just the facts, folks.

i'm saving my tree this year. no letter. it breaks my heart a little, cause i love writing, sending, receiving, and pretty much everything associated with letters in general. but guess what. time keeps on slipping. i can't even decide on a picture to send, so you'll just have to rely on flickr... which is remarkably kept up to date. i will have treats in the mail soon, though.

so. useless facts and stuff you already know (but it was an eventful year, so what the hay?):

momentum 2007. i had 2 pieces in an okc art show (showcasing works by artists under 30... sadly i wouldn't have been able to contribute much longer...) in january. it was COLD. located in an airplane hanger mere days after this year's first major ice storm. but exciting nonetheless.

and then there's jeff. all of a sudden, there he is. sweet and wonderful and a million good things. i probably could never stop giving him praise. he arrived at the perfect time, and made my life much cozier.

loss of friends, by miles or otherwise. saying goodbye is not one of my better traits. a couple of my best friends moved to colorado in may. it's a great thing for them- something they've been working towards for a few years. plus, it's a GREAT place to visit! i just miss them more than i ever thought possible. friends that i used to see almost daily, now scaled down to twice a year is a hard thing to get used to.

jeff got accepted into a ph d program at rice. duh, of course he did! how could they resist a smarty pants like him? we made a short tip to houston to find an apartment and check out the campus, and he had another meeting with some bigwig guy at baylor who insisted on collaborating with him on some of his fancy genetics hoopla.

i became debt free for the first time in... well, years. many many years. it is such a relief to be out from under all that. i was able to quit the 2nd job i had taken, and start planning our big move.

leaving oklahoma. not as easy a task as one might think. i've spent much of my life wanting to leave, and now i think i must've had some kind of brain-eating worm or something. so we spent a lot of time packing and throwing things away and on july 4th we made our way to houston. why oklahoma is great: old, real friends. family. and family again (and again). cost of living. beer biking. familiarity. it's quiet. it's friendly. it's home. why oklahoma sucks: it's not where i am right now.

why houston is great: uh. well, the pbs station is pretty good (they play independent films every week, like the museum!). and rice is here. cold beer in the grocery store. why houston sucks: the npr station is awful. hot & humid nearly year round. insane traffic. expensive. there isn't a whole lot to do if you don't want to go to a bar or eat a steak. crappy sidewalks (it may seem like a small issue, but try walking on concrete that's turned into a mountain range for 5 miles). we never feel safe. they have an ongoing ad campaign that reads "turn around, don't drown," because it's constantly flooding. we didn't even get hit by a hurricane, try as we might!

rice. jeff's research work over the summer kept him busy. but when school started, i don't think either of us had any clue as to the increase in amount and severity of his workload. it's beaten us (yep, even me) down, tied us to a chair, bitch slapped us a few hundred times, and set our hair on fire. i mean, really. jeff is right this moment finishing his last final of the semester, and there will be much celebrating tonight. despite it's wrath, rice is proving to be a good place for him. especially for the work he's going in to.

i got a job on my first try at a gallery specializing in antique maps and prints. it has given me an eye into a world i had always hoped was exaggerated. sadly, it's not. people around here have serious money, and they like to spend it on (in my opinion) ridiculous things. but hey, it gives me job security, so i aint knocking it. (aint. ha.) i do all kinds of things; an ever increasing variety of things, which actually adds to my enjoyment of the job. i love being busy. mostly i prepare pieces for the gallery, but i also do some custom framing, data entry, and a bit of photography for their website. occasionally i do some design work with customers, but as i've concluded previously in my life, i am not much of a people person.

we have currently survived almost 6 months here. i think we'll live. i've spent the last few months sewing and crocheting and crafting it up. we finally got my website online. that was a biggie for me. i try to take pictures as often as possible. it turns out (surprise surprise) that using film is a bit of a burden on the finances. so, i shoot when i can afford to :) we still haven't found an exceptional thai place, but we found 2 that we go to fairly regularly. no edible pad thai in the area, unfortunately. and though it doesn't get driven terribly often, jeff tries to keep up with maintenance on the beetle when he has time.

i guess that's it. like i said, it's been a busy year. lots of love to everyone. miss you guys!