Today is my beloved evannichols's 50th birthday!! ♥ There has already been a celebratory breakfast (his usual waffles and chicken hot dogs, but with bonus unicorns) and we'll celebrate throughout the weekend. There will also be gluten free special order cake! And Skypeing with his family. So I won't be online all that much. There are celebrations and dinners out to be had! :D

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/483036.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Perhaps the least likely and most striking element to being delightfully joined to evannichols has been that not only do we chat at 5:30 a.m., but I get up and stay up after that. I have become, much to my own disbelief, more of a morning person.

o_O

Yes. In a way, it's disturbing. I only remember being a night owl, and, granted, sleeping isn't my best or most natural quality at times. But there's something truly wonderful to being up and doing things in this joint household when nobody else is awake. On Mondays, it's not that much of a struggle, since the trash/recycling folks come by and would wake me up anyway. That said, I have found myself really grooving on computer time, job applications, letter writing, that sort of thing, early in the morning. I have certainly enjoyed morning time in the past, but that involved getting up around 7:30.

So now I'm going to get back to my various tasks, and I'm still on my first cup of coffee. Unreal. ♥

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/482737.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I don't really want to put in bullet points for this post (though I enjoyed putting in flowers earlier), so I'll just write a few things to do with the wonderfulness of recent days. On Friday I had a follow-up/second-and-final interview at the downtown company where I'd love to work. It went very well, and I was asked to stay (if I could) to shadow someone for about fifteen minutes. Good sign. I'll hear from them by the end of this coming week, so I'll have closure one way or another and I'm so glad of that. I may also have an interview at another company for a temp-to-hire position through a placement company; we'll see. When evannichols and I arrived at his house Friday afternoon, I spent some time speaking with his sister about all of this because she's recently been offered and accepted a position at this company. When I did finally head inside, I found Evan looking a bit expectantly at me, and then I saw them: a beautiful bouquet of peach/coral roses, and a card. Not to do with my job hunt, but just because he's as smitten with me as I am with him. There might have been a bit of subtle swooning.

This weekend was restful and restorative, and also included some social time meeting snottygrrl to see one of the films that was part of the Studio Ghibli Film Festival held at the Portland Art Museum NW Film Center. The one we saw (My Neighbors the Yamadas) has a director other than Hayao Miyazaki; we're all Miyazaki fans and have seen many of his films on both the big and small screen. Evan and I were particularly interested in seeing at least one of these films that aren't available in a format we can rent, so that was accomplished.

I'm back over at my place now, unpacking and also preparing to repack as I'll be spending a fair amount of time at evannichols' this coming week and weekend. He has a birthday coming up on Friday, and it's one of those memorable ones that ends in either '5' or '0'. Follow his blog to know which. ;) There will be a special-ordered (by me, even!) gluten- and dairy-free fabulous cake, and dinner, and lounging, and goodness only knows what else. Maybe online Boggle. It could happen. ;) But for this evening, I'll settle in with a small serving of Fritos and queso, some Being Human, dismantling another beautiful (and free!) sweater, and a few other things before heading to bed and hitting the ground running tomorrow morning. A quick thanks to emansil_12 for the wonderful phone call today, and to llembas for the letter I received when I came home.

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/482478.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

As noted, this past Monday I got not only a fabulous massage, but I dyed some yarn with my massage therapist (and former big-into-tie-dyeing) friend Joseph. Below the cut is a picture of the yarn which I dyed two colors: one end was fuchsia and the other bright orange, meeting and blending in the middle. I think it turned out marvelously. Nice and bright! The ball of neutral in the middle is what the yarn looked like before. It was taken from a man's large, so I have YARDS of the stuff which I'm going to dye in three different two-color colorway batches to make three different garments. The piece on the right is a gauge swatch both in stockinette but also an overall pattern that I think I'll use with a different set of yarn. :D :D
( pic )

I could easily get waaaaaaay into dyeing, though I don't have the facilities here where I live. But Joseph does, and he seems very amenable and encouraging of me doing all the dyeing I want there at his place with double sinks and all that good stuff. Out of the sweaters I currently am taking apart, only the one is one I'd want to dye, but it's good to know that with this experiment that if I find more neutral ones (or not) that I can dye them to make the transformation even more striking.

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/482075.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

--it's been a pretty fabulous 24 hours or so! Some highlights:

✿ A productive morning yesterday, followed by lunch with evannichols at BHFT. While hanging out in the lounge, I had a conversation with the recruiter at the company I'd interviewed with last week that I really liked, setting me up for a follow-up interview tomorrow at 11:00. :D :D :D Then evannichols was done with work early in order to get to a chiropractor's appointment.
✿ At said appointment, I was working on dismantling a sweater when a woman with two daughters came in. She asked if I was undoing my own work or a pre-existing item. I affirmed the latter. So we got to talking about a variety of things, including my Endeavor. She loved the idea, and even offered to give me some sweaters that she was going to give to Goodwill anyway! And in some ways, she's part of my ideal market. Such a great feeling to get positive feedback from someone I don't know at all.
✿ A highly enjoyable evening/sleepover with Evan, including a yummy chicken dish from New Seasons for dinner. He dropped me off this morning at the drop-off bus stop that's convenient for us both, and that was where I commenced dismantling a sweater again by myself until…
✿ …my attentions were captivated by an articulate, outgoing transgendered young man (introduced to me as such after a few sentences about jobs and such) who just happened to be a redhead with lovely red beard. Turns out that Ray is writing a book about his overwhelmingly positive and supported transition from female to male. Since I have a dear friend on LJ who has also been transitioning in this manner, I had more than a clue as to his process and was being so grateful to the universe, once again, for giving me the strength to get back out to Portland again where I so obviously belong. Ray is writing his book with his mother, who has an online publishing company (I didn't get the name) and is serving as editor. I asked, of course, because I thought this interaction had happened so I could also potentially serve as editor. For a near-total stranger, yes, but the universe is like that. I gave him my name and email and will hopefully receive a first draft to give feedback in a few months. So very cool.
✿ And for today: going to the close PCC campus business office to get paid for my modeling sessions for this week; an interview at a placement company out in Beaverton; modeling tonight 6-9. So today and tomorrow will both be busy, but then it's a weekend. Woot!

And in another post to follow: pictures of my dyed yarn! ☺

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/481946.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I'm about to do my first ever knitting design, as in, not just putting a pattern on a shape (like a vest), but modifying a cable pattern in order to make something new. I'm going to obsessively write down what I'm doing and see how it turns out. Note to self: get a hold of some graph paper. I have a sneaking suspicion that evannichols may be just the person to have some on hand, which will be most helpful.

Wish me well!!

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/481664.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Had a very productive morning post-phone call with evannichols, then an as-always delightful lunch with him at BHFT. On the way home, instead of coming straight home, I went to my massage therapist friend Joseph's house for some pre-arranged much-needed bodywork, and then… YARN DYEING!! I'd been telling him about my Somewhat Secret Endeavor a couple of weeks ago and he said, "Don't buy dye — I used to do all kinds of tie-dyeing. I have great dyes. Come over and we'll use them!" So I brought over a few short skeins of some neutral-colored yarn from a sweater I'd dismantled, and have now officially done my first yarn dyeing. I can tell I'm already hooked. Well, especially when in somebody else's company and without having to come up with the space and materials myself. But he's game for me to come over with way more yarn and do a bunch more; he's grateful because he's been meaning to get back into that part of his life and just hasn't. So I've been a positive impetus for someone else! And I think the yarns are going to be beautiful and things are really falling into place for this Grand Endeavor. FWIW, I also have yet another interview this coming Thursday, though it's an initial interview for a placement company, not the client company. I have yet to hear anything from the two places I interviewed last week and am trying to remain as upbeat as I can and thinking positive thoughts toward the universe about my future position. Which will happen. I am tenacious and pretty good at selling myself by now.

And in the meantime, there's the Grand Endeavor and lots of creativity and yarn dyeing! And evannichols! Having him on my team goes a long, long way. :)

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/481405.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

In years past I have made it a point to reach out to those for whom Mother's Day is somewhere between a bittersweet day to one of outright grief. Early in my divorce it was particularly challenging for me as I wasn't in communication with my former stepchildren— and still am not. With time that has eased (and in recent communication with my wasband, I found out that they both have summer internships; yes, they're both in college now), but I know it can be a particularly challenging day for those who have lost children, those who loved non-biological children who are no longer in touch, those who have been trying to have children and who remain without them, and those who may be in an uncertain position of adoption, loving a child whom she may be required to surrender in the future.

I will re-post a poem I wrote back in the earliest of my Tolkien days, a poem written in April of 2003, addressing the question of: Where are all the mothers?

Ode to the Absent

In halls of Mandos
In unmarked graves
In poems of loss
In hidden caves

Éomer and Éowyn with flaxen hair
Must go to the earth and find mum there

In the fair Shire laments Frodo
Without mother's lullaby to sleep he must go

King Elessar thinks, You would be so proud!
But his mother, long-dead, is nowhere to be found

Gimli the gruff with kind heart of gold
Of his mother's beard no tale has been told

Exquisite Legolas, woe is he
Whoever bore him languishes in obscurity

Arwen's sorrows with daddy must be
Since Celebrían forsook her and went Over Sea

O Boromir! O Faramir! You strapping fine men
Though emotionally scarred by your mother's untimely end?

Because of mothers there is here such a dearth
This is a lament for Third Age Middle-earth.

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/481122.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I am now in possession of a 16 oz. bottle of No-Ad SPF 85 sunblock. :D :D :D Contrary to the reputation Portland has, there are many bright and sunny days, in all seasons. With the usual lack of humidity, I get about four minutes outside unprotected before my skin starts to burn. I recently purchased some sunblock from the dollar store, but it was only SPF 30. Now, however, both evannichols and I can protect our fair skins from the powerful Pacific Northwest sun. Yay! There was also the purchase of a much-needed sun hat found via eBay from a UK-based surf shop, of all places. I moved out here in part because I love grey skies; not rain, but grey. There can be a lot of sunny days, however, and I've learned to put aside my grumbling and enjoy other people's happiness at the glowing sphere in the sky.

Also, the USB-charged battery charger for my camera that I purchased from some store in Hong Kong via eBay has gone from being something I was frustrated about to a wonderful thing. All it took was to discover that there was a message from them in my eBay account about how actually to use it. Now I can take pictures again with my own camera!!

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/480821.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

As I was out and about to run a couple of errands, I crossed the street and stopped at a house. Well, I stopped to pause and look at the contents of two bags of things that caught my eye that had been put to the curb. Our trash doesn't go out until Monday, so seeing it now is code for, "Take whatever you want." I snagged a child's Gap sweater almost identical to one I'd found in another colorway for my knitting endeavor, so with an unbelieving smile, I picked it up and kept looking. I also came away with a knitted REI winter hat with a bill that may need replacing, and one knitted (perhaps hand-knitted) longish fingerless glove in a yummy knitted colorway I'll enjoy using as an accent somewhere. Portland is a great place to be a scavenger. For me, Portland is simply a great place to be.

So I'd drafted this DW/LJ entry in my head while walking home when I impulsively stopped by the library at the foot of my street to see what knitting books they had for inspiration. I finally settled on two and went to check them out. As I did so, who did I see but a long-lost Opera buddy, a friend I met up with when I first re-arrived and had been communicating with regularly until Jen and I ceased to be functioning friends. He'd pushed his glasses down and was looking intently at the DVDs when I walked over and said, "Well, hi!" We had a great conversation, all good will and pleasant catching up. He asked why I was at his favorite library and I explained that I lived up the street. Eventually we parted ways and I beamed as I walked down the street, marveling at how amazing this day has been— and it's not even noon! This must be the universe's way of being kind to me after I was so disconsolate yesterday. I am truly at home here, job or no job, complete with a small but devoted support system, and where I'm learning to trust in happiness. Pretty phenomenal. :)

This entry was originally posted at http://thrihyrne.dreamwidth.org/480514.html. Please comment there using OpenID.