Sometimes the pros come with the cons, the goods with the bads.  You're glad for the goods, but it's regrettable that they're rather inseparable from the bads.

1. Pro: I found out this morning that I got an awesome research assistant position with one of the professors who is researching new media in the classroom--the exact topic I'm doing my Masters thesis on.  So I'll get paid to do research I'm doing anyways for my thesis.
Con: Only two people applied for the position, me and one of my very good friends who really, really, really wanted the position.  And the fact that I got the position means that my friend has not.  I have yet to talk to him since I found out... I know he'll be happy that I got the position, but at the same time sad that he did not.

2. Pro: I feel very motivated, efficient lately.  I've gotten tons done, and things are going well--teaching, my thesis, spending time with my husband.
Con: Unluckily I'm so busy I'm having to make major decisions with my time. There's some things that just haven't been happening, like my creative writing and my afghan.

3. Pro: My desk at work is a little more organized.
Con: My apartment is a mess.

4. Pro: I revamped my website New Media Classroom and am much happier with it. 
Con: Now that I'm happier with it, I need to put more stuff on it.

5. Pro: I've been better at being back on livejournal, and have loved reading everyone's posts!
Con: I still haven't had time to comment on everyone's posts that I've read, or to post as often as I'd like to.

1. Exercise -

I have been enjoying exercise this week.  I biked almost 10 miles on Monday, and almost 3 miles (with lots of hills) on Tuesday.  I did an hour-long pilates class on Wednesday, and another bike ride on Thursday.  My body is sore, but it feels good.  Until it starts snowing here, the plan is to bike with my husband and go to my pilates class (which only costs $38 for 3 months!). 

2. I Do, I Do -

Last night my husband's aunt called us.  She lives here in Provo, and she had tickets to the 2-person musical "I Do, I Do" and her husband wasn't going to get home early enough to go with her.  So she invited us, and we went.  It was a fun musical, rather deep and serious for a comedy, but I enjoyed it.  Traditionally musical end with marriage--this one started with it, and went through a couple's entire married life. It was fun to see, plus our aunt mentioned that it had been ten years exactly since one of her son's had died--he committed suicide while in high school.  I'm glad we went with her and that she didn't spend the evening sitting alone by herself. 

3. Prospectus -

If I don't have my masters prospectus filed by October 1st, I lose funding for Winter semester, among other un-fun consequences.  So the last few days I've put in a lot of time--but now I've revised it and I must say it's pretty darn good. My thesis committee chair really liked it and signed off on it, so I only have 5 more signatures to go.  There's the other 2 people on the committee, the rhetoric advisor, the graduate advisor, and the department chair that still need to sign it.  Should be a fun challenge getting all those signatures.  But once I've got those signatures, I can officially start working on my thesis.  Hopefully by the end of next week that will be the case. 

4. The next six months -

Speaking of my MA thesis, I will be on livejournal the next six months... but not always constantly. There will be times, like the last few days, where there is literally no time for lj.  Lamentably.  But most the time I should be able to make time for lj.  And I'm already looking forward towards March 1st as a liberating day. 

5. Revision, revision, revision

Today in one of the classes I'm teaching I was talking about revision.  I did a super cool demonstration.  I took an 8 page paper I presented at a Symposium last October and looked at the 1st through 4th drafts, highlighting the differences between each draft.  The second draft was a complete transformation from the first draft, as was the third draft from the second.  The fourth draft had less changes, but had several sections with lots of changes.  It was fun to visually show my students what re-vision, re-seeing, can really mean and for them to see the difference that it makes on writing. 

Several weeks ago I attended a workshop on Reading and Responding to Student Writing by Nancy Sommers, a Harvard professor who researches writing. 

In speaking about student writing, Nancy Sommers said, "Nothing is more lonely than writing."

(image from http://kyvoice.com/)

For the teaching of writing, the point is that we send our students off to write, to isolate themselves and spend many solitary hours putting words on the page.  And it's hard for them.  A challenge.  The loneliness can be an obstacle to overcome. 

In my class I use a blog that my students post to during their writing process.  They then respond to each other's writing. 

Livejournal is one place that helps me fight off the loneliness of writing.  I'm writing as part of a community, I can share my thoughts, my joys and frustrations, and snippets of my writing. 

But despite things that help fight off the loneliness of writing, it's something that I have to fight--and perhaps embrace--if I actually want my writing to happen.  For me, the loneliest part of writing--where I face the most potential for despair and self-doubt--is in first drafts.  What feeds this loneliness is my fears of being alone and my fears of failure. 

Part of what I have to do is accept that it will be lonely, accept that there will be frustrations, and write anyways.  Some days it's harder than others to do.  I admit that some days I give up.  But despite the loneliness of writing, I love writing anyway.  I love writing overall.  I love when someone reads my work and is effected by it in some way.  Which helps me stave off the loneliness...

Is writing a lonely process for you?  What parts are the most lonely?  How do you deal with it? 

Dear friends,

I've been gone from livejournal for 3 weeks. 

During this time I:

-Went to a Shakespearean Festival and to Bryce National Park. 
-Last minute found out that I would get to go on a white-water rafting trip with my husband and his company.  (It was a blast--the Colorado River is beautiful!)
-Spent a long, grueling week training 1st year teachers.
-Spent some time with friends.  :-)
-And many other things, not really worth mentioning. 

Pictures coming soon...

Yesterday, school started again.  It's my last semester of classes for my MA.  I'm teaching one class of freshmen writing and interning in an advanced writing class for juniors/seniors. 

I've also set some lofty personal writing goals for the coming months. 

And I've decided that livejournal is too important to let slide.  Let's why I'm doing it today before I do my homework. 

And that really was a rather inconsequential post....but at least I'm back. 

Oh, and happy birthday to Karen! (karenkincy )

And, yesterday me and my husband officially bought airplanes tickets to go to Germany for Christmas!  I will get to visit my mother
sarah_create.

Sometimes their papers just make me laugh:

"He was constantly running to a fro..." 

Amazing what happens when you have one word wrong.  :-)

Also, apparently Tomas Jefferson wrote the Constitution.  I learn new things every day.  

Back to reading 8 page papers I go...

Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to say.  At all. 

That's sort of how I've felt the last two weeks.  And how I still feel now. 

But as a writer, it's a bad habit to get into--I must say something, even if I'm not sure it's worth saying.  At least that's my thought at the moment. 

So here it goes. 

I could say that I've had a stressful two weeks that have been filled with grading and irresponsible students and family parties and phone calls. 

I could say that I got a new phone that matches my husbands.  (The motorola rival).  The only difference is my husband's phone is a silverish color instead of purple.  



I could say that we took awesome family pictures with my in-laws and I even got a really nice photo of myself:



I could say that I'm really excited to go to another Writers Girls Night in SLC on Friday evening--if you're in the area and haven't been yet, you should go.  It's quite refreshing and invigorating. 

I could say that I'm really excited about the Honors Writing section I'm teaching in the Fall--because it's Honors, I get a lot more flexibility about what I do in the classroom.  It's going to be an awesome semester.

I could say that I've read some really good books lately--The Hollow Kingdom, The Compound, The Hunger Games, Love That Dog, and Wildwood Dancing. 

I could say that as soon as I started writing, I found I had a lot more things to say than I thought I did. 

For the first time in my life, I have donated to locks of love.  Which required a drastic haircut that I honestly was really freaked out about--the last time I got my hair cut short the lady who did it did a poor job.  And even though that was years ago, I was still scared. 

This is me at about 4:30 p.m.:



And this is after the haircut: 




I must admit, I rather like it. 

And my hair feels so light.  Which is bizarre. 

I keep thinking, "What's on my forehead?" and then remembering, "Oh wait, I have bangs now." 

It feels good to do something drastic once in a while.  And it's also nice to know that I have given hair to a young girl who doesn't have any.  I must admit, I was inspired by other people I know who have given to locks of love, including some of my lj friends. 

There's a lot of books that I love.  That I'll read time and time again.  That decorate my bookshelves and my thoughts. 

But it's only once every few years that a book comes along that really changes me, that I have an intense personal experience with, that truly helps me wrestle with some of my personal issues, and truly becomes what Kenneth Burke has called "equipment for living."  Carrie Jones' book, Girl, Hero, is one of those books that really spoke to me, to my fears and my struggles.  

I have two major fears, things that I struggle with:

1.  Fear of being alone.

2.  Fear of failure. 

(Side note: Ever since Harry Potter 3, I've always wondered what these fears would appear as if I met a boggart....)

Both of these fears really solidified in high school.  About halfway through my senior year I found myself alone--because of diverging choices, I found that most of my friends had drifted away, that I no longer had people to talk to in the halls or do things with on the weekend.  At the end of my senior year I also had an academic goal, something I really, really wanted and had spent long hours working for, something I did not achieve by a mere fraction of a percent.  Both of these things really hurt, hurt so much that it was half-way through my freshman year of college that I started to heal from them.  

Both of these fears still haunt me today.  Partly because I'm a people person and grew up with five younger siblings, and partly because of my fear of being alone, I get really lonely and stressed out if I go more than four or five hours without at least talking to someone.  (Does this make it harder to write?  Yes....)  Sometimes I'm also afraid to set lofty goals, to try really hard at things (like my writing) simply because I know that if I fail it will really hurt. 

So on Monday I checked out carriejones' Girl, Hero from the library. 



I was planning on just reading a few chapters and going to bed.  But I found myself really hooked by the characters and by the honesty of the storytelling. 

While the main character, Liliana, has to deal with a lot of things (like domestic violence, for example) that I've never had to deal with, she really spoke to me personally.  Here on the pages I found a kindred spirit. Someone who struggles with her identity and wants to be more than just a girl, wants to also be a hero for herself and others but doesn't always know how, or is sometimes too afraid of what she might have to do to be that hero. 

Liliana writes letters to the dead John Wayne, and through doing so discovers that while she's just a normal girl, she can also be a hero. 

Reading Girl, Hero did more than just inspire me.  It made me look deeply at my fears, at the things I let hold me back.  It helped me realize that while I can't just make my fears go away, I can deal with them.  And it helped me realize that being that hero, that girl that I want to be, is worth the effort, worth the challenge.  

What books have really spoken to you personally?  What stories or characters have truly changed you?  I would love to hear about it. 

For Enrichment (an LDS church woman's group that does fun activities) on Tuesday we did a Summer Recipe Exchange.  We were supposed to bring something that was no-bake, but the problem is I couldn't think of anything that was no-bake.  

So I settled on extremely easy recipe, even though it requires a tiny bit of baking: 

     
The picture on the right is my husband, about to devour his fancy cake cookie, made by yours truly. 

Yes, you heard me.  It's a cake cookie--made from a cake mix. 

You take a cake mix (I used white cake this time) and mix in 1 egg and 1/3 cup vegetable oil.  You form the cookies, bake them for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees, and presto, they're done!  Then my husband--who was the creative genius of Tuesday--recommended that I flatten the cookies with a spatula, add frosting and half a maraschino cherry on top.  They look fancy, taste amazing, and are still pretty easy. 



If I had used blue frosting, I bet they would have looked festive.  Next time!  Another type of cake cookie that's really good is using spice cake mix--the cookies taste like ginger snaps. 

For other good news, I officially survived student conferences.  Two full days of reading and commenting on papers, meeting with students, not to mention still having to teach.  I was a zombie last night, but this morning I feel like I have recovered.  I did like what I did this time -- I did group conferences with groups of 3, and each student had to come up with two things they really liked and two improvement recommendations for their peers papers.  It ended up a lot more like a mini-workshop than a normal student conference, and it worked really well. 

A poem I read today on writing that I really liked:

I will tell you something about stories
They aren't just entertainment.
Don't be fooled.
They are all we have, you see,
All we have to fight off
illness and death. 

-Leslie Marmon Silko

Last Thursday my husband and I were given gourmet cupcakes from Cupcake Chic.  I certainly enjoyed having a piece of both of them:
L-R: Red velvet, lemon

I also had a Neapolitan one.  Half the cupcake was chocolate, half was vanilla, and the frosting was strawberry. 

I love really tasty food that is also pretty. 

Friday night I went to an awesome Writer's Girl's Night in SLC.  It's really invigorating to spend time with people you can automatically connect with and talk to endlessly.  If you're interested, the next is July 17th in SLC. 

Yesterday was the first day of a new semester.  I really like my students, but the first day of teaching is always somewhat stressful and really tiring.  I've started them blogging again, and on my New Media Classroom site I've posted some things that went well and some things that went not so well for incorporating new media in the classroom. 

That's all the odds and ends for today.... I can't think of anything else. 

Life updates -- I've been:

Singin' -- Last night I went to a performance of Singin' in the Rain, which I'd never seen before.  It was a blast.  The coolest part was that they made it rain during the title song--so the actor was really singin' and dancin' in the rain, twirling around with an umbrella.  And I was really excited, because even though I was on the fifth row, I got wet because the actor started kicking the water around the room at the end of the song.  Pretty awesome.  :-)

Playin' -- My 18 year old brother has spent the last week with us, before they let him into his housing at BYU.  So it's been a lot of fun--hanging out with him, helping him get his books and buy other stuff, watching movies, playing games.  I haven't gotten good quality one-on-one time with this brother since I left for college, so it's been really fun. 

Hikin' -- BYU is right next to a mountain, which has a giant Y which they placed half-way up it.  This afternoon me and my brother hiked to it.  Second time I've hiked it in a month--it's not too long, but it's fun. 

Writin' -- Turned in my final paper for my rhetoric seminar today, and I think it turned out well.  Have also been working on my WIP, which is probably why it's called a WIP. 

I'm singin', just singin' in the rain!!!

There are days when I hate writing.  Today is one of those days.  Today is also a day when I absolutely must write a draft of an 8 page essay for my class "Religious Rhetoric in America." 

Right now, I am feeling disillusioned about the thesis-driven critical essay.  There's too much hype about having a thesis at the beginning of your essay, about stating a clear outline for your paper and then following it.  Where's the adventure?  Where's the fun?  Where's the sense of discovery as you read?  Today I feel like meandering, like exploring, and maybe including a thesis at the end of the essay path.  Just maybe. 

But unluckily, that's not the genre. 

My other problem--writing can be agonizing.  I have all these great ideas in my head, but today I'm really struggling to form them into coherent words and sentences. 

That's it.  I'm going to campus and not letting myself leave the library until I succeed at writing 8 pages. 

The past few days in a nutshell: 

I managed to turn Friday into a successful "just for me day."  I restrung my guitar and had fun reminding myself of all the chords I've forgotten.  I also made headway on my WIP.  Part of what I worked on was a synopsis--I'm changing some major plot/setting elements that are really helping to pull the overall story together.  I also bought a cool connected-notecard thing that I'm doing character and location sketches on, which is really helping me. (I have no idea how to describe it--I'll take a picture of it in a few days).  Maybe next week I'll have something readable for Teaser Tuesday--none of my current 10,000 words are interpretable by anyone but me.  

Saturday we attended the wedding reception of one of my husband's friends from high school.  What's strange for me is that of all my high school friends, only me and one other are married, where about half my husband's high school friends are.  In large part it's a cultural thing, but it's still strange to me. 

Sunday was my brother-in-law's birthday, so we spent the day in Sandy with my in-laws.  I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I feel very blessed to really love my in-laws and get along with them well, so as always, it was fun.  I also got to practice my amazing get-out-stains skills.  My bro-in-law's girlfriend, while cleaning up after cake, managed to spill juicy raspberries all over her white dress.  And my husband said, "my wife can get it out!"  (I thought it was cool his immediate thought was that I was the amazing problem-solver.) And with me + dish soap + frigidly cold water + 15 minutes of scrubbing the worst spot with my fingernail I managed to get all the raspberry juice off.  My mother-in-law said she would've used hot water, which would only have set the raspberry juice in the dress.  Basically, I'm amazing, and there's a spotless white dress to prove it. 

Monday was a do homework-at-home and watch the rain day.  I didn't leave our apartment until 5:15 p.m., and while on a daily basis staying inside a two-bedroom apartment would probably drive me crazy, it was a good day for it. 

Things I'm thankful for today:

1.  Reminders that I'm not as incompetent at managing the practical side of my life as I sometimes think--this afternoon I managed to run a number of complicated errands today, and didn't ruin things like I sometimes do.  Sometimes I feel rather stupid, that I can analyze Nietzsche and yet not do something like figure out how to put gas in the car (which happened a few weeks ago.......the gas station required me to flip an extra switch and I could only figure it out after sobbing on the phone to my husband). 

2.  That I have people that love me and care about me very much.  Sadly, it's sometimes easy to forget what a blessing that is.  But having that makes a world of difference. 

3.  The world of stories.  That let me get lost in them for a little while, letting me live dreams that aren't mine. 

4.  Bananas and cheese.  I eat about a bunch of bananas every week, and I suspect I don't have potassium deficiency.  And I eat cheese, well, any chance I can get.  I've eaten both in the last hour. 

5.  Technology and how it creates community and communication.  I love my daily time with livejournal friends.  :-) 

1.  I've started a website for research I'm doing in conjunction with my Masters thesis.  My thought was -- I'm doing all this research, all this work, that no one will EVER read.  And if I manage to get my article published in a scholarly journal, I'll have probably max 10 people read it.  And so I decided to put my research, my thoughts, my process, on a website devoted specifically to that.  My website is called New Media Classroom.  And if at least 20 people visit the website, I will be happy.  I've just posted a video I made - What is New Media?   If you have three minutes, you should check it out.  If only for amusement value. 

2.  I'm going to make sure that despite the busyness inherent in working on a Masters thesis, I will make sure I still spend time working on things that are important to me.  Particularly writing.  I have set aside Friday as a Kathy day.  And there are three things I'm going to do -- my WIP (which is at the point where it needs some hard-core figure out the details work), Chinese brush painting, and put new strings on my guitar.  No school work whatsoever, and no going to campus.

3. Last July I posted on my husband being called to a singles ward bishopric.  Basically, the LDS (Mormon) church has some wards (congregations done by area) specifically for unmarried college students, and my husband was asked to be in the leadership for it.  I ended up doing a fair number of things for the ward as well, like teaching Marriage Prep for Sunday School.  On Sunday we were officially released--which means we have no callings/obligations/responsibilities and it's back to our normal ward.  I'm getting adjusted to the idea of being released, but I'm really going to miss being in that ward.  I made a lot of friends, and felt like I was really able to make a difference in people's lives.  The first few months were super hard, but I really feel like I was given so many more blessings for my time than the effort I put into it.

This week, for Friday Five, I'm choosing to highlight just one thing I did each day. 

Monday: Saw a friend visiting from Oregon.  Before I knew it, five hours had passed.  I would spend a day with a friend anytime, just so you know.  :-)

Tuesday: Group presentation on the use of religious rhetoric in the embryonic stem cell research debate.  We did well, and managed to show a clip from Star Wars (which is the goal of every presentation, right?).  Did you know that Star Wars is for cloning but opposed to stem cell research?  See episode 2 -- amazing clone factory, but do they use stem cell research to make Anakin a new arm?  No, he gets a machine arm.  The counter example was the last 5 minutes of 24 this week, where stem cell research is definitely endorsed.   

Wednesday: Went to Dairy Queen and got a butterfinger blizzard! 

Thursday: Spent more time on my winkflash photo book that I'm making for my two year anniversary (next Tuesday!).  I finished putting in pictures from our honeymoon.  :-)

Friday: If I have to put something I have done, the only thing I've done so far is wake up, get dressed, and eaten a yogurt.  But for something I will do today?  My friend is defending her thesis, so I'll be going to that this afternoon, both to support her and to know what I'm up against in less than a year. 

A few months ago I posted on gaining positive evidence about my library conspiracy theory.  And yes, they sort of lost another book since then, but it turned out that they just decided to check one book in over 4 days after they checked in all the others that I turned in at the same time. 

This is a completely different conspiracy-- but also from the library.  This one is about the new library web page. 

Last Friday they switched the library web page to this new "higher tech" system... with lots of extra functions.  You can customize "My Library," add favorite searches, type in notes and access them from other computers, etc. 

It also has something called an E-SHELF. 

(Image from http://www.spada.co.uk/2008/10/)

But back to that in a moment. 

On Friday I was extremely frustrated--I couldn't find anything, couldn't figure out where the basic functions I also use were hiding, and almost vented my rage with a very mean email that luckily I decided not to send.  I did send to other emails though with specific questions, asked politely. 

By Monday I had started to warm up to the library page, because I was discovering some of it's cool functions, like the e-shelf, which allows you to save your searches, save books your interested in, tag items, write notes on books, and organize all your books into folders and sub-folders.  I thought, "wow, that is cool."  I also thought, "I am doing a thesis on new media.  Maybe I should actually use new media."  I spent several thrilling hours savoring technology and its blessings. 

Tuesday morning I added more books to my e-shelf.  A few hours later, I logged on to my e-shelf only to discover that everything on it was gone!  Vanished!  Disappeared!

I sent a lengthy email to the library web page tech people. 

The reply -- some things I might have done wrong, including the statement:

"I am very concerned about your experience with the eshelf."

Quite reassuring.  I sent back screen shots and explanations that made me rather sure I had been using the e-shelf correctly. 

And now, for the best email of them all.  His response back to me this morning: 

Further investigation into your problem led us to discover that right now, people with the same first name are sharing the same eshelf.  It is possible that someone else with a first name of Kathy created an eshelf, wondered what all that stuff was and deleted it for you.  I don’t know this was the case, but it can happen.  We are working to resolve that problem asap.  In the meantime, you might not want to spend too much time with your eshelf.  I’ll keep you posted.  (bold added)

Who creates a program that only does one e-shelf for each first name, at a university with over 30,000 students?  And why am I the one that had to help the library discover this problem? 

Why me?  Whoever is behind this conspiracy, come out, come out, where ever you are!

Yes, I will be cool (not a familiar feeling) by joining a team for the Shiver contest. 

Go team Raving Pen! 

If you want to join our team, click here for details.  Basically, you'll post a blip about the contest--which is cool, who doesn't want to win?--and then post a comment, saying which team you're on and giving a link to your post, on Maggie Stiefvater's blog. 

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

The current story I'm working on requires a lot of world building.  It's a (somewhat historical) fantasy set in a place rather similar to Athens.  There's a mysterious oracle, an accidental engagement, a kidnapping, and some intrigue.  That's all the teaser you can have at this point. 

Right now I'm doing an exploratory draft, focusing on world building.  The way I see it, world building is like a matryoshka doll.


The outer doll--the largest one, resides at the full-world level.  This includes big picture geography and a history of the civilization in general.  Was there an important flood 200 years ago?  You gotta know. 

The next doll is at the national level.  She includes an understanding of the current system and government, how cities and nations interact with each other, what the major current conflicts are.  This also includes the current mythology/belief system. 

The middle doll represents the community level of world building.  This is larger than just the main characters, but not by much.  It's the communities (and their members) that the main characters engage with on a regular basis.  This also includes specific community rituals. 


The second-to-smallest doll is at the main-character level.  These are the handful of characters that we spend most of our time with.  This includes their pasts, their presents, and their futures, their wants and needs, their character traits.  And, of course, the character-centric story that we follow them through.  While this may be where most the reader's time is spent, this doll by herself is incomplete, because she must interact with all the other dolls. 


And finally, the smallest doll, representing the particular-detail level of world building.  This is the spice, the details that help the world come alive.  What is the shape of the leaves on the trees?  How are the characters' books bound together?  What color are the city's flags?  These things often end up having major effects on the plot--the way the sun shines may change a character's decision, and the hole in the shoe will surely have important consequences. 

If you've crafted the world right, then the dolls will fit together.  This is important, especially in fantasy, because no story takes place in a vacuum.  (True, space is a vacuum...but I wasn't talking about a physical vacuum.)  If we believe the world, then we will believe the characters' stories, and their stories will matter to us. 

In my WIP, I'm starting to be able to see all five levels of the matryoshka doll.  Before, I had my characters and part of their hopes and motivations, and a glimpse of the plot, but now I'm starting to get the big picture, seeing how they relate to their communities and nations, starting to envision the details that anchor the world.  In turn, my characters are also developing further as I understand the world.  The plot is becoming richer, and while I couldn't assemble a matryoshka doll from it right now, I will be able to in a few weeks.  And so while the 10,000 words I've written in the past four weeks are incoherent, switch perspectives and character names, include fragments, run-ons, and even questions to myself, I'm alright with it because I'm world building and I can see that the world is starting to come together.  

How do you go about your world building?  Are you able to plan it out in advance?  Or do you figure out the world as you go? 

(Note: this is my matryoshka doll that I bought in St. Petersburg for 8 Euros.  Like it?  I also have one from Finland, but she wasn't feeling very photogenic.)

Once upon a time (in January if I must be more exact) I posted pictures of my first afghan.  That took me 10 years or so agonizing years to complete. 

But good news--I now know what it takes to finish an afghan.  Leave the crochet supplies next to the couch, and when watching a movie or the news, crochet for a few minutes. 

And guess what--with this new method, I completed my second afghan, in just over 3 months.  I feel amazing. 



It's a baby afghan.  My husband thinks it would work for a boy or for a girl, but there's too much pink, so it will definitely have to be for a baby girl. 

I used four types of thread for the squares, and then just arranged the four types of squares diagonally.  Here's a detail pic:


I must admit--I'm rather proud of myself.  It's nice to create something and then be able to hold it and feel it and look at it and be able to genuinely say, "Wow, I really can create something worthwhile, something beautiful, something meaningful."  I've also realized that crocheting is a very soothing activity for me, and anything I can do to relieve stress is well worth my efforts. 
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And now for life updates, beyond the afghan.  Last night I went for the second time to a pilates class.  I am going to be strong and not feel like a wimp.  To be honest, it's really the not feeling like an out-of shape wimp that's motivating me.  So the sore muscles--all over the place, including awkward places--seems like a good sign. And the fun thing is my husband decided to do pilates with me, because he's trying to lose weight, and pilates is probably the first physical activity that I'm better than him at.  Actually, make that second.  I'm better at swimming too.  I won't list the physical activities that he's better at...it would be a long list that would even include things like opening jars and not running into walls.