The starting of it...

The starting of a thing is the hardest part. Whether a new friendship, a marriage, the spring garden or a summer novel, after that first ten minutes it's all manageable. The starting of a thing suggests that one should find a beginning and set forth from that point. Being somewhat OCD, it pains me intensely to pick up a thing or put it down midway through. Midway, or something like it, however, is exactly where I'm starting things here...so I'm just going to have to roll up my sleeves, ignore the messy-ness, and jump in.

I have a job that I rather like. I am a technology analyst for a major U.S. financial institution. It is quite regimented and conservative, and it provides a lovely structural counterpoint to the rest of my life. My job is very anchoring and perfectly stimulating. I have absurdly liberal benefits and, by and large, like my co-workers and management.

I am quite happily married. If I'm the academic braun of this outfit, my husband is undoubtedly the creative brain that keeps us in orbit. He is a bean sprout farmer by day (no shit, seriously, he's a bean sprout farmer...) and a designer/blogger/visual artist by night. He's my greatest source of inspiration.

I have a pretty tight knit family with whom I am in neurotically frequent contact. I talk to my mom at least once a day, usually more often. I also have a brother who has a lovely wife and a newborn that consumes most of the capacity my brain has for cuteness. I have about forty-two million cousins with whom I'm in variously close contact. I am the contingent legal guardian (AKA, godless mother) to Lauren, one of my cousins' children. It's the most honorific, gratifying thing anyone's ever asked of me. My mother has 3 sisters. The Four of them are collectively referred to as the "yadda yadda sisterhood" among our family. They are utterly inspirational to me.

I have two dogs that serve as the foils for whatever marginal parental urges I have. They do not wear clothing, but they do sleep in our bed. Manny is a Johnson type American Bulldog acquired from Stray Rescue in October of '03. He is a svelt 120 lbs of jowly-drooly lapdoggy goodness. Lola was also a rescue, adopted right after we got married in October of '04. She's (oh, the horror of it) a Jack Russel/Pit Bull mix. Think Spuds MacKenzie on crank. Oh, and she's even more OCD than I and has to lick everything...constantly. She is pushy and opinionated and insists on sleeping sideways between the husband and I most nights. I adore her ceaselessly.

We like gardening. In the vegetable garden we currenty have: 36 tomatoes-12 Romas, 12, Juliette Romas, 6 Early Girls, 1 Jetstar, 1 BeefMaster, 1 Better Boy, 1 Yellow Rose (or some yellow variety?), 1 Cherokee Purple, and 1 Brandywine. Japanese Eggplant, Catnip, German Chamomile, Carrots, 18 Basil plants of various hybridization, cucumbers and pumpkin. In the flower garden I have something of an obsession with Clematis. I currently have 1 Dr. Ruppel, 1 Nelly Moser, 3 Sweet Autumn, and 1 Jackmanii; I plan to add a bush variety this year. I also have a very lovely lavendar and yellow colored Columbine, a native wildflower garden, a newly planted row of Nasturtium, a stand of Yellow Groove Bamboo, a bed of Ravena grass, various bulbs, a small bed of tiger lillies, a very old and fragrant rose bush, and a Meyer's Lilac bush. I also have a variety of houseplants that seem to thrive on being ignored. This collection consists mainly of 2 strains of Aloe occupying a dozen or so pots, a large Jade, 3 or 4 cacti, a couple Ficus, a large umbrella plant, a large-ish Dracena, an increasingly impressive Plumeria and some spider plants and Diefenbachia I have at the office. So, um, yeah...I like the plants. This year I would like to remember how to graft roses. My maternal grandfather showed me how to do this as a child and it seems like a usefull thing with which to re-acquaint myself.

I am a part-time graduate student at Fontbonne University. I study Elementary Curriculum and Instruction. When I grow up I'd like to be a Waldorf Teacher. I am not a theosophist.

I am interested in and involved in various modes of fiber art including knitting, weaving, crocheting and spinning. I'd also like to learn various modes of rug making including locker hooking and navajo weaving. I build my own looms and am working on plans to build a spinning wheel. I currently spin on a Hitchhiker and I love it to pieces.

I used to live in San Francisco. Now I live in St. Louis. It gets very cold and very hot here.

I have a lot of ambivalence about religion and any sort of "organized" spirituality. My parents are self-proclaimed hedonists (well, at least, my mom is...). I was raised with a pointed lack of religion, but with a fairly balanced education about various modes of spiritual practice. Many of my friends and family are Jewish and that has a stronger appeal to me than most anything else, but I am not Jewish and am rather on the fence about whether or not to formally convert. There are a small but notable number of Born Again Christians in my family, my brother among them. I'm frankly rather uncomfortable with this because of the political implications that religion carries these days...but I have a not-dissimilar issue with Judaism at the moment. In all liklihood I'll continue to be something of a wishy-washy judeo-pagan seeker (without too much seeking...). I had a brief rebellious flirtation with Catholicism with I was 16, however, it didn't seem to take.

I ride the bus to work. This is a source of endless fascination/amusement/annoyance for me. I would like to write more about the characters in BusWorld.

Things I would like to do (in no particular order): Ride a century, keep a clean house, save enough money to coast for a year, hike the apalachain trail, travel in India, lose 20 lbs, grow most of my own food, live in Mexico, drink more water, knit a dress, weave a rug, have more time for fiber arts, blog consistently.

I think the thing is started. Let's see where it goes.