On Unemployment

No, I'm not on unemployment.  Also? Happy random-double-post-day to you!

As the school year winds down, I'm reminded one of the major downsides to being a substitute teacher.  I'm paid only on days I work, unlike 'real' teachers, who are paid a salary for the school year, which is then divided up over 12 months.  But, since there is no demand for substitutes, I don't make any money in the summer.  However, since I don't work because there is no demand, I can't get unemployment.  Which means no money for me.  Which makes me a sad panda.  I'd get another job, but as you've probably surmised by  now, I'm moving to Atlanta, Georgia sometime this summer, so there's no point in finding summer employment.

However, I now have lots of free time to dedicate to hobbies.  Which I now have.  Besides television and video games.  Well, a hobby, but that's better than nothing.  When I was young, my mom taught me how to cross stitch.  And I started a few projects. I don't think I ever finished any, but I started a few. Then I didn't do another one for many years.  Then one year in college, I was shopping in a giant big-box retailer, when I found a panda cross stitch kit.  If you don't know, Hubby is obsessed with pandas.  As in last time we went to the National Zoo, I took 40 minutes of video while he took close to 200 pictures.  We were at the panda exhibit for over 2 hours.  I'm not even sure we spent two hours on the rest of the zoo.  Also, for the record, Zoo Atlanta has 3 pandas.  Hubby has already set money aside for an annual membership.  Anyways, I spent like 2 months working on that damn panda cross stitch (late at night, after all distractions had gone to bed studying).  Then I bought another kit to work on, and promptly stopped.  Then another.  And stopped.  Shortly after moving up here, I was miserable.  I had no friends, and I had no job.  Hubby bought me a giant light house cross stitch that I worked on for about 3 months off and on, and then put it aside for a few years.  Then I worked on it crazy for a summer.  Then stopped again.  It's about 1/4 done, and I want to keep working on it, but I have no real motivation.







And the point, you ask? I'm getting to it.  Chill.  Geez.  Then after telling Hubby that I didn't want anything for my birthday, which he stupidly took as I literally didn't want anything, not I wanted a gift, but didn't want to ask for anything. How thoughtless, right?  Anyways, he bought me a scroll frame and two new cross stitches.  The first of which (also a light house, but much smaller) I finished in about 3 weeks. 







The second one will probably take me about a month, but that's because I'm ramping up for my next big project.  More on that in a second.

While browsing the internet one day, I came across a cross stitch that someone had made of the Light World overworld map from Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.  And then I started to explore the site.  So I ended up making what I call a sampler that I pieced together myself (and I did it in exactly 4 weeks)







The only part that I had a pattern for was the words.  The rest I made myself.  I'm very proud of it.  Except Kirby.  He doesn't look quite right to me.  Anyways, I decided to make Hubby the Light World map to thank him for getting me back into the cross stitching.  Only then I discovered the Dark World map.  I decided that Hubby could choose which one he wanted.  He couldn't decide.  So I decided to make both.  Yes.  Both.  He then had the gall to ask if I could work in the game logo.  Or I asked if he wanted it.  I can't remember.  Either way, this is what it will eventually look like:

Oh, and that's not to scale compared to the other pictures.  It will actually be 14 inches wide and 28 inches long.  It's 77 colors and 119,724 stitches.  The instructions were 36 pages long when I printed them.  I bought the thread yesterday, and the fabric is being shipped.  I just have to finish my second birthday project first.

So I guess I'm a lot like my dear, sweet Hubby...as much as I bitch.  When he picks up a new hobby, he goes full-swing into it, and clearly, so do I.  Also, he enabled me, notice HE bought me the equipment.  Also, the lighthouse that's 6 years in development? Still not in the works.  It might be a while.