Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

I am working from home again today, and I once again ran into a situation where I could have greatly benefited from a safety pin. I didn't have one, much like the millions of other times I haven't had one. Unfortunately, safety pins are one of those things I forget to buy every time I'm at the store, and I hate going to the store just for some tiny silly item. At that moment I longed for Nicaragua because had I been there, I could have carried on with my day, and eventually someone would have wandered by selling Rolex knock-offs, flashlights, pencil sharpeners, fruit, fish, soap, and eventually safety pins.

I have recently discovered TED , and I want to share it with you. This is some rather excellent video of bioluminescent organisms and camouflaging cephalopods.

I walked the dog this morning and I'm trying to work from home. The light struggling through my large windows can only be described as watery, like a Kate Chopin novel. It makes me melancholy. It's a missing, melancholy day. When the light has no color and seems to barely be performing its function, I become very sad. I start to think of all the people I'd like to be with that I am not, and I think What a waste. Incidentally , Garrison Keillor and the nostalgic style of PHC aren't helping either.

I put up my Christmas tree last weekend, but I didn't get a chance to post pics until now. It's kind of an homage to my mother. She made a lot of the ornaments on the tree, as well as the Christmas tree skirt. I bought the angel on top. I know the pic with the lights is fuzzy, but the pic with the flash just doesn't show its loveliness very well. And here are some ornaments she made out of macaroni, no less. There's an angel and some bows. They are painted in gold and silver and then adorned. She could make anything out of anything. Then she also made a variety of decorated Christmas balls: Christmas colors: Part of a green and purple set she made for me a few years ago: Some variegated:

I am teaching myself to knit, I think mostly because I want to do something with my hands that doesn't remind me so very much of my mom. So, I'll do this for a while, and then I'm sure, return to crochet, or tatting, or cross-stitch. I kind of cycle through. Anyway, this is my first dishcloth, in which I learned to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off in knit and purl. Incidentally, I also learned how to correct a mistake (lots) and pick up a dropped stitch (just once or twice).

I posted on Facebook that I was applying to grad school, and I did that because unless people know about stuff, I often wimp out on it. However... I'm nervous about giving too much away because what IF I DON'T GET IN?? I have employment backup, thanks to West Coast Boss, and yet, public rejection elicits a full-body cringing OUCH. Still, I'm excited, and despite my more pessimistic nature, I'm hopeful. So here's the skinny. There's a program at U of the Desert that seems like a great fit. It's also where Long-distance Boyfriend is located, which is important if I ever want Long-distance Boyfriend to become No-distance Husband. The program is an MA in English, requiring that I take at least a couple literature classes (not the worst thing for a bibliophile). The specialty to which I am applying is Rhetoric and Writing, and one of the purposes of the MA is to prepare people with a content background to become professional writers or editors. It's po...

Susan G at Daily Kos points out this sentence from Barack Obama's weekly web address. Will your job or your husband’s job or your daughter’s job be the next one cut? Then she says why this matters better than I could: Read that closely. In a speech about universal fears and hardship, he is addressing his primary listeners as women . Never have I heard sentence construction like that from a president -- women addressed directly in a non-"women's issues" setting as legitimate, fully fledged and very concerned and invested breadwinners. The effect is stunning.

The first meeting of the Hot Hobbyists of Columbia was successful. I finally finished this scarf. I usually use tassels, but this time I decided to try a scalloped edging since the scarf is shorter and will be used more like a muffler.

Homemade dinner for one.

Money complicates everything, even death. Clearly not for the departed, but for the ones left behind. Most of you know that my mom died in November, and that is obviously hard, and the last thing we want to think about is money. The realities of life don't allow for that, and it's a mixed bag - fighting with insurance companies about both health and life insurance benefits, cutting through the red tape of military and social security benefits, trying to make sense of an unexpected windfall, and gracefully accepting the generosity of others. The first two are pretty familiar hassles, and I won't go into them, but the second two are proving more difficult to deal with emotionally - I think just because they weren't anticipated. Specifically the last one has left me making some tough decisions. My family isn't in a good financial situation, and people know that having a loved one in the hospital and then ill for a long time is expensive, not to mention the funeral...

This are my feet on winter. Note the awesome slipper socks sent by Amazing Friend from the Far North. Note that they are also being worn over another pair of socks.

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