And Here We Are

My New Years' Resolution, as it were, is to concentrate on finishing some of the things I've started. I want to get a bit more organized, and have a better sense of the order of upcoming events in my life. This may or may not be related to my upcoming job change.

I have an official date now - January 31st will be my last day at my current desk. I've explored different options for commercializing my photography, and I do think I could generate some income with a bit of time and effort. The question of the day, of course, is whether that income (together with unemployment, at least for the short term) would be sufficient to keep the heat on. And I guess the other question of the day is whether Rick and I have the stomach and risk tolerance to find out.

Meanwhile, I am job-hunting. I've scanned the papers, Craigslist, Jobnet, Milwaukeejobs, the Federal job website and every other list or lead I can think of. I've networked with friends and professional contacts, and forwarded my resume to headhunters. Paralegal. Four year Business Degree and three year Paralegal Degree. Fifteen years of multi-state and international experience with emphasis on transactional and real estate law. (I did that real estate transfer one time for a small beachfront in South America.) What have you got for me?
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I tell you, it feels like the meat market. After 21 years (this week) of marriage, I haven't had to date in a long time. But still, here I am giving out my number and trying to make an impression with strangers about what an interesting person I am and how nice it would be to have me around. I have an interview on Thursday, and all I can think about is what I should wear. I'll also need to update my portfolio, and I'm agonizing over what writing samples to submit. I'm certain that in this economy they have been flooded with resumes - so not only do I need to stand out from the crowd, but I need to distinguish myself from all those eager young faces in such a way that my higher price will seem worth it. My competitors will primarily be fresh young things straight from 2 years at the local tech school who will work for an hourly wage roughly equivalent to what I earned as a charwoman. It's just sad.

Anyway, I have had some positive results lately. Christmas was good:
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We finally got Rick's glasses picked up, although he says the bifocals make him seasick and I have to keep reminding him to wear them. (The eye doctor says it could take up to a month for him to adjust to them - longer if he won't keep them on his head.)

I finished Christy's leg-warmers, and will have them in the mail this week. I also finished sewing the fish and angel charms and the neck chain and such onto the liturgical stole, and gave it to RaeAnn on Saturday. She loved it, and there were tears and hugs, and according to reports she wore it on Sunday. (I was surprised to hear that she was wearing stoles now since I thought she had to wait until her ordination, but I guess that since she's licensed, the full regalia is expected of her. In any case, she didn't have any stoles of her own and has been borrowing them.) The blue one will see her through the post-Christmas season, but Lent is coming (purple) and then summer (green). I've got a twitch to make her more! (What you see below is the reverse side, with the scriptures that I was too chicken to write out with a fabric pen. I was afraid the pen would bleed through, requiring me to beat my head on a wall for a very long time. So I used an iron-on.)

A shawl has magically appeared on my needles, although I'm not quite sure how it happened. Still, it's my first real project on those Addi turbo's I got from craigslist, and it's coming along nicely. Red Heart Symphony (their synthetic mohair-wannabe, which I love) and Bernat Matrix (which was looking so lonely and cheap in the clearance bin that I just had to give it a home), held together on what are probably size 15's. My standard recipe for a triangle shawl, shown at left - although I'm considering whether I want to add some kind of scalloping along the edges of the V. I think if I drop down to size 8's while doubling the stitches, then do some sort of picot edge, it might give the piece interest without being a jarring change.


And finally, I pulled out the anniversary shawl (and very nearly worked on it). It still is waiting for that last little bit of lace - about 130", if I recall correctly. Time to get it done. Really. Any moment now.