It's Been Busy

Managed to squeeze in the last Harry Potter book between finishing up a couple of freelance final illustrations due the following Monday morning and completed some new color concept sketches for my final assignments for July, with finals due this past Monday. Spent about 4 hours re-reading The Half-Blood Prince first, and then settled in to finally read The Deathly Hollows. It took about 6 hours, but what a lovely read; and, IMO, a fitting conclusion to the series.

And that's all I'll say about that.

Still working on a variety of personal projects with my own art and writing that just won't go away. Well, it would help if I had more time to work on them, though I'm not sure where that will come from, LOL. Did manage to get farther along on some portfolio pieces after a couple of desperate energetic evenings -- not sure how I managed that. And, now there's another little TD over at CA.org that I'm getting myself involved in...how could I resist the call of fairy tales, heh.

Still moving at the end of the month; and I'm still not sure where just yet. Stay here for awhile longer or no. (Preferably -- No). I almost feel like throwing a dart at a map of the US and just going where that lands. Almost. And...as long as it's not along the East Coast or in the South. One is a nice place to visit, briefly; the other has never been a place I have appreciated more until I managed to kick off the sticky mud from my feet and move away. I simply do not like the South. I have my reasons, yup; illogical and completely personal. But, the southern US is pretty in pictures. Unfortunately, I do not have the kind of finances that would enable me to drop my day job and just take off in an instant. A lovely dream, though.

I recently heard from my old illustration instructor who is now living up in Seattle, Washington. It's interesting that Seattle is one of the cities I've never visited, but know several people that are currently living there or have worked there in the past. He and his wife (she was a fellow art history student for several classes) live in a beautiful Arts and Crafts home that they're fixing up here and there. I'm totally jealous - ha. It was fun to chat about some of the old classes and discuss some of the different projects we've each worked on since I graduated back in '92. He's currently working for a game company up there that I've only recently heard about. Seems to be much enjoying it, and is quite busy. Also been hearing from some other folks that I haven't talked or emailed in forever...July seems to have been a time of friendly reconnection, yup.