Done!

I finished another knitting project. The biggest one for sure. It's a baby blanket for someone and his/her mother, who for all I know doesn't check this blog ever/often. She could prove me wrong by leaving a comment...but I'm guessing I'm right. :) Anyway, the baby is due the same weekend of the job fair...so hopefully we'll have great things happening in threes that weekend (me and Joel finding dream jobs, a beautiful healthy baby being born, and ??? (who knows!)).

Here it is!


P.S. I need LOTS of work on sewing in all the loose ends that happen when you change balls of yarn...this was the first project for which I did it on my own...my knitting teacher did it for my other ones. Maybe you can't see the places they are sewn in in this picture, but whooeeee...in person you sure can! But, I'm going to assume that it will make it that much more endearing to the recipient. :)

Good news x 2!

OK, the best news is that Joel and I just received our invitation to the CIS job fair in London. We'll be there in February (I think the 13th-17th). This is good because we had already bought tickets to London...now they are justified! :) Just so you know, we're looking for new jobs in high paying, warm Asia. It's less than a month away! How exciting, and nerve-wracking...and oh lord, I need to find something to wear to interviews! I must again say a HUGE thank you to my Mom, my Dad and my Malda for all the help I got in getting together all my documents. I literally could not have done it without you!

The second bit of good news is that I started a new knitting project. Not only that, but I taught myself to purl. OK, those of you not into knitting are like, "What?" But, until now I only knew how to do a knit stitch and not a purl, and I taught myself last night how to do the purl...so I rock. So I went out today and got some new yarn and needles (so I can have multiple projects going at once) so I could hone my purling skills. I decided to start by making Joel another scarf (he didn't even know he needed one!) in a ribbed style. I figured this was an easy enough way to practice the purl before I attempt a more intricate pattern. I also bought the yarn to make both myself and Joel hats/beenies in a matching pattern, but different colors. These will come after this scarf. My hat will match my multi-color scarf, and Joel's will match both this new scarf and his old one. Anyway, here are some pics of the work I've accomplished on the scarf in the last hour or so. Not bad for a first-timer! Oh, and the first picture is taken with a flash and shows the true color, but the second picture, taken without flash shows the ribbing better.



Back to knitting! :)

Things I've noticed lately...

-The days are starting to get longer. It's still light out at 4:30. Wooohooo!

-I don't need as much sleep as I used to. I used to have a really fuzzy head and would be constantly yawning the next day if I went to bed later than 10 on a school night. These days I rarely go to bed before 12, and I am doing fine.

-It's tough having your belongings spread out over two continents and three households. Stuff gets lost. People don't have time to look for it. I don't have what I need when I need it. (That said, a HUGE thanks to my parents for helping me find and get everything I need!)

-I really look forward to the day when I might have a home space that I get to paint myself (as in, for my own tastes-I'm not looking for painting opportunities!), and buy matching stuff for.

-Laughing is great and I love it when Joel and I laugh together.

-Everyone has issues. Some people are just really good at hiding theirs from the outside world (which I might not really understand, but that is another point).

-In some ways I'm really ok with being me, even when me means really different from those around me. In other ways, I sometimes wish that I was more like the people I spend a lot of time around.

-Feeling the love, and faking it until I make it works. Love is good, and it's all around.

-You can't read and knit at the same time, or be on the computer and knit at the same time. Watching tv and knitting go together very well. I need something new to watch!

-It's nearly 1:30am...and I'm tired... :)

It's been like Christmas around here...

Or better yet, I suppose it's been like my birthday, since mostly, I'm the only one who's been getting presents! :)

The biggest news is that I am writing this here blog post on my brand new laptop. My awesome dad took it upon himself to roll the next year's worth of presents into one and get me something I really needed. Yay! I love it. Thanks, Dad! (This is honestly going to make such a difference in my grad school work the next 7 months!)

Also, a shout-out to Joel's brother Jem, who came over this morning and actually figured out how to make the laptop pick up the wireless. Turns out it was something fairly simple, but it wasn't something that two fairly experienced computer people (Joel and I) could figure out...we needed someone semi-professional, so thanks Jem!

Before the laptop came, arrived a package from Oz. Then, it really was like Christmas, because Joel and I got Christmas presents from his other brother Jon and his wife Courtney. It'll be a year of knitting ahead of me...thanks guys! I'm not sure if I'm going to start with the string-bikini gloves or the "Live to Knit" washcloths. Nah, in all seriousness, the year-of-knitting calendar is cool, and I have already earmarked a couple of the patterns. :)

On top of that, Joel's mum (yup, she's a mum, not a mom...) sent me a learn-to-knit book which looks quite good...and a couple of very nice balls of yarn. Thanks, Maria!

Oh and goodness, how could I forget?!? I got my new winter coat! Ooooohhheeeee! I love it! It's long (to the knees) and black and warm...what more does a girl need? Seriously, I was so used to getting an instant chill up my back when I left the house before because the coat that I was wearing most of the time was at least 4 years old, and quite worn out. The first morning I went out in my new coat I waited to feel the chill and was thrilled when long moments after I left the house I was still warm, and cozy, and fuzzy and in love with my new coat. This coat is so warm that I have to take it off if I go into a store for more than 10 minutes, because I just get hot. It's great!*

Now, don't misunderstand me...this does not mean that I really want to be outside in the winter time yet... but, it does mean that when I do have to be outside in winter time I will complain less. And this is a good thing right?

There is more Christmas coming up... the book I ordered Joel for Christmas is still on its way from the UK...last email I got said it would be here sometime in Feb. Good thing I ordered it at the beginning of Dec, right? Had I waited any longer I might have to use it as a present next Christmas!

Also, my mom finally sent out my Christmas present from her...on Jan 12. Soooo she's a little late. Better later than never...I'm waiting. :)

Wow...what a horrible post about a whole bunch of material stuff...but mostly, I guess I wanted to say thank you to all the people who gave this stuff. It is nice to get presents, especially the kind that people think about and give you because they know you want or need it. And it's even better when people give you their time and knowledge...so thanks...to all of you! ;)

*Oops! Did I forget to mention that it was my awesome older brother who helped me get my hands on the coat! I did! Well, the outdoors expert helped me pick it out, had his friends help me size it, and then helped me buy it for a fraction of the reg price. :) Can't beat that. Thanks bro! :)

Pondering the new year

It's January 4th, and I've been quietly pondering the new year for a few days. The taking down of one calendar and putting up of another, the ensuing struggle to remember to write the right year in the date... it's all a part of this new beginning.

(Which is funny to me really...because right now, speaking from a purely natural and personal view point, this feels like death, like the end, not the beginning...the cold and the dark and the wind and the bleak and the dreary...if I ruled the world, I'm pretty sure the new year would start in spring...but that is another story...)

Some people make new years resolutions. I have done that before, and I don't think I have a single one that ever stuck. "This year" you know, the one where I was going to be skinny by summer, yeah, it never came. Or it disappeared, or something... I'm trying to think of what else I might have ever made resolutions about, and the sad fact may very well be that weight is the only thing I have ever felt the need to resolve (in this sense).

Looking out at this year I realize a few things-

• I will be turning 28 this year. For some of you that seems so young, for others, so old, and for still more, so familiar.
• I will officially have been part of the work force, a person who supports herself for 5 years. That seems a short time even to me. And yet...look what's behind me in those 5 years! Whew.
• This year could bring a lot of long-awaited change in my life. I have already had several inquisitive minds wanting to know...and no, I'm not pregnant...the changes I'm talking about concern the official status of my relationship as well as the location of my relationship/life. These are the things I'm hoping for a change in.

I don't know what these things mean, if they mean anything. They are ways to mark the passage of time I suppose...and of course, there is all that societal/cultural drama/expectation that goes along with these markers of the passage of time.

On new years eve I was amongst friends and loved ones, and we created visual representations of what we resolve or intend (or it seemed in some cases fear) in the new year. I chose to make mine more about intentions rather than resolutions.

What I intended most of all was lots of love...not just romantic love. I have plenty of that, and while I can always go for more, I do not see a lacking there. What I'm talking about is love that come from the inside out, from the outside in, no matter where, no matter when, no matter who I'm with. The funny thing about this kind of love is that for as much as my spiritual beliefs dictate that I already am surrounded by this stuff, that everywhere I go it is there already, I don't seem to feel it, or I ignore it, maybe even push it away.

What I intend for the new year, is to feel this love, to be aware of it, to not push it away, to receive it and most importantly to accept it, believe in it, and honor it. What I intend is that I fake it until I make it, do the outside-in thing until the inside-out thing happens naturally.

I've heard lots of women (specifically) say that their 20s were the hardest time... that they were trying, tumultuous times when figuring out who they were and what they were meant to be doing was a herculean task. When feeling good about one's self, when feeling confident was hard-won.

I start to wonder if it's the new year, or if it's the fact that I'm nearing the end of my 20s that is bringing on my current ponderings. I have to admit that while my early 20s seem light-years away, in a way, I kind of feel like I've just gotten crazier the older I've gotten. Sure, there are some things I've worked out. There are plenty other that I haven't and maybe even some (one?) that have gotten worse.

I know that I want to be able to wake up in the morning, single or married, with child or without, in Latvia or somewhere sunnier and warmer, and feel happy and loved and content and confident. This I know. How to get there to that elusive place, is as of now, still unknown to me. But this is my intention for this 28th year of my life...to get closer. And what's more, not only to do that, but to keep it more than the first few weeks of January (when most resolutions die...), more than even the first few months, into next year even, and the year after that, and ever more.

In a few short, short days I will go back to work, and between reports and my class and everything else, all of these thoughts might go flying out the window. That would make this a resolution. I hope that my intention will not fly away. Maybe this requires some sort of structure, some sort of reminders. I'll look into that. If my new year has to start now, then let it be out of this cold, dark, dead place, that something wonderful, and hopeful and love-ly grows. Let this be the year of love.






And maybe, just maybe, if love makes weight melt off...that would be ok too. This could be, "THE" year. :) (you know I had to slip that in...)