Posey is draped across my shoulders and having a snooze. It’s almost bedtime.

My cousin Theresa has asked if I want to look for a place with her, and we get along and both have dogs and also she lives nearer/pretty-much in Toronto than I, so she can actually go to these places and look at them. She doesn’t have a camera tho, so I’m gonna have to depend on her having good taste in housing. I think it will be really good, she is more savvy about Toronto living than I am.

I went for my training tonight, I learned how to use the cash register, it’s super easy this year, and I saw the schedule. Five 8 hour shifts and one 6 hour shift.  And 3 hours for training, so I should make almost 500 bucks. Which will help A LOT! Plus I get reimbursed 35 bucks for my criminal record check. Yay for money!

Mom took the house off the market, she wants to do some renovations and get the house price up. Then she’s gonna sell it, so I hope that all works out well for her.

Little Mister was being super cute today. I had to talk with my cousin in the basement on Mom’s computer because mine is having issues, and he kept coming into the room and wagging his little fuzzy tail.

I have to take my computer to Neural Net tomorrow to get it worked on. It’s having mega issues and I am gonna have to suck it up and use my phone instead for a while.

I got mail from Canada Revenue the other day, I had a 328 dollar return, BUT because I owe money from an EI overpayment, it all went to that debt. BOOOOOO! BUT I should also get some GST.

Okay, now my pup is wiggling around, so I should get her to bed.

In bed! 😀

I don’t know what else to add.  I’ve been super busy the last few days, but once my computer is fixed I’m gonna do some writing for a while. I have to rewrite my scripts and story, and write a monologue.  It will be easy now that we aren’t getting the place ready for viewings all the time.

I love my dogs. They’re so great. I’m glad I will get to take them with me. Some people don’t like dogs because they are so needy, but they don’t bother me when they are always wanting to be close. I think it’s cute.

I’m working some shifts at the Jazzfest again this summer! 🙂 I’m trying to get five shifts, day shifts. I’d have to be there in the morning but I can do it! 😀 I forget how many shifts I did last year. I could check, hang on. Yep, five last year! So I think i can do it! 😀 It will give me about 380 to add to my moving/school fund.

And tomorrow I am going to Winnipeg for my show! 😀 I am bringing my videos on a USB, and I will have my laptop with me in case there is some error with the usb stick. I’m making money there too, they are giving me a SUPER NICE artist fee, and perdium and artist talk money I think. So I am gonna throw that into the moving/school fund too. I don’t know if I am getting artist fees from my distributors this summer. It would help, but I don’t remember what their schedules are for getting out artist fees. They used to do it twice a year, but I think one might have gone to once a year.

I will also get an artist fee when I do my performance in Regina. AND I am still waiting on some back GST from a couple of years. Which would be another 1000 or so.

Math. Blah! I am looking into doing Uhaul pods again. I think I MIGHT be able to get one here to go to Toronto. And then Mom and I would drive a bit of my stuff and the pups to Toronto.

The BEST thing though is something that is totally uncertain, BUT a friend knows someone who is looking for someone to rent her apartment for eight months starting in the middle of August, and it is pet friendly AND in my price range. AND I checked the neighborhood out through google maps and the trip planner on the transit website and I could get to school in about half an hour from there on the subway. So I really hope she gets in touch with me, I’d have to find another place in April but that’s ok, maybe by then a co-op will take me or something.

I haven’t heard from my band yet if they can fund me to go to school. The deadline was May 31st, so I am hoping that they make decisions soon. They funded me through my BFA, but ever since first nations education funds got capped there is less money available to get us educated. It’s totally a way to fuck us over. Keeping us in lower economic brackets and stuff. BLAH!

I’m nervous about going back to school. I hope I can keep up with my classes. If worse comes to worse I could go as a disabled student. But I really need to do fulltime classes, and I don’t know how disabled student status would affect my fellowship.

Anyway, it’s my last night until Saturday with my pups! I’m gonna hug and kiss them tonight. Mom’s become really attached to Posey. Today she joked that she wanted to start over with a new dog and I could have Hermione. I need to get Posey into puppy classes. She needs some obedience training, although she is a smart dog! She knows some basic commands already, like get inside, and come here, and stay.

I’ve spent about 3 hours looking at pictures of space ship interiors, American, Soviet, Russian, everything I could get my eyes on. I think I know what I am looking for now, I read a bit about the Buran space shuttle, which is what the Soviets were working with.  Blah. Research.

I finished watching Orange Is The New Black last night, the end was so good! Go Rosa!

I got some notes on my short sci-fi story. So that’s good, I have some stuff to work on.

Today was a quiet day, we saw Grandpa and Grandma. Mom made us fried chicken. I went on a bus ride. We got some urine destroyer for the dog pees. I envied a happy birthday tutu that was too big for Posey (but so cute!).

I feel like a lot is happening. Is that true? I have a few creative projects going on, I am making my webseries, writing a short story, and getting ready for a ten minute monologue driven performance. I’m also going to Winnipeg for a show this week. Sight is screening on the NSI website on the 16th, and in the middle of this month they are supposed to announce the shortlist for the Future Generation Art Prize (I don’t really expect to be on the shortlist but it is still exciting), Boi Oh Boi is screening at Enzaubert in July and I won’t be there, which is too bad, but it’s ok.

And school is coming up in a matter of weeks. And I have to find a place to live and get my stuff out there in time. The first of September falls on Labour Day, so I should have time to move my stuff from my pod or whatever into my new place. Whew! When things are so uncertain I get really nervous. And I worry and fret. A LOT! I hate not having things all decided already.

We got our status card applications in! 😀 They say two or three months before we get them. WOooooo! FINALLY!

I have been readying myself to make the switch from FCPX to Adobe Premiere, and today I took the first real step, I went to a workshop at PAVED Arts and learned the basics PLUS a bit of effects like colour correction, and also how to find the titler. I’m pretty pumped! I just want to jump into editing something, but my big project hasn’t been shot yet, the script isn’t even done. STILL I may do some practice editing and just make a little silly thing to experiment.

We’ve been keeping the house super clean for viewings. It’s alright. We had to get up at 9am this morning to clean and get out with the pups for a 10am viewing. It was rainy and miserable. And then when we got home I had a nap before my workshop.

I’ve been watching Orange Is The New Black. The writers for that show, man! They write some amazing lines! And I love the casting. It’s pretty much my favorite tv show right now. ESPECIALLY because it is so focused on women’s lives. And like, ALL types of women, EXCEPT I don’t know why there are no Indigenous women. But the USA kind of forgets we exist. I think they are embarrassed of us, you know, with that whole stealing our land and committing genocide thing.

I’m in a good mood. Little bit tired. We had a garage sale yesterday, got rid of some big stuff but a lot of stuff we ended up putting in the car and taking to Value Village. The annoying neighbor kids hung around us THE WHOLE TIME!

Anyway, I feel super productive these days. I’m using this new app called Life Coach, it’s free! It helps you set goals and then make a list of tasks which will help you reach that goal. And it will set up notifications to remind you about reviewing your tasks. It’s really nice to see all of the tasks for a goal finished.

I should go! It’s almost supper time!

I wrote the 9th and 10th Episode yesterday. I’m not TOTALLY happy with them, BUT they are first drafts and can get worked on a whole bunch more!  So I am happy about that. I want to get the scripts locked down by the end of the month, so that I can cast and get people to learn their lines. I’m not gonna have it edited by the end of the summer, BUT I should have it shot by the middle of August.

YAY! 😀 Excitement!

I have some other creative things I need to do. Like, I have to write a monologue for a performance in July in Regina. And I have to do some changes on my short story for an anthology.

Tomorrow I am going to Prince Albert! Just Dandy is screening there and they offered me some gas money and stuff to go up. ALSO we are gonna try and apply for our Status Cards. I hope it works this time! We have our Passport Photos and Birth Certificates and our old cards with our Treaty numbers on them and photo ID! 🙂

Anyway, things are nice and busy. My Mom got her grant yesterday! I’m happy for her, she was really worried about money for a while.

I’m thinking of putting another colour in my hair. Then again coloured hair is a drag for upkeep. Then again it looks hot. THEN again I have tattoos and piercings which look hot and don’t require so much fricken work.

I’m excited about the release of Season 2 of Orange Is The New Black. I totally got sucked into Season 1 and I am so curious about what has happened since. Like is so-and-so even alive anymore? SO CURIOUS!

Anyway, I should get ready for bed, it’s an early day for us tomorrow, we have to tidy and get ready for a viewing at 11, then drop pups off at home and go to Prince Albert.

Little Mister and Hermione had a GIANT fight tonight. Little Mister had a chewy and Hermione wanted it and they forgot about it while they battled eachother all over the living room with Mom and I trying to stop them. They were fearsome! I didn’t want to get bit. Mom trying beating them apart with a shoe, then she got a broom and wedged it between them enough that I could pick up a VERY stiff and EXTREMELY angry Little Mister. I put him in time out in his kennel.  Then after about ten minutes I let him out. His ear was all soggy and he had a wet neck. I haven’t checked him close enough yet to see if he has bites, but Mom checked Hermione (who is easier to check because she’s a smooth coat) and she’s got a puncture in her ear. Poor girl.

Anyway, I read how to break up a dog fight for next time. You pick up their back legs, making them stand like little wheel barrows, and then circle them around and away with another person doing the same thing to the other dog. If you are alone you loop a leash around the hindquarters of one and tie them to something, then do the wheelbarrow leg pull with the other dog and get them into kennels. I’m glad I learned something!

We had a viewing between 6 and 7 tonight.  While we waited we took the dogs to Diefenbaker park and sat in a parking lot with some sandwiches and chips and carrots and drinks and nibbled and let the dogs wander around the car.  Miss Posey is getting better in the car, the last two times I have taken her out she hasn’t puked. Her mouth gets super drooly. Hopefully that will stop soon.

I did my nails tonight, the first time in a long time. Revlon’s Moon Candy!

I’m stuck on Episode 9. I’m SUPER stuck! Some stuff gets revealed and I of course want it to be semi factual/realistic even though it’s totally sci fi stuff. I’ve been trying to read a new free NASA ebook, but I’m having a hard time. Maybe I should watch Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind.

The last time I saw that movie, the KOA campground we were at played it every night because we were right under the shadow of Devil’s Tower. It was pretty neat!

It’s weird to think I am leaving town so soon. I don’t have much time, three months. Just under three months. Wow! I have to find a home for me and my pups, and get my stuff from here to there. And get my friend out here to drive it! Wow!

I hope my dogs don’t get really upset, it’s a big change.

And school!  What will that be like? It’s been so long!  Last time I was in school was in 2005! Nine years ago!

I’m glad I am almost done writing my first drafts of my scripts. I really need to get them locked soonish. I’m aiming for the end of the month. Then shooting at the end of July. That would make me only 1 month behind my original plans. 🙂

Well, I guess I should get ready for bed.

Tonight I finally got to see Maleficent! 😀  I was totally satisfied with it!  Cute Angelina, good story, excellent effects.  🙂 But I was anticipating it so much that it could have been Maleficent rolling around on the floor with her crow and I would have been “That’s the best film ever!”

I’m ready to write Episode 6, but not tonight because I am super tired.  Today was busy, I mowed the front and back lawns, made Deanna’s bed, cleaned the bathroom and my room, and did some general tidying in time for the 6:30 showing of our house.  And then we went to a drive thru for dinner with the pups, and dropped them off at home and then went to our movie!

I’m really tired!  I think I will go to bed right away.  I felt pretty good today. I think my depression is going away. I’m feeling more hopeful.  And I got a $50 raise in my monthly cheque from SAID, which is super nice. Second time they have given me a raise! 😀

I can feel sleep sneaking up on me, I’m gonna move to my bed and try and finish this post.

Okay, where was I?  I don’t really have much else to report for today. I was busy. Tomorrow I am going to Concurrent Disorders. I haven’t decided between education or support. I was feeling like I needed support last week, but this week I am not sure.

Tomorrow I am going to the horse track hopefully! I like being there, making a couple cheapy bets, watching the horses, taking in the milleiu! 🙂

Well, that’s enough for today. Nothing super exciting except I got to see Maleficent!

I’m trying not to worry too much as I am doing the initial drafts of my webseries.  I have already gotten to the end of Episode 5.  Exactly halfway there!  Next comes the twist!  Which should be fun to write.

I’m so tired. I slept in, so it’s not even like I had to get up early, but every day we have to get out of the house at some point so strangers can come in and decide if they want to buy it. It’s pretty tiresome, BUT necessary. But Posey doesn’t do well in the car at all.  I really hope that goes away.

Tomorrow a friend is picking me up to go to the Powwow at the University.  I’m looking forward to it! 😀  I haven’t seen her in a long time!

I am feeling on track with my creative projects.  I still have to work on my performance for the Dunlop.  I mailed away my video to Female Eye Film Festival for their screening.  I have to convert and bring three videos to Winnipeg on a flash drive. Um . . . am I forgetting anything?  I should go through my emails to make sure.

My webseries is making me excited again.  I think it’s going to be really awesome. YEAH!

Being creatively busy is when I am happiest I think.  I like when ideas are just pouring through my brain and I have something to show for it. It’s funny, I want to just be a full time filmmaker, and I am, but sometimes I worry I’m never going to be able to comfortably live off of my talents.  And that kind of makes me sad. I don’t want to have a full time day job where I only get three weeks off a year to relax. But “normies” get really upset if you deviate from the status quo.

But why would I care about their opinion?

Ha ha, I bet I named a post that once already.  ANYWAY!

I have finished writing the first drafts of Episodes 1 through 4 of my webseries.  I feel a lot better now that I am writing it, I was stuck for a LONG time!  And I have to shoot before I leave this summer.  I gave the first three episodes to my Mom to read, she liked it so that’s a good sign.  She even laughed a few times.  I think I’ll try and amp the humour when I do the rewrites, but already it’s pretty funny.  I think it’s funny anyway.

I’m keeping it to three minutes for each episode for now, but I will probably let them expand a little bit when I do rewrites.  Just so I can put in more action and stuff.

Hell yeah!

We are having a garage sale soon, June 7th! It will be my first time having a sale, I really need to pare down my possessions so I have to be very ruthless and gather things I no longer need!

I’m going to Winnipeg in a couple weeks or so, which is awesome.  I hope to see old friends!  And I am waiting for some taxes to come back and give me money.  YEAH!  MONEY!

I’m in a good mood, my depression has abated.  I was really worried about the future for a while.  But there is only so much I can do, so I have decided to believe that The Universe Provides.  I know that’s not always true, BUT I have to believe in something.

My Mom said the other day that in the old days, Crees believed in The Great Mystery and not the Creator, because the Creator according to mythology was Wesakejahk and the Muskrat.  I like the idea of The Great Mystery.  It leaves things more open to interpretation.  I can believe in that.

I haven’t gambled in a while, besides lottery tix.  That’s a good thing.  I’m really keeping an eye on it, I don’t want to get into ANOTHER addiction.  That would suck.  Blah!

Posey hates the car.  She gets pukey/drooly everytime we put her in the car, and it worries me because she’s going to be in a car for a while when we go to Ontario.  I don’t want her to dehydrate!  I have to do some research and see what I can do about it.  Poor pup!

There was a spectacular thunderstorm last night and today, and even flooding!  Little Mister hates thunder.  Last night he hid under the bed.  That’s his safe spot.  Even when we had the oven mitt fire, he went and hid under my bed.  Poor little sod!

Posey chewed Mom’s glasses and made teeth marks on the bottoms of her expensive progressive lenses.  And being a good dog owner I promised to pay for new lenses.

That doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it!

Posey was wanting to chew on all kinds of things all day, I bought some pork rawhide chewy things for her and the pups.  It helped.  A bit.

She is super needy, because she is a baby, and I was working on writing this evening and she kept trying to jump into my lap and instead she would fail.  She really likes being close to me.  The problem is the laptop.  There’s not enough room for both. Sad. Poor Posey!

I guess you might wonder what she looks like now, here she is!

But that’s not nearly as funny as the picture I got of Mom and Little Mister at Pike Lake!

LOOK AT HEEM!

OMG it’s so funny!  He looks like Bert Raccoon or a pissed off Muppet!

Anyway, as you may gather dogs bring both good and bad to life, but the good pretty much always outweighs the bad.  And also: dachshunds are super comical.  I love them!

What else?  Oh it’s late, I just wanted to brag about my cute babies!