Not the Job For Me

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have another career path.  I do enjoy teaching, but sometimes another job sounds interesting and less exhausting than the one I have now.  Although, many jobs have qualities that appeal to me, at the top of my list are international spy, book publisher, drug dealer, travel writer, and pretty much any job that let’s me use the bathroom whenever I want.

On the other hand, there are many jobs that, for one reason or another, do not sound the least bit appealing.  In order to not offend anyone, instead of listing the actual jobs I wouldn’t want, here is a list of characteristics that I wouldn’t want in a job…
- I wouldn’t want to clean anything; animate or inanimate.
- I wouldn’t want to touch anyone I don’t know.
- I wouldn’t be able to catch, clean, cook, touch, smell, taste any type of seafood.  Yes including lobster and crab!
- I wouldn’t be able to touch, taste, smell, or listen to mayonnaise.
- I wouldn’t be able to touch, taste, smell, listen to tuna salad.
- I wouldn’t be able to talk on the phone all day long.
- I wouldn’t want to be in front of a camera – still, video, or otherwise
- I wouldn’t want to work with dead bodies, human or animal.
- I wouldn’t want to drive in traffic.
- I wouldn’t want to garden.
- I wouldn’t want to work outside in the hot sun.
- I wouldn’t be able to look at or touch snakes.
- I wouldn’t want to deal with people complaining or yelling at me about something out of my control.
 
Before I started teaching, “waking up early in the morning” was also on my list of things I wouldn’t do.  Now that I’m teaching, I’ve had to give up on that one up.  It’s painful!  I guess I’d probably sacrifice for some of these for the perfect job, although I wouldn’t for the mayonnaise, cleaning, or snakes!  Ick!

Sketchbook Project (Non) Update

Back when I was on summer vacation, I posted about an exciting new project that I had just signed up for – the Sketchbook Project.

That excitement was short lived as shortly after receiving it, I went back to work. So my moleskin is in the exact state it was during my last post…empty. Finally today I had an (almost) entire Sunday free, and my plan was get inspired and create. Well, best laid plans…

As I spent some time getting ready to work I became more and more concerned about the very thin paper inside the sketchbook. I like to work with ink and watercolor and acrylics and glue, and usually work in watercolor journals. I had a strong feeling that it would not hold up very well.

My feelings were soon reality. I took out my Copics and played around a little on the first page. The colors were nice and didn’t seem to bleed across the page too much.

However, it did bleed to the pages 2 and 3….

and 4!

I knew that I would not be happy with this. I could always put a blotter page behind the first page, but that doesn’t help with page 2. It would bother me a lot to not use the back pages of the journal and would limit me to doing single page spreads instead of full page.

So instead of starting any creating today, I decided to take the book apart and refill it with the paper that I wanted to use.
Luckily these Moleskins have a stitched binding and I was able to cut and pull the thread fairly easily
and remove the thin paper.

I cut some lightweight watercolor paper and some regular drawing paper down to size, folded it, measured and punched the holes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a needle large enough to rebind the sketchbook with my paper. I ordered one online, but now I have to wait until it come in and I have another free day to make the book and finally start working in it!

Hopefully the next time I post about the Sketchbook Project, I will actually have some sketching to post!