Sprout Update

We have sprouts! Three varieties of lettuce have begun to sprout, along with the spinach and the brussel 'sprouts'. It's so exciting.

The weather is warming up a little every day. Our veggies should be sprouting the next couple of weeks and then it will be time to transplant them outside.

It's Leonard Cohen Week

It must be Leonard Cohen week. I have heard Leonard Cohen songs all week, and it's only Wednesday.

Right now we are watching and listening to a live performance by Leonard Cohen in London on the Canadian chanel, CBUT.

Earlier this week I got the CD, "Famous Blue Raincoat", which is songs of Leonard Cohen sung by Jennifer Warnes. I don't know why; I just felt compelled to.

We have talked of Leonard Cohen and his music at the dinner table this week, and about how strange it is for a person to have such a talent for writing beautiful songs, while having such a limit to the appeal of his own voice. Still, he manages to sing his own songs, and have a following that is quite remarkable.

So it must be Leonard Cohen week.

At long last, gardening again

Well, we have our garden plot ready. We have two raised beds that are 3.5' by 16'. I am starting some seedlings under lights in the basement. I am waiting anxiously for them to sprout. I feel like a new mother. Hope they come up.

We can start planting some seeds directly, so I have to decide just when to do that, and how to mark them somehow.

I am so excited about having a garden again. Hope our lettuce does well. We eat a lot of salad.

Photos soon.

Unplugged, but reconnecting

We have turned out lights out for Earth Hour, though we are still blogging and cruising the internet on our battery powered laptops. Is that wrong?

I was starting to feel lately that things are settling down a bit. I am feeling more energized about freelancing again, and a few jobs may be coming my way.

Connections are more and more important and lately my energy has been focused on connecting, or reconnecting. I think I have been feeling cut off and exhausted for too long.

Monday Morning

Just was thinking about how much we each can influence our personal lives by our attitude and what we decide each day. It reminded me of Don Miguel Ruiz and his philosophy:
"Everything we do is based on agreements we have made - agreements with ourselves, with other people, with God, with life. But the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, how to behave, what is possible, what is impossible. One single agreement is not such a problem, but we have many agreements that come from fear, deplete our energy, and diminish our self-worth. When we are ready to change these agreements, there are four deceptively simple, yet powerful agreements that we can adopt as guiding principles. The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love."

Happiness is a Tidy Linen Closet

I am done with classes for this quarter and it feels good. I took Flash and a Dreamweaver class, back to back, on Saturdays for Winter Quarter. They were both taught by the same instructor at Seattle Central, and they were good. I now have good books with CDs to follow up on so I can keep learning.

And I have filed for unemployment, though I won't be getting a check for a few weeks apparently. They are so backed up at the Employment Security Office it takes them 4 to 5 weeks to process claims, though when I called once last week I was only on hold for 10 minutes.

Spring is slowly peeking it's head out of the dark, cold, frosty burm that was winter. We still could get snow, of course. But the croccus in my yard are glorious, and when the sun shines and the sky is blue in Seattle, there is nothing quite like it.

Being unemployed means I am using my time differently. And that means I can get things done around the house that I have not had a chance to get to for awhile. Like the linen closet. Our linen closet, being small, and the only linen closet, with exception of the inprovised one across the hall in a recessed alcove that used to be for the stereo, has to be perfectly organized for everything to fit in, and if it gets messed up, it is a disaster. Because once it is messed up, we tend to just open the door, shove something in, and close it quickly before anything can fall out. It becomes a mess gradually, and then builds, so that whoever has the task of folding up towels and putting them away starts to dred opening the linen closet door. So the linen closet is tidy, and neat, and I love it.

Bothered

Well, it's been a while since I have added a post. I think I have been feeling unable to write anything because I am upset and grumpy. I just feel bothered by a lot of stuff lately.

I suspect many people are feeling this way now. The news is bad, and there are so few jobs. I actually have felt jealous of people who have jobs. I find myself longing to be at work, at a computer, producing, contributing, typing, filing, layout out a project, calling a printer on the phone for a quote. I miss work. And I feel bad that I am not contributing.

Ah, well. It could be worse. We are OK, really. It's the fear of what could happen that is causing this anxiety, and the loss of the continuum that was work, that was going somewhere everyday, that was a sense of being needed. Needed to do a job.

So I will network, and get creative, and see what I can find in other ways. Freelancing has it's benefits, and can be lucrative if you work hard enough.

Still seeking balance; still needing to find my way a bit.