Jun
29
This is my charm bracelet. Michael bought me the very nice bracelet for Valentine’s Day, but I’ve been collecting charms for seven or eight years now. I have dreams of one day having enough charms to fill the chain, and until recently had twenty or so, but I decided I only wanted to keep the meaningful ones. The bear on the left was purchased at a fair during our honeymoon. The paw print was from a shop at the mall in Tulsa where we always did our holiday shopping, purchased when they were going out of business - it was actually half of a pair of earrings, but I lost one down the drain of the sink soon after purchase. It has meaning because it was right around that time that we decided what our name change was going to be when we got married. The reason for the basket of yarn should be obvious, though I’d like to have a nicer charm to represent my knitting life someday. The lighthouse is from Split Rock Lighthouse, which we visited on our road trip up North a few years ago. I’d like to get more charms from vacations, but financial concerns are keeping such trips fairly rare these days. I did have a silver sand dollar from Florida that did double-duty as a pentacle, but it got caught in my sweater and I lost it down the toilet at the movie theater soon after purchase. Very sad.
This is the most recent addition to my charm bracelet - The Sun card from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Michael bought it for me in recognition of all of the Tarot study I’ve been doing this summer. I love it. It is so minuscule and well-detailed, shiny and symbolic in several ways. Daddy loved all things with smiley suns on them. The Sun is a great talismanic card to carry the energy of around with me. Though I use the Robin Wood deck, her Sun is extremely similar to the RWS rendering.
Nearly-daily Tarot study continues. I started out working through the exercises in Tarot For Your Self and The Tarot According to You, but I wasn’t feeling them - they are great books, but my intuition seems blocked, and every card I drew seemed to be talking to Michael. Not about Michael, but to him. Makes things tricky. Though I did have great luck with my first attempt at “walking into the card” with the Magician, so I’ll be going back to the exercises in a few weeks, probably. In the meantime, I’m making my own binder of notes to work from, since I learn better from writing down than I do from reading or listening. Working with symbols, numbers, suits and courts, using them as a sort of mental venn diagram to learn by interaction. So far, so good.
Filed Under paganism | 1 Comment
Jun
29
I Aten’t Ded
Filed Under bits, depression | 2 Comments
Thanks so much for your comments on the Diva Cup. I have a Comment Comments draft started and hanging out in my WordPress dashboard, but words have not been my friends, of late. Three weeks ago, I had to switch to the generic version of Wellbutrin XL, and I’m not really doing so well with it. Very sleepy all the time, requiring naps a couple of times a day, mood swings, oversensitivity, the whole lot. I’d love to go back to the real stuff, but we just can’t afford the $450 right now.
The whole generic-vs-brand debate pisses me off. Apparently, consumers are too stupid to realize that the “active ingredient” isn’t the only thing in a pill that affects its effectiveness. The suspension/fillers/delivery system of the generics is usually very different than the brand-name, and when it comes to anti-depressants, the absorption rate and timing is very important. But we’re told “Bupropion is bupropion is bupropion, don’t worry your pretty little head, we insurance execs have important things to do.”
No, I haven’t been fretting about this very much at all, why do you ask? Still and all, I must be feeling at least slightly better today, since I’m here typing at all. The quality of said wordage is likely arguable, but I’ll take what I can get for the time being. So! Things! Happen! Several little posts should appear throughout the rest of the day, as little bites are likely the best way to approach the goings-on. Assuming I retain control of my brain, of course, we must always assume that…
Filed Under bits, depression | 2 Comments
Jun
8
Diva Cup Primer*
Filed Under body, health | 8 Comments
*Not for the easily squicked. This means you, Vuboq.
I bought my Diva Cup in April of 2004, along with several washable pads from various indie vendors. (Goddess Moons are my faves.) I haven’t spent a dime on pads/tampons/etc. since then. I save money, I save the planet, it’s healthier for my body, and I never have to make a 3 a.m. trip to the drugstore for emergency supplies. There are other brand options (Keeper, MoonCup, etc.), they are all fairly similar. A friend of mine just ordered her first Diva Cup, and I told her I’d compile a few pointers.
- I’ll admit, these things are likely not suitable for those who are made uncomfortable by interaction with their own genitalia. (Which: sad.)
- Based on visual comparison to the circumference of a tampon, when you get your Diva Cup out of its box, you might be intimidated. But I swear to God, once I get it seated right, I can’t even feel mine.
- Not everyone does, but I trimmed the little “stem” on mine down to about a quarter inch. There were…stabbing issues.
- It takes some experience to learn how to fold it right so that it doesn’t pop open at an extremely awkward and uncomfortable moment. Don’t feel clumsy and like you’ll never get the hang of it; there’s just a learning curve.
- You might want to practice putting it in a few times when you’re not actually on your period, just to divorce the experience of new and awkward from the blood. I’d recommend using some lube, and maybe sitting on the edge of the tub instead of the toilet the first few times, until you’re more certain you won’t drop it.
- For the first couple of months, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the suction was going to pull my cervix out when I took out the cup. No damage was done, all of my organs are still intact, and I eventually figured out a way of pinching the cup with my index finger that broke the suction and eliminated the problem.
- You can experiment with how often you need to empty your cup. I never fill mine more often than twice a day, and I’ve seen suggestions of anywhere between 8 and 12 hours as being the “safe” amount of time to leave it in.
- When I’m at home (where the toilet is right next to the sink), I’ll rinse it out before putting it back in, but if you’re out in a public bathroom or something, there’s nothing wrong with just tipping it into the toilet, wiping it off, and putting it back.
- I boiled mine once, just for the novelty of it, but usually I just wash it with soap when I’m done with it for the month. Over time it can start to get dingy/stained, and I’ll soak it in hydrogen peroxide for a few hours; it comes out of its bath looking brand new.
Anything else Jen should know? Kim? Michelle?
Filed Under body, health | 8 Comments
Jun
7
Random Money-Saving Tip
Filed Under | 2 Comments
Take showers at your gym. I’m sure it’s not worth more than a few dollars a month, but the water comes out of someone else’s taps and is heated by someone else’s water heater. Every little bit helps.
I’ve belonged to several gyms in the last couple of decades, but I’ve never regularly used the shower facilities at any of them. A combination of general ickiness and lack of real privacy steered me away, especially when combined with the “Thank-the-Gods-I’m-done-now-I-want-to-go-HOME” effect, and my inability to remember all of the stuff I need to take with me.
(What stuff, you don’t ask? Well, in my gym bag Ravelry tote bag I cram my keys, i.d., iPod, two lip balms, extra barrettes and hair elastics, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, body wash, black soap, lotion, comb, bath towel, clean bra, shirt and shorts to put on after my shower. Also, shoes to wear out to the car. Mom swiped my flip flops and I haven’t gotten any new ones yet, so I spent a couple of weeks just walking barefoot from the shower to the car. The splinter I got in my big toe last week has nixed that little routine.)
But once I figured out a pre-pack routine, the rest has taken care of itself. Our gym has three completely separate bathrooms; a men’s, a women’s, and a unisex, and they aren’t icky at all. Nice color scheme, decorative baskets - hell, the women’s even has a new (giant) fresh flower arrangement every week. The unisex doesn’t have a shower in it, so I don’t have to worry about someone waiting with a potty emergency while I take my time bathing, there are two locks on the doors, AND a “panic button” that summons the police if scary bad guys try to get me when I’m naked. There’s a bench and a shelf for my things, as well as a wheely towel rack. The shower is a real, full-sized shower, not a stall, with places to put all my bottles of stuff, a fold-down bench for shaving routines, and a hand-held showerhead. (We’ve had those in my house since I was nine years old. I’ve never really learned how to rinse properly with a regular old up-above-your-head arrangement. One more piece of information I’m sure you’re happy to have today.)
Of course, the ick factor has been all but eliminated since I’ve discovered that I seem to be the only person using the women’s shower at all. I became suspicious when it appeared that the shower curtain wasn’t being moved from one night to the next, so last Saturday I cranked the temperature control all the way over to “cold” when I got out of the shower. It was still there on Monday. Coincidence was possible; maybe someone got REALLY overheated on that stair-climber and a cold shower was just the thing. So Monday night I put it all the way over on “hot;” that sucker could leave blisters at that setting, so finding it on the same setting the next night would have been a pretty good indication. This was made even moreso when I got sick, missed a few days, and went in on Friday night to find the faucet in the exact same position I left it.
I gots my own, personal, free shower at the gym, you guys! Both my fastidiousness and my frugality have been satisfied. Plus, once I get home from the gym, I am done! I don’t have to lug my tired and sweaty body down the stairs and back up again, dig for clean clothes and a towel, despair at the state of my grout and glare at that burned-out lightbulb before I can go upstairs and watch a movie.
Also! And possibly even more money-saving! Check out the bulk section in your local health-food store. I’ve been getting sesame sticks and almond butter over there for years, but I just last month ventured over to the liquids area at Clovers, where laundry soap and shampoo and body wash and things like that live in giant gallon-sized pump bottles. They charge by the ounce, and have various sizes of squeeze bottles you can buy, or you can bring in your own. Several different brands to try of several different types of unguent, and after smelling them all I procured myself shampoo, conditioner, and black soap (unscented for sensitive bits) for ridiculously low prices. Like “sixteen ounces of this shampoo costs nine dollars over in the hair care section of this store, but by filling my own bottle it only cost three-twenty” kind of cheap. And it’s all natural and/or organic stuff! I am all OVER that. Next week I will be pricing out the laundry detergent to see if we can afford to go back to the Earth-friendly stuff.
That’s my advice for today. Do with it what you will. (And make me some cupcakes, if you feel so inclined.)
Filed Under | 2 Comments
Jun
5
The Scheme
Filed Under health, knitting, paganism | 2 Comments
I’ve been trying lots of different names on it, this new plan, this routine, this idea of enforcement. No title seems to fit without being too wordy; every designation that says it all almost takes as long to say as it does to explain. So for now, I’m calling it The Scheme, this new collection of rules and guidelines I’ve put in place to try and actually get some things done over the summer.
You see, I’m quite good at getting things done when I have deadlines and consequences and actual accountability; not necessarily in a timely fashion, you understand, but done the things do get. My straight A’s last semester will testify to this fact with me. Unfortunately, I seem to be permanently UNaccountable to myself. I know I ought to eat lots of vegetables, but I’m much more familiar with recipes that include lots of cheese. I know that I’d have less stress if I finished assignments early, but it doesn’t happen. I know I feel better when I take my meds at the same time every day, but that requires getting up at the same time every day, and you know that doesn’t happen.
Our current lack of funds makes those popular “reward yourself!” suggestions completely useless. You know the ones, especially popular in women’s magazines around New Year’s: “Set small goals and reward yourself for meeting them! Indulge in a good bottle of wine! [What?] Buy yourself a new pair of shoes! [With negative money?] Go away for the weekend! [You're kidding, right?]“ So, my alternative option is to reward myself with things I already do. To the untrained eye, this might look like punishing myself by not getting do things I like to do, but since reward systems have proven to work better than punishment systems, I’ve decided to reframe the issue.
(Hooray for political terms twisted to my own purposes!)
Things I want to accomplish this summer:
1. Go to the gym regularly.
2. Make a serious study of Tarot.
3. Finish that alphabet blanket.
Things I want to do this summer:
A. Knit.
B. Hang out with Michael.
C. Be goofy.
B is not optional. 3 is part of A. C is not voluntary. So 1&2 shall be accomplished with the manipulation of A.
It works like this. Every day, I am required to go to the gym, and study Tarot for one hour (minimum). Each day’s assignments determine my knitting for the next day. So if I don’t get my stuff done on Tuesday, I don’t get to knit on Wednesday. If I only do one or the other, then I am allowed forty-five minutes of knitting time that next day. Days are measured “sleep to sleep” (an important detail for those of us with Delayed Sleep Phase). Exceptions are allowed for knitting with friends (since destroying my social life NOT one of this summer’s goals). Also, Sunday is a “day out of time,” meaning Saturday’s tasks count for Monday’s knitting. This allows me one day off from gym/study and at least one day of knitting no matter how lazy I’ve been during the week.
(FWIW, I am NOT going to the gym as a path to weight loss. More about that later.)
Michael’s doing this too, although with a few key differences in detail, if not in approach. His to-do list replaces Tarot study with some household chores, and knitting with video games. He has the same social exception (so he can play with Nik or Travis), but has a different system for Sundays than I do (which I frankly found confusing, but he said the same about mine).
My basic theory is that part of being a responsible person is balancing fun stuff with the stuff that needs to get done. Since it seems I did not come preinstalled with the necessary software to take care of this, I’m trying to train myself, like a puppy (aww!). I started in the second week of May. I’m happy with how well I’ve done so far, although it hasn’t been perfect. I missed one day of the gym in each of the first two weeks, but I refrained from knitting the next day and felt properly chastened. The last two weeks have been a bit uneven, first due to the refusal of my mandible to stay properly seated in my temporal bone, and now because of the head cold I’m finally starting to kick. (I always get sick within the first few weeks of going back to the gym, so the sudden disappearance of most of the Puffs in my house was not unexpected.)
All in all, I’m fairly happy with the way the not-money-related portion of my summer is going. Now, if I could just remember how to sleep when it’s dark outside…
Filed Under health, knitting, paganism | 2 Comments
Jun
1
And the Caffeine’s Not Much Help
Filed Under angst | 4 Comments
Mini-yet-upsetting visit from the Anxiety Fairy today, re: Michael’s impending unemployment.
He has three weeks left at his job. Between the last paycheck, the money he’ll get for his outstanding sick/vacation days, and a bit of cash he’s picking up on a freelance thing, we will probably be able to pay the mortgage through September. I love our house. I don’t want to lose our house. I can’t even wrap my mind around what the process would be if we had to put it on the market, much less what we’d do when it sold - or if it didn’t sell…
Okay, okay, no more glimpse into this afternoon’s mental processes. I don’t know if it’s upsetting you, but it’s not doing wonders for me.
This is Michael in his interview outfit:
Isn’t he pretty? You should totally hire him.
Please?
Filed Under angst | 4 Comments
May
27
Knitbloggin’
Filed Under knitting | 3 Comments
I spent several hours yesterday taking/editing/organizing pictures for Ravelry, and now I’m going to post some of them here, because I can.
This is the beginning of the Melusine shawl from the Imbolc Anticraft. Yes, I know I have no business starting another shawl when I’m not even halfway done with poor Icarus, but this one kind of has a deadline. My LYS is having a dyeing workshop sometime in July for the graduated effect, where we can use her dyes and make a mess in the back room, meaning no more $$ investment in pots of dye I’ll never use again, or giant stains on my deck. Woot.
Speaking of Icarus, it’s fighting with my Alphabet Blanket. By June 1, I’ll have chosen one of those two as the Finishing Project for the summer. I’m near the halfway point on both of them, and I like them both well enough. Neither has a deadline, since no one I know is reproducing anytime soon, and Kim actually finished her Icarus (what a concept!), so the “along” part of our knitalong is kind of obsolete. Hmm.
I can’t remember if I posted this picture already, and I love it, so I don’t care if I did. This is from the night B got mean and made me sew up both Stacey and Marta in one night. FYI: I do not sneeze yarn; I have a tapestry needle in my mouth.
Pre-blocking, pre-ends weaving, but I like this picture anyway. Pigtails make me happy, I guess.
I absolutely adore the body of this sweater, but the arms are driving me nuts. The yarn I used has a bit of silk in it, which apparently overrides the memory of the wool, so when it stretches, it stays stretched. The first time I push them up on my arms, which I always do with sweaters, the sleeves decide that’s how they want to live their lives, and stay baggy from then until the next blocking. I’d really appreciate any suggestions to treat this problem, as reblocking this every time I wear it isn’t an option.
I finished Marta back in the December sometime. I like it very much, but Malabrigo starts pilling even before piecing, so I don’t wear it often. Well, at all, now, since it’s worsted wool and therefore WARM. We’re trying to postpone the inaugural turning-on-the-air-conditioner as long as possible, so cozy sweaters are gone until at least October.
The set-up I had for getting pictures of these sweaters should have been a blogpost all by itself. Bendy tripod, ladderback chair, shutter timer and full length mirror were all employed. Outside, on the deck, in the cold. Because as much as I love him, Michael just cannot get good pictures of my sweaters for me. Case in point:
It’s probably just a matter of height differential, but the unflattering is strong with him. This is my version of the February Lady sweater, and I swear, it’s much cuter in person. I can’t decide if I want to go with frogs or with hooks-and-eyes plus decorative buttons. Bex has some cute pewter heart buttons that would look good, I think, but the image of four black cord frogs keeps teasing me. Thoughts?
Rather than using the gull wing lace that the pattern called for, I used Chevron Flame, one of Barbara Walker’s stitches. I really like the change. After much math, including an experiment with doubling the yarn, I just ended up working my smaller yarn in the size recommended. That is, this sweater notoriously runs large, which I used in my favor with the tighter gauge to get a smaller garment. I hope that makes sense, Kim.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
More knitting to come, but that’s enough for tonight. Still have stuff to do before bed. There are other things I need to write about, too: Michael’s job status, this fancy new gym/Tarot/knitting scheme I’ve come up with, school, babies-or-not, and the new Vampire campaign I’m supposed to start running in a couple of weeks. So I’m leaving this one up to you guys. Out of the foregoing list, which one do you want to hear about first?
Filed Under knitting | 3 Comments