The Cat and Other Tales

Oh, hello there.

I was looking at my calendar and realized I hadn’t posted in three weeks.

It’s not you, it’s me. I haven’t been online much lately. I made disparaging comments on Twitter about having to avoid BART demonstrators, but that’s about it. There are many things going on at work, for one thing. The semester started, and I work at a college, plus I’ve been studying exciting things like XML and XSLT and command line field mapping in my spare time instead of crafting. Oh, and going to museums. Those of you who fancy yourselves creative types might find this video I found via SFMOMA interesting. Pretty much a long winded version of Edison’s “1% inspiration, 99%perspiration” saying.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Let’s catch up:

–  Spent a weekend in Reno helping my brother move into his new house. I may have cried when he moved out of my house 2 weeks ago. My dog still looks for him (they were good buddies). He’s going on to do much more interesting things in graduate school, though – environmental planning and research. Now my husband and I only have each other to harass. And the cat.

–  A certain demonic cat got into my new quilt and wrecked it. She must have had quite a time in there, and probably got poked by some pins. She pulled out 90% of the pins that are holding the quilt together, the fabrics were in total disarray, even the backing paper was wrinkled up. Miriam was not a happy camper, and did not speak to her cat for a while. It took many hours to put it back the way it was, and as I continue to work I still have problems with spacing. Tell me again why I have a cat?

–  After Jeremy moved out, Jeff and I went on a serious cleaning binge, and also a getting-rid-of-stuff binge. We’re really getting minimalist at this point. I’ve also removed all my craft stuff from its storage and reorganized it, and gotten rid of things I didn’t want. We never really did put much effort into our spare/craft room after we moved in because Jeremy was living there, so now I’m attacking it with great enthusiasm. Also, the cat isn’t allowed in there anymore (she never really was).

–  Streetcolor yarnbombed my local library .  Sadly, I missed the event.

–  I did my very first tie-dye project, pictures forthcoming. I also considered wrapping a few rubber bands around the cat’s fur and seeing how she looked when tie-dyed.

That’s about everything that’s currently safe for public consumption.

Back to XML.

Knives and Earthquakes (not together, one hopes)

Whew. What a week. I know I said that on Friday, but I thought I’d elaborate a bit. First up: KNIVES.

A week ago Friday I finally did something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time – I took a knife skills class!  I was super excited. After some persuasion I managed to get Jeff to come as well, because I knew he would be willing to be my sous chef if he knew how to be a pro about. I think we’re both getting new knives.  He wants the Shun you see on the left, and I want the middle knife. I have a chef’s knife already that I’m quite fond of, but I liked the flat edge of that one. I took the class (3+ hours jam packed with info) at Berkeley’s Kitchen on Fire with chef MikeC. I wish I could pass on every last bit of information to you guys, but um … well, he DOES have a DVD, I suppose. Seriously, it was a great class, the guy’s a great teacher, funny and yet very seriously knowledgeable about his subject.

I will say, after learning the techniques, that I don’t think I know anyone who wields a knife properly. Which is sad, because it’s so much faster and safer!

I spent today helping my brother move out of his apartment. He’s experiencing a few major life changes, both positive and negative, and I’m very happy to be able to be nearby so that I can help. I’m super pleased to report that he is going to graduate school next fall at the University of Nevada Reno to earn his master’s degree in environmental planning and policy, specializing in GIS use.  The cherry blossoms in the picture above are from outside his window in Placerville – it’s spring!  I will miss going up there to visit him, but I am really happy he’s going in a positive direction in his life, and I’m sure I’ll make it back up there on my own anyway.

I continue to spend time finishing items for the kitchen/dining area. As you can see above, the benches are nearly done, and I have a lot of commentary on building furniture in my head for another post. We have one coat of paint to apply and they’ll be ready for use. I’m sewing with piping for the first time for the bench cushions, which is giving me palpitations. I’m terrified I’m going to do this terribly wrong, but I’m forging ahead anyway. I have a seam ripper, after all. I don’t know how to build furniture either, and that seems to be going well despite all the many things that could go poorly. I’m definitely ready for these projects to be over, though. I’d like to move onto something else.

I, along with many others, have been watching the news from Japan about the earthquakes and tsunamis with horror and sadness. The news just isn’t getting any better. Like many others, I’ve donated to the Red Cross, and it’s really all that I can think to do. I went to bed Thursday night extremely grateful to be living in an earthquake-safe apartment building and working in a retrofitted earthquake-standard office. It’s not everything, but … when you live less than a mile from the not-insignificant Hayward fault, it’s hard to hear about massive earthquakes and not personalize those thoughts just a wee tiny bit.

Flickr user Dr_Speed (via Berkleyside) caught the photo above of the tsunami rolling through San Francisco Bay on Friday. That’s SF in the background and the Bay Bridge crossing the water. The Alameda docks are on the left and Emeryville (just south of Berkeley) is in the foreground. There’s also a video from the same vantage point. Not so big, right? Kinda slow. Now realize that wave has traveled more than 5,000 miles. Unbelievable.

With the exception of the tsunami photo these pictures are from Instagram – three weeks ago I decided to start a 365 project, and those photos are from that series. For those of you unfamiliar with this phenomenon, I watched several people on Flickr do one of these in various ways. Basically you take a picture every day for a year, often of yourself, and post it. Some people do a 52-week version. I’d wanted to do one, but never thought I’d keep up with it until I started using with Instagram on my iPhone. You take a picture and it applies an effect to it (or not), imitating a lomography camera or a 60s or 70s picture, or various other vintage and color filters. Since I usually have my phone with me, it’s simple to remember to find something worth looking at from my daily life and photograph it.

I’m hoping that this project reminds me to keep a sharp eye on what’s amazing and noteworthy around me in my daily life, instead of just letting the increasingly familiar landscape fade into sameness. Moving to a new place opens your eyes in so many ways, and I’d like to keep the magic of that viewpoint with me as long as I can.

Off to bed! I’m sure with the time change the morning is going to see unbearably early for this night owl.

My Lizard Brain Thinks I’m On Vacation

I’ve never tried to write about one of my Big Moves before. It’s always been just something I did, and my reflections afterward seldom seem to touch on what it felt at first to to live in that new place. I forgot what it feels like to have everything and everyone be unfamiliar. I’ve glossed over it, knowing that after a few months that feeling of displacement goes away.

A Saturday trip to the Bazaar Bizarre craft show.

This has been a rougher move than I remember others being. Perhaps it is that method the brain has of hiding unpleasant truth. Perhaps it is that I am older, and therefore less resilient and adaptable. Perhaps it really has been more stressful somehow, in some ways. Maybe I’m just tired now, and things seem more stressful than they really are. I’m not sure. I’ve never really tried to write about it before.

Bikes and pier at Fort Mason Center

I think I’ve written four posts that I deleted since the end of November’s blog-a-thon. I’d write about one aspect or another of all this. I wrote about what it was like to purge all my stuff over the past year, until you can’t remember what you have anymore. I wrote about it being quiet now, and being grateful we could move to a better place to live. One day I wrote about the “lizard brain” concept and how it feels like I’m on vacation all the time. Delete. Delete. None of that is what it’s really like. They’re all just little problems to solve.

Puzzles abound, though. If my house is 2+ miles away, it’s raining, I have no car and no idea how to get there, do I panic? Hop a bus? Walk? What if I have to write a report and don’t know the people or acronyms? Google is your friend! What if it’s a holiday, your fridge is empty, and all the grocery stores you know are closed? Go hungry? Drive until you find a buffet? What if you must walk the dog and you don’t know if the neighborhood’s safe or if you’ll get mugged? Chance it!

Decisions, decisions. It’s hard being rational and reasonable enough to cope every day. Now that I’m finally three months in and have a decent place to live my brain wants to check out in a big way. I don’t want to unpack, or go to Home Depot again, or think about curtains, or visit the grocery store. I want to hibernate, and be one with my horizontal nature.

This, too, will pass. In six months it will feel, if not like home, familiar. I will have developed opinions about whose coffee and pizza is the best. I’ll know where to stand for optimal Bart travel. I will have curtains, and my clothing will be in or near the closet. I will be able to select books at will off my bookshelves and take vacation time again.

But for now, nothing is really quite comfortable.