Cue That Ole Timey Rocky Music

I wanted to post some pictures of the festivities I mentioned, but unfortunately every single one had my last name or a student's last name. So, enjoy this picture of me cuddling a student's pet wallaby the last week of school.

As of last Friday, I finished my internship. I also cried the entire week prior, and was showered in love and hugs and sweet cards and letters and surprise going away parties from students. I have diligently saved all of said cards and letters and will be scanning them and saving them forever and ever amen.

To say that my last week was a roller coaster of emotion would be an understatement. On the one hand, yes, it was incredibly stressful and I was ready to not work so hard for free- absolutely. I was also over the moon to know that this process, which started in January of 2011, was finally finished. On the other hand, and both feet, and all 20 toes and fingers, I was really sad to leave the students. I adore them, no doubt. The growth I have seen in them this year has been amazing and I'm so proud of everything they've accomplished.

I had put off a pretty tedious and vital task until the Saturday after my last day. I had to upload virtually all of my grad school assignments from the past year to a website aligned with Colorado's educational standards so that the CDE could verify that I had demonstrated competency in each standard. Thankfully Bobby helped me with the organizing and uploading and it only took us 2 hours. It's all been signed off on so now the final step is for me to submit my official "Hey, Colorado? I've done all this work to become a teacher, can you take a look at it and give me a license?" request. I've already ordered my transcripts for that purpose, and I submitted my leave of absence form to my college for the fall. Let's get real- I need a break and I'm not interested in starting another grad class in the same month that I move to Albania, start a new job, and begin the process of figuring out my day to day work life.

This past week I've been tying up loose ends, crossing off things on my seemingly interminable to-do list, and making plans for my upcoming road trip. Tomorrow morning we're getting up early to hike Horsetooth, so for now I'm cutting this reunion off short. Bobby has booked our ridiculous No Plane-ia to Albania trek, but that's another topic for another post. I'm also still trying to figure out what I'm going to do for a blogging space as we travel around. A part of me is considering starting a new blog altogether, but I'm loathe to leave this one behind, so I may just take it into more of a travel blog direction. Fair warning, a huge portion of traveling and teaching will be paying off student loan debt, so there will be more personal finance things thrown into the mix, too. I'm also just still so leery of blogging after stumbling onto some pretty intense snark sites that a part of me is afraid to ramp up the blogging again. I think people who blog sometimes think that everyone blogs, or knows about it, but in reality it's still a relatively small sub-culture and far flung spaces of the internet can collide in really harsh ways...

Whoa, sorry. That was a weirdo ramble upon which to end this post. Here's another picture of that wallaby.

I'm cute and have nothing to do with internet snark sites

2011 Goals in Review

Yeah, sometimes 2011 goal accomplishing felt this futile, I won't lie.

Back in January, I posted my goals for the year with a lengthy musing on goals in general. From January until May I did monthly reviews- all found under the "2011 goals" tag. Then June and July were packed with traveling and school prep and people visiting from out of town, so I didn't do the monthly reviews, although I kept up with the goals. Unfortunately, I broke my foot right around the time I started school. The crutches, naturally, killed any working out, and the school going and student teaching began to eat almost every ounce of free time I had. I was impressed with my progress from January to July, but so many things fell apart in August to December. I feel I should almost break the year into two parts- Before Broken Foot/Grad School/Student Teaching and After. Let's just say "Before" and "After" for brevity's sake, shall we? Without further ado, the review...

At one point, as evidenced by this crappy phone pic, things were going pretty well in this department.

Food and Fitness

Do at least two cardio workouts a week + three additional workouts (any type including yoga):  

Before- I was rocking this goal. I was lifting weights again, doing yoga, bicycling up to 10 miles a day as a main form of transportation, and kicking ass at C25K.   

After- Well, clearly I did a whole lot of nothing when I was on the crutches for 8 weeks between August and October. I got off the crutches October 9th, but just walking made my foot sore for a good month after that, so I officially started working out again November 9th. I made sporadic starts and stops, but was honestly terrified of hurting myself again so I shied away from working out. I've been doing much better in December, working out on average about twice a week for the month. So far the foot isn't hurting at all, and I've done spinning, yoga, and today I lifted heavy weights again with no pain. I have very high hopes for 2012 in this area.

Get down to one soda and one coffee per week or less:  

Before- I was probably averaging more like two each per week, which was still a huge positive change. After- Please. I was bored because I wasn't working out, exhausted from my new schedule, and turning to any kind of fun that could be had in the form of a beverage. Fail, miserable, miserable fail.

Give C25K another try (applies to cardio workout goal above):

See above- great Before, unable to do it even if I wanted to After and possibly not until February or March of next year.

I did more than just contribute to other people's projects, I promise.

Misc Goals and Projects

West Coast Swing lessons- aim for once a week, go at least twice a month; belly dancing lessons on Sundays:

These stopped over summer when we were doing all of our traveling (you pay for them on a monthly basis and it would have been a waste) with full intentions of picking up again once school started. Again, broken foot/crutches made this impossible, and by the time November 9th rolled around we were into holiday travel season and had planned to be out of town for 1/4 of November and half of December. 

Finish rainbow quilt, blue crocheted baby blanket, and Kate’s quilt- work on similar projects at least twice a month

I finished the blue baby blanket and Kate's quilt, but didn't touch the rainbow quilt. I also made a scarf and did some other crafting here and there, but all of that stopped once school started. It just wasn't a priority to me anymore, and I willfully stopped doing it.

Scan in journals/letters/cards; finish editing pictures & deleting unwanted pics; organizing files

I organized the journals/letters/cards in a major way. I threw away a good 75% of them when I went to Texas in April/May because many of them were just random birthday or Christmas cards with nothing more than a signature. I wanted to save and scan in cards with lengthy messages and personal notes in them, not just cute cards, you know? I did the same with letters, when I realize that many of the things I had saved were from when I was 18 years old, and the people and things that were important to me then just aren't anymore. In fact, when I cleaned out my hope chest I threw away all of my medals/trophies from high school, my scripts from One Act Play, etc. It felt good. I also threw away a lot of journals that were also more painful than anything, things I wouldn't want anyone else to read, things I barely wanted to read anymore. Again, I realized it wasn't worth the time to scan them in. I did well on scanning in the things I did care about from January-July, but I haven't touched this project since August. I kicked ass at the second part of this goal- my pictures are 80% sorted and edited (cropping, lighting, not Photoshop or anything crazy) and organized. I'm very happy with my progress on this entire goal, in both parts.

Update blog at least twice a week/creative writing once a week

Before- Yep.

After- Nope. 

Dinner theater performance at my placement high school

Career and Finances

Continue to volunteer with SSI and VE & complete Community Based Development Certificate:

Done and done! I actually finished the 4th and final class towards the certificate this semester, which meant at one point I was taking 4 classes 0_o  I'm excited to continue working with both of these organizations, I really believe in their work. Bobby and I were able to go to the fall gala for VE, and it was really moving and reminded me of why I work for free :)

Begin Teacher Certification program and internship in August:

Check! I currently have a 4.0 and things are going really well. As they should, considering how much work I've put into it.

Try to find a part time job that works around current internships:

I was offered one job at the beginning of September that I turned down- teaching English online- because while the pay was good for a part time job- $15 an hour- there was a lot of extra unpaid work. Basically, you didn't get paid unless you were teaching, so all prep work/grading/e-mails were unpaid. It worked out to less than $8 an hour, plus I would have had to get up at 5 a.m. four days a week (including Saturday) in order to do it. I then successfully applied to a local call center around the end of September. However, by that point I was knee deep into the reality of my student teaching/volunteering/full time grad school and my 50-60 hour weeks left not room for this. Bobby and I agreed that a part time job would be an unnecessary additional stress, and that I should focus on my internship. Thankfully I paid off all my debt two years ago except student loans, and those are deferred and interest free in school.

Personal Improvement

Read one book a week/52 books in a year:

Accomplished! Click the widget on my sidebar or go here to check out my books. I'm really glad I made reading a top priority this year.

Regular Spanish study- Rosetta Stone, books, Spanish Word of the Day- at least 3 times a week:

I should have taken this off of my list after the first two months of failure. With everything else I had going on, I just couldn't bring myself to make this a priority. I threw myself into reading and researching everything I could get my hands on about education/teaching from June until now, so any spare education time was spent on supporting my current endeavors in grad school/student teaching.

No more than one hour of internet during weekdays:

Nope. From January to August I probably averaged about two hours- for everything, from FB to blogs to news to whatever- but once I started school I would spend hours researching and looking for lesson plan ideas. I would also turn to internet for entertainment/winding down when my foot was broken. I think this needs to get better in 2012.

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Travel To-Do

Montana and Yellowstone Nat’l Park: Check. We turned this into a 12 day long, 3,000 mile road trip that included Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, and Utah. I never blogged about it, but it was amazing.

Badlands: Check

Go to at least one hot springs location: Nope.

Travel to Denver and Boulder at least twice each for events or day trips: Check. We more than accomplished this and it was nice to do some local exploring.

See a concert at Red Rocks: Nope. We had tickets to see Death Cab for Cutie, and it was two weeks after I broke my foot. It's a hike to get out there, and my foot was newly broken and sore, so Bobby went with a co-worker.

Travel to Texas at end of HP contract for an extended amount of time: Check. We also threw in the Thanksgiving trip as a bonus.

Sweet old pic of the 3 of us- I'm rocking the hell out of that side pony and yellow dress.

Family

Call all grandparents and parents at least once a month/ Send more mail (specifically to Great Granny monthly): Accomplished. We also started a tradition of sending postcards to the kids in our family/grandparents/parents from all the places we travel. It began in Peru/Ecuador, and just kept going. My cousin's son and Bobby's niece and nephews really look forward to getting mail. I'm actually about to write a postcard to my Great Granny right now.

All in all, even with the derail that was "After" I feel pretty good about this year. The only place where I really feel like I failed miserably was regarding the Spanish study. I think I should have divided my year, preemptively, into Before School Starts and After School Starts. This would have been more reasonable. As a result, that's exactly what I'm doing for 2012 goals. I have goals for January- May, that take into account that beating that is full time graduate school and student teaching. Bobby and I hung out at a coffee shop and talked about our respective goals day before yesterday. I have 3 main areas of focus, with very specific goals, to keep it simple and sweet during next semester but still get the important things done. They'll probably go up on New Year's Day.

I have to say, all the self-reflection about goal setting and accomplishing things is making me feel even worse about the fact that I have severely procrastinated on a few important things for the start of next semester. Maybe my productive procrastination, in the form of writing this insanely long post, did serve a purpose after all other than contribute to my eventual carpal tunnel syndrome? We'll see.

Muppet Tentacle Scarf

I'm loving these Egypt DVD's because they let me get so much done with crafting while still being able to absorb all the info. This is yet another project that I started and abandoned, which is now finally finished. I posted pics on FB and one of my friends said the fringe looked like tentacles. Combined with the crazy colors now I think of it as my Muppet tentacle scarf.

Alternatively, I think it looks like lots of yummy flavors of sherbet.

Aforementioned tentacles.

This picture gives a better idea of the true color of the contrasting yarn- it's a beautiful plummy purple that I adore with the softer palette of the main yarn colors because it picks up the subtle darker flecks in them.

Here's a picture showing the length- this wrapped twice around my neck (I like really long scarves). The sherbet/Muppet colored yarn is my favorite- Lion Brand- and the contrasting plummy purple is some random yarn I bought years and years ago. I need to do a post soon about how organizing my crafting supplies in a more open and accessible manner is 75% of the reason why I am crafting like this again. Of course organizing it like that in the first place was motivated by the addition of crafting to my 2011 goals list. For the last few years I've made scarves for at least one person for Christmas, and I think that will be my gift this year to the people who have not yet received one. Underlying all of this crocheting and quilting and crafting (oh my!) is a desire to work through my piles of yarn and material over the next year and a half so that it will all be used up by the time we leave Colorado. I already have a few ideas for quilts and aprons in the works that I'm excited to try out. I made up my own pattern for this scarf and the blue blanket I made, but if you want a great online source for free crocheting/knitting patters you should definitely check out Ravelry's website.

Kate's Birthday Quilt

Kate and I in 2004

Kate is another very close friend of mine I've known since college. I met her my sophomore year (2002-03) and she was a freshman in college the next year while I was a junior. Her real name is Katie, but I've always called her Kate, or, more frequently, we both call each other bunny- yet another nickname/term of endearment to add to the never ending list our group employs. She works at a nursery and is master certified in horticulture, putting in sometimes 80 hour weeks doing back breaking work. She has a thick Texas accent, and she drinks her coffee out of a Mason jar, ya'll. She is most frequently found in plaid, and in fact, last year for her birthday her party was themed "Dress Like Kate", and we filled a house with tens of friends wearing plaid and sporting old cowboy hats, decked out in accessories like rainbow suspenders and boots. Katie also has a deep and abiding love for her native state. Please see this picture for evidence:
That's right, when she came to visit me, we went camping and she actually had a Texas doormat on hand. Just, you know, hanging out in her truck (which also happens to have a bumper sticker that says "Don't Mess with Texas...Women" on it) in case she happened to need it.

Katie and I briefly dated a million years ago, aka 2004 (which seriously feels like it was a million years ago) but most of us in the group have dated one another at one time or another, and like everyone else we remained good friends after and she is still, to this day, one of my best friends in this world. She is loyal and protective and absolutely hilarious. There are running jokes about how terrible she is at telling stories, but she is also a fabulous dancer and we are often found improving some kind of partner dance to a variety of Michael Jackson songs at get togethers. Or, if we're at a bar, we will inevitably two-step- she leads, naturally. Katie shares my affinity for simple and frugal living, and we both have a deep and abiding love for to do lists. Regarding to-do lists, Katie introduced me to the term rat killin' as a euphemism for running errands. This is one of many reasons I think she's adorable.

Kate and I at my going away to Colorado party

This last Sunday was her 25th birthday, and I made her a quilt- all hand stitched!- that I designed. It is meant to be a bit folksy, but if you knew Kate you would say to yourself "that is Kate in quilt form". Here are some pictures of the project, which also happens to be another goal on my 2011 goals list. Shamefully, I purchased these materials to make this quilt for Katie's 24th birthday, but never got around to it between wrapping up grad school and starting my new job. But now it's done, and there is photographic proof.

I found bandannas in Kate's signature colors/style to use for the quilt top. The design was pretty simple, but I'm still pretty proud of it because while I have quilted before, I have never made a quilt- other quilted pieces became pillows. This is the quilt top in its first step.

I started kind of making up the design as I went, and decided there had to be a Texas in there somewhere. Bobby donated some old work pants to the cause, and I knew Kate would love that detail. Bobby found a template online for me that was the perfect size. Here it is, waiting to be embroidered onto the quilt.

As I had never made a quilt I decided to go the easy way and tie it. But I wanted it to be cute, so I got beige and orange buttons to decorate where I tied it together.

More button detailing...

Close up of the center...

Size comparison (before ironing, don't judge me too harshly!)

And the back, also before ironing. I totally took the lazy way out and purchased a fleece blanket for the back piece. But, while it was lazy, it was smart in two ways. One, I didn't have to piece together two lengths and then sew it to the top- and saving sewing is always good when you're doing it by hand! And two, this fleece blanket was about half the price of buying fleece by the yard. Frugality for the win.

The most important thing is that Kate *loved* it. And I'm so glad she did!

A Blue Weekend

This weekend was one of those weekends where I simultaneously got a ton of things done but also had a lot of downtime to just curl up with a book next to Bobby on a lazy Sunday afternoon. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary- in fact, we skipped our planned West Coast Swing dance lessons in favor of staying in on Friday and Saturday night. A few things that stood out on the good weekend list:

I made a hodge podge breakfast smoothie on Saturday morning out of random things in the fridge that needed to be used up- 1/4 a cup of pureed pumpkin, about the same amount of blueberries- plus an overripe banana, a tbsp each of ground flax seeds and chia seeds, a splash of almond milk, and what I *thought* were frozen peaches from our CSA...

See the little orange guys hanging out at the bottom? I just found out (as I was typing this) that they were not, in fact, peaches. They were little chunks of butternut squash. I found this out when Bobby (who is, as I type, making a peach/strawberry/rhubarb crumble) asked "is this...cantaloupe? what is this?" and I told him they were peaches. Then he says "no, THESE are peaches" holding up another container. Moral of the story? Chunks of frozen butternut squash taste damned good in a smoothie with unlikely counterparts such as pumpkin and blueberries. Lesson learned!

So, this is a bittersweet moment from the weekend. My beloved green, eco-friendly, all natural rubber yoga mat bit the dust after a little over two years of use (I'd say about 3 times a week for an hour of power/vinyasa flow, so it did admirably). I wanted to replace it with the exact same brand and type, and this was the only mat we could find in town that met the requirements.

Why, hello there.

It's been unfurled in the study room for over a day now, because as you can imagine it smells strongly of what it's made out of- pure rubber. I can't wait to use it tomorrow morning.

And last but not least, I finished a project on my 2011 Goals List. This is the blue baby blanket that I started... wait for it...THREE YEARS AGO. I know, it's awful! But look, just by putting it on a goals list, it's magically done a mere two weeks later. Originally a few people around me were pregnant and its home was kind of up in the air, and now I need to find a place to send it to.

This is triple stitch crocheting, for those of you out there who are familiar with such terms. I finished the last 5 rows- including cutting every.single.piece.of.yarn. for tassle- and the tassle on both ends in about 3 hours while Bobby and I watched another DVD of Egypt lectures (his parents sent us 7 DVD's of a professor lecturing on Egypt in preparation for our trip and they are fascinating). It was nice to kill two birds with one stone, and since it's literally just a lecture on DVD I didn't miss out on anything by having to glance down at my hands periodically.

I learned to crochet when I was 5 or 6, and a part of me is still in awe that by twisting yarn in a certain way around a little metal hook this is what's created.

Of course, as I realized here, it's just as nice for an adult to curl up in as well. So I suppose that broadens the field of who might be receiving this little guy. I'm just glad I finally finished it! I also finished Kate's birthday quilt (also on the goals list), so I'll post those pictures later. In other good news not proven by photographic evidence- I met my Spanish study goals for the week. I sat down at the kitchen table and studied for two and a half hours this weekend, which not only got me off to a good start but helped me flesh out a study schedule that I think will be effective. I'll go into more detail on the goals progress in monthly reviews though, so for now I think I'm going to get ready for bed so I can curl up with a book and some of that peach/strawberry/rhubarb crumble that I'm starting to smell from the kitchen :)

2011 Goals, or, This Post May Come Back to Shame Me in 2012

postcard I purchased in the subway my first week in Japan

I know most people did this post around January 3rd, but the first week of January I was busy enjoying J-Ben and P!'s visit, and then recapping it. So, let's just forgive my tardiness and get on with it :)

I am not a fan of New Year's Resolutions, for a few reasons I'll speak to in generalities. For one, I'm a goal setting, list making, project tackling kind of person. I tend to make frequent goals- on the order of monthly, or weekly, or, when I was in school, semester-ly (that's a word, right?). Plus, New Year's Resolutions seem to often be the only goal setting some people make, ever. As a result, they usually make ambiguous, fuzzy around the edges goals that are hard to quantify and make it nigh unto impossible to assess progress. Or, they make grand sweeping goals that are kind of impossible to achieve. Also, because this is the only time of the year that they might make goals, they are not used to working towards them and making a plan to achieve them. Because of these two problems, New Year's Resolutions have (rightly so) acquired the stereotype of being unachievable, hazy feel good-y type wishes that are uttered into the drunken atmosphere of a New Year's party at 2 a.m., or written haphazardly on a scrap of napkin at a diner where one is eating off the New Year's hangover. Ok, that's a little much, but I got carried away with the imagery...my point is, I think New Year's Resolutions are the surest way to jinx oneself into not accomplishing said resolutions, simply by cursing them with the name "resolutions". So, my two step solution (I'm no expert, just a girl with a free blogger account) is to a) make goals consistently throughout the year and b) make yearly goals that are quantifiable and measurable. For example, one of my 2011 goals is to read 52 books. That can work out to 1 book a week, or it can work out to book heavy months and book lean months. As long as I have 52 titles by the end of the year, I'm golden. Although, I honestly hope I'm not reading the final 38 books between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Here are my 2011 goals, categorized in ways that made sense to me. I've left out some of the specifics of implementation so that this already rambly and navel gazing post doesn't become 1,435 pages long, but you'll get the general idea.

Food and Fitness

Do at least two cardio workouts a week + three additional workouts (any type including yoga)

Get down to one soda and one coffee per week or less

Give C25K another try (applies to cardio workout goal above)

Misc Goals and Projects

West Coast Swing lessons- aim for once a week, go at least twice a month; belly dancing lessons on Sundays

Finish rainbow quilt, blue crocheted baby blanket, and Kate’s quilt- work on similar projects at least twice a month

Scan in journals/letters/cards; finish editing pictures & deleting unwanted pics; organizing files

Update blog at least twice a week/creative writing once a week

Career and Finances

Continue to volunteer with SSI and VE & complete Community Based Development Certificate

Begin Teacher Certification program and internship in August

Try to find a part time job that works around current internships

Personal Improvement

Read one book a week/52 books in a year

Regular Spanish study- Rosetta Stone, books, Spanish Word of the Day- at least 3 times a week

No more than one hour of internet during weekdays

Travel To-Do

Montana and Yellowstone Nat’l Park

Badlands

Go to at least one hot springs location

Travel to Denver and Boulder at least twice each for events or day trips

See a concert at Red Rocks

Travel to Texas at end of HP contract for an extended amount of time

Family

Call all grandparents and parents at least once a month/ Send more mail (specifically to Great Granny monthly)

____________________________________

A few notes: The one hour of internet daily ties into the read more books thing. I found that I have become a newshound. I can easily spend two hours a day reading BBC and NPR. While I don't want to be any less informed, I don't appreciate that way that my reading of books has been edged out a bit by my reading of news. The West Coast Swing lessons are something Bobby and I started back in Dallas- he invited to them for one of our first dates- and we both love them. Since we kind of need each other to accomplish that goal, it's on both of our lists. Speaking of Bobby, we actually sat down together and I typed up both of our lists, since a few things depended on one another- especially our travel goals. We want to make sure we fully explore this part of the world while we're living here, hence the travel to-do list. We also served as good sounding boards for one another, asking probing questions about goal ideas, getting honest feedback about realistic expectations, etc. Lastly, in regards to the food and fitness area. I am a fit person, but my cardio health is sorely lacking and as a former long distance runner this is annoying to me and I want to fix it. I tried to start C25K back in

September, but then I jinxed my hip. So here's hoping I'll be able to actually do it this time. If not, I'm giving myself a guilt free pass if I don't accomplish that goal. Biology and bones are tricky things to persuade, regardless of how much one might want to.

In addition to my goal list, I have one more thing. A theme for 2011, if you will. An overarching philosophy that I will seek to apply to my daily doings. It is two part and they go hand in hand:
1) Master my fear, or at least not let it control me (please see my

fear of flying and my fear of being eaten by bears)

2) Make decisions with confidence (please see my trepidation and back pedaling when it comes to making decisions here).

The second is born of the problem of the first. I'm afraid of making the wrong decision, so then I don't make any decision, and then I'm frustrated for not making a decision, and all that comes from my fear. This is cheesy, but yes, "master my fear" is totally a quote stolen from "The Golden Compass". And, while we're at it, here's a good quote about making decisions:

"Will considered what to do. When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed. At the moment all Will's choices existed at once. But to keep them all in existence meant doing nothing. He had to choose, after all". - The Amber Spyglass

Too often, I operate under the false assumption that by putting off decisions I am somehow gaining by not making a wrong decision. I mean, I have so many options, but once I choose, I only have the option I chose. But, um, that's kind of the point. I'm not gaining anything by not choosing, because I'm not doing anything.

So, there you have it. I think I'll be writing a monthly post checking in with my 2011 goals, just to see how I'm doing and to be accountable.

Here's to 2011 my friends. It will be as good as we choose to make it.

Just in Time

I finished the very last of my scanning project late on Sunday night! Close to 2,000 photos, covering more than 100 years and 7 generations, are all backed up on my computer, and then backed up again on my external hard drive. I wanted to get this project done before we left for Salt Lake City for Thanksgiving, and I'm so glad I did. I really can't believe that those two boxes I've been dragging around for a decade now are really all scanned in, organized, and sorted. As I was scanning I culled out doubles to give away, and the copies I'm keeping went into photo boxes. If Bobby and I were going to be settled, I would have put them back into their photo albums, but as it is now we are planning to be gypsies come May, and will be leaving the country, so it made much more sense to condense them down into storage. Plus, I *really* love the photo boxes I have, they are so tidy and compact.

Here is box number one, with 12 snap top containers that come out individually to hold pictures.

And here is box number two, same design with 12 individual containers. I labeled the containers with masking tape, so if the contents change it would be easy to re-label.

To give you an idea of the sheer number of pictures I have been working through- each small container has about this many pictures in it. And again, there are 24 of the small containers. That is a lot of damn pictures.

I filled up the two boxes fairly quickly, so there are still tons of pictures that need to be filed away- this is only about 1/5 of the pictures that are in (organized) piles on my study floor waiting for their own plastic box home.

I also have tens of other organized piles of pictures that are the doubles I need to organize, put in albums, and give away. Bobby had the great idea of copying all the digital files onto a flash drive to give to people, so I'll be giving away physical albums in conjunction with a flash drive of the digital files.

I know these update posts must be super boring, but really I cannot even express how much of a load has been lifted off of me now that this is done. I was the unofficial "picture keeper" of my family, and somehow I ended up with all of my baby pictures, plus my sister's, brother's, mom's, uncles', Granny's, and Great Granny's pictures. I mean, I had original copies of my Great Granny's wedding picture. I'm not a materialistic person, and I'm not overly sentimental when it comes to things like so and so's chair or china set, but it would have been devastating if something had happened to all of these pictures. But now it's done, and I don't have to worry about protecting every photographic memory my family ever made :)

For now I'm off to read for class and pack for our trip. My cousin Jen and her boyfriend are hosting Thanksgiving, and her sister Mel is flying in with her husband and two sons. Their father- my uncle on my Dad's side- is coming in too, and so is my brother. It will be a nice big group of family and Jen has already promised hot blueberry pie, brownies, and coffee with pumpkin spice creamer will be waiting at the end of our drive. As long as the weather cooperates, all should be well.

Phase II Begins...

When I started this picture project, I basically divided it into two parts in my mind. Phase I consisted of pictures from college all the way back to my mother's childhood. Phase II consisted of very old black and white portraits and snapshots of my Great Granny's family- from her own Great Grandmother, up through her birth, childhood, and the early years of her marriage. Yesterday I finished scanning 100+ pictures of my mother and older brother's very early years,and I was finally ready to tackle the really old pictures. For whatever reason, in my mind I had been picturing Phase II as a short, quick endeavor. The cardboard box holding all the pictures was small-ish, certainly smaller than the two huge boxes I started with for the other pictures. Last night I got it all out to sort and organize for this morning, and I soon realized that I had HUNDREDS of snapshots and formal portraits. Probably close to 350. In addition, I wanted to do this project right, so I'm not just saving the files as "Great Granny and Granny". No, it's "Marguerite Pankratz with firstborn child Benita Pankratz".

So, right now, this is my homestretch...

this entire pile, plus all the pictures stuffed in those two smaller, closed boxes...

seen here.

The best thing about Phase II though, has to be getting to re-discover pictures I remember my Great Granny displaying in beautiful gold frames in her big brick house on Main Street. Pictures like these from her wedding day.




I'm so glad that I took the time to do this (tedious/boring/backcrunching) project. It will all be worth it to have everything preserved digitally.

I'm almost there!

Photo Project Update

You may remember my posting awhile back about the two huge boxes of photos I wanted to have scanned in, organized, and then saved to my external harddrive, preferably by Jan 1st. Here is an idea of what just *one* entails...

Opening it up, I immediately wanted to just close it again and forget I saw anything.

But, it's like Pandora's Box. I started pulling photos out, as well as entire photo albums full of pictures.

I organize them into like groups before scanning them in, and the sorting sometimes takes longer than the scanning itself.

This is what the floor of our study looks like right now. Everything you see has already been scanned in, I'm just deciding on how I want to store the originals- back in the albums, or in the awesome Container Store photo storage boxes I purchased last year, when I simply organized a fraction of my photos, gave up, and didn't even consider the monumental task of scanning them in.

I've also written in the past about how I try to live with minimal possessions, and the process by which I gave away more and more of my things. At this point, my two major groups of things are books and pictures. I'm hoping this scanning and consolidating will take care of the latter, and the former will probably all be donated to a local second hand bookstore. I'd say I'm about 1/4 of the way done with the actual scanning, and I've already processed more than 300 photos. This is one of those grunt work projects that just never ends, that you never want to start, but you have to. And I'm definitely glad I did- I've had fun going back through them, even if doing so has sometimes felt like being in a rocket ship time machine set to random.

Oh Yeah, I Graduated! Here Are Some Pictures

A few things- the time stamp is clearly totally wrong, I graduated in December 2009. Also, how absurd is my wizard getup? The sleeves had those creepy dangly dudes hanging off of them, and my striped hood had a sassy little flippy upturned tail situation going on. Lastly, I tried to upload a few group family photos, and blogger flat out said "eff you, it's Sunday, that's all you get, I'm gonna go to Denny's and get pancakes and then take a nap". Thanks Blogger. You're a real peach.

So, yeah. I'm a Master of Something!! Two years full time school and full time work, my G.P.A. was right at 3.8 or so, and I have less than half of the student loan debt the average student has after their *undergraduate* degree, so I'm very happy with that. Now I just need a job to go with my wizard cape and master's degree, and I'll be all set.

Date Night

Hi there! Remember me?The girl who did nothing but finals and work for three straight weeks, interspersed with fast food runs and brief spells of fitful sleep, often in clothes worn on repeat? Well if you didn't believe me the proof is all over my bedroom, and spilling out of my closets. It's all over my car, and in the trunk and in the floorboards. It's in my bathroom, primarily colonizing the sink/toilet/bathtub. It's in my overflowing laundry baskets. It's in the stack of mail that is a good 4 inches thick, waterfalling over the edge of my desk and pooling in a papery puddle next to the shredder covered in dust- yes, I was that busy. So, my apartment and I have a Friday night date- I'll be wearing my 1950's housewife getup, but I'll skip the Valium. Gotta bring my A game to this mess.

Have a good weekend kittens. I'll catch up with you on Saturday.