earrings and a little bit of daily life

A taste of some of the newest earrings I've made. They are all posted at royaboya.etsy.com and royaboya.weebly.com


Today I dyed my hair, cut my hair (yay bangs), made earrings, read a chapter, picked up a desk and set up a new office area - where I am typing to you from! It's a great desk with a hutch perfect for storing all of the zillions of textbooks I had no room for.

Still to come this evening - laundry, watering the back lawn, feeding the dogs, reading 1 more chapter, working on my paper, eating dinner, doing a load of dishes. I think it can be done! Adam is working late tonight because of the weather - he is on fire watch at Griffith Park. Hey people - when you throw your cigarette into the grass, it's MY husband who gets to work late. Dispose properly! heh.

garden is getting there!

I wish I had taken "before" photos of the garden-area, because it looks so dramatically different now! It WAS a corner in the back that was a mess of grape vines, rose bushes, and weeds - and is now a beautiful, weeded, TILLED lot, all ready for planting. I got home last night and Adam had spent his whole day cleaning the yard - including prepping the garden for me. I couldn't believe it. He also finished the fence!!! Now we just have to put it up! I'm SO CLOSE to being able to plant!!!

I am still debating the square foot gardening thing, or using the soil how it is. I can't decide. I'd have to build more boxes since I only have one, and the instant gratification of being able to PLANT NOW is a pretty strong force, buttt... will I be happier in the long run with the boxes? Not sure.

I want to do some "landscaping" while I plant - I want to make it pretty, in addition to fruitful. Not sure how - but maybe making some mosaic stepping stones or something. We shall see!

In any case, I have the best fiance in the whole world.


I am also about 1/3 of the way done with a granny square bag that I am making for my friend Dani. She makes beautiful jewelry, and so we are exchanging the bag for a turquoise/silver ring. This is how the world SHOULD work my friends! Bartering! Yay! I'm having fun on her bag - she took a photo of a bag she liked, and I am re-creating it. I really, really, really enjoy doing that - I did it for my mom with a beanie she saw in a store window. Cell phone cameras are a huge bonus to my work. ;)

As soon as that is done, I will be working on a dog sweater for a coworker. She gave me the dog's current favorite sweater to use as a pattern, so this should be interesting. I've never done any pet stuff before.

Tomorrow my family's coming over to celebrate some birthdays, so tonight involves housework, grocery shopping, and Juno training. Tomorrow is family party, Sunday is exercise, Juno, gardening, knitting, and prepping for the week. YAY!

I'm so glad that summer is here. Yes I said summer. It feels like it. It's warm, sunny...in fact, not even warm - but HOT. It's fantastic. I didn't realize how much the cold and dark weather was getting to me until it turned to heat and sunshine. I feel like a totally different person. Things that bothered me a week ago no longer matter. People are fantastic, interesting, beautiful creatures. I have energy! I want to do things! It's still LIGHT OUTSIDE when I get home from work!!!! I love this time of year! I am DONE with the cold, the chilly, the frigid. Bring on the tank tops, the tanning, the flip flops!

who wins?

last night was a lovely night, and today has been a thoroughly enjoyable day. Last night Adam and I had plans for dinner, (all because filet mignon was on sale at ralphs and I was hungry when I went grocery shopping..whoops) but his sister got a flat and there were issues with her car, so he called around 7 to say that 8 wouldn't work for dinner, and maybe we should just do it another time.

Instead of getting resentful and not-nice, I was SO VERY HAPPY that my first reaction was "oh, that's totally fine - things happen." I almost bowled myself over with my magnanimous reaction to a change in plans. If you don't know me, I have a very hard time adjusting to change when I have a picture of how I want things to go in my head.

Anyways, when he got home, because I had been awesome, he could vent his frustrations TO me, instead of me adding to them. I know this is such basic stuff, but I want to pat myself on the back for being a supportive almost-wife. He watched some American Idol with me, then played video games with Chris while I cooked. I was low-key, low-pressure when I interrupted and asked if he wanted to take a break to come eat with me - and he did! We ate the BOMB filet that I made with baked potatoes and broccoli while watching Legend of the Seeker on netflix. He went back to his games and I went to bed - very happy, very content, very pleased with the entire night.

I was talking to my aunt julie about being married the other night - and the concept of "winning" in a relationship - whenever Adam and I argue, or if he wants to change plans or something, my reaction is to try to *win* - for myself, singularly. That's awful! I am trying very hard to adapt my thinking to winning as a couple, as a relationship - and the outcome of the specific fight tends to be very, very different when I think of it that way.

Anyways, I'm feeling good. Went to weight watchers today, lost 2.4 pounds! Had a good lunch of leftovers, and tonight is an A2A event! I finished another pair of socks I'd been knitting, have tons of wedding stuff for tomorrow, and plans to look at bridesmaid dresses with my sisters on sunday!

templates for life

I have microsoft 2007 on my work computer now, and so I've spent the last few days playing with the new templates that are available...and I am thrilled. I have so many fun little organizational tools! One of the hardest things in the world for me to do, and one that makes my relationship with Adam better, is to keep things just - straightened. I have a habit of making messes, getting distracted, and leaving them for weeks.

I printed a great little checklist - daily stuff, weekly stuff, and monthly stuff. I put up a corkboard next to my computer at home and now keep track! It's fantastic. It helps me be more aware - and if all else fails, right before I go to sleep I do a sweep through of the house to make sure I haven't left yarn all over the place.

Also printed a grocery list organizer. Heehee. Not that I really need that, but I like using it!!!

Today I am starting training for a Sprint Triathlon. Not that I'll be doing one, but it's been a goal of mine, so I might as well start training now.

Also starting hard-core Juno training.

Allllsooo...cooking 1 weight watcher recipe, and 1 hungry girl recipe.

Will try to post photos of June Lake tomorrow. Now it's time to go!

sunday morning rain is falling

Today was a Good Day. I woke up early and took Juno to Adam's dad's house (he will now be referred to as "Louis" since that's his name, and now you know who I mean when I say "Louis") for a training session! She has some very worrying aggressive tendencies towards other dogs, and Louis is beyond words phenomenal with dogs. All animals, really, but his whole life has revolved around dogs - he's Captain of animal control or something or other for LA. Anyways, I got there around 7:30am, worked with him and Juno for about 1.5 hours, got home and had a good morning with Adam, ate a healthy breakfast, then went over to hang out with my mom, dad, and Rosie. Made a sandwich, showed off my new shawl... pleasant times.

Got home and reorganized my home-office area. Moved a few things around to take advantage of the wall space, hung a cork-board and stuck a few photo booth photos on it. I am now sitting in dappled sunlight listening to Lady Antebellum while Chris and David blow up bad guys on the computer behind me.

Still on my list of to-dos is to take Juno for a walk/run, feed the dogs, do a bunch of laundry, a load of dishes, and take photos of my finished projects for ravelry.

Good, pleasant day.

banking and knitting.

On hold with my bank - trying to get my darn 1099-INT form, which is going to have all of .75 worth of information on it, but I can't file my taxes until I get it....three weeks ago I called them, they said they'd send it to me ASAP, but didn't - now it's online, but the link is broken. Soooo here I am, listening to the golden-oldies on the phone.

I called the two separate pharmacies I go to to get my compounded medicine, picking that up today, so, yay.

Planning on going to the recycling plant today also.

Adam and I are planning a super-cheap trip up to June Lake (Mammoth) for next week! Our friends Marco and Kylie have the chance to use someone's cabin up there - they are going snowboarding, but I will not be, I will be knitting! Hiking! Hanging out where there are TREEEEEEEEEEEES. That is, if I can get Friday off. We'll drive up Thursday night, come home Saturday. Sunday is my mom's birthday. I am so very pleased that Adam came up with this scheme, and recognizes how much I need some time with him.

Last night we took the dogs for a walk, and after sat on the front step and smelled the sombol (hyacinth for you english speakers). This morning I went out to the back and picked a bunch of tangerines for lunch today. Last night I made asparagus with parmesan, olive oil, and lemon zest, chicken with onion and lemon juice (can you tell I have tons of lemons?), carrots with garlic and thyme, and a pot of lentils. It's pretty much the perfect meal. Protein, veggies, healthy oils, and it's really very beautiful - orange and green and yum.

I am two sections away from being done with the shawl I started yesterday. I'm using up a bunch of my Lion's Brand Homespun from my stash - now that I get this pattern (it's really simple and beautiful) I forsee many a shawl getting made with stash yarn. I also started making a crocheted "market bag" - but I ran out of the cotton yarn pretty fast. Luckily, I'm making it out of pretty cheap yarn so I can go get more of it without breaking my budget.

I finished both of Katy's cat hats!!! They are SO cute. I need to take some photos, and then ship them off to her! I love them. I love beanies. I never wear beanies, but I love the idea of them. I don't wear shawls either, for that matter, but I see those making a comeback - it gets so cold in my office, I will definitely bring one here to use.

when the saints go marching in

This weekend was a fantastic reminder of finding happiness in the small stuff. Sunday we held a superbowl party, so Saturday Adam, Chris and I spent about 10 hours cleaning our house - we got a carpet cleaner, we scrubbed the top of the fans, the bottom of cupboards - we did everrrything our little house has needed for quite some time. We even rearranged all of the furniture in the livingroom. It looks great. It was a good day - we paused briefly for subway sandwiches and for them to play a computer game while I arranged the books on the bookshelves by color, and then back to cleaning.

At about 8pm, Adam and I got dressed up, took the carpet cleaner back, and then went out for date night! We ate at Taco Surf on Main Street in Seal Beach - which is one of my favorite streets in the world. We stopped at coldstones AND at Sweet Jills (land of the best cinnamon rolls in the world) - to get something for later. We went next door to a bar with a free pool table, and played a couple of games while a Super Hero birthday party partied-hearty all around us. Lots of capes and glitter.

Yesterday was fantastic too - the guys woke up early to go play some football, so I got my beautiful clean house to myself while the birds -actually- chirped outside. I opened up all the windows and worked out to my p90x dvd, then cleaned the kitchen floor, took a fantastically hot shower, and then finished knitting sock 1 of my santa fe socks while watching southpark. Roxana and I went to Smart and Final where I overdid it on snack foods, and then it was party time! Marco, Kylie, Steve, Kristen, Jesse, Chris, David, Roxana, and later Jaime. I won the first quarter score, we ate a bunch, and it was - so relaxing, to be around these folks. We're all in each other's upcoming weddings, we've all gone camping together - the guys have known each other since they were 10 years old, some of them. It's a good, very solid, group.

After the game the boys started playing Madden on the PS3, and the girls went into my room to look at my wedding dress. We broke open some champagne and I got the best fix of girltalk I've had in a long time. I am so glad that my soon-to-be husband's best friend's soon-to-be-wives are so wonderful, and I like them so much.

I am looking forward to getting off work today - heading home, straightening up just a little bit, and then doing p90x yoga. I am on the "recovery" week - although 1.5 hours of yoga doesn't feel like recovery to me. ;)

royaboya.etsy.com

Spent some time today changing the banner for my etsy shop. Still not exactly what I wanted, but it took me forever to figure out how to get it sized correctly - now that I can do that, I can go in and play with it more in the future.

i have so many projects on the backburner...Finished 1 of 2 of Katy's hats yesterday, maybe I will start number 2 today. Have Julie's chairs which I was just kind of waiting til a lack of rain and dog hair made it easier to paint without it getting messed up - and I have a whole closet full of half-done projects. I have a lot of socks that just need the toes to be grafted. I should get on that.

Thinking about what else I can do to make my etsy site look more attractive, and attract more business. Any thoughts?

My biggest sellers in person are my little felted coin purses - maybe work on getting a bunch of those ready to sell sometime too would be good. The Good Vibrations conference wiped me out completely!

Sold a few jars of my marmalade today - almost made enough money to pay for the sugar and jars. ;) That's fun...

Leaving here soon, then home - Adam took the dogs to his dad's, so it'll be my chance to...what? need to do laundry, need to do dishes, need to make lunch for tomorrow, need to do p90x... Tomorrow we have date night. Yay. Necessary.

Feeling truncated. Bye.

it's the small stuff

great sticker from Kelly Lovejoy

*the purple eyeshadow and really pretty way I did the eyeliner
*the new shoes which have received 4 compliments from the 4 people I've talked to so far today
*adam's skin against the green blankets when I left this morning
*the hyacinth bulbs that are getting some color to them
*the soft fur on Juno's ears
*Chris cleaning the shower door
*Protein for breakfast
*The desk calendar that Tulip bought me for no specific reason


A snippet from said desk calendar:

"Knitting is really good for your mental health - despite the moments when you think that it's the opposite. It's a great way to practice being successful, tackle problems without fearing terrible consequences, and watch yourself getting things done. Seeing these things on a small scale, like with knitting, can help you see them in the rest of your life."

That's self-efficacy, baby.

Adam and I started talking guest list last night. Phew.

clusters of crocus...silver and gold...

Today I am feeling like I am wasting my time a little bit being here at work. There are so many other things I'd like to be doing -

I want to sit and watch my bulbs grow. Yes, I do. I want to sit in the front yard, on the cement that's always covered in dusty dogprints and watch the hyacinth and freesia grow. Every morning when I pull the stuck and stubborn front door open, and trip down the three steps in my high heels to get to the car, it's like a whole new thing. They are growing so fast. I want to watch them.

I want to clean the fridge and chop vegetables for soups and stews and crockpot concoctions.

I want to hang out with my dog, for hours and hours. I want to use that weird red rubber brush that gets all the top hairs, and brush her for an hour, so I can let her romp all over the house and climb up on the couch and watch American Idol with me while I knit socks and cat-hats. Juno grew up lately - her legs got longer, and she looks more dog like and not so puppy like. She's got the most energy I've ever seen in an animal. I've been working on the concept of fetch - rather than the concept of grab-and-destroy, which she is familiar with already - and each one of these stupid dark days I leave too early and get home and it's cold and dark and I want SUMMER and now I am just whining. Whoops.

Yesterday I got a pedicure with my future sister-in-law, hate the color, but it was really fun to sit there and relax and just talk and talk. To be honest, I was a little nervous to hang out with her without a buffer, afraid we'd run out of conversation, but I shouldn't have worried. She is nice, and I can be sometimes too.

She loaned me her snake-thing for clogged drains, and Chris spent a while last night fixing our shower. It was such a pleasure to take one this morning, all clean and nice, instead of gross. He also fixed the short in the bathroom light switch! Now we just have to re-hang the door on the hinges, and the bathroom will actually be functional again.

We're holding a superbowl party at our house on Sunday, so the three of us have a cleaning date for Saturday. I miss Adam like crazy. It'll be nice to do housestuff with him. I feel like I haven't seen him in a week.

I bought new shoes last night, and now I need an occasion to wear them to, and an outfit to wear them with. Silly shoes. I love them.

new template

You probably have noticed that the look of the blog has changed! I was bored with simplicity and wanted to jazz things up a little bit. I don't know how long it'll last, but for now, I love the details in all of the stitching. :) I also am proud of myself that I was able to go in and edit some of the html!!!

Today I work until 5, then head home and brush the puppy dog. She's shedding like crazy and the whole house just feels FULL of dog hair. The bathtub won't drain because of it. glug glug glug. So I need to brush her, a lot, vacuum, do my 16th straight day of P90X (WOOHOO!) and maybe even do some laundry and dishes. I am debating another batch of marmalade. I've done nothing but make that for the last 2 days and I might be burning out - but I still have SO MANY lemons, and it's really not thaaaat time consuming...

I have a few knitting projects I would like to get back to as well - I have the two kitty hats I am doing for Katy - one is done, just needs pompoms, and then I can start on the other. I also have yarn for my cousin's flower scarf, and I've got two separate pairs of socks half way done.

Today I had a meeting at work I was nervous about, and about 4 minutes before I was supposed to go into it, Adam called to apologize for being sort of grumpy last night, that he wished he hadn't said anything except how much he loves and appreciates me. I am feeling recharged to go and take care of errands and house stuff...all because one little sentence from him turns it into a chore I have to do, to something I want to do gladly in order to make our house and our life better. Silly how that little perspective change makes a huge difference.

Today is also the good-tv day - American Idol AND Top Loser. This is the first time I've watched either of those shows - but I have to say, there is something terribly fun about keeping up with a popular show.

I bought the new Weight Watcher slow cooker book - it looks amazing. I want to make all of the recipes. I wish it had more photos, and I wish I had more money for groceries!!! Man oh man do I like to cook.

SUSS

Nancy came in with her 8 month old niece today - the one that was almost born during the A2A Cinco de Mayo event. I want to hold a baby that looks like me the way Klohee looks at Nancy! I want to belong to the thing. :P

Yesterday I made rosemary steak with potatoes and green beans, mooshu pork, and a kale salad. I had a fantastic time buying produce at Sprouts, listening to Tom Russel on my ipod, standing in line looking at the photos of babies in knit hats on the cover of hippie-dippie mothering magazines.

Theme?

yes.

Went to an unschooling symposium over the weekend - really interesting now that I am engaged how much I felt like I was split between younger and older generations of unschoolers. There was a time where I physically didn't know where to go - play games with the "kids" in one room, or play games with the "parents" in another room. I did a little of both. Ended up in the parent's game room for most of the night because I was knitting and they were playing a sedentary word game, rather than a jump-around-and-switch spots game.

Adam has been fantastic the past few days. Know the secret to my happiness? Think frequently about how I can make him happy. Really pays off. Wish I'd thought of this before. :) He suggested that we go look at wedding bands on Saturday (the ring kind, not the music kind) - and we will paint the rest of the fence we built, and figure out what we need to start P90X so we can start on Monday! I love projects with him!

Living with a bunch of families for a weekend in Santa Fe and seeing the Dodd's house made me think about the kind of home I want.

I worked 2.25 extra hours tonight, because I am going to Stuart's mother's memorial service tomorrow. I am not going to talk much about that right now. It's happening tomorrow, near Griffith Park. I will pick up Salvador, and maybe Adam will be able to leave work for a little while. I invited KJ.

Tonight I am going to fold my last load of laundry, feed the dogs, make the bed, run at 9 with Rosie, work on my camp, do some bootcamp videos, do some dishes, and knit!

gratitude and my life

I love days when I feel recharged by work, as opposed to drained by it. I wasn't terribly thrilled to get up out of bed at 6:30am this morning - Adam's been having some deep-coughing issues for the last few days, and his coughing and wheezing woke me up on a pretty regular basis last night. I have a new phone, and the unfamiliar alarm sound was jarring. But I did it, I got up out of the house only 15 minutes after I'd intended - and still made it to work 15 minutes early. I had time to DO things before my morning meeting, and at the meeting I created an actually manageable to-do-list, rather than an overwhelming list of vague wants and desires.

The reason I am recharged is because of the Walk for Independence - this has been both the most frustrating project AND the most rewarding for me. We had some issues getting up off the ground - all stemming to my vision being distinctly different than the executive director's vision. I felt like I wasn't being trusted to run a good event - and she felt like I was letting what was important to HER slide through the cracks. But now that we've got some stuff decided, we have momentum, and we actually have people registering, both of us have relaxed and can just enjoy the show.

I am personally gratified that my pleas to my friends on facebook have come through in such an amazing way. I wanted to raise $260 - because I couldn't quite get all of the food donated, and I felt bad about that. $260 covered the cost - I asked them to donate even if they could only donate $1.00 - and some people did just that. I received several $1.00 bills in the mail - which actually DOES provide an entire lunch to someone, and is a very helpful contribution. On the other end of the spectrum, in the last hour, I received 2 $100.00 donations. I've received everything in between, and have basked in the funny little notes and well-wishes that have also been included.

We have 59 people registered now, with many more people saying that they are *going* to register, so I am feeling better about that too. I was afraid it would just be us at the park...but it looks like we will have some company. :)

Because of this walk, too, we even got an elevator donated to our building. We still have to raise $100,000 to install the thing, but the elevator could have cost us as much as $75,000 - and it was DONATED. All because of the walk.

I've been interviewed by newspapers, we're in the AAA magazine, we have an inter-departmental competition here, we made a fantastic video of our clients, we've harnesses the amazing support of PI staff, clients, board members, family, friends and strangers... I'm inspired. Really and truly inspired today.


In other news - yesterday was a good day too. I went to a Bridal Expo with my sisters and cousin...it was intense, and made me really glad that I am not planning a wedding like that. I am glad to have had the experience, though. We got bored wit it after a couple of hours, so headed to the MAC store at South Coast Plaza, where we did makeup trial runs for my wedding! My cousin in law has a discount there, so I got to purchase a bunch of stuff and not break my budget. She's going to be doing my makeup for the wedding, too, so I won't have to pay a makeup artist.

After that we stopped by my aunt's for a goodbye dinner for a friend of the family's - played Pop5, the BEST PARTY GAME EVER, and then I went home and did a 10 minute sparkpeople video for day 1 of my new bootcamp. I realized at the last minute that I needed to cook chicken, and all I can say is - God Bless the Crockpot. I threw in chicken with some broth, a few carrots, half an onion, a bunch of mushrooms, some garlic, and a cup of dried lentils..and this morning had stew ready to take for lunch. After I did that, I fed dogs, crocheted most of a hat, wrote in my journal, and fell asleep watching The Office once Adam came home.

Today at 4:50 I will put on my gym clothes and head to the Brookhurst gym, where I will do 20 minutes on the exercise bike, and 42 minutes of walk/jog combo (5 walk, 5 run, 2 walk, 5 run, 2 walk, 5 run, 2 walk, 5 run, 2 walk, 4 run, 5 walk). Then I'm going to go to Walmart to use my gift certificate to buy a stability ball, go home, do my 10 min. bootcamp video, take Juno for a walk, make lunches, spend 10 minutes working on my camp-to-be, write in my journal, pack for santa fe, and take my bag/spinning wheel/rosie's yarn over to my parents.

Tuesday, work and working out, Wednesday work, Thursday work til noon, then Santa Fe til sunday! When I get back I need to remember to call Adam's dad for some Juno training sessions.

I am very tired. I am looking forward to habit getting me to the gym, and the gym waking me up. I need to increase my liquid intake over the next few hours, and head for fruit if I get snacky. Luckily, I brought a bunch of oranges, grapes, and an apple with me.


my backyard lemon tree, the inspiration for my wedding!

stuff n stuff

toooday, had crazy dreams, woke up and went to the gym with adam. he went to work from there, I did 25 minutes of biking and 20 of elliptical and then walked home. made ww smoothie, did a little bit of laundry. swasthi came over and we went to return all of my xmas gifts - went to joanne's, ross, wallmart and the mall, where we succumbed to the sampling of wetzel's and split a cinnamon pretzel. Back home now, laundry in dryer, chicken in oven. Going to do dishes, make lunches for the next few days, and fold laundry, then get my stuff ready to go to R's (a supported living client) for my shift tonight. Stuff I need to get ready includes: phone charger, new Sparkpeople book (!!!), toothbrush, razor, clothes for work tomorrow.

Go straight from R's to work in the morning (my shift is tonight 10pm til tomorrow 8am). Maybe exchange costco gift on lunch break and buy dogfood. Work, go home, get sleep/work stuff ready, go to gym at 8pm, head to R's for 2nd shift at 9pm. Go to work in the morning from there.

Adam and Chris are going snowboarding over New Years, so today when I said goodbye to Adam at the gym is the last time I'll see him til the new year! Augh. Sad. I am feeling co-dependent. Trying to decide the best way to celebrate my solitary new years. Have Office marathon? Eat Thai food? Start a new quilting project and spread it out all over the living room?

There were 88gajillion people at the gym today. I wish they had preferred treadmill seating for those of us who are NOT on a new years resolution kick that will only last three weeks. harumph.

According to my self-weigh in today, I've lost my holiday weight. We shall see!

ooooooofta. Getting that awful shaking-sore-throat-red-eyed feeling of sickness coming 'round the corner. Drinking TONS of water, took vitamins, but - blech. Half the office went home early today with headaches. There are only 3 of us left here. Thinking that maybe I can call it an early day too.

I hate to break my exercise streak even though I feel so bad. Luckily today is my long bike ride day, so I can sit and pedal and read Emily of New Moon or listen to Harry Potter.

After work, then the gym, I am going home, making some sort of dinner (taco salad?) grabbing clothes, project, pillow, blanket, and heading to Frank's to stay with one of our clients for the night. My shift is from 10pm-8am. Tomorrow morning on my way home I will stop at the gym and do 16 minutes of running and 10 on the elliptical. Again, if I need to take it easy and walk for three minutes between every two minutes of running, I will.

Then there's the YA holiday party, and the Walton's holiday party - both of which I would love to go to, and both of which I am hoping I don't feel too awful for. I also haven't spent ANY time with my fiance this week, and as he has to work on Sunday.......it will greatly depend on him.

Today I went on a little rant at a coworker about how much I love my home. It's nice to feel peaceful. I haven't experienced much of that in my life. Peace. Calm. Contentedness.

random bits of catching up

It has been a little while since posting on here - I haven't exercised once. :P I am blaming the weather! It's SO cold, and SO rainy, and I just DO NOT want to leave my bed or my couch or my fantastic old worn out gray comforter that Adam had on his bed when we first met so it reminds me of him in the most comforting ways. I am going for comfort foods, and I am not cooking as much, and I am not doing as much laundry as I kind of need to keep up with my work days, and it's too cold to shave my legs because the bathroom door is kind of broken and doesn't close all the way and the guys leave the toilet seat up and it bothers me because of how much this cliche bothers me, and I have my wedding dress and one of my two veils in my closet, it's so long that it takes up most of my shoe space, so my shoes have invaded adam's portion of the closet, I vacuumed our living room 3 times in the last 4 days, and there is still dog hair, we bought our christmas tree today at Lowes, I bought clay on friday but haven't had time to play with it, I took over Adam's netflix with about 86 movie requests, I've been listening to an excessive amount of Leann Womack, I walk into things frequently due to the fact that I can't stop looking at my beautiful, beautiful, beautiful diamond ring.

On the wedding front, I've been making our website (almost ready for the public, but not quite), trying on my dress and showing it off to any relative who will let me, and been enjoying the hell out of talking to Adam about our wedding, our marriage, our finances, our house, our christmas ornaments, etc. (All the important stuff, you understand.) Now, maybe it will hit me soon - but so far, wedding planning has not been the horrible stressful thing people have led me to believe it would be. So far, it's been incredibly fun. I am going to have the ceremony in my parent's backyard, and the reception in mine - it's going to be incredibly SMALL, my flowers will be delphiniums, larkspurs, and other purple and yellow wildflowers, I have 5 bridesmaids, I already have my dress and all I need are shoes, Adam's got his groomsmen, I think I want them to wear dandelions, I will rent a dancefloor, serve champagne, get a few outdoor heaters, and some round tables. I know what the cake should look like, I want japanese paper lanterns, and.......yup. I know the feeling I want to evoke, I know my personal priorities and Adam's priorities. More and more this wedding is feeling like OURS, which is good - it's fun making these series of small decisions and see how they shape the overall atmosphere. I spend a few minutes a day doing wedding stuff, but mostly I am just waiting for the after Christmas sales so I can buy a zillion twinkle lights.

the fascinating saga of a sick-at-home person..

Have been going around this morning trying to clean up the little piles that collect when you are sick - the stacks of books and glasses by the bed, the little bits of trash from the immune-c packets, the knitting needles and skeins of yarn left by the couch where I abandon them after 2 minutes of interest... and in cleaning up this clutter I am realizing how dusty my house is. Doing every bit of laundry, including sheets, blankets and dishcloths, organizing dresser and computer desk, eating honey-nut cheerios with a chopped up fuji apple on top of it and way too much splenda, Bonnie Raitt playing on pandora. Above our windows we have the hardware already installed for curtains - maybe that would be a good project for today.

Adam works late tonight. We fell asleep reading Twilight aloud to each other last night. It's like reading the Boxcar Children all over again - very compelled by the story/characters, but DAMMIT I wish a better writer had thought of it. Maybe JK Rowling can do a re-write.

We had another installation in our series of Talking-About-Raising-Kids last night, only this one was a little grittier. This morning he said he'd had anxiety dreams about showing up at the Dodd house nekked. Let's interpret that one, shall we? I wonder why he is stressing this so much right now - I would like to have kids in the next 5 years, but it's another 5 years even after that before he needs to worry about school options, and by that time he'll KNOW his kid and it won't be an issue. I wonder why it's all coming up this week.

I had a moment of weakness that wasn't a big deal last night but I wasn't proud of, either. I am trying very hard to not do what we have coined "throwing attitude around" - in that it's a)an ugly face/expression, b)very self-defeating, c)makes me feel small-souled, d)adam hates it. It comes out in many situations, and after every single one if I stop and think, I can see how it would have been SO MUCH BETTER if I had just paused and-changed one little reaction. I've been doing better and better, and last night I woke up at a weird time and Adam was watching something on TV I didn't want to watch and I was just plain CRANKY and I picked on him for that reason - and I hate that as I am doing something, the smarter, calmer, not-cranky part of me is thinking "Roya, whatcha doing? You know that that is not the way to get what you want" but I ignore that part of me. Like I said - not the end of the world, just frustrating for me on my path to perfection (harharhar) when I CHOOSE the meaner option.

Anyways - I have one more load of dishes, a couple loads of laundry, and some dusting to do. Then fabric hunt, curtains, photos at karate, and making lunches for tomorrow. All to the tune of old recorded Gilmore Girls, I'm sure.

I like my life

Today I registered for the Sparkpeople Convention happening on May 2nd, in San Diego. It's a very full day which starts out with a "fun run" at 7am, and then speakers, panels, prizes, stretching routines, etc. etc. The website Sparkpeople is SO innovative and amazing, that my expectations are already pretty high for their convention. I am really, really, really excited (I am also really excited about the STUFF you get for registering..t-shirt, totebag, fitness dvds...) I can't wait til May. :)

I am incredibly good at my job, and every time I have a mandatory meeting for one of my overnight trips it comes back to me just how satisfying it really is doing something that I enjoy this much and that I am this proficient at. Event planning, especially when you are talking about taking groups of 40+ adults with developmental disabilities, is not for everyone. I am uniquely suited to it, I think, and I LOVE it. LOVE IT LOVE IT. So last night was our meeting for the Hollywood trip in two weeks, and I am finally excited for it. We'll be going to Griffith Observatory, staying at the Ramada in West Hollywood, seeing a movie at Grauman's Chinese Theater, and then spending the 2nd day on a Movie Stars tour and going to Universal Studios. It's going to be totally cheesy and wonderful. :)

I baked my 2nd loaf of bread in the bread machine yesterday - smells wonderful, tastes good, but is a funny looking loaf. They've both been really SHORT. I don't know if that's how they are supposed to be or if I am doing something wrong.

I want to finish my Moose at Sunset cross stitch - I am so freaking close to being done. When I finish, it will be the first humongous cross stitch project that I ever actually saw to completion. I have a smaller geisha girl who is beautiful, and to most people she looks done, but I never technically finished some of the top embroidery and cross hatching. The Moose at Sunset don't need added embellishment. ;)

After Moose, I think I'll start on the Bear Catching the Salmon, to keep going with the Alaskan theme. I did send away for the missing instructions for my Yoruban Women, so I could finish that too..but I'm just not feeling it right now.

At some point I'd like to get out those granny square bags I was making and SELL some. Now that the weather is improving, I really, really, really want to get a booth at the craft fair in LB and sell all my stuff. I have made a necessary promise to myself that I just can't buy more material or even make many more things without first selling what I have. My art room is full to overflowing. It's time to get the items moving.

I think I might sell some of them at the Spring Fling Festival I am holding for Project Independence. I'll donate a percentage of what I make to PI, that way everyone wins.

Okay. It's nearly 5. I can leave now. To the dry cleaners, then HOME, for hopefully a LOT of sleep tonight. SO TIRED! Also, very into capital letters today, apparently.

furniture and friends

Heidi's blog makes me want to knit. I also want to take a cold, cold, looonnng shower. It is incredibly hot and dry here today - my hands feel like caked dirt and my lips feel like dust and my nose hurts when I inhale and all I want to do is pour cold water in my dry dry eyes. I had to wear sunglasses to work at my computer this afternoon - the glare from the sun through the window in this corner makes it so I can't see the monitor.

I didn't get much sleep last night on account of the fact that I didn't get home til midnight-ish, and then the puppy dog went nutso around 4. I stayed up with her til Adam went to work so I could leave her in her crate and hear her yowls and it wouldn't keep him up. So I didn't sleep well....

The reason I didn't get home til midnightish was because... let's see. I got home from work around 6, started the bread machine (sourdough bread), did some cleaning, playing with the dogs, and then met up with Chrispy and Swasthi (and their friend Larry) at my aunt's house, where we valiantly strove to put a humongous entertainment center in the truck Adam had borrowed from his dad.

This is the same truck we drove to and from Alaska in. I sit behind the wheel and WHAM there are memories of driving down the highway on the way to Wasilla to go grocery shopping, a fierce and strange angry and free feeling from escaping into Alaska on my own for a little while, the huge steering wheel, the all-or-nothing gas pedal, learning how to jump quickly up the tire into the bed. Made me think of driving to Talkeetna, the rain, the sun, the fireweed. Made me think about how in Alaska, you don't drive for comfort or looks, you drive whatever is there, however rusty it is, to get from A to B and you learn how to use the tools you have, and how to fix them when they break, and you never call anyone else to fix something for you. There are no plumbers or electricians or mechanics - you learn.

I was angry a lot of the time I was in Alaska, and for the last few weeks I have been able to think and dream and pine for nothing else. I miss it terribly. I'd like to go back and do it again. I'd like to go knowing what I now know. I wouldn't be so scared of hiking alone, I'd send more long emails about my experiences, I'd bring more books, and I would get OUT when I felt cooped up by Devil's Club and wildlife. I would take the canoe or the truck and go on my own much, much more.

So I miss it. And I keep remembering how much.

We got the entertainment center in the truck with the help from Julie's across-the-street neighbor who loaned us all his bungie cords. It was the first taste of the great example of community I experienced last night. Chrispy drove his car behind mine with his e-lights flashing while I drove the truck at 25 miles per hour from Cypress to HB. It took us nearly an hour to get there. When we pulled into the driveway, they got out to help, Adam was home, Chris and David came out from the middle house and Aaron joined us from the front house. All 8 of us got the entertainment center inside - I loved that these new friends of mine were so willing to help me and go so far out of their way for it, and I loved that those neighbors of mine came out to help just because that's what good friends do. I love that it's a piece of furniture that my uncle refinished and instead of getting thrown out, it goes to me. I love that Adam doesn't really want any new furniture, but he is okay with it because of the fact that it will make me happy.

After getting it into the house, the original four of us went to Norm's for dinner...which had been the plan all along since about 6pm.

It is so nice now to get home and fall asleep in a bedroom with curtains and a bedspread with leaves and branches all over. It feels like a real living space. Adam didn't have much homework either, so we fell asleep watching Eastbound and Down... I am not so into it, but it's okay to fall asleep to.

Tonight's staff meeting just got cancelled, so I am going home to move furniture around! I would like to have a How I Met Your Mother Marathon Weekend Sat/Sun..and I am planning on seeing Ave. Q twice when it comes to OCPAC. YAY.

it's been a while

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted on here for a very, very long while it seems. I have just been ridiculously busy. Work just kind of..exploded lately - it's all really great stuff, (I LOVE MY JOB), and I feel really good about all of it, but I am working without stop all day, every day. The events I am/was in charge of last month/this month/next month and some of my other projects:

1. Valentines day karaoke dance
2. Steering Committee Meeting
3. Publishing a 1500 circulation newsletter
4. Acapulco Fundraiser
5. Organizing a class of volunteers from CSULB
6. 5 Interns
7. Kickball and Carnival with Whittier College
8. St Patrick's day dance with CSULB volunteer group
9. Edison Dance
10. Meeting for staff going on Hollywood trip
11. Meeting for clients going on Hollywood trip
12. Hollywood trip
13. Souplantation Fundraiser
14. Spring Fling Festival
15. Grease
16. Self Defense Workshop
17. Cinco de Mayo Fiesta
18. Transition Nights
19. Medieval times
20. Steering Committee Meeting
21. Another newsletter
22. Updating website
23. Walk for Independence
24. Supervisory Meetings
25. Nature Walk
26. Bowling Blast
27. Color Me Mine and breakfast
28. Race track and dinner
29. Vegas meeting for staff
30. Vegas meeting for clients
31. Vegas trip
32. Figuring out new transportation policies since we will no longer have vans
33. Disney Cruise to the Bahamas
34. Prom on the tiki boat
35. Choosing volunteers
36. Redoing the A2A Coordinator notebook
37. Redefining the volunteer/intern program
38. Credit card blah blah blah for work
39. Taking on a new training program
40. The service records, progress notes and spreadsheets that accompany EVERY SINGLE EVENT
41. Writing a healthy living grant
42. Developing a healthy living program
43. Safety Committee meetings
44. In charge of to go kit shopping/planning/reinforcing
45. Making emergency plan for all programs


Not at work:
1. Adam at academy. I still do dry cleaning, laundry, lunches, and other random picking-up-of-supplies, plus help with flashcards, etc.
2. Fish, and the fact that the fish had 150 babies
3. Rommel - regular feeding, playing, etc.
4. Backyard - trying to get it ready for...
5. NEW PUPPY, this wednesday!!!!
6. New bed, trying to sell the old one
7. Karate
8. Sparkpeople
9. Exercise every day
10. Moose at Sunset cross stitch (ALMOST DONE!)
11. Art Supply Room - puppy proofing
12. Garden - collecting seeds of winter veggies, planting new ones
13. Adam's graduation - June
14. Marina's wedding


So anyways, that's an incomplete list of my life right now. And me being me, and the job being the job, that list of work stuff does NOT keep itself within the M-F 8-5 time slot. ohhh no.

in any case, life is pretty grand my little duckies..and one day soon I will be back. one day. one..day...