I'm so cold!

This is part of a vintage yarn painting kit - um, Last Christmas anyone?

It started raining this week. I guess it's rainy season now, since it went from lovely spring temperatures for President's Day, which I spent at a bicycle race out of town, to today, where I only wore a sweater to work, and I looked awful because I was so cold. Someone even commented on it at the market where I was getting a burrito for lunch (my new favorite place - it's awesome and close to work), because I was chattering and moving back and forth trying to stay warm. Ridiculous. Totally ridiculous.

I have a small heater in my office, which gets used to abate the chill that occasionally takes over the room, and I kept it right next to me today, along with a cup of hot tea. If my appearance weren't so important at my job, I would wear a ski sweater, and a knit hat, and jeans, and boots every day. I can't even think about it - it sounds sooooooo nice.

I don't know why I'm so susceptible to hot and cold. I got over it a few years ago. Going on insulin made it livable in the summer, but the cold is definitely still difficult.

Maybe I'll start wearing a hat. I think that's a good compromise. I can rock a hat. I'm gonna need to start looking for some more hats then :)

Merry New Year!

Fun vintage children's book - Circa 1967 :)

dwelling means to stay
present, grounded in the body
planted in the land
your toes becoming long and thin
longer and longer until no one
can pluck you out

you may have started as a weed
a foreign plant, unwanted and ugly
but you have made yourself at home
in this black asphalt
gray cement
and brown dirt
here you are - you are home

Happy Christmas!

Ceramic outdoor bird feeder - I just think it's pretty :)

I got the best Christmas gift ever: a wonderful, laughter-filled day with a bunch of my favorite people. Who could ask for anything more?

Life is pretty awesome, after all.

These vintage 3D latch hook kits are awesome :)

Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.

Rumi

Everything in my life is so crazy and mixed up at the moment that all I can do is laugh and smile, and listen to songs on repeat.

Life takes some sharp twists and turns sometimes, but in the end, somehow, everything will be okay. Somehow, in the midst of neurological craziness, and health problems up the wang, and emotional overload, and missing people like crazy, it just stops mattering. Somehow, I'm alive and loved and I have joy in my life, so I really can't complain. And I'm gonna celebrate by wearing my favorite red pants tonight, so y'all can look forward to that.

So no complaints. Life is pretty awesome :)

Oh, Canada...

Shout-out to my Canadian peeps - wish I were visiting :)

Last winter/spring, my best friend and I took a few weekend "writing retreats" where we holed up in a hotel room, and other people's empty houses, to write our senior papers. And I loved it. My paper didn't turn out amazing like I'd hoped, but it said something, and people read it, and they either loved it or they hated it, so all-in-all, it was a success.

I remember thinking to myself, "Let's make this a tradition". But when I mentioned this brilliant idea to said friend, she acted like she'd rather die. So, I think I'm going to write by myself. I have post-it notes on my computer, documents on Google Docs, and a senior paper on my desktop, that either need to be written, or heavily edited for publication. Maybe I'll even get a thrift store zine finished for all my faithful followers out there.

So I'll be sitting in this big empty house, with my laptop, enjoying the silence of vacation, and hopefully getting some things done.

Peace out :)

My pending memoir :)

Retreats are awesome! Every once in a while, I should find a place and just go. Of course, this time, I'm working the entire time and I'm physically and mentally exhausted, but someday, I will not be a student, and maybe I can write a novel or my ever-pending memoir. Imagine the possibilities! Blue sky outside the window, maybe a beach, or some other wonderful view. It's lovely to be with someone you love too. It makes the whole thing enjoyable, even if it's work.

Also, the television show that I'm newly hooked on at this particular moment-watching it at the end of a long day is all the sweeter after so much mind-numbing paper-writing.

A relational non-savant

I didn't eat a terrible lot of pie over my holiday. I only had a couple pieces on Christmas day, and they were small. Mostly, I ate a ridiculous amount of Sees's Nuts & Chews. I feel no guilt. I even ate mostly milk chocolate, because they tasted better. I even think my digestion improved, even though my diet went downhill (absence of stress perhaps?). And whilst this was happening (i.e. the eating of the chocolates), I was watching football (not by choice) mixed with television marathons, which are my absolute favorite.

I have completely stopped watching Law & Order, even though it was available on multiple channels for hours on end. I just can't stand it. I think I was able to enjoy one episode that was just about burgling houses for silver, but I didn't even get to the end of it. Give me trash, smut, meaningless reality television. Give me The Bachelor, or anything with Kardashian in it. I feel no shame.

Plus I learn so much about relationships! For example, I learned that prior to marriage (emphasis on prior), a couple should discuss the following: religion, work, where to live, how to live, how many children, how they will be raised, where they will be raised, etc. Thank you Ryan Seacrest for producing these educational materials for me, a relational non-savant.

What have the Kardashians taught you lately?

Life update

I hate it when people get preachy on their blogs. I hope I never come across that way. Whatever I say is for my own enjoyment, really, and if anyone else likes it too, that's just icing on the cake. It is noteworthy that I love my readers, though, and love to make them happy (or just make them think).

We all know I've taken to hibernating on the weekends. Tomorrow, I am going to church, but I love not doing a thing on Saturday and Sunday. I wish that no one (including me) cared that I missed church, or didn't go to my small group on Sunday evenings. I wish that there were two more days in the week, so I could do it all.

I am getting a lot better at going through my stock more regularly. Why hold onto stuff that doesn't sell? Why let it clutter my already tight apartment? That's just silly, I say.

Christmas is coming. As I declutter, I am holding onto things that are good for other people as gifts. I have not been as successful this year at saving gifts for the six months prior to the holiday season. And at no point am I going to get a surge of energy in the next two weeks, so whatever is in my home right now, will have to do (Family, take note! You will not suffer).

I did me some yoga in my living room this evening. Pandora has a yoga station, and that was lovely background music. I'm getting better, stronger, and it feels really good.

I think I'm making Saturday evening my thriller film night. Maybe I will be inspired (like when I watched The Forgotten) and write something thrifty tomorrow when I return to the interweb.