Monday, February 14, 2005

    Happy Valentine's Day

 
Happy Valentine's Day. To all of those of you that hate it, I understand, I have many, many years of hating Valentine's Day in my life. I didn't like it until two years ago when Bryan really made Valentine's Day special. He made it extra special when he proposed and Valentine's Day will never been the same again. He sent me flowers today. I'll post a photo tomorrow. They are beautiful little pink roses, deep red snapdragons, lavender asters, peach gerberas, lavender statice and creamy white snapdragons. My cubicle smells like a florist's shop, it's wonderful!

Yesterday wasn't as productive knitwise as it could have been. I spent a lot of time trying to update my website. The littlest things seem to take the longest to do. I'm working on combining my currently listening to and my music pages, and my recent reads and my literature pages. I'm really working on paring down my site, it's become overwhelming and such a monster to keep up.

Since I am so behind on keeping up with the "up to" blog, I am apologizing profusely. I am going to try to keep this up better.

Last week, Bryan and I went an entire week without the news - no reading it, no tv and certainly no radio. It was difficult, at first, but today I haven't even wanted to read or listen to it. Our idea started when we were at our "Creating a Life Vision" class and it was mentioned that in one week of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, she says not to read for an entire week. I decided that I should go a week without any tv. Then we decided that we should go a week without the news. So I taped both American Idol and Alias last week. I was so productive in the knitting department, I couldn't believe it. So this week, I'm going to have a selective tv watching week. I will probably watch a little bit of the American Idol that I taped last week, but still tape it this week and also tape Alias. We were much more calm all week, I couldn't believe it.
posted by erica Monday, February 14, 2005 []

  Tuesday, February 01, 2005

    Busy weekend

 
It doesn't feel like there was a weekend, it was more like just two days off of work. Friday night, Bryan and I went to a class at the Unitarian church about creating your life's vision. It was very interesting and, as usual, a lot more work than you think. It's a three-week class and this past week was "Fulfilling your values." It was about what do you value and how can you feel fulfilled in those values. There was an interesting small discussion about the word "Freedom" and how it gets used so freely right now. When freedom means different things to different people and most people that night didn't agree with George Bush's ideas of freedom. I think most people were also irritated how he tends to define it in a certain way and if you disagree with him, then you're not an American like he is and you have the wrong definition of freedom. It's so irritating. One thing about the Unitarian church is that I feel like I don't have to hold back about my political views and that so many people feel the same way. It's very refreshing. The class was very interesting and gave us some things to work on. It comes at a time in my life that I'm working on living a more content life. In the last several months, things seem to be coming along at the right time, this class is one example.

Saturday was a whirlwind day. I had my hair cut in the morning, had lunch with my sister and her friends in the afternoon, and went to a retirement party in the evening. Bryan and I managed to take a nap between the time I got home and the time we needed to leave, which was about two hours. We can't nap together or we end up taking 2 hour naps. The retirement party was for a woman that Bryan works with at the library. Bryan remembered her working at the library when he was a kid and he would see her walking to work when he was a kid. She'd worked at the library for 25 years.

Sunday morning, we decided to lounge around. I went to a friend's house for the afternoon and was exhausted by the time I came home Sunday evening. I hadn't had enough time to relax during the weekend.

Last night, worked late until 6:30pm, and came home very tired. I put in The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood DVD and knit. About 8:45pm, I started to not feel well. So I laid down on the couch and just watched the rest of the movie and the DVD extras. I woke up this morning with an upset stomach again. After lunch, I started to feel dizzy. So I've been trying to get through my day so that I can go home and relax. I was supposed to teach tonight, but I'm not feeling well enough. I hate cancelling a knitting class, but I'm in no shape to teach or even converse with someone. If I didn't have a heap of work to do on a project right now, I would go home early.
posted by erica Tuesday, February 01, 2005 []

  Wednesday, January 26, 2005

    Warning: Political ranting

 
I can’t believe that anyone could vote for George W. Bush and feel good about it. On my way to work this morning, I heard the president’s news conference. He was talking about the same crap that he talked about during his inaugural address – spreading freedom and asking the Congress to pass his Social Security legislation. I learned something very interesting on NPR last night. Part of the reason that the Bushies can say that Social Security is bankrupt is because they used the Social Security trust fund to take care of tax cuts and other crap that the president and the neo-cons wanted. When the government decides to cash in the government bonds that are the Social Security trust fund, the money won’t be there because it’s already been spent. Basically, they have created this problem. They’ve always hated government “entitlement” programs even though they have benefited from them and they probably decided that if they completely screw over Social Security now, it will give them the opportunity to privatize it later.

Oh, my favorite part of the news conference this morning was when someone asked him whether or not he's willing to admit mistakes now that he's in his second term and he REFUSED to answer the question. Once again, they don't make mistakes!

How anyone can believe a word that W. says and have confidence in him is beyond me. Sure there are those that think his idea of a “culture of life” is right on, but this guy does exactly the opposite. How can he support a “culture of life” when he started a war that has killed more than 1,500 US troops, countless Iraqi civilians and made our world so dangerous that we will be paying for generations. And he is talking about we will have to commit generations to advancing freedom around the world. He sounds like he’s found another country to invade and spread “freedom” and death. He is a sick man and I don’t understand how we can survive four more years of this guy and his sick policies.
Text of the president's press conference. Pages 2 & 3 are particularly irritating.

I found this website, I'm Blue today and it made me feel better. Others are just as frustrated and see that the Bushies live in their own fantasy world. Let's hope more people come to realize how horrible the Bushies have been for our world and get rid of the Republicans in 2006 and definitely in 2008, we'll really need some rehab by then.
posted by erica Wednesday, January 26, 2005 []

  Thursday, January 20, 2005

    Inauguration Day

 

It's a very sad day for the world. The inauguration (or better coronation) of George W. Bush is taking place. I just read that wearing a white ribbon today is a symbol of mourning for democracy, freedom, and all casualties of Iraq--including Iraqi civilians and American soldiers. United for Peace and Justice is encouraging people to wear the ribbons. Of course, I didn't know this until today, so I'm putting a white ribbon on my blogs for today.

We can only hope that the next four years are better than the last four years. We and the world can't afford to live with another four disastrous years of Bush policies. We are working our way backwards with the fundamentalist right working their agenda forwards. They talk about having to fight militant Islamic fundamentalists when they are militant religious fundamentalists.

In other news, I have been keeping myself busy with knitting and getting ready for my beginning class that starts tonight.
posted by erica Thursday, January 20, 2005 []

  Thursday, January 13, 2005

    Weather

 
"Snow? Ice? What's this, the middle of January?"- Bryan

Bryan seems as confused as I am. Tuesday was freezing rain and fog. Wednesday was 50 degrees and a thunderstorm. Today was rain as I walked out the door for work, by the time I got to my car it was freezing rain, shortly after I arrived at work it was snow. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 13 degrees.

The new year has started out well for us. I've managed to get a lot of knitting done in the last few weeks and we've also started to organize our apartment even more, it still has a ways to go. This past weekend was a four-day weekend for both of us. We both took Monday and Tuesday off. Saturday was spent cleaning up our office and filling our new filing cabinet. It got a ton of the papers and files I had piled up on the desk put away and filed. Now when I have something I need to file, I just put it away where it needs to go. I went through 3 years of knitting teaching materials and recycled a lot of paper. Sunday, we went to Unitarian services and I don't remember what else we did that day. Isn't it terrible what you did a few days ago? Monday was a day for us to take it easy and just enjoy our day off. And Tuesday, we went down to Champaign-Urbana to look at apartments for the fall. I had forgotten how terrible some student apartments can be. We did find one that we liked, it's about two miles from campus but it will be an easy bike ride to campus. We were talking and think that maybe being off campus will be better because we won't have to deal with the loud partying undergrads that we might have to deal with in the neighborhoods closer to campus.

I don't have much to report as far as the school application goes. The application is actually due this Friday, but mine was mailed a month ago so I got mine in early. I haven't heard anything yet and don't expect to hear anything until mid-March, I can only hope that they will send out letters sooner. :) In the meantime, I'm going to start on my ALA (American Library Association) scholarship applications.

Considering that I'm not teaching at the moment, I've managed to keep myself busy with knitting and other household projects, such as picking up the office. My classes start up again next week, I'll be teaching beginning knitting for six-weeks at Vernon Hills High School. Then February 1, I have another beginning knitting class starting at Buffalo Grove Park District. My Vernon Hills beginning class was so popular that it was full in about four days, they asked me if I could add another beginning class, so I added one that starts in April which is nearly full, too.

Lately, I've been reading three books - The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist, Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach and Our Sometime Sister by Norah Labiner. The Soul of Money and Simple Abundance seem to be good complimentary books. They are perfect for where I'm at in my life right now. And we went to Unitarian services on Sunday and the sermon seemed to fit in with those two books perfectly. I have been reading Simple Abundance to Bryan before we go to bed and that day's theme lately has been something we've talked about that day. I started to read Simple Abundance in 1998 and I don't think I was at a point in my life where I could read it and feel like it benefitted me or fit in with my life. Now is the perfect time. On Tuesday as we were driving to Champaign, I was reading The Soul of Money and Bryan asked if I would read to him. So I read an entire chapter to him. It was really fun to read to him while he was driving. The Soul of Money is a book that should be required reading for everyone. It's about exploring your relationship with money. It's definitely not about making more money, it's about making more of your life with what you have and how you see money.
posted by erica Thursday, January 13, 2005 []

  Monday, January 03, 2005

    Happy 2005

 
I hope everyone had a safe happy New Year's Eve and Day. Bryan and I had a quiet New Year's Eve, we went out to dinner and then came home and welcomed in the new year with a small toast in our lovely wedding toasting glasses. I love these glasses, they are Waterford Crystal's Celebration Dreams glasses. I thought they were appropriate for the wedding and are certainly appropriate for the new year because you always have a list of dreams for the year (aka goals). I don't do resolutions because then it's bad if I fail, if I set goals, then I consider them to a a short of path or journey that I am working towards.

New Year's Day, Bryan and I spent a fair amount of it on the couch. We decided we were going to be very lazy all day and we were! I made out my list of goals for the year. We also watched two movies - 21 Grams and Garden State. The most productive thing we did all day was balance our checkbook.

More later.
posted by erica Monday, January 03, 2005 []

  Tuesday, December 28, 2004

    Belated welcome to the family

 
Meredith has a new cat, has had since early December. Her name is Sophie. I've met her and she's very friendly and very sweet. Here are a few photos of her.


Sophie



Sophie



Sophie
Originally uploaded by knitgrl.


Welcome to the family, Sophie. George & Chloe send paws of love.
posted by erica Tuesday, December 28, 2004 []

  Thursday, December 23, 2004

    Finishing up for the holiday

 
I'm posting this on both blogs because I didn't have time to write for both today. Okay, so the knitting blog has a few photos of knitted garments that aren't posted here.

I finally finished all of my holiday cards, which include the 10 extras I had to made because I had let 10 people off of the growing card list. It took me about two hours tonight to cut all of the paper and stamp 10 cards, not a big deal.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any colder, it gets colder. Tomorrow is supposed to be the worst. Well, you live in Chicago, you should be used to the cold, well, I am not used to it being this cold this time of year. According to the guy on the news, this is the coldest Christmas we've had since 1983. So see, it's usually not 12 degrees at the end of the December. Noooo, it usually waits until late January or February to get that cold! It was funny today, but not in a ha ha sort of way, I was outside running errands and it didn't feel as cold as yesterday and it was colder outside today. The wind chill was colder but I must be getting used to the cold because I was able to walk about 50 feet without mittens on my hands and a scarf around my mouth.

Tomorrow will be a good day to stay inside most of the day. We will be finally hanging the lights in our apartment. We've had our little tree up for almost three weeks.

(a bit like Charlie Brown's tree after they've decorated it) (And yes, those are Barbie ornaments in the tree and on the table.) But we haven't gotten around to putting the lights around the sliding glass doors. We're having Christmas dinner at our house so I would like the place to look a bit more festive. It's my first Christmas away from my family (we did Thanksgiving with my family this year) and it's going to be different. It's all part of getting married, although I am missing a bit of the Christmas feeling that I have when I am at my parents' house at this time of year. My mom always has the house so beautifully decorated.

We are attending Christmas services at the Unitarian Church tomorrow night. Growing up our church never had Christmas services, unless Christmas was on a Sunday. And the Unitarian Church celebrates a lot of things in a very unique way, which I love, so it will be a special Christmas for Bryan and I, our first Christmas as a married couple. Just a bit of an aside, the first time we attended the Unitarian Church was Mother's Day and they had a flower ceremony that was so lovely. Then this past Sunday were Solstice celebrations, it was really cool. I feel like such a spiritual person now, considering that I felt very unspiritual for years.

Tonight was an evening of writing the holiday card letter and me knitting about 10 rows on the baby hat. I have another 3 cm's before I start decreasing for the top of the hat. I could barely finish the 10th row because my hands were getting so stiff. I think it's partly the cold and my addressing envelopes, cutting paper and rubber stamping all afternoon.

Happy holidays to all! Stay warm. And let's hope for a very peaceful new year! I will write more soon. If I don't write before December 25, for those that celebrate Christmas, have a Merry Christmas. I have to write later something interesting that I read in the Simple Abundance book that I'm reading. It's about some of our Christmas traditions.
posted by erica Thursday, December 23, 2004 []