Or: Where I Have Been
I realize that I have been putting off blogging until I have time to "catch up" i.e. post about everything that has happened in the last year. But that's got to stop. So here are some snapshots. Not literally, although those will follow shortly...If I can ever figure out how this camera works :) So what have I been up to?
1. Adjusting to Married Life
This entails asking myself (nearly every day) how all those women did it WITHOUT a dishwasher. Laundry. Dates. Travels (Chicago, Colorado, Various and Sundry Mountains). And laundry.
2. Acquiring Fish from Cousin
Moby, Melville, Mona, Clive, Staples, and Uriah Heap
Uriah Heap, a little catfish-type had both his side fins eaten off by a larger fish, so he spends his day snuffling around the bottom of the tank in a most humble manner. He is white and has red eyes.
3. Keeping Fish Alive
Almost. We lost Melville and Clive to the ick.
4. Gardening.
In Clay? I thought I could run the tiller over the ground a couple times and get to work. Ha! Ben and I spent an entire day tilling by hand. Another day planting. On the docket (or in the ground, rather): Vegetables--corn, green beans, cucuzzi (an Italian squash), cherry tomatoes Flowers--daisies, strawflowers, zinnias, tri-colored daisies Plants for Dying--Japanese indigo, coreopsis (a flower), sunflowers. And anybody need a dog kennel? Ours was in the garden, so we're selling it.
5. Writing
My writing partner (who shall remain anonymous as long as she shall so choose) and I have been trying to keep eachother accountable, and trying to get together some stuff to print. I'm also considering doing a serialized novella or play or some such thing on this blog, since I've not been using it much. Is that too weird? To be honest, I've been looking at blogging as a who-can-share-the-niftiest-anecdote (I almost typed antidote. How odd.) But that doesn't have to be true. I've felt that my life has changed so drastically in the past year, that the things that now interest me would be rather dull to the majority of readers. Theater....dishwashing. Theater.....dishwashing. But as God is teaching me, I have found more learning, more growing at my sink, scrubbing the exact same plate I scrubbed yesterday, no, just five hours ago after lunch--more growing than I have ever experienced on the stage. Theater is heady, exciting, fascinating. But dishwashing is service. This transition I have not accepted all that graciously, but now, I think I can write about it.
6. Finding the Coolest Place Ever to Buy Spices.
Grocery store cardamon: $11.95
All-natural food store cardamon: $2.50
and if you want a glass jar to put it in, add on another dollar.
7. Barrista-ing
I've been working part time at a coffee shop. Favorite drink? Ooh. If you can top a chai made from scratch (a coffee shop can't), make mine a vanilla breve.
8. Knitting
I designed and knitted my very first sweater. Pictures to follow soon. I'm knitting hats to sell (had too many requests to keep turning them down).Oh, and I got a spinning wheel (made of pvc pipe and a wheel-chair wheel!) Hence the dying plants in the garden. What's next? Weaving? Someday....
Seriously, though, knitting has been a good opportunity for me. I've joined the local knitting guild and the local sit and stitch. I've gotten to know a lot of wonderful people--and learned a lot in the process.
9. Watching the trees bloom in my backyard
10. AND dut-dut-dut-DUM!
Cutting my hair. 11 inches of it. Gone to the little cancer patients. Whoo do I feel weird.
11. Being a Walking Shrub
This brings me to today, in which many eyebrows were raised as I walked two blocks carrying an armload of freshly cut bamboo (salvaged from a trash pile), complete with bamboo leaves. What shall I make today?