No way....

No way has almost a month gone by with no new blog posts by me. Yikes!

Just goes to show us how fast a day and then a few more days and then a few weeks can fly by while you are keeping yourself busy with all kinds of things like job hunting, improving your word and excel skills, getting hooked on swap-bot.com with all kinds of knitting, crafting and creative writing projects. Then there's that whole reading actual books while trying to avoid the lure of the brain drain to occupy my time.

Other websites to be aware of for the time absorbing capabilities:

• Pogo.Com
• Digg.Com
• Youtube.Com
• Monster.Com
• Careerbuilder.com
• Yahoo Answers
• Yelp.Com
• Any blog related to knitting
• Weightwatchers.Com

So now this list reminds me that I've got some painting to do, learn another new knitting technique, get a job so I can buy some stuff to make soap and candles to sell on Etsy and use in my swap packages. Oh yeah, add Etsy to the list.

I've got to get back to using my daytimer even with the not working yet thing. Using that on a regular basis during my corporate days was such a huge help in showing me that I did have productive days despite the feeling of lost and something left behind at the end of difficult day. I'm trying to get my loving absent minded programmer to consider using one of these now that he's moving up in his field. Its such a fine line with suggestions to a loved one versus you're old days of coaching folks to improve themselves like I used to do in my old call center days. I'm hoping to find a job more Office/Admin related and less strict in bound customer service. I've come across a few interesting opportunities in Craig's List that I'm going to go for so to speak. Some of my skills are a bit rusty but I can get back on the job bandwagon. Eager to learn, mature individual comfortable in high paced environments with internal and external clients of all levels...

Until we meet again....

Where o Where Has Marti Been?

Did you ever get the feeling that you were being tested bysomething/someone out there in the universe? Tweaked just enoughhere and there to make you wonder if you were running some gauntletin life?

This has certainly been a time of trial and tribulation and joy andsuccess in overcoming and a testament to how much Brion loves andcares for me.

Where am I going?

You might want to fasten yourself in for this particular ride folks.

As many of you already know on 3/31/07 I fell in love with Brion andhe with me. It was truly an angel choir of awe moment at theRenaissance faire when a mutual friend introduced us. A moment Ithought would never ever happen to me and one in which I scoffed atin Romance novels and movies. By the end of May we were truly acouple, by the end of June we moved in together and in November wehad to make a decision of moving together to San Francisco. We did ascouting trip and found the PERFECT place. He popped the officialquestion. End of November I quit my job and started packing. On12/15/07 we moved to San Francisco with two cats and a some clothes.The rest of our stuff arrived around the 22nd of December in time forChristmas. We unpacked, explored our new city and then it was off tostart job hunting for me. On 1/17/08 on my way to a job fair I fellas awkward as an ice skater wearing cement skates on a crack in thesidewalk and broke my foot just shy of needing surgery. Stay off thefoot for a few weeks says the Doctor. Great.. more time to Knit!!!(Stash related story another time). But wait.. there's more! That'sright, more. So around 2/8/08 I thought I was getting a chest cold,feverish, taking longer to catch my breath after hobbling around oncrutches, by the 10th in the middle of the day I realized I wasconstantly trying to catch my breath just sitting in a chair. Then IHAD TO GO to the bathroom and on my way there I told myself "Self,its getting dark, you're going to pass...." I woke up on the floorno longer really needing to go to the bathroom other than to cleanup. So, there I was, in the bathroom, trying to catch my breath,dripping sweat and Brion gets home finds me on the toilet unable toget up (glamorous huh?) and according to him, paler than our nearestto white bathroom towel. As he's helping clean me up and trying tocall 911 I pass out again. He's freaking out because apparentlywe're in the worst cell phone reception area in the state ofCalifornia and the call keeps dropping. I'm trying my best to get onsome clean underwear before the paramedics get there and calm himdown. Finally, they arrive, 2 paramedics and an ambulance because ofsome confusion with our address and the numerous calls that weredropped. Quite the scene on our street. Oxygen being force feedthrough a nose thing and a mask. The ambulance has to take a detouraround a movie/docudrama about a local gay activist from the 70'sthey are filming on the major street where the hospital is located.I would have tossed cookies if I had any. (LOL) Believe it or not,in the ER its quiet, hardly anything going on, the DR on call is alung/heart specialist and after telling the story of my broken foodand inactivity for the 20th time that nite he knows right off I'mhaving a pulmonary embolism due to a blood clot or clots having movedfrom my foot to my lungs over the past few days when I startedgetting more active. Lots of tests, blood drawn, more questions,some scan thing and a few hours later I'm more comfortable, breathinga little better, some pink back in my cheeks and off to a criticalcare unit for the next two days. Then to a regular care room for thenext two days. Saturday afternoon, my oxygen is back to normal, onblood thinners and hobbling around, they need my room for a more inneed of attention patient so they move me again. To the roomfurthest from the Nurses station, but its a private room. In fact,its the private room where very high end patients recover fromplastic surgery. That's right. It was like a hotel suite. By thistime all the nurses were doing was giving me my meds and watching megive myself a shot. They even fed Brion and let him stay the night.On Sunday I was released and sent home with orders for lightexercise, shots for the rest of the week and I'll be on a bloodthinner for the next few months. It was quite an experience. I'vebroken my kneecap before (twice in fact in the late 80's but that'sanother story) and had surgery 4x then, even more couch/chair boundand didn't have a problem. Apparently according to the Doctors itwas like an alignment of the planets that only happens once in agreat while to a very "Special" few. I'll have to got to a specialclinic weekly for awhile to check my blood and see my new primarycare physician monthly until the foot and the blood situation is overand done with.

Phew...

Brion was a solid steady rock during this storm. Of incrediblepatience and quick on the draw with his iPhone to make lists ofthings to get and do. He has a wonderful family that has beenemailing, calling, sending cards and flowers. He talked to mysisters who are flying in from Chicago tonite to spend the weekendwith me. He's hung up pictures, gotten rid of empty boxes and madesure I had nice boxes for my stash (26 files boxes oh my!). His office has been wonderfully patient with my recent situations andfortunately he can do most of his stuff from home. He has a BIGmeeting with Sun Microsystems to see if they will work with WikimediaFoundation on some projects. I proudly brag that Brion is the CTO(Chief Technology Officer) of Wikipedia. Valentines was quiet justthe way we wanted actually. He made my favorite breakfast scrambledeggs with salsa and some turkey bacon then he had to go off to work.He came home with a beautiful rose, a wonderful card and cooked ourfavorite dinner and dessert. He's a great cook! Since I couldn'tget out and get anything for him I made up this little notes on postits. Some with just "I love you" others turn this in for somethingspecial and hid them all over the apartment and in his cloths andsocks. So far he's only found a few of them.I have been truly blessed with being fortunate to have this man in mylife, my new family to come, my sisters and my internet communities.

Please take care of yourselves, physically and spiritually and alwaysremember that when you hold out your hand to give, it is then open toreceive.

--Blessed Be and Merry Knitting
-=*§*~Marti~*§*=-

Where does the time go...

Isn't it amazing that at the beginning of your day you start out with a plan. A to do list. A clear list in your head or even on paper of things that absolutely positively must get done today. And of course you start off with good intentions, maybe even stick to the list in the beginning and actually knock an item or two off.

Then it happens. Your to do list says to look something up for an address, or a recipe or to sign up for a contest you read about or saw on TV. Its only 10 am, you have time before you need to do the laundry, check the mail, get something for lunch going, call back so and so, email back such and such, update your blog, take the cats to the vet, get your nails done, make extra copies of your resume for the upcoming job fair. Do the rest of the laundry figure out how to fit 25 boxes of books on 4 tall shelving units, organize your knitting, take pictures of your knitting, shop for your swap partner, paint the samples on the bedroom and kitchen to make sure they are just right, empty the cat box, make a grocery list, call your sisters, write long overdue thank you notes, see a movie, watch your Netflix movies because your queue is at the 500 limit and there is more that you both want to add and remember those books there are a lot of them that you haven't read and now that you've thought about your knitting you remember about half a dozen projects that are in various stages of completion that you swore you were going to finish before you moved, then after you moved and now they are somewhere in a box and the cat just coughed up a hairball somewhere in the apartment and you..

Well.. what do you do? You log into the computer to "check your mail" and then 6 hours later with your stomach growling and 3 voicemail messages on your phone you come out of the internet haze that bound you like a spell in your computer chair. Sure, you've accomplished quite a lot. You've signed up for 3 more yahoo groups, read countless blogs that took you to other places and you saved two dozen patterns that you are just dying to get done. Meanwhile you're butt is numb and your foot fell asleep as you limp to the kitchen and feel the cold floor so you go back to get socks only there aren't any clean ones because you've been avoiding the laundry. So you slip on your shoes with no socks and grab the laundry basket only to remember that there are no quarters and the bank is closed on Sunday and Walgreens won't give out rolls of quarters so you can avoid that task for now. By the way, its almost dinner time and despite the various "oh that was delicious" left overs do you really want them? Yes! Because you can eat out of the left over dish and not have to dirty any more dishes because there really isn't any room in the sink.

A short time later you are sustained with a bite or two to eat, settling in your special knitting comfy chair to watch Bleak House and knit one of the KALs you joined but waited until all the days were out to knit it and there you are, knitting away, watching Bleak House. Getting into the Zen of the mystery pattern and suddenly its 10 pm and your yawning and its time to go to bed. In the bedroom you see the basket of laundry waiting to be done and you realize that you've not quite accomplished much on your list.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day and at least I got some knitting done!

Last Friday....

Of the month and the year. Hmmm....

Anyway...

Today was spent doing a whole lot of little things that at first didn't seem like it added up to a whole lot until I actually started to think about them and write them down.

Unpacked a few more boxes and the kitchen is just about complete. Now that someone has finally emptied the recycle cans that our landlord requests we use, we can get rid of the huge pile of papers, cans, bottles, and boxes that we've been saving for recycling.

A few loads of laundry completed. Just have to remember to put them away before they get too wrinkled up and we'll have to break out the iron which I did remember to put in a place where we'd find it again.

I finished up a dish/towel cloth set for the kitchen. Just need to weave in some ends and they will be put to good use! NO DISHWASHER!!! Yikes! And with both of us home all day long the dishes do tend to pile up for some reason.

Applied for a few more jobs.

Got lost in the world of blogs and patterns.

Started a new addiction. Yahoo Q&A. Argh!! It all started with one question at the bottom of one of my yahoo group pages. A simple enough question and then wham bam! I'm off looking for more to answer to collect points to become the Queen of Q&A. Ok, maybe not the Queen, and certainly not going to be earning enough points anytime soon either. Holy Moly...

Tomorrow is a HUGE day. Getting a ZipCar to drive out to Sacramento. We gave up our own cars when we left Tampa. More on getting out and about in San Francisco without a car later. The electric blanket is preheating and its my turn in the bathroom.

Blessed Be You and Yours!

The Big Life Reset Easy Button

You've seen the commercials with the Easy Button. Just click on the big red button and BAM! suddenly you have what you need. Ahh.. the fantasy life of commercials.

One could say that in the very basic of ideas, I did hit the Easy Button. In less than a year I rediscovered my passion for knitting, found a new bestest friend, who helped me find a great job, who got me back into role playing games where I made more friends who introduced me to the wonderful man I fell in love, who asked me to move in with him, then asked me to marry him and come to a new city with him because his office was relocating so I quit my job, moved to San Francisco with him, my two cats and a truckload of boxes.

And now, surroundedby boxes, the impending new year, knitting projects on the brain, applying for many many many many jobs. I of course decided to take a "break" and start a new blog.

This will primarily devoted to knitting and other miscellaneous crafting like crocheting, cross stitching, basic jewerly making, reading, bursts of creative writing, diet confessions and wedding planning. Oh dear... wedding planning...

Well, laundry calls again and a few more boxes to unpack for the day.

Blessed Be