Creative Ways to Pay the Bills

If you are anything like me right now the bills are looming up. I have an extensive library of books ranging from sci-fi to biology texts to Christian theology to fiction and on and on. Some I'm quite attached to but others, I'm willing to part with. I discovered this great website that will pay cash for quite a wide range of books. So far I've sent them 24 books and got just under $50.00. Not a bad deal at all and the books are going to book people. Check them out.

Record Turnouts and Great Laughs.

Well, Lancaster, PAs first ever Pride event went really, really well with a record breaking attendance for first time Pride events of over 2,800 attendees and only a scant half a dozen protesters. We had a great time at the event and actually had an easy time setting up. The only down-side for us were so many people had never been to an event like this that many did not bring any money to spend so are sales of jewelry were not as great as we would have liked. A lot of people liked the wares, took business cards and kept saying, "I should have saved up!" My bills and I are hoping these individuals go to our website and purchase in the near future. Despite the lack of profit, I wouldn't have turned down the chance to be there for anything. Our sister MCC church, Vision of Hope, members were an integral part in getting the festival up and running and it was great to see all of them and see their success.
Here is the article in the Lancaster newspaper. Lancaster is traditionally a very conservative area of Pennsylvania however, the festival was well received and the organizers couldn't be happier. http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/223466
That evening after the festival a comedy show was held to raise money for HOPE Connection, a new, non-profit organization aimed at assisting GLBT youth and community members suffering from HIV. The show had Vickie Shaw as the headliner. If you've never seen her, she's worth looking up on YouTube, as well as Sabrina Matthews and Jennie McNulty. The ladies did a phenomenal job. We would have never been able to go if it wasn't for friends providing us tickets and it was worth ever minute if sitting in the short middle-school auditorium seats to watch them.
I mentioned earlier that there were protesters at the Pride event. Well, the comics were there too and had a bit of fun at the protester's expense. One protester had the obligatory, "Homosexuality is a sin" sign so the ladies made their own sign that said, "And apparently Judgement is a Virtue" and stood right next to him. The few protesters stayed out of the park (none of them wanted to spend $5 to get in) and the Silent Witness PA volunteers made sure people coming to the park had no issues and no confrontation. Once inside it was great food, great entertainment, lots of vendors and a lot of laughing and talking and generally having a great time. I look forward to going again next year.

And So We Begin

We are off to our first official festival of the season, Lancaster, PA's first ever Pride rally and event. The car is packed, the jewelry's been made and we are ready to go...wish us luck!

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

I find it ironic that the day I'm going in to Duke University to become part of a smoking cessation study, there is so much smoke in the air I can't see across the parking lot at work. A forest fire has been burning in Hyde, Tyrell and Washington Counties in a a wildlife refuge since June 1. It was started by a lightning strike. The fire (Currently over 40,000 acres) is close to 100 miles away from me but the smoke is blowing in due to winds from the south east. It smells like a barbecue gone horribly wrong. Pray for rain for us. The fire is in the peat moss and could burn for months unless the area gets a really, really good soaking.

I'm still going to join the study at Duke. I'll let you know how it goes. Quitting on my own has never worked so I thought I could use the help.

Vacation, Car Lag and Eye Opening Experiences

I've been off line for a bit while preparing for vacation, then heading out on vacation, now trying to recover from vacation. We left Friday, May 23rd and returned Sunday, June 1 and crammed a lot into 9 days. Instead of sunning ourselves at Myrtle Beach, SC (which we were invited to do) we decided to visit family and friends whom we haven't seen in quite some time.
Our vehicle was FULLY loaded with bags of clothes to give Tara's daughter, our luggage, cooler (long drive), laptops, all our Jewelry stuff (two nifty toolbox totes with wheels), pillows, air mattress, air mattress bed frame and our canopy and peg boards for festivals. We had asked our one friend to assist us with how to display our wares so we had to take that up with us.
On the plus side, we drive a 2008 Ford Escape and got 27-28 mpg on the whole trip. I'm fairly impressed with that, especially considering the load.
Our first stop was Tara's best friends who live in the Cincinnati area. For 4 years now we have always opened the summer with them. Took us 9 hours to reach their house and as we unloaded our suitcase and cooler Tara asked, "where's the brown leather duffel bag?" I said, "I thought you put it in the car." Turns out we left it on the bed with all of our other shoes, personal jewelry and toiletries...off to WalMart we go to pick up what we need. the 2.5 days with our friends was okay but the whole time there seemed to be tension. Tara finally confronted them and discovered: a. they are having some personal issues b. they only consider us friends when we've always thought of them as pretty close to family c. they weren't really up for a visit and d. they didn't want to "ruin" our trip so they didn't tell us. Oh and as a bonus, perhaps we shouldn't come next year...
They could have saved us the drive and told us all this before we got there. Quite frankly, we could have spent more time with our families and skipped Cincinnati had we known. That was a bitter pill to swallow and when Tara found out they only considered her a "good friend" it was crushing to her. We left there early and went on to my parents in Pittsburgh. Cincinnati was an eye opening experience.
Pittsburgh was actually quite enjoyable. My Dad was really sick last year and it was really nice to see him healthy and doing well. Actually, both of my parents looked great. We had a good time and genuinely got to relax.
Our last leg was up to our old stomping ground in Erie, PA to visit Tara's daughter and all of our friends and family there. It was fabulous. I also stopped in to my old work site (I'm still with the same company just in NC now) and caught up with everyone there. We cooked out, hung out, played cards, went to bed too late each night and got up too early and it all seemed to go too fast.
Sunday we held out as long as we could before driving back to NC. Only took 10 hours and we backroaded quite a bit. Saw some beautiful scenery in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. Got in late, unloaded Monday morning and back to work I went on Monday afternoon. Today is the first day I'm starting to feel human. I didn't think you could get car lag but apparently you can.
Oh, if you were wondering, we had a good friend take care of our feline children while we were gone. They had lots of love and attention though they did actually miss us. For three mornings now I've woken up with 3 cats glued to me.
Now the rest of the summer we will be going to various festivals to sell jewelry and t-shirts but we plan to find a weekend and go somewhere just for us. you know, an actual vacation with no watches, work etc.