projects

 shiny new shoes! these count as a project, because finding shoes that were not horrid, clash-y neon colors took several frustrating days. i had a pair of Roos as a kid, and still think they're terrific - even with the useless velcro pocket. eight-year-old me managed to wedge a quarter into that pocket, but could never get it out again.

 this hat is a Christmas present for my older sister. the yarn is Lion Brand Amazing, in the Regatta colorway, and as soon as i saw the word "regatta", i thought of A, who used to do a lot of competitive sailing but is now land-locked in Colorado. she's very musical, and going through a belated Joni Mitchell period, so i'm making her a slouchy hat to wear while she plays her guitar.

(Christmas is THREE. MONTHS. AWAY. hoooooly cow!!!)

 THIS. i'm very excited about this. we have a lot of downed tree limbs around this year, courtesy of a string of bad storms, and i've found a use for this one. today, i bought an 18" round unfinished table top for $7...now all i need are some wood screws and a borrowed saw (i own a drill already), and Houdini will have a custom-made scratching post!


i haven't got a picture for my next project, but i'm closer to getting my massage license! they received my application, my high school transcripts (to prove that i graduated) are ordered and en route, and today i dropped off the education verification paperwork at my massage school. three down, three to go: verification of my WA license, verification that i passed the NCBTMB exam, and fingerprints/background check.

this isn't a project, it's just something i meant to talk about and forgot. back in mid-August, we got to tour hand-built replicas of the Nina and the Pinta - two of the ships that brought Columbus to the New World. i'm not a fan of Columbus...the New World was already inhabited, and had actually already been discovered by non-native cultures (the Vikings for sure, and possibly even the Chinese), and he ushered in an age of genocide that absolutely does not deserve to have its own national holiday. however, i'm a huge history buff, so getting to step aboard historically accurate ships from an historically important voyage was pretty damn cool!

you know what? they're small. SO SMALL. both ships were under 100 feet long, and not very wide. imagining three of these crossing the Atlantic Ocean, when they were dwarfed by the freighters on the Detroit River, was staggering - even more so considering that ships of this time period pre-date the invention of the nautical steering wheel by a couple hundred years. and yet those three little ships are the culturally accepted launch point for American history. from those three little ships, came all of this. as grateful as i am to be alive, i just...wow. i can't stop thinking that exploring the replicas was like looking at a couple of Black Death bacteria under a microscope. so tiny, and responsible for so much destruction.

mind-blowing.