2 week update! Again! Because I'm pathetic with the blogging!

Hey everyone. It's November. Happy November! Happy fall! Happy Halloween!

It's finally turning cooler here - it's down in the low 50s already at 9:30 pm. Very exciting! I actually wore a scarf to work the other day! (Of course, by the afternoon I was down to a t-shirt, but still. Scarf Weather!) I even made chili today because it's practically winter with these subarctic temperatures!



Things are going well here. I'm working on my business, trying to get the legal issues sorted out (to be a country that prides itself on being so small-business friendly, they don't make it easy). Anyway, I got my new business cards and they're very pretty. I'm waiting to hand them out until I get my website more up-to-snuff. I want to do some fancy things with it. Any web designers out there willing to work for cookies or hand-sewn tablecloths?


Joe's working hard. As usual. He's actually working right now. While I blog and knit and watch Sahara (hello, Mr. McConaughey). It's just not fair. :)



We had a nice but relatively calm Halloween. We tried to have a party but someone (namely ME) was so late getting the invitations sent out, only 1 person was able to come: Elizabeth. However, we had lots of food and a fire outside and lots of yummy drinks. And as Joe pointed out, we had 50% more people in costume this year than last year! (At last year's party, Joe and I were the only ones in costume - weenies). Joe wore his prisoner costume and I was a cannibal this year. Charming! Elizabeth was a very festive red pirate. Joe took a few pictures but they're not on this computer so I can't upload them.



Let's see...what else is going on? The girls' Halloween costumes turned out just great. They looked so cute! Rachel's going to send me some pics so I can show you how nice they looked. Hee hee.



Also, we went up to NC for the family reunion, which turned out to be quite nice. There were people there I hadn't met before (love large families) and some people I hadn't seen in years. Everyone thought Joe was great - he charmed them all.



On that Sunday, before we left, we went to my Aunt Betty's house to visit. She took us to my late Uncle Shelby's tool/antique store that he spent his days in, and we got to rummage through and look at the treasures he had collected over the years. I ooh'd and aah'd over a spinning wheel and Aunt Betty told me just to take it. Here it is undusted, fresh from the shop:


Here it is after about an hour and a half of wiping it down (but not actually CLEANING it yet).


Cool, huh? It's missing some pieces, but Joe is going to try to replicate them. The whole thing is held together with wooden pegs, not metal nails. So we think it's pretty old. Joe worked on it some today and the goal is to get it working again, so I can at least try to do some spinning! Someday!


So I recently had a thought (settle in, this might take a minute). Life has been feeling like it's going at warp speed lately. I feel like every week is a day, or only a week goes by but it's actually been a month. It scares me a bit, because I don't want to just go careening through life at Mach 5, feeling like things are so out of control that I can't get a grip on anything. It's like a rope that's going through my hands so fast I can't hold on. You know what I mean? Life has been feeling like this a lot lately. And in a way I think it's probably just getting older. Which sucks. But also I wonder if it has to do with being busy and just going through the motions of stuff, instead of being really invested in what I'm doing every day. Really choosing to live the way I want to live, not just doing what I'm supposed to do and what has fallen in my lap to do. Being conscious about life, not just waiting for something to come to me.


I realized last weekend that I haven't been doing my monthly goals sheets like I used to. Each month I would get out my colored pencils and a sheet of paper and draw out my goals for the month, and hang it up where I could see it every day. I haven't been doing this. it's been one of those things I just thought I could carry around in my head, but there's something to committing things to paper that makes them feel more solid. So this week I did it. I got out my pencils and drew my November goals. Nothing too lofty, just good solid reminders of things I want to focus on: drink more water daily, exercise 3 times a week, work on sewing my own wardrobe 2 hours a week, etc. I'm hoping that it might help the sense that time is just flying past.


Ok, so back to photos.


Here is my new office at the hospital. We moved into this new building about a month ago. The desk in the far corner is for my intern. Because I am cool enough to have an intern, apparently. Whatever. See the tree on the left side, and the orchid on the desk? I resurrected those - they were left in this building months and months ago - abandoned. Tragic! Now they're loved and I talk to them daily.

Below is my desk and computer set-up. Not to shabby. I like that I have lots of windows (4). This is an old house, and the floors are real hardwood. Cool, but creaky. Note the diplomas on the wall. Heh. Also note the 2 sweaters on the back of my chair, because it's COLD in my office, people.

Ok, next up. Last weekend we went kayaking on the Ebenezer (again). It's really pretty there, and we saw lots of wildlife. Joe saw 2 (!) alligators, one of which was a little baby one (about 6 inches long) who was calling for Mom. Joe got a picture and then we booked it out of there. Baby is cute, Mom...not so much.

But! I got this picture of an adult and a baby turtle sitting on a log. Normally the turtles are skittish and jump into the water as soon as you get close. But apparently I have good turtle mojo, in direct opposition to my now extinct cat mojo. None of the eleventeen million cats in our neighborhood will let me pet them. I don't know what the deal is. I'm nice. I talk to them. I flatter them on the loveliness of their fur. But still no petting. GRRR.

Anyway, I digress. To the turtles!:

As some of you more politically savvy types might now, Tuesday is election day here in Chatham County. I will attempt to vote for persons who will stop the rampant deforestation of our lands. Doubtful I will have any luck finding someone who will agree with me on that. But I can try. Anyway. I recently saw this political sign and thought I should show you. After all, it's not everyday you see something like this:

This is the Shabazz Seafood Restaurant at the corner of Victory Drive and MLK Blvd. Best fish in town! (says the sign) I myself have never eaten at Shabazz Seafood Restaurant, and to be honest I question what type of establishment it is, because I have never seen anyone eating there. Anyway. To the left you see the Malcolm X Festival poster from several years ago. Excuse me, the INTERNATIONAL Malcolm X Festival. Um...ok. Then on the right, the really interesting part. In case you can't read it, it's a political sign for the Elect Brother Shabazz for Mayor campaign. And the party he's running for?

The New Black Panther Party. No joke.

It's now 10:10 pm on Sunday night. Got some sewing done, got some knitting done, but would love to have about 3 more weekend days this week. Maybe I'll try to work from home one day.