Sarah's project is complete!

The project I've been working on for the last couple of weeks is finished and has been given to the birthday girl! YAY! She loved it so it was exactly what it was supposed to be.

Now, as promised, here's the info: For background, there are a few things you need to know. First, Sarah has Cystic Fibrosis (look it up and learn more here http://www.cff.org/AboutCF/) and, although her mother does not recall telling her this, Sarah was not expected to live past the age of 19. Her 30th birthday was yesterday and it's kind of a big deal. 30 is a big deal anyway but...

Also, Sarah loves the color red and she adores hearts (her favorite holiday of all time is Valentine's Day) and a majority of her jewelry features hearts in some way, shape, or form. This has the affect that it is really quite impossible to not be happy around her since red hearts and happiness tend to go together pretty well.

Lastly, you need to know the story of a little boy who had Cystic Fibrosis and who overheard his mother talking about it on the phone one day. When she was done talking, he asked his mother "what is sixty-five roses?" You see, he thought she had said "65 roses" instead of Cystic Fibrosis. Now children with CF are taught to say "65 roses" instead of cystic fibrosis because it's a lot easier to say. Thus 65 roses have become the symbol of CF.

OK, and now for the project:

I knew I wanted to make some sort of wall hanging or quilt or something that had 30 hearts representing Sarah's first 30 years of life and 65 roses to represent CF. I found differently cut wooden hearts at a craft store and decided on a wall hanging. So I bought 30 wooden hearts, some paint, some ribbon, and some glue and went to town.





Then I started ordering all different kinds of roses on etsy. I also found some roses in the form of earrings and necklace pendants, hair clips, etc. I ordered them all!!! MUAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!! (OK, so I admit I started getting a little obsessed with the roses but I promise that I have since stopped buying things with roses on them.)

Here's the beginning of my rose stash (this was the very beginning!).



Then I put it all together. :)

Here's the final product on the wall at Sarah's apartment with Sarah (and Griffey who also liked the wall hanging quite a bit and promptly started licking and chewing it).



Here's a video with close-ups of the final product. You'll have to tilt your head to see it as I have yet to figure out how to rotate a video (I figured out the rotating of the pictures at least!).

The company I keep (or not)

Just wanted to share with you the bizarre and grossly divergent conversations that I had the opportunity to eavesdrop on.

I decided to venture out to my favorite neighborhood restaurant/bar this evening, mainly to get out of the house but partially because I didn't feel like cooking. I now realize I've never been here on a Wednesday and as I saddled up to the bar I felt like a stranger instead of the regular I am. Totally ok though because it allowed me to listen unnoticed to the conversations around me.

Ok, get this: on one side the conversation involved phrases like "today Jimmy told me he played with 3rd graders and my immediate thought was 'oh no! 3rd graders? What the hell is wrong with 2nd graders? Why is he spending so much time with older kids?' but then I decided he should make his own decisions."

Whoa.

Then, on the other side of me the conversation involved phrases like "so when I realized it was Bernie Madoff on the phone, I had to stay calm and keep him on the phone while I got the attention of the FBI and SEC guys down the hall. I was talking about deals that suddenly were being scrutinized where they were completely normal just days before!"

What? Too weird!

Oh, and p.s. spring is definitely here: on the walk home the air was thick with the sweet scent of the evening primrose and nightshade blooms filling the neighborhood with their honey scented blossoms that make springtime evenings so delicious here. I do love Northern California. I really do.

is it weird...?

OK, I have always loved vegetables and fruits of all kinds but I seem to have a particular affinity for those that begin with the letter A. Seriously. Think about it: Avocados, Artichokes, Arugula, Asparagus, what's not to love? I even like apples although they really don't like me very much (murderous little buggers!).

So, I ask you: is it weird that I have this particular affinity for fresh food items that begin with the letter A?

Just wondering.

Ah... the things one considers when funemployed [sic].

Sleep, where are you? :(

So this is new: after hours of unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep (so far this has included tossing and turning, having a glass of wine & reading, tossing and turning again, sipping sleepy-time tea, deep breathing exercises, and more tossing and turning), I'm back up. I couldn't think of what else to do now so I will write. It's time for some catching up anyway.

For those of you following my posts, my new fancy smarty-pants phone turned itself on at some point today by the way (I actually think it may be smarter than I am). I still have absolutely no idea why it wouldn't turn on or what finally prompted it to turn itself on but it's working now so... yay. I suspect the issue was 100% user error.

Also, I signed a contract. YAY! I have 9 months of full-time consulting work which gets me to the end of the year with gainful employment and it provides me the flexibility and time I need to continue my in-depth job search. I start on April 1st, which is a Friday, but that means I can have a day to get oriented and then have a couple of days to digest the info before I return on Monday for more learning. I think it will work out well. I am a little nervous about being self-employed and all the paperwork and other stuff that goes with it but I am arming myself with as much knowledge as I can thanks to the internet and a good accountant I will be meeting with next week. Hopefully I don't screw it up! (I am trying to take comfort in the fact that lots of people less intelligent and resourceful than I have made it work so I can too!)

In non-work related news, I have started working on a variety of projects. My biggest project for the past few weeks has been a birthday present for my dear friend Sarah. She's turning 30 next week. I won't give anything away here yet but I'm very excited about it. I will divulge that it involves wood, paint, ribbon, glue, a bunch of little "things" (made of paper, resin, glass, metal and other substances), and the whole of my living room floor. I'm pretty happy with it. Pictures and background story to come next week.

Working on this particular project has made me realize that I need a craft space. A place for my sewing machine to live, space to lay out designs, both for clothes and craft projects. So, once I'm officially working and getting paid again, I will work toward the goal of creating a workable space for this that is not my dining room table or my living room floor, both of which I tend to need for other purposes, such as dining and living, respectively. :)

OK, I am off to try this sleep thing again. I sure hope insomnia isn't a new trend in my life. I have been so careful not to fall into a pattern of staying up super late and sleeping in past a respectable morning time (i.e. sleeping all day). I know it would be easy to fall into a pattern like that and I also know it would be terribly hard to break it so I'm resisting. But this is just unfair! It's not as if I have incredible amounts of work stress or other things to be anxious about, my thoughts aren't churning with worry, I don't have a million things to plan and do. I don't understand this. Hopefully it's just a fluke.

Wish me sleep!

unemployment/vacation

Well, I've made it through an entire week of not working. It is very very strange. Partly, it doesn't feel like I'm not working because this week was full of getting new technology, setting it up, waiting for contracts, etc. so there was a bit of anxiety/mild stress that felt very much work-related.

I also have noticed interesting work-related issues: every evening there is a moment when I automatically reach for some piece of technology with the goal of checking the next day's schedule to prepare for the day. I used to do this nightly apparently to mentally prepare for whatever meetings or conference calls I had the next day. Now I have to remind myself, as I'm reaching for a piece of technology, that I have nothing scheduled, no meetings, no conference calls. It really is strange though because there's always a tiny moment of an empty feeling, as though that empty schedule means my life is empty. The moment passes though as the realization spreads through my brain that an empty calendar means that I can sleep in, work on my projects, do whatever I want to do!!!

Yesterday I spent 3 hours sitting at a coffee shop reading my book. And it was lovely.

Today, however, I am fighting with technology again. My new fancy smarty-pants phone, which I have been learning how to use and am pretty excited about, won't turn on. I have charged it, I have yelled at it, I have calmly explained to it that I would really like for it to turn on, I have plugged it in, unplugged it, everything. WHY WON'T IT TURN ON????? ARGH!

So, today's plans, whatever they may be, will include a trip to a t-mobile store.

*Sigh*

more tech stuff

OK! Lets hear it for the first blog post written on my new laptop!!!

I was going to wait to get a new laptop until I officially started working (haven't seen that contract yet but I'm confident I will get it this week) but it is really hard checking your email on a device that refuses to load any single page. My old ultra-portable netbook has finally died completely.

So, as I still need to be in email communication, continue searching for jobs, etc. I had to go out and get a new computer. This is always a scary thing for me to do because I really don't know what I'm doing and that makes me vulnerable, which I really don't like.

Fortunately, I have access to a team of super geeks. They are super geeks in two ways: 1. they are super as in superlative, wonderful, amazing people, and 2. they are more geek than average geeks as in super-geek. And I needed them today.

I went to Best Buy this morning (another post later on my first day of non-employment) and was very annoyed. The sales person (I think he may have been 12 years old) never once asked me what I was looking for in a laptop but instead said, "oh! you're looking for a laptop? Let me show you my favs." Favs? Really? We can't even say the whole word anymore? It is just 3 syllables! Fav-or-ite. Easy, see?

Anyway, I wasn't interested in this child's "favs" so I left. I sent a couple of text messages to my super geeks and spent some time on the phone with a couple of them. Armed with more knowledge I returned to the store later in the day and ended up buying a new laptop WITHOUT all the fancy add-ons.

I have now successfully downloaded and installed anti-virus and spyware scammer/spammer finder whammer hoopla doopdi-do (I don't know! I just do what I'm told by the super geeks) and activated microsoft office 2010.

I am feeling very good about this new fancy, really light-weight and portable laptop of mine. New smarty pants phone, new fancy pants laptop, I'm ready to go!

scary stuff!

I have just completed the first step in becoming an independent contractor/consultant. YIKES!

Ok, let me back up a moment here and give some context: I had the final conversation/interview yesterday with the folks with whom I will sign a contract next week to provide consultancy services (YAY!). This is all very exciting but since nothing has been officially signed yet I don't want to get ahead of myself on the celebratory front so I'm staying very calm for the moment.

Now, it might be strange but I have a very sentimental attachment to my phone number. I've had it for 12 years and I kind of like having a phone (albeit a cell phone) that is just that. A phone. Not a tiny little connector to the broad world of the internet, emails, facebook, etc. I like having a simple device that can function as a simple phone.

I do, however, need a smart phone for work purposes. I need to be able to connect to the web, receive and send emails, etc. when I'm on the move. I also feel like I need a California area code. This puts me in a bit of a pickle: On the one hand, I have this sentimental attachment to the old number with an Ohio area code (and - lets be real here - it will take a long time to get through all of the people in my address book to let them know about a new number (read: I'm lazy). Plus, how does one do that with people you haven't talked to in a long time? Like a decade or so? Send a text? "Hey, I know we haven't connected in a really long time but just in case you ever want to talk to me, I'm changing my number. I know I'm that important to you..." No. Seems weird.)

But, on the other hand, when I give people in California my contact information, the inevitable question is, "614? Where's that?" And then I have to say, "Ohio" and they just assume I'm a country bumpkin (which I don't even know how to spell) or that I'm not going to stick around but rather run back "home" to Ohio.

Incidentally, I also like to keep "personal" and "professional" separate. So, my solution idea was to add a line to my existing phone contract. Luckily, there's an online special going on at t-mobile where you can get a fancy new super smart I-would-never-buy-that-for-myself-it's-WAY-too-expensive phone for free if you add a line to an existing contract. HA! Perfect!

I fancied myself quite brilliant as I began the process of adding a line. Sadly, I have to confess that as I went through all the steps of the process - adding new services (I have to have a data package now) and choosing a smart phone (NOT easy when you have "self perpetuated technological retardation") - I got nervous. At no point was I asked the question "what area code would you like?" Since the whole point here was to get an area code that is different from the one currently on the contract, that's the only question I really wanted to answer.

I couldn't figure out how to figure it out so I spent 10 minutes trying to locate a phone number on the website to call and ask them for help with my web-based order.

I am so not tech savvy.

After explaining the whole thing to Mark, the very patient customer service representative, several times over (no, I'm not bringing my current number to t-mobile, I've been with you for 12 years. No, I'm not adding a new line to the same phone number. No, I don't want to add lines for my non-existent children thank you very much!), he finally had an AHA-moment and understood what I was trying to do. Whew! For a minute there I thought I was going to have to give up and just hope they would assign a number that goes with my billing address as opposed to a number that matches the existing one.

In the end, it turns out, that's what they do anyway. They give you a number that matches your billing address. You don't get to have any say in that. In this particular instance I don't care since the outcome is the one I wanted so I suppressed my instinctual desire (need?) to argue the merits of this policy.

So: I will be receiving a fancy new smarty pants phone some time next week and I will be a grown up consultant with a California phone number for those professional types in my life. (I'm DEFINITELY keeping my old phone for a while though!!!)

And another adventure begins...