St. Victor

My dears, it is too hot to blog.  It is also too hot to sleep.  Or breathe.  Or… yeah.  You may gather that I’m not handling the heat well, and you’d be right.  No sleep, plus heat headaches (doesn’t seem to matter how much water I drink, I still have headaches), plus a summer cold that leaves my head feeling like it’s stuffed full of cotton makes one miserable me.  Thankfully, last night I discovered that falling asleep with an ice pack across my forehead gave me the closest thing to a good night’s sleep that I’ve had all week.  This morning when I woke up I actually felt almost refreshed.  It was wonderful.  I’m going to try it again tonight – hopefully it’s not a fluke, and I might actually sleep for two nights in a row!  I find this very exciting.

Unfortunately, besides the heat, I don’t have much else exciting to tell you.  Not that life hasn’t continued to be interesting, but it’s mostly stuff that I can’t tell you about, at least not yet.  I’ve been spending most of my non-work, non-sleeping hours hiding out in various bookstores, which means I’m pretty caught up on my light reading, but haven’t gotten much else done.  This has been rather discouraging, since there are a couple of rather large life projects that have gotten rather derailed.  Plus I had hoped to be able to sew a couple of pairs of baby booties for MDoS and The Beautiful T’s firstborn, who is getting baptized on Sunday.  Sadly, no sewing is taking place either.

One big project that is almost done is the transfer of my music from my dieing hard drive to its new home (another hard drive), and listening to all 16 hours of music on my DJ list to make sure that the tracks play without a hitch.  I was able to get all my music moved while on family vacation, but actually listening to everything has taken much longer than I ever dreamed.  Last week I DJ’d for the first time since I made the transfer. I’d only had time to listen to about half of my Lindy list, and none at all of the Charleston, Balboa or Blues lists.  I thought I had enough music to still put together a decent set, but I was wrong.  It was so frustrating.  I would know exactly the song to play next, but I didn’t dare set it up because I couldn’t be sure that it would play properly.  It was intensely frustrating.  Also, the set stunk.  Sigh.  But since then I’ve been able to listen through all of my Lindy songs, so hopefully my set next week will make up for it.

One of the most interesting things about DJing isn’t just finding really good music that makes you want to dance, but figuring out what songs make people want to dance.  Just because a song makes me itch to get out on the floor doesn’t mean it will have the same effect on everyone else.  For example, last night SD played Woody Herman’s version of I Get A Kick Out Of You.  I hadn’t heard it before, but I loved it.  It made me want to dance to it again and learn it until I can hit every break.  But Lone Wolf and I were the only couple dancing to it.  Some of it is a familiarity issue – a lot of people just won’t dance to a song the first time they hear it.  Still, I wonder what made the two of us willing to dance to a song that the rest of the group ignored

In other news, it seems like tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.  I’m going to go with Indy to finally get a peek at MDoS and The Beautiful T’s firstborn, then meeting Rosie and Sae at the movie theatre to see the last Harry Potter, followed by dinner and then dropping in at the opening of Ani’s art show.  I forget what I’m scheduled to do Saturday, but I know that the day is similarly booked up.  And then on Sunday the weather is supposed to break.  Let’s pray that it does!

Pope St. Fabian

So I got this funny (and very sweet) text the other night.  It was from Diva, wondering if I was ok.  Her husband works in the ER at Kettering Medical Center, and had just texted her that they had just gotten an incoming patient call for someone with my name.  I was snug at home eating dinner and thinking about watching some tv, so I knew I was fine.  However, there’s one other person in the world who shares my name, and that’s my mother.  So I called home to check.  Rosie answered the phone, and I said, “So, um, by any chance has Mom been in the ER today?” She replied that actually, yeah, she was there now, but it wasn’t anything to worry about.  Mom had fallen a few days before on the rocky walk in the backyard, and badly bruised her foot and leg.  She had showed me the bruise when I was home, and it really was spectacular looking.  However it had started swelling, and this worried her enough that she thought it should be looked at.  Her regular doctor thought it was probably fine, but he wanted to get the x-rays and scans done to be sure.  So she went on down to the ER and got it checked out.  The verdict is that she’s ok, there’s no blood clot (which is what they were worried about) and she should keep off it as much as she can for a few days.  So Mom’s going to be fine, Diva and her husband are awfully sweet, and Dayton really is the biggest small town ever.

In other news, it is snowing again, which is making me wish very much that I were at home making things in my crock pot.  There’s just something about a crock pot cooking away on the counter, filling the house with warmth, lovely smells, and the promise of good things to come.  I’ve been in love with crock pots since Ani moved in with me and Johnsy, bringing her large one with her, and I cooked pulled chicken in it for the first time.  It’s possibly the easiest recipe I’ve ever cooked, even easier than Sinfully Easy Cream Biscuits (1 part cream, 2 parts flour, mix, knead, cut out, bake for 15min at 450F).  There are only two ingredients: one 3 lb. bag of frozen, skinless, boneless chicken thighs, and a packet of taco or chili seasoning.  You put the chicken (still frozen) in the crock pot, pour the seasoning over it, turn it on to High, put the lid on and walk away.  About an hour or so later (the “or so” is extremely flexible) you come back and stir it.  Then you walk away again and let it cook for at least 3 hours, up to 8 depending on your convenience, and how quickly the chicken is cooking (crock pots vary).  When it’s done, you stir the chicken again, and it disintegrates into juicy, lovely shreds of goodness that make a gorgeous filling for tacos, tortillas, and burritos, a great topping for rice, or delicious just straight.  When I moved out of Johnsy’s house in with Rosie and Johnnycakes, one of the first purchases I made for my new home was my own large crock pot.  I’ve never regretted it.

As nice as the pulled chicken is, what I’m contemplating cooking today is bean soup.  I love a nice, thick bean soup, but cooking it on top of the stove requires slow cooking and careful watching.  Beans are prone to burning, particularly as they start approaching optimal thickness (I like my bean soup thick).  However, in a crock pot, you don’t have to worry about it.  You put in your beans, your ham bone, your garlic and onions, and let it simmer away for hours until it’s gorgeous, tender, and beautifully thickened.  That, plus maybe some rice and cheese, is a meal fit for a queen.  Too bad I’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow to have it…

In other, other news, I might be heading down to DC this weekend for the March for Life.  After our fun road trip in November, Grace and I started talking about the next one.  At the time we decided that we should go down to the March, and I said provisionally that I wanted to go, but I wasn’t sure.  There was a little something niggling in the back corner of my mind, and I couldn’t quite figure it out.  Later I realized that the March is on the same day that Swing Club starts up again, and I need to be there to teach.  If it weren’t the first day back, I could get someone to sub for me, but those first days are important (it’s a measure of how much I wanted to go that I even thought about getting a sub – the only time I’ve ever done that in the three years I’ve been teaching for them was the day my brother died).  So with deep sadness I had to tell Grace that I couldn’t go.  However, the story doesn’t end there.  It turns out that we might not be having Swing Club on Monday after all.  It seems that Madame President has been running into Issues with whoever assigns rooms for various club activities, and somehow Swing Club hasn’t been able to reserve a place to meet for Monday.  So we might not meet on Monday after all, which means I can go gallivanting with Grace, and also get to be part of my first March in way, way too long.  And that would be awesome.  I still haven’t heard the final word from Madame, and there are a few other details that would need to be worked out, but still – potential road trip glee!

St. Therese of Lisieux

I may have discovered the secret to getting guys to bring you chocolate.  Yesterday I teased The Shy Engineer about his age (he had just walked into the front office and announced that he’d forgotten what he needed to tell the main secretary), and this morning he showed up at my desk with a whole bag of Hershey’s miniatures to restock the mug of candy we keep on the ledge in front of my desk.  (It was a very Jim & Pam moment.)  I would field test this on more guys to make sure whether it works universally or just on The Shy Engineer, but the sad thing is that I don’t eat anything that has added sugar, so I wouldn’t be able to do more than admire the chocolate from a distance.  But in case you’d like to get a little chocolate from that cute guy down the hall, try teasing him about getting old and see what happens.

In other news, this week I’ve been learning a little how it feels to have a Fairy Godmother.  Tuesday afternoon I got a call from a total stranger.  She identified herself as working for a company I’d never heard of, and said that she had a job she wanted me to apply for.  It seems that she was a corporate head hunter who had found my resume in her company’s database (as far as I know I’ve never applied for a job through them, although I’ve applied for so many random jobs in the last year or so that who really knows anymore) and thought I’d be just perfect for a position she’s trying to fill.  It would be for a local non-profit that works with pregnant women and children, helping them with housing, health care, education, etc.  The position sounded like general administrative support (which I could do in my sleep), and she would like to interview me at my earliest convenience.  I made an appointment to come down to her offices, hung up the phone, and then just stared at it in my hand for a moment.  I wasn’t sure if this was legit, or if it might turn out to be a scam of some kind (usually too good to be true is, well, not true at all), but I figured it was worth investigating.

So the next morning I dressed up in my business-y clothes and toddled on down to their offices in a building overlooking the river downtown.  There I quickly discovered that this wasn’t a scam or a sales pitch disguised as a job interview.  In fact, the company that was recruiting me was a reputable firm that mostly specializes in placing professionals in the accounting and finance fields.  This job was a little out of their area of expertise, but they had taken it on as a special project for the client, with whom they’d worked before.  The client was a local home for low-income single mothers with 1-2 children under the age of five.  Women who enter the program have their own apartment in which they live usually for about two years while they work to develop educational and employment plans, and receive counseling and other assistance to help them achieve their goals, including child care at the day care center on site.  They need someone to be a sort of facilities manager, processing work orders for maintenance when something goes wrong with an apartment, collecting rent, and conducting periodic apartment inspections.  There is also a sort of supply depot of diapers, formula, baby clothes, etc. that I would manage, and a banquet facility that I would be in charge of scheduling.  The program has a strong faith aspect, and is influenced by Catholic roots but officially non-denominational.  The recruiter thought my background, from my current administrative position, to working as The Kiddo’s nanny, to my experience in youth and young adult ministry (NET, TOT, our Catholic Life young adult group) made me just perfect for this job. 

I thought it sounded kinda perfect too.  It sounds like a job that would be interesting and challenging.  It plays to a lot of my strengths, particularly being able to interact in a loving way with people.  Plus, it’s doing pro-life ministry again.  I haven’t done a lot of pro-life activity in the last few years since I’ve been so focused on other things (school,swing dancing, and trying to make ends meet), but before I went off to NET I volunteered for five years as a peer counselor at the local crisis pregnancy center, and before that I was a pro-life activist.  So helping women choose life, and making that choice possible on a practical level, is one of my core values.  Being able to do this on a regular basis would be deeply fulfilling.  Plus, the money would be good (no more struggles to make it to the next payday), and I would have that most coveted thing: Benefits.  So I would love to get this job.

I left the interview feeling a little lightheaded.  After all the job related stress of the last year or so, to have someone present me with the perfect job opportunity on a silver platter was surreal.  It was so out of the blue, so unexpected.  Surely things don’t happen this easily?  And yet, so far they have.  By the end of the work day, the recruiter had already called at least two of my three references, and I’d completed the paperwork for the background check and sent over a few letters of recommendation I have on file.  The recruiter said that she would be passing my information on to the organization Wednesday afternoon, and then it would be up to them when to schedule the interview (she was very certain they were going to want to interview me).  This morning I got a message letting me know that they did want to interview, and this afternoon we set the time for next Wednesday afternoon.  So that’s exactly a week from when I first heard of the job to having an interview.  It’s all happening very fast, and it’s a little dizzying, but in a good way.  I’ve been praying for months now for a job that would really pay all my bills, and it looks like maybe I’m getting it.  It all depends on how this interview on Wednesday goes.  It will be a group interview, which will be interesting.  I’m a bit nervous.  If you could say a prayer for me, I would really appreciate it!

In the meantime, we roommates are having our Big Party tomorrow.  There’s a lot to get done between now and then!  Ani invited me to go down to First Friday in the Oregon District with her tonight, but I think I’m going to stay home and work on getting the house ready.  I’m really looking forward to this party – it’s the first big thing we’ve had here at our apartment.  I was talking it up at Theology On Tap last night (and did I tell you how marvelous it is to go to TOT and not have to do a thing?!  Marvelous!), and I think we’re going to have a really great group of people.  It will be very interesting seeing my Catholic young adult friends interact with my swing dancing friends, and all of the above interacting with Rosie and Johnnycake’s friends.  Plus, the word on the street is that MDoS and The Beautiful T are going to be there.  Fun times ahead!

St. Gregory the Great

It’s been an interesting week.  To begin with, I did not start my new career as Marian the Librarian on Wednesday after all.  It seems that there is some paperwork that needs to be completed by HR before I can start.  So on Wednesday I went down, turned in my paperwork, let them photocopy my driver’s license (proof that I actually exist and am a legal US citizen and all), and then headed off to work the desk at our weekly swing dance.  It’s been a little frustrating.  I don’t mind not starting on Wednesday so much, but until HR gives its ok I can’t get my work schedule.  I know that the new job will require some odd hours, including some evenings, so until I know which evenings, it’s a little difficult to plan things.  For instance, I want to hang out with Ani and Johnsy, and maybe watch some West Wing, something we haven’t done in way, way too long.  But until I know which evenings I’ll be free, the best I can say is that we could do it on a particular evening, probably.  Which drives me a little nuts.

Also this week, the Swing Club started back up with its usual bang.  This time Bounce and I taught basic East Coast Swing to 105 students, almost evenly balanced between leads and follows (a miracle!).  Lots of them stayed to dance afterwards, which was great.  Madame President had been thinking hard all summer about the club, the lessons, and had come up with lots of ideas to try out.  I think a lot of them worked, and helped the evening be a great success.

In other news, I’ve started reading Philosophy again.  It’s been a long time for me.  I think it was so hard when my school plans crashed and burned that I couldn’t even think about it for a while.  Plus, I’m much better about reading things that take actual effort when I have a class or other deadline to motivate me.  However, recently a new friend e-mailed me an article about (among other things) the philosophy of Max Scheler, a German philosopher who was a huge influence on John Paul II.  It was a fascinating article, particularly since I’d been curious about Scheler since JohnJohn was so enthusiastic about him back in the day.  Also, Scheler has a connection to Edith Stein, my own personal favorite modern saint, patron to single Catholic women everywhere, and the subject of one of the first big research papers I did.  Anyway, PJ’s paper inspired me to finally actually read me some Scheler, so last week found me looking up Scheler on Amazon and ordering Ressentiment, a phenomenological study of resentment.  It came a few days ago, and I’ve been reading it in small chunks when I get a chance ever since.  I still haven’t gotten past the Introduction, but so far it’s been fascinating.

People keep asking me if I’m “ready” for the long holiday weekend coming up, as if it were some sort of terrifying challenge we were all going to have to face and triumph over.  Granted, one more day to sleep in is always welcome, but it’s one day, folks.  I think I can handle it.  So far it does look like it’ s going to be full.  Last night Mom decided that we were going to have a family cookout.  First she tried to get Rosie to agree to host it at our house, but Rosie (thankfully) was able to plead the current state of painting/home renovation related turmoil our apartment seems to live in.  So it’s going to be over at the Family Homestead after all.  I will, as always, be making potato salad.  It’s rather nice to have a dish that’s so universally loved, though I think I’m going to get very bored of it right about, say, Monday.  A couple of the guys from our Catholic Life young adult group are having a cookout on Monday too, followed by saying a rosary together at the Lourdes Grotto at Bergamo.  It sounds like a nice, Good Catholic time.

I should also mention that, as of yesterday, I have completely transferred all of the blog posts from my old xanga blog to here on WordPress.  So, if you would like, you can check out “The Vault” in the right hand column, and find all my blog posts going back to February of 2005.  Enjoy!

St. Jane Frances de Chantal

I have a bad habit of bringing way more crafting projects with me on vacation than I could possibly finish in twice the time I’ve been gone.  It’s like my mind goes a little crazy at the thought of actual free time, and starts dreaming over-ambitious dreams of what I could maybe get done.  usually I end up just lugging the projects home again at the end of the week, but this time I was smart.  I took with me a bunch of projects that had been languishing in my basket for far too long, waiting for me to do that just one little bit extra so they could be completely done.  My gift to myself, this vacation, was the experience of actually finishing things, and coming home with a bunch of completely done projects, all ready to use or give away or whatever.  I’ve been wanting to show them to you ever since, but never got around to photographing them.  Until today.  Enjoy.

White ankle socks, knit from Knitpicks Comfy Fingering weight yarn in White, using the Univeral Toe-Up Sock Formula by Amy Swenson (my go-to sock pattern for every occasion), with my own small mods.  These socks are so soft – they feel amazing on my feet!  The only change I would make is to knit the cuff in 1×1 ribbing instead of 2×2, which is a little loose.  Otherwise perfect!

Sunshine Baby Blanket, knit with Caron Simply Soft using a modification of the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting.  This is intended for Diva’s firstborn, and will probably be the last baby blanket I knit for quite a while!

I also finished the handwarmers that were Ani’s Epiphany present back in January.  They’re knit from Serenity Sockweight yarn in the Lavender Topaz colorway, using a pattern I made up as I knit along.  I’m particularly proud of the cables on the back.

Because they’re actually little braids!  This makes me unreasonably happy.

I’ve also been knitting along on Mom’s Queen Anne’s Lace shawl, and making good progress!

This is knit using Silky Cashmere Lace yarn in Sunbleached Silver from Impulse of Delight (one of my favorite yarn sources ever), and is intended for my mother.  The pattern is Queen Anne’s Lace by Mmario.

I just started the second to last chart, and am contemplating whether or not I want to add beads to this last section.  On the plus side, it would look awesome, and add some drape to the shawl.  On the negative side, this shawl is very large, and that many beads might add a lot of weight, which could end up distorting the shawl, and perhaps even pulling apart the soft thread.  For reference, here’s a couple of pictures of completed Queen Anne’s Lace shawls.  What do you guys think?