Knitting Cybrarian

Big sale ahead!

Today is Day 1 of the Christmas in July sale at The Studio Knitting and Needlepoint.  We're open 10am to 6pm today and tomorrow.  25% off everything except special orders, classes and finishing.  I'm working today.  Will have on my Studio T-shirt and sneakers.  I hear we're going to have a Snow Cone machine available because of the heat.  Heat advisory on for today.

Dealing with Disappointment

I remember reading in C.S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, “Be careful what you wish for, for you may very well get it.” There have been some opportunities where I would have liked to have had that choice – to accept or reject what I had wished for. But that’s not happened in several instances very close to my heart. I’ve been rejected instead, and all that I have to offer.

I’m left wondering and pondering many facets of the situation. What’s left, though is, how have I dealt with a great disappointment? Sometimes I have dealt with it better than others. I’m often depressed for a while (thank God for good meds), and I have to search for what I think is the “reason,” and more importantly, look for the good in the situation. It’s not easy.

I found myself wanting to throw things this afternoon – I had a glass baking dish in my hands and I felt the urge to throw it on the concrete steps I was descending. What would that have proven? I would have made a mess for me or someone else to clean up, endangered others, and had to buy a replacement baking dish. And the disppointment would remain, regardless of the dish being broken or remaining whole.

And since I didn’t get to make the choice and I didn’t get what I wished for, I trudge on. I remain frustrated with situations beyond my control—situations in which I change what I can that I have control of, and try to let go. After all, if one continues to hit one’s head against a brick wall, the wall doesn’t move.

It would be easy to say angry words, but words cannot be taken away once said. It would be easy to hold a grudge, or destroy material things. But none of these change a situation, soothe the hurt, or ease the sting of rejection. It would also be easy to drown one’s sorrows in alcohol, but the situation doesn't change once the buzz wears off.

Trudge on. I have to hold on to the idea that all things work out for the best in the end. If not, then I have an even greater disappointment to face.

The joys (?!) of storage space limits

About a year or so ago, our campus decided to implement a new voice mail system (Cisco's Unity) with our e-mail system (MS Exhange servers).  What I liked is the ability to check my voice mail anywhere I had internet access and therefore e-mail access. 

What I don't like is that of course, the voice mail files take up space in my allotted e-mail storage space.  I periodically clean out my e-mail and voice mail space.  What's most frustrating is how the most recent versions of MS Outlook work -- the personal folders MUST live on a hard drive space and not on a networked drive (the reasons why still elude me).  So I haul my laptop to work and back each day and put the majority of e-mails needing to be saved on my laptop's hard drive.

So, what happens when you're out of town for a few days?  I fill up my server allotment on the main e-mail server and get alerted at least twice a day about being over my space limit. 

Today promises to be a meeting free day (hooray!) and I plan to clean out the voice mail and sort/file the e-mail appropriately.

And make a gazillion return phone calls -- mostly involving library instruction, verifying that yes, we did get the gift that was dropped off last week, and yes, you may bring me tons of chocolate, champagne and strawberries.

Sadly, I made the last one up, but I'll still take chocolate, champagne and strawberries.

Skype is a beautiful thing

Check out Skype.  It's a beautiful thing.  Why?  Because my husband's oldest brother and family live in Israel.  We can call him to see how he and the family are doing (particularly with the current conflict) and hear that they're safe.  And it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg to do so.

My brother-in-law and his family live in Haifa, Israel.  Right now they're in Jerusalem, at least until things settle down.  So, especially for those of you with loved ones halfway across the world, check out Skype.  Calls from one computer to another for free.

Adventures in presentations

Having a good sense of humor is a wonderful gift.  It can help ward off stressful situations at times or at least minimize them. 

I had an adventure this week that was quite humorous, or at least I saw it that way.  I had to give a presentation.  I let the folks know in advance what I would need (computer with web access, PowerPoint program, and speakers set up).  I also asked if I would need to bring my laptop or use a flash drive instead -- and if the presentation set up didn't include speakers, etc. to let me know.  I'd modify my presentation.  No problem.

Well, I arrived at the place 15 minutes early to set things up.  I had my flash drive and saved the presentation as both a PowerPoint file and as a PowerPoint show file (that's the safest option if you have strange fonts, which I didn't).  My host logged on to the computer, and I waited for it to boot up.  And waited.  After it booted up, I started to open a web page and open my presentation.  And waited.  And things didn't move.  Well, sort of.  The web browser would load, but wouldn't load a web site.  My host got their tech personnel on the situation right away.  The tech personnel couldn't get that computer to work, so they brought out a laptop.

During this time, I went to the restroom and when I returned from the restroom, I greeted the presentation attendees.  Better to stay calm and it's not as if my standing over the tech support guys would fix anything.  Oh, but it gets better!

Now, I love laptops.  But, as my close friends know, I'm a lefty.  Yup, Southpaw Central.  Our tech folks gripe every time they have to work on the machine in my office while in my office or on my laptop, 'cause everything is set up for a lefty.  This laptop was set up for righties and the Control Panel feature was not present.  So I couldn't switch mouse buttons.  Okay.  Okay.  I asked the tech guy about speakers.  He got the deer in the headlights look. He offered to get speakers, but it would take a few minutes.  I looked at my host and I looked at the clock.  We were already well into my presentation time.  I grinned and said, it's okay.  I'll live.  We need to get this show on the road.

I fumbled with the buttons quite a few times and joked about being a lefty in a right-handed universe.

When I got to my musical examples, including a video from the web, I joked that "if we had speakers, you would be listening to ..."  I remembered the tune for the second example and sang that.  The audience laughed. 

And then I tried to use the felt tip pen feature in PowerPoint to show certain words in a screen shot.  It hadn't been installed.  Well, turned that off.  Didn't want to hold up the presentation because of that.  And attempted to laugh that off.

I think the presentation went well, all things considered.  Again, a good sense of humor helps.  But also, things rarely go as planned, even when you think they might.  You can plan all you want, communicate as much as possible, and things still slip through the cracks. 

That's life.  I'd rather laugh than cry.  Assuming I can breathe.

Adventures in travel

I went on a short trip this week.  Left Tuesday, returned Thursday.  I arrived at my destination a tad early!  Yippee!  I was then taken to the hotel and my host verfied that the reservation was indeed correct as far as billing. 

The hotel folks then informed me that they did NOT have a non-smoking room available for me, and they could not guarantee a non-smoking room with the reservation.  However, they assured me that the smoking room had been cleaned thoroughly and treated with an ozone machine.

I went to the room (which was on a smoking floor, of course), opened the door and dropped my bags.  I took a breath.  Maybe a second one.  And promptly had an asthma attack.  A bad one.  I grabbed my bags and left.  Immediately.

I reported the situation as calmly as I could to them.  I didn't go into the severity of the attack, but told them that I could not stay in that room.  They offered to do the ozone machine (again).  I said I would just sit in the lobby for the time being.

I sat.  And I freaked out.  Okay, I calmly freaked out.  Used my inhaler (MaxAir is wonderful, just wonderful, folks! Minimal shakes!).  And fired up my laptop and made two quick phone calls.

I called Joel to let him know I was there and briefed him on the situation.  I called my Mom, who promptly wanted to throttle the hotel management and call every hotel in this city to find me a place to stay.  I assured her that the situation would be rectified and I'd keep her posted.

If you don't know someone who has asthma, here are a few tips:

• you can die during an asthma attack, because your air supply is cut off -- hence the need for rescue inhalers.
• stressful situations make asthma worse, so it's all too easy to have a cycle happen where you have an attack, get stressed, the attack gets worse, you get more stressed, etc. etc. 
• If you have bad allergies AND you have asthma, then you have a double whammy situation.  Especially folks who are allergic to tobacco smoke, strong perfumes, etc. 
• Folks who have asthma are NOT overreacting when they express concern about being in a potentially hazardous environment.
• for more information, see the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America.

I logged on to my e-mail.  I considered my options.  I consciously worked on calming down.  This situation would be rectified.  I wouldn't have to spend the night coughing and coughing from asthma attacks-- even if I had to sleep on the couch in the hotel lobby! 

I decided to e-mail the folks who made the lodging arrangements and ask them to help.  Sometimes this can be risky -- sometimes folks think you're just causing trouble.  I'm not that kind of person.  But the folks on the other end came through and took care of the situation.  And someone picked me up and took me to the new lodgings. 

It took a while for my system to calm down, but it did by the next morning, thankfully.  What an embarrassing situation -- I don't like to reveal that kind of stuff to the greater western world (although I just did on my blog), but it all worked out.

Okay, travel adventure two happened on the return trip.  The last flight of my trip was overbooked.  I volunteered to give up my seat, in return for a seat on the next flight out (two hours later) AND a free roundtrip ticket for that airline, good for a year.  I made sure to tell the attendant that I had carry on, and that made me a prime candidate (in my mind).  And indeed it did.  Turns out that these automated systems will prioritize the volunteers by alphabetical order AND if they have carry on, not checked luggage. 

Well, I got chosen.  It was one of those rare times that I could volunteer and it was nice to get a free round trip ticket. 

And I was glad to get home.  Whoo hoo!

Finished object!

I finished a lovely linen/rayon jacket tonight.  It's a jade leaning towards teal green.  I'll run it through the washer at least once tomorrow morning.  I will be spending lots of time with an iron sometime tomorrow night.

BTW, one of the lovely properties of linen is much like that of wool -- it can absorb quite a bit of water.  So, sewing was interesting at times.  I pray I don't have rippled seams when all is said and done.

And it's not even midnight!

It's hot, baby

Yup.  Right now it's 95 outside (at 8:19pm!) with a heat index of 102F.  I've been working on sewing a jacket off and on this afternoon.  Here's the rundown of the process:

• press pattern paper on low heat iron, no steam
• take break to wipe sweat from brow, repenish body with water
• press 4 yards of lovely linen/rayon with steam and water bottle
• take break to wipe sweat from brow, replenish water (took two short breaks during this pressing)
• cut pattern pieces out of fabric
• take break to wipe sweat...
• cut out appropriate pieces of interfacing
• press/fuse interfacing to pattern pieces, press up hem allowance
• take break to wipe sweat...

Yeah, and I've not started the actual sewing yet.  That should be a breeze compared to what's gone on so far.  Oh.  I forgot, though.  I'll need to press seams open, which means more heat and more sweat.  Ugh.

The air conditioning has run practically the whole day.  We have it set at 79 or 80, and it's not like we've been running in and out all day.  We've done some cleaning and sorting (in addition to the fabric work), but mostly stayed in. 

I'm supposed to travel mid-week and it looks as if this heat wave is going to continue.  My only consolation is that when the temps are around 95-100+, everyone is hot.  Everyone.

Oh, yesterday I splurged and got a manicure (no polish, please, really) and a pedicure (ah, heaven!) and learned a few Vietmanese words.  The young women were really tickled that I wanted to learn how to say thank you, very good, and you're welcome in their language.  Sometimes it's the little things that folks appreciate!  I feel like it's the least I can do, considering how they make me feel so wonderful!

Just ask my friends if this is true...

I'm following Mosker and Suzanne's leads:

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have high extroversion. You are outgoing and engaging, with both strangers and friends. You truly enjoy being with people and bring energy into any situation. Enthusiastic and fun, you're the first to say "let's go!" Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have high agreeableness. You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly. Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone. You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance. Neuroticism: You have medium neuroticism. You're generally cool and collected, but sometimes you do panic. Little worries or problems can consume you, draining your energy. Your life is pretty smooth, but there's a few emotional bumps you'd like to get rid of. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

43

I turned 43 yesterday (11 July).  For once, I went to work -- I usually take vacation on my birthday, but this year I worked.  Am trying to accumulate vacation time. 

I got to work late in part because I stopped by Office Depot.  Well, it was actually because I was wearing a new shirt the hubster bought for me ($20 on sale at Eddie Bauer) and it was a little low.  I had a serious case of gaposis with a mock wrap top and I didn't want everyone to see what kind of undergarments I wear.  I stopped by Office Depot to buy some double sided tape.  Got the tape (which only came in a permenent type and two packages, not singles) and spent 10 minutes in my truck trying to apply it successfully. 

There's a hitch with my vision these days.  Since I'm over 40, the close up range isn't so good.  I have monovision contacts now which helps most of the time.  So I'm applying the tape to one side of my blouse with my right eye closed.  I think I'm supposed to peel off the top layer of the tape.  I fight with this for about 10 minutes (with the engine running and the a/c going, 'cause I don't want to be hot, sweaty, and I don't want everyone in the store to see me doing this).  Then I realize that maybe I should read the words printed on that top layer of tape.  It's the leader for the tape.  Duh.  Once I actually got to the tape, all was good for about 3 hours.  Then I had to replace said tape.  But it worked.

So I got into work and my student assistants greeted me with "Happy Birthday!"  "Who told you it was my birthday???"  They flushed.  My friend Mosker had brought in a cake for them and told them it was my birthday.  Mosker and I had a deal -- no presents for the birthdays, but candy was allowable with a card.  Because the cake was for the STUDENTS, she thought she was off the hook.  I kept her sweating for a while.  The cake was delicious, and as it turned out, was my lunch for the day.

So, the rest of the day was punctuated with "Happy Birthday!", cards, e-cards and cake.  Even my hairdresser called to wish me happy birthday! I left work to visit my young friend who is STILL in Children's Mercy Hospital.  I brought her McDonald's for dinner and brought her lovely acid green flip-flops I crocheted with furry yarn.  Photos to come.  Yes, my bday dinner was McDonald's, but she was happy I spent some time with her on my special day. 

Then off to Stroud's to meet up with friends visiting from out of town.  They ate, and we all talked and had fun catching up.  My friends have a delightful 5 year old daughter, Emma.  I had stopped by Barnes and Noble after work en route to the hospital to pick up a little something for her.  I spent a gift card the in-laws gave me on her (sorry, but hey, it worked!) for Make Way for Ducklings and an alphabet word and coloring book in French.  She spent time before dinner and during dinner coloring and chatting with us in French and English, even correcting my French!  Voila!  After dinner, we went down to the pond on the restaurant's property and fed the ducks and swans cottage fries.  Emma was delighted and a little frightened all at once.  She would fly to my side when a gooce decided to come closer.  But it was all fun and safe.

What a birthday!  And today Mosker and Rustee took me out to Chipotle.  Let the celebration continue!