Simply, Happily Living

Where'd it go?

*tap tap tap* Is this thing on? Yes? Great!

Still here. Still kicking. Just not blogging. Part of me wonders if I should keep this blog up, or what I should do with it. But that is a question for another time, say...December? Because I am in the middle of NaNoWriMo. This is my third year doing it, and do far the hardest. I won the first year, ditched a badly thought our story the second year (at 14000 words), and hope to win again this year. This year's story has much more promise.

However, I am 18000 or so words behind. I am supposed to be right around 28000 words at this point, but am instead just over 10000. I need to write roughly 3000 words/day to make it by the end of the month.
I hope to gain a little ground by doing some short writing sprints during the day. I think u can do it, but it will be some work. Then I need to get a good book on how to submit queries. I hope that this story might actually be good enough that someone will think that others would like to read it too. I hope.
Now if I can just squash the voice that tells me I am not good and that my writing is juvenile and boring, I'll be all set!

For now, have a happy November, and I'll report on my success in December.

Rattling around

There is a laundry list of items running through my head this morning.  Starting with the weather.  It would seem from the forecast, that we have run headlong into Autumn.  This is, actually, just fine with me.  I love Fall, and am always happy to see it come.  The first pie pumpkin of the season is sitting on my shelf waiting to be made into pies, and the leaves are starting to change color.  We are in that nice period where I don't have to turn on the heaters and a sweater will suffice to keep me comfy. The Fall knitting is underway, and there is more planned.

I also need to put the blanket back on the bed.  Just starting to get chilly enough at night that it is noticeable when my feet stray to a new part of the bed.  Which brings me to my second list item: Does anyone have any idea how to get the idea of pulling the covers up through to a 3 year old?  B's current mode of operation is to kick all the covers off and then roll on to me to keep warm.  I am sure this works, as she goes back to sleep, quite soundly, as soon as I am safely squashed under her.  However, it does tend to wake me up.  We put her in the fleece footie jammies and she gets too hot to sleep, which also results in no sleep for me.  The other night she took them off and slept in her underwear.  Until she got cold and then she slept on top of Gary.  Ideas on how to explain to her how and why covers work would be great.  6 a.m. arguments about her covers being cold and wanting Mommy's warm ones while she tries to roll onto me and shove her head under my pillow are less funny than they sound.

The weather getting cooler also means that we are rapidly approaching November.  This means it is time to ramp it up on the writing front. Training, if you will. The first cold of Fall felled the whole family in one shot, and all I have wanted to do is sleep in.  We seem to be over it, and now hopefully I can get into a more regular rhythm.  Which is good, because I have several Stage Management Mondays to catch up on.  I also need to start doing some character sketches and outlines for NaNoWriMo.  This is my favorite time of year.  Such potential.  

A friend of mine and I used to get in long arguments about Fall.  He hated it, though ironically his favorite holiday was Halloween. He thought that everything dying was depressing and didn't like it at all. I, on the other hand, see nothing but new beginnings.  School starting was always one of my favorite things, though admittedly, that might have been because of the new school supplies. I loved getting to wear the new fall clothes when it got cool.  I thought that because my birthday is at the beginning of September, that maybe I looked forward to my birthday, but his was at the end of August, only about 10 days before mine, and he still hated Fall.  I love Halloween, and the ritual of Thanksgiving (though the holiday itself is not my favorite, insert long history rant here).  Then the slide into winter holidays and all the preparation for those I find fun.  I am a weird one who loves Christmas shopping.  I like the decorations and the tinny, piped-in carols.  Which is odd for a Jewish gal. 

I never understood why he didn't like Fall, it seems to lead to so many fun things.   

If, however, you talk to me about February (especially February in the Northwest), you will get a much different story.  I still don't know how one tiny, short month can feel so ridiculously long.  

There's a lot to get done today.  I have a bag of peaches that aren't getting any fresher in the refrigerator.  There are bananas calling me to make banana bread or muffins this morning, and a pot roast waiting to be put in the crock pot (or slow cooker as all the cool kids are calling it these days). There may be some stomping in puddles to be done, and some laundry to fold.  And depending on the weather, a walk or run tonight. 

Stage Management Monday: The Audition Form and Contact Sheet

While I was picking up the bathroom counter yesterday, and berating myself for not being able to keep the house clean, I had a small epiphany.  Very small, as I have had this one before. In the course of my berating, I asked myself why could I not keep the house together, when I used to run shows consisting of many, many more people and kept all of that in order.  I followed that train of thought to how I did manage shows, and realized that could apply that to running the house.  As I said, this was a small epiphany, as I had thought of it before, but it never really hit home that what I was missing was my run book.

Home management binders are nothing new.  They sell kits to make your own, there are whole websites devoted to making them cute, functional, pretty...just Google home management binder or notebook and you will get plenty of hits. None of them ever really hit home for me, I didn't like the formats, or I didn't like the logic.    

As I have mentioned before, I was a stage manager for theatre up until I had B in 2006.  The stage manager is exactly that, they manage what happens on stage.  This begins with rehearsal, sometimes with auditions, and continues through the closing of the show.  When I say what happens on stage, that it to say, all of it.  While the director directs, I keep track of everything else; the people, the props, rehearsal costumes, attendance, blocking, line changes, etc.  And believe me, there can be a lot of etc.  

Usually my process began with auditions and callbacks.  After we had the cast selected, then I was able to get my work started, and begin to shape my show book to fit the production. One of the first things I did was to make a cast contact sheet.  This is a fairly simple document, it lists the director, stage managers and cast, their roles, and their contact information. I also made a production team contact sheet, which listed the designers and technical supervisors, as well as the big master contact sheet, which was used only by me and my assistant stage managers.  

This is an incredibly important thing to have, as I would frequently need to contact multiple people at the same time, and it required having all the numbers close by.  I have made one for my home, as well, because I got sick of address books which were forever out of date, and having to flip through many pages to find things. A contact sheet is a single sheet, so all of the information is readily available. 

The information that was on the contact sheet frequently came from the audition form.  This was a bit more in depth than the contact sheet, as each person got a sheet to themselves. I have something similar for my family as well.  It contains all the information I would need about them if they were not there; name, age, birthday, social security #, blood type, allergies, place of work/school, driver's license #, etc. Additionally, I leave a space to write down important things, like firsts or other memorable things like anniversaries, favorite restaurants, etc. 

I put these in sheet protectors at the front of my book, so they are safe from stray coffee spills, and toddlers with markers.  They are easy to get to, and it is nice to have the information handy. 

So, I offer up the first two pages in my "Stage Management For Your House" version of the home management binder, the Home Contact Sheet Download HomeContactSheet  and the Family Fact Sheet Download FamilyFactSheet

Each Monday, I am going to put up a new bit of this.  As I go, I will be converting these to computer fillable .pdf forms, and will offer those for a fee.  Ultimately, I would like to have the whole binder of forms available singly and as a complete package, both for free to print out and write on, and for a price for customizeable, computer entry.  Let me know what you think, and if these work for you.

All forms are copyright Adina North, 2009.  You may download for personal use only. Word of mouth sharing is wonderful, but please refer your friends here to get the actual forms! Please do not sell, reproduce or pass these off as your own.  Thanks. :)

Running

I started doing the Couch to 5K program a couple of weeks ago.  I am still on week one, due to illness, and um, the fact that I am ridiculously out of shape.  Shockingly, in fact.  I had harbored the idea that, maybe, I was still in pretty good shape, just carrying extra pounds.  Yeah, that was proved incredibly wrong first time out.  I still only manage to do 5 of the 9 runs, but it is getting easier.

I used to say that I only ran when chased.  I didn't get chased very often, and it was pretty easy to avoid.  I preferred walking or the elliptical for exercise.  I preferred working hard and burning the candle at both ends to ever going to a gym.  But, as it turns out, parenting is a pretty sedentary job.  At least when your child is 3, it is.  My endurance is still better than hers, and while I might get some good weight training carrying her forty pound self up and down the stairs, it doesn't provide much in the way of cardio.

Thus, I decided to start doing this.  Well, there was a step before that...the one where I left the house and started walking at a good pace, and then began to run.  I had to cross a street quickly and I started running, and kept going until my legs got wobbly and I had to return to walking.  My anxiety had been rather bad that week, and I found that my body just needed to burn off some of the excess, and I wanted to run.  I needed to move, fast and hard.  I walked until I felt like I wasn't going to fall over, and then ran the rest of the way home.  It was perhaps, 5 or so minutes of running. I was red-faced and more sweaty than I have been since I gave birth. I slept better that night than I have in a long time.  I felt relaxed and, while sore, better emotionally than I have for a while.

A friend recommended the Couch to 5K program, and since I had sort of done it already, I thought it would be a good fit. I have a long way to go, most certainly longer than the 9 weeks of the program, but I am doing it. (And will get back to it once this cold has left the building.)

The strange thing that I am finding is that I crave the release of running.  I went to walk, just walk, the other night and found I wanted to run.  And being sick, I find that I am missing going out and moving.  I never thought I would ever say that.  I wasn't a runner, being asthmatic, and I had hated doing it since middle school.  For me, it is an odd thing to want to do.

With the sun setting earlier now, and my neighborhood not being the most wonderful, I am going to have to figure out where to go run.  I exercise better in the evenings, and think I may have to start going to the community center to run, especially when the rain starts. I hope I will enjoy a run on a treadmill as much as I do through my neighborhood, over the uneven pavement and through the spots with no sidewalks.  

On Knitting

People are frequently surprised when they find out I knit.  I have heard all the usual responses; only grandmas knit, don't you know you can buy socks/sweaters/scarves?, knitting is boring.  People proclaim they don't have the patience, the talent, the whatever to knit, usually in a way that feels like a pat on the head and a quiet dismissal.

Anyone can knit.  You couldn't always run into the mall and buy socks or a sweater.  It used to be part of life to knit your family's winter wear.  It stands to reason that not every woman who ever knit sweaters for their family was incredibly talented.  It is a skill, like writing, that gets better the more you do it.  The mechanics are pretty simple.  

I started knitting in 2003/2004.  I can't remember exactly when.  My mom crochets, and I tried valiantly to learn.  It never made sense to me as a kid.  I picked up yarn and some crochet hooks in 2003 (ish) and tried again.  Still didn't make sense. I got a scarf done, a scarf which I wore for a long time, done in afghan stitch (which is more like knitting) out of Lion Bran Homespun.  I was kind of a plastic-y, squeaky garment, but warm.  My mom gave me some books around then, and one was an old knitting book.  Probably 1970s, black and white, and it had instructions and pages and pages of stitches. I had also gotten my mom's old knitting needle; blue, aluminum, size 10.  I decided I would learn to knit.  And so, Gary got a scarf, also made out of Homespun, in different patches of different stitch patterns.  It turned out okay.  He still wears it if it is really cold.  It is less squeaky, because my gauge was so huge, so it has a nice drape.  I learned how to knit and purl, yarn over, knit two together, and bind off.  

It took me a while to finish that scarf.  In the process I traveled to Portland for a friend's wedding.  I stayed with another friend while I waited for Gary to fly in (frequent flyer miles, separate flights...big production) and during that time, she taught me to cast on.  It was the one thing I hadn't been able to figure out from the book. I started on a poncho/shawl that weekend.  We drove from Portland to Seattle on that trip to see another friend's new baby. For my birthday (2004), she gave me Stitch 'n Bitch by Debbie Stoller, and two balls of Noro Kureyon.  I was pretty hooked at that point.  When we got home, for my birthday, my 30th, my mom gave me a set of Denise Interchangeable Needles.

I learned slowly, starting with simple projects.  I knit everyone Christmas gifts that year.  In early 2005 we moved to Portland. I knit my first pair of socks, finished my cabled bag, and learned how to do stranded colorwork.  I learned with the help of books, magazines, or just by working it out myself.  

Germane to this story is the fact that we were trying to have a baby.  We had been trying since 2002 to get pregnant, with no success.  I had been searching for something to keep me occupied while we were waiting for something to happen.  My work in theatre was always ebb and flow, sometimes insanely busy, and then nothing for a stretch of a couple of weeks.  When I was insanely busy, I didn't have time to dwell on the looming specter of infertility.  But when I wasn't, it occupied most of my thoughts.  I finally found knitting and it fit the bill.  It occupied my mind. I could sit and watch TV with Gary while I knit. I made useful things.   

Knitting kept me company when I had no job, when we moved to Oregon, when we went on trips.  When I returned to Colorado in 2005 to work at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, I brought a bag of knitting with me.  It kept me company living in company housing, during tech rehearsals, during the improv performances, and finally, during the IVF.  

We hadn't know we would be doing an IVF that summer.  We found out only after I had gotten back to Colorado.  Gary was still in Oregon.  I would be doing most of it on my own.  Not exactly the romantic conception we had planned, but we would work it out as we always did.  Gary left the evening of transfer day, leaving me on bed rest, alone, for 5 days.  I knit.  I don't even remember what I was working on.  But I know that for 5 days, I sat in my little room and knit.  I watched TV on my computer, and knit.  

And I got pregnant.  Then I loaded up my car and drove to Wyoming for my dad's wedding.  I knit, sitting in the great room of the Grand Teton Lodge.  I knit in Yellowstone.  And finally, we got home to Oregon. Then by some very odd twist of fate, and being pregnant, I stopped wanting to knit. 

I didn't knit again until my due date, which passed by without a baby.  I realized, with all the logic of a hugely pregnant person, that I hadn't knit any soakers for the baby!  So, I dyed yarn, and knit up two soakers before she was born, 8 days later.  Knitting was relegated to fits and starts then.  When the baby slept and when I wasn't also exhausted.  Things moved slowly off my needles, but they did move. 

Through all of that, knitting was a distraction, and a useful skill.  I could put off the immediate sadness, and focus on making something.  I could put my energy into crafting something warm, something intricate, or something simply useful.  It would help me stop crying when my period arrived, cycle after cycle.  It helped me not to dwell on every single thing I might possibly be feeling as I sat on bed rest.  It gave me new friends when I moved, who also knit.  It allowed me to be more social than I had been in Colorado, because I could bring my knitting, and never feel awkward.  

The final event of Sock Summit was a discussion panel.  The panelists and moderators ranged in age from their 40s to 80. Everyone who spoke had stories of knitting being there through various events.  Through having children, losing jobs, moving to new countries. Through tragedy.  There is a long line through history of women knitting, from when they knit because they had no choice, to now, when it is mostly a hobby.  Hearing these women speak, I knew that knitting had seen women through hard times for hundreds of years.  Women who lost loved ones and knit a beautiful gansey while grieving, or those of us who knit a washcloth because we needed something simple to keep our hands busy.

My knitting group has changed faces some, waxed and waned as we had children, but we still meet weekly.  We talk about all those things that go wrong or right.  We mostly laugh.  We try and support each other the best we can. Sometimes we knit, sometimes we don't.  But knitting is what got us here.