Tag: me

For My House with a Fireplace

Sara sent me a ridiculous catalog filled with $5000 geegaws and a lot of things that added fuel to my always burning fire that wealthy people should be paying a lot more in taxes.

That said, I thought this idea was genius. Built-in seats near the fire! I would do it in wrought iron, though. I don’t love the look of brass.

(Nearly) a Year of Neighborhood 5Ks

Matt and I made a plan to do a neighborhood 5K on the fourth Saturday of every month in 2021. It didn’t end up like it started. The walk/run 5K gave way to a walking 5K probably around June. And Matt wasn’t always present. In July, my mom was in the hospital and it was right before the wedding, so I missed that one. But the 11 other months? I did that 5K.

In this case, I put on my hiking shoes, because we had some icy snow.

And that got me to my latest badge! I’m not doing this challenge again in 2022, because I’d like to branch out to other exercise, but this was a good motivator for 2021.

Lace for my Wedding Dress

This summer, I was rummaging around for something having to do with the wedding, when I found this stretch of lace. In college, I started tatting it with the idea that I would add it to my wedding dress (or even design and sew my wedding dress). At the time, I had no plans to marry, so you can see how enthusiastic I was to finish it. (Also, you can see that I wasn’t good at joining the segments.)

Having now married in a dress that I didn’t make and that didn’t work with this lace, I wrote a note about the genesis of the lace and put the lace and the note in a free box near me. Hopefully someone will do something fun with it.

Weighted Blanket at the Orange Door

Having long been a fan of a stack of heavy blankets on me (it’s why my heavy quilt goes on my bed when the weather gets cold) I’ve long thought that I would be the perfect match with a weighted blanket. Birthday money came my way and I decided to give the weighted blanket a try.

Alas, the weight wasn’t quite as I was hoping (I was hoping for the feeling I get when they put my apron on at the dentist before the x-ray) and so I found a new home for this weighted blanket.

When You Fashion Your Own Sick Time

My company gives us PTO in a lump. There isn’t separate sick time. This bugs me, because how much vacation do you really have?

When there was a lull, I made my own way to track sick time. I give myself 5 hours of vacation and 1.67 hours of sick time per pay period.

I can also use this sheet to plan out when I have enough PTO for vacations.

First Day as a Copy Editor

Hey look! I’m a full-time copy editor with benefits and everything! Today is my first day working for MFA. Maul, Foster & Alongi, Inc., provides environmental consulting and a whole host of other things. I’m looking forward to learning the ropes. That’s my new, company-issued laptop behind me. I’ve got a lot of other new things too. There’s going to have to be a room reorganization.

Photo from the Past

My friend S. North gave me this photo of use taken on the porch of the Leverett, Massachusetts house she was living in in the mid-90s. I’d lived with her and one other roommate (most likely the person who took this photo) for a summer and came back to visit that winter. We lived on 868 N. Pleasant St., though. She had moved by this time.

There are things I love about this picture. The fact that we both now live in Portland and see each other regularly. That I’m still overly reliant on one sweater-type object, bright in color, to keep me warm. (That’s my famous green sweater in the picture. It was given to me by friend Sara because her Great Aunt Hazel died and she knew I would love Great Aunt Hazel’s sweater.) I love that S. North still wears caps like that. That porch sitting was very fun.

However, this is what I wrote on Instagram:

Back in my green-sweater-wearing, porch-sitting days.

The truth behind this photo is that this was one of the hardest times in my life. My connections were few and felt tenuous and it was tough to get through every single day. I’m lucky to still be here.

There were respites, like this trip, and I’m glad to have had those days of light.

Mental health issues are tough. Hard to spot, hard to get treatment for in our health delivery system, and hard to overcome. It’s been a few decades since I’ve felt this way and I still do daily work to keep from sliding back.

While I do pine for parts of that time in my life I know I’ve traded it for something more solid and happier.

If right now is a dark time for you, keep reaching out, keep trying to get help, keep trying different things to make you feel better. The world can seem crappy and not worth sticking around for, but it is. Really