Jumble

This has been a very tiring week. Work , personal finances, lack of sleep, emotional stuff...yeah, I'm pretty tired.

I could write about it all: new babies and old friends and my health worries, trying to keep afloat without feeling resentful, animals that think 5:30 am is a normal time of day to wake up...each of those could be a blog post, but I just don't have the energy.

Knitting hasn't been going well either. I took a course in toe-up socks at All Strung Out, taught by JohannaB that was awesome...but I didn't measure properly and my socks are too big for my feet. I have been working on the February Lady sweater since November. I picked up the stitches for the last sleeve on Saturday, and knit it inside out for an inch and a half. I bound off the wrong edge of a baby sweater. Lots of knitting fail.

So here are good things:

I passed my Canadian Firearms Safety Course (Unrestricted) last weekend with 100% on both the written and practical tests, and the new knowledge took something I was doing to make other people happy and turned it into something I'm actually excited about.

We can pay some major bills this week, since the severance pay finally came in. Also, I can get a hair cut, and hopefully squirrel away a little walking around cash for the Knitter's Frolic at the end of the month.

Tonight is knit night. Tomorrow is sleeping in (animals be damned) and Replacement Tea. The BlackBerry is staying at home for both events.

We have a roof, and running water, and food, and I am mostly healthy (my new, awesome doctor is helping with the health part), and my cats and dog love me unconditionally.

I have awesome friends at home, at work, and living in my computer.

Finally, I am running a constant soundtrack of feel-good music between blip.fm and my iPod. Music makes my world go around, yes it does.

Nevermind the groundhog

On my way home from work last night I saw one of my personal notifiers that Spring is on the way.

Buckets.

Specifically, maple syrup buckets.

I have fond memories of going out to the sugar bush on March break and watching the sap get turned into maple syrup. The people doing the demonstration would always drip a bit of the hot maple sugar onto some clean snow so that it would harden. There is nothing quite as awesome as fresh maple sugar candy.

Impromptu Poetry

Leone tagged me to do some impromptu poetry. Her's rhymes. Mine doesn't.


Cat

I fell in love with you after we broke up;
After you decided
(and rightly so)
That you deserved more in a girlfriend
Than a bi-chick who was already
Mostly committed to her boyfriend
And two cats.

I enjoyed our nights while we were a couple.
Our Portishead underscored lovemaking;
Waiting for your roommate and her girlfriend
To slam into or out of your apartment.
I looked forward to making out in our tiny kitchens
While we waited for the tea to brew.
I relished your scent,
(Body Shop, Second Cup and Pope Joan)
But it was none of these things that made me fall for you.

It was later, when we were friends.
It was our Tuesday teas
(What is it with me and Tuesday?)
When we talked in a way we hadn't when we were focused on
Each others bodies.
When you told me about the women you dated after me,
And the ways in which they wronged you,
And I wanted to hurt them, but you said,
"No".

It was later again, after I married, then left the boyfriend,
(But kept the cats)
And you moved across the ocean
That I missed you most;
That I realized your importance to me,
And that you found my phone number in a pile of papers;
That I finally felt settled in my skin.

I'm not big on the whole tagging thing, but I think there should be more poetry in the world, so I'd like tigerleo, semicrunchymom and noirbettie to give this a shot. Also if you like to read poetry, please go check out Natalie Smith's poetry, but bring some tissues, 'cause she's goooood.

That's the book!

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to remember a book in which children run away and live in a museum.

Today, someone posted a clip from Clue on Ravelry, which prompted me to look up Madeline Kahn's filmography, and then follow from there to the entry on Wikipedia about the book:
"From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler".

Must remember to see if the Guelph library has a copy.

Introducing...Sheldon!

No, we didn't get another live animal. In fact, this one won't even be staying at our house; he's a gift for a co-worker.

I knit him out of Briggs and Little wool that I bought at my local yarn store All Strung Out.


He's knit in pieces (8 total by the time you count all the legs), then stuffed and seamed. This was my first time trying an applied i-cord - much thanks to Ashley for the instruction!


The best part about Sheldon is that, much like wee little puppet man Angel, his shell comes off.

Random Thoughts

I get that all those celebrity women do that weird cross-legged standing thing in photos because it's supposed to make them look thinner, but it just makes me think that they all need to use the potty.

Awesome blog: Clonehenge. It's all about replicas of Stonehenge, made in mediums ranging from silver to bacon. Seriously.

Can we just leave Rihanna alone? Please? Yes, I understand that by mentioning her, I am flying in the face of my own request. Still. Please?

See above point for Nadya Suleyman as well.

In fact, can we stop ridiculing and belittleing women for their choices and blaming them for being victimized, and try to be supportive of each other?

I'm re-reading "The Bitch in the House" by Cathi Hanauer. Sometimes it's good to read stuff that feels like it comes from inside my head.

Tonight I will buy this yarn, in order to knit this pattern for myself. Love!

I currently have a pair of socks, a turtle and a sweater on the needles (no photo yet of the sock, since it's not much more than a cuff at this point).

Coworker gave me a bag of Second Cup's blueberry tea. Heaven!

I have updated my Flickr to a Pro account, and added Google Analytics to my blog. This will either galvanize me into posting more, or paralyze me into posting less. I'm aiming for the former.

Even though the word "assistant" appears in my title, that doesn't mean that I am your assistant.

Tazo's Passion tea is also awesome.

This

This poem, this writing, this begins to say for me what I haven't been able to say for myself.

Round

If I write more now, I'll wind up in tears at my desk, but that poem at Ampersand, it's a start.

Circular Motion

Then: I was feeling trapped in a job with no immediate career path out of it, with little to no direct supervision or direction from my boss, trying desperately to get rid of my company laptop, thinking that the only long term solution would be to pursue a Certified Associate in Project Management or Project Management Professional designation and move into the Project Management field, but not feeling overly excited about it.

Now: I am doing a job that I mostly love, although it has no immediate career path out of it. My supervisor sits in an entirely different building, so I talk to her every couple of weeks or so, and get very little direction from her. However, when I do get a chance to talk to her, she's awesomely supportive, and freaking hilarious. I have just requested and received a company laptop, so that if it snows like crazy, I can still get my work done instead of calling it a day and going back to bed. Finally, I have just been approved to take an intro to Project Management course, 'cause I think that's the career direction I want to go in.

It's interesting how sometimes the more things stay the same, the more they change.