You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2010.
Pattern: Capuchine Hat
Yarn: LionBrand Homespun
I made this hat for my brother’s girlfriend who (I recently found out) likes to knit and crochet. I will always make something for the crafty people in my life.
Pattern: Felted Mittens
Yarn: Paton’s SWS
This was a quick knit for a friend that was gifted along with a box of chocolate candy.
What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Visited Vietnam and Thailand. Visited Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Drove down the embankment of a highway. That was fun.
Did you keep your new year’s resolutions and will you make more for next year? I started my own happiness project last January. It’s more a a life’s resolutions than a specific year. I will continued to work on it.
Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes! My brother had a little girl in May – Rosalyn Eva. My work pal had a little girl in August – Dixie Ping. My good college friend had a little girl in November – Hazel Seraphina. Her sister had a little girl in June – Suki Ola. It was the Year of the Girl.
Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully, no.
What countries did you visit? Vietnam and Thailand.
What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? A six month emergency fund and no debt except for my mortgage.
What was your biggest achievement of the year? Independence
What was your biggest failure? I didn’t take any positive steps toward my next educational venture.
Did you suffer illness or injury? I had a little health scare. First with an oral lump that turned out to be nothing. Then with an incidental CT finding of some unexplained swelling in my throat. A month later check-up showed nothing there.
What was the best thing you bought? Round-trip tickets to Asia.
Where did most of your money go? Bills and savings
What did you get really, really, really excited about? Travel
What song will always remind you of 2010? Jay Sean – Down
Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier now that it has been a focus in my life through the happiness project.
ii. thinner or fatter? The same.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer in most aspects of life.
What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I’d taken more definitive steps toward achieving my dreams.
What do you wish you’d done less of? Wasting time on the internet.
How did you spend Christmas? We had a little early Christmas the week before when my brother and his family came into town and stayed with me for few days. I spent Christmas Eve day at work and night with my immediate family at my home. I spent Christmas day at work.
Did you fall in love? No.
What was your favorite TV program? Community
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No.
What was the best book you read? American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
What did you want and get? An amazing travel experience. To see my college friends. A fabulous jacket and sweet sneakers for Christmas.
What did you want and not get? A remodeled kitchen and bathroom. A view of the lunar eclipse.
What was your favorite film of this year? I don’t see many films in theater, but my favorites were “Tangled″ and “True Grit.” My favorite movie rentals this year were “Dead Snow and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 27, and I cannot remember what I did. I was probably working and then had a small family celebration. Oh – and a nice dinner with some friends.
What one thing would have made your year immeasurable satisfying? I wish I had developed more relationships.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? I refused to buy anything I didn’t love. This meant I didn’t buy much.
What kept you sane? Having something to look forward to during the darker days.
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Joel McHale is still a favorite, but the attraction is fading. I saw him in on Conan, and he was…kind of a douche.
What political issue stirred you the most? Health care reform.
Who did you miss? My college buddies. I got to see them in March when we met in North Carolina.
Who was the best new person you met? Rae, the newest nurse. She’s awesome and fun to work with
What is a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010? I have to stop letting fear keep me from moving forward. It’s my worst enemy and the father of most of my own procrastination.
A friend from work has repeatedly told me that I needed to meet her brother. He’s home from med school for the holidays, so she’s excitedly arranged for us to meet tomorrow night.
I know nothing about him except that he’s her brother, he’s in med school, and all the other girls he’s dated are “bitchy vain stupid hoes.” For the record, when you’re trying to pimp out a family member, you should probably stick to his or her more positive characteristics.*
Oh, I do know one other thing.
He apparently had seen me a few days ago when he and my friend were shopping. He recognized me from a Facebook search after talking to his sister. (He told her he thought he’d seen me after the fact, and she texted to confirm my whereabouts.) He told her that I look much better in person**, and that I had an “ancient beauty.”
So, there’s a… plus?
I agreed for the sake of my ridiculously long dry spell and my happiness project***. And also my mother who commented (on Christmas!) that I might need to try one of those dating sites.
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* Birds of a bitchy, vain, stupid, whorish feather flock together.
**I had hoped so.
**Happiness Project: #19, #25, #30. And for the possibility of #10.
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Update 12/30/10
He was really nice, but that’s about it. It was like hanging out with a brother. Still glad we met.
I dreamed that I was home taking care of my baby niece when I realized I had no baby food. My brother was there, and I took him with me to look for it. We drove to the local grocery store, but there was no baby food there. We then drove to the next city’s store only to find they were out as well.
***
Niece – represents some aspect of yourself that you need to acknowledge or recognize within yourself.
Brother -symbolizes some aspect of your relationship with him.
Store -represents some emotional or physical need that you are currently lacking in your life. You may be in need of nurturance and some fulfillment. To see a barren market signifies depression and gloominess. There is a void in your life.
Baby food – indicates that nurturance and care is needed in a waking situation.
Searching – signifies the need to find something that is missing or needed in your life.
1. Dream Moods Dictionary
2. My original on-line dream journal. I’d forgotten all about it.
What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth and touched your soul?
Elise Marie Collins
Snails and hearts.
I had the opportunity to visit Vietnam with a friend and stay with several of her family members as we traveled. They were gracious hosts who were quick to offer me the best.
At dinnertime, this meant that the delicacies found their way to my bowl.
There was only one heart at each meal. And it was always mine.
The host would offer it with such joy that there was no turning it down. I never developed a taste for the leathery meat and iron flavor, but I could see that accepting it was accepting them.
Tea, praline chicken, veggies and rice, mashed potatoes, and garlic bread
In preparing for my brother’s early Christmas visit a week ago , I had a couple of meals worth of groceries in the fridge. It never crossed my mind that he’d have his own very long list of restaurants/diners to fill up on food he can’t find up north. They don’t even eat breakfast anymore, so the breakfast casserole I made the first morning was eaten by me and my youngest brother over the next week. Lesson learned. Do not feed.
The rest of us had our own regularly scheduled Christmas Eve special. I worked Christmas Eve and Day, so I didn’t get a chance to use up any of the food. (We had arepas, buñuelos, and hot chocolate before opening gifts.)
I invited everyone over for lunch today to help clean my fridge. And it was awesome.
Praline chicken was the new dish. Maybe a little dry. Still delicious.
Frozen garlic bread is the best. Stick it in the oven for 10 minutes. Done and done.
Everything else was microwaved goodness. I highly recommend the frozen mashed potatoes if you don’t do it the “real” way. (Snobs.) So good. Make sure you double the butter. I scoff at a mere 2 tbsps.
Leftover Christmas cookies and candy for dessert.
Boy Meets World on the television. We loved this show as a family, and I gave my sister the first season for Christmas. It was so much fun that I proclaim it a new family holiday tradition.
What? I make the rules around here.
Having only seen the 1999 film adaptation of Mansfield Park, I was surprised to find a very different Fanny Price in Austen’s novel.
Fanny Price is taken into her rich uncle’s home when she is 10 years old. She is raised in a distinctly inferior manner compared to her four cousins: Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia. Only Edmund treats her with kindness. Her regard for him turns into a romantic love as she grows up away from her much poorer family. When her uncle leaves for a year to tend to foreign business, the siblings Henry and Mary Crawford arrive to Mansfield Park. Their influence on the household creates tension in the family. Henry is a flirt, and he plays with the feelings of both Maria and Julia, even though Maria is very much engaged. Mary sets her eyes upon Edmund. Fanny watches the drama unfold.
Fanny is a kind, sensitive girl who never wavers from her good morals. She longs for Edmund, but she would never depart from decorum as do the more wordly Mr. and Miss Crawford. She watches in silence as Mary works to attract Edmund. She listens in silence as Edmund speaks so highly of Mary, blinded by her charm to her many faults of character. She doesn’t allow herself to be swept away when Henry turns his attentions toward her in a personal game.
Austen’s Fanny is virtually silent and suffers without complaint. I’d need to watch the movie again to be sure (it’s been years), but as I recall the Fanny of 1999 is quick to speak and has a biting wit. I don’t think this more assertive character is a complete departure from Austen’s original. I think they simply gave Fanny the voice she didn’t have in the novel.
While at first surprised, I don’t think the quieter Fanny is any less strong or spined. She held her own against the influences of the Crawfords. She held her own against her uncle when he scolded her supposed selfishness for refusing Mr. Crawford. She didn’t doubt her instincts.
I especially enjoyed how Austen ended the novel. She generally lets the reader know how the main characters fared in their future. In Mansfield Park she also gives a summary of the characters and their tragic flaws.
It’s no spoiler to anyone familiar with Jane Austen to reveal that Fanny gets her man in the end.
My favorite of Austen’s heroines are Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejuice) and Fanny Price. They are opposite creatures, but together they embody the woman I would want to be.
Quick with her tongue, but quicker with her mind.
My brother and his family stayed with me for a few days last week. His little girl is seven months old and spoiled rotten as his first baby and the family’s first grandchild (on both sides).
My sister and I were talking with my mom the other day about grandchildren.
Sister: How many grandkids do you think you’ll have?
Mom: At least eight.
Me: Eight?
Mom: You all can at least do two.
Yes, Mom. I’ll get right on that.
This last year I traveled more than I ever have before.
Vietnam
Thailand
Pennsylvania
North Carolina
A few were more exotic than others…
I have no idea where I’ll be next year.
I saw nothing.
Stupid clouds.
