Alaskan Artist - Elise Tomlinson
Home Artist Blog About Me Life in Alaska Purchase Site Index Speak
Home » Archives » December 2003 » AY! ME BACK IS KILLUN ME!

[Previous entry: "Hidden Alien Productions"] [Next entry: "Possession"]

12/08/2003: "AY! ME BACK IS KILLUN ME!"


We've had a lot of snow this winter so far. I always laugh when they make a big deal out of a "snow storm" that hits the East Coast or somewhere like that. Everything shuts down. We've had WAY more snow than that here already and yet they keep calling this the "First Big Snow Storm of the Season". I guess Alaska doesn't count. I started this fake group once called AFNWR, Alaskans for National Weather Recognition, because most of the national weather shows never include Alaska in their forecasts. Are we a part of this country or not??

Anyway, I ended up shoveling all of this snow for days and days in a row and then, it started melting on the roof and I spent a restless night waking up every 15 minutes obsessed that melted snow was coming in through my ceiling. (it wasn't). But the next morning my back was really messed up. Something was getting pinched and I couldn't sit up without excruciating pain. It still hurts that bad, I'm actually typing this while standing up. And I'll be going home to Nebraska next week so I've decided to take this week off from work to stay in bed and give it a chance to get better. There's no way I can make the three very long flights and 4 hour drive it takes me to get home with my back feeling the way it does right now. Even my Alieve's are failing me!

On a brighter note, I did end up selling a painting last week and I got it all boxed up and in the mail this weekend. The postal worker said I came within 4 inches of being too big for the Post Office. I guess I'll have to start painting smaller sized paintings. It was a real hassle to get it packaged properly. I had to order special boxes used for shipping mirrors. Then I had to find big styrofoam corners and plastic strapping materials to wrap around the styrofoam. Then I used that shrink wrap plastic to go around the whole shebang before I fit it into the cardboard box only to discover the box was about 3 inches too small. So I had to carve down all the styrofoam corner pieces to make it fit. My living room floor is covered with tiny white balls from cutting the styrofoam, and now it's sticking to my cats' fur. I need to vaccum it up but my back is so sore I'm putting it off.

The good news is I kept very close track of how much everything cost so I can estimate future shipping and handling charges, which I've added to my price list page. I'm starting to feel more professional about the business end of being an artist. All the things I hate to do but have to force myself to learn.

The shoot for our Hidden Alien Productions group went really well. I got to film using camera two for all fo the establishing shots. It was fun, learning how to set the exposure to match the other cameras and how to white balance etc. Plus, I'm trying to pay attention to things that Mike Maas does for the audio hook ups etc. I'm picking up new skills with every shoot.

Arg, must lie down again. I'm sure I'll be fighting boredom all week as I convalesce, if anyone wants to write me to keep me distracted I'd appreciate it!

Replies: 3 Comments

on Monday, December 8th, martinbanks@postmaster.co.uk">Martin said

I'm not sure if you have them in Alaska or not but have you tried those heat strips you stick onto your back with adhesive?

on Monday, December 8th, Elise said

I just saw an advertisement for those. I wonder do they work? I will buy some tomorrow. I guess I'm willing to try anything at this point.

on Thursday, December 11th, Thomas said

Hope you get better soon!