Musings

It is so hot here. In the upper 90′s and without A/C, I’m pretty useless. I spose I’m a bit of a pansy. So in no particular order, here’s my weekend wrap-up. Photos would have been nice, but you know I didn’t manage to take any. You can improvise with some visualization.

1. I found a great way to eat spinach. I put frozen strawberries, frozen mangoes, spinach, some whey protein, plain yogurt and some water in a blender. I mixed it all together and it tasted like berry smoothie. No spinach taste, but all the nutrients! Awesome.

2. Hee Haw Hayride was the musical put on by the 7th/8th graders at our school. It was super-cute. They even made fun of all the staff with bogus newspaper headlines. Eric’s was, “Pastor Eric Caught Buying New Clothes without Holes!” He does wear a lot of distressed tee shirts and holey jeans. Too funny.

3. I attempted one prototype of my shirt for ordination weekend. It wasn’t quite what I wanted, but helped in the process. The scalloped ruffles are way too cute. I’m in love. I’m going to work on grading my basic bodice sloper and see where that’ll lead me. That’s on tap for tomorrow, depending on the heat situation (it is only supposed to be in the 70s). I may just melt into a puddle instead.

4. I’ve continued reading some library books. I’m nearing the end of Girl Meets God. I didn’t expect much, but I’ve been blown away. The author has one Jewish and one Christian parent. She chose to become an Orthodox Jew, then shortly after that became a Christian. On top of that she is an academic who majored in religion. I love her historical insights, her ability to explain complex theological situations simply, and her authenticity at how hard certain aspects of Christianity are difficult for her-evangelism, sexual sins. In a way it reminded me a bit of More, Now Again, which I read my junior year of college. Though I found Elizabeth Wurtzel’s book to be a bit whiny and haven’t experienced that at all with Girl Meets God.

5. I’ve been weightlifting 2 or 3 times for the last 3 or 4 weeks. I’m in love. I have muscles popping  up everywhere. Watch out Michelle Obama! I’m hoping to start adding more cardio to the mix. Still debating about Team in Training. Though, one our good friends is likely to sign up too, so I’m sure I won’t be able to stay away.

6. Random Team in Training info. Eric and I’ve raised over $15,000 fund raising for 4 different TNT events. The entire organization celebrated their 2oth anniversary in 2008. In 2010 they expect to reach $1 billion in total amount raised! Ryan O’Neal also has CML and takes Gleevec.

7. I was finally a match for a taste test. I’ll be testing ice cream/popsicles on Wednesday and get paid. I’m very excited.

Peace!

I received a letter from a friend living in Paris today. We both went to Paris as part of Baylor in Paris in the summer of 2002. We stayed with the same host family. We had a blast. We learned a lot about French history, the language, and even more about ourselves. We laughed until our stomachs’ hurt the day I lamented at dinner with our host family, “I can’t cut the cheese.” It was the second to last course of our meal and I quite literally was having a tough time cutting off my portion of cheese for the evening. It was too difficult to try to translate the euphemism. I was grateful to have a friend who understood the humor in my slip that evening, as well as the frustration of navigating a foreign land and language with me.

I was lucky enough to return to Paris for the summer in 2003. She is just now returning for a stay longer than a vacation.

She closed her note saying that her glass of red wine had been finished and so she too must sign off. I immediately poured a tiny glass of wine to write her back. It was only 1:45 in the afternoon, and I come from a “you shouldn’t drink before 5 pm” family, so it was a bit odd. Not so odd I didn’t drink it, just odd.

Paris holds a special place in my heart because I’ve done a lot of growing there. It was my first opportunity to really figure life out on my own. It was simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating. It held unmet expectations. Like I always thought I’d enjoy it with my dad, walking down the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe. This has yet to happen and I don’t expect it to anymore, but not out of disappointment. I’m amused because I realized recently that I thought I was done growing when I left Paris at the end of July 2003.

Do you have a “Paris?” If so please share.

Peace!

I’ve been debating a blog shut-down/re-do for a long while. Not that there is anything I would change or regret posting, I just feel like I’m heading in a different direction that when I first started blogging about a year and a half ago–or almost six years ago if you are considering my live journal blog! And believe me, I love fresh starts. The possibilities that arise out of January 1st, or the first day of school, are just as exciting as starting out a new week–as long as there aren’t too many obligations on the calendar–like this week. Can you relate? What do you suggest?

Hmm..

Enjoy Holy Week.

Peace!

I’m not sure if you’ve figured this out yet, but I love me some Texas, y’all. Still, I’m not sure I’d do this to my car.

But for good measure, I parked next to them when I ran some errands downtown. I think it is because I love me some St. Louis, and am starting to love me some California too. And I don’t really want to put all three on my car.

One of my stops was the library. I haven’t checked out books since January, is that possible? I asked a librarian for help requesting a book from another library. If you ask for help, they waive the 75 cent fee! But somehow in the process my account was locked. So after chatting a bit with another librarian it was determined I’d return later after the person who could unlock accounts had a chance to do that. What an adventure.

On my list of things to check out:

Boss of You
Long Tail
Travels of a T Shirt in the Global Economy
Super Natural Cooking
The Sound of Paper

Anywho, still working on those baby gifts. I have way more finished than I thought I would. I want to make sure the images are super duper cute, so I’m stalling to work on the photography.

Peace!

Clearly, my rhyming skills need some help. I am notorious for terrible pun-induced rhymes. Fortunately for y’all only Eric is subjected to them. Let’s just say if one day my musical is preformed on Broadway, I’d die a very happy lady.

I’ve been reading oodles of year end report blogs, and felt the need to fit in. So here’s my wrap-up.

I didn’t really have any stated goals for 2008 so I must have succeeded somehow. I did, however, start this blog in late ’07 hoping to get some more sewing done.

I’ve sewn

• self-designed purple skirt-January
• Blogway bag-January/February
• Alabama Chanin corseted top-March/April
• top for my pregnant friend-July
• Alabama Chanin tee for Eric-August/September
• Self-draft top, and pattern skirt-September/October
• self-draft skirt block-November
• baby kimono-November
• pj pants (2 pairs)-November/December
• kleenex holder/coin purse-December

So I did do some sewing, but not much. But I’ve also had a lot of change to deal with–and let’s face it. I should be an expert with change, but I’m not.

Other Notable Accomplishments in 2008

• I completed two triathlons!
• I went on my first business trip solo
• I wrote two articles for Fashion Incubator
• I won the Alabama Chanin scholarship–and you should go to a workshop even if you have to pay!
• I won first in a Quilting Arts challenge at the Long Beach Quilt Show.

So now as I look forward to 2009 here’s some of my goals. They are still a bit rough around the edges.

• Random goals
  • take an improv comedy class
  • clean out all of my undergarments that I’ll never wear/don’t fit and splurge on some really nice ones
• Nurture my creativity–I have a few ideas about this and hope to share them in the upcoming months.
• Eat like the French. We spend so much more time cooking dinner, than eating. We eat meals in front of the TV. So sitting at the table, and having a cheese plate at the end of the meal is something Eric and I are planning on doing more regularly-at least once a week. (We’d try it more, but he has a lot of evening obligations)
• I want to go on a vacation–that is more than 2 nights and doesn’t involve going to see family. We love our families–it is just we’ve never taken a “grown up” vacation.
• Journaling daily.
• Completing another TNT event. Hoping to do Tahoe Century Ride–but the bike still scares me A LOT. And Eric’s stories about the hills make me sick to my stomach. I also want to do the Nike Women’s event again. It is A-MAZING!

I hope 2009 brings you lots of joy!

Peace,

Katy ^_^