New outlet for creativity: Gardening! and old ones...

In other news, I have taken up gardening. I planted so many seeds and still have so many more to plant in the ground in May. I started out having two shelves with fluorescent lights over them...about 18 sq. feet of seedlings. Then I got greedy at Menards one day and ended up with far more seeds. I ended up planting a few of those and decided to plant the others when it is warm enough outside. Well the lights inside are just not as fantastic as the sun, so I have been putting them outside during the day this week and bringing them in for the night. So I took all the bin lids I owned (10) and put my plants on each of them and then carried the 10 lids of plants out and in every day.

Anyway, i'm gonna have a major garden out back if all goes well with tons of herbs and vegetables (including green onions that I will be able to pick throughout the summer) and tons of flowers! I am super excited.

Other creative exploits? Not so much. I have sewn a bit, but never well. I have realized that I am super rusty at sketching and painting and seem to be awful at it. But I do realize that unless I feel the impulse and inspiration, I often am not good at it. Once that inspiration is there, precision in drawing comes back to my fingertips, impatience sets in until I can give it color, and then I can be there for hours, not noticing the time fly by as I focus on the painting. But I haven't felt that impulse for a while...

Well we will see. It always is sudden. and prolonged to many projects. So we'll just see...

Easter! and my schedule...

Wow. Not so good with the consistent posts, am I? :l

Well, it is Holy Saturday. It is odd to be in this job during Holy Week. I guess...I guess it has always been easy to be spontaneous with a flexible schedule, so I never really had to plan things in advance. Holy Weeks in the past consisted of wanting to go to mass as much as possible (preferably Thursday-Saturday night) and then hitching a ride suddenly when I found others doing what I wanted to do. That is no longer possible. This week I have been trying my darndest just to go to mass, and have not been altogether successful. I got to go to mass on Thursday at the church near my house because it started at 7 and as long as I watched the time I could swing it, possibly having to pull a Judas. It turned out I didn't have to; church ended 7:50. Perfect. But then last night the only nearby church I could find that had a mass in my allotted 5-8 was the basilica. I love the basilica... so I went a little before 7. That was a mistake. Cars lined the streets and filled the under-overpass parking lots. Every spot that is normally taken during farmer's markets in the summer was taken. I didn't get to go to Good Friday mass.

And it reminded of the other mass that I am missing. This year is the first year (since I professed my love for this mass and decided to go to it every year...3 years ago) that I have been unable to go the Basilica's Saturday night Easter Vigil. I love that mass. The in-house composer has made the most beautiful and riveting and... almost magical arrangements for the choir and musicians. And when that building is dark and then slowly filled with the lights from the little candles, it is just so visible what the light of Christ is like...I mean alone we light two feet, but as a body, we light this entire edifice! I just like it. Oh, and it has all 7 readings. I love that walk through salvation history. love it. But I can't go this year; and actually it's the Lord that I couldn't get it off. I realized after asking for it off that if I had I wouldn't be able to go to the Easter meeting Sunday night, so I am so glad of it. I still have to decide where to go to Easter Sunday mass. At this point I have the choice of going to the Basilica at 12 [beautiful :), alone :( ], the church down the street at 10:30 [earlier :), alone :( ], or St John's in Savage at 11 [with Alicia's family :)]. I think I just made my decision. Alicia's family it is!

Fender Bender

Yep I got into a fender bender in T's car.

Ice.

I don't love it...always.

8:00pm

Okay...weird.

I just got a call from my dad and he said almost the exact same thing as James.

He said that he didn't know why he kept thinking this so he decided to just call me to tell me; he had been thinking that I had always seemed to like to write and that maybe I should write a book during my time here at this job.

Now I actually have to think about it. What would I write about?

Today

Today T and I went to Wells Fargo and then to Lucia's in uptown. The people there sure know who is the moneybags in this relationship. T gets a lot of attention. The food was pretty good. The coffee was better. The dessert was fantastic.

T and I talked and had good conversation for most of the time but she kept going into fits of laughter because of a guy we saw on the way there dressed in a lady liberty costume.

yep. Way to advertise getting your taxes done buddy.

Quick update

So I decided not to really update since those entries because that would take far too much time. Suffice it to say, I have successfully created a home in this basement; it smells normal; to date I have caught around 15 mice; recently the mice stopped crawling above my head int he ceiling every night like they had since september; I now have 6 bookshelves and books are only kept on two shelves; everything work related is going off without a hitch.

As for recent updates:

A couple weeks ago I got in a fender bender with T's car, I got pulled over in my own and had three violations but didn't get a ticket, and then I ran over my sister's foot with my car and broke her ankle.

I spent much of the day on Monday watching the squirrel slide down the birdfeeder pole after I had sprayed it with pledge.

On Monday I read around 450 pages in a book and then Tuesday I watched the 6 hour version of pride and prejudice while making a dress and then Wednesday I read another 250 page book. I have a lot of time in the afternoons.

I live by Theodore Wirth Parkway which is lined by thick woods and tonight I plan to suit up in snowpants and go hiking in the section called "Quaking Bog".

yep I didn't name it that. Minnesota Parks and Recreation did.

I got a teapot.

A food dehydrator should be coming in the mail tomorrow. I plan to start making jerky and dried apples and become as proficient as a pioneer.

I went to the Brad Paisley/Miranda Lambert/Justin Moore concert last weekend. fantastic entertainers.

Last week after reading part of a series of books set in old Ireland, I suddenly felt the need to learn Irish folklore and old Irish songs. Though I was not completely successful yet, i did manage to learn the song Cushie Butterfield but I learned also that my Irish accent is atrocious. Way too british.

I am getting a new cellphone plan in a month that includes unlimited texting.

yep. that's all for now.

Wednesday September 30, 2009 Shortly afterward

So just a quick update:

Over the past week and a half I have built two bookshelves, two chairs, and a kitchen table, gotten groceries, all kitchen supplies, organizational supplies, and cleaning supplies.

When I arrived at the apartment in the basement, there was a bed, a recliner, a tv, a stove, refrigerator, and sink, a washer and dryer, a bathroom, a vacuum whose hose attachment doesn't function, lots of garbage, lots of old weight loss drinks, 2 red cracked plates, 2 bowls, a spoon, a steak knife, and 2 forks.

Everything smelled like rotted mice corpses, everything was covered in spider webs and mouse turds, and under the sink there was a worse smell coming from the unsealed cover at the base of the pipes.

I quickly realized that I had no cleaning supplies and the vacuum didn't function in a very helpful way for getting the nastiness off the top shelves of the closet.

Over the next couple days, with the help of Kathy Jandric and my mom, I got ammonia and baking soda and some food. I tore up a towel into rags and got to work. I found half (yes half) of a mouse in the closet and found out that the smell under the sink was in fact deadly sewer gas and needed to be sealed immediately (my dad was happy that I hadn't died yet from it).

Anyway, after talking to the private banking representative from wells fargo as well as the real estate assistant vice president from wells fargo, I got a credit card and stocked the kitchen and bought the furniture, got the okay to find cabinets for the kitchen, and got the deadly under sink problem solved. Now though I am not completely moved in, the apartment smells good and is clean and even starting to look more like a home every day (just wait till I hang up the artwork :) ).

Praise the Lord!

Wednesday September 30, 2009 9:30 am

Internet was scheduled to come this morning from 8-10am…so I waited from 8-10 listening for possible sounds of comcast's approach while also listening to the sleepy breathing sounds from the baby monitor on my bedside table. I wanted to be able to answer the door and get them to the basement while she was asleep or watching tv so that I might not have to explain what these strange people were doing in her house until afterward when I could calmly but excitedly try to explain what the world wide web is.

During the wait, I managed to make spiced apple cider, but I cooked it so long on the stove that by the time i put it into the mug there was less than half a cup left; I also made a pot of coffee…not that i was really thirsty for it but I love the smell; I closed the windows to start heating the apartment after the sewer gas scare was taken care of; I toasted an english muffin in the oven but of course promptly forgot about it and was alerted by the smoke alarm (that I wasn't aware of)…(haha I ran around at 7:30 trying to find the source of the incessantly loud beeping, afraid that it would wake the upstairs, and when I found it I somehow detached it from the ceiling and got the battery out in one fell swoop then ran over to the oven to discover that it may be impossible for me to simply remember when I put something in the oven to toast).

I had never realized just how noisy this house is. I have been listening all morning…the furnace, the mice in the ceiling, the construction down the street, the house just groaning and creaking like houses do, clocks ticking everywhere…sheesh.

Anyway…I think I am going to go outside (where I get better service and don't bother anyone) to call comcast and see what's up. be back soon…

Oh dear.

No appointment today …somehow the call last night was some sort of mistake…yippee no internet again. The guy on the line said he could set it up for monday next week…ah man. Since I was distressed by this he said to call this afternoon to see if there are more cancelations…

Now I have decided that I plan to call every couple hours until I can find an earlier time for them to come. man I am going to EARN that internet!

Well until then…this will continue to just be a text edit on my desktop.

signing off at the hermitage….with very cold feet--nobody said walking around outside in minnesota fall weather barefoot on cement for 20 minutes wouldn't be cold…its my own fault…haha but I probably won't learn from it)

Peace.

Back in September

So I moved into this apartment in the basement of the house of an elderly woman whom I will call T. She is mentally ill and somewhat wealthy. Her daily schedule revolves around going to a hair appointment twice a week, going to the bank once a week, and going out to lunch and dinner every day at restaurants around minneapolis.

I moved in in September to become her live-in caregiver...which basically means I spend a lot of time talking with her and taking her to her appointments.

I moved here to this very solitary life from living in household with tons of people all the time. so it's been quite a transition.

I moved in September and wrote some blog posts for this, but never posted them. I just found them and even though it is January I thought I'd post them anyway.

It's been a long while

So I just decided to start this up again.

Not that I really started it before to be honest...before it seemed like a way to talk to myself. and to be sure, it is definitely still a way to talk to myself. The reason I am starting this again is actually because of this:

yeah so its weird and all but I thought I may as well.

so here goes...