Virtual Horses, Karma, and my Grandpa

Been kinda lazy lately. I started playing a horse simulation on my iPad that lets you pretend you own a horse. When I get to the 5th grade, I hope to try the my-dog and my-cat and get-a-life apps too. Ha.

School is good. Although karma got me good on Monday. I noted a forum post regarding where to locate an article referenced in several homework problems. I gloated that my fellow student hadn't thought to check the univerisity library's online databases and had only done a google search. Imagine my chagrin later when I realized this student wasn't getting an early jump on homework due the following week. The homework was actually due in class at 6:30 p.m. (I found this out at 5:30, half an hour before I had to leave for class on the light rail.) Yep, karma.

I couldn't blame karma when I found out my project paper (ironically about Inefficiencies for adult ADHD patients in obtaining ADHD medications that are classified as controlled) is due next Tuesday. I was absolutely shocked--had thought I had more time on it. Then I checked my self-imposed timeline for completing parts of the project and sure enough, it said "complete paper" on 11/1/11. No excuse. Well, maybe ADHD. Nah. More like, I forgot to actually follow the timeline I set out for myself.

My grandpa isn't doing very well and I'm not sure what to say to my mom. Please don't tell her this, but part of me is ok with him dying (peacefully) so that she can stop worrying day and night about his health and happiness and all. I want my mom to start enjoying her life without all us kids around and doing some of the hobbies and volunteering and socializing that people do at her age who don't have to care for elderly parents. (He's 93 and a brittle diabetic and heart patient. He's had a wonderful and lengthy life.) That being said, I will be sad when he dies. But it certainly won't be shocking or unexpected or any cause to feel guilt, bitterness, or anything else. I fear some in my extended family may bring these negative feelings to his impending death and this is such a shame. It bothers me. Hey, I can't predict my life, but say I get to a nice old age and have enjoyed my life and built positive relationships and lived in an honest and balanced manner--no hurt feelings, no family politics, no blaming when I do hit the hay for good. I want it to be bittersweet. People are happy to have known me during my life and happy to remember me and sad I am gone. That's all.

That all being said, I love life and intend to make the most of it for as long as I have.

The Elegance of the Beadcrafts

Been awhile since I have updated. I am reading Elegance of the Hedgehog. It's both witty and philosophical. Slow-going though, which is fine by me, since reading is the perfect activity on my trips to class four nights a week. (I know I should be reading my textbooks. I will start with that in earnest once exams begin to approach...)

I feel very happy in general. Not every minute, and certainly not without having worked for that balance. I have been working out a bit, playing with cats, doing schoolwork, pursuing some job leads, working on crafts, reading, watching tv, went to a corn maze last week with the boyfriend and had a blast, and socializing with actual humans a teeny tiny bit. Overall, feel pretty optimistic.

Here are my finished bead projects. Got the patterns from the same book I've been working out of. The stitching for all three is called peyote stitch and is pretty quick to do once you get the first few rows set up.

Strawberries: really fun to make! Lizard: took longer, may become a coaster or a wall hanging.

The Finished Piano-Keys Bracelet!!

Bookshelf Game

I just realized how amusing the titles of some of the books on my bookshelf would be if one adds "in bed" to the end of each title. (Just like in that fortune cookie game!) Try it:
note: some of the business books belong to my MBA-student boyfriend

The Essentials
An Inconvenient Elephant
Buy-in
Total Leadership
Barbeque
The Five Dis-functions of a Team
Complete Confidence
1001 Ways to Do Good
Getting to Yes
Tales from the Top
A Sense of Urgency
Why I Love You
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love
The Four Purposes of Life
Eat This, Not That
Bonjour Laziness
The Way of the Peaceful Warrior
Getting to Happy
Up in the Air
Eat, Pray, Love
(Good Housekeeping's) Stain Rescue
The Audacity of Hope
The Dilbert Principle
The Value of Nothing

Also, I am almost done with that piano-keys bracelet. Will post a pic when I'm done!

Beadwork project

Piano keys bracelet in work. New beading technique for me!

I am making a piano key bracelet with black and white seed beads (the really tiny kind). I am doing it with square stitch, which is a new technique I mastered last night with directions from a book of beading patterns and techniques I bought on sale at the Border's going out of business sale. The pattern for the piano keys is also straight out of the book.

This technique is an alternative to weaving on a bead loom, but it is much slower. Instead of adding a row at a time like on a loom, I have to sew on each individual bead. Having more trouble with knots in the bead thread (when it twists up on itself and makes a "fake knot" that you can only undo by loosening the twisted up threads before proceeding. (Not fun to do over and over, but it's the tradeoff I get for using such long threads.) I tethered the end of the string to a pedometer so it would have some stability, particularly when I started the first few rows.

This project is going to take awhile, but it's pretty enjoyable to do! I'll update when I have it mostly or fully complete in a few days!

The Infinite Time Error

Pic at left is cat popping out of the couch cushions. I waited a good minute with the camera before he popped out. I guess burrowing in couch cushions is fun if you are a cat.

Anyways, I am going to describe how the infinite time error works. Is this unique to me?

I RSVP'd to join a few friends at a Denver event happening today called Taste of Colorado. We are meeting up at noon today (note the current time, 11:32, and the impossibility of me joining them at the designated meeting time since I first have to get to an ATM to get out some cash and I need to take the Light Rail public transit to downtown Denver.)

Anyways, I decided to invite a few more friends to join me and they said sure, but then they said maybe they'd come by this evening and I said, sure just text me.

It wasn't until last night that it occurred to me that I am now supposed to be meeting two different groups of friends at the same event at distinctly different times. I want to hang out with both groups of friends and I told both I'd be there.

So obviously, some tactful text messages and decisions can resolve this. However......I fall victim almost daily to what I call the "Infinite Time" trap. It's pretty humorous actually. Things like counting backwards from my volunteer commitment at 3 p.m. (be there at 2:45, leave house at 2:15, start gathering water bottle and sunscreen and other things together at 2, stop watching tv at 2.) Instead, I'll find myself just starting to get ready at 2:30.

Other randomness: just finished The Smartest Guys in the Room, about Enron. Very long book, but it captured my interest from the beginning and stayed fascinating.

I'm not a crazy cat lady because I like to party

Cats are weird:
Tasks that require a cat-free space bother my "attention-whore" year-old cat to the extent that he feels compelled to do the most adorable, purring "kitty-flop" right in the middle of whatever I am working on. Whether he gets right in the middle of laundry sorting, putting together a puzzle (see picture), lays on the keyboard causing random windows to pop up, or joins me "helpfully" at the side of my plate of food waiting for handouts......it's a bit frustrating even though it is adorable.

I like to get out of the house and volunteer, hang with friends, study,work, whatever, so if I am a crazy cat lady, I'm in denial!

Random thing of the day: superhero powers. One girl said hers would be 3D vision in an ice-breaker for a class last night. Now, I completely stole this bit of snark from I-don't-know-where, but.....the world IS in 3D. What exactly was she wishing for?

By the way, I couldn't think of a truly awesome superpower, so I said I'd like the dexterity of a cat. Thinking about this further, my cats weigh about 10 pounds each and can jump about 5 feet with a soft landing (although it doesn't make the downstairs neighbor happy.) Extending the math, I would technically be able to safely jump 70 feet. You have to admit that's pretty cool, albeit a bit useless unless I were trying to get somewhere more quickly.

Non-cat things: Follow-up on the last entry--I finished "Disappearing Acts" by Terri McMillan and bought her recent book, "Getting to Happy" at a Borders 'going-out-of-business' sale. I am going to miss that store. I liked it so much more than Barnes and Noble.

Comment and tell me random things. Over and out.