Archive: March, 2008

This has been a whirlwind travel weekend to the Seattle area for my niece's baptism. It's been great to spend time with my family, but's also been hard at the same time. Friday was the one year anniversary of my mom's death and it was very hard on my dad and I since we were both with her when she died. Having the happy event of Nina's upcoming baptism really helped to occupy the mind. Thinking sometime can be a bitch, though. The icing on the cake for the day was getting a call from back east with the news that my great aunt had died - on the date of my mom's death - what are the odds? Her death wasn't unexpected. Her health had been failing and she was in her 80's. Still a tragic turn of events.

Given my own personal stress from the events above, I found myself in an unusual role of the godmother. I'd been a godmother once before, but was a bit blindsided by a family tradition that Nina's maternal grandmother had - one of which I was not aware. It was a simplistic tradition of dressing my godchild in a beautiful baptismal gown that was about 70 years old. I wasn't briefed about this family tradition and was a bit taken aback when I stated that we were going to go back to the hotel and get ready. There were shocks and comments of "you're not going to dress the baby???!!!!" The comments weren't meant to be malicious, but I felt a bit like I was under attack. It really upset me. Of course, I won't get into the fact that Jeff and I made sure to get back to the house early so that I could get Nina dressed only to find out that they've decided to dress the baby at the church. Oh well. It seemed very important to my sister-in-law's family and all turned out well in the end.

We head back tomorrow, but I'm already looking forward to a return visit to explore more of the Seattle area and to spoil my precious godchild!

To say that I've been struggling and overworked in my job is an understatement. It's become an issue of work-life balance and the work part is definitely tipping the scales. But the perks of the company I work for are hard to beat. This year, I'm allotted 25 days of paid time off. 35 if you count the 10 bank holidays. That's 6 weeks. But my job as a trainer doesn't allow me to take time off when I want to. I have a classroom schedule that I have to adhere to. Last year, I taught everyday (for 7+ hours) without a break from July 5 until December 11. It's already started again this year - I'm scheduled for back to back classes which started on January 22 and doesn't end until June 30. The only time off that I was able to manage was on the calendar months in advance.

I decided to post for a new training position and had an interview this morning. This position is the next step in my career progression but I've never done that specific role before. Unfortunately, given what's happening in that department, the manager needs someone who has experience doing this specific role and she is going to pursue other candidates. I understand her thought process, but that sucks for me since it leaves me with my original dilemma.

I feel stuck - I'm burnt out on my job but I'm reluctant to leave because of the appeal of 35 days off a year - time off I'm not even using!!!

Ever have one of those nights where you dream all night long (at least it feels like it) and the dreams seem to intertwine with each other? I'm so exhausted from it all!

I'm sure a dream therapist could have a hey-day with the one I had last night about a poisonous snake biting me on the forehead...

Here are the pictures of the blanket and sweater that I knitted for my niece:

So, if I'm going to have a blog titled "Confessions of a Yarn Slut" I suppose I should give a bit of insight. I learned to knit just after high school and I've been doing it ever since. Not always regularly - I used to be a winter knitter but I've become a bit obsessed over the last few years. Branched out into more than just scarves and blankets a little over a year ago and now enjoy knitting hats, sweaters, and most recently socks and mittens. I feel at a loss if I don't have a project on my needles!

I was toying with the idea of starting a blog as a means to showcase some knitting and get ideas from others. I casually mentioned this to my boyfriend Jeff, and in less than 10 minutes later he tells me I have a blog and how to log on. Poof! Just like that. I guess there's no going back now!

As soon as I can figure out how to upload some pictures, I'll show you two projects that I made for my niece. She's being baptized this coming Saturday and Jeff and I are going out to Seattle for the occasion.

Okay, I've finally made my way into the blog-world. I've never kept a blog, but we'll see how it goes...