One Half Buddhist, One Half Christian, One Half Pagan

Body: My left foot is still uncomfortable, but wearing different shoes today seems to be helping. I think tomorrow I'll try wearing my stompy boots, which are a little much for work, but should give my foot and ankle even more support.

Stress Level: 3

Reading: Lots of sample chapters last night, but I didn't actually follow through on any of them.

Etsy Find: "Love Is Friendship Caught On Fire - A button with one of the better definitions of love I've seen recently.

Project Follow-up: I got started on the big craft supply move, but got distracted by making dinner. Potato soup is fast becoming one of my staple suppers.

Tonight's Project: Finishing the craft supply move. I'm not sure what I'll be up to after that.

Randomness: What did you do for Thanksgiving?

Body: The pain in my left ankle is not only still there, but it's spread down to my toes and up my calf. It feels like one big charlie horse. When I get home this evening I'm going to try wrapping it in the heating pad for a while and see if that helps. At least nothing else hurts, which is a pleasant surprise after this weekend.

Stress Level: 3

Book Review: I finished The Habitation of the Blessed last night. Wonderful book. 9 out of 10, and the only reason it isn't a perfect score is because you need to have at least a tiny bit of familiarity with the source material to get the most out of it.

Etsy Find: Adorable little dragon earrings!.

Project Follow-up: Busy, fun weekend. Tom & I spent Thanksgiving day with 11th_letter, ioldanach, nounsandverbs, purpura, and the rest of their household and guests. There was way too much amazing food, and lots of top quality hanging out. Friday was a lazy morning, and then a second Thanksgiving dinner (this one with Mom & the kids) in the late afternoon. Saturday I got up way too early for a day off, picked my brother Jon up from Mom's house, and went to NYC. We didn't really do anything particular while we were there, but mostly just wandered around and people watched. I did take him to The Strand for the first time, which was pretty cool. We ended up going home a little earlier than expected because my legs were toast. When I got home Tom and a visiting friend were in the middle of making Chicken Tikka Masala and Samosas from scratch. So yummy. They had also gotten and set up our new couch (actually a futon). Sunday was spent in pretty much a vegetative state, recovering from the entire weekend. Overall, it was a great few days.

Tonight's Project: Moving my craft supplies/books from their current home to a new bookshelf. Hopefully, this one will be able to support the weight. I may also take pictures of some stuff so that I can add things to my etsy shop. I have a few finished projects that have been waiting to go up for a while and I have some supplies I'm never going to get around to using that I need to de-stash.

Randomness: Just as a public service, I'm going to remind people that if you buy me yarn (or any other craft supply), you get first dibs on what I make with it.

Body: My left ankle is horribly painful, for no reason I can figure out. I hate random pain days.

Stress Level: 7 - I really wanted to declare today a mental health day. Very glad for the four day weekend.

Reading: Still reading The Habitation of the Blessed. Cat Valente is a wonderful author, but you can't rush when you're reading her work.

Etsy Find: Beautiful hand felted wool coat. Way too expensive for me, but so pretty!

Project Follow-up: I picked up the snooty cheeses and crackers that are Tom's & my contribution to tomorrow's Thanksgiving festivities (mmmm... maple smoked cheddar), and looked for shoes for my New Year's outfit. I found several pairs that looked perfect and were in my price range, but weren't available in wide. Grr, arrgh.

Tonight's Project: Probably just vegging at home. Maybe some Sims and/or knitting.

Randomness: Does anyone actually notice if I do this daily post or not?

Body: My right shoulder is killing me. There's a knot of pain where my shoulder and neck meet, and every time I take a deep breath it radiates up my neck and down my arm.

Stress Level: 5 - Half of my life feels like it's going perfectly. The other half not so much. I'm getting whiplash going back and forth.

Reading: I just started The Habitation of the Blessed

Hearing: Random music mix so far. I'll probably switch to podcasts at some point.

Etsy Find: Needle Felted Falcor the Luck Dragon.

Project Follow-up: Very good weekend. Lots of time with hanging out with friends, and the book reading/signing was a lot of fun. Although, in some ways the company made getting to and from the signing even more fun.

Tonight's Project: I have no idea.

Randomness: What are your Thanksgiving plans? Tom & I are doing two dinners this year: Thanksgiving day with friends, and my Mom's on Friday.

Body: Mostly fine, but my surgical scar is pretty tender.

Reading: I'm reading Spiritwalk by Charles DeLint. Oddly, while I'm reading it on my Kindle, and thought I remembered buying it through Amazon, there isn't a listing for a Kindle version.

Hearing: The Mountain Stage, a wonderful concert series.

Wearing: I'm back in a dress today. I'm blaming the tenderness of my scar on the button on my jeans, so I'm hoping a day without that will help.

Etsy find: Earrings made from recycled glass.

Tonight's Project: No idea. Maybe some Sims.

Project Follow-up: I accomplished nothing yesterday. Tom & I got new curtains hung in the living room, bedroom, office, and bathroom. It was more his project than mine though.

Randomness: If you plan on going shopping on Black Friday, and you live somewhere that it's an option, think about taking the bus instead of driving. The big advantage is that you won't have to fight traffic or find a parking space. It will also make life a little easier for those folks who can't use a bus due to distance or the amount of stuff they need to buy.

I heard this song for the first time a few days ago, and thought that it was a wonderful choice for today.


Thankful by Jonny Lang

Someone's standing in a welfare line
Or off the freeway with a hungry sign
Someone's stressing 'bout to lose their mind
I gotta be thankful, thankful

Someone just became a single mother
Someone just lost a sister or brother
It's so important that we love each other
And be

Thankful, thankful
I've gotta take the time to say, that I'm
Thankful, thankful
For every single breath that I take
I've gotta be thankful, thankful

Someones sitting in a prison cell
Wasting away in their own personal hell
Everybody's got their own story to tell
Ive gotta be thankful, thankful

Man, I used to think I didn't have a lot
Now I realize just how much I've got
Now every day I'm gonna take the time and stop to be

REPEAT CHORUS

Any one of these so easily could have been me
But if it had not been for grace and mercy who knows where I'd be

Ive been riding on this roller coaster ride
Round and round Ive seen the up and downside
And I'm here to tell you that the secret of life is being

REPEAT CHORUS

I hope everyone had a good day.

Thanksgiving was good this year. We went down to Ron's (Tom's brother's Father-in-law) as usual, but this year Mom & the kids joined the gathering. The kids had a blast playing with Tom's nieces, and Mom enjoyed having the chance to hang out with adults. The food was delicious and plentiful.

Friday was my last day at ACS. There have been a lot of changes there over the last few months, the biggest of which was a new pay system. Instead of paying us a straight amount an hour they had started something called ABC (Accomplishment Based Compensation, I think). Under ABC, they pay us a few cents for each form we enter into the computer, they pay us one rate for the time we spend working but not on countable things, and a different rate for breaks and other times we aren't doing anything work related at all. It worked out in such a way that pretty much everybody's average income went down by about a dollar an hour. They also created new draconian rules about what we could have on the floor, and started enforcing rules that had existed but that they had never enforced before. Overall in the course of about 2 months it went from a pleasant environment in which to do boring work for a reasonable wage to the next thing to a sweatshop. I put my two weeks notice in, and will be doing temp work until I find something new.

Yesterday our friends Mark and Christina had us and Sunny & Jaime over for a second Thanksgiving dinner. They cooked, and everything was very good. Afterwords we sat around and talked for a couple hours.

Today is a lazy day. I have no plans, and I don't think Tom has any either.