Black-eyed peas aren’t peas, but beans. And coffee beans aren’t beans, but seeds.

My life right now is pretty alright. I definitely feel like I'm in an in-between stage, so to speak. I feel like that's what most of life is though, there's usually not some huge momentous occasion or transformation happening. I'm just living, and isn't that what really makes life great? When someone gives the advice that we should all appreciate the little things, I think what they really mean, is that most of life is not a dramatic movie, it's just a pleasant, quiet day filled with wahtever you want, and if you don't like that, you probably won't like life.

I finished my schoolwork for this week just a couple of hours ago, and now I've got to complete the welcome home banner for the sub that my friend jimmy is on. His wife commissioned the piece and I'll be selling prints of the work to different wives in the sub wives committee. It's a nice opportunity for me. Right this second though, I'm able to relax. Every week of school a little bit of weight is lifted from my shoulders, and I wonder if this feeling will carry on into freelance work. Somehow I doubt it. I don't think any work will be quite as intense and frustrating as schoolwork for the Academy of Art. II am looking forward to graduation as well. It's been a long, difficult ride.

In other news, I've been having some trouble with my next door neighbor. To make a long story short, it turns out she's completely nuts lol. If I could explain her actions i would but I honestly can't. She's been making noise complaints about us despite two conversations where she said she'd just tell me if there was a problem. Perhaps I'll write another entry specifically about her, but getting into it feels a bit redundant, since I've been talking about it a lot lately. She made another complaint, and it got the police involved. This got joe's command involved, which means we can't ignore her anymore. We'll be going to court with her since she's accused my husband of harassment, and there's a chance this may not end well for her. There's a slim chance, if she continues this, taht she could get evicted. I honestly nope not, I would never wish that on anyone, but I can't really see another solution. Ideally I could just talk to her and open communications again so that if there is a noise problem she could just ask me to turn it down, but she's told me she would and then called the police before, so I'm not really sure what to dhtink. I'm starting to wonder if she's so bored she just wants to get me evicted. I've really just left it at the fact that she's a crazy fucking bitch, buecause no other explanation really fits.

I've recently watched Food, Inc. which has made me think about what I'm buying in the grocery store. Unlike most people who watch the movie, I'm actually thinking about what the movie lied about, not how amazingly true it is automatically. This too, may have to be for another journal specifically for the topic. It turns out a lot of things in the documentary are exaggerated, a specific company the movie dogs on is not quite as evil as it's made out to be (although it does produce soybean oil which is terrible for you, but that doesn't make the company terrible. I think mcdonalds is terrible for you but I don't hate the company.) The main thing I'd like to research is whether I can buy local food here, non organic or organic I don't care, and whether certain meat companies really are inhumane, because that is important to me. I'll always eat meat, mostly fish, and I want to find out just how the companies I buy from treat their animals. It really doesn't take much effort to create a humane environment, epecially for chikens since they're kind of dumb.

So that's what's gong on with me. I suppose I should eat and then go to bed, it's been a very very long week.

According to some estimates, Americans are sitting on $30 billion worth of unredeemed gift cards.

I'm sitting on my bed. The warm purple sheets are decorated with leaves and linework, quite feminine but somehow not too girly. The walls are still white, which is the only thing about the bedroom that bothers me. One of the three windows is cracked open so my cat can peak his head out and look at birds. Good thing we have screens or he'd probably jump out after one, tumble down the tiles and fall into the yard, proceeded to meow a confused and angry meow asking, "Why did you let me do that!?" Much like the meow he was uttering last night when I found him finally in the ditch behind our house. Poor thing got out through a crack I left in the screen door out back and had what I can only guess was a horrific day running from lawn mowers and dogs. He's now sleeping on the chair by the window. My bedroom has a certain feeling I haven't achieved in a house of my own until now. It's cozy and breezy with lots of light. It's filled with furniture, sporting two dressers, a very tall bed and a chair. There are also two bookshelves and two dog crates. Somehow it doesn't feel cluttered at all. Strong, knotted tree branches fill the windows with the green of the golf course behind them. It's a nice place to think, to get away from the world. That's probably why I'm in here instead of doing all those things that may make me feel better. I do that, I dwell and think and plan but seem to do things in furious spurts of energy and vigor until I wear out and take too much time off.

Today I'm in my bedroom thinking about several things. There's a puppy sleeping in his crate, and I wonder if I should take advantage of his brief period of melancholy and go for a walk down to the housing office to get permission to paint the walls in my "playroom" as we call the art room/computer room, blue. I also need to take down all the lost cat signs around the  neighborhood since I found him. Today's tuesday. My schoolwork was due last night. I did about two classes worth of work, and half the work for the other two. Watching the dog is surprisingly difficult to do with homework, especially when I insist on leaving the house when my husband comes home because it's my only chance to get out. I'll be doing it again thursday, going hiking, FINALLY. But after that I don't think I'll leave for a while.

I'm also thinking of my house and the mess that has accumulated over the past week and a half. My husband cleaned the dishes and they're dirty again, along with the thin film of pet hair that has formed over the carpet due to our newest edition. I can officially say that three animals is enough. When Dubstep is grown it will be much easier, and probably very fun, but right now it's like having a baby in the house, who likes to eat everything in sight, pee on the carpet and leave hair everywhere.

Matt and Kim are talking about taking me home as I wonder if I should organize my computer files, the file cabinet, clean the house, work on my homework, go for a walk while dubs is sleeping, work on a banner project that needs to be finished in a week, or sit down and try to plan out a way to do everything.

This kind of clutter of the mind makes me way too serious and depressed. My head is so filled with responsibility I feel like there's no room for fun. It makes it really difficult to just enjoy what I'm doing if I'm thinking of the next 5 things I need to do afterwards. It's especially strange since all the things I have to do are not entirely unenjoyable.

I guess I'll go on that walk.