Success? (!)

Well, so far so good! They countered our offer, and we accepted their counter. I know there is still a long way to go before this really happens, but this is the most important first step! I'm really excited about this place and think it will be great. Fingers crossed everything else goes well!

House Hunting: The end?

We're putting in what we think is a strong bid on an apartment here in town that we really like. Fingers crossed for this one to stick! I'll let you know what happens.

Quilt Update #2

News! All of my fabrics are here and I just finished cutting the first one! Very, very exciting. Below are the patterned fabrics with their coordinating solids, though I think I'm still going to play around some with the pairings. The great news is that since I knew that monitors never display the right color and since I was buying fabric from two different places, I couldn't tell how their colors might even remotely match up, I bought four more solid colors than I really needed. That way, I had a lot of options and could mix and match if my first choices didn't pan out, color-wise. Good thing too, since several of them were WAY more orange or pink or purple than I had hoped. (Extras not shown in the pictures below).






So there they are! Yay! I got a comment that I should maybe use the orange on the left (unpaired, currently) in one of the pairings to balance out the orange and the pink. I will have to play around some more and consult the mother of the girl for whom this quilt is destined.

Cutting!

I have cut the first fabric (the octopus print) and so far, so good. I have to say, the directions on Oh, Fransson! are impeccable. I have only had a few experiences piecing a quilt before, and her tips solved many of the frustrations I usually ran into. Mostly because I am an impatient person and not as careful as I should be. But her tips (expecially the one about cutting ON the grain) helped to make this an experience to bring out the perfectionist in me and to help me revel in the feeling of perfectly straight lines. We'll see how long this perfection lasts :-)

The good thing is that it seems like mistakes multiply in quilting, so the better off you start, the better off it will all be in the end. Hopefully it works OK!

Oh, and I should get my sewing machine fixed tomorrow. That will make me much, much happier!

For Jen

I got this from my friend Jen's blog In bold are the things I have done. I hope you all copy and paste it so I can read your lists!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (Well, Rock Band)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (though I'm not really good at any arts, just crafts)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (Jeff can vouch for this one)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (really, just our ghetto cruise on the AK ferry, but still!)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (The German ones)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (shadow cuts count?)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (currently doing so, too!)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (I quit just before this might have happened)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (not yet!)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit (only class action)
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Cave Tubing in Belize

Quilt Update #1

Not too much to update. I've received the first fabrics I ordered and the coordinating solids should be here tomorrow (I hope they match! I really don't like fabric shopping on the internet, but I haven't found any stores that carry the specific fabric I am looking for in town). I ordered many different options, since it was only $4 a yard and I only need a 1/4 yard (so it was only a dollar to get several different colors to hedge my color bets).

I hope to get the fabric cut and prepared within the next couple days, and then I will be ready for sewing.

Sadly, I managed to break my sewing machine while cleaning it, so it's out of commission for a little while. It's really not broken, but I sure as hell can't get the piece I pulled out to go back in! I'm sure it will be very quick and obvious to the sewing machine guy who comes to JoAnn's every two weeks. He'll be there on Thursday, so I plan on stopping by. Also, I can't seem to get the walking foot I bought from him to work right, so hopefully he can help me with that too. Unfortunately, I don't have such high hopes for that one because I just don't see how it's going to work right with my machine.

Hmm... maybe if I really get into this, I will need to buy a sewing machine of my own! I'm using my mom's old workhorse, bought literally 40+ years ago, which still runs great...er, well, it did until I broke it. It's solid metal, solid as a rock, but has pretty much zero "features" and is so old that I may not be able to get different feet for it (see above). But then again, I've never even used the four other stitches it DOES have, so why would I need another 70 (or 300, or 1,000)? We'll see what sewing machine repair guys says about the foot. Free and working is much better than a couple hundred dollars and unknown.

Hopefully I will have pictures of fabric choices and/or cut fabric to post shortly!

Guilty Pleasures

I am doing something I shouldn't. I simply don't have time. But dammit, I'm making time!

Oh, Fransson! is doing a quilt-along, and I am joining in. I always have to have some kind of crafty project going on to inspire me, and I've gotten back into quilting again in the last month. Granted, I've never actually fully made a quilt before, but I have pieced a comforter cover with my mom, and (started) hand quilting a pillow top. I've just never done it all together. But now with the quilt along, I can do it virtually with more than 200 other people (fun!) and with some excellent, excellent instructions from oh fransson (I love how that is not her name at all, but that's what everyone calls her online).

Even though I am way behind everyone else (I haven't even ordered all of my fabric yet), I have already learned so many great tips and tricks, especially ones to avoid all of the pitfalls that would prevent me from continuing on a project in the past (imperfect seam allowances, unsquare-squares, etc.). It also makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one who can't always sew in a straight line!

Without further ado, here is the quilt I will be making. I am making it for our neighbors' little girl, who is two and a half, so I wanted something girly and sweet, but not too gross, you know?

I will be using these fabrics:


To make this front:
And this back:

The first prints should come tomorrow, and then I will be ordering the coordinating solids. Yay!

My Dichotomy

I started my internship in the schools this week as one of my last requirements for my MA in speech-language pathology (aside from that pesky little thesis, of course). As promised by all of my friends, I absolutely love it. I mean, so far. I'm still just shadowing and not doing any actual work, but it's still awesome.

This experience coming hard on the heels of essentially three months of utter and complete freedom to work on my thesis has made me realize some interesting things about myself (or perhaps, myselves?).

When I was working on the thesis, I was completely engrossed in theoretical conjectures, abstract thought and lots of mental gymnastics. I was also in a room by myself. During this time, I became much more like the stereotypical crazy academic--muttering to myself as I walked across campus, getting caught by sudden inspiration at mealtimes with friends, feverishly jotting down notes on napkins, envelopes and even a paper tablecloth. I became completely self-centered, and yet was making great progress in my development of my thoughts.

When I started at my internship, I was constantly interacting with others. Though my practice required me to rely on my theoretical background, I had to apply my knowledge immediately and did not have time to sit and ponder much of anything at all. Abstractness was the enemy, since I was dealing with kindergartners who had the attention span of a gnat and teenagers who didn't really understand the concept of "never" and "always." Theory doesn't really work so well then. So I wasn't really thinking as much, but I was also a lot more socially appropriate and interactive.

Crazy thing is, I was utterly blissful in both situations. Well, that's not entirely true. I was much more "tormented" in the first scenario. I would debate with myself over various issues, get so frustrated with insolvable quandaries, etc. Tortured genius stuff, except without the genius part. Maybe that's why I was so tortured?

Regardless, I still found research very satisfying, particularly when I would have those little a-ha moments that make it all worthwhile. Having no schedule also helped too.

But I find therapy itself amazingly fabulously wonderful. I feel exactly like I did the day of my first observation of an SLP (a friend), and the day that I decided my course for sure. I thought to myself, "They PAY you to do this?" It was so fun, great, and seemed relatively easy. I felt like this was absolutely my calling, something I was born to do that utilized many of my talents. Not to mention, I could actually HELP people!

Oops... digression narrowly averted.

Essentially, I am finding that I am two different people to some extent when I am engaged in these two different activities. At some point in my life and career, I will need to decide how much of each I want to pursue and what kind of career that would entail. Professorship? Clinical supervisor? Clinician? Clinician who does research? Hmm... well, at least I don't need to decide just yet. I need to finish this degree first!

Idiocracy

Sheer stupidity in the Colorado legislature.

During debate Wednesday on Senate Bill 88 (to require HIV testing of pregnant women), Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, said: "Sexual promiscuity, we know, causes a lot of problems in our state, one of which, obviously, is the contraction of HIV."

Also? Pregnancy. Also a possible consequence of promiscuity. However, pregnancy is also a possible consequence of monogamy, whatcha gonna do?

Such, SUCH a stupid comment on so very many levels, but I thought this aspect was a bit funny, given the people they are trying to test.

Local Linguistic Hilariousness

Life Update

Still looking for houses, but taking it a little easier, since we don't know where I'll be working yet, which could affect where we want to live (generally).

Working like mad on my thesis. I'm all done with data stuff, now I have to do a little analysis, and a LOT of writing. I should like writing, since I have a degree in it, but academic writing is never especially "fun." I got pretty inspired today, so maybe I'm over that initial hump of motivation. I only have a week and a half before I start my internship (and cease to have the wonderful flexibility I enjoy now), so I need to get CRACKING.

I've been quilting again. Well, actually just piecing so far, but I will get to the quilting phase soon. I picked up a project I left off several years ago, which is my pattern for projects. Start, make great headway, run into some stumbling block I can't see an easy solution to, put down for a couple years. Pick up again, realize whatever the problem was is no longer a problem and finish. It's all mental, but I'm a very mental person (in every sense of the word).

It's very late. I was waiting for Peter to say goodnight (my cue to come to bed), but he apparently went straight to bed. Oops. Now it's late and so I'm blogging (yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either).

I have reconnected with a whole group of friends from my high school youth group on Facebook. I haven't talked with most of them in well over ten years. They were my very best friends for the two years I was a part of it, so it's been great to reconnect. It's so interesting to me how my different groups of friends seem to take life paths similar to among the group members, but very different between groups. As in, in one of the groups, everyone has stayed in the same place, gotten married and/or had babies. In another, everyone is at least up to a master's, some are pursuing a PhD (a couple are almost done with their PhDs. I feel under-accomplished). I wonder sometimes how my Facebook profile looks to other people. Are they surprised at where I and and what I've done? Are they surprised I'm married? Do they compare their life to mine (who doesn't compare, in some way?). Do they think I'm nuts for getting two MA's? (I sometimes do, though I wouldn't change it for anything).

It's so interesting how much and how little we can learn from the information we put on the internet. Can you tell if a person is really happy? What do they do in their day to day life? What's really important to them? None of these things can really be gleaned from a profile. The best you can do is see if they are socially active, have supportive friends and see if they play a lot of Facebook games :-)

It's not after 1 AM and as much as I am not really tired, I should go to bed so I can get a relatively early start to my day of writing ahead of me. I have a meeting with my advisor tomorrow, and I really need something to show her (or at least prove I'm not just wasting all of my time). Sweet dreams to you all!

The New Economy

I love how all of a sudden, everyone is on the "economy" kick. I mean, I really don't love how lots of people are losing jobs, industries are collapsing, and everyone is losing their retirement fund in the stock market, but it does make me laugh that being frugal is now trendy. I laugh (albeit, somewhat bitterly) because we have been living in this mindset for the past three and half years (perhaps not-so-coincidentally when I started grad school and we had no jobs). And we got a little bit of flack for being really really tight with the money. You tend to be so when you need to pay rent, buy food, and yet have zero dollars in income. It happens.

Things are much better for us, relatively speaking, but I think the mindset is still a good one, especially because we are saving up for our house. Be more cautious of what you spend and where you spend it.

Can't wait!

So you guys, I'm getting a new camera! It's already been ordered and whatnot, but I must wait patiently for it to arrive. It's basically the same exact camera as my poor little trusty point-n-shoot, which has been making a very sad sound since August. Autofocuses (autofoci?) do not come cheap, whereas new cameras do. Relatively speaking.

When it comes, I will have to test it out! And post the results! And I can once again resume my spy-cam activities! OK, not really, but my current camera is fondly nicknamed "the spy-cam" because it is so NOT unobtrusive. I have scared more than one person and several little children with it.

I did, however, manage to take a picture of a sleeping fox with it today and the fox did not stir. I think he was VERY tie-tie, because he barely moved at all. Sadly, you all may have to wait for those not-very-good pictures of the fox because I can't seem to find my uploady cord. Just imagine a little red furry blob in the middle of a bunch of leaves and naked trees, and that's about what you would have seen. Also on that inaccessible memory card is a video of a two year old attempting to say "valleculae." That's for my speechie peeps out there :-)

Happy New Year!

This past year has been better for me than it has for a lot of people (not having much money to begin with helps when the world economy melts down), but I have high hopes that 2009 will be even better. Hopefully by this time next year, I will have finished my master's thesis, graduated, gotten a job, and (fingers crossed) we will have bought a house/condo/other abode.

Most of all, I've gotten even closer to friends and family and recognized how very blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life.

Resolutions? I've never really been one for official-type resolutions, but I do think it's a good idea to take stock every so often and think about the future, and a new year is a handy time to do so. One thing I'd like to improve on is my blogging. I realized I have about 8 drafts sitting around waiting for me, and only one relatively recent post. Maybe I'll tackle some of those drafts to help spur the thesis writing that must commence quite shortly.

May the coming year be even happier and more enriching in all ways than those that preceded it!

Catching up on drafts: The first

First:

Woo-freaking-hoo!!!! I am done with this semester! The last semester of classes (for now, but maybe forever)! It just hit me walking back from dropping off some paperwork. I am SOOO happy!

Next:

Lots of people and websites do "best-of" lists or "a look back at the past year" this time of year, and usually these are fun, silly, and sometimes pointless. However, if you only look at one this year, you need to see The Big Picture's The Year 2008 in Photographs (click here for Part 1 of 3 to get started). This collection of 120 pictures (40 per installment) is an incredible look at the many, many different facets of this amazing world we live in. These photographs have a way of making the world feel so small, making the connections between all people so real and palpable. "Intimate" is an excellent word. So is "moving," "profound," and the ever popular hyphenated, one-word impostor: "don't-miss." So don't miss it!

Organized Living

I don't know why, but lately when I've seen something about "being an organized person," I feel a couple tiny hackles being raised inside me. I think organization is keen, I think organization is neat (pun intended), but I don't think organization is everything.

I don't think creativity can thrive in an organized world. Maybe for some people, but certainly not for me. The best ideas come from a jumbled up place inside. They are a brilliant flash uniting disparate threads of thought, coalescing in an unplanned instant.

I don't want to be an organized person. I wouldn't mind being able to find things when I need them, but I don't want to lose the spark that comes from the spontaneity and flexibility that comes from a little disorganization. I'd rather spend my time living my life than organizing it.

If you like pretty pictures

Check out Google's new archive of photographs from LIFE magazine. Pretty incredible stuff.

Also...

I am also very, very thankful that they finally caught Bri's killer. I am thankful for all of the people who put in thousands of hours of work, both the police and volunteers, and am thankful for the technology that made it possible to match his DNA. More than anything, I am thankful for the friend of his girlfriend who was suspicious enough to call in the tip to the police. I honestly cannot believe that they were able to find the man who terrorized our town within a year and before he struck again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Time to Give Thanks

I am thankful:

For my wonderful friends, who I can always rely upon for anything.
For my amazing family, though I wish we could all live closer.
That both my husband and I have found a profession that we love, are good at, and can get paid to do.
For our good health and general happiness (seriously, quite, quite thankful).
That both of us have much more job security than most (kids will always need teachers, and we are in high-needs areas).
That our families are in good health.
That everyone in our lives is moving on a forward path towards what they really want.
For Nutella.
To have the opportunity to live in one of the best places in America.
Last, but certainly not least, my beloved husband, who is more than I could ever have asked for.

Chicago, Chicago

I thought I had no concept of Chicago. I thought it was merely a placeholder on the flat face of the Midwest; a blank metropolis in the middle of the generic "American-ness" that is the supposed heartland of this nation. It held no allure for me; I did not feel the tug of curiosity that impels the traveler to fill in the details of place along with name.

Or so I thought.

Even upon landing in the dark of winter evening, as the low houses flashed past the windows of the taxi, even then I could feel the city's essence. Hard working neighborhoods, staunchly neat and unpretentious, neither city nor suburb, gave way to huge, hulking shadows of scattered high rises looming over unseen streets.

Unbidden, fully-formed myths of Chicago sprung to my mind from the depths where they had been fed for years by poetry, songs, and stories I didn't remember digesting. In the pizza shop, I saw a tall man in an impeccable coat whose immense breadth immediately called to mind Sandburg's "City of the Big Shoulders":

HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders

A small detail on a bridge reminded me that this was the home of the Prairie school of architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright and that gorgeous aesthetic I had loved in so many other places. And yet it seemed to be so at home here, in a way that I had not felt seeing the style elsewhere.

Everywhere, details sang out to me that this, this place I had never given a second thought was the home of poets, architects, writers who have inspired me and fed my artistic soul for years.

Chicago

HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Carl Sandburg

Great minds!