A day made of win!

Break out the bubbly and grab your pencils! I am crossing number 4 off my big to-do list. I was offered a job this morning after completing a successful second interview. Actually, I was kind of offered 2 jobs, but let me back up.

I had originally applied for an entry-level position (Job A) and was in the middle of interviewing for it when the interviewer noted that, with my skill set, I was probably a better fit for another job (Job B). So, she set up an interview with the supervisor of Job B and it went swimmingly. At the end of the interview I asked about the timetable for filling the position and Mr. Supervisor said he was going on vacation and would not be back till the end of the month, so the earliest anyone could start Job B would be July 1st. Okay, fine.

This morning, I got a call from Mr. Supervisor offering me the position! Yay! Much dancing ensued. He went on to mention that due to the recent hospitalization of a co-worker, they were in desperate need of help in the claims department and would I be interested in starting in claims (Job C) and giving them a hand while Mr. Supervisor is on vacation? It would give me an opportunity to learn the company, while helping out the claims department. Being the helpful person I am, I agreed. Mr. Supervisor also mentioned that if, in the few weeks I was helping out claims, I decided I loved it there, I was more than welcome to take that position instead. So, I start Job C on Monday with the option of staying in claims or choosing to switch to Job B after the return of Mr. Supervisor. Huzzah!!!

Antici...............pation

I was drafting my follow-up email when it happened. I got the email I've been waiting for! I have a second interview on Tuesday afternoon. I was given the choice of Monday morning or Tuesday afternoon and while the impulsive part of me wanted to jump at taking the first opportunity available, the smart part of me stopped myself to think for a minute. The smart part pointed out that I have no idea what traffic is like on Monday mornings and since I live in an area where a lot of people commute to New York City, the last thing I wanted to do was have to camp out in their parking lot leave the house at 5 a.m. for a 9 o'clock appointment. So, I opted for Tuesday afternoon, but I'll be leaving around noon for my 2 o'clock meeting, just in case.

Waiting with bated breath

There is a chance I may soon be gainfully employed.

Monday, I saw an advertisement searching for a "technical assistant." Looking at the job duties and requirements, I felt that I was well-qualified for the position, so I submitted my resume for consideration. The next morning (Tuesday), about half an hour after the office opened, I received an email in reply stating that the job was 45 minutes away but if I was still interested, they would like to schedule an interview. A 45 minute drive is a cake walk for me, so I emailed back and asked if the following day (Wednesday) was too soon. An email in response informed me that the following afternoon was convenient for the interviewer if it was convenient for me, so we set the meeting time at 2 p.m.

I rushed around like a crazy person looking for my suit and other interview paraphernalia and mapped my route through Google maps. It would take 45 minutes in good traffic and I knew there was construction, so I planned to leave at 12:30, an hour and a half before my appointment. It turned out to be a very fortunate foresight.

Within a half mile of my merge onto the first of 3 main highways, I was in at a dead stop behind a long line of traffic. I attribute the slowdown to two things: first, heading in the opposite direction, there was an oversized load that was stopped underneath an overpass and as it was straddling both lanes, no traffic could pass. I believe this distraction caused drivers on my side of the highway to slow down and rubber-neck. Further impeding my progress was the sudden decision on the part of the state's department of transportation to close one lane in my direction of travel, thus squeezing the already sluggish traffic into a construction-induced bottle-neck. It took me thirty minutes to move the three miles to my exit. At this point, I was understandably panicked. For while I had allowed myself twice as much time as I thought necessary, my expected delay still lay ahead.

However, once I exited the first main highway, the sailing was smooth and even in the corridor where I had anticipated a hindrance, there was no hint of any trouble. I arrived a full 20 minutes early and at the behest of the receptionist, I sat down to fill out the required application.

Once that was concluded, I was received by the interviewer. To make a long story short, (too late) I feel the interview went very well. About halfway through I was surprised and delighted when my interviewer mentioned that the more she spoke with me, the more she was convinced that I would actually be a good candidate for another job that was so new that it hadn't even been posted yet. She deduced that, with my degree in English, I was very detail-oriented and probably very concise. I confirmed that I am. She stated that there was a manager who was looking for an assistant who could work independently, as he was frequently out of the office, and who was very accurate, as some of the things this assistant would be preparing would not be viewed by him until he was in front of a client. I told her I was very interested and she printed out a copy of the job description for me. Upon reading the description, I became very certain that I want this job.

She concluded the interview by saying that she would be in touch in the next week, probably not until Tuesday, at the earliest, due to the holiday weekend, but that she wanted to set up an appointment for me to meet the manager who needs an accurate, self-starting assistant. She would keep me in mind for the other position, but that with my skill set, she felt I would be a great fit for the manager's assistant.

So now I wait, with fingers crossed, for an email or a call and another interview with a man who will hopefully become my next supervisor.

Such fun

To add to the confusion inherent in living out of hastily-labeled boxes, I found this on the door yesterday:

Well, we're all moved in and I know exactly where everything is

--in a box in the basement. This house is quite a bit...cozier than the last house, so space is at a premium. I'm currently trying to only keep the essentials in the main part of the house and repackage the non-essentials for long term storage in the basement. I'm taking great care to label the repackaged items so as not to end up spending hours looking for something a few months down the road.

Hopefully this will be the last move for a while.

Today's grin brought to you by...

A friend shared this on Facebook. It is absolutely hilarious and gave me a much needed break from packing:

The Alot is Better Than You at Everything

Thank you, Kat, for sharing!

101 in 1001...actually more like 97 in 1001

So looking over my 101 in 1001, I realized that I'd somehow managed to list "Learn to spin my own yarn" twice, within a few lines of each other. (so I changed one of them to TBA) I also realized that goal #9 ("Update this blog once a week for the duration of the project") just isn't happening. I'm not sure if that's because of a lack of documentable progress or just a bit of laziness on my part.

In any case, I am changing the font on my original list to italics if the goal is in progress, strike-through if the goal is complete and updating the number in brackets [2/10] if the goal is quantifiable.

A little update on my goals:

3. Reduce the unnecessary use of "like" and "you know"
I am actually having quite a bit of success with this one. I've been paying attention more to how I speak and I find that most times the easiest way to reduce the unnecessary use of the word "like" is to just say "said." [i.e., instead of saying "He was all like 'I'm not doing that.'" I choose to say "He said 'I'm not doing that.'" Easy-peasy!]

4. Get a job
This is proving to be a more difficult task. Most of the jobs that I've been finding are about a one hour+ commute and that's before factoring in traffic and the recent arrival of the construction season. Don't even get me started about the drive in winter.

12. Go through all my clothes—get rid of stuff that no longer fits/is no longer my style
I've been making slow, but steady, progress in sorting through my clothing. There were a few things that I tried to convince myself that I would wear, even though I have neither worn nor even missed wearing them in the past year or so. When the logical part of me asked the hoarding part of me why I should keep the clothing, why, if I liked it so much, wasn't I wearing it the hoarding part stood silent and pouted. Into the Goodwill box it went.

30. Catalog all my yarn
With the help of Ravelry, which is kinda like Facebook for knitters and crocheters, I've been slowly creating a log of all my stash yarns. In the interest of reducing the number of boxes to move, I once again sorted through my yarn. I have purged yarn prior to each of the last few moves and this time was no exception. The next step will be to being photographing and logging it all . . . but that won't start till after we move.

34. Run a 5k
I've been training for this for a while now and as of three weeks ago, I could jog three miles together. However, I've been slacking off recently. [excuses] I've been running on the college's track, but recently the spring sports have begun to practice and phys ed classes have moved out of doors and since they get priority use of the track, I've been stymied in my efforts. I've tried running around town, but the hills and the concrete have been doing a number on my knees. I've also been bored with running. Actually maybe it's more accurate to say I'm discouraged. I had been running 3 miles every other day for about a month and not getting any faster at it. I would have thought I would make some sort of progress speed-wise in that amount of time. [/excuses] Of course, now that I haven't been working at it for the past few weeks, I'm not even sure I can jog the three miles together anymore.

40. Establish and maintain a useful daily routine
This is coming along and due to my diligence in removing my make-up each night, I am happy to report that for the first time in almost 10 years, my face is free of major blemishes! (at least for the moment)

42. Take a vitamin/vitamin pack once a day
This one has been pretty easy and with the exception of a few missed days here and there, I've been successful.

43. Exercise at least 3 times per week
This was going so well until about three weeks ago. See above for excuses.

45. Learn to kayak
About a week ago, My Beloved took me out in to a near-by lake for some paddling. I had some issues getting into the boat, but once I was in, the rest was fairly easy. Next step: combine kayaking with fishing.

73. Learn to spin my own yarn
A few weeks ago, My Beloved and I went to visit a couple of friends. One of said friends had located a place for us to learn to spin that weekend and booked us a lesson. Here are the results:

74. Bake at least once a month
This one has been way easy since I bake scones every couple of weeks for breakfast. (The scones are so easy though that it almost feels like cheating to count them as my baking for the month!) I have also been making butter ring (aka, coffee cake) and cookies.

Freshly-glazed butter ring

Cranberry orange scones

80. Learn to make bobbin lace
Since Lace Day, I've been invited to attend a local lace group that has been meeting on Mondays. (actually, "local" is kind of a misnomer; the group meets an hour away in New Jersey). Pat, our fearless leader, has supplied me with several new patterns over the past couple of months, always managing to start me on a new pattern just when I had gotten the hang of the old one. :) Here are some of the projects I've been working on:

Lace edgings:

A handkerchief edging:



And here are some projects I hope to tackle soon:
(I'm told I possess the skills to complete them without much trouble, but I am a tad skeptical.)




84. Crochet my sisters surprise floor coverings
I'm not going to say too much about this, as my sister(s) may be reading this, but here is one of the projects in progress:


91. Learn how to tie 10 new knots [1/10]
In learning to make bobbin lace, I learned to tie a new knot: the weaver's knot. It is indispensable when/if a thread breaks.

Looking at things from this perspective, I feel I'm making some real progress towards my goals.
Huzzah!

On the Move Part 5*

Yes, we're moving again! But a little back story:

When we originally moved in, our landlord informed us that his intention for the property was to eventually tear down the house and build a commercial building, but as he had no takers on the prospect, he would rent us the house. So, we settled in, thinking we'd have maybe a year or so before we'd have to think about moving again.

However, in February, workers began showing up with earth-moving equipment, digging up the yard to assess soil conditions. A week or so later, surveyors came and we knew our happy little home would not be long ours. An email from our landlord confirmed that we had till the end of April to move out.

So began the search for new digs, but most places in the area were either too expensive, too small or didn't allow pets (which posed a problem for our cat). We were beginning to panic when a knitting friend of mine reminded me about a house she had told me about the month before. She had recently spoken to the owners and found that the place was still available. My Beloved called and made arrangements to go see the place.

It's a cute 3 bedroom ranch in Delaware Water Gap, PA, with a living room, a kitchen with adjacent dining area, a cellar built into the bedrock and about an acre of property.

Let the packing commence...sigh

*[Shamelessly backdated]

Lace Day 2010

A knitting friend of mine, who is also a bobbin lacemaker, told me about The Lost Art Lacers Annual Lace Day, which is actually a 2 day event: Saturday is mainly a shopping day, with a few vendors, a raffle and some demonstrations. Sunday is the class day and this year they were offering 4 classes: bobbin lace making, tatting, knitting and Tønder (which is a variety of bobbin lace making). I signed up for the bobbin lace making class, as it is something I have wanted to learn for a while now.

I was overwhelmed by the variety of bobbins and threads available. I'm familiar with tatting thread and I generally use the type (cotton) and size (80) that I can get in the local craft store. The vendors provided a peek into a world I didn't know existed: threads of linen, silk, wire and cotton in a variety of gauges; books in French, German, Italian and a few languages I did not recognize; lace making pillows in delicious fabrics; tools ranging from the practical to the sublime (some of which reminded me of some fly tying tools I own) and even some lace making jewelry (miniature bobbin earrings and small pendants that resemble small picture frames in which one may insert a tiny motif).

The displays were absolutely stunning:









Here's an unfortunately blurry close-up of the corner:







Here's the basic set up for bobbin lace making, albeit with a complicated lace pattern:



In comparison, here's the set-up I was working on the following day:



And here's the finished product:



After we had been working on that pattern for a while, we broke for lunch and started a small sampler:



After the sampler, our teacher asked us to return to our initial project...which I stared at blankly for a few minutes until she came over and got me restarted. Happily, the following day, I was able to more or less pick up where I left off...with the help of one of the many handouts she provided.

I'm not entirely sure how I will use my newly acquired skill, but I did see a book that inspired me to consider using bobbin lace in jewelry:



...and possibly learning to do bobbin lace in wire...but those are challenges for another day.

P.S. I nearly forgot! I briefly mentioned a raffle on Saturday. The raffle had a variety of finished lace products, lace making supplies and books. My knitting/lace-making friend pointed out a good reference book on bobbin lace making and said if I wanted to risk a dollar, that was a good book to chance it on. I dug through my change purse and pulled out two quarters and five dimes and purchased one ticket. I filled out the back with my contact information, mentally kissed it for luck and dropped it in the drawing bag.

On the way back to New Jersey Sunday for our lace classes, we asked one another if anyone had won a prize. The three of us denied having been contacted about any raffle prizes, so we all presumed losses.

Shortly after our arrival, but before classes began, I wandered over to the raffle table, where several unclaimed prizes lay. The book I had taken a chance on was there and a bit of the ticket was peeking out of the cover. I looked a little closer and saw that it looked a bit like my handwriting...so I peeked. I had won! Not wanting to snatch the book from the table, I moseyed over to my knitting/lace-making friend and said "I think I won that book from yesterday's raffle." She accompanied me back to the table and looked at the ticket. It was mine! Triumph!

We got the beet...er, um, beat

Not too long ago, I ran across this juicer.* I have occasionally contemplated buying one to enjoy some freshly expressed juice. This one, although reasonably priced, did not inspire my confidence. However, those with two left feet may wish to take a closer look at this model.


Let's see:

It makes Pineapple Juice, very refreshing

Orange Juice, a very good source of vitamin C

Carrot Juice, excellent for vitamin A

and Beat Juice, for those lacking rhythm.




*Name has been blurred to protect the idiots

In preparation

In preparation for #45 on my list [Learn to kayak], I present a fairly new acquisition, of sorts:


She's a Hurricane Phoenix 130 and she's on extended loan from a friend. It was remarkably warm here today, so we hauled the 'yaks out for a rinse and rub-down. [My Beloved currently owns a Hobie Quest and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new Kaskazi Dorado II] Now all I need is a paddle, a seat, a PFD and consistently warmer weather.

Also due to the beautiful weather today, I went for a run, thus fulfilling my obligations to #43 on the list [Exercise at least 3 times per week]. I was ecstatic to find that I could pick up my Couch-to-5k right where I left off in September. Since tomorrow doesn't look as pretty, weather-wise, I may have to substitute an outside workout with some indoor aerobics courtesy of My Fitness Coach on the Wii.

101 in 1001

Okay, so I technically don't have 101 things, but I figure it's better to post what I have than to wait for my list to be complete. Besides, I've been sitting on this since October. These are things I would like to do over the next 1,001 days. My start date is today January 17, 2010, so my finish date will be October 14, 2012.

1. Plant a garden
2. Get a new tattoo
3. Reduce the unnecessary use of "like" and "you know"
4. Get a job
5. Donate blood
6. See 10 French films
7. See every movie that won the Academy Award for Best Picture
8. Collect license plates every summer [Memorial Day through Labor Day]
9. Update this blog once a week for the duration of the project
10. Keep checkbook balanced
11. Stick to a budget
12. Go through all my clothes—get rid of stuff that no longer fits/is no longer my style
13. Organize all my paperwork
14. Officially become a resident of PA
15. Get my passport
16. Find 10 letterboxes (0/10)
17. Send 10 postcards via Postcrossing (0/10)
18. Find 10 caches (0/10)
19. Send a card to PostSecret
20. Send out Christmas cards each year
21. Send all close friends and relatives cards on their birthdays
22. Join a local church
23. Sew at least ten pieces of clothing. (0/10)
24. Compile a “cook book” of my mom and grandmas’ recipes
25. Make jam
26. Make pickles
27. Make handmade gifts for my family for their birthdays one year
28. Crochet a blanket for our living room
29. Make wine [for real this time]
30. Catalog all my yarn
31. Make a blanket for Project Linus
32. Sew a tote bag
33. Increase my flexibility enough to touch my toes
34. Run a 5k
35. Take horseback riding lessons
36. Hike part of the Appalachian Trail
37. Get properly fitted for running shoes
38. Learn to swim in open water
39. Complete a sprint triathlon
40. Establish and maintain a useful daily routine
41. Participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure
42. Take a vitamin/vitamin pack once a day
43. Exercise at least 3 times per week
44. Participate in The Great Island Adventure Triathlon
45. Learn to kayak
46. Read a book every month ( /34)
47. Proactively seek out 10 museum exhibits I'm interested in, and see them.
48. Learn to play the cello
49. Learn to play the piano
50. Relearn to play the flute
51. Get my masters degree in Education
52. Complete the French textbook I have
53. Read 5 French novels
54. Learn to type correctly
55. Learn to read music
56. Become proficient in world geography [countries/states and capitals]
57. Become proficient in U.S. History [create a useful timeline/scrapbook/jackdaw]
58. Complete the French history book I have
59. Get certified as a lifeguard
60. Learn more about WWII history [create a useful timeline/scrapbook/jackdaw]
61. Read all of Shakespeare’s works
62. Get and maintain my certification in First Aid and CPR.
63. Compile my family tree [with pictures and documents whenever possible]
64. Collect family stories [share them with the rest of the family]
65. Get married
66. Volunteer at least once a month
67. Visit Toronto
68. Visit Quebec
69. Visit Philadelphia
70. Visit New York City
71. Participate in Project 365
72. Make a dress for each Christmas
73. Learn to spin my own yarn
74. Bake at least once a month
75. Finish Lone Star Quilt
76. Make Ohio Star lap quilt
77. Make Bear Paw quilted wall hanging
78. Knit a sweater
79. TBA
80. Learn to make bobbin lace
81. Learn to sew in zippers [regular and invisible]
82. Learn how to make buttonholes
83. Make myself a coat
84. Crochet my sisters surprise floor coverings
85. Make a corset
86. Make pumpkin butter
87. Learn to make croissants
88. Make my own spaghetti sauce
89. Make my sisters messenger bags [0/2]
90. Crochet and give away 3 prayer shawls [0/3]
91. Learn how to tie 10 new knots [1/10]
92. Go to a drive-in movie
93. Research women’s studies [create a useful timeline/scrapbook/jackdaw]
94. Establish and maintain a useful house cleaning routine
95. Swim a mile without stopping
96. Improve my posture
97. Give myself an at-home spa day at least once a month
98. Get a full body massage
99. TBA
100. TBA
101. TBA