Stories

For me, part of being just like grandma is that you tell stories. They can be your own, but they certainly don't have to be. Telling and retelling (and retelling, and retelling) stories is such a big part of my family. I gave my students an assignment at the beginning of this school year to tell me about a story passed down orally in their family (we were studying Native American Literature) and almost none of them could tell me any story passed around by their families. Tenth graders being stubborn? Maybe. People culturally bankrupted by lack of knowledge of where they come from and who they are? Um, yes!

I intend to make it a part of my mission for this blog to regularly share stories -- family stories, personal stories, and stories of others will be included. I do this to preserve my memories and those of others. Every Friday on the blog will be storytelling Friday. I'll start today with one of my favorite stories my parents used to tell about me when I was little.

I was approximately three years old and my mother was preparing and grooming me so that I would be prepared to attend church services for the first time since my baptism. We were Catholic and the services were somber affairs. There were no children crying, and if there ever was a child who cried, heaven help him or her when he or she got home.

In those days, my mom read me the riot act BEFORE we left the house. "Erika, look at me. We are going to church today. I don't want any of this, or any of that. (this and that being unwanted behaviors, use your imagination). Most of all, you must understand, THERE IS NO TALKING IN CHURCH. Do you understand?"

So finally she decides that I am ready and that my little brain has reached the developmental stage at which I understand what she is saying and will remain quiet throughout a church service. Like any smart mom, she sat in the back and brought some snacks just in case. Unfortunately, she hadn't planned for what came next. The church service began and music was heard throughout the small congregation. The preist came out, did his ritual thing, and began to speak.

Before my mother knew what had hit her, I was standing up in my perfect purple little girl dress and my black patent leather Mary-Janes and shouting in my best you-listen-to-me-you-little-twerp-voice: "MY MOMMY SAID NO TALKING IN CHURCH!"

As you might gather by the fact that I am still living today, the preist did not hear me. However, the old ladies in the back had themselves quite a giggle about it.

What can I say? I've always been a rule follower.

Pictures of the Hourglass Sweater

So I'm finally coming up with some pictures of the hourglass sweater I am making. The second sleeve is very close to complete, and then I will attach it to the body and knit the yoke. :-)

Hourglass Sweater Progress Post

The second sleeve of the hourglass sweater in Last Minute Knitted Gifts has been started. I'm almost to the part where I do some decreasing. I probably have about 5 inches of knitting. I hope this sleeve goes quickly -- I am looking forward to attaching it to the body and starting the yoke. This is the closest I've come to completing a sweater in my life. It looks like this one will actually fit. Thus, I am super excited to finish it and wear it.

I am remiss for not obtaining photos and posting them. I will do that before the sweater is complete -- promise.

10 things I feel good about despite the fact that the economy is, er, well... bad.

Frugal Zeitgeist has challenged everyone to come up with 10 things they feel good about right now despite the brutal economy. http://frugalzeitgeist.blogspot.com/2008/10/bad-old-days.html

I think this is a useful practice. This blogger learned within the last few years that it does no good to focus on what's going bad in your life. It's much better to focus on what to be grateful for, and so this blogger will take the challenge because she has much, much to be grateful for:

1. School. I recently started taking education classes to become certified to teach High School English. In so doing, I left a corporate job that was slowly killing me (and in the meantime, sucking my soul out of my body) to focus on something I felt really passionate about. So far, it's going really well and I'm enjoying the work and the people a lot. I really feel like teaching is something I could do for the rest of my life. The fact that I have this opportunity is absolutely amazing and something I am so eternally and completely grateful for.

2. My fiance. I am also lucky enough to have a man in my life that supports my every move. He's been so great in helping me in my transition from work to school and he's been so very supportive of my life change. It is also worth mentioning that he's smokin' hot. (Hi honey!)

3. Food in the cupboards. No one in our house is starving and thanks to my frugal stashing of non-perishables, no one will be starving for the foreseeable future.

4. Yarn Stash. I've got plenty to knit with to see my through this school year without having to buy yarn, which can get expensive. And thanks to the fact I am no longer selling my soul to a corporate master, I have the inclination and occasionally the time to knit.

5. Good friends. I don't have a lot of good friends, but I do have some. Their companionship is worth a lot to me. In addition, I am blessed in that I now have the privilege of maybe making some new friends through school. There is one person that I am cautiously liking and getting a bit closer to in my classes.

6. Nature. Lots of things qualify here: the boat ride my fiance and I took this weekend, the hiking I used to do (and will continue to do very soon) and just appreciation of the fine fall weather and colors that have come our way recently.

7. Pets. We recently lost one of our beloved guinea pigs, Nala. I miss her every day. Our other pigs are in good health and seem to be getting on fine without her, and for that I am grateful. Pepper had a skin problem that seems to be clearing up now and that is a relief. In addition, our hamsters are in good shape and the cat is.... well, the cat. (Otherwise known as the Tues).

8. Holidays are coming. I am so exicited for Christmas and Thanksgiving this year. This is likely to be one of the more frugal Christmases we have celebrated in recent years, given our collective situation, but I already have a lot of presents that I'm quite excited to give to people. I have been able to give good presents because I have watched and shopped sales. I am looking forward to spending time with people we haven't seen in a while and baking bread and cookies and watching movies with my family and snorgling with the cat and watching the snow fall (here's hoping for copious amounts) and maybe getting the chance to work seasonal retail during winter break?

9. Health. Other than my teeth, my back, and my neck, I am in pretty good shape. Here's hoping the teeth hold out til I'm working a paying job again.

10. Life. Hey, I'm alive to be taking all these risks, right? And that's a wonderful thing in and of itself.

IN-highly changable and variable

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has always been of great interest to me. I have taken it twice formally on paper, and a countless number of times on the internet. The first time I took it (on paper), I was 18 years old. I scored an ESFJ. The second time I took it (also on paper), I scored INTP. Since then, I have taken it many times and have always scored IN something. Most of the time I score INTP, INTJ, or INFP. It tends to depend on my mood that day. Today, however, I scored and INFJ. It just goes to show you that one can grow as an individual well into their late 20s. Or maybe it just shows that I haven't figured out everything about myself yet. Either way, it's a positive sign. I like having some aspects of my personality be in flux. I wonder if I will ever settle on a definitive personality type. I think my dominant personality type is INTP, I really do. But there are some aspects of my personality that come out that skew the T or the P part of myself, and I think that's a good thing, especially because those are the aspects that concern feelings and empathy for people. I keep growing in this aspect of my life and while I'll probably always be kind of a spaz, I'd like to think that someday I'll feel more comfortable in my interactions with others.

I just had a thought. I wonder if CafePress carries T-shirts proclaiming one's Myers Briggs type. Only a total geek would have that kind of thought. I'm off to check. Yes, yes they do. It proves that I am not the only one that's sort of insanely proud of my "label" -- even if it is highly variable and sort of fluctuating. This is my favorite design: http://shop.cafepress.com/design/5488584 -- particularly the "Inherent Need To Perfect."

Oh shoot, there are so many funny ones though: I Need Time Perhaps; Ineluctably Nearer To Procrastination; Interesting Novel Thoughts Proliferate; It's Never Too Precise; and Inventions Never Too Practical.

Groundhog Day

One of my classmates said in class tonight, "I feel like the guy from groundhog day."

I said "I wish for those days where I felt like that."

I started thinking about this on the way to my next stop (no, not home, but the library, where I currently am. I'm supposed to be doing homework.... riiiiight). Do I really feel that way? No, I guess not. I do long to have a routine again, to have the "new normal" feel like simply normal. But does it ever do to become as comfortable as I was in my corporate job? I don't think it does. If you're that comfortable, you aren't learning anything. I have learned more in the past six weeks than I learned for years previous to this experience.

The truth is that it is only benefiting me to feel this uncomfortable. That seems strange to say, but it's really true. The truth is that I wasn't living until very recently. I was existing. My fiance told me recently that my worst days now are better than my best days were then. I hadn't realized he felt that way. It makes me sad that only now is he really learning about who I really am. The happy me. The me that wants to get out of bed in the morning and get to work!

I need to remind myself that all that I'm feeling and experiencing is good, even when it feels weird or uncomfortable.

One year closer to grandma

So as of tomorrow, I am no longer 26 goin' on your Grandma. I'm 27. Still going on Grandma though. The title of the blog is being changed accordingly.