Staycation! (Long post)

      What do you do with an extra week or vacation and no burning desire to go anywhere? Clean, of course! Ok, ok, I know that's not everyone's answer, but that's what we decided to do. We have a 10'x10' storage unit that we've been saying for a while needs to be gone through, and over the winter, things had sort of piled up around the house, so we blocked off a random week to deal with it. 

     For once, I remembered to take before shots of the mess to be tackled, and it looks like a pretty typical storage unit, full of just stuff. 

     We packed for a full day excursion, and arrived Monday morning at 10am, set up a table, and started pulling stuff out. That weird thing in the middle that's wrapped in plastic is a weaving loom my mother got me quite a few years ago. It is absolutely my retirement/"when I have time and room" plan, but I'm not ready for it just yet, and we can't stack anything on top of it. 

Sylvia Bishop sketch 2 & short story

      I should probably title these a bit differently, but it works for now....

Sketches, again

     This year's been a little odd, for obvious pandemic reasons. When October rolled around, I was bound and determined to do SOMETHING to celebrate it, so I made a couple decoration type things, including these little ghosties that I freehand sketched on some old craft foam:

I taped them to the front door along with some leaves I'd done on fall color foam, and was pretty pleased with the results. I know the gentleman doesn't get into silliness as much as I do, so I asked if he was ok with leaving them there for a bit after Halloween; he said yes and mentioned that he missed my little sketches. I kind of missed doing them too, but time and life drama hasn't been conducive to taking sketch time. I had a bit of down time this morning though, so figured I'd give it a go:

Baking Experiments #3

It's that time of the year again, when cookies and sweets and unhealthy snacks (oh my) appear everywhere. In an attempt to steer things in a slightly healthier direction this year, I made the below recipes for work. They all turned out quite well, although be warned that you should keep toothpicks nearby for the chia seeds!

Oatmeal Raisin Chia Seed Cookies
1 cup butter
3/4 cup each brown and white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup raisins

London/Ireland trip, part 3

(continued from previous post)

     Ok, I promise this will be the last post on this trip! After leaving Killarney, we headed up to Galway, We checked out of the hotel a little late, because we wanted to soak up the peace and quiet as much as possible, so we pulled into Galway right around rush hour. The hotel was pretty decent,
although it had terrible wifi, and had an attached restaurant where, with a reservation, we became the least-well-dressed and youngest couple (by at least 20 years) to have a freaking delicious meal. Thankfully, we both overate horribly, because the waitstaff was not what I'd call speedy, so we had plenty of time to digest before the bill came and we went back to the room to pass out.

     The next day, we drove into oldtown Galway, parked by the water, and began to wander. Since we didn't really plan anything, this turned into somewhat of an adventure as we left the shopping district, found a train station, trespassed on abandoned private property to get a good view of the Bay, got rained on, and found a random cemetery. Knowing that my gentleman and I both appreciate quiet and old spaces, we decided to duck in, counting on the fact that it had a plaque near the front gate to indicate that it was, indeed, open to the public, and we weren't further trespassing.

London/Ireland Trip, part 2

(continued from previous post)

     Having successfully navigated London and Dublin, we climbed back in the car and headed out to see other parts of southern Ireland. After navigating out onto the appropriate highway, I learned two things. 1) The best way to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road is to be on an open highway for mind-numbing hours. 2) Drivers in less urban areas are rather nice, and pretty darn mature. We quickly picked up that the thing to do is to be in the left lane (slow lane) until you need to overtake someone. You move right, go around them, and then get back in the slow lane. We had zero issues with getting stuck behind some jerk going slowly in the fast lane and holding everyone up. It was quite pleasant.

Spring Break

     Spring break started, for me, this past Thursday. Given the usual irregularity of plane tickets, it turned out that leaving early would save me a couple hundred dollars in airfare, so I sacrificed a day or two of work in order to get the lower prices. The flight was bumpy as all get out, but at least it didn't snow, rain, hail, sleet, freeze, or otherwise get delayed. Sometimes, that's all you can ask for.

     The past few weeks have been pretty stressful with graduation looming over me. I try to be one of those people who plan ahead and are prepared for anything, so having an abrupt end to the entire way of life I'm used to is a bit unnerving. This weekend helped that no small bit, just by my gentleman and I being able to find an affordable place to live. It's not our dream place, of course, but since I don't have a job lined up yet (and therefor don't know where I'll have to commute to or what my income/ budget will be), we opted to err on the safe side. Still, it's a nice, open place that is roughly the square footage we were looking for, and in a gorgeous neighborhood with lots of walking/ biking paths, so no complaints!

Crunch time

     Going back to reality after time off is always difficult, and this coming week is proving to be no different than usual. On the positive side, there are only three weeks left of classes before the end of the semester, so crunch time won't be too bad. On the well, not-so-positive side, these three weeks are going to be somewhat difficult.

     For starters, the French pronunciation through song class that I'm auditing/ helping out in is gearing up for it's version of a final, which is a week of 5-hour evening rehearsals and then two nights of performances. Unfortunately, the rehearsals start at the same time my Russian class does, so I either need to beg out of the first two hours (thank goodness I just have a bit part), or go to the earlier Russian classes... which would then cut into the time I am scheduled to work. So already, right off the bat, scheduling chaos.

FTP 33 - Moderation and turkey

     With that said, I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving, now I"m going to sleep off this food coma. Happy holidays!

Recovery week

     St. Patrick's Day is finally behind us, and now it's time to work on recovery. The last two nights have been spent with both ankles and both knees in wraps and braces, and I've slept over 9 hours each night. Fortunately I have semi-decent memory, because when I woke up today, I realized that, not only had I not prepared a post for today, but I also have a meeting with my advisor on campus in an hour and a half.

     With that in mind, here's a thank you that was sent to all of us from a preschool class that we went and danced for. I'd like to say that next week's post will be more comprehensive, but I'd be lying, since it will be spring break, and I will have a guest over. Here's hoping your week is a little less crazy than mine has been!

It's that time of the year again...

     And if you have any connections to an Irish dancer, you know exactly what I'm talking about. For most of the year, we are forgotten, shoved aside, and largely ignored by most of society, unless it's a big gig like Riverdance or Lord of the Dance. We have our own shows, our own competitions, and quietly get by doing that which we love best in relative anonymity.

Riverdance

     But then here comes March 17th, a day that mostly carries connotations of green beer and shamrocks for the majority of the public, and is a source of both joy and slight dread for us dancers. St. Patrick's Day is the one time of year that the rest of the world goes, "Oh right! Irish dancing! That exists!" and subsequently demands that we do a show, parade, or performance at every possible opportunity. We dance indoors, outdoors, on existing dance floors and concrete pads, with generous room to move around or else cramped between tables as harried servers try to edge around out flying feet. This year is a little more sorted out, but last year we had a couple places that booked our group to perform, and then when we showed up they said, "what, you need a stage to dance on?" Sigh.

Happy Commercialized Holiday!

     For the last couple months, the Sunday paper- one of my few indulgences- has been covered with advertisements for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, New Year's, Presidents' Day, and, most recently, the Super Bowl. The coupons all focus on whatever holiday it is, and all the gimmicks that accompany it. So it really should not have been a surprise to open today's paper and find it chock-full of red and pink hearts, and exhortations to buy buy buy everything that your significant other supposedly has had their heart set on, but has not received within the last few frenzied months of consumerism.

     I realize that, as a starving student who has acclimated to minimalism, my views of random purchasing aren't very common, but it just seems a little overdone to me. The average price of a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolate around here comes to roughly $30-40. A dinner out at a nice restaurant for two comes to roughly $40-60. Even ignoring the fact that either of those options can buy a week's worth of groceries, if you're careful, why on earth would anyone want to further compound the issue by buying a $40 "Be My Valentine" red blender that will probably not match the rest of the kitchen décor, and certainly doesn't fit under any definition of "romantic" that I've ever come across?

This store is refusing to sell vacuums for the week before V-day. Hilarious.

Oh those Russians...

     Sometime in December, my friend Rita invited me to a 'Christmas' celebration at her (Russian orthodox Catholic) church. She had written two plays in Russian for the kids there, and wanted to know if I would be interested in seeing them. Free Russian practice, food, and a chance to support my friends? Sure! Sign me up! All unsuspecting, I headed out there this past Sunday, with no clue what to expect other than crazy Russians and good food. And boy, did I get both.

     To anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of encountering Russian food, let me just say this: Paula Dean would approve. Everything is either cooked or soaked in butter, and while it has more vegetables than I care for, everything is absolutely delicious and filling as can be. Which makes sense, considering the weather out there and the need for stick-to-your-ribs food. They also tend to go heavy on breads/ starches, which I adore, and desserts are less sugary-sweet, and more honey-and-fruit varieties, and again, I approve.

Testosterone, utilitarianism, and estrogen

     As a brief interjection, Happy New Year's! Here's hoping that 2012 brings us better news than did 2011. That being said, on to the real thoughts of the week.

     Since I moved in to this place, almost a year ago, I haven't done much in the way of decorating, aside from hanging the few pictures that I had either brought with me when I moved away from my ex's place, or clocks that I had bought out of a chronic need to know what time it is. Moreover, since I'm living off of student loans and a recently-acquired part-time job, my budget for niceties has been, well, nonexistent. So I have the bare necessities for living, and that's about it. For a variety of reasons, however, I decided to get curtains for my bedroom this week, and that's when the trouble began.

Utilitarian, but pretty plain.

Holiday cheer?

     Whew! We're finally winding down the end of the year, and it's to sit back and consider the extremely different attitudes that people hold towards the holidays. I have a fairly relaxed view of most of the world (except when I'm driving, but that's a different story!), and when I see people rushing around, either trying to get everything done just right, or angry at the world for everything going on around them, it baffles me a bit. So to that end, here is my list of the different attitudes that people take towards the holidays:

1) Keeping up with the idea of the Jonses: Even if this person is the only one in the neighborhood to decorate, they will be the one with a display you can see from outer space. Every single thing that "should" be done around the holidays is meticulously done. Their place looks amazing, but you could use their nerves as violin strings, because they can't relax, there's just too much to be done!

Happy day after....

     Being as that I have just come home from spending the day with family, and spending six hours on Saturday drawing Christmas cards,  I am going to simply give you this:

     There will be a full-length post on Wednesday to replace today's, and then the usual post schedule will resume on Friday. Hopefully by then the holiday chaos will have passed (I don't really do New Year's celebrations), and things will calm down a bit. Right before school starts up again, yay!

     Happy Holidays to you and yours. Cheers!

Faith in humanity

     As a general rule, I try to believe in the overall decency of humanity. It's not always the easiest thing to do, especially when the news is consistently full of hatred and violence, while "human interest" stories get only a brief nod on some back page, but it is possible. Most of the time it involves paying attention to the world around you, willfully looking for the little good deeds that are done, even if it's just a smile on the street or a word of encouragement to someone who's trying as hard as they can. But every now and then, the world seems to realize you need more than that, and it blindsides you with a really memorable occurrence.

     A number of months ago, Elf, a very close friend of mine, contacted me for help writing up a resumé for one of her friends who had recently lost his job. I am frequently called upon for help with writing and editing (I guess being a Linguist comes in handy sometimes, eh?), so I gave the go-ahead to send it over. In the course

Coincidence or foresight?

     This story takes place during Thanksgiving week. I was out shopping with my mom, and she needed to grab some spice for the turkey, so we pulled in to a Whole Foods somewhere in Maryland (I wasn't really paying attention to the particulars, so that's as close as you get to an accurate description). Now, the Whole Foods stores in Colorado are, for some reason, relatively small- certainly no larger than your average grocery store, and in some cases, about the size of those tiny ethnic food stores. The one in Maryland that we went to, on the other hand, you could easily clear the aisles and hold car races inside. Short ones, but still car races. The parking lot is underneath the store, and once you climb the stairs (or ride the escalator, but that seems counter-productive to me), there's a Mecca of healthy food and organic stuff laid out before you.

     The one down side to this is that if you don't know where what you're looking for is, good luck finding it. We were after juniper berries, and while it's possible that they would be in the spices aisle, we didn't see anything that clearly looked like or said "spices." I did, however, see an employee helping someone else at the end of

Summary of Finals weekend

     AKA: why there are no sketches today. I know, I know, it's been a couple weeks since I've actually drawn something- my fingers are going to atrophy and fall off! However, I would like to submit to you my schedule for this weekend as a valid reason why I have not been drawing. Comprehension will be facilitated by pictures, I promise!

Saturday:

• 8:00 am Wake up, bring in the paper before the neighbors steal it, lay down on the floor to read it. Fall asleep on the paper.
• 9:00 Wake up again and panic, thinking I've missed the final. Realize I have three more hours to study; try to brush up on everything at once.
• 12:00pm Have lunch in an increasingly panicked state, head to Russian final. 

Papers and finals.

     It's that time of year again, when students everywhere are catapulted out of the happy complacency of knowing their daily routine, into the stark cruel reality of facing down exams and final papers. Coming back from a delightful week off, after 14 weeks of the same thing, we all realize that there are only two weeks until finals. And unfortunately, by the time you realize that, one of those weeks is gone.
 
     As someone very wise once said to me, however, college is not so much about learning things, but rather about learning how you learn things. And I know that the best way for me to get something done is to let it ferment in the back of my head. So while it may not seem like I've been doing much this week to prepare for finals, I've actually been archiving, cross-referencing, making connections, and hoarding away everything I could for the upcoming ordeal. Once the weekend hit, that's when it was time to get everything down on paper.

     So the last two days have primarily been spent trying to force three-dimensional thought patterns onto two-dimensional paper, a process I've discussed and ranted about many times before. What's more, this particular