Maybe It's Just January...

Last time I blogged, one of my cats was dying. Today, I have four stitches in my foot and I was an hour late to work because they started early. (I should've known they would, because Monday was a holiday and it always takes a day for the "storm surge" of holiday drop-offs to hit shipping, but for some reason I blanked on it. Having to deal with four stitches in one's foot can do that to ya...)

Maybe I should relate the Foot Story.

Once upon a time, one week ago today, I was on my way through the basement when the dog got in my way. This not being an unusual occurrance, I found myself unsuprised to be diverted into one of the piles of Other People's Stuff to either side of my path. I noticed, upon placing my foot down, that it hurt more than usual - "not at all" being usual. But, then, as I said, dogs diverting one into someone else's Stuff is not an unusual occurrance, and a body's bound to get the odd scrape now and again. But this scrape didn't go away. Eventually, I looked down and saw the blood.

"Oh," I said,"that explains the pain."

Up the stairs, to the bathroom with the working plumbing, and I hose off my foot in the tub. And keep hosing. And keep hosing. And the water stays disturbingling pink. At length, I braved a look... and wished I hadn't. A nice, long, quarter-inch-deep gash now graced the bottom of my formerly whole left foot. Now, I could still feel my toes, and nothing was spurting, and I didn't see bone or anything, but this was distinctly Not Good. I bound it up as best I could, and thought about it for a while, then broke down and went to the local walk-in clinic. Four hundred odd dollars later (still no health insurance - joy...), I hobbled out with four stitches and orders to keep off it as much as possible for a couple days. So I blew my shot at a year of perfect attendence at work by having to miss Thursday and Friday, capped by being an hour late today.

At least it was a clean cut.

Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have related the Foot Story. It's rather boring if you're not the one with the stitches in her feet. (They come out next week... Wednesday, in theory, though if I can push it to Friday I will. I've had bad experiences with sutures being removed too soon, and wouldn't 2008 just love another shot at me...)


In other news, I got an unusual request. I've recently joined a new message board, because I always find myself in need of new ways to fritter away time. Shortly thereafter, I got a PM from one of the members asking about commissions. They want line art, a fair whack of it, and are willing to pay.

My initial reaction was: Me? Why me? I'm a total stranger, and besides, I'm not a real artist.

Then I remembered that, sitting in the other room, is a check. A check I received for art I had created - the drum ornaments mentioned previously - which other people had deemed worthy of their money.

Oh. I guess I am an artist, after all...

So now I'm debating what to say: how deep I want to get into someone else's project, and more importantly what a decent rate for line art is.

I wish 2008 would make up its mind what kind of year it was going to be. I'm getting awfully sick of being jerked around like this.