Tuesday, April 29, 2003

 
I've been really busy at work. And I've had no motivation to sit in front of my computer in the evenings.
Hope to update soon.
posted by erica Tuesday, April 29, 2003 []

  Monday, April 21, 2003

 
It was an action packed weekend! Bryan and I went to Kansas for the weekend!

We left my house early, early on Friday morning to catch our 8:30am flight to Kansas City. We landed about 10am and picked up our rental car for the weekend. We then drove to Lawrence.

In Lawrence, we had lunch at the Free State Brewery - hot artichoke dip for appetizer and black bean quesadillas for lunch. I had a sample sized Ad Astra Ale, it was just as good as I remembered it. We then went to the Eldridge Hotel to see the Crystal Ballroom, where we are having our wedding reception. It's a really pretty and elegant place! :)

We went to the Love Garden! It hasn't changed a bit since the last time I was there. They still play the rockabilly bluegrass music and a few of the same people still work there. The one thing I noticed was there weren't any cassette tapes and they have computers now. :)

Then we when to see Shannon, Emma and Claire. Emma is so adorable. I felt like I knew her before I ever met her because her little personality comes through so much in the photos that Shannon has sent me. I gave Shannon the "Rosier" dress and cardigan that I made for Claire. Shannon loved it and she tried it on Claire, it's a bit too big but she'll grow into it. :) When Shannon opened the gift Emma wasn't quite as shy because she realized that I was the girl who made her sweaters. :) It was so fun to just visit with Shannon and look at the photo albums that she's put together of Emma and her family. Claire slept a good part of the time, but when she was awake she was so good. She is so cute! Shannon and Scott have two of the cutest girls I've seen! :) I hated having to leave, but Bryan and I had to get on the road to Hutchinson, so we said our goodbyes and headed up to the KU campus to see Danforth Chapel, where we are having the ceremony. It's so cute. It's perfect and small.

After seeing Danforth, we headed for Hutchinson. It seemed like a really long drive. I felt sorry for Bryan because I'm sure he felt like he was driving forever. You know how it feels like it takes a long time to get anywhere when you've never been there before? We got to Hutchinson about 7pm and went out to for Mexican food for dinner with my parents.
posted by erica Monday, April 21, 2003 []

  Wednesday, April 16, 2003

 
I haven't had the urge to jump back in to knitting full force because my hand bothers me more than I want it to. I know I'll have plenty of time to knit after my hand completely heals, so I'm not in a big rush. I would rather have full use of my hand later on than to do something bad to it now and not be able to knit for even longer. I have to say I haven't watched as much tv as I was before I had the surgery. I have been doing a lot more reading since the surgery. I think I may have slightly burnt myself out on knitting because I felt like it was what I had to be doing all the time and my love for reading had fallen by the wayside. Not being able to knit reminded me of how much I love reading. I might have to take a bit of a different approach to my life and my knitting in the future. Living with Bryan will definitely change things for me. I'm also thinking of just teaching one class a week after Bryan and I move in together in August or September. The two classes a week are really starting to wear on me. I love teaching but I don't want to burn myself out completely. I need more time to myself because as it is I'm teaching on Mondays and Wednesdays then I'm at Knit Night on Thursdays and I usually spend part of the weekend with Bryan. I just need to be home before 9pm one of the week nights.
posted by erica Wednesday, April 16, 2003 []

  Friday, April 11, 2003

 
I'm back at work and having to deal with typing slower and my hand hurting. It's been exhausting working all day and dealing with getting back into the routine, plus I taught class on Monday and Wednesday nights.

I'm still reading a lot, although I've slowed down a bit since I've gone back to work. I'm now 200 pages into The Lovely Bones. I'm missing the days of reading a lot! I'm 10 pages from finishing The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell. I'm in the middle of The Porno Girl and other stories by Merin Wexler but at least I'm not in the middle of one of the stories. That's what's nice about books of short stories you can put down the book whenever you are reading something else and when you want to read a short story the book is there and you haven't lost track of what was going on. :)

Last weekend while my mom was in town, I tried on wedding dresses. I found five that I like. My favorite is a Christos dress with an empire waist and beading on the bodice and short sleeves. It's made out of silk organza, but for a richer look I want it made in silk mikado (a word I hadn't heard until I started trying on dresses). It's a gorgeous dress and seemed to fit me and my personality so well. I've had people telling me that when I find the right dress, I'll just know it. I'm going to try on more dresses in a few weeks with Meredith and Brandi with me.





Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?

this quiz was made by the groovtastic ghouls at Spookbot
posted by erica Friday, April 11, 2003 []

  Thursday, April 03, 2003

 
I got my stitches out yesterday. My hand is feeling better at least I don't have the stitches poking my incision. I have my first real attempt at driving back to the city today. I'll be going from Wauconda, where Bryan lives to my house which is about 45 miles from Bryan's. At least I'll be driving in the middle of the day so traffic won't be bad.

I am off of work until Monday, so I'll be taking it easy for the next few days until I go back to work.

I started The Lovely Bones on Tuesday night and am nearly 100 pages into it. It's such an amazing book! I'm also still reading The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell and The Porno Girl and other stories by Merin Wexler.

Just to update you on the library referendum. It didn't pass. They lost by something like 240 votes. Everyone at the library expected it not to pass. The next time they can go up for a referendum is April 2004 and the high school in Mundelein will be going up for a tax increase at the same time, so the poor library looks like it might be going for an operating referendum for a LONG time! It really makes me wonder if people even value the library? I know the ones that use it do, but those that don't use the library, do they don't think a library is important or what?
posted by erica Thursday, April 03, 2003 []

  Tuesday, April 01, 2003

 
I've been reading a lot as I'm still out of work. I get my stitches out tomorrow and I'm supposed to go back to work on Thursday. My hand is still very sore and I tried driving again on Saturday. It wasn't a good idea because just getting the door closed and trying to put on my seatbelt was a huge chore. I'm really nervous about driving to work. I really wish that Bryan worked different hours and that he could take me and pick me up, but it's not feasible. I am going to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre with my mom and sister on Thursday night. Then my mom will be here the entire weekend. I hope I am feeling comfortable enough to drive this weekend. Also going back to work is going to be difficult because typing with my left hand is still painful. I can type with my ring finger on my left hand but that's about it. I'm hoping that getting the stitches out will help with my being so uncomfortable. I figured this would be an easy surgery and I would be back going full swing in about a week. I had no idea it would fully incapacitate me this long. I went out shopping with Brandi on Sunday. I tried on three shirts and thought my hand was going to fall off it hurt so bad. I did find a really great dress at Ann Taylor to wear to Bryan's sister's wedding in July. It's so adorable, it's definitely a Tiffany Blue. (it might not look like it online) When I tried it on for Bryan on Sunday he reacted like I was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. :) I felt so WOW!!!! :) So he loved the dress on me with my bad Sunday hair, no makeup, glasses and bright green knee socks on. I'm sure he'll really love it when I look more presentable. :)

So what have I been reading?? I finished Behaving Like Adults by Anna Maxted on Saturday. I'm reading two books off and on right now. The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell, who is on This American Life on NPR. It's a collection of essays that are really great! I'm thoroughly enjoying this book. Bryan checked it out from the library. I'm also reading a collection of short stories by Merin Wexler called The Porno Girl and other stories. It's really good. I go through phases where I like short stories because they don't require the amount of reading time that a novel takes. I'm really enjoying these stories. This is another book that Debi loaned to me. Almost all of the books that Debi loaned to me are advanced reading copies so they won't be out until May or June. So don't go crazy if you can't find them anywhere. :)

Warning - soapbox ranting ahead. :)
Tonight I'll be with Bryan and his co-workers as they wait to find out the election results for the library referendum that is up for the library district. It's a referendum to increase the operating budget for the library, which is a big gorgeous library that was built a few years ago for them to grow into in the next 30 years, but they haven't had a referendum pass to operate this gorgeous library, so they are still trying to run the library on a budget for the old building that was 2/3 the size of the current library. It's really sad because the voters haven't approved a referendum so the hours the library is open are being cut and the amount of new materials that they can order are being cut. No one wants to see their property taxes increased but if it means having a library that is barely running compared to having a nice library, I would vote to have my taxes increased. Bryan has said that some people complain about having to pay taxes for the library because they never use the library. I'm sure they've used it at one time or another. Remember all of the reports in school that you had to go to the library for. I guarantee you my parents wouldn't have bought every book that I needed for my research papers in high school. I feel like there were semesters in college that I spent more time in the library than I did in class. And I would never have been able to afford all of the books that I checked out for my own pleasure reading through college. When I went for my thumb surgery, two of the nurses recognized Bryan from the library. They both said, "We love our library because we don't have to buy all of the books we want to read." I hope that tonight is a night to celebrate!

posted by erica Tuesday, April 01, 2003 []

 
Jumping to my next soapbox!
I get so mad when I hear people complain about paying taxes. We have it so good in this country tax-wise. But by not paying decent percentages of our income we don't have a good working healthcare system, our schools are getting worse and we can't pay for things that are necessary for a great community. Meanwhile, we want the nicest car and house on the block. I don't want to spend my entire life in my house and my car so I think we should pay more for having nice communities. I have a hard time accepting that this country needs a big tax cut for the wealthy when we can't even pay for this war that we started. I think we really need to get our priorities straight in this country. Drive smaller cars, live more modestly and enjoy what we have instead of always wanting the next big thing or having better things than our neighbors. Things don't make us happy. We have to find happiness in what we have. The biggest screen tv and the best car won't make you happier than the next guy. You'd think that with all of the big luxury cars on the roads and the big houses that people seem to strive for we would be a very happy country, but NO! Road rage is still rampant and we seem to be more and more unhappy with our lives. I know I need to pare down my belongings because I'm learning that I have everything I need and have found happiness with what I have. I don't drive the greatest car and I don't have the biggest apartment, I like nice things but my happiness hasn't come from my car or my apartment. It's come from eating well, treating myself well, having great friends around and surrounding myself with people that are good to be around. I love teaching knitting more than I ever thought I would and knitting has really made me realize that to find happiness you have to find it within yourself. I had always had other people tell me that, but it's so true! I haven't attained the absolute happiness so don't think I'm stepping up as happiness guru. I just feel like in this time of war and big deficits we need to stop and think about what really is important to us.
Is it having a big tax cut and more money or is it being with our families and friends and spending time with them?

Hopefully, it's springtime where you live or starting to be spring. If so, go out and notice the amazing things happening outside. It's more than just the flowers and the grass, the whole world seems to be reawakening from a long winter's nap!

posted by erica Tuesday, April 01, 2003 []