Woman in a Yellow Skirt

I went to a wedding in the past few weeks and had a chance before hand to just sit and look around.  Most of them were generally familiar faces of distant family members (oooooh you've gotten so tall!  How's school, dear, what do you want to be when you get older?) but since it was a wedding, there was a whole host of people I had never seen before, including this woman.

She was pretty, in an worn-out sort of way.  Her hair was tossed strawberry blonde and she wore the wrinkles on her face like a war paint.  It did not matter that her clothes (a hot pink + sunshine yellow skirt and blazer combo) were the boldest colors alive; she was bold, with pink lipstick painted on emotionless lips.

I don't know if I described her like I should, because I never spoke a word to this woman.  But she sat directly across from my family, and she never once looked over at me.  Her lips remained pinched the whole time, and she sat alone.  Not even during the wedding did she whisper how pretty the bride was to her equally bold partner, for none showed up.

After the wedding, she vanished, slipping by while I was held back for pictures.  But I hope she's out there, with loved ones, happy, because she seemed so bold and lonely and prim at the wedding.  Nobody should be alone at a wedding, nobody.

Who did you meet today?

The People Who Never Look Up

I went on a trip recently, which was the reason there was no posts, sorry about that.  The funny thing is, my family and I drove our RV on our vacation, using it both as our main source of transportation and as our home for the two (separate) weeks we were gone.

This isn't so much a post about this one person I met, but rather a hoard of people I saw, just driving by.  You see, when you have a good 50+ hours to kill with no internet connection, you've got four options:

1. Sleep (I did lots of that)
2. Try to entertain yourself via drawing, writing, or singing along to the radio (mostly made me carsick, but I still did some of that!)
3. Try to accomplish schoolwork (Lord forbid, be responsible?!)
4. People watch

And me being an a-social blogger who draws people she sees and doesn't talk at parties, you can guess what I did in my many hours of spare time.  That's right, watch the people in the cars as they drove by our giganto RV.

I saw old women who probably had guns in their glove boxes, buff eighteen wheeler drivers eating Subway sandwiches, Indian women talking and/or yelling at each other in rapid-fire speech while some poor mustached man sat there trying to make it through traffic, a scary-looking bald guy with a chihuahua in his lap, a corgi in the passenger seat, and what looked like a German shepherd in the back, and dozens of children (both in the back seat AND in the front seat -_- ), most of them playing on their phones.

And none of them look up.

None of them even look out the window.

None of them are taking in the world around them.  In fact, a lot of them were quiet literally asleep.  And don't get me wrong, I slept for probably a good 50-65% of the trip, but I mean...not even a, "Oh hey, look, there's a giant RV trundling past."

Not that I want to be stared at, but it's an odd sort of thing - we live in a world so jam-packed with THINGS and STUFF.  There is so much to see and learn and hear and you'll never see any of it if you spend a car trip playing the newest addicting game on your iPhone 8.72S (whatever the heck is the new one right now).

So next time you're a passenger in a car, or you're stuck in a traffic jam, or hey, maybe passing an RV, look up.  Smile at some one passing by.  You don't know what you'll see, and maybe it'll be boring, but maybe you'll see something that'll stick with you your whole life.

Just don't be one of the People Who Never Look Up.

And on that dramatic note:  who did you meet today?

An Artsy Extrovert

So I took a quiz recently and discovered that I'm...not extroverted, like I thought for years.  As of right now, I'm a bit more ambiverted, which means I'm right down the middle, torn between people and alone time.  From what I can tell, most people are extroverts, but tend to be somewhat reserved.  A seven on a scale of one to ten.

But every so often, you meet somebody that's really, truly, and completely extroverted.  And that was this girl that I met in art class.

Brief context description time!  *transition music*  In my art class, we set up our own easels, which means we pick our location in the class room.  Since I'm usually there early, I don't get a chance to chose who ends up next to me, which is actually pretty cool in my opinion.  It gives me an opportunity to meet people I wouldn't normally talk to, which brings me back to the subject today (only took me three paragraphs to actually get to it :P )

With a leather vest and Pokemon patterned hat, this girl walked in like she owned the place.  I don't know why, but I was avoiding her loud voice for the past few weeks of classes, but when she ended up next to me, I realized there was no pride or aggression on her lips, only friendliness, Hamilton quotes, and questions for the art instructor.  She was a really good artist too, with a style completely different from mine.  I didn't catch her name, but she didn't need one - she was a force unto herself.  I won't be mistaking her for anybody else, name or not.

Who did you meet today?

Some New-Old Friends

It's odd, how you can see some one and speak with them on a weekly basis, and yet still not know anything about them.

I go to an online academy, so often times you end up chatting with people that you'd never become friends with, never even consider talking to in real life.  It's an amazing world out there, filled with potential, and if you give people time, you'll rarely be disappointed.  And even if you are...what's so bad about that?  Not everybody is friend material, and that's alright.

Today I opened up to some girls in my class, via email.  I told them my hobbies and age, and suddenly, they came alive.  Girls who I have no hope of meeting irl, whose faces are smudges of paint unused and barely remembered in my mind, suddenly comfortable around each other.

One loves crocodiles, another is an avid Sherlock fan.  One knows four languages.  One has a father in the military (that's me, actually)

Who did you meet today?

Me

(My attempt at an intro)

It’s difficult to be honest when writing about myself, but I’ll do my best.  I am a writer and a blogger, obviously.  I’ve been at it for years; my blogging career has seen me grow from a tiny eleven year old to the girl I am now.  Hair like carmel, flopped to one side, small hands with half-chipped nail polish and acrylic paint in the creases, eyes that only look pretty with the best of lighting.  Still, I think that in my own, unique way, I am beautiful, despite my lack of perfect cheek bones and my many faults.

I love meeting new people, but struggle with the ‘meeting’ bit, because it requires I leave the house and actually attend potentially embarrassing social events.  My art is my passion, but I have a tendency to toss aside all responsibilities to follow that passion.  I get emotional easily.  I struggle with my self-worth.  I stutter when I speak.

However, I am not Mexican and my stutter is not Trump’s wall.  That’s who I feel about most of my vices, really.  I have too much to say to allow a little bit of tripping over my own words to stop me anyway.

And I better cut this off before I really do speak too much.  Who did you meet today?

The Purpose of this Blog

To be honest.

Not scathing.  Not rude.  Just...honest.

Honest with myself, mostly, over who I really am, and who I talk to everyday and interact with without even thinking about it, but also honest with others, of how I'd describe them if I wanted to.

I'm still figuring it out, so if you come back to this post with confusion and the words, "That's not what it's like now!" on your electronic lips, I'm not surprised.  It's a bit like a travel blog, I suppose, but without the real traveling.  A life style blog?  No, not really...I'm going to try to avoid talking about myself and my actual life.  Maybe there isn't anything like this blog, and that's why I can't seem to find the right words to describe it.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy my writing.  I'll post something real soon, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Note:  yes, this blog was built on top of one of my older blogs, because I didn't want to delete it but I also didn't want it just hanging around and doing nothing of interest.  Feel free to read all of my old dorkiness :)

Hi Guys! (Important News)

Ok so
I've decided to rework this blog into something totally different!  I originally really liked the idea of Two Cats Too Many, but I just....ran out of ideas.  It's not really my thing, and it doesn't match up with my blogging style anymore.  So I'm going to try something new!

That's the nice thing about having a blog like this, one that the grand majority of my normal readers don't know about...I can actually experiment and try new things and that sort of stuff.  So...yeah.  Expect some major changes, and some of my old posts might disappear (I will most likely try and keep most of them though, if only to please my mother, who insists that they are good and must stay.  See, I do love you, mother :D )

Bye, and I hope you like the updated version!

Advice for Happy Blogging

(Note: I am not trying to sound famous or fabulous or anything in this post.  I just have experience with blogging and want to put it to use)

I have a lot of friends with blogs and sometimes they come to me for advice, or just tech issues in general.  Here is my list of advice you'll need to be a happy blogger. :D

- Remember, you don't have to post every week.  I wouldn't say you shouldn't, but if you don't post regularly at first but have quality content in your blog, people will look forward to your every word, no matter how delayed.

- Flip side: don't forget that your blog does exist.  A blog only works if you keep up with it.

- Repeat after me: don't look at the stats.  Don't look at the stats.  DON'T LOOK AT THE STATS.  Instead, devoutly ignore them for a minimum of three months, although you'll be better off only checking them every six months.  You'll end up obsessing over useless numbers.  Only over time can you get real statistics and figure out what people like.  Continuing on that...

- Never, ever, ever, EVER write about stuff just for the view count.  IT WILL SHOW.  Write about stuff that matters to you, no matter what that might be.

- Show your inner dork.  People like dorks.  I like dorks.  Your inner dork likes it when you show your inner dork.

- Tell stories about your life.  It doesn't have to be huge or dramatic, but write about the things that stand out.  The funny occurrence at school.  The way the rain splattered against the window.  A small nod to your friend who you love and support, and who does the same to you.

As I say to my friends: follow this advice and you'll be one happy blogger.

"I'm Not On the Couch"

Me:  Yes you are

Skoshi:  No, I'm not

Me:  Get off the couch

Skoshi:  I'm on my bed

Me:  GET OFF

Skoshi:  ... :(

Weird Subconscious Fears (Part Two)

• One day, I'll get a paper cut on my EYEBALL.
• The vacuum cleaner is actually sentient and is just waiting for a day when I'm not paying attention to lunge out and eat my toes.
• There are secret cameras in my house that watch me every time I'm having a private dance party
• This is a really, really weird one:  I'm actually an insane child and nobody else sees the world like I do, so when I think I'm creating great art work, I'm literally just scribbling with a crayon. Maybe even on the wall of my padded cell!  Maybe that's why I like blogging so much...it's how I talk to my therapists....  (like I said, weird.  BUT POSSIBLE.)
• Dragons are actually real and everybody's keeping them secret from me (that's really mean, guys)
• My friends secretly hate me (I think we all have that one)
• And finally...that one of my geometric chalk drawings (or other drawings) will accidentally be like, a terrorist symbol, and I'll get arrested and interrogated by some guys with creepy black vans (or alternatively: that the terrorists will think I'm one of them)

KitKat the Stubborn Cat

Katherine has this pom pom.

It's not special or anything.  It's just a red craft pom pom.

But she loves that thing so much, you'd think it was made from cat nip.  Of course...it's usually not around.  She plays with it so much, it usually ends up under a piece of furniture.  And usually we fish it out after a few days, either by moving the furniture or by using a spatula.  We do this because if we don't, Katherine sits in front of the disappearing spot and stares at it.  For days.

We didn't do it this time, because, well...we assumed that she'd stop eventually.

It has been three weeks.  She still sits, staring at our stove, for at least an hour every day.

The game, dear Watson, is afoot.

Weird Subconscious Fears (Part One)

1. There'll one be a deadly house fire and when my parents say grab whatever is most valuable to me, I'll grab my iPad.  And I'll be forever judged by the fact that everything else I owned burned down and I risked my life for a Gen. 2 iPad with a cracked screen.
2. Alternatively: I won't be able to decide what to grab and it won't be the fire that kills but my indecision.
3. Alternatively: I escape the fire but get killed by hyenas/jaguars.  Not sure where this one came from but it's caused all kinds of funky nightmares.
4. The garage door is going to one day malfunction and chop me in half.  This fear made me terrified to leave the car before the garage door closed for a full year before I finally got over it.
5. Grasshoppers.  That's all.  I hate grasshoppers.
6. Seriously, grasshoppers.  I fear them so much.  It takes me ten minutes to kill one without screaming.

I'm Going To Hell (Again)

Sup everybody!
So today I was sweeping our front porch (it's part of my chores okay) and I saw a line of ants.  You know, when they're following a trail to food and back and they're all over the place but they're going and coming from the same location.  Anyway....I was like, oh, I need to sweep over there.

So I swept half the ants away.

Half the ants were freaking out because their sisters vanished in front of them.  (useless science fact: all worker aunts are female.  Males are utterly useless, flying around and then mating with a queen and dying, because they can't feed/fend for themselves)

The other half of the aunts were freaking out because I had swept them away from the trail and WE'RE LOST FOREVER WE'RE LOST FOREVER.

And me?

I just cackled evilly and continued with my day.  >:)

More Redefinitions

Paint, n.  A colorful substance that has magical properties.  Is known for appearing on clothes you've never worn while handling it.  (more information: painter's problems)

Book, n.  A supercalifragilisticexpialidocious awesome portal into other worlds that can only be access by applying time, focus, and imagination.  Some claim not to have the correct abilities  (see more:  boring people)

Cat, n.  A quadruped mammal that we put up with because its fuzzy and hates us.  (see also:  Kit Kat) 

Take that, Tree Huggers

My cat is a couch hugger.  You can't really tell in the picture but she is clinging to the couch, not just resting like an under-sized wild puma.

Katherine's favorite hobby.  She pretends that she isn't doing it the moment we walk into the living room

  

"Me?  I wasn't doing anything"

Art Dump Time

Hi everybody!
I've been working on artwork a lot, for a bunch reasons.  One is that Steve the Wimpy Dragon and International Bffs are both pretty much taken care of these days.  StWD has comics scheduled every week until November.  And IBFFs only needs a little maintenance here and there, because I've nagged the authors so much that they actually do things right now.  And I only have to post once of week on there, so there we go.  FREE TIME...what do I do now?

So I drew a lot of stuff.  Yay.

First two things on the list:  I've been working on a series of ADORABLE Harry Potter characters.  It started when I decided to do a picture of Luna Lovegood for my friend.  And then I did a picture of Harry Potter, duh.  And I'm going to do more, hopefully.

See?  Look how adorable!

So when I was on vacation (I don't think I even mentioned that in a post...well, I went on vacation to visit my friends in Florida) my friends and I watched Sherlock.  No, not like a couple episodes...I've never seen Sherlock, just watched the crazy fandom from a distance.  And so I was like WAIT CAN WE WATCH THAT.  And we did, and we watched all three seasons (ten episodes, that is *cries*) in two days.  TWO DAYS.

And this happened.  Horrifying, I know.  I think my main mistake was that I darkened my lips...making him look like a creepy woman

Anyway, I've done a bunch of other sketches recently that don't really fit in with my other blogs and so therefore I can't really post them.  So I'm posting them here.  Muahahaha.

I did this at the Summer Concert series thing that my Mom and Dad dragged took me to

(In honor of the Olympics)

(Mom requested this)

This always makes me smile :D

I did this on a car trip to the beach with my friends.  According to them, this is EXACTLY what my friend looks like from the side.  By the way, this one has a title:  "Summer Wear"

Anyway that's all I have for y'all today!  Thanks for reading :D  See you on Wednesday!


((Update:  not sure what's up with all the text and the weird white background, but I apologize.  I think its localized to just this post anyway))

Redefinitions

Hullo!
I've decided to start up a new little section of this blog called, you guessed it, Redefinitions!  It's all about what the dictionary should have said, instead.  I dunno, I thought it'd be funny.

Teenager, n.  A biped mammal often found in kitchens and computer rooms.  Known for extreme hunger, mood swings, and sass.  (for more information:  human, destructive, creative mess)

Painful, adj.   That feeling that you get in your teeth when you get your braces tightened, even after the dentist said, "This won't hurt".  (see also: lies)

Dog, n.  An angel come down to earth in the form of a four legged beast who happens to fart on your bed.  (Thanks Skoshi, I just washed my sheets)

You get the idea.  Anyway, I want to do this every so often, just because.  Hope you liked it!

(Side note:  I was going to post this on Wednesday but I got impatient :P )

HELLO FRIEND

Today Katherine discovered three very important things:

• Important Thing #1:  There's an underside of Noelle's bed that I can access by slipping behind the ottomans at the end of her bed frame and crawling through the trundle bed wires
• Important Thing #2:  Momma hid all kinds of fun things like power cords back there!
• Important Thing #3:  When Noelle is typing on her iPad or sketching in her sketchbook, that means she wants to play with me.  And if she's laying on her bed, then I can reach up around the edge and cut her fingers with my claws!  :3

My reaction: ...

...

.....

.........

.................sigh.

P.S.:

Sorry I haven't been posting regularly!  I've been so busy, getting ready for my freshmen year of high school (ick) and helping mom prep for her surgery, which should remove her cancer (double ick)

My Crazy Life

So this blog is a quiet blog.

This blog is almost silent.

Not many viewers (by choice).  Even fewer comments (not by choice).

But outside this blog, I have a crazy noisy life of insanity, that I shall now describe because...reasons.

As you guys know, I also run two other blogs - Steve the Wimpy Dragon, or StWD.  StWD is like this quiet little kid that you can give two trains and it'll sit in the corner and play with those two trains for an hour or two.  If you take away the trains, he gets fussy, but otherwise, he's sweet and quiet.  He's also loved by everybody, and readers think he's adorable.

International Bffs is StWD's big brother.  He's this kid (whom all babysitters know and dread):  "Hey hey hey hey hey!  Oh.  I forgot what I was going to say.  Oh well.  OH!  Hey hey hey hey hey can you put my drawing on the fridge?  Hey hey are you listening?  Mooooom she's not listening to me!"  (and I'm International Bffs's Momma.  Don't even try and argue)

So yeah, IBFs takes a while to admin or post or do anything, but as a blog I really love all the material and different approaches to blogging.  It's definitely worth the time and effort.

Those two blogs take up like 50-65% of my free time, and I allow them to.  Another 20-30% is spent on my book, which is the third in the series and SHOULD be stressing me out (it's not... haha... procrastination... you think I'd learn by now but no...)  And a good 40% is spent on artwork, sketching, painting, drawing comics (although that overlaps with Steve the Wimpy Dragon)  And yes, I know that that doesn't add up to 100%...I also spend negative 3% on my math skills :D

...and THAT's why I didn't post this Monday.

*Sigh*

Who am I?  Yes, I'm very mysterious.

Skoshi:  No you're not.

Shush I'm super mysterious.  Very scary.  Much mystery.

Katherine:  You sing in the shower.

Shut it cat.

Skoshi:  You're also crazy.

No I'm not.

Katherine:  You're talking to two animals.

....I'll leave now.