Thrihyrne

I haven't posted in DW/LJ land for quite some time. In the interim I've gone on FMLA again to ensure that I'm getting my medications completely under control, I went to Hawaii for a week to challenge myself in almost every way possible, and now I'm 2 days into an amazing 9 day period of getting to spend every day with Evan at home because BHFT has a weekly shutdown for the July 4th holiday. Today I had quite the to-do list and I've done a tremendous amount of it. One element included getting out my sewing machine and making curtains to replace the 2 blankets that we had clothespinned to a curtain rod to keep our one room cool (we have a portable air conditioning unit that we keep in the living room, which is where our bed is) since we have crazy hot weather in the 90s and possibly 100s for the next two weeks. I also made a kitchen curtain to do the same kind of thing, with these amazing heat reflecting and light/sound blocking liners that we hung up in the living room a couple of months ago in anticipation of summer. Photos are below!





I finally got back to my Reggie/Kelp sequel, as the one major thing I'm demanding of myself to be completed by the end of Evan's week off is to have the final 2 1/2 scenes written. I want to be able to send the first draft to a couple of betas by the weekend. Tomorrow marks the 2 month mark of the release of Surprised at Nothing, and one of my projects is to use social media to have a giveaway of a copy and to drive some traffic to my author blog. I also created a Facebook page to do with the Sinclair Method and people in the Portland area. I'm basically trying to create my own recovery group since it doesn't already exist. It's a lot of energy, but I owe it to myself and anyone else in this geographic area who may feel s/he is doing this alone for us to find each other and share experiences.

The past week has been incredibly positive in so very many ways. I'm back on track with basically everything; I applied to 2 companies with interesting jobs and have revisited my prior haunts of universities and will apply to everything that seems appropriate in the next 72 hours just to keep momentum going. I don't mind returning to Airbnb, but it seems pretty obvious that the culture and I don't go together very well unless I can stay at home all the time. I'm thrilled that I was able to buy 2 original works by Nicole Maki last Tuesday, and am really looking forward to hanging them on the wall in the next day or so. My other dream is to be able to buy a piece that my college roommate, Honor Marks, has done. She's an artist in Charleston and has been showing at Spoleto for years now. She had her first child last year on my birthday (thanks for that, roomie! I'll always remember his birthday!) but it just exhausts me to think about her having an 18 month old at age 45. Egads.

Sorry I haven't been around much- if there are things I missed or if you'd like to email me, please do!

What a difference a week can make! The week after Evan's birthday was very challenging for me in my usual challenging way, but I got back on track with a renewed commitment to several months of working on staying in my own skin. This weekend was particularly wonderful; a Saturday both leisurely and social, including a very fun sushi dinner with grrlpup and sanguinity. I also started out the weekend with a really uplifting conversation Friday evening with emansil_12. We don't usually talk at that time of day, but it was the perfect jumping off point for a positive and quite productive weekend. I worked Sunday but as part of that also managed to hand wash a couple of sweaters, scrubbed the bathtub, washed dishes, sewed on my owl culottes, and worked on my what I'm calling my Dreamspinner fic, but I may route it elsewhere once complete. We'll see. These days I'm feeling much more like my usual self, though yesterday I'll admit to feeling slightly manic because I felt so good physically and wanted to make up for lost time. The challenge of finding balance will probably always be with me, and that's okay. I'm still definitely in the reward phase of my life. :)

Oh, and my left shoulder is giving me issues again; this isn't the now-unfrozen shoulder, but a possible injury that's raising its head again. I'll need to be careful at Mod Physique this week.

First, here I am in my new happy place:



Writing! In my composition notebook! With coffee! And great lighting! In a comfy chair! In my room! :D :D :D

Evan and I accomplished a lot this weekend. Bit shocking, perhaps.
~ Went to IKEA, bought and assembled this chair and footrest, obtained other household items thanks to my bonus and giftcard
~ Went to Sally Beauty to get hair color to remedy the recent dye attempts
~ Went to Yarn Garden to buy yarn to make Evan a pair of socks, and get buttons for my recently-completed cardigan
~ Took a nap
~ Re-assembled his 2 large wardrobes and moved a dozen large bins from his room to the living room in order to do so
~ Watched Cold Fever, a favorite film of mine available only on VHS which we rented from Movie Madness, conveniently a not-quite-two-block walk down the street
~ I got a haircut at Bishops yesterday morning, then went grocery shopping, then went by the library
~ Re-colored Evan's hair
~ My usual 1-10 p.m. work shift yesterday

I was rather confuzzled by my very detailed dreams through the night having to do with Evan and llembas and a job and poetry and libraries. "Happy Friday!" I exclaimed, sleepily, and there was a pause.

"It's Monday."

"Oh. Right. I have no idea why I thought it was Friday."

So… happy Monday, all.

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

These posts probably wouldn't be so long if I posted a bit more often. Hmmmm.
( To do and body issues )
( self care! )

I'm feeling much better this morning than I did yesterday evening. My enthusiasm and joy and gratitude hasn't diminished or anything, but I was running myself ragged unnecessarily. Sleep is important. If I'm going to get up at 5:30 each morning, I really have to go to bed before 11:30. I was going through my affirmations when I feel sound asleep! I did have another really interesting and long dream this morning to do with a prior boyfriend and now long-time friend from college. My alma mater has been showing up a lot in my dream life. I wonder what it signifies! Maybe it's my subconscious being a bit miffed that I've opted not to go to my 20th reunion, especially now that I've found out it's a choir reunion as well. Not sure.

While I'm basking in all kinds of amazing positivity (which yes, has been a long time coming!!), there are a couple of friends on my flist going through very challenging times. You are held in light and in my thoughts.

( the downer )

( the upper(s) )

Some other positives from yesterday and anticipated for today:

✪ I decided to buy my own dyes so that I can proceed with my yarn dyeing without being reliant on my friend. In doing a search to see if Fabric Depot had the brand he'd recommended, I came across a web page that had a set of 6 color starter set of specific acid dyes for yarns for $24.99. The yarn company pinged for me, and I remembered that my mother had given me a $25 gift certificate for a yarn company and I'd not used it yet (because $25 doesn't actually go all that far in terms of purchasing yarn for anything other than a hat/socks/scarf)... same company!! So I bought them. There was much elation.
✪ Later in the afternoon, I was invited to come along on a walk with evannichols and sanguinity. The weather and company were delightful. There was much talk of zombies and zombie-killing devices, and martial arts. And evannichols was only punched once!
✪ I scored a personal best, point-wise, playing online boggle: 49.
✪ I meant to get up at my usual time this morning, but was so tired I reset my alarm to get up at 7:21 so I could be at the plasma center by 8:00. I did reset it, but then closed the phone without saving it. I'll go in at 9 o'clock instead. Those who've been following me for a while will remember my grousing when trying to donate in Harrisonburg, but this place is literally 2½ blocks from the house. Before, I was stuck with a bus system that only went to the plasma center once an hour, so that was where the timesuck happened if I failed on the iron count. Here there's no problem with that, but… they don't take appointments. So the timesuck is reliant on how many other people are there in front of you. But I have not just one but two new books to read, and knitting projects out the wazoo. I'll be fine in terms of self-entertainment.
✪ I may just be ready to start up jogging again. I did well for several weeks, then things went south and north and south and north and I went back to the easier option: isometric exercise in the form of remembered Pilates stuff at home in my room. But some cardio would do me good.

This got long. My dream life is also out of control, but that's par for the course. My mother had showed up so many times in my dreams that I emailed her to touch base. For now, however, I really need to get a move on!

Not only did I have my usual wake-up start to my day phone call with evannichols, but I had **two** separate, long and deliciously supportive phone chats with emansil_12. Darling, thank you so much for understanding me so well and being a close companion of mine on our respective journeys.

::makes helplessly happy hand motions::

And a full day of knitting stuff to do with my exciting enterprise, and mailing off a really fun, oversized postcard to a friend, and getting yummy, local produce, and anticipating a lovely weekend with evannichols that will start when he picks me up around 6 o'clock.

::more helplessly happy hand motions::

Well, the movie first. I adore it. Absolutely superb, and I hope to be able to share a viewing of it with friends in the future. I also found the soundtrack so I can listen to it. I should make an icon, too… I teared up when Aisling was singing to the cat, and cried a wee bit at the end. Highly, highly recommended film.

So today has been pretty productive:
☄ wrote a letter to my dad and stepmom
☄ did research to ensure whether or not I could take my knitting needles on the trip to England (seems to be yes)
☄ worked on my database consulting project for four hours
☄ had brief but fun IM chat with Callum, who I'll get to see again when I'm in England
☄ read part of a book
☄ watched 2/3 of a House episode and knitted
☄ went to a yoga challenge 75 minute class, then hung out in the sauna. Ahhhhhhhh.
☄ came home and even though it was 8:15 p.m., decided to wash my filthy car
☄ made a snack and finished the House episode; got caught up on LJ and email

Tomorrow I have two meetings, one with the executive director at the health center for whom I'm creating this database (what a steep learning curve!!), and then lunch with the director of the poetry center. As of tomorrow I'll have choir rehearsals every night, so not much down time. I do still hope to be able to have a new post of my original fic by the weekend, or during, and I'll be posting my lgbtfest fic on Wednesday. Woot! New fic from me! Shocking, I know. :P It is anymore these days. Maybe I will write another couple of Gimli-centric gapfillers, and there is the Lee/Andrei…

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Tarot this morning:
The Hawk of May .:~:. The Birch Tree .:~:. The Green Knight