Snow Day

Seems to be a common theme on my friends blogs. We got thirteen inches of snow. I came out the front door to head to work and...screamed...jumped up and down...called my husband, yelling "It's like Christmas out here!" I love snow. I even enjoyed fishtailing the 15 miles to work. Fun stuff. While many people enjoyed their days off, I still had to work. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by how many insane people see thirteen inches of snow and think to themselves...lets go Outback tonight. I suppose it helped that we only had eight servers because many of them got plowed in by the city plows. Rob spent the day running a taxi service for his employees with the truck, but was nice enough to dig my car out before he left. Such a sweet man...

Dante and Krugman

My pleasure book selection for the week or day or month depending on other factors is one called The Dante Club. It is about the four poets who translated Dante for the new world. I have no idea if this is based in fact or completely fiction but it is definitely a topic I will be looking into. The unfortunate side effect is that I wish I were reading the beautiful copy of the Divine Comedy that I picked up over Christmas instead of Paradise Lost. Smells like book, gilded pages, beautiful navy and gold leather etched cover.

Instead of curling up with a book tonight, I wrote five pages on one of the Nobel Prize winners in the Economics category. I picked Paul Krugman, last year's winner. Turns out economics is incredibly fascinating when written about by a person with a sense of humor that lacks the cryptic gene most economists take pride in cultivating. If you have time check this guy out. He writes twice a week for the NY Times and is responsible for modern trade theory. He also coined the New New Deal phrase that Obama's economists are throwing around. I haven't yet figured out if he is helping Obama develop his economic policy or not, but if he is, I would feel a little better about the immediate economic future. I guess this class hasn't been the total wash I was expecting. On the fun side of things, I apparently picked the perfect company to do my SWOT analysis on. I seem to have sparked a lively debate by choosing Microsoft. Seems everyone has an opinion on that particular company.

Nurses know best?

Dad's bypass surgery went well. I know he his feeling better because he was arguing with the nurse about what an acceptable bed time was. She wants him to go to bed at 8.30, he asked why. She says they are going to give him a bath at four in the morning. He doesn't understand why he should try to go to bed six or seven hours before he is usually in bed so they can wake him in the middle of the night for a bath. He feels that if they really want him to rest like they claim, they will let him sleep in. Mom and Monica are still at the hospital, so I am assuming that he won the argument...

I hung out with a family in the waiting room today that made me miss mine. They were loud, outspoken, argued for hours on end good-naturedly about nothing. Quite a difference from Rob's family who are quiet and mostly courteous with each other. I think that I counted fifteen or so of them crammed into the tiny waiting room. Mom couldn't understand how I could do homework in that chaos...how could I explain to her that it was easier to focus there than in the absolute silence of the hallway. Anyway...I finally got the big project that I have been working on done...I feel I have earned a solid night of sleep.

You Guys are the Best

I want to send out a big thank you to all of our friends and coworkers who stepped in to help us out this week. Ryan and Jon for feeding the cats, Brandi, Katie, Darren, Mark, and Pixie for helping cover my shifts with almost no notice. Jeremy and Tim for helping Rob be able to get up here to be with his dad. And everyone else who has had the family and especially dad in their prayers this week.

Hats and Scarves

I received a cute phone call from my niece last week. I picked up the phone and she hung up on me. I called her back and the little one asked why I was calling. I told her she had called me, what did she want? "Uh, um, Suzie, um, can you, um, ahh, um Suzie, will you, uh, um make me a scarf like mommy's?" I said that I could, what color was it? Apparently rainbow is a sufficient answer. So rainbow it is. I am excited that I actually get time to work on it. We are heading to Chicago tonight for Rob's dad's surgery. Without a phone or a computer or a book, I should have plenty of time to knit a scarf for a four year old. I'm thinking a matching 'rainbow' hat should go nicely with it. In lieu of my own children, I feel that I have a sacred responsibility to spoil my only niece rotten. If she needs a scarf and hat for those bitter Tennessee winters, then that is what I will do for her... Since she is four, I will forgive her, but I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for the whining about the temperature from the Tennessee crowd with the weather we have been having...especially when they were all raised up here to begin with...

Diapers

Well I have pounded through about half of my to do list and I think I have had enough. The paper wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and actually prompted me to do something I should have done a while ago...

I accidentally started a business sewing cloth diapers. As sometimes happens when you do not realize you have a third job, I quickly ended up over my head and a year and a half ago, decided that I never want to work for anyone else ever again. So I enrolled in an MBA program, discouraged new business and started waiting tables again for the flexibility and the money. The goal is to develop enough business know-how to be able to run a business, deal with suppliers, do my own taxes, license the business, etc. The other problem that I was having was that I knew nothing about how to market myself nor how to handle having employees if this thing ends up being as successful as it seems like it could be. Unfortunately, my old clients are still telling people about my product and a girl I work with asked for a run down on the cost analysis of cloth diapers and environmental statistics. Needless to say, I haven't been able to get to it. I logged into my class this week and lo and behold the assignment was to evaluate the political, social and economic trends affecting your industry, i.e. the diaper industry. What a perfect excuse to research and create marketing paraphernalia! So it now reads like a research paper, but should be relatively easy at this point to convert into a pamphlet...

While I still have my doubts over the need for me to take another econ class, at least I have gotten something out of this one.

To Do

Respond to classmates' economic SWOT analysis
Write 5 pages on which economic, social, and political trends are most important to your organization or industry, and why...Ummm
Drink lots of tea (hey, it is really cold today)
Watch inaugural address and evaluate my life goals in context
Clean house (maybe)
Do not start new book
Do not start new book
Start my SWOT analysis
Come up with a page on how the market structure of my industry works
Feed cats
Oh yeah! Feed hubby and myself
Make nightly dose of rice pudding

I really hate economics, half of it I don't get and the other half seems so obvious that debating it seems pointless. "The economy is important" (really! I never would have got that on my own)

Books and Monica

I love reading. I hate finishing a book. I cannot not be reading a book, so every time I finish a book, I immediately pick out a new book to read. I hate finishing books because it is always so hard to decide. Do I want to get anything done in the next two days? Am I going to want to ignore the world for a couple days? Will this book provide that escape? Do I want funny? suspense? history? different cultures? all of the above? Is this book written in verse (apparently I have to read those types of books out loud or I miss a lot of content)? I think we are sort of on hiatus from the book club thing. We are both reading Paradise Lost, but it isn't one you just sit down and read for four hours straight.

I just finished Couch, which was interesting. It was about three roommates who end up floating out to sea on this couch, has adventure, betrayal, heartbreak, then at the end of their quest they discover that this supernatural couch has the seeds for the destruction and rebirth of mankind. Turns out to be a more interesting couch than any that I have ever owned. What should I read next? The new Orson Scott Card book, the new Kathy Reichs book, one called Gods Behaving Badly about twelve Greek gods sharing a London townhouse? I think it may take longer to decide than to actually read the book.

On a completely different topic, Monica (sister) is coming to town tomorrow. We had mentioned sledding this weekend, but there is a limit to how cold it can be and me still voluntarily stay outside. We have passed that point. I think for me to want to go sledding it has to be at least double digits. Maybe we will stay in and bake the recipes I didn't get around to making for Christmas. Maybe we can make No-Spit candy! (Andy, I cannot tell you how excited I am to have that recipe...) I have a recipe for apple soup I have been meaning to try too... I always enjoy her visits and I think she will be excited...the last time she was here the toilet was in the guest room and our bathroom just had a hole in the floor. We are a little more high-class now, we have a toilet in our bathroom and everything! Fancy!

Job Hunting

There are so many considerations when looking for a new job. I try not to think about the fact that I am going to spend almost a third of my life at this location, with these people. I try convince myself that I will not go crazy this time when faced with a monotonous workday, but the truth is, I am not as well adjusted as all of you... I like my job with dysfunctional people. Dysfunctional people are fun and make me feel remarkably put together, a feeling I don't get often away from work. 'Course I am the boring one at work, but I am amused by their antics. Put in a boring workplace and I will create antics of my own just to make the place interesting or at least I have in the past. I like to think I have matured enough to handle a normal job but the search alone is overwhelming me. This is compounded by the fact the job market stinks right now and I know going into it that it is going to take four times a long and I will have to beat out that many more people and believe in myself that much more...I think I have had enough of being confident and powerful tonight. I will drag my confident and powerful butt to bed and try again tomorrow.

Baby steps...

Bummin'

On Tuesdays, I meet a friend for an intense day of bummin'. Today, we started by drinking a couple pots of coffee to fortify ourselves for the task ahead. Next on the list was the post office. Unfortunately, the pretentious Broad Ripple location finds it unfashionable to stay open past 4.00 so we headed on to the next location. Stop two was the apothecary where we picked up medicine for Thomas, my youngest son. By the way, he is a cat. I didn't know they had pharmacies for cats, although to be fair, they have people medicine too... Stop three was a post office that was actually interested in serving the public where I mailed my best friend's Christmas present (I get more prompt every year). Then to the bank where I considerably lightened myself of my hard earned cash. We then wandered through Target looking for black work shirts for me and non-holey jeans for him. We had better luck at Wal-Mart though I did find some really cute socks at Target. Then we went through his massive back stash of Art magazines looking for pictures to frame for his new apartment. I laughed for almost twenty minutes of one titled "Cement Cloud" of a...cement cloud poised over a major metropolitan area. I couldn't help but think what would happen when a cloud like that started raining, or became fog...

Lazy Mondays

Which, incidentally, follows lazy Sundays. Syra came over so we could help each other Tonight we had Pad Thai, attempted to be productive, failed miserably and are now both playing on our blogs.

Found an awesome quote for the new year
What reinforcement we may gain from hope.
If not, what resolution from despair.
-Milton, Paradise Lost

Current reading selections include Paradise Lost and a book called Couch about three roommates and their couch that will not let them put it down. Just read the Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy that reveals a very distorted philosophical view...abstinence even in marriage?...children just propagating human misery and abnormal behaviors? What a difference in his outlook from the beginning of his life to the end. The Kreutzer Sonata was written just a couple years before his death. Interesting.

Sundays

Sundays are one of my two days off. Other than church and homework, the agenda is pretty much cleared for catching up on my projects (see resolutions). Today's parade of daily adventures includes playing 10,000 with Syra while procrastinating on my projects, blogging while procrastinating on my projects, grocery shopping while procrastinating on projects, playing with Ryan's iPhone while procrastinating on projects (it has an application called iBanjo, fun stuff!). You get the point...pretty much that I would rather do anything else than clean out my closet. It would probably help if I was actually at my house, but having not seen Ryan since a week before Christmas, it is hard to tear myself away.

Other interesting happenings...

Our friend Scott is moving to Chicago...he will be missed and he is providing further motivation for the much speculated move to be to the Chicagoland area. If my parents would just move to Chicago then it would be an ideal location. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that the mild Tennessee weather has spoiled them for the north. I distinctly remember complaints about the Indiana November when they were up for Thanksgiving. Personally, I love winter and this has been a fun one already and we have at least two more months of it. Were it not for winter, I wouldn't be able to appreciate the summer. Mostly I find the heat uncomfortable and tedious, but after a nice cold winter, spring and early summer seem nothing short of miraculous to me. It is very easy to see the hand of God in the changing of the seasons and the life cycles of our planet. I think that is why I hated Alabama so much. There were no seasons, no rebirth, no wonder in the new life, all the seasons just ran into one another with glaring monotony.

Gotta love the tangents...I will be back later to update on whether the desire to procrastinate triumphed over the need to cross things off the list.

Resolutions from Outside the Loop

Since I forgot the resolutions part of the last post...

1. Lose 15 pounds. Encouraged from the successes of meeting my weight loss goals from the last two years, my ultimate weight goal is finally within my goal.

2. Declutter House. Moving (again) this year is a more than likely occurance. Plus every year I declutter our house (maybe because we move every year). I think it is a good practice to have.

3. Finish School. Or at least this portion of it. Each time I finish a section of my schooling I promise to never go back to school. At this point in my life, I am honest enough with myself to admit that most of the time I really enjoy school. I have decided that should the opportunity arise, I may go back to school in the future. For now, I am scheduled for graduation in December and I would like to make that appointment.

4. Find Real Job. Umm...while this is probably one of the more important ones, it is probably the one I am least motivated to do. In part, this results from the dreamlike state of our current existence, the one where the sense of the future is all very fuzzy. We know we are moving, but we don't know when or where...do you see why it would be difficult to job hunt?

5. Stop biting my nails. I am 24. I have had nails once that I can remember in my life. When I went with my friend to get our nails done before her wedding, the nail people wept at my poor ravaged nail beds.

6. Keep track of our spending. I always start out so well with this and gradually forget to record my earnings and keep track of our cash spending. This ends up being a lot of gray since most of my earnings come in as cash and everything but bills and gas goes out as cash.

7. Play violin in public. My goal used to be to try out for some sort of orchestra or symphony. My goal this year is to sit on a milk crate in Broad Ripple with my violin case open for people to throw money in. I figure the drunks will be less critical than symphony people...or not, who knows but it sounds like fun anyway.

Best of luck in your endeavors this year!

Apologies and Resolutions

My apologies to anyone anxiously awaiting my postings :) So here is what has happened in the last month: Posted last blog posting, scheduled suicide but had to postpone for lack of time, baked holiday goodies, did homework, worked, slept, baked, did homework, workedsleptbakeddidhomeworketc..., went crazy, wrapped presents, had ice storm, Rob had car accident, had another ice storm, worked on final project for three days solid, packed to go to Chicago, waited to jump on the roads after our ice storm, but before Chicago's ice storm (are you catching a trend here), got to Chicago, slept for the first time in a week, drank lots of hot chocolate, ate lots of food, went to Midnight Mass, had Christmas, read nine books, dreaded the end of my two week vacation, forgot to order my textbook for the new class, worked, slept, did homeworkworkedsleptdidhomework (you get the picture?). I did have a break that I could have used to catch up on my blog, but I refused to touch a computer during that time and thus far I have managed to keep my computer from reading my thoughts...