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Day 1086: Changes and Patterns
Sep. 8th, 2013 09:59 pmThis week has been a pretty good one. Holiday weeks tend to be longer for some odd, cruel reason, but things went all over all. I made some good progress on a couple of my work projects, and things are going pretty well with my coworkers. I also made progress on random life chores, like getting my new driver's license. Apparently in Utah if you once had a driver's license in this state they just reissue you a license with the number you had before, which is pretty handy. Even though my SSN card and passport both have my married, name, which means my name change is legally oaky, they still wanted to see my marriage certificate to establish why my name was changed. On the other hand, I passed the driver's test with flying colors, 25 out of 25. Granted it was an open book test, but most of the questions didn't require the book so much as common sense. On the other hand, listening to people failing the test was a bit unnerving. Especially the old lady who failed the test. It kinda sounded like she was the tail end of her driving years anyway, and I would be okay with her not getting a driver's license. On Friday I also made my debut as Coy's supportive, socialite wife at some grad student get-together on campus. Since they were chem students, they were making ice cream with liquid nitrogen and real cream, so the ice cream was delicious. I do not know why, but for some reason I kind of expected Cody's graduate advisor to look like Bobby Singer, all denim and flannel and gruffness, but as it turned out, Cody's graduate advisor looked, well, like just about every chem nerd you've ever imagined, button down shirt, khakis, glasses, soft-spoken, delicate hands. I notice delicate hands. Compared to Cody, I have pretty delicate hands, and that's after years of martial arts and sword-fighting and all-round tomboy shenanigans.
Speaking of martial arts...this weekend I went up north - urgh, an hour and a half - for dance practice so I can dance at this really awesome Halloween bash next month. Yes. Belly dancers celebrate Halloween. It's also kind of a birthday bash for the local queen of belly dance, the woman who basically rules the intermountain west belly-dance community. There's going to be a buffet and a classic silent horror movie accompanied by a live organist and, of course, belly dancing. While I was up at practice, an ATS class was also going on, and since I had the money for the drop-in fee, I went. While I know the basics of ATS - cues and some moves - their style and philosophy is really different from cabaret and fusion, and I really enjoyed it. It's a total body work-out, but it's worth it. Unfortunately, the only classes are way far up north, but apparently one instructor is looking to open up a studio down here. Now, I've been putting a lot of time into this publishing house deal, reading lots of law books on the side, meetings, doing web content for publicity, and of course working on my novel for half an hour every day (but, by my outline count, which was 30 "scenes" planned, I'm over a third of the way through the novel, which is pretty good for me). While Cody does have to spend a ridiculous amount of time at school or on school projects, I want to be able to spend time with him. Prepping for this Halloween dance is going to be time-consuming as it is, and I also signed up for that Spanish class, so things will be crazy, and if I want to spend time with Cody, well, something has to go. As right now, my one fun martial arts option is more expensive than belly dance, and also more time-consuming. If I want to pick back up with martial arts, well, I am handily married to a martial arts instructor who will teach me for free once we work out a dynamic where us punching each other isn't terribly awkward. So...dance it is. Plus I can keep up with dance when I have kids (or rather, am pregnant with kids, but no one feels good about punching a pregnant lady), and I am much better at training on my own for dancing than I ever was for martial arts.
Ivy has mostly been better-behaved this week. As much as Cody and I sometimes get annoyed with her, it's actually good to have a living alarm clock, because then we have extra motivation to get out of bed. She is also much better about being outside alone. If one of us is out there - and we don't even have to be in the garden, she's okay if Cody's hammering away in his forge - she's happy being out there and will entertain herself. On warm days I still sit outside with her, and she's okay with wandering around the garden out of my eyesight.
Today, after many rainy days, it was sunny, so we took her out for a hike up in the national forest. It was beautiful and all the fall colors are starting to come out. She had a great time and was very well-behaved on her leash. Also, she is getting better behaved about wandering around rooms in the house (with baby gates up for safety).
On Friday night, we had a girls' night, i.e. a Supernatural marathon. There was pizza and soda out of bottles (and all of us failed to open them Dean Winchester-style with a knife). We laughed and had good food and it was fun. I met one of my sister's good friends. I think it says something about my sister, that no matter how horrible she was to me when I was a kid, she always had good friends. Good people have good friends, so deep down, she is obviously a good person. And we had good times - my sister and I get along so much better now that we're older and not, you know, teenagers. Also, my niece is adorable.
...I couldn't sleep the other night, and I finally finished Clockwork Princess. Hands down waaaaaaaaay better than the Mortal Instruments Series. Infernal Devices for the win. But now I need to reread the Mortal Instruments and look for references to Magnus's cat and also Brother Zachariah.
This week, we nerds at the publishing house are getting together to sign paperwork and make this business official. And then eat lots of tasty Indian food. Also, I gave Cody his birthday present early so he could make knives, and he was overjoyed. So...here's to working on the novel, finishing my niece's birthday present, and more!
Speaking of martial arts...this weekend I went up north - urgh, an hour and a half - for dance practice so I can dance at this really awesome Halloween bash next month. Yes. Belly dancers celebrate Halloween. It's also kind of a birthday bash for the local queen of belly dance, the woman who basically rules the intermountain west belly-dance community. There's going to be a buffet and a classic silent horror movie accompanied by a live organist and, of course, belly dancing. While I was up at practice, an ATS class was also going on, and since I had the money for the drop-in fee, I went. While I know the basics of ATS - cues and some moves - their style and philosophy is really different from cabaret and fusion, and I really enjoyed it. It's a total body work-out, but it's worth it. Unfortunately, the only classes are way far up north, but apparently one instructor is looking to open up a studio down here. Now, I've been putting a lot of time into this publishing house deal, reading lots of law books on the side, meetings, doing web content for publicity, and of course working on my novel for half an hour every day (but, by my outline count, which was 30 "scenes" planned, I'm over a third of the way through the novel, which is pretty good for me). While Cody does have to spend a ridiculous amount of time at school or on school projects, I want to be able to spend time with him. Prepping for this Halloween dance is going to be time-consuming as it is, and I also signed up for that Spanish class, so things will be crazy, and if I want to spend time with Cody, well, something has to go. As right now, my one fun martial arts option is more expensive than belly dance, and also more time-consuming. If I want to pick back up with martial arts, well, I am handily married to a martial arts instructor who will teach me for free once we work out a dynamic where us punching each other isn't terribly awkward. So...dance it is. Plus I can keep up with dance when I have kids (or rather, am pregnant with kids, but no one feels good about punching a pregnant lady), and I am much better at training on my own for dancing than I ever was for martial arts.
Ivy has mostly been better-behaved this week. As much as Cody and I sometimes get annoyed with her, it's actually good to have a living alarm clock, because then we have extra motivation to get out of bed. She is also much better about being outside alone. If one of us is out there - and we don't even have to be in the garden, she's okay if Cody's hammering away in his forge - she's happy being out there and will entertain herself. On warm days I still sit outside with her, and she's okay with wandering around the garden out of my eyesight.
Today, after many rainy days, it was sunny, so we took her out for a hike up in the national forest. It was beautiful and all the fall colors are starting to come out. She had a great time and was very well-behaved on her leash. Also, she is getting better behaved about wandering around rooms in the house (with baby gates up for safety).
On Friday night, we had a girls' night, i.e. a Supernatural marathon. There was pizza and soda out of bottles (and all of us failed to open them Dean Winchester-style with a knife). We laughed and had good food and it was fun. I met one of my sister's good friends. I think it says something about my sister, that no matter how horrible she was to me when I was a kid, she always had good friends. Good people have good friends, so deep down, she is obviously a good person. And we had good times - my sister and I get along so much better now that we're older and not, you know, teenagers. Also, my niece is adorable.
...I couldn't sleep the other night, and I finally finished Clockwork Princess. Hands down waaaaaaaaay better than the Mortal Instruments Series. Infernal Devices for the win. But now I need to reread the Mortal Instruments and look for references to Magnus's cat and also Brother Zachariah.
This week, we nerds at the publishing house are getting together to sign paperwork and make this business official. And then eat lots of tasty Indian food. Also, I gave Cody his birthday present early so he could make knives, and he was overjoyed. So...here's to working on the novel, finishing my niece's birthday present, and more!
