Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Normal-Person Busyness

Hellooooooo out there!

Yeah. It's been a while. But, I have reasons...! One reason is that I've been being normal-person busy.

See, sick-person busy is great. It's watching movies, eating three meals a day in bed (if you want), lots of yummy tasting liquid and chew-able vitamins, and keeping whatever hours you want. But you can only watch so much Little House on the Prairie before you're bored to tears....

But the past month or so, I've been normal-person busy - out of bed, up and around, going places and doing things.

I took up a new hobby: family history. I've sorted old pictures, spent way too many hours in the Heritage Room at the library, scrutinized old census records, squealed in excitement over discovering someone's wife's maiden name, and called churches to look up confirmation records. I've found news articles, pictures of grave sites, and obituaries. I've mentally mapped out locations where my ancestors have lived. I have discovered and read first-hand records left by my great-uncle Al who survived World War II as a German refugee. I have discovered and read letters written by my great grandparents, grandparents, father, and uncles written to my aunt while she was attending college. I found and have read a book answering many questions about my grandmother's upbringing and family life. I have a wonderful twenty-one page document, assimilating and containing all this information. My family. My roots. A living tree. It's a wonderful feeling.

Unfortunately, I've been rather stuck for about a week now. It's hard to go back past 7 or 8 generations even in a good line. Some lines I've barely made it back three generations. It's been a lot of work, but it has been good work, and I believe hours well spent.

I've also taken to doing a lot more reading than I had been recently. I re-read Emma, The Secret Garden, The Hobbit, The Count of Monte Cristo and other classics. My favorite, of course, was finishing The Most of P. G. Wodehouse. If I can write one novel in the style of Wodehouse, I will consider myself a good author, even if no one else acknowledges my literary achievement. :) The addition of a Kindle to my stash of prized possessions will ensure that much more reading will come in the near future as well!

Another activity that has been occupying time spent at home has been sewing and other crafty projects. It started around the beginning of December when I made a batch of home-made Christmas cards using card stock and brown-paper bags. I didn't have any glitter so I decorated them with Kosher salt crystals instead, which looked rather like snow, if I do say so myself.

Then my domestic ambitions were heightened and I decided to experiment with some garment alterations. I have several skirts made from good material that are simply no longer in style. So, out came the scissors and I shortened them (and skinny-fied them, since I haven't exactly been eating bon-bons and chocolate truffles...). And vwalah, I have several skirts I will be able to wear when the weather gets warmer again! Most of the alterations were very simple. The most complicated one was a tiered skirt. I removed the top tier with its waistband, skinny-fied it by taking up one of the side seams, put a zipper in the side seam (since before it had been elastic-waist) and then made a new waistband. I became very good friends with the seam ripper on that skirt. It was a pain in the neck. But now it's all done!!!

Other miscellaneous activities: going to a game night, making cookies, cooking wonderful food, taking walks, working out, teaching myself some yoga, bandying with insurance companies, decorating a demon-possessed Christmas tree, etc.

To keep from boring you, the most adventurous normal-person thing I've done has been to build a resume. One of my brother's friends has agreed to take a look at it before I submit it anywhere, so hopefully he'll be able to give me some good feedback and things will go well from there. I've spent a little bit of time looking for office assistant jobs on craigslist and some other job sites. I'm excited to start working again, getting out of the house, doing things, seeing people, making a difference in the world.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Camille