Dec
7
16 Random Things
Filed Under Geeking, Knitting, Remembering | Leave a Comment
Rebecca tagged me with her 16 random things. The deal is, you write 16 random things about yourself, and then tag 16 friends to do the same. Unfortunately, the aforementioned Rebecca, is one of the people I would normally tag first with such a task.
- My earliest gymnastics memory is of Mary Lou Retton hitting her perfect 10 on vault at the 1984 Olympics. That Christmas I – and everyone else on my gymnastics team – got a Mary Lou leotard. You know, the one with the stars on one shoulder and the stripes on the rest of it? I think that was the only 3/4 sleeve leo I ever owned.
- I only see doctors I really like, and I’ll drive a long way to get to them if necessary. I figure if they aren’t going to listen to me, or they consistently diagnose the wrong condition (a la House without the almost dying part) they aren’t worth my time or money. Some of the pickiest people I know have asked me for MD references, and as far as I know, no-one has been disappointed yet.
- I hold a first degree black belt in Tang Soo Do (that’s TONG SOO DOH) and I regret every day that I’m not still training. I miss my fellow students and the training and sense of community within a school, but I try to live my life by the basic eastern principles that are taught with traditional martial arts. Some day I hope I’ll find the right place to train again.
- When I started college, my major was pre-med. I changed it to computer science after I took my second programming class. I have no idea what possessed me to take a second programming class because I hated the first one so much.
SomeMost days, I wish I hadn’t switched. - Over the years I’ve tried about every craft or art out there. Sewing, quilting, painting, writing, throwing pottery, collaging, crochet, cross-stitch and finally knitting. I think knitting is “the one”. I enjoy it more than any of the others, but I still dabble often. And I’d still love to take a class in large scale metal sculpture.
- I am falling apart. I’ve ruined tendons in both ankles, had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus, and now there is something unknown going on with my shoulder.
- I wish I lived on Castaway Cay — only with out the hummingbird sized mosquitoes at night.
- I have an enormous capacity to forgive wrongs against me, but will hold a grudge forever against those who hurt my loved ones.
- In my junior year of high school I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Until the diagnosis – and sometimes even after – my teachers and counselors insisted to my mother that I was on drugs. My grades fell drastically and I dropped from the top 10% of my class to the bottom half.
- I love my house so much that I never want to move.
- On the last day of my senior year in high school, my English teacher told me that I am the most sorry excuse for a human being she had ever met. I left the classroom because I didn’t believe I had to sit around and be treated like that. But a cop in the hallway stopped me. When I told him what had happened and that I was going to the office, he pulled my teacher from the classroom to confirm my story, and she ADMITTED it was true. What a dumb ass!
- I dream about staircases to nowhere on a regular basis. These dreams are often so terrifying that I wake shaken for the rest of the day.
- I went to college out of state, and I’m still paying for it.
- The older I get, the more I look like my mother. I found a picture at my aunt’s house a few years ago. It took a second for me to realize that it was of me at about 1 yo sitting on my mother’s knees and not me holding my daughter.
- I totally can’t work a fax machine.
- I met my husband on America Online. He was chatting with me about how to break up with the jerk I was seeing at the time.
Apr
21
Because I said so…
Filed Under Remembering, Writing | Leave a Comment
Dude. Did you see how much Barack Obama made off his books last year? I am so going to write a book.
No.
Really.
I am.
It’s something I’ve wanted to do since high school, but the problem is figuring out what to write about. I’d love to do one of those eye candy craft books with pretty pictures and projects that SEEM simple until you try to do them, but I seriously doubt I could come up with enough original projects. Much less projects with some sort of theme (all knitted, felted, or sewing).
I’ve also been toying with writing a “memoirs”. I’m not sure my life is all that interesting though. It’s not like I’m Augusten Burroughs who grew up in a family so dysfunctional that it makes my family look more wholesome than the Cleavers. (BTW, I just noticed that the “Cleavers” sounds like a family of homicidal butchers.)
Then, there is the whole fiction angle. Friends and I used to write these really elaborate, but completely unrealistic chain stories. We even had one online for a while. I’ll have to contact Jen and see if she still has the dumb thing. It was hilarious. Or maybe not. Maybe you had to know all the people we were writing about. But I digress… I can’t even seem to come up with a character to write about, much less an entire BOOK.
A few people have advised me to just start writing, and I know they are right. But I can’t even make myself blog more than once per week. Well honestly, if I was doing something other than making a mad dash for the finish line on the quilt in progress, I might actually write more. Only 48 more squares to go… (that’s just over half.)
One of my friends suggested starting with the blog entries themselves. Is that even a good idea? Do people want to RE READ what I’ve already written?
I do love to write when I have something to say. On a few occasions I’ve even written some things that make a tiny difference in the world. The one that comes to mind most readily is when I wrote a long elaborate letter to the HR department and building supervisor of ERCOT to investigate having a Mother’s room in the new addition to the office space. At the time, I was still nursing Alexis, and pumping at work was hell because there was no definitive room to use. I got shuffled around at least 3-4 times in about 10 months. I got compliments from people I didn’t even know on that letter, and a year later, long after I’d left the company, a friend of mine emailed me to let me know that they had indeed decided to include the Mother’s room in the new building.
The biggest problem with my current job is that it doesn’t make a difference. I just want to make a TINY difference in the world – or even one person’s life. Is that too much to ask? Can I make that difference by creating an eye candy book? or writing a funny story? or telling people about all my health problems? I don’t know. But maybe that first book could lead to something more important. Or maybe it could just provide relief from daily misery.
Mar
27
Babies, babies, everywhere
Filed Under Parenting, Remembering | 1 Comment
These days it seems like everyone I know is pregnant. I’ve been so busy making baby things, that my etsy shop is really suffering. But really, who cares? Teeny tiny clothes are so much fun to make!
Two of my best friends recently discovered that they will be mommies this year, and it’s really got me thinking. I’d love to have another baby to snuggle and love and nurse and be the sibling that Alexis wants so badly, but I don’t know if I can take the long nights or the late feedings. Why does everyone tell you that having two children is exponentially more difficult than one? How does the human race survive – even thrive – when there is that kind of threat on the parents sanity?
Alexis was/is so good at entertaining herself. You don’t have to run to the next room because it’s too quiet. My aunt who has worked with children in public schools for years, tells us how lucky we are, and that we have no idea what it’s like to have a “normal” child. She raves about how gentle Alexis is, and how you don’t have to worry about her messing with stuff she shouldn’t. And she’s right, we barely did any baby proofing when she was small. I’m afraid of the possibility of getting a “Holy Terror” for a second child.
I also wonder if it isn’t too late for Alexis to have a close friendship with a sibling. At this point, she’d be in 2nd grade before she could even really play with him or her. And even then the baby would only be a year old.
Then there is the matter of space, and money. Daycare is ridiculously expensive. The idea of paying upwards of $1000/month for the next five years for childcare just fills me with dread. And this house is already in need of another room but we love it so much there is no way we’re going to move. There is a good place to put that extra space, but again, the cash to do it would be outrageous.
But even with all those fears and worries, I still feel envy for my friends who are embarking on such a rewarding journey. There is just nothing like watching your child grow up. They surprise and delight you every day.
Perhaps that’s why people keep having kids despite the enormous amount of work. So for now, I guess I will have revel in the fact that I’m going to soon meet two new babies, and I will love them almost as much as I love Alexis. And I can spoil them even more rotten because I can give them back to their parents when I’m done.
Congrats ladies.
Dec
18
Peanut Butter Balls… Yum
Filed Under Cooking, Remembering | 1 Comment
This is one of my all time favorite recipes. I have taken it to a friend’s annual holiday cookie baking party twice, and it’s been a big hit both times. The best part about it (apart from the taste)? It’s no-bake so if you don’t want to dip them in chocolate, it’s as close to instant gratification as you can get.
I don’t know anyone else who makes these. It could very well be something my grandmother and I invented together. I have the recipe in this old cookbook from the church. It’s nestled in there with my grandmother’s famous (delicious) microwave pralines, and a cookie recipe I invented. And as odd as it may seem, that cookbook has provided hours (ok, probably minutes) of entertainment in the form of reading all the weird recipes. My favorite to freak people out with? Velveeta Cheese Fudge! (No, I’ve not ever tried it – that’s gross!)
Without further ado:
Georgette’s Peanut Butter Balls
1.5 C graham cracker crumbs
1 can of coconut
2 sticks melted butter (this was margarine, but in the interest of leaving out trans fats…)
1 C chopped nuts (any kind)
1 tsp vanilla
1 box sifted powdered sugar (I never sift it… totally not a problem)
1 C crunchy peanut butter(these are optional and for “glazing” the pb balls)
.5 cake paraffin (you can leave this out – I can never find it, and it’s just for shine)
1 (16oz) pkg chocolate chips or almond bark morsels
Mix graham cracker crumbs, coconut, butter, nuts , vanilla, powdered sugar and peanut butter. Roll into balls. Chill. Melt chocolate or almond bark and cake paraffin in separate pans. Add 2 tbsp of the paraffin to the chocolate/almond bark. Dip balls in mixture and put on waxed paper or foil that has been lightly greased. Chill until chocolate is firm.
What are you waiting for? Get cooking!
Dec
5
Sibling rivalry
Filed Under Parenting, Remembering | 1 Comment
Do you remember all the horrible things you used to do to your siblings? I do. I used to get earwax on my finger and tell my brother it was candy. He would fall for it every. single. time. We also used to pin each other down by sitting on each other’s stomach and holding the arms down with our knees. Once you were pinned, the pinner would sing “I’m never gonna stop… I’m never gonna stop…”
When we got older the torture evolved into a much more sinister affair. We used to fold each other up in the sofa bed and then make the couch up like nothing had happened. Inevitably the muffled screaming from the cushions was a dead giveaway and the victim was soon freed. My dad used to actually help us lock each other in the trunk of a car. Granted, that had to take some amount of masochism, why else would you allow the trunk to be closed while you were in it?
Still later after I was in college, my two younger brothers kept at it. One day, the elder of the two placed an M-80 – that he had painstakingly constructed by scraping the gun powder out of about 94 million black cats – into the mailbox. Then he screamed at the top of his lungs for his brother, “You got some mail!” I’m not sure exactly why the younger of the two actually fell for it, or how the torturer actually timed it perfectly so that when the box was open, the bomb exploded.
I also came home from college one day to find my brothers in the street lighting a wad of black cats that they had stuffed into a hole bored in my cabbage patch kid’s head. Ahhh, the good old days.
Alexis is still an only child and Chris and I feel it is our duty to make sure that she is educated in proper torture techniques. Her education began with the ever popular “Your epidermis is showing.” We then moved on to the pinning and tickling game. And you already read about how my mother stuffs her in a sleeping bag and carries her around.
But you know what the best part about her “education” is? We can’t get in trouble for it. Cuz this time we’re the parents!!!!