Happy Belated Birthday

Tuesday was my Matty's birthday - the big 33! I surprised him by having a few friends meet us at a new(ish) Sushi place in our neighborhood. I'm not a huge sushi fan but even I found tons to eat. Everyone raved about the food and the service was excellent. They comped us 2 dishes, 1 cocktail and sent Matt home with a set of shot glasses for his birthday!

I also surprised him with his gift - a thule roof rack installed on my car! And a gift certificate to Rack-n-Road so he can choose his own cargo box. This is so he can haul around his windsurfing gear (when he finally buys it!) and be able to hit the wind on his own time. The place I had it installed in San Rafael was terrific. The manager didn't even laugh too hard when I asked about first getting a rack installed on his car - a 95 Honda del Sol. I told her it never hurt to check and see if it was an option!

It was nice to give him something he can really use; espcially since the season is starting to open up and the wind is starting to power up.

On a sad note, our friends Lori & Andy lost their cat Noah last night. He was at the vet for a urinary obstruction and was set to come home. As they were on their way to pick him up he passed away. The vet said he had a genetic heart problem and that it could have happened at anytime. I'm so heart broken for them :*(

Finally, I'm getting my knit on! I'm working on/off on a clapotis (my second) and I just cast on for a quick hat to send to a friend's friend who will be going through chemo soon. Perhaps I'm even finally motivated to finish Matt's sweater! And speaking of finished, this is what I sent off to my nephew right before Easter. It was supposed to be an Easter gift but I sent it way too late (to Canada) so I hope it arrives soon! It's a book bag so he can carry his library books by himself!

Happy Fifth Anniversary

This was written by someone I know and posted on Craigslist. It's in the Rants & Raves section and I think it deserves calling out.

Has it really been five years already? Wow, time really flies with the distractions of life. So many things going on that sometimes it’s pretty easy to forget about you. I remember way back when you were projected to be this little $50-60 billion "conflict." But my how you’ve grown! It’s hard to believe that now you’re projected total cost is $3 trillion... that’s a lot of zeros! Your ability to suck all the resources of this nation is quite something. The infrastructure of our nation is suffering in innumerable ways because of the lack of available money. It will likely take near an entire generation to recover from you... whenever you stop.

And how do we even recover from the human losses and tragedies? You know damn well we’ve created another generation of mentally ill war vets, just like those from Vietnam we all see wandering the streets of our major cities. Over 200,000 have applied for disability benefits. Then there’s the 3990 fatalities in the US forces, and by extension 3990 families that have been changed forever. So many of them seem to be young parents. I don’t want to forget the other 308 coalition deaths, the 29,314 US wounded, or countless Iraqi deaths and injuries. And by countless I mean countless. Nobody really knows. But since they started trying to keep track in 2005 there have been 47,000 fatalities.

So war, I really think it’s about time you and I went our seperate ways. I don’t think I can handle another year of you. But to be realistic I know how tricky it can be to end these kind of dysfuctional realtionship, so I’ll just hope that next year at this time we’ll both have moved on and have started the healing process.

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Flying Time

I'm not being as good about this as I hoped (but then again I can say the same thing about going to the gym & eating healthy too!). February was a tough month for me and I think I'm starting to see a little more clearly now. My dear momma sent me a book called Unattended Sorrow by Steven Levine and I've started reading it in little bits. You can definitely only read it in small pieces. So far I'm seeing a lot of valuable information in there and it's speaking to me.

On better news, I just finished a dishcloth exchange with one of my Ravelry groups. It was so much fun to make something and send it off. I can't wait to see how she likes it! I of course forgot to take a picture but she promised to take some for me and send them so I'll have some record! I was excited because I created a pattern for one of the dishcloths based on an image. I think the pattern is pretty great but I wasn't able to end up making that cloth in time to get it sent off. I've not done any colorwork (except for stripes) before and it wasn't coming out very well. I'll take some time to make it right and then will just have to send her a bonus one :)

Windsurfing season has started for Matt. He's gone out a couple times and I think he's finally made the commitment to buying his own gear! That way he can go whenever and where ever he would like and isn't limited to when the Shack/Coyote Point are open. Guess that opens up a whole new world of gift opportunities for him now! And it's pretty convenient that his birthday is next week too!

I begin my EMT classes two weeks from today. I'm so excited! I've been trying to read as much as possible in my text but it's pretty intense. I'm on Chapter 7 - Airway Management and it's 60 pages! I presume that's because airway management is very important, but still - 60 pages! I got my black shoes last night and need to go find some navy blue pants & a black belt too. I'm going to have to buy at least one more shirt (they gave us two) because there is no way I can go through three classes a week on two shirts. Especially since we only get clothes to the laundry about every two weeks! In conjunction with the EMT class I'm taking my work schedule down to part time. Now if only I could pin my boss down to actually talk about this I could check it off on my ever present, internal "to-do" list.

Good Grief

Well, not good but definitely grief.

I attended a memorial service for a co-worker's father today. I never met him but heard many stories from her. There had been trouble over the past year with his health and as shee said, his spirit was too big to be kept in his earthly body.

The memorial service was so lovely. The "family trio" sang two songs - one original written for the father and Amazing Grace; full military honors by the navy with the folding of the flag; lovely poems, readings, photos & memories shared by all of the family members. Even though I never met Al it made me wish I had.

What it did make me do was cry, cry, cry, cry, cry. In fact, it's 5 hours later and I'm still teary-eyed. I think it really brought up lots of my own grief for me. In the past two years I've had a lot of loss; in the past 5 years even more. Attending this memorial made me think back to those that I've lost and bringing back those sad feelings and happy memories. I almost felt embarrassed for crying so much. I know it's because I'm a person who feels things very deeply and crying is how I deal with lots of different stuff - sadness, anger, fear, anxiety, happiness.

So I think tonight I will go home and reflect on those that have gone: Ella, Granny, Tara & Niki, Scot and Alice. All of them are my guardian angels and even though that's a comforting thought, I would still give anything to have them here with me rather than watching over me.

Our Anniversary

OK - so it was really on Sunday but I'm a little late in getting these up! We spent a lovely day together and didn't do anything that we *had* to do! No work around the house, nothing for work - just pure fun!

We started off the morning with breakfast at a place we've never eaten - Curbside on California. It was a small place with great food. I had the french toast & Matt had eggs & chorizo. Both were so yummy. The place was run by one waiter and one hostess and they had it in the palm of their hand. Fun to watch and appreciate as a (way back when) former food server.

We then hit the highlight of the afternoon - a big screen viewing of "The Princess Bride"! What a great flick! Who doesn't love romance, fighting, torture, weddings, kidnappings, monsters and great kisses? I didn't realize the movie came out in 1987. I've only ever seen it on video so it was lots of fun to see it in a proper theatre.

After that lovely diversion we hit REI to return some gear. Funny how you don't just go there to return stuff but you end up coming out with new items too! I had to exchange some shoes that broke (needed to special order) and a bag that was falling apart (I love that bag); I walked out with a new backpack for camping, some headware, a second pair of shoes and some cute little slippers for my niece!

By that time we were starving so we headed out for the best place for calamari we know - The Beach Chalet. The place was hopping, probably due to the nice weather and the proximity to sunset. Rather than wait an hour for a table we sat in the bar area and had a lovely dinner. I don't know what they do to their calamari but it is divine! For dessert we had a chocolate sand castle - fun and yummy.

Then it was home to open presents! I got a great travel book on all of the California Missions & the Presidios. I can't wait to see them all. We hit three last fall and it was so amazing.

And of course I have to say that I love this man dearly. I cannot believe it's been 9 years together. He is my heart; my friend, my love, my lover, my soul, my companion, my motivator and most of all, mine.

Been a while . . .

I think the fact that I'm not sure what to make of this blog is keeping me from updating it on a more regular basis so I will work on correcting that.

On a very sad note, we lost our beloved kitty Ella on 2/3/08. We returned home from being out at a concert and all was fine. Got ready for bed and as we climbed in, we heard something fall and then two awful moan/cries from the kitchen. There was Ella down on the floor. We raced to the emergency vet but there was nothing they could do. She had passed on the kitchen floor and nothing we could have done would have saved her. They believe she had a heart attack or stroke. I am relieved that it was quick for her; if there was any pain or confusion it was minimal at best. I picked up her ashes today and am not really sure what we will do with them. All I know is that it felt right to have her back with us rather than let the vet's office handle it.

Here is a picture of her enjoying her favorite spot in the garden:

She was with me for 12 years and I miss her terribly every day. I know that her special friend Alice is taking good care of her and I am glad they are together, watching out for me.

Chugging along

I've been somewhat productive as of late:

• I'd photographed & cataloged my yarn stash so that I can (eventually) upload it to Ravelry
• I'm almost finished knitting a book bag for my nephew. I will be felting and then embellishing it. I think it will go to him as an Easter present since I didn't get it finished for Christmas!
• I've been studying for my TEAS test (Test of Essential Academic Skills) that is required as one of my nursing program applications
• We've joined the YMCA (and will be going tomorrow night after said TEAS test)

I'm very proud of myself considering that's taking into account the whole "working" thing as well.

What stinks about today is that I threw my sigg bottle in my bag, assuming the lid was on tight and assuming it was empty. It was neither of those things! All of it's contents are spread out on my office floor to dry, along with the bag. Sigh - way to start a Thursday!

I also cancelled my guitar classes. I've got the option to take them any time during the next year so it's like a pre-payment plan. I realized that I'm going to be coming up on a very busy two months before work settles down to nothing. It's not the best time to add a class to the mix. Every time I sat at the calendar to plan stuff out I kept butting up against the Thursday night class. If it was on a different day that may have worked. I'm able to schedule again for any of their next sessions (starting in April) so that should work out well. At least it was a good reason to get Matt's guitar out of storage and up on the stand!