My Lucky Streak

It started with The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone.  When I picked it up off the shelf I was reluctant to start reading it.  At 748 pages the fictionalized biography of Michelangelo, a subject I never felt special interest in, intimidated me.  When I finally made my way through it and came to the end, and read the last words, I was more depressed than normal to finish a book.  I wanted it to keep going.  The story is immensely detailed, from artistic techniques in the 1500s to the people Michelangelo consorted with.  I loved every page, even if I did have some trouble with the Italian names.

And no, I haven't watched the movie yet.

I decided after that I need something a little lighter.  So I moved on to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith.  The strange premise intrigued me: I couldn't help wondering how the author was going to pull it off.  The odd format took a little getting used to.  After the prologue it reads like a biography interspersed with sections from "Lincoln's journals" about his vampire hunting escapades and companions.  In the end, I actually really loved it.  You have to be able to totally suspend belief and put aside what you know about Lincoln's life and just go with it.  The narrative is clever and the book moves quickly.

And I don't know if I will be seeing the movie at all.

I've had a used copy of How the West was Won sitting on my shelf for probably close to two years.  Everyone knows how much I love Western movies.  I wasn't sure what I would think of a Western novel.  Turns out, I liked it quite a bit.  The story follows a family moving out west, how the various members become involved with the people they find there, and how their lives shape the places they live. I love the way Louis L'Amour wove the stories together and kept everything cohesive.

For a change, this book was adapted from a movie--which I haven't seen yet.

I don't really remember what drew me to People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, other than the cover art was beautiful and the story seemed interesting.  It is historical fiction in a way, following the mid-1990s rediscovery of  an illuminated haggadah in Sarajevo.  A haggadah, I learned, is the book containing the prayers and rituals Jewish families use at the Passover Seder.  This particular haggadah is special because it has illustrations, and dates from the 1400s a time when Jewish people were not illustrating these kinds of books.  Anyway, while that part of the story is true, the rest of it was invented.  The narrative involves a modern manuscript conservator who is consulted about preserving the damaged book.  The story flips back and forth tracing an invented history of the book backwards beginning of course, during the Nazi occupation.  The story is incredibly interesting and entertaining.  I had to check Wikipedia a couple times to sort out the factual parts from the fictional ones.

This has not been made into a movie.

Unfortunately, my lucky streak came to a halt recently.  After finishing People of the Book, I picked up The Hobbit in anticipation of going to see the first movie in December.  I had avoided reading The Hobbit for a long time, and now I know why.  I was so bored that I got to about page 50 when the traveling party was put into sacks by trolls and decided that was as good an ending as any, and put the book down.  I hate quitting a story that way, but I could not muster up the energy to keep going with it.  I'll probably end up seeing the movie anyway.

Ignitum Today

My very good friend Bonnie, who is a wonderful writer and blogs over at Learningtobeanewlywed, also is a regular contributor to Ignitum Today a website which posts articles on religion, family life, political issues, and relationships written by and for young Catholics: the JP2 and B16 generations.  Recently, the editors at the website announced they were going to look for guest contributors and Bonnie mentioned me to the editors.  She wanted me to write about our adoption story.  And I did.  It was neat to be writing for someone else to publish again.  But, I will admit, especially now, I work much better when I have deadlines.

Click here to read my contribution.

The Pinterest Challenge

I have 11 boards on Pinterest.  One of them is just called "Inspiration."  It's for all those great pictures of old buildings or cool libraries or interesting faces I come across that might spark a story some day.  The problem is, I haven't seriously written anything since before Elijah was born.  Now, I'm either too tired or too busy to think about it most of the time.

So, I have set myself a challenge.  I'm going to take each one of those pictures either individually or group some of them together and write short stories for them.  Just to get my imagination working again.  Hopefully, I'll even find time to put them up here.

More Neil

Can't help it...I've been addicted lately, and this is one of my favorites.

Snow

The older I get, the more convinced snow that makes life hard in general.  It's not just that I hate driving in it (but I do) or that it makes work busier (but it does).  Everything seems to be harder to accomplish when it snows.  I opened the front door today and looked out at the mailbox, about 10 feet away, and then looked at our sidewalk to the mailbox which is covered in about ankle-deep snow and decided it wasn't worth it, I'd just wait for Nathan to shovel.

You have to put on extra clothes to go outside now.  You have to make sure to pull the car in if you don't want to spend 10 minutes scraping and brushing.  I've don't even think snow is pretty anymore, just a nuisance.

I really miss our 50 degree January days!

Neil

This has been in my head for days.  If I loved it less, that might annoy me.

England 2014

On May 9, 2014, I will turn 30 years old.  As a reward to myself for making it that far (let's be honest, it was a close run thing for a while), I'm going to spend my 30th birthday in England.

I just spent about 30 minutes crunching numbers and I figured out that, based on today's prices, which I realize are going to change in the next three years, it would cost roughly $2,124.08 for me to spend a week traveling around the country.  I've worked out two nights in London, two nights in Yorkshire, two nights in the New Forest and a night in London before my flight back.  I haven't settled exactly on Yorkshire and the New Forest as places to go, I just used them as stand-ins, but I love them both.  I am open to suggested destinations.

Conversely, it would cost roughly $2,820.44 for me spend the whole week in London.  That seemed a little odd to me, but London is one of the world's most expensive cities.  I haven't decided which travel plan to go with yet.  I love England as a whole, but London is, and always will be, my first love.

These numbers include everything from air fare, hotel rental, Brit rail and London Passes, spending money for food and general spending money.  The only thing not included is getting my passport changed, it still says 'Margaret Eaton.'

My mother may have created a monster with this budgeting thing,  I took those numbers and divided them by 128, the number of weeks between now and my 30th birthday.  I discovered that to have enough money I would have to save $16.59 each week to travel around the country and $22.03 each week to stay in London.

This seems entirely doable.  Who's coming with me?  England 2014.

Night owl

I've been on third shift for about a month now and the answer for anyone who is curious is: yes, I do love it as much as I thought I would.

I don't mind going to bed first thing when I get home and sleeping until just before or just after Nathan gets home.  I like having the whole night to spend time with him.  The only problem with sleeping during the day has been the cats, they usually want attention when I'm trying to sleep.

The strangest thing about it all is my weekends.  I have tried to maintain mostly the same schedule every day, even my days off, going to bed between 4:30 and 6.  So, after Nathan goes to bed those days usually around 1 am, I have several hours to myself before I'm ready to turn in.

It's interesting to find things for myself to do that won't disturb him.  I've tried to fill that time with purpose, using it to write and that usually works pretty well (but not tonight).  I watch movies Nathan doesn't like to watch with me (think: the new Jane Eyre or any Jane Eyre.)  Sometimes I even play video games.

I don't know why it feels so odd to have time to myself in the middle of the night, especially since I've always been a night person, but I'm slowly getting used to it.

Creativity

A while ago I said I had been knitting a lot lately, which is true.  For example, I made this:

It's my first attempt at a mitten-glove.  I have to say, it didn't turn out quite the way I wanted.  I was hoping to make it with individual spaces for fingers, but each time I tried that I ended up with holes all over the place.  Instead there is just a line under the mitten cap where the fingers peak out the top of the glove.  Oh, well, maybe I'll get it right next time.

I saw this hat pattern on Ravelry.com a while ago and decided it was the most adorable thing ever:

It's a tiny aviator-style hat!  Later I sewed a lime green felt button on it, but those pictures didn't turn out as well.  Seriously, how cute is this!  And it only took a day!  Now I want to make like 12 of these. 

This really just looks like a fancy scarf, but on the lady who designed it made it as a turban.  As you can see, my turban-wrapping skills need work, but I think it's neat.  Plus there's a matching mitten pattern that I think is really pretty and I hope to make one day.

My creative juices haven't been dedicated entirely to knitting lately.  I also designed this:

Okay, just the flowers.  They are fake flowers I found at Michaels, and I know it's not the most elegant arrangement, but it actually turned out pretty close to what I was hoping for.  I love the leaves at the back. As a side note, I know the table looks really bare.  I need a cute fall table runner.  I think that'll be my next project.

So, yeah, this is what I've been up to with my free time lately.

Welcome, Friend.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to officially welcome you to, September.  (Cue the singing angels.) 

In just a few short weeks it will be autumn (more singing angels).  The temperature will, hopefully, drop.  The humidity will disperse and we'll be able to do things outside and be comfortable.  The air will come in soft breezes bearing a light crispness.  The sunlight will turn more golden.  Leaves will turn and fall and the whole world will be bright with colors.

Orchards will open and people will be able to pick apples and pumpkins.  Farmers will climb into their tractors and harvest the crops.  And at the end, just before the darkness and chill of winter, we will have a holiday to celebrate the great things about this glorious time of year.  We will give thanks.

August

It happens every year.  We reach July 31 and I turn around and suddenly it's the last week of August.  For reasons I don't understand, August always slips away from me.  Maybe it's because there are very few "special" days for my family in this month.  Growing up it was my Papa's birthday on the 17th.  But Mom always remembered that so I didn't even have to think about it.  My sister-in-law Alicia's birthday is the 16th and usually what happens is I get to about the 15th and realize it.  Sorry Alicia, it's not you, I promise!!

So that's why I haven't posted anything all month.  I only realized last week that we were coming to month's end.  However, very exciting side note, today is shift change!!!  When I go in to work tonight it will be 11 pm!  Very few people outside work understand why this is so great, but it really is.

Today, I conquered the world.

Today, I conquered the world...or at least it felt like it.

Because, for the first time in my life, I drove myself into Downtown Chicago and back, alone, to a doctor's appointment.  And, I didn't freak out too much on the interstate, and I didn't get lost...not once.  Come on, that's awesome!  I didn't take any exists I shouldn't have, I didn't make any wrong turns.  Granted, I had a GPS to guide me and I called on God Almighty and half the Saints in Heaven for prayers, but it's still cool. This is something I've been putting off making myself do for 27 years and frankly, I'm surprised it worked out for that long.  The remarkableness  of that statistic is due to my mother's willingness to juggle her schedule and come with me.  It just didn't work this time.

Not only that, I handled an issue with my referral on my own.  Yes, I called my mother to complain about it and to be reassured I could, in fact, handle it.  Hey, I'm not a superhero.  But I got everything straightened out and under control.  I was early to my appointment, which was for a cardiac MRI, and everything worked out fine.

But then...I found out they wanted to use dye to get some of the images right and  that meant an IV.  This was also the very first time I have ever been anywhere and gotten an IV completely by myself.  And I did not cry.  My eyes welled up a little, but it's not the same thing.

If it had been up to me, most of what was cool about today probably would not have happened because I would have taken someone with me.  But it is nice to know that I can get through these things on my own.  It seems that Medical Me is growing up.  Who would have thought it? 

On a slightly different, but not unrelated topic, if you happen to go down I-290 into Chicago anytime soon you will pass Rush St. Luke's Medical Center.  The first building you will see in that complex is several stories of older-fashioned red brick design.  There is a ledge running around the middle of it.  Check out the window on the end just above the ledge as you drive by.  That window was my window.  I was born in Downer's Grove and they sent me almost immediately by ambulance to Rush and my mom once told me that she used to walk me down to that window and talk to me and watch the traffic go by outside.  (I tried to find a picture of that building, but they just built a new facility at Rush, so all the pictures I located were of the new building.)

Shh...I'm Sporcle-ing...

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Eric, I have located what is officially the Internet's greatest source of time-wasting entertainment.  It's called Sporcle.  It is nothing but hours' worth of general knowledge and specialized tests and quizzes...I love it.

What have I been up to?

I know...it's been a while...again.

The only excuse I have is that my life really isn't all that exciting right now.  We are in the holding pattern of waiting for placement with the adoption and other than that, I mostly just work.

There are a few exceptions.  The week of my birthday in May I took one of my guaranteed weeks of vacation.  I used almost all of it to visit my little sister Anne in Maryland and New Jersey.

And look who showed up to hang out with us for the weekend...

Elizabeth!!!

We had a great time.  We went to New York City and saw Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty

I don't know if this is just me, but I had absolutely no desire to get off the boat and walk around on Liberty Island.  But it was very important to me to see the statue from the water, the way it was meant to be seen.

I went to a couple of Anne's classes in Delaware with her.  We went to Philadelphia so that I could see my very good friend, who has lived there for a little while now, and we wandered around the historical areas.

This is Anne, Elizabeth and Alexandra in Elfreth's Alley, the oldest residential street in the nation.  I love the carriage road running through it.

 

This is Benjamin Franklin's grave in a cemetery in Philadelphia.

We hung out in Maryland, which is one of my top 3 favorite states in the country, so it was very nice to be back there.

And, one of the best things about my trip, I met him...

my nephew Brian!  Anne and I drove from her school in Delaware to Virginia one day just so I could meet him.  He is super cute!  This also means we got to spend a few hours with Nate and Alicia.

Okay so this is a picture of Nate and Anne.  Sorry, Alicia, I don't think I got a picture of you while we were out there.

All in all it was a pretty great trip, and a very nice birthday present to myself.

The approach of spring

Nathan and I were out at Buffalo Wild Wings tonight sitting underneath a giant television showing the Blackhawks/Sharks game, like about five of their other televisions.  I don't remember what was on any of the others.  But there was one TV at the back of the restaurant that I could see over Nathan's shoulder and what was playing on that particular set made me giddy.

It was an exhibition White Sox game.  The long dark winter is almost over.  Spring is almost here.  Thank God for baseball.

Resolutions

I didn't really notice when it happened.  Sometime in the last couple years my perspective on Lent changed.  Suddenly I wasn't thinking in terms of "What am I going to give up for Lent."  My new mantra was "What am I going to do for Lent."  It's probably because I got tired of nominally giving up pop and then not really having much success with it.

But I think this it also has something to do with growing up.  The thought of giving something up for Lent is just right for children, I think, because it gets the idea across that Lent is a time of self-denial.  I'm not sure the little ones understand that it's also a time of self-revision.

Lent is the perfect time to think about ourselves objectively and work on those imperfections we find.  The older I get the more I think about the Lenten season as a time for self-reflection and revision.  There is the thought of "What do I need to do to become more Christ-like in my life?"

Therefore, my Lenten resolutions this year are:

• work on giving up the casual swearing, which has gotten much worse since I started working as a dispatcher. 
• become less judgmental of people in general
• try to eliminate some of the parts of my sense of humor which are particularly mean
• stop gossiping

Medical Roulette

I love it when the insurance company feels like it needs to remind me how old I am. 

It's endearing when they decide because I have grown up, they get to play games with my medical care. 

The older I get the harder it is to believe the insurance company views my care as other than a way for them to try their luck.  There is a fairly well documented history of letters and recommendations that clearly state that I need to be seen by pediatric cardiologists.  This is what the whole problem stems from.  I have found that in lay terms "pediatric" really means "when you're 18 you're out." 

So I usually have to fight very hard to be seen by the right people.  And for the most part, a well-written letter from an adult cardiologist saying they cannot treat me has done the trick relatively well.

Until now...

I am attempting to see my doctor for a check up and I have been told that there is an adult cardiologist who "believes she can help me."  There are quite a few Ango-Saxon four letter words that I have already said about this which bear repeating, but not here.

I would really like to believe that this is the answer to my prayers.  After all, seeing a pediatric doctor at the age of 26 is slightly humiliating.  I have always wished there was some kind of "transitional" cardiology.  This particular doctor I have to go see has a couple patients who have congenital defects similar to mine, which is why she thinks she can treat me.   But for 26 years I have been told I need to stick with pediatrics and because I have been willing to fight for it, I have received excellent care.  It is kind of hard to suddenly turn my back on all that.

In other news, look what I did!

I messed up the bottom and it is too small to pull down over my shoulders, but I'm proud of it anyway.  It looks perfect, even if it isn't and that is really all I wanted for my first one.

Moving up

It was nice to have a two day weekend for the first time in a while, but I have to say, I kind of ruined it.  I have been so worked up about the fact that our license was completed and yet the agency we are working with didn't have our profile up on their web site yet.  I think I must have driven the poor ladies that work there crazy with my e-mails.

Tuesday night I e-mailed them apologizing and saying the only reason I was feeling that anxious was because Nathan and I have never been through this process before so we don't really know how it works.  They were nice enough to assure me I was not in fact driving them crazy and it was normal to feel jumpy.  I was also told they have already showed the paper copy of our profile to several birth mothers.  This made me feel much better.

Then I went to work and when I got home our profile was up on their web site. If you want to have a look, click here.  Now we begin the wait.

Me and the Meatloaf

When I was a child we ate meatloaf a total of 1 (one) time.  My mother made it one night and the only person who even remotely liked it, was Elizabeth.  Mom was never one of those mothers who made whatever she wanted and then forced everyone else to eat it.  So, by popluar concensus, the meatloaf never made a repeat appearance on the family dinner table.

And since then, I've only had it one time.  About a year and a half ago I was visiting my very good friend Bonnie and she prepared meatloaf for lunch.  I have to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Much more than I remembered liking it as a child.

These days I'm trying to plan meals for us, cook different things and take shopping lists when I go buy groceries.  I got adventurous when I was planning our last week and set one night aside for meatloaf.  When the night arrived, I pulled out my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook flipped open to the meatloaf recipe and set to work.

It wasn't as bad as I was fearing, but then it wasn't nearly as good as Bonnie's.  I blame the brown sugar in the sauce.  I have a very strong feeling about the flavors of sauces.  If it is supposed to go on a meat, it should be salty, not sweet.  Sweet is reserved for deserts and drinks only.

Does anyone have a meatloaf recipe they would be willing to share that maybe has a sauce that is sans brown sugar?

Also, meatloaf proved much better as leftovers.

Grocery Shopping

Usually, I shop at Aldi because they have cheap off-brand food.  But I'm beginning to wonder if this is the best way to do the shopping.  I tend to like to do my grocery shopping every 2 to 3 weeks.  And even with shopping at Aldi, I easily spend $100 for just Nathan and I for those 2 weeks. 

We have a Jewel card because we lived really close to one in Tinley Park and it was easy to run to Jewel for small things.  I only shopped there once or twice, because, while they are my favorite place to shop, they are much more expensive.  I have never been a coupon-shopper but I'm starting to think if I maintain a list and take coupons and use our prefered card Jewel might be cheaper.  Or even Wal-Mart.

Any thoughts?