Happy Thanksgiving, guys! I made a list this evening of everything I could think of that I have to be thankful for, and it was ridiculously long. By the time I quit, I didn’t feel anywhere close to the end. It’s humbling to think of all the things that I take for granted — I have so many wonderful things to be thankful for that I can’t even list them all. I hope all of you are with family and friends, and also remembering how much you have to appreciate and thank God for.
My grandmother passed away last Wednesday morning. She was ready to be with her Lord, and also with her husband, my Papa, who died in August. I will miss having her here, because she had one of the most generous and loving spirits I’ve ever known anyone to have, and she was so much fun to spend time with — both of them were. I have a hard time not wondering what I might have learned from them if I’d have taken more time to. My grandfather had an incredible green thumb, and grew some of the most beautiful orchids in the world. My grandmother had family stories I still haven’t heard, and probably never will. For me, at least, one of the hardest parts is dealing with the missed opportunities. That being said, though, I am very blessed to have had the time I had with both of them, and while I’ll miss them both, they both knew the Lord and are with Him now, which is wonderful.
It’s only been a half-week at work because of the holiday, and it’s strange because everybody sort of has that Friday-attitude on Tuesday (lots of them took today off), making it very difficult to stay focused on work. My task this week has been exporting hundreds of database tables, and it’s an extremely tedious one — not hard, but repetitive, while still requiring full concentration. Things like that make me mentally and physically tense, and on several occasions today I found that I had to make a conscious effort not to stop breathing. I left work around five today, feeling somewhat dizzy and light-headed. When I close my eyes for a second, I see access tables scrolling up across my eyelids. My job can be so funny that way.
Tota is home! After a healthy stint in Bolivia with Peace Corps, she’s finally returned to us, and I couldn’t be happier. She brought her new puppy and tons of stories, I’m sure, and I can’t wait to catch up with her. So please, if you know Tota (or even if you don’t; as she’s surprisingly stranger-friendly), leave her a comment or an email to welcome her back to the country.
I played with inventing some muffin recipes the other night: A citrus almond-toffee muffin, and a curry-spiced persimmon muffin. For my first attempt at inventing muffin recipes from scratch, I was pretty pleased with the results — they could use some work for sure, but they weren’t inedible, and I know what to do to improve on them. It’s an exciting process, I’ve found, and something that really relaxes me. The more I think about it, the more I think that I could see myself doing something like baking for a living somewhere down the road.
Another perk to spending a couple of hours in the kitchen: perfect opportunity to listen to new music. Apparently, people have known about these things called “podcasts” for a long time. Technically savvy though I may be, I’d not until recently caught on to the usefulness of such a thing. It’s highly likely that most of you, while reading my pitiful whining in my last post about not knowing where to go to discover new music, were thinking “has she never heard of podcasts? What’s wrong with her?” And you have every right to be concerned. Anyway, the point is that I think podcasts are a fun thing to listen to while baking, and I’m particularly fond of NPR’s podcasts — all of my favorite radio programs are there, and I’m loving it. It’s an easy way to find good new songs without trying. The internet has quite nearly redeemed itself.
I was sifting through old notes in my planner today, looking for any major projects I might’ve forgotten to list as goals, and found this: aliciabock.etsy.com. Her photographs are beautiful, particularly the viewfinder photos with warmer tones, and I’m trying to justify buying a couple of her prints. So far, it hasn’t been working, but mostly because I can’t think of anywhere to put them, especially after the painting I bought in Athens.
I finally talked Mandy into taking a trip to Athens with me. Day trips to Athens are sort of a guilty pleasure for me, since it’s a town filled with lots of little things I love: downtown shops with handmade, fair-trade / imported things.. vintage clothing, books. There’s Wuxtry Records and OK Coffee (mm), the botanical gardens, dozens of good music venues if I’m there at night, and the cream of the crop: Agora. It’s a tiny little junk / antique shop, which apparently has dozens of vendors working there sort of like consignment. Anyway, it’s about the most exciting place to poke around, and I always find sunglasses or coffee mugs or something to take home. Friday, I found a painting. It has no signature, and it’s a pretty crudely sketched and painted beach scene — either by a very amateur painter, or somebody who wanted it to look that way. The colors are beautiful, and I’m really fond of the technique.. there are big brown flowers lining the sand. It was $10. I find a weird sort of comfort in not knowing who to attribute the painting to. I wish there were places I could go to stumble upon art like this more often.
I’m going to work on the design some more — I have more ideas I meant to use, but I guess I got a little overzealous the other night. It’s been really nice having time to work on things like this — it reminds me that I don’t, in fact, hate design, I just hate feeling forced to sit at a computer for too long. So this is good. And it feels good to write here again.
listening to: Loney, Dear — Airport Surroundings (I’m excited about this cd…)