork and inputting things into the system and assigning numbers to parts and calling vendors.  It was a little overwhelming -- it had been explained to me and I took copious notes, but it takes a little while to put that together with actually doing the work.  The last person who had this job didn't last long, but the one before her put together some really great instructions and guides, as well as spreadsheets I can copy and update.  I'm getting my Excel chops back and learning the in-house computer program.

I wish I spoke better Spanish.  I understand it fairly well, but really can't speak it.  A lot of the women in design and factory are Spanish-speaking, and although we communicate fairly well, it would be better if I could speak Spanish.

I met Stephen my first day, and he was very nice.  He actually quizzed me on a bead, and I answered too quickly -- a little nervous -- and got it wrong.  But the second guess was right.  I like all four brothers, who are all co-owners and all work there.

It's just insane that I got a bead job.  Even though I'm basically in the production department of a manufacturer, it's beads and jewelry.  When I get those costing forms to fill out and look things up and check pricings -- each one is a bunch of papers in a big zip-loc bag, with a sample of the piece of jewelry to which it refers.  So I can look at it and handle it -- plus, I have to make spreadsheets with pictures of the jewelry in it.  Today, I had to price beads for a piece of jewelry, and two of the beads were priced by the gram, rather than by the bead or strand.  So I had to go to the design room, show the necklace, get one of each of the beads loose, and weight them.  Oddly enough, this job is very similar to the one Barry had at many button companies, but I get to do it with beads.  Yahoo!

Some years ago, I had a very boring job but worked right across the street from the block (37th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) where there are about eight bead stores, plus a few on Sixth Avenue and one on Seventh.  Almost every day, I would spend my lunch hour in those store, probably only buying one in ten times.  Mostly I just liked to be around them and get inspired.  My job is kind of like that, although I don't have the time to stand and gawk at the beads.  Though I must admit, I did go into the bead room a couple of times and spend just about two minutes staring and slowly turning around -- it's not a large room, but strands of beads on hooks cover every wall, floor to ceiling.  In fact, the first time I went in, I couldn't find the light switch -- it's hidden under strands of pearls.  Every time I walk near a wall of beads (there are three, not counting the bead room), I quiz myself a little bit.  I'm better at beads than at Spanish. 

But it's pretty much all working, except lunch hour.  There's no slack time at all; on the other hand, everyone pretty much bolts at 5:30. But working with beads, and working for a talented designer, is a pretty wonderful job, so far.

the good used bookstore

I went to the old neighborhood (Midwood/Kings Highway) to see the podiatrist, who took the stitches out of my heel, and pronounced me pretty much OK, I need to wash the cut with soap and water and use Neosporin and a bandaid, and see him again in two weeks. I can walk on it, but with some care.

Afterward, Barry and I got a bite to eat in a diner on Coney Island Avenue, and I realized I was just a half block from one of my favorite used book stores ever. Right now, I don't know of one that could beat it except The Strand. But this one, which is simply called Here's A Bookstore, is probably the closest bookstore to where I live (excluding Judaica stores), and has a pretty wide and deep variety for a smallish store. They have a lot of Judaica themselves, as well as other occult and new age book; a nice section of books about New York; classic and contemporary novels; mysteries, horror, romance, sci-fi and true crime; art, crafts, science, movies; plays and poetry; business and history; pets. What's more, you can find an awful lot of first editions there, though almost always without dustcovers (or possibly tattered dustcovers for books from the 60s on), and sometimes in rough shape. On my last trip there, I bought a first edition of a book called The House That Shadows Built by Will Irwin, a history of the movies written in 1928! No dust cover, and the top of the spine a little chewed, but otherwise in lovely shape for $7.50. I've also bought a couple of good books about Coney Island there, and a few about the space program (I'm a bit of a nut about the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo era of space flight).

This is what I got today:
Bag of Bones by Stephen King, paperback. I thought I hadn't read this but now I think maybe I did.
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey. because I enjoyed the movie. Trade paperback.
And Never Let Her Go by Ann Rule, hardcover. I have a terrible sweet tooth for true crime, and Ann Rule is hands-down the best.
I Me Mine by George Harrison, hardcover. I've never read it.
A Wolf at the Table by Augustin Burroughs, hardcover. I haven't read this, but it's another memoir by a great memoirist.
Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather, hardcover, first edition (1940, no dust cover, mid-spine a little chewed).
The first edition cost me $5.00. The whole lot ran me a bit under $50.

If you're new or newish to this blog, I lost about 95% of my books in The Great Storage Disaster. When we moved in to this too-small apartment, we were forced to stash some 60 cartons or so in storage, which we could really not afford, and we eventually lost. (The storage was something like $130 a month; if we had it, we could have rented a bigger apartment.) I lost most of my books (including most of my cookbooks), all of my journals (about 40 years' worth) and my writing samples and poetry and magazines in which I published, my baseball card collection, my postcard collection, my mother's wedding dress, and of my vinyl and a lot of my CDs and most of my cassettes (the bulk of my bootlegs were on cassette, mostly Elvis Costello).

I've been trying to embrace the paring-down aspect of it, but the truth is that I liked keeping books I had read and often dipped into something over and over. The books I have now are really random because they're mostly freebies from the "take" shelves at Penguin that I accumulated over my time there (I was on staff there for two years, but the year before that I temped there for about nine months). I haven't read most of them, and am not sure if I will. I was always a subway reader, so I had two hours of good reading time five days a week, and since I read fast, I could plow through lots and lots of books. I don't really have a good reading spot here at home, though I always take a book to a doctor's appointment or on a subway or when I go sit on the Boardwalk (I will probably start doing that again very soon). I've actually been reading again this week, a really good book of blues-oriented short stories that I'm reviewing for Blues Revue. Makes we want to build more reading time into the day.

Because of the doctor's appointment and the bookstore, and then shopping up fruit and vegetables on the way home (our amazing produce store closes from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and follows the religious Jews to their summer enclave in Deal, NJ), I didn't really do much other work today (though I did read one of the blues short stories while waiting for the podiatrist). I did make some new Facebook friends from the "Dan Lynch Alumni" list. (Dan Lynch was a ratty old blues bar with some of the best music in the city, from the early 80s until the middle 90s. The Holmes Brothers used to play a lot of Saturday nights there.) And in jewelry world, I gave three pair of earrings and a business card to one of the nurses there, because we determined on my last visit that we both adore Swarovski. That was a freebie, but the freebies are also in part about networking.

What I feel like doing now is playing with my beads for a while. I got some nice vintage beads yesterday that I won on eBay, some twisty opalescent green ones; some "blueberries and cream" ones, also twisty; and some eyepopping channel-set violet Swarovskis with a loop on each side, for earring or bracelet components. One of my jewelry weak spots is wire-wrapping briolettes. Some months back, I won an auction of 100 lots of Swarovski from an eBay seller I was familiar with, each lot being one large bead or maybe half a dozen smaller ones, a mix of new and vintage, and there are quite a few beautiful briolettes in there, so I'm going to knuckle down and work on making some nice earrings with them. (I also have half a dozen beautiful briolettes in imperial topaz -- the good, real stuff -- that I've been sitting on for half a dozen years until I figured out how to use them, or got good enough.