Sunday, June 19, 2011

Has it really been four months????

Let's see.....what's changed in four months.....

GOT MY DEGREE ON TUESDAY!!!!  Yes, convocation was held this past week.  I have to be honest...it was sort of a let down.  I really expected to 'feel something' but no...it was really more like going to the doctor's office:  Sitting foreeeeeeeeeeeeever....then someone calls your name, and you're in and out before you know what happened. I feel sort of foolish spending too much money on a new dress and shoes (which gave me a blister!).  No one got to see it.

I'm actively looking for paid employment -- my strategy is to seek out "the hidden job market" by becoming the Queen of Networking!  I've been to so many meetings, seminars, conferences, committees, you name it.  I have a collection of business cards that rivals my scraps.  I had to buy a CrackBerry to keep up with my email.

I have some very exciting work projects underway -- all unpaid of course, but tremendously challenging, and great padding for my portfolio.  I feel like I'm just weeks away from a good position.  The pieces are all moving in the right direction.  Prayers and positive thoughts please!


ITTY BITTY - has accepted an offer of admission to his 1st choice university, AND gotten a $1500 scholarship. It's only slightly more than an hour away, so he's still close.  He only has two more days of high school, then exams, and hopefully he'll find some summer work to prepare for his first year.  Prom was two weeks ago, and then music awards banquet.  Next Wednesday is Commencement.  Busy, busy, busy!

Oh, and two weeks ago -- he cut off his hair!  I mean CUT! RIGHT DOWN TO THE WOOD!  I'm still having traumatic flashbacks from the harrowing experience.  It had been four years since the last hair cut, and was so thick! and curly! and lovely! half way down his back! When the hair piled up on the floor of the barbershop, it looked like a small dog was napping under the chair. (pardon me while I weep!)  Now he looks so much more like his brother.  And speaking of his brother...

SAILOR BOY - Itty Bitty and I flew out to Halifax for a 4-day weekend over Easter to visit Sailor Boy.  The weather was lovely, and Halifax is gorgeous.  We had a tour of his ship, and did lots of site seeing and shopping.  It was our first time flying, and we did marvelous.  He'll be home for a summer holiday in about a month.  We are beginning to hear from him more regularly -- he must be growing up!

HUBBY - has been working straight nights for the last few months.  It's not easy -- he's probably the worst day-time sleeper EVER - and if he doesn't soon get into some sort of a routine, I'm despairing of him surviving this in any long term sense. 

GIBBY - this cat is going to be the death of me.  He loves to be outside, which means he is always lurking near a doorway, waiting for it to crack open the merest fraction of an inch so he can make his escape.  I try to let him out on his leash whenever I'm home, but that doesn't satisfy him.  Today I videotaped him trying to eat a bumblebee - it was hysterical.


That's pretty much the news.  I hope to be able to settle down a bit before too much longer.  I certainly don't get to quilt anymore, but maybe later this summer I can begin to fit a few minutes in from time to time.

I've been reading a lot though. We seemed to wait so long for some true, honest-to-goodness spring weather this year, and now that it's here - I'm outside anytime from the crack of dawn to sundown.  I love my front porch, and my backyard deck so much.  (sigh) So, I always have a book ready to keep me company.

Right now I'm reading "Casting Off" by Libby Purves. It's a good story so far, but I'm skipping some pages that drone on and on about the weather, sailing -- stuff I don't know anything about and can't relate to!

Friday night I stayed up until the very wee hours of the night reading "After Rain" by Donna Milner.  It's Canadian fiction -- oh how I loathe Canadian fiction!  But this was certainly an exception to my rule.  I had to get to the end to find out what happened between Boyer and Natalie, and if Nettie and Rain were.....noooooooooo.... impossible!  I liked this story a lot.

Recently I read "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.  WOW!  I loved this book!  I gobbled it up in a couple of sessions, and immediately went out and rented the movie starring Julia Roberts.  THAT, my friends, was a waste of two hours of my life I'll never get back.  Yes, it was lovely to look at -- but it was a mistake to ever think that the depth of emotion and spirituality that the book holds between its covers could ever be captured on the screen.  Skip the movie.  Read the book.


Right now, I'm surrounded by three blood-thirsty squirrels, inching towards me on the back deck.  They are all wondering:  uh...Where the hell is the peanut butter!?!?!?!