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Dec. 2nd, 2014 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
totchipandaHi friends. It's been awhile since I last posted. NaNoWriMo kinda ate my life. I even wrote this entry at work (on November 7!) so that it didn't take time away from my novelling. I still ended up writing a big chunk of words on the last day, but what can ya do? I itemized the list so I could organize my thoughts XD
1. Driving
2. Sewing
3. Nano
4. Life stuff (food and budgets)
1. Driving
I really love driving! I even love driving a manual shift. Once I got the hang of it, it was really easy. I decided to spend November driving as my primary method of getting to and from work, because I have a bunch of nano events to attend and it just seemed to make the most sense. We'll see if that continues after November. Winter hasn't fully arrived yet, but it won't be long now, and winter driving is kind of terrifying.
And, I have a story. The other day, on my way to a nano event, it just seemed to be a whacky driver day. Started with a lady who came flying up behind me. We were driving down a street that has no center line and has parking on both curbs, mostly populated by large delivery trucks. I was hogging the theorhetical center line, but I could see her quite clearly in my side mirror, so she was driving even more in the middle of the road than I was. I thought she was going to VERY VERY VERY illegally pass me, but she didn't. Instead she zoomed around me as soon as we turned onto the main street. We caught up to each other in a turn lane, which, once we turned, she then RACED ahead and started zipping in and out of lanes, full on fast changes with the kind of leaning of the vehicle that you generally see on cars that are racing (I've been watching a lot of Top Gear on netflix this past week). It was quite scary to even have her in front of me, and I was glad when she turned down another street.
Then, I ran into heavy traffic around the university, which was more just being patient. It was moving, just slowly, and the road crosses LRT tracks, which Im sure you can imagine how often a train runs to and from a university at 4pm. I got to the event location, said "holy drivers today, batman" and let it go.
Everyone talked about how nutty the roads seemed. Lots of volume. A flipped car in the city, and later a semi that flipped and caught fire, killing the driver :(
I left the event feeling ok. More weird drivers. People insisting on pulling around me and cutting back in front, or people travelling much slower than the posted limit and having people zip around both of us, only to turn right and forcing me to slow down or stop. At the 4th such instance, I was irritated, and hogged the center line to squeak around an SUV turning right. Only, there was another small car in the left lane, and the three of us barely fit. I'm surprised I didn't cause a collision. As soon as I realized how annoyed I was and what I was doing, I slowed down and forced myself to calm down. Wacky traffic, yes, but I sure didn't need to be contributing to it.
I am not proud of that moment, friends. It upset me a lot that I was driving with that little care for what is essentially a murder machine on wheels. That's not the kind of driver I want to be. Right of way is not a right worth dying for.
2. Sewing
I've been so bad at keeping up with challenges and also finishing last years and also working on other projects. I have a few projects I need to post about on my sewing blog too. I thought maybe I would enjoy taking a break during nano.
No. No, I miss it a lot. And I'm taking a Christmas job, so I won't have a lot of time to sew in December either. I'll have to consider this and try and squeeze some sewing in somewhere. Or at least photograph and blog about the projects I haven't done yet.
3. Nano
Novelling is going about as well as I can expect at this point. We went on the retreat this year, and it was really kinda weird-feeling. The head organizer had a baby this year so she had passed it on to someone else, who also couldn't go, so it got passed to me. Most of the usual crew couldn't go. The people who were in charge or at least seemed to be, were kind of like the cool aunts of the group, and I often forget that we're all around the same age (I think one is a year younger, and the other is a couple of years older). SO now that I'm in charge this year, I suddenly feel like I'm the grown-up of the group, despite the other two ladies being my age too. And it's so weird! Like who decided to put ME in charge? When did I turn into the adult?!
It's kinda the same with the event itself. D and I were new people to the team, and last year (and the last several years I was doing it, too) it seemed like we were just maintaining the old system that had been started when our group was much larger. And neither of us really enjoyed the experience last year, and were reluctant to take it on this year despite having decided to do so. But it's been really nice to be able to agree on what needs to be done, and do it the way that we want to. Which is not to malign our predecessors at all!! I'm quite sure they would have listened to us had either of us been more assertive, but the system had been working, so why break it? It's been quite nice to just do what we see needs to be done.
I'm still not doing this again next year, though.
4. Life
I've been giving some serious thought to my personal world for the last week or two. Now that I have a vehicle, there's a whole new set of Life Skills that come with it. I don't have to worry about payments, but I do need to worry about insurance, fuel and keeping it maintained. I decided to opt into savings bonds at work, which will help me maintain a "buffer" (intended to go towards WorldCon next year, but also with the thought that I might need to pay into the car at some point, especially since after writing this, I discovered that the pre-buy inspection that my grampa had done, the clutch is recommended to be replaced "in the near future". That was 6 months ago. Clutch replacements run in the $600-850 range D: ). Coming along with that is that I have got to start keeping a budget for really-reals, and part of keeping a budget (and I'm sure, in part, the changing weather) also means taking a serious look at my grocery habits.
It's only been a week, and I'm really hoping to maintain it, but I would like to really get into weekly meal planning, shopping sales and perhaps planning my meals around what's available for the least amount of money. I know it's gonna take a bit to get started as I have never really shopped like this before. My meal planning usually consists of opening the cupboard to see what I have available and deciding what to eat based on that assessment. The result is that I don't eat terribly well-balanced meals, and then I often don't have anything prepared for lunch and have to spend extra money on take out. I ate a LOT of fresh veggie salads through the summer, but that will be less of an option with the weather going colder, and I also want to start getting more protein back into my diet, even if that means eating more beans (I made chili the other day with kidney and black beans, and it was SO DELICIOUS. I ate it 4 days in a row and still have 3 meal-portions left. I put them in the freezer so I can enjoy them later).
I need to decide on a grocery budget, and then stick to it. It's going to be tough at first - starting any routine is. and I know there will be weeks, especially in the beginning, where a large portion of my budget goes to only a few items. But, if I can get, say, 5lbs of ground beef on sale for under $3/lb, which I can portion and freeze for later use, isn't that better than paying $5+/lb if I buy it only as I need it? This is a nice thing about having a vehicle, and one of the main things that sold me most on getting one: being able to grocery shop when and wherever I wanted to. No more asking for rides, no more limiting my selections dependant on what I can fit into my backpack or carry.
And since then... Not sure how the grocery budget/meal planning is going so far, though the only times I ate out this past month were more or less planned for (straight from work to a write-in, I'm hungry rawr!). And the most important thing affecting driving right now is that I got into a collision on Saturday night. We had a butt-ton of snow (for this region; nothing like Buffalo, only 30cm or so, which drifted to knee-height in some places I walked through) on Thursday and Friday, which made the roads extra fun. The main roads had been plowed by Saturday, but I still managed to hit some ice, lose control, hit a police car (Yup!), and then slide across all lanes of traffic, jump the curb and into a snowbank on someone's lawn. It was so much fun. I'm absolutely OK, and the car is mostly OK too. I was able to drive away from it. The front left light and bumper will need to be replaced though. I was ...not very impressed. Thousands of people drive every day without getting into collisions, and I have to do it within 3 months of getting my license, and when I do, I hit a police car. But it could have been a lot worse, and all of the responding officers and the tow truck who got me out of the snowbank were really nice. The one officer said "ma'am, you can't park here" and the tow driver said "nice parking job" lol. The whole event plays in my mind like one of those dash cam videos. Surreal.
I'm on vacation this week, and it's been a rocky start haha. On Sunday night I did make 50k words around 10:30, validated and made myself a cup of tea. I took two sips and my tummy rebelled. Maybe my cream was bad? I stopped drinking it immediately, but I think it was something else. Last-last February I was stuck in bed all day with a stomach virus, and yesterday's tummy issues felt EXACTLY like that. Same pattern and time frame, too, except I only threw up 2x instead of 4. But my plan on my first real vacation day was to sit on the couch and watch Supernatural all day, and I did that anyway, so it wasn't a total wash. I feel better this morning, except I woke up with a migraine. Bah. I think today's plan will be cleaning. I'm feeling like a slob.
1. Driving
2. Sewing
3. Nano
4. Life stuff (food and budgets)
1. Driving
I really love driving! I even love driving a manual shift. Once I got the hang of it, it was really easy. I decided to spend November driving as my primary method of getting to and from work, because I have a bunch of nano events to attend and it just seemed to make the most sense. We'll see if that continues after November. Winter hasn't fully arrived yet, but it won't be long now, and winter driving is kind of terrifying.
And, I have a story. The other day, on my way to a nano event, it just seemed to be a whacky driver day. Started with a lady who came flying up behind me. We were driving down a street that has no center line and has parking on both curbs, mostly populated by large delivery trucks. I was hogging the theorhetical center line, but I could see her quite clearly in my side mirror, so she was driving even more in the middle of the road than I was. I thought she was going to VERY VERY VERY illegally pass me, but she didn't. Instead she zoomed around me as soon as we turned onto the main street. We caught up to each other in a turn lane, which, once we turned, she then RACED ahead and started zipping in and out of lanes, full on fast changes with the kind of leaning of the vehicle that you generally see on cars that are racing (I've been watching a lot of Top Gear on netflix this past week). It was quite scary to even have her in front of me, and I was glad when she turned down another street.
Then, I ran into heavy traffic around the university, which was more just being patient. It was moving, just slowly, and the road crosses LRT tracks, which Im sure you can imagine how often a train runs to and from a university at 4pm. I got to the event location, said "holy drivers today, batman" and let it go.
Everyone talked about how nutty the roads seemed. Lots of volume. A flipped car in the city, and later a semi that flipped and caught fire, killing the driver :(
I left the event feeling ok. More weird drivers. People insisting on pulling around me and cutting back in front, or people travelling much slower than the posted limit and having people zip around both of us, only to turn right and forcing me to slow down or stop. At the 4th such instance, I was irritated, and hogged the center line to squeak around an SUV turning right. Only, there was another small car in the left lane, and the three of us barely fit. I'm surprised I didn't cause a collision. As soon as I realized how annoyed I was and what I was doing, I slowed down and forced myself to calm down. Wacky traffic, yes, but I sure didn't need to be contributing to it.
I am not proud of that moment, friends. It upset me a lot that I was driving with that little care for what is essentially a murder machine on wheels. That's not the kind of driver I want to be. Right of way is not a right worth dying for.
2. Sewing
I've been so bad at keeping up with challenges and also finishing last years and also working on other projects. I have a few projects I need to post about on my sewing blog too. I thought maybe I would enjoy taking a break during nano.
No. No, I miss it a lot. And I'm taking a Christmas job, so I won't have a lot of time to sew in December either. I'll have to consider this and try and squeeze some sewing in somewhere. Or at least photograph and blog about the projects I haven't done yet.
3. Nano
Novelling is going about as well as I can expect at this point. We went on the retreat this year, and it was really kinda weird-feeling. The head organizer had a baby this year so she had passed it on to someone else, who also couldn't go, so it got passed to me. Most of the usual crew couldn't go. The people who were in charge or at least seemed to be, were kind of like the cool aunts of the group, and I often forget that we're all around the same age (I think one is a year younger, and the other is a couple of years older). SO now that I'm in charge this year, I suddenly feel like I'm the grown-up of the group, despite the other two ladies being my age too. And it's so weird! Like who decided to put ME in charge? When did I turn into the adult?!
It's kinda the same with the event itself. D and I were new people to the team, and last year (and the last several years I was doing it, too) it seemed like we were just maintaining the old system that had been started when our group was much larger. And neither of us really enjoyed the experience last year, and were reluctant to take it on this year despite having decided to do so. But it's been really nice to be able to agree on what needs to be done, and do it the way that we want to. Which is not to malign our predecessors at all!! I'm quite sure they would have listened to us had either of us been more assertive, but the system had been working, so why break it? It's been quite nice to just do what we see needs to be done.
I'm still not doing this again next year, though.
4. Life
I've been giving some serious thought to my personal world for the last week or two. Now that I have a vehicle, there's a whole new set of Life Skills that come with it. I don't have to worry about payments, but I do need to worry about insurance, fuel and keeping it maintained. I decided to opt into savings bonds at work, which will help me maintain a "buffer" (intended to go towards WorldCon next year, but also with the thought that I might need to pay into the car at some point, especially since after writing this, I discovered that the pre-buy inspection that my grampa had done, the clutch is recommended to be replaced "in the near future". That was 6 months ago. Clutch replacements run in the $600-850 range D: ). Coming along with that is that I have got to start keeping a budget for really-reals, and part of keeping a budget (and I'm sure, in part, the changing weather) also means taking a serious look at my grocery habits.
It's only been a week, and I'm really hoping to maintain it, but I would like to really get into weekly meal planning, shopping sales and perhaps planning my meals around what's available for the least amount of money. I know it's gonna take a bit to get started as I have never really shopped like this before. My meal planning usually consists of opening the cupboard to see what I have available and deciding what to eat based on that assessment. The result is that I don't eat terribly well-balanced meals, and then I often don't have anything prepared for lunch and have to spend extra money on take out. I ate a LOT of fresh veggie salads through the summer, but that will be less of an option with the weather going colder, and I also want to start getting more protein back into my diet, even if that means eating more beans (I made chili the other day with kidney and black beans, and it was SO DELICIOUS. I ate it 4 days in a row and still have 3 meal-portions left. I put them in the freezer so I can enjoy them later).
I need to decide on a grocery budget, and then stick to it. It's going to be tough at first - starting any routine is. and I know there will be weeks, especially in the beginning, where a large portion of my budget goes to only a few items. But, if I can get, say, 5lbs of ground beef on sale for under $3/lb, which I can portion and freeze for later use, isn't that better than paying $5+/lb if I buy it only as I need it? This is a nice thing about having a vehicle, and one of the main things that sold me most on getting one: being able to grocery shop when and wherever I wanted to. No more asking for rides, no more limiting my selections dependant on what I can fit into my backpack or carry.
And since then... Not sure how the grocery budget/meal planning is going so far, though the only times I ate out this past month were more or less planned for (straight from work to a write-in, I'm hungry rawr!). And the most important thing affecting driving right now is that I got into a collision on Saturday night. We had a butt-ton of snow (for this region; nothing like Buffalo, only 30cm or so, which drifted to knee-height in some places I walked through) on Thursday and Friday, which made the roads extra fun. The main roads had been plowed by Saturday, but I still managed to hit some ice, lose control, hit a police car (Yup!), and then slide across all lanes of traffic, jump the curb and into a snowbank on someone's lawn. It was so much fun. I'm absolutely OK, and the car is mostly OK too. I was able to drive away from it. The front left light and bumper will need to be replaced though. I was ...not very impressed. Thousands of people drive every day without getting into collisions, and I have to do it within 3 months of getting my license, and when I do, I hit a police car. But it could have been a lot worse, and all of the responding officers and the tow truck who got me out of the snowbank were really nice. The one officer said "ma'am, you can't park here" and the tow driver said "nice parking job" lol. The whole event plays in my mind like one of those dash cam videos. Surreal.
I'm on vacation this week, and it's been a rocky start haha. On Sunday night I did make 50k words around 10:30, validated and made myself a cup of tea. I took two sips and my tummy rebelled. Maybe my cream was bad? I stopped drinking it immediately, but I think it was something else. Last-last February I was stuck in bed all day with a stomach virus, and yesterday's tummy issues felt EXACTLY like that. Same pattern and time frame, too, except I only threw up 2x instead of 4. But my plan on my first real vacation day was to sit on the couch and watch Supernatural all day, and I did that anyway, so it wasn't a total wash. I feel better this morning, except I woke up with a migraine. Bah. I think today's plan will be cleaning. I'm feeling like a slob.
