Can't believe I posted nary a word in October. In all of my 12 years of blogging, I'm not sure that's ever happened— aside from a month or two when I was in rehab twice. Still.

( the state of kristi )

I'm on the cusp of going on my first actual holiday/vacation type thing in about a year. Evan and I are going to Rockaway Beach, Oregon, tomorrow, staying in a large beachhouse with his parents, sister Arwen & family, and brother Dana & wife & daughter & granddaughter. I'm really looking forward to spending time at the beach, and sleeping, and doing some social things, and having a lot - lot - of downtime. :) There will be internet and phone and such, but I'm determined not to check work email at all and to put that part of my life completely on pause while I'm gone. I suspect it will be easier said than done, but I'll try to make it happen.

I printed up my Wraeththu novellas to bring with me to re-read and edit, and it makes me feel a bit odd that I've committed to doing this. I've never revisited any completed work of mine for a serious edit like this before, and I'm uncertain as to how the process will go, if I'll be appalled or if I'll enjoy reading it, if I'll be overcome by memories of what my life was like when I wrote them, and of the initial major overhaul/edit/rewrite from 2009. Hard to say. Hopefully it won't be traumatic or demoralizing. I'm also bringing my notebook to work on my Charliefic which I haven't written on in a couple of weeks. I suspect I'll get a bunch done on that while on break. This will be a very different situation from Evan and me going away together… although now I realize Evan and I have not actually had a holiday together yet, just the two of us. The trips we've made since we've been a couple have all been with our families— and we like our families, but I've just made a verbal commitment that after this trip and the one in September to go to Wenatchee to spend the better part of a week with my dad and stepmom, we will take our next trips just the two of us. I'm pretty sure that our five days together with his family (absent one sibling and progeny) will be just fine. As he pointed out, they are a family of introverts. But I bring with me from my own family of origin (at least to do with my mother) a sense of dread about doing my own thing and being seen as asocial and trying to isolate myself. I believe that there will be a healthy balance of doing my own very-much-needed-downtime activities (reading, editing, writing, reading, knitting and dicking around on the internet, walking, jogging on the beach, sleeping) and group meals, some organic conversation, and working on puzzles. Some of my worries are because I've only spent short periods of time with these folks (2 days) except for his sister Arwen and family, who I know well from when Evan lived with them. I'm probably worrying unnecessarily, but I articulated all of this to Evan and he (unsurprisingly) was very understanding.

So I'll have my computer and will definitely still be online, and hopefully quite productive while also being a lazy, lazy person. :)

This element over at Ravelry has made me so happy- they've hired on two new site engineers (yay for site engineers who are also passionate knitters!) and have added new features to the site. Including making project posts public to people outside of Ravelry. This is going to make my posting of pics so much easier.

The first three are reclaimed yarn projects. There is commentary on the Ravelry pages. I was thinking of making an R.I.P to my Etsy shop concept of the reclaimed yarn projects, but I'm going to hold onto my Etsy shop name, concept and banner art. My life has proven to be quite changeable, and there's every chance that I may go back to it. But this first round of projects have all ended up going to my nieces and nephews and step-nieces and nephews. And I'm not too broken up about that. :)

http://ravel.me/Thevina/hdczuc
http://ravel.me/Thevina/hc
http://ravel.me/Thevina/ss

The last is a baby blanket I'm knitting for Evan's sister. It looks rather odd in the picture because I'm knitting it in the round, so you don't really see the size. And the colors are slightly off, but it's *gorgeous*.

http://ravel.me/Thevina/tr

Probably not fair to combine all of those into one post, but so be it. I met up with my cousin Matthew for coffee and tea (tea=him, coffee=me) in the Alberta district, and it was absolutely marvelous. We're both writers, both struggling with some stuff going on in our brains that we own but can't necessarily control, and from similar (well, very similar) stock genetically. We talked about a lot of stuff and I'm hoping that we'll go for a walk around Mt. Tabor next week and that we'll keep up as the weeks go on. He's newer to this part of the country than I am, but it was just delightful to hang out with someone from my extended family who can really understand what I've been through in the past half-decade or so.

So I caught the bus back to my part of town and got off a stop too soon than I'd intended, but it allowed me to wander into Good Neighbor, the Russian market close to me that I'd been wanting to visit after realizing how close it was. I was mildly disappointed in that the staff spoke to me in English (as opposed to the other two guys in the shop). Did I look that Anglo? When I'd spent three weeks in Vladimir, USSR, I could pass for a local. But not here. I did say (in Russian) that I'd studied Russian, and the woman at the counter asked if I understood, and I said a little, and that I'd forgotten most of it. But I did say the Russian equivalent of 'see ya!' as I departed, with eggs, apple cider vinegar, and red potatoes in my bags. I really need to post on Craigslist about tutoring in English if I can get some Russian tutoring in exchange.

So I got home, put away my groceries, changed clothes, and went out running. I have a new route, and it was great, taken more at a run than a jog, as evidenced that I was home within 30 minutes. But lovely, though when I attempted to take a cool-down walk, I was being rained on, so it was a very short walk.

This evening's priorities: dinner (potatoes with some sour cream before it goes bad), knitting, talking with evannichols, some ibuprofin and using my heated rice bag on both shoulder and calves, and an early night. I applied for 5 positions this morning, and there will be more tomorrow, so I know I'm keeping up my end of the deal to the universe of seeking out what is appropriate. But I must admit that I'm so excited both to see if I can model at Hipbones studio, and then to head out to BHFT and spend the night with my beloved. Even 48 hours seems like a long time. Yes, I'm becoming a romantic and am oftentimes at a loss. ♥

Don't know about you, but LJ wouldn't even load for me for 2 days!! I'm hoping beyond hope to get this posted, see how you all are doing and things like that before it goes missing again. ::shakes fist:: I've been thinking a lot about this whole future career thing and after several conversations and long emails with people am rethinking the master's in social work. Not that it wouldn't be helpful, as any master's would be, but that one is kind of notorious for being underpaid out in the world, and it may behoove me to go ahead and start working out in the field, somehow, somewhere. I am thinking about getting at least a certification in gerontology, as they offer that at the local community college. It might not be a huge help, but it'd be something since there's nothing in my background that reflects an interest in working with the affairs of the aging. Food for thought. I may also audit a social work course or two at JMU this fall, it that works out; I'll be having lunch with the head of the social work department in mid August, so I'll see what happens then.

In very exciting news, I was able to upgrade my operating system on my aging Mac for not a large financial investment. I'm so very, very happy. Thus far I'm able to continue using my older applications, though I'm sure that won't last forever. Hopefully long enough for me to get into this next phase of life, somewhat settled (wherever that may be), employed for six months or so, and then maybe think about finally getting a laptop. Though I do love my Mac mini.

I'm going away on another fairly short trip with my parents, leaving Sunday the 31st and returning Monday August 8th. We're spending a short 72 hours in Maine (South Thomaston) with a former not-exactly-colleague of my mom's who has a house up there, and we'll also of course see the grandchildren (my nieces and nephews), including my younger brother's newest — Boaz — who was born on July 2nd or 3rd. I'm not good with dates. But he's the most recent of the brood. I'd hoped that the adorable little Dell laptop that I took with us to Canada last summer would be fixed, but it hasn't even been picked up from my mom's office by the computing department. That said, mom will bring her iPad, so doubtless I'll check email and LJ a few times, so I won't be totally AFK. I'll work on my original fic and I'll definitely need to bring a couple of books. Need to go by the library tomorrow to rectify that situation! I will be typing up the latest in my monk story and posting that before I leave, for those reading along. Must say I'm looking forward to getting out of the heat…

For spending money these days I've been trying to donate plasma twice a week at a very nice facility here in H'burg. The issue is that normally my iron is fairly low, so I have to work really damn hard to elevate it. I was lamenting this to one of my WFS friends who suggested (if I was open to the idea) of actually communicating with my red blood cells while meditating or otherwise in a quiet mind space and asking them to release more iron into my system. I believe that stuff like that works, and I must say- I passed the iron test both Thursday and Saturday. So in addition to the usual (loads of spinach, supplements, eating citrus fruit with meat as vitamin C helps with iron absorption), I commune with my red blood cells.

( almost as good as finding someone who writes fanfic )

For those who are mothers, who take care of their mothers, have ever been mothers of any type, I hope that you have or have had a lovely day today. Since it's a topic very relevant to my own life and my own past, if you'd care to, send a special compassionate thought to those mothers who are estranged from children and/or stepchildren due to addictions in their lives. Today can be a rough day for a lot of women.

Well, the big news for me is that the most recent issue of Filament magazine is not only one that features red headed males, but it also has my article! I can't wait to get my author copy. I'll be buying a few extras as well, no doubt. :)

Also, when I was chatting with one of my Furious Flower colleagues, part of my dream from last night came to me, and I was a vampire! But I was hanging out with two other vampires, and while there was a little bit of feeding, it hurt, and not in a good way. Hmmmm. I haven't even watched True Blood in a couple of weeks. In fact, thanks to a recommendation from persephone100, I downloaded and watched Shaun of the Dead, a silly British zombie movie that was so non-believable and schticky even I could watch it.

In a first for me for the holiday season, as part of the three exchanges I'm involved in, I'm writing three stories: one pre-slash, one gen, and one… het. What is wrong with the universe? I miss my monks and/or writing good 'ol PWP slash. Maybe in the new year. That said, two of the three are essentially done, and I really grooved on writing the Tolkien one.

Glad to be on the other side of the Thanksgiving holidays. For Christmas, as an unintentional gift to me, my parents will be going up to NYC to hang out with grandchildren. I'll take care of the pets and watch over the house. :D And stay in comfy clothes, unless I have to work at Panera, which is highly possible. My thanks to those I chatted with over the holidays and helped me to keep my sanity when things were a bit on the desperate side. ♥

I'll be heading up to Bellevue, WA to spend the weekend with my aunt and grandmother for my maternal grandmother's 90th birthday fete. My aunts and uncles and mom and stepdad will also be there. I don't expect any drama, though there may be some awkward. I don't have a laptop, so I'll be unplugged until my return Sunday evening. I have my two current writing projects, though, and a knitting project (pictures soon) that I'm hoping my grandmother can help me fix. I think she'll get a kick out of that. I'm also wearing a cardigan she knitted for herself in the 60s and am taking the skirt (it was a suit) and will wear that to the event this afternoon at her living facility. I suspect she'll take great pride in pointing out that things she knitted 40 years ago are still being worn!

You all be good to yourselves. And wolfiekins, it was so great to talk with you a couple of days ago. I've missed our phone calls!

♥