Mom was poking around for something this morning, and came across this: one of the famous Birk's blue boxes. It's empty, like the one in this story, but is surely quite old.
If only it could talk...
So here it is... my first attempts at filling a space - Abelard's belt and my belt. I used chain stitch, since, to my eye, it looks most like what they used on the original.
A request for those of you who are users of the public library system - There is a (Canadian) book I'd like to get into as many (US) libraries as I can. My understanding is that the best way to do that is to have someone with a library card from the local library system go into the library and ask them to get it.
It's a sociology book, it's not naughty or anything. :o)
So, the first thing is a question: is that the best way to do it? Or at least, is it *a* way to do it? If not, what is the best way?
And the second thing is, if you have a library card from your local library, and you'd be willing to request this book, please let me know, drop me your email address, and I'll email you particulars.
Thanks much.
A quick note from Superior, WI. I'm on my way to visit my parents in Canada, and can drop a brief update to LJ courtesy of an ancient laptop of my dear darlin's, and the free wireless at the motel.
I've mentioned that I have a due date for my paper, but I realized I haven't really said anything to give that context, till now. Here it is: I'm 2 credits shy of my bachelor's degree. I've been working on it for a *stupidly* long time. I mean, if I procrastinate much longer, this degree program will be older than *I* am (I think space and time will actually bend to accomodate that). Since I don't want to be responsible for that sort of thing (I've watched Buffy, and Star Trek, and Meet the Robinsons - I've seen what happens), and I'd *really* like to be able to get this off my plate, I'm finishing it. No, really, I'm finishing it, dammit.
The paper is for a Soc class I took on Technology, Media and Society. I deferred the final project, and the prof is letting me complete it now. Which is ultra-cool of him. (No, that's not sucking up. I really doubt he even knows this blog exists.) The paper is on the Florida 2000 presidential election, and the "hanging chad" issues.
So, off to do some reading on that subject. :o)
Yesterday was my husband's turn to feel useless; today, its mine.
Ben was supposed to go to Halifax to visit with his bio-dad. The airport closed while we were there, due to weather. It's snowing. Wet, heavy, slippery snow. We got his baggage, and left, and his bio-dad rearranged his flight to Sunday night.
Paul and I both had to work for part of the day today, so we each took a car; me with the boy via the airport, and Paul straight to downtown. He did all his mystical work stuff and came home. He made it safely all the way home, and got stuck in the driveway.
I went to work, did *my* work stuff, and came safely home, and then got stuck in the ditch as I was parking on the side of the road... well, as the car slid sideways off the road and partway into the ditch.
Humph.
So, the feeling useless bit is because both my men-folk are outside in the snow, soaking wet, shovelling and pushing cars. I'm inside, with all the other non-shovelling folk (who are furry, four-leggedy, and say "meow").
And I feel useless. :o(
But this'll be short-lived, I expect, like Paul's. Something will probably happen that will let me again feel competent and useful. Something will probably happen that will let me again feel competent and useful. And soon, I hope! Hoping...
Today the very helpful HR person with whom I've been dealing about maybe getting hired at SEDA/MCFI told me the posted rate for this job... $10.50. That's not even 17K, over ten months. :o(
I'm making $11.50 now as a temp, and I know the temp agency is charging in the neighbourhood of $17 or $18 for me. Milwaukee Public School secretary 1s earn just over $16 (just under 26K over ten months), and this job is more like a 2 or 3, so should be even higher than that.
I know MCFI is a not-for-profit, but I don't think that means I oughta work for them for what amounts to a little over half the going rate. I mean, I'd *love* to be able to, but there are financial realities on my side of things, too, not just on theirs.
I'm planning to negotiate, and aim for $14.25 to $15. But they started *so* low that I doubt they'll be able to come up that high. And I *really* like this job.
So, pooh. :o(
Work
Started the day with a staff meeting, which as far as I’m concerned, is ok. I think it’s a valuable chance to have everyone together in one room at the same time, all with permission to say what they think. We got stuff done, and met a new candidate for Principal, Joan. Joan looks like a pretty positive choice, to me, on one brief meeting. We didn’t really have a chance to talk afterwards or compare notes, because as soon as the buses arrived, so did the chaos.
Seems one kid (a 4 year-old) brought/found/got somehow a razor blade and cut another kid (a 5 year-old) across the back of the hand accidentally. But for most of the day there was much mayhem as facts were investigated, and What To Do was chased down… none of the Cheeses from Upstairs (neither wee, not-so-wee, nor freakin’-huge) were willing to stick their necks out and make a decision about things like “Yes, call the police” or “No, don’t call the police” or “Yes, call the police, but call the parents first” or “Call the parents, then let them call the police” so our interim administrator (who happens to be an HR person) ran all around Upstairs looking for direction. She eventually came back downstairs VERY frustrated. I observed to myself that now she knows exactly how the teachers have felt for *ages*.
Police were called, by the way, and even eventually showed up. The Cheeses found a social worker from Upstairs (we usually have one of our own but she’s out this week) and there were Meetings.
Two sets of pretty dang ticked off parental units showed up and escorted to their respective homes two cheery young girls who had already forgotten the entire incident altogether.
Sinuses
Feeling better, thanks. I am now completely without the urge to punch a hole in my cheekbone with a screwdriver. Those of you who have *had* sinus infections will understand that urge. Those of you who have not, just trust me on this.
Beowulf
At the Beowulf Bashing Bash, a good time was had by all, except probably, Neil Gaiman, if he could hear us. Poor guy, I tried to defend his creativity and even brilliance… but it had no chance to fly with that crowd. Another story, maybe. But, not their beloved Beowulf. I knew from the get-go that the whole idea was to poke fun at the movie, so I wasn’t surprised when someone said, “So, shall we count inaccuracies?” And someone replied, “No, I’ve seen the trailers. It’ll be easier to count accuracies.”
One of the accuracies was “There were people in Denmark in that time period.”
Now, that said, I admit to a certain amount of bashing, myself. We had the volume turned very low (so we could hear each other’s quips) and I couldn’t hear the dialogue at all. I expect we missed a lot from that. So, I gave up and joined in. C’mon! You would’ve too, all the *cool* kids were doing it… :o)
We plan to rent it ourselves and watch it again sometime, with the volume up, so I’m not going to form an opinion on the movie yet. Except that in that company, it certainly was fun and easy to bash.
Aumoničre
Once all the outlining is finished, I’ll post more pictures. :o) And, it occurred to me that I’d like to do another one, more of a replica than an adaptation like this one. So I went back to the site that has the photo of the one I’m making, and looked at one other extant one, and I’m debating. :o)
Paper
I talked with my prof yesterday evening. We pinned down my topic in detail, he approved it, and we set a due date. April 15th.
I spoke with my friend the doc (Hiya, Phantom) over the weekend and asked some questions. Top of the list was "do I mess myself up by sleeping in on weekends, and not taking the dose at the same timeon those days as I normally do?" He assured me that nope, I don't. So if I sleep late enough that taking the second dose will keep me awake, then just don't take it. Simple.
And, he said that it appears from my blog and from things we've talked about, that it's having its desired effect. Which I was thinking it was. And, for which I am *glad*. I'm kinda considering it's possible I might be able to trust my mind. Quite the concept.
As a break from the everlasting trim project for Abelard's cyclas, I am working on an aumoniere. It's a small pouch, originally used to carry coins that were intended for use as alms.
I'm using as my starting point this actually extant purse!! It boggles my mind to have an actual *real* example. There are so few twelfth century things about. :o)
So here are a bunch of pictures, with some of the outlining done.
The magpie will be a challenge.
Well won't this be interesting. I took my first dose about 15 minutes ago, call it 11:45. The rest of the day will likely be spent away from the computer, so I'll try to comment on how it went tomorrow or Monday.
Tonight, the long-awaited Beowulf Bashing Bash at a friend's place! It ain't just yer regular get-together-at-a-friends-place-and-watch-a-movie, oh no! It's a bunch of professional and amateur anglosaxonists getting together to eat snacks and snark at a modern "re-telling" of one of our favourite (and also, practically sacred) stories.
But I expect it'll be a lot of fun, and I plan on bearing very much in mind that Neil Gaiman is *enormously* talented, and writes *enormously cool* stuff. Like Neverwhere. So I'm imagining a movie based on Beowulf, but kinda like the Thirteenth Warrior movie was... that is, bearing only some small resemblance to its source material.
More on that, too. :o)
6:30 am, 20 mg
Slept badly last night, was awake lots, too hot, couldn’t get comfortable, all the usual dumbness plus the sinuses. I can’t really blame it on anything in particular. But I’m less tired than I expected to be, which I’ve seen once before on this med.
11:15 am, 20 mg
Another ZOOM morning. Busy workday.
Why, if my hands are shaking more, is my touch typing better than usual??
Went to the doc Tuesday to have my head examined. Or, my sinuses at least. I do have a sinus infection, and the antibiotics are helping, so my head hurts less than it did. Which is nice.
6:30, 20 mg
I expected this larger dose to make my tremor a lot worse, but it doesn’t seem to be appreciably different. Which is *fantastic*. I’m not sure what differences to watch for other than that, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
11:10, 20 mg
And now it’s 3:30. It was a *very* busy day, lots of things to do *now*, lots of distractions and multitaskings. I took notes, ran around, jumped through hoops, and like that. Seems like it went ok.
*shrug*
OK, so maybe I spoke in haste about this place. Things are more dishevelled than I knew.
The teachers are completely stressed out because there is no leadership from Upstairs (that's where all the Cheeses of various sizes are). When the last principal (Patience) left, we were assured there would be an interim plan within two days. That was about two weeks ago, and no plan is in sight.
Before Patience, there was an interim administrative team, and it seemed to cover all the basics reasonably well. It wasn’t fabulous, but it made things dealable-with. Then Patience was here for 3 months, she made some changes, said some scary stuff, and left very suddenly.
The people in HR (as the de facto leaders) should have stepped into that vacuum, set up the same type of temporary admin team immediately (even the same one as before might’ve been ok) and generally been Calm and Visible. Visible is important. Clarification of staff roles would have been good, since no one is sure about the changes Patience made, if they are still in effect, were they “official” or not… I think calm and visible would’ve done a lot to decrease the effects of the kablooie of Hurricane Patience. They didn’t do it. They’ve had very little visibility down here, and have apparently pretty consistently not responded to emails and like that.
So naturally, people got worried, and then more worried, and then of course the idea that the Big Cheeses are hiding some catastrophic change or other from us sprouted from the seeds planted by Patience…. as the magnitude of the perceived threat increased, the magnitude of the response from HR that’d be necessary to reassure people also increased. A lot. Like, they want a written guarantee that the school will be open next year as a school. They want employment contracts for next year. Things like that, above and beyond verbal assurances.
Now it’s to the point where people are talking about a one-day “strike” because they feel they have to do *something* to get their point across.
So, we took all this to the Biggest Cheese. His response? He called a meeting for tomorrow morning. Now, I understand the knee-jerk response from any Suit to any stimulus is to call a meeting, but I can’t help but think that Calm and Visible might’ve gone a long way this afternoon.
Interesting times.
Spent Sunday feeling like crap. I'm tired of feeling like crap. Don't I get a vote on this?! Humph. So, when I go to the doc tomorrow to see if I have a sinus infection (some of the symptoms are there, and some aren't... I mean, I've never had a sinus infection and been able to *breathe* before), I'm also going to ask about a flu shot. Never had one. Apparently the vaccine has ... stuff in it, a preservative that used to give me grief when it was in the contact lens stuff I was using. Waaaay back when. And I didn't know there were other options. So I'm gonna ask.
I'll also tell him how I'm doing with this new med. Which I think is OK. Makes me thirsty, though.
AND the HR person (Sarah) said that she has started the paperwork to hire me! :o) The only real wrinkle I'm worried about is how much pay they'll be able to offer me... this place isn't exactly rolling in dough.
Busy morning at work! I took my first dose at 6:40, took the second at 11:30. That was the first time I had a chance to slow down enough to snarf down my morning snack (banana) and drink something.
I was very excited this morning to actually *remember* something I needed to, when I needed to, something that as my thoughts went zooming by, I said to myself, "I need to tell Mary that..." then kept going... and *actually* remembered to get back to it and tell Mary! Without making a note. It's a bleeding miracle, I tell you!!
I don't expect to be able to update more today... back to the chaos! :o)
6:30, 10 mg
I’m not really noticing anything different that I can in particular ascribe to the med, now. I know my tremor is a little worse, and I notice the reading thing, and perhaps a small elevation of mood but that’s all.
11:00, 10 mg
Hopefully it wasn’t taking two doses on Monday that caused yesterday’s headache! I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.
I wish there was a way to tell if this was working for certain… maybe Phantom, if you read this, would you please comment on that?
11:45
So, I’m working on these excel spreadsheets that correlate information from three other workbooks into one new sheet (this is all per class, so I’m building five new sheets). It’s a lot of pasting links, way tedious and fiddly. And it has to get done, preferably yesterday. I’ve done it each month I’ve been here (SEDA) since October, and I know how I usually do it… do few, skip to something else, come back and do a few more, then go and do something else. It’s not just that I’m frequently interrupted, it’s also how I did this particular very persnickety talk. Today, I went through one entire class in a row and just *did* it. The whole things at once. No stops, no jumps, nothing.
I woke up this morning with a really nasty headache. Light, even dim light, was completely intolerable. So I called in to work, and went back to bed with my stuffed woolly mammoth over my eyes.
I woke up about 10:30 or so feeling somewhat better, and by eleven, I was ok to get out of bed and face the brightness. I was squinty for a little while, but I decided I felt better enough to get showered and head to work.
Which is completely out of character for me. I would normally stay home. Once I've called in, I have the day off. Usually, I'd read or play something on my gameboy or do something equally non-productive.
I can't even give credit/blame to the med, I don't think, since I hadn't taken it yet. I also don't know if the headache had anything to do with the fact I took two doses yesterday, though I can build a case for it via blood pressure (since as side effect can be elevated BP)... except that I think this med clears out of the blood system fairly quickly and thoroughly, and my headache wasn't throbbing like a BP related headache oughta.
I think the timing of the headache was a coincidence, since I get this type of thing from time to time all on my own. This whole voluntarily going to work thing, though...
Saturday
I know it took it on Saturday fairly early, since we got up to go to Officer's Day, to be there right when gate opened, but I really don't recall any detail about times etc. Oops.
Sunday
11:30 am (no breakfast till then), 10 mg
I really didn’t notice much that I can point to as an effect of the med with any certainty today. I spent till about 2:30ish in SR Harris scrutinizing the woolens aisle, then hopped in the car and drove back from the Cities to Milwaukee. I was pretty discriminating about what tasty woolies I chose, and felt very capable of saying “No, I’m not *in love* with this fabric, I can put it back.” And it’s a good thing, too. But of course I have no way to tell if I would have been less capable of that without the med.
Monday
6:30 am, 10 mg
8:00 am
Wowie, I’m tired. The drive home was pretty challenging. It rained and fogged and was sometimes *very* windy, and I didn’t get to bed till pretty late.
9:30 am.
Still quite tired and not feeling quite right, and wishing I could go back to bed. I am going to eat something (though I did have my usual bowl of cereal this morning) and see if that helps.
10:30 am, 10 mg
The food felt like it perked me up a little, which is good. This is the first time I’ve taken two doses of this stuff in a day, so we’ll see if my head explodes or anything. Other than that, I’ve noticed linear reading this morning.
Noon
No kaboom so far. :o) Actually I feel really good. Still tired but my ass isn’t dragging like it was earlier. Now instead of thinking “I wish I could go home to go to bed,” I’m thinking, “I wish I could go home and finish Abelard’s chausses.” Which is *exactly* the point of being on this med.