My last post summed things up pretty well. I still don’t have any photos of unicorns or rainbows, but I’m working on it. Instead you can have a photo I took on Easter weekend on a chilly beach in Sudbury.

Summer is here and I’m preparing for a week of vacation in sunny Manitoba. I’m knitting up a storm because I’ve not used these past six months to finish my family’s Christmas presents. I’m one and a half down, two and a half to go. There will be many photos of finished projects once they are blocked and such, so stay tuned!

Much progress has been made in the cleaning of the apartment and the brain/soul searching I’ve been doing. Applying for jobs once again is a humbling and frustrating experience. So many of the jobs I’d love to do and I am perfectly qualified for are being posted, but it’s so obvious that they are being posted for someone already in the position. Requiring 2.46 years experience in the position is kind of a dead giveaway. Okay maybe I’m exaggerating.

I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my (very short less than five year) career. And I get caught up in them. When really I need to focus on the bills. Because sometimes little details get lost in the big picture. For the first time ever I’m working on having more than one iron in the fire (even though there is one really big iron right now that I’m not talking about for fear of jinxing it) and we’ll see how it goes.

But that will wait. At least until I get home from Manitoba. I plan on taking lots of photos. And doing yard work. And working on super secret projects. And hopefully at least once being able to dabble my toes in one of Manitoba’s fine lakes. Will it be Lake Minnewasta or Lake Winnipeg? Who knows!

But most of all I’m looking forward to spending quality time with Mom, Dad, little sister, and little brother. I love being in Toronto and I loved being in Ottawa. But I love my family like bonkers and it’s so terrible to be away from them. They worry about me being jobless and being able to provide for myself while being so far away. I worry about that too. Someday I want to have a job where I can have the flexibility to go home for a week and it not be Christmas time. I’m lucky that Joe was able to get this week off work. I’m lucky (and unlucky at the same time) that I’m able to go because I don’t have a job.

The soul searching continues. And the knitting. Oh gosh the knitting.

I’m happy.

Like rainbows and unicorns happy.

That’s right, I said it. I’m being happy just been being.

I’m not having to capture moments with Joe because they are so few and far between. I’m not travelling between Ottawa and Toronto on a cramped bus. I’m not having panic attacks about work. I’ve had enough contracts to help Joe make sure we’re eating. I’ve had lots of cuddle time with my cats. I call Mom and Dad and tell them about my day and I don’t whine and complain. I’m volunteering more. I’m meeting new people. In fact, I met some really great people tonight and hope I can hang with them more often.

My biggest problem at the moment is PMS. But that’s a short-lived problem. My biggest worry? What I’ll pack for my upcoming trip to Manitoba.

That’s right, I’m not worried about cleaning (apartment is a mess, oh well) or anything. I’m just happy being.

So beware. Lots of ideas are brewing, especially ones that might help me stay in this self-employed state of bliss.

That includes a lot more photos to make up for all the ones I’ve not taken recently. Especially ones of rainbows and unicorns.

/vanishes

• Thank the person who gave them this award/roped them into this meme. (Thanks Bad Mummy!)
• Share 7 things about myself.
• Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who I’ve recently discovered and that I think are fantastic! I’m not very good at tagging people, so if you read this…you are tagged!

I also think it’s worth noting that seven things is really too easy. The last list I did about myself (in 2005! When I started blogging!) was 100 things. Without any further adoooo, here we go!

1. I’ve got the best boyfriend on earth. He’s the brother of a friend from Ottawa and we met at her birthday party. We started talking on the phone and the Internet and quite quickly realized that seeing each other in person quite regularly was something we wanted to do. We spent almost a year traveling between Ottawa and Toronto and then I decided that I was ready to pick up and start fresh in Toronto. And we’ve been living together ever since. I love him dearly and he doesn’t even annoy me one little bit ever.

2. I love working. I’m not a workaholic as I’m way too lazy for that. But when I have work to do that’s appreciated/that makes my brain work/that makes me feel needed I am in love! The money is of course nice, but much better is being able to communicate and collaborate and cheer each other on. And for your information, I’m on a contract right now that I LOVE TO BITS. This is big because I used to be very unhappy at work. I worked for the public service and had some very emotional and psychologically moments that affected me deeply.

3. I play World of Warcraft. In fact, I’m playing as I type this. I’ve been playing Horde since October 2006 (I think…) and I just recently started playing Alliance. I love both for different reason, but am right now really digging Alliance as it’s a whole new game. I have a level 80 druid, a level almost 80 paladin and two lowbies: a priest and a shaman. As you can tell, I love playing classes capable of healing. My favourite races to play are tauren, draenei, and night elf.  I’ve been playing Warcraft since the beginning and I love everything about it: the lore, the graphics, the everything!

4. I have gained and now lost a significant amount of weight in my 28 years on this planet. My main gain happened in university and the leadup to entering the public service. Being unceremoniously dumped added the final 20 pounds. I went to the doctor and she of course wanted me to lose weight and provided a much needed push. My little sister was also getting married and I didn’t want to be the fat sister bridesmaid. I was still a chubby sister bridesmaid, but as of the wedding I’d lost almost 50 pounds. That’s been a year now and I’ve not really made much of an effort, but thanks to changes in eating patterns my weight now starts with a two for the first time in a long time.

5. I call myself a writer these days and I’m quite happy about that. In my last list I mentioned that I wanted to call myself a writer so I’m happy to say that after five years I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I am one! I had a bit of a rough go while I was working for the public service because I had a manager who pretty much destroyed any confidence I had about any of my skills, but since then I’ve had lots of opportunities to prove to myself and others that I can make writing happen with my fingers.

6. I love food and food related activities. I used to be an emotional eater and now I’m just an eater. And a maker. I love to make and eat things, or go out and eat things, or have someone make things for me so that I can eat them. I’m not a picky eater at all, but I’ve finally learned that I can say that I don’t prefer something and be okay with that. I’m not the biggest fan of some tofu related products (and soy can be pretty evil, more on that someday) but you deep fry it and chances are it goes in my belly. My favourite food are the wings of chickens: spicy or sweet or hot or saucy or not, I love ‘em all. And P.S. coffee rules.

7. I love my family more than anything. Perfect bookends: I started with Joe and for the finale I’ll talk about how awesome my Mom, my Dad, my little sister, and my little brother are. I have grown much closer to my family in the time that I’ve been away from Manitoba, and even more closer in the time since I was dumped. I realized then the importance of my support system and keeping it healthy. The phone and the Internet are lifelines to home and my visits are less far and few between.

We have a more recent family picture, but it’s not nearly as cute as this one. For instance, in the newer photo I’m looking at the camera but my hair isn’t nearly as awesome. Little sister and brother are cute, but not as cute as this. Mom’s glasses are waaaaay smaller, but her smile is still as beautiful. And well, Dad’s not smiling in either photo . One of us has to be serious.

This is our family. And today is Mother’s Day. Well, for another hour it’s Mother’s Day. But I’ve already called my Mom and she’s already enjoyed a lovely supper compliments of little sister. Our family has a great Mom.

I’ve been procrastinating all day about what to say. Mom will appreciate this as she of all people knows how well I procrastinate. And I’m sure that before I even mention this, she’s already thought of my Grade Three project on cows. I’ll tell you about that some other time.

The main reason that I’ve been procrastinating is because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write. I’m usually pretty good about planning out a post before I write it, but this time I had so many ideas and so many stories I could tell that everything was all jumbled and nothing flowed. I wanted to make the perfect post for my perfect Mom and it just wasn’t turning out the way I wanted. So I decided I’d tell her (and the Internet) one really good thing.

My Mom hugs me enough.

One of the (many) things I know my Mom worries about, it’s that she didn’t hug me enough. I was (and still am) a weird kid. I didn’t really enjoy getting hugs. I’m still not really a hugger around people I don’t know very well. But I’ve come to appreciate hugs now, even if they make me feel uncomfortable. Especially if they are from my Mom. Cause these days when we’re so far apart, they are many but far between.

I love you Mom, Happy Mother’s Day. xoxoxo

I’ve had a “glorious” head cold for a week and yesterday was the first day I could think straight. I wish I could say that I’d taken that time to knit up a storm (as I have three projects in the works), but sadly it was a lot of sleeping and whining to myself. As Joe was lucky enough to be at work. So he didn’t have to witness the whining.

Originally posted February 4, 2010.

Some of you might know that I was dumped in a rather unbelievable way. It’s nice when people use the words “heartbreaking” and “inhumane” to describe my ordeal. However, out of it all came a time for me to do a lot of soul searching and a lot of thinking about who I am and what I do. I’ve come up with a list of things that I want to be able to describe myself as in the process.

And “knitter” is one of them.

I had found this pattern (Mosey Legwarmers in the Spring 2008 Issue of Knitty) while daydreaming at my desk and reading blogs. It looked altogether too complicated as I hadn’t knit in ages. My Grandma C. had spent some time teaching me and my Grandma A. knitted and crocheted up a storm. My Mom is also a crocheter and my Great Aunt and my Lang Amma were good with the needles and hooks as well.

And then the OC Transpo Great Strike of 2008 began.

You see, I lived downtown. However, the difficulty I had getting out of bed to go to work was amplified that I had to cross a river to get there. And in the cold of winter? I wasn’t really motivated to walk. Even if it was good exercise.

Thankfully a new colleague D. had arrived and she had a car and offered a ride. I helped to pay her parking, but the better part was that we became fast friends/accomplices during the neverending strike. I had been throwing the idea around about making her something to thank her, but generally became exhausted when thinking about how hard knitting or crocheting seemed to be and gave up. But then one day for some reason I showed her the pattern for the Mosey legwarmers and I knew I had to make them for her. She offered to pay for the wool and I thought I was getting a really good deal. But as I’ve quickly come to learn, it’s not the cost of the wool that matters in the grand scheme of determining something’s value: it’s the number of woman hours.

I started making these leggings the first weekend in March and I traded the cost of gas for a trip to Toronto with D. I felt good about it, but little did I know that I’d not give her the leggings for nine more months. You see, the weekend after that I met Him. And though the endless bus rides to and from Toronto would allow me to have some time to work on my project, I was happily distracted by getting to know Him. It wasn’t until I sat down over this past Christmas at home and really concentrate that I was able to finish them. The pom poms are seriously my favourite part.

I didn’t have much time between getting back to Ottawa and packing to go to Toronto, so I wasn’t able to take any photos of the leg warmers on my own, as I wanted the lovely D. to model for me! Thankfully she was able to take some photos for me and as you can see: the legwarmers aren’t half as divine as she is.

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