Spring peeking
Originally uploaded by measi

Even though the snow is blowing today, I have proof that springtime is, in fact, right around the corner. I found these little pop-ups in the beds of the new parkland that divides Atlantic Avenue.

For those who’ve been to Boston, but not for a few years… this park is where the elevated portion of I-93 used to be downtown… the highway was put underground during the Big Dig, and a long stretch of parkland now runs the city from North Station/Hanover Street all the way to South Station. It’s fantastic.

Anyway… I’m thrilled. They’re only about an inch tall so far, but there are tons of them – and since Mother Nature knows best, I know that warmer weather is only a few short weeks away.

I’m a bit silly-punchy right now due to being on the reception desk all day, so if I really go off on a strange tangent or don’t sound quite sane (for me – be nice), that’s why.

It’s odd to know that there’s a raging snowstorm coming up the East Coast that’s going to absolutely bury some places in 20-30 inches of snow, yet in Rhode Island there isn’t even a flake in the forecast. Amazing how these systems work. I’m so used to hearing the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington, DC announcement on Amtrak as if the megalopolis is this continual, reasonably small area of land that sometimes it’s easy to forget that no, it really isn’t.

In any case, my mom will be in this storm, though not in the worst of it. I’ll give her a call at some point to check in tomorrow.

My weekend should be fairly tame – I’m going to stitch all day tomorrow. Literally. Erich and Matt are off to play Dungeons & Dragons (well… a Star Wars campaign actually, but it’s tabletop roleplaying…) all day. They’ll probably leave sometime around 10 a.m., and I expect them home pretty late (10 or 11 p.m.). I’ll have the house to myself.

So stitching’s the plan – and lots of it. I’m going to be working on my Stitching Olympics rotation for The Wagon tomorrow. Unsure how many projects I’ll actually stitch. The official turnaround is at 2 hours. I am going to stick to that as best I can, but I do tend to be a slow stitcher. 2 hours may not give me a lot of progress. Still, it will be good to put stitches in a bunch of things. I have UFOs that literally have not been touched since before my wedding. I’m using the Olympic challenges to form my rotations for the rest of the year, too. I want to figure out which projects are strongly appealing right now and which projects I have a reasonable chance at finishing at some point this year. As far as I’m concerned, the more I can clean off my list, the more new projects I can start. But now I have a healthy group of projects to choose from, so no more from me until a couple others are completed, I think.

I also became the moderator for the new 2010 UFO Round Robin over on The Worldwide Round Robins board today. Susan’s a bit busy with work and other projects, and I was happy to jump in with the experience I have from years past in non-stitching exchanges. The RR’s scheduled to have its first mailing on March 15th, so if anyone’s interested in participating, pop over there, look for the 2010 UFO RR board (bottom of the page, currently) and drop me the info required. The more the merrier!

Time to go home soon, so I’m going to start tidying up around here before heading to the boat. (I drove to Hingham and took the ferry today)

Happy Friday!

It’s funny – I’m all geared up to write, and then I sit with blank pages and go “Um… yeah, so what’s up with me lately?”

I’ve been sorting some of my older entries that translated over to WordPress with no labels and such, and I’m amazed at how much I had to write about years ago. Now? Life is just routine. I get up, I go to work, I headdesk a bit at work due to one frustration or another. After work I go home. I veg on the couch and stitch, or I play Bejewelled, or I play World of Warcraft. And then I go to bed. And six hours later, the whole routine starts again.

What the hell happened to me? Is mid-thirties when we all start getting boring?

Well, at least I seem to be.

It’s just strange – either it’s a sign that I’m content with my life as-is, and just don’t have the tortured soul need to write. Or perhaps experiences in Doctor Who fandom on LiveJournal and Diary-X in the past have me very… reserved… about what I want to write about, to the point that I’m not writing anything.

It’s crap. I need to fix this.

(sigh)

There’s a whole lot of Time-related stuff on my mind these days, and I’m not just referring to the new Doctor Who special on the 15th…

My brain still isn’t quite believing it’s November, even if we’re already nearly a quarter-way through the month already.  Where the heck has this year gone?  I’m getting the completely useless and stupid feeling like everything’s ending and OMGIMUSTGETTHISDONENOW!! as if the end of 2009 means the end of everything.

It’s absolutely stupid.  I have no idea where it comes from.  And I wish it would shut up.

Since it won’t, though, I’m considering what is realistic for me to get done before the end of the year, both in a practical “this shit really does need to get done, Mel” way, and fun stuff I’d like to get done.  I think I have the list down to a few things, both practical and not.

But that’s NOTHING compared to the clock that’s started ticking.

.

.

.

Yeah, that one.

The stupid one I NEVER EVER EVER THOUGHT WOULD KICK UP.  Oh, it has.  With a vengeance.

Not that people asking me why Erich and I don’t have kids already has helped at all.  Or that so many of our friends are blissfully (or otherwise) parental now.

It’s honestly hellish being the odd duck on this one.  No, I’m not opposed to having kids.  I’ve been completely neutral on it, actually.  If I had them, great.  If not, no problem.   I always thought that if I were going to have kids, I’d adopt.  For me, that’s the natural method of parenting anyway.

But biology is starting to warn me that 35, that “women over…” warning age for every medical label is approaching rapidly.  If I am going to have kids by pregnancy method, I probably should start thinking about it soon.  And then there’ s the question – do I really want to have kids?  Can we afford to have kids?  Is it even safe for me to think about having kids, given my weight?

Erich’s been on the negative side on this one, but even he’s mentioned feeling some pressure lately. Mostly due to the fact that we’re now becoming the rarity in our friends’ circle… the couple without them. 

It’s getting a bit lonely in the circle.

And the clock’s ticking.  And driving me absolutely insane. 

The thing is – I would never decide such a thing without Erich.  If he doesn’t want kids, then that’s that.  But at the same time, I’m troubled by it.  Really, really troubled by it.

And having just checked the date again and realized why these thoughts are probably even more intense is not helping.

*headdesk*

I spent yesterday morning organizing all of my stitching projects and making a list of all of my charts, kits, etc. I’m fairly sure I’m still missing a stack somewhere, but all but one of the “works in progress” have been found and documented. It’s not like I don’t have enough to work on without those missing charts – 29 projects either with stitches in them or all kitted up and ready to go (eep!). So I’ll eventually find those charts and add them to the batch I’ve gone through.

To start, I’m going to do a 5-hour rotation to work through several projects, including both the small projects that have me excited to stitch again (i.e. allowing myself new starts) and also some of the large projects that I’m interested in finishing at some point, but need a slow warm-up to get back into. Teresa Wentzler projects in particular take a certain rhythm due to their complexity. Once I’m in the zone with them, I’m fine, but I need to get into that zone.

My other problem was that because I love Teresa’s patterns so much, I have a bunch of them in progress – and they’re all huge, huge pieces. Literally hundreds of hours of work can go into them. I need some small pieces so I have the satisfaction of completed works once in a while – and that’s where the new starts are coming in.

So Rotation #1, five hours each is:

1. Elemental Dragons – Spirit by Dragon Dreams
2. Cats on a Staircase stocking by Bucilla
3. Egyptian Sampler by Teresa Wentzler
4. Star Wars Sampler – personal drafting, based off of a sampler found atHandEyeMindMouth New start
5. Apache Wedding Blessing by Kooler Design
6. Floral Bellpull by Teresa Wentzler
7. Astrology Sampler by Witches Stitches New start
8. Ornament for swap New start

#8 is something I don’t have to commit to until early November, so we’ll see how it goes, but for now it’s in the lineup.

On non-stitching stuff, Matt and I took a drive down to North Kingstown to the farm stand for pie and cooking supplies – it was a gorgeous day (and today looks even better). My tomatoes are slowing down, and I’m now making salsa and sauce to use them before they go bad. Fresh pesto is also on today’s cooking plans thanks to a couple basil plants that went haywire in August – I can’t let it all die off, of course!

There was talk of going to the Mendon Drive-In tonight for the final night of the theater’s season, but we’ll see. I’ve felt a bit under the weather since cleaning the outer surface of the basement fridge the other day (mold reactions… whee.) I feel okay now, but know that as the day goes on, I’ll feel… less fine.

It’s been a good vacation, I think! Quite a bit done, still stuff to do, but I have another long weekend coming in a couple weeks with Columbus Day, and I still have a few vacation days to play with this year – I may take some other long weekends off.

Twenty years ago tomorrow, at about this time…

I was at recess in fifth grade. There was snow out in the field of the playground, so we were all on the blacktop, per school rules if we didn’t have boots. (I always forgot my boots).

It was a sunny day. Cold, of course, since it was January.

Mrs. Arnold raised her arm, indicating that it was time to line back up to go in. We were confused– there was no way that it was time to go in yet. She gathered us all around, and said that she knew it wasn’t time to go in, but there was something important to tell us. The Challenger shuttle had just exploded.

We had a moment of silence. I stared at the blacktop at the shady outline of everyone’s shoes from the sun. I smelled the grit of the asphalt. I heard the clink of the tetherball chains against their poles in the wind.

Every generation has one of these memories– the FIRST flashbulb memory that connects us as a generation. JFK, 9/11…

This was mine.

I have a day off. A glorious, sunny day off… all for me. And said day off will kick off that glorious rare thing– a four day weekend.

Whee!

Although it’s starting off on an awkward note- I’ve needed a haircut for a while, and decided to trim my bangs up myself, since they need the immediate attention. This is, by the way, something I normally do because my hair is very strong and grows evenly. I’ve been allowing it to grow so it’s longer for my wedding, and almost have it at the bottom of my shoulder blades, where I want it. To do this, though, I need to just let it grow for a while because the original cut had tons of layers in it since my hair was so thick. For eighteen months, I was good about going to the salon every six weeks. Each time, they’d trim it, but add more layers in– some cuts facing the wrong way, and the stupid ski jump flips started showing up on my ends. I have STICK straight hair, so these cuts really are noticeable. Now it’s at the point where I have so many lengths of hair on my head that I can’t even get it into a ponytail without all sorts of retarded spikes sticking out. It drives me nuts.

I decided that to fix it, I just need to let it grow for a while. I’ll go in sometime this spring to the salon, have the stylist do a straight cut across to clean up all of the ends, and then just continue to let it grow and get maintenance trims every six weeks so it’s even and straight and can be put into an “updo” for the wedding if that’s what I decide to do.

Anyway… this morning after my shower, I stand in front of the mirror, trimming comb and scissors in hand. Deep breath, even it out… cut.

Well, I trimmed the bangs a tad short. Not horrendously so, but they’re about a quarter inch above my eyebrows. I’m kicking myself a bit, but with how fast my hair grows they’ll probably be halfway down the lenses of my glasses again by the 10th. Thankfully, our New Year’s Eve plans involve hanging out with friends, who already know I’m a goober and a klutz. *shrug*

*sigh*

If I weren’t too chicken to grow out my bangs, this wouldn’t be a problem…

We’re having a rather rainy post-Christmas. The snow from two weeks ago is finally being washed away, taking with it the piss-poor job we did in shovelling after the freak snowfall that left everything over a sheet of ice. Needless to say, next time we won’t be so lazy about it and let everything freeze. As soon as we get home, out come the snow shovels.

We’d planned on today being a fairly lazy day around the house. Neither of us are gung-ho discount shopper fanatics. Would I mind picking up cheap holiday lights for next year? Nope… but I sure as hell don’t want to deal with the hordes of other people out there.

Despite that, we did venture out to Sears briefly. Erich’s car has been sitting silent in the driveway since Thanksgiving due to a dead battery, and the weekends were simply too busy to go out and get one. While the automotive section of Sears was fairly busy, it was mostly people taking advantage of the day off to get their oil changed. We got in and out of there fairly quickly.

It’s quarter to three. We’ve done all of our errands. The rest of the day will really be a combination of laundry, kitchen reclaiming after celebrating yesterday, and personal things before the Pats game tonight. Erich’s geeking out a bit on World of Warcraft. I’m going to be focusing on finishing up some penpalling swaps that are long overdue that I just haven’t had the time or money to get done.

Other than an occasional swap to help cover something on my own lists, I will be quitting for a good portion of 2006. I’m just tired of it. I’m tired of dealing with a good portion of the people who swap via yahoogroups. I suppose it’s because I’ve always been much more laid-back about things since I work full-time and respect those who also do, or who are running a household. But the longer I swap there, the more I see people who seem to have nothing else in their lives except swapping. The more I deal with them, the less interested I am in actually making an effort to swap. So I’m hoping to just get it out the door and focus on stitching– I get much more enjoyment out if it, anyway.

It’s interesting how interests can change. It really is. I never thought I’d be sick of swapping.

Erich and I saw The Chronicles of Narnia last night as an impromptu date-night. Honestly, I thought the movie was just okay. Beautiful to look at, but the entire story seemed rushed and superficial to me. Erich’s comment was that he didn’t think the main characters really seemed all that important– I have to agree. It seemed like most of the detailing of the main plot was skipped over. Perhaps it was a time thing, but honestly, I’d rather the movie be longer with more depth. Kids can handle long movies if what’s on screen captivates them. Harry Potter and Star Wars come to mind.

Granted, I haven’t read the book in twenty years or so and never read the entire series (I started book 3, but never finished it). So honestly, I’m not that familiar with C. S. Lewis’ writing anymore. But it just seemed kinda… there. I admit that I was a bit confused as to all of the hoopla about Christian allegory leading up to the movie, since I didn’t recall it in the book. Yeah– well, I’ll chalk that up to being a kid and having it fly over my head. Because the movie was full of it, and I’m sure the book has even more. It doesn’t bother me, of course.

Tilda Swinton blew me away as the White Witch. I find her to be such an intriguing actress. Visibly, she’s a chameleon. Very beautiful and graceful, but with this underlying air that can turn her to an image of absolute horror simply by changing her experession. She brought this coldness to the White Witch and played her perfectly– seductive and evil. I loved it. I was introduced to Ms. Swinton in Constantine last year, where I was extremely impressed that they’d found a woman who could play Gabriel as the androgynous character (s)he is alluded to be. Beautiful and handsome together at the same time. It’s a rare feat.

I guess I just wanted more from this movie. It definitely had potential. And as I said, it was beautiful to look at. But it just. didn’t. go. far. enough. It does, however, make me want to read the book again.

One thing I did notice last night? The theater was dead. For a holiday movie – and a family movie – at a 7:30 showing on its opening weekend? Dead quiet. The theater was maybe a quarter full. The theater we go to is a nice one with stadium seating right next to the mall (which was PACKED, of course).

But yay! to the new Pirates of the Carribean trailer. That should be fun next summer.

I expect to be at the theater a lot over the next few weeks. Lots of movies out that I want to see-

- Walk the Line
- Syriana
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Harry Potter 4 (again… preferably in IMAX)
- Pride & Prejudice

Maybe Erich and I should just spend Christmas Day at the movies…

Mel the Klutz (or Auntie Klutz, as I’m comign to be known in some BU circles…) lived up to the namesake on Saturday. Stupid me went up to put on stupid socks because I was getting cold, and then walked down the wooden stairs and went FWOOOM… bouncing down about a half-dozen or so before I landed at the bottom, stopped by the wall.

I’m sore, but nothing’s broken. I’ve got some oh-so-beautiful bruises on my ass cheeks, though. And the only reason I think nothing is broken is because I have all of this padding. The ONE thing that’s good about being fat is the padding when I fall.

As I talked about it with Erich yesterday, I seriously think the only reason I managed to keep ON my butt was due to dance training as a kid. From age 12 to 18, I was doing drop rolls as part of dance routines. Instictively, I just landed correctly on the stair, and managed to literally bounce my ass down them. Granted, a bit too quickly for my liking, but considering the alternative…

*shudder*

So I’m sore. I’m walking a bit stiff. And I’ll deal with cold feet all winter, because FUCK repeating THAT again.

Ow.

And I still don’t know what I’m writing about for NaNo. I’m so fucking doomed.