Hey,
George Michales died Christmas night. Reminded me that mom died a year ago to the day. I'm not as bummed about it as you might think. It's just that so many people have died recently/this year, then I heard that my sister most likely will get evicted because, for whatever reason, she didn't try to take possession of mom's apt until like a month ago and hasn't paid rent since the middle of the year, so they, the people that own the building, sent a $6,000 bill to my sister here, since she use to guaranty when mom fell behind a month or two.
Why in god's name did they let it slide for 6 months when they were on mom's case after 2 months never mind 3 when they use to ignore the check for month's 2 and 3 when 2 showed up a little late?
Well, at least she's be homeless with family. Outside of who is staying with her in the apt, another family member just lost his place too due to the same reason. The sister I live with can't believe he lost the apt. It was his mother's before he got it. She died 3ish, maybe 4 by now, years ago. She lived there for over 30 years. In fact, my sister thought that our aunt had bought her apt years ago since she thought the building was co-op now. It turned out not to be so. We don't know what his excuse is or the situation around that for him, but we can guess for the other sister.
Before you get totally down, Christmas wasn't a complete wash. I told you how I sold one fractal print to the lady upstairs right? Well, she sent down her daughter Christmas Eve with a 12x18 frame and asked if I had anything to fit it. I went through all that I thought I had and sent the girl back up without finding anything. Everything was just a little bigger. I then found one tube that had one fractal in it and it was 2 inches smaller on the long side. So I texted her and told her that I found something. With my sister, Ms. Pricesion's help, I centered it in the frame and sent it back up. I told her to tell her mom that it wasn't free. I wasn't going to charge much. $15 maybe. Anyway, she had already sent me a Christmas gift, if you overlook the fact that other than the pretzels, everything had milk and chocolate in or on it. :) Thanks to her I almost finished my first box of lactose pills.
Anyway, I had felt bad, when I first got it, that I didn't have a gift for her. I had a gift for no one. I have only given maybe 2 Christmas gifts in my life, and I can only remember one of them. Back when I was 17 or 18 and babysitting for my fav Aunt. I used some of my money to get my mom a stand mixer. It wasn't anything great, but I think it was the first time I bought something, with my own money, for someone else, for Christmas.
Now that I think about it, I may have gotten a few things for my niece when she was younger. The one that grew up with me and came with us from St.Kitts. I'm pretty sure I said her name before, but I'm trying hard not say people names on here anymore for some reason.
Anyway, I will be seeing said child tomorrow. She's coming over for a day or two. At first, I wanted her to come over for Tuesday so we could go movies, but then I found out that I would have the girl from upstairs for the week since school is now out.
Ok, back to fractals. yeah, there is more there. So after the girl left, with the message for her mom, that it wasn't free, which I realize now was a bit harsh maybe, I texted her that it was a gift and that to forget about the message about it being not free. She laughed and thanked me.
Then I was up late, like ways, and was asleep when my brother called me and then the sister shows up asking to use our oven to bake some big piece of meat. At first, I thought it was ox tail, but it turned out to be ham. I happened to still be on the phone with my brother who called up to see how things were. He turned out to have a cold. I thought it was odd since I was normally the one sick somehow.
So, I had him on hold while I was doing this with the girl. Turning on the oven and setting the timer and then when I thought she was leaving, she asked to see my prints. I asked her now? Christmas Day? She said yes. So I told my brother that I had to go and we went through what I had and she ended up picking two fractals.
This time I did compare prices with what I told her and what the price was on DA. I didn't gain a profit, just because they are our neighbours and friends and the first ones to buy anything from me. It's odd. My family in Canada didn't get my fractals at all, but they said I was pretty good with my photos. They won't give me one of their cams that they aren't really using, but they think that my photos are good enough to sell. And it's not that I hadn't hinted that I would love to get one of their far more professional cams considering I have a pocket point and shoot thing.
I know, I was suppose to get one with the money from mom's pension, but after helping my sister pay back who we borrowed money from to bury mom and then pay for part of her trip to a convention in Vagas, I didn't have the money anymore. I'll come back and gripe about that later I'm sure.
Currently, I'm still reading the collection of John Carter of Mars books. There are seven and I'm to 4 now. This man went through a heck of a lot in the third book, not to mention the first two and now it seems to be his kid's turn. Maybe I'm slow. Or maybe the books are long. Or it's a mix of both. I think I hit my stride in the third book, but when I realized that the 4th was about his kid I kinda slowed down for a bit, but they are having almost the same, but new issues that he did. And I mean general issues. He, the author, has managed to make new situations throughout the books.
Now, I don't remember what prompted me to get the collection, but overall I'm glad I did. I keep forgetting how dated some things may seem/be when it's being held up as such a great story. At the start of the first book I thought that the movie was keeping kind close to the source, then I read bits that I wish I had seen and realized how they just about invented other bits in the movie as the story continued. For that I'm disappointed. I was also left wondering how they even planned to continue the movie considering how they ended the first one.
Granted, the immediate continuation where the nephew gets the letter is safe, but I'm talking about what happens on Mars when he gets back. I heard that there was going to be a second movie, but it was dropped because not enough people saw the first one to cover the cost of making it.
In the defense of the movie making people, a stand I don't take too often, if they had stayed closer to the book, the rating would have to be changed because it would have been a darker movie than what you saw. Which I don't mind. I don't think that all movies should be made into mass audience pieces because they want as much money as humanly possible. But considering how much they spent on making it, they may have thought it was the only way to get back that money.
Other than the rampant death and gore they omitted, the lady in distress theme that ran the length of three books, they may have thought was too outdated to be believed never mind watched.
Actually, I'm going to stop there. I think I'll give this its own post since I have once again strayed from the fractals and the lady from upstairs.
Long story short, if that is possible for me, she got two fractal prints. I got more money back into my pocket, and my tally has now risen to 3 for the number of works sold. :)
They sent down some of their food for me to eat because I passed out just as she came down the last, and third time to check on the meat. Around that time my sister came back home. She went to deliver the cake to an old cousin of ours. She had given it to out sister to take to her since they both lived in Brooklyn, but come Christmas, they still had it. so she went all the way over there to deliver it herself to find out that our cousin was out visiting one of her friends. So she found the cake hanging from her doorknob when she got home.
Once again I learned that upstairs doesn't know how to make anything without pepper in it. And I'm not talking black pepper. I'm talking hot sauce. Scotch bonnet peppers. But it was good, not overly hot this time. The spread was nothing much. Rice and peas. Stewed ox tail. Fried chicken. Potato salad and a mix leafy salad that I'm slowly eating. :) If I had done it right, I would have eaten it with the rice since it had peppery gravy on it. Oh well.
Now come Sunday night and my sister is baking again. Cheese Cakes and Tiramisus. I, of course, had to help since I was once again up reading, working a little on my story and not falling asleep until sunrise. Again. So we spent time together and it didn't take that long. We were only up late because she took so long to get started. In fact, she boiled me out of bed.
There I was, sleeping away under my nice warm comforter and bit by bit I'm starting to over heat. I didn't turn the heat on. I didn't have to, but someone did. When I got up to complain, she said that I could turn it off now. She was cold earlier. I told her she did it just to get me up and help her bake. She's done it before. Not bake until I was there to help her that is. We watched Superman while we were making the tiramisus, then I made her watch Superman v Batman when we were done so she could stop saying that Batman killed Superman.
Then I left her around 2am to finish rendering out some large fractals for prints on DA and where ever else they may end up.
I'm at it again today and that was my Christmas. How was yours?
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