November 24
[ Taken October 25, 2009 | yellow leaves | Dayton, OH ]
I have been buried in work. Buried. 50-60 hour weeks have become the norm. I realize that with the economy being the way that it is, I ought to be grateful that I have a job, despite the fact that I am being overworked at the moment. And I try to be mindful of that, I do. And I also remind myself that there are plenty of careers for which a 50-60 hour week is considered a short week. But it can be thin comfort when I have spent 11 hours in the office, or when I come home only to have to log right back in to keep working.
So while I am thankful that I have a job, and that it is a job that I love most of the time, right now I am mostly thankful that I have the whole of Thanksgiving week off to rest.
What with the whole "stressful work enviornment" thing going on lately, I have been trying to go to yoga class more often, on that theory that yoga = stress-reducing, and I could use some of that. It does work... I always come out of class feeling all warm and loose and generally free from all tension or stress.
The stretching, the core strength work... I like those about yoga. The spiritual aspect, I could take or leave. One of the things I like the most about my teacher is that she is pretty matter-of-fact about the different poses and what we can get out of them, and is not all woo-woo mystical. Yoga does tend to attract a lot of massage therapists, granola-people, vegeterians, vegans, and other brands of hippie, though.
The other day someone brought vegan carob-chip cookies to class for everyone. I passed.
If you leave out the smugness, I have no issues with a lot of vegan cooking (though I do derive endless amusement from vegan and vegetarian meat substitutes that are made to look and taste as much like meat as possible. why?) as long as they stick to grains and veggies and don't try to sneak in a lot of substitutes (vegan cheese?) as a lot of what I cook and eat could conceivably fall under the label of "vegetarian/vegan" if I choose to apply it. Which I don't. If it tastes good, I eat it.
Vegan baking however... I find vegan baked goods to almost always be vile. Things like eggs, milk, and butter are pretty essential to a successful baked good.
I will just have to remember to never wear my "Bacon is a vegetable" t-shirt to yoga class. Mmmm. Bacon.
I am thankful that I have stuff like yoga, and the dance studio, and the SCA so that I have non-work activities to indulge in.
Over the weekend I got some hair color that was advertised as "medium golden brown" to use to cover up some of the silver-grey hair that I have started to get. I thought that it would leave most of my hair pretty much as-is, and just color the grey bits. Instead it turned all of my hair a kind of a light auburn. It isn't bad... just not really the effect that I was going for.
I am thankful that at least the grey is (temporarily) covered, that the home dye-job didn't go really wrong, and that it will wash out over the next six weeks.
John and I are going to go visit his folks for Thanksgiving, and this afternoon I am making a batch of pizzelles to bring, as I do not want to just show up empty-handed. I am really looking forward to this trip.
I am thankful that I really like all of my in-laws and enjoy spending time with them. And I am thankful that John likes my family as well.
I am thankful for my family - for my parents and brothers and grandmothers and other realtives. I wouldn't be who I am and where I am without them.
I am thankful that Merlin is still around to annoy John and myself with her crankiness. At 15, she is getting pretty old.
Tonight John and are going out to dinner.
Of all of the things that I am thankful for, he is right at the top of the list.
Happy Thanksgiving.
November 1
[ Taken October 25, 2009 | yellow leaves | Dayton, OH ]
I am not particularly good with plants. I forget to water them, and they die. Or I go in the opposite direction, overwater them, and they die. Or the cats eat them, and they die. The only exceptions to this rule are the Clementine tree (cats don’t care for the scent/taste of citrus) and a couple of succulents (the cats don’t nibble on them much and they are hardy enough to survive intermittent neglect).
So imagine my surprise that my African Violet is blooming.
I have owned (and killed) several African Violets. They are usually flowering when you get them, but the flowers drop off quickly, and you are left with only the broad, fuzzy leaves. This is the first time that I have ever had an African Violet come around and start to bloom again.
The trick-or-treating last night? Was quiet. I think that we maybe got a dozen kids come round, total. There are a lot of leftovers.
When we went grocery shopping this afternoon we noted that the store had wasted no time at all in clearing out the Halloween stuff and putting out the Christmas stuff. So much for half-off Halloween candy. And November 1 is just a little early to start buying bags of candy with snowflakes and Santa on them.