It's such a beautiful morning. It's one of those days where the sun beaming through the window reminds you how good it feels to be alive. Yesterday was fantastic. Even the burning ache of tiredness that raced through my bones when I collapsed onto the bed surrounded by tattoo-related items when I had returned home felt good. My mum asked me the question, "do you really feel now as though you work for two different places, two different people?" and I had to agree that the statement in her question was correct. For the first year I felt like a nuicence, badgering the pretty tattooist to take my designs. As I started the second year of it I guess I realised that I had become more than a nuicence flitting in and out, I'd actually become a part of the place.
It's like a quick tonic. A pick-me-up. When I wak out from that place I'm always beaming from ear to ear, jabbing at my phone to tell Y what the latest news from the world of tattoos might be. My mum said last night that it seemed to be 'good for me' - "Look at the way you come out when you've only been up for a quick visit," she said. I don't know what it is about the place that does it to me. the sound of the needle whirring in the background or the beautiful art on every wall, or simply the beautiful company I keep there.
It was a very good day all in all. I caught my train (which unfortunately smelled of poo :/) and reached my destination where I suddenly felt extremely exhausted. Ugh. I had to take a very slow walk toward the town, resting every few minutes. The sun was beating down suddenly and I began to fry alive :) I went to take a seat in the town centre and discovered that the old friendly Big Issue seller that I always used to buy from had been replaced.... by a terrifying one. He didn't ask people politely if they wanted to by a copy - he boomed an instruction at them like a mad scientist trying to bring his creature to life.
BIG ISSUE! BIG I-S-S-U-E......
He wasn't even holding up a copy to tempt people. I was also confused by someone taking pictures of the shop called Sanity, and I also wandered into a toy shop and spent half an hour in there :) Oh, I wish I could go back 20 years and be a kid again. I really wanted to buy some of the farm animals, even though the chicken was as large as the cow. I did find a silly present for Y in there though.
I went over to the tattoo place having bought flowers for each of the pretty tattooists and was greeted by S, the one who'd tattooed my dragon. I showed her how her work had healed and how pleased I was with it, and she gave me a big hug which I enjoyed far too much :) I went through to the back where R (other beautiful tattooist) gave me a cup of coffee and found me a copy of the new brochure. It looks fantastic - so bright and appealing. She gave me a cheque for the end of last year's sales and told me that so far the dragons are the best sellers of this year's set :)
Over the nexst half an hour, everyone but me needed to go to the bank for some reason. I had a lot of fun, asked a lot of questions and also booked in for good friday (they're open!) to have some work done on my first tattoo. I'm having blue put into it to make it match the others. S seemed very excited about working on it for me (It's lovely to see someone passionate about their job!) and gave me another hug (oh thank you god!). I'll get my belly button done at the same time. She made a comment about needing topless women to come and fan us in the heat just before I left which I lept upon with a giant "YES!" and I left in very high spirits as ever.
I could still hear the Big Issue seller screaming as I left the place. In fact, I could swear I could hear him from the station. By the time I got home I could hardly move, but I certainly could smile :)
Last night I worked on my new dream journal and have transfered over most of the dreams from january so far. I'm hoping that by the end of today I'll have caught up to date with all my dreams. There's already a stack of them in there. I've still got a few things to tweak but it's almost finished now.
I'm off now. I've got a busy day ahead which involves Doodles from the Tweenies and local history, though hopefully not at the same time!
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