I’m off for a few days

So where did last week go?

I had lots of plans for posts and other things to get me going a bit more and whiz, it is now Friday and I am about to depart to go to this festival.  If you are also attending; stop by the shop, where I am volunteering, to say “hi”.  And do not forget to catch Mike and Ruthy who are performing on Sat pm and Sun am.

I am off to pray to Thor, Zeus, Chaac and any other appropriate dieties to keep the rain and storms away from Croton Point, NY.

In the meantime, here is some lavender to wish you well:

I have a cool job

But I knew that!

According to CareerBuilder and CNN, being food scientist is the third coolest job.  Another foodie job, brewmaster was first.

So I have a cool job and I train more people to have a cool job too.

L is for…

I had thought of lawn mower, because I am fond of my little cordless electric mower and I also quite like mowing the lawn.

Then I was doing something, probably cutting my toe nails, and I realized that of all my body parts I am probably fondest of my legs. They’ve stood by me (pun intended) when times were rough. They respond to my every wish. They cope with Murphy scratching them when he thinks he is about fall off my lap (cat person abuse and perhaps I shall rename myself Cat’s Lap). My legs have taken me up hills and down dales I could not have gone to without them.

Thanks legs.

Taking Up Space

When I saw Zuska’s suggestion for our Scientiae carnival post this month at first I dismissed it as irrelevant to me. Some weird American idea that women worry about how much space they take up.

Second and subsequent thoughts meant that I realized that this space thing was totally relevant to me recently. I have always been larger than life. Most of the time it is fun being an extroverted introvert when you work with a bunch of introverted introverts as you end up taking lots of space. Especially if like me you love to wear bright, loud colors. I am not sure if these were to make up for my lack of height or not, but definitely because I wanted to be noticed. Yep, attention seeker right here.

However, last year when I was struggling professionally I started thinking that I was taking up too much space. I would look at photos and decide that I had taken up half the photo and the other ten people had the rest between them, if you could see them at all. In this one, for instance, with the food science club taken about eighteen months ago:

At the time, I could have sworn that I took up so much space that you couldn’t see the students.

Fortunately, now I am back on track professionally, I want to be noticed and take up lots of space and, more importantly I take up as much space as I need without worrying about it. I’ve started wearing bright colors again.

Watch out, here I come!

J is for…

Jessica who has been my best friend for about eight years. We met when we both joined the same choir. She was/is an experienced singer and helped me through my first two years of choir membership and is still good for singing advice now and then when I need it.

But she is more than a music mentor. Even though she moved up to RI and then to NH we see each other at least once a year. I was the “Honor Attendant” in her wedding last September. She has been there through my professional traumas of the last few years as well as celebrated my successes as they are due. Unlike me, she is a perfectionist and the balance of my sometimes over casual attitude with her perfectionism is one of the things that our friendship strong.

She is the sister I always wanted.

I is for …

Immigration

I became an American citizen this morning. Conveniently time for I as part of my abcalong project. Also convenient was the fact that I just finished these washcloths:

Short of knitting something more patriotic, which I am not sure I would want any way, I thought stars on blue was very appropriate for the occasion*.

I also think it was appropriate that I became American on May Day, which is also International Workers Day or Labour Day. Since I grew up in England, I learnt to do strange dances around a pole on May Day. Phew, escaped from such weirdnesses by becoming American. Now I can adopt, if I so chose, American celebrations such as the National Day of Prayer and I can singing, with impunity, great songs such as “This Land is Your Land” - all verses of it:

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

words and music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I’ve roamed and rambled and I’ve followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin’ - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin’
But on the other side …. it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.

Chorus (2x)

©1956 (renewed 1984), 1958 (renewed 1986) and 1970 TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc.(BMI)

*Additionally, these washcloths mean that this post is also FO Friday. These NunuYaya’s are very additive. I did change the pattern slightly for the white one. Instead of decreasing at the edges I decreased in the middle, using “slip 2 tog, k1, pass both slipped stitches together over knitted stitch”, this gives that nice ridge in the middle. The red is in Cliche** and the white is 2nd time cotton. Cliche is a dream to knit with, with no splitting of the yarn while I was knitting. This has been a problem with the other cottons I have used. The final wash cloth was very soft washcloth and will be good for using on your face. 2nd time cotton produced a rougher washcloth which would really defoliate well. Their gauges came out similar, the white cloth was knitted for more rounds, additionally its row gauge may be slightly bigger than Cliche’s.

I am enjoying this pattern so much that I also started on one as a swatch with 8 petals using Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo. I need to sew in the yarn ends and then I can show it you.

**The JCA Craft and Reynolds website who create Artful Yarns is under construction.

Changing Views

For the next Scientiae Carnival FlickaMawa asks us to discuss our changing views of ourselves. In particular she wants to know if we have changed over the last decade or less. Well, I am going to stretch this out a little to when I was a teenager.

I am going to start with FlickaMawa’s name. I keep reading this as FlickaMama, and I have to make an effort to remember that it is not. One reason for this is that I am dyslexic. Probably very mildly compared to some people and I have to all intents and purposes overcome it.

As a young teen I could not spell for toffee. Apparently I always spelt girl - ‘gril’ and the end of my parents’ street name (___field) would drive me nuts. Nope, I could not even spell my address without sweating about it.

Unlike many dyslexics, I love words. I love to read and one of my ambitious back in the dark ages was to write. Eventually, I could not cope with my bad spelling any longer. So I decided that any word that I was unsure of, I was going to look up in a dictionary. Any word and any level of uncertainty. I probably spent a day or two looking up the word “friend” fifteen times. What is it with all these words containing ie? I still have problems with recieve receive.

Over a number of weeks I noticed an improvement. Over a number of months my parents did. I no longer needed to look most words up. Finally my Mum, a remedial English teacher, stated that I was cured of dyslexia, which she had never met in her professional life before.

That was until I started learning foreign languages as an adult. Then it all came tumbling back. Additionally, I took a botany course which required me to learn all those scientific names. Do you know how many letters some of those plant names have? Part of the final grade was based on spelling them correctly in the certifying exam. Perhaps if you change “ae” with an “ea” or miss out the “e” entirely, you get a completely different plant? I would have got a better score if it was not for my misspellings.

So I have lots of sympathy when FlickaMawa says she has to learn equations for her qualifying exams.

New Job

Crocuses herald spring for me. This one is from a pot of forced bulbs I planted in January. The bulbs just never made it outside last fall.

Spring is a time for looking forward and making plans. More so than the New Year, which to me is a time for hunkering down and slogging through dark, long, cold nights. This year, in particular, spring is a time of renewal as I just started a new job. It is an ideal position for me as I will be at a two year college in a nearby state teaching and helping to develop a new program. I will be working closely with students, which I enjoy. I do have regrets giving up research, but I am hoping eventually to offer undergraduate research experience. What is great about this new beginning is that I am planning how I want to the new program to grow. These plans will change as I get to know the college and the types of students being taught there, but it is pleasant making such plans for the future.

This optimism is echoed by the arrival of spring. At the same time as planning new classes, I am planning a garden again and starting, unsuccessfully so far, seeds. The days are getting longer and soon they will be warmer. Gardens are very forgiving, you can start anew each year. Even if you failed last year, a new spring heralds the opportunity to succeed this year, or next year or sometime in the future. Similarly, my new position offers me the chance to succeed and excel and continue with my career.

scientiae-carnival

Another Quiz

A fiber quiz:

You can take the quiz for yourself.

Thanks to A Day in the Life of…blog

Lab Cat Hearts

Over at Ravelry, they are spreading the love by adding hearts to Avatars. Lab Cat loves her new avatar, and she luvs you too: