Pleasantries

January has continued on its low-key contented note. The weather remains eerily clear and dry, which I know is bad but has made finding motivation to walk the dogs easier.

On Friday, I visited the letterpress studio where I'll be taking a few classes.

I won't start til March, but there's an open house next month where visitors can pull a few Valentine's Day cards, so that will be fun. Nothing better than free beautiful cards! The proprietor seems like a very nice guy. He's a poet and has a very whimsical, cartoon-y sensibility. His studio puts out very arty small books rather the usual business cards and wedding invitations, so I'm curious how he stays in business. Did you know that capital type used to be stored above the others, so that's why it's called upper and lower case type? He also offers classes for typesetting poems, which I feel a little torn about. In principle I like poems, and words generally, to speak for themselves and eschew fancy layouts, but how a poem looks on a page can be artful and help interpretation, so I'm interested in exploring that.

Also on Friday I started feeling the creep of a cold yet again, gah! Very annoying to have my energy sapped...again. I still managed to hie myself down to a work related event in San Jose for most of the day on Saturday while M stayed home to tend the Smokenator. I made it home in time to see the drama that was the 49er-Saints playoff game (sorry, Rob)--we've found a way to stream the game on the laptop hooked up to the TV. It's not very high-def, but very watchable. Thank goodness we didn't discover this earlier in the season.

On Sunday, there was more lolling about, football, and then friend Rachel's 50th birthday party. I felt bad dragging my germs to her party and spent the first hour drenched in sweat despite the chill in the hall they had rented, but I was so glad I went. It was good to be a small part of a friend's well deserved celebration.

I was only intending to stay for an hour or so, but I felt pretty good after having a little food, and dancing and mingling and catching up with friends I don't see enough of helped to energize me. The only downer is I can't find my FitBit and I worry that it popped off during the party somehow.



M had to work today, so I just took it easy, knitted and read, chatted with Felicia a little via Facebook about her arrival in Germany (I'm so happy for her!). I did walk the dogs twice. I haven't been eating much, so I treated myself with a dinner of French fries. In not so pleasant news, M announced that we need to install a new water heater since the one we have now, probably original to the house, has a leak. We'll be shopping for that tomorrow or the next day. But, better to save a little in water and better insulation, and of course a lot of possible damage to the house if something went awry. It's just a little after 6:00 p.m. and I am ready for bed!

Happy MLK Day. I listened to the whole "I Have a Dream" speech broadcast on NPR, and while I'm glad that strides have been made in civil rights, I also wish we didn't have so far to go. Time, time, time...

Happy 2012

It's a new year. A dozen years since the 21st century began, and somehow those numbers seem significant, maybe because it's a little easier to keep track of how quickly time is passing by. I'm feeling a bit more urgency to make the right life decisions, impatience at things I think waste my time, desire for a higher level of happiness. At the Box yesterday, we Pointy Pals were talking New Year's resolutions, and "practicing happiness" was a clear winner. Understanding what makes me happy and embracing even small wonders is another exercise of mind I intend to grasp more fully. It's funny how sometimes I think that perfection is so huge and unattainable and yet can also be achieved simply by putting away the Christmas ornaments for another year or sweeping up the sawdust from the patio or just smiling at a stranger and seeing them smile back, a little surprised. Maybe it's practicing the present for its own sake, and not thinking so much about what was, wasn't, or might be. Unless, of course, one is blogging about the past and future, in which case it's completely unavoidable, ha ha.

Also during the Pointy Pal chat, I realized I still haven't settled on a midlife crisis. What shall I be in my next phase? Right now, letterpress operator is high on the list. I contacted a local printer right then and there, and I may tour the studio as early as tomorrow. Cheesemaker is also in the running--just this afternoon I joined a local artisan cheesemaking group, called the Wheyfinders, another ha ha. Suddenly my dance card is getting full. With activities that involve other people, gah! You know how I hate people. There's a knitting class I want to take, a couple of concerts to make plans for, all that woven around the work travel that's starting up. Oh, and I agreed to be a mentor as part of a startup incubator program! I'm very excited about that. I fell into the total female stereotype of asking myself, "Do they really want me? Am I really qualified?" (Which I quickly corrected to "Do I have the right expertise?") And even when I asked these questions of the program founder, he assured me I did. They wouldn't have asked me otherwise, right?

Midlife crisis suggestions welcome.

It's M's birthday today. He and I have both been feeling irrationally optimistic lately. We've talked about it and aren't sure why, but we're just going to ride it as long as it lasts. Happy new year to us, and to us all!

And happy birthday, Jay!