Phoebe’s Day of Beauty

Posted on March 19, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I have to admit to doing a bit too much this weekend. I did a lot of laundry yesterday, including 5 sets of sheets, several loads of towels and some loads focusing on eradicating stains. Between that and folding numerous bits of laundry that have been done by Terry who prefers to leave dry clothes in a laundry basket rather than fold them, I have had more than my fair share of laundry! I still have more to do, but no inclination to do so today. I also cleaned some of the crystal glasses that I’ve been putting off for a long time and am trying to keep up with dishes, in general.

Today, I accomplished what I had originally wanted to do yesterday, and that was to focus on Phoebe. Believe it or not, she actually let me clip all of her nails on all four paws today! I was in shock. She hasn’t allowed me to do that in what, years now? I then brushed her and cut out two mats from behind her ears. At this point, I developed a headache, so I took some Excedrin and laid down for a nap. When I got up, I had Terry trim back the fur on her paws, between her pads. Then I took her up and gave her a bath. She’s still drying, but it’s only been less than 2 hours. I just need to make sure she doesn’t go outside until she’s dry because it’s cold! Either that, or I will have to put on her coat. Once she’s dry, I have to take the brush to her again and remove all of the fur that was dislodged by the bathing process. I’ll probably do that sometime tomorrow.

I also had a really good phone conversation with my dad yesterday morning. I got up pretty early in the morning (around 7:30 AM) and I was sitting downstairs stitching when I suddenly had the desire to call and discuss my visit to the psychologist and my intended journey to self-discovery. I knew that if I called that early in the morning, my mom wouldn’t be awake yet, so he wouldn’t feel like he needed to keep things brief because I was calling for her. We talked for over an hour, which was a pleasant surprise. Even more interesting was how similar we are in where we are along these internal pathways that we’ve forged and how we ask ourselves identical questions. It was nice to talk to someone else also on this search. Besides that fact, it’s always nice to connect with him on new topics and new levels. I love my dad! 😀

The new psychologist also called me yesterday (on a Saturday!) to briefly touch on what I was looking to discuss and then schedule an appointment. While his voicemail indicated that new patients would take approximately 6 weeks to get in to see him, I was quite pleasantly surprised when he first offered me an appointment this coming Thursday, due to a cancellation. Unfortunately, I have my next neurologist visit that afternoon, so I could not see him then. How surprised was I when his next suggestion was the next Tuesday? I’m seeing him before my next follow-up with the psychologist at work! I’m very excited to get started, especially when this guy seems so nice on the phone. Very laid back. I like it when people with a hard-earned PhD at the end of their name offer to let you call them simply by their first name!

In addition to all of that, I also received a shipment notification from Amazon.com on Saturday concerning my books. What a banner day for my odyssey! I cannot wait for the books to come in so I can start reading!

Posted in Journey to Self-Discovery, Life in General | 7 Comments

Is it Friday Yet?

Posted on March 16, 2006 by Jenna Magee

This is my second attempt at this post because I accidentally hit F5 and nuked the first one. *sigh*

It’s been a long week so far. Terry is sick, just as I suspected he would be after this past weekend. He has my cold and even had a 24-hour stomach bug the other day that had him running to the bathroom every couple of hours. I’ve been working from home this week, trying to play nursemaid and make sure he gets enough rest. He’s had to log into work and fix things every day so far, relating to the system implementation. There is no rest for the weary, I guess. Poor guy!

So, I drove myself into work this morning and am actually in my office. It feels a bit odd to be sitting here for the first time since Saturday. And I haven’t driven my car in a couple of weeks, so I was anxious about it. Driving makes me nervous, in general, because I have no way to predict what kind of stupidity may come from other drivers on the road with me! I was nearly in an accident this morning, as I was coming through a train tunnel. I was almost clear of the tunnel when a guy in a good-sized truck coming the other direction started crossing way over the center line. By about a foot or so. So… I could have swerved right to get out of his way, ensuring that I scratch the back of the car against the concrete corner of the tunnel. Or I could have braked, but that would have required him to become aware of his error and correct it or brake, which I couldn’t count on. Or I could have kept on moving, hoping that I got safely out of the way before he scraped against the back of my car. So I did. And I escaped unharmed.

Surprisingly, I was calm about the whole thing. Mostly, I think, due to the fact that I was just coming from my psychologist visit and I was feeling a little more relaxed than normal. I absolutely LOATHE that tunnel, though. I always have. It’s poorly engineered and people are afraid of the sides, so they naturally tend towards the middle of what is already a too-narrow opening. It’s a very short tunnel under the railroad tracks, but it was so badly planned that it takes a sudden dip to get into it (which becomes amazingly icy in the winter due to bad drainage) and it makes a 60 degree turn that is blind in both directions. The road also gets a surprising amount of traffic from the locals, so they really need to fix it some day. Unfortunately, the way things seem to work around here, someone would have to be killed or badly injured for anything to change. And no one wants that, so oh well!

My psychologist visit went pretty well today. Very emotional again. He even commented that he always seems to make me cry. To which I responded that I don’t often get that kind of emotional release, so he just happens to offer an opportunity to vent. 🙂 He’s referring me to another psychologist for longer-term care. I somewhat expected this, especially after today. I just have too many issues relating to my childhood, my parents’ divorce and my mom’s illness to work through in the 5 sessions allotted by my workplace. So, I called the insurance company and started the case management process to ensure that my future visits will be covered and then I called and left a message with one of the three people that he recommended. It’s another male, so I’m a little nervous about whether or not I will like him. I’m not sure what happens in the process of finding a psychologist. What if I don’t click with him? Should I have gone for the female on the list? Would I feel more comfortable with a female versus a male? So far, it hasn’t really mattered. It’s all about bedside manner, I suppose. Perhaps Carol can weigh in on this subject for me, if she catches this. Is okay to switch if you don’t think it’s working with one doctor? Is it expected to need to try several before you find the right fit?

BTW, does anyone know what the difference is between a PhD and an LCSW (social worker) when it comes to therapy? Is one better than another? Has anyone seen both? I’m just curious as he gave me the names of two male PhDs and one female LCSW.

He also gave me some suggestions as to what to try in order to shut my brain off for a little while everyday. I have yoga tapes (though I don’t have a VCR hooked up at the moment) and a mat, but just don’t make time for it. I even have a game called The Journey to Wild Divine that I know will do the trick. I have both parts that are out so far and haven’t even installed part 2, which I’ve had since October. Shame on me! He also recommended some books, for which I have already placed an order with Amazon. I am definitely on the road to self-discovery. And what an odyssey it promises to be!

Posted in Journey to Self-Discovery, Life in General | 6 Comments

SBQ – March 15, 2006

Posted on March 15, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Today’s SBQ is:

Do you stitch “over one?” If so, describe your experiences. If not, have you considered it?

I have stitched over one. In fact, I think my first attempts were on a model for a needlework shop using one of the Kreinik kits. It nearly led me to a nervous breakdown and did lead me to stop stitching for that shop and take a hiatus from model stitching for a while. Needless to say, it was not a fun experience for me. I found Kreinik Silk Mori a real terror to work with over one and I don’t think I would ever make another attempt using that fiber again.

Since then, I have started M Designs’ Peace Tree over one using the Silk N’ Colors fiber recommended. While having to frog over one stitching is still a pain, this experience has been much more enjoyable than the last. 🙂

Posted in Stitching Blogger's Question | 4 Comments

Monday Already?!? (Warning: Long Post Ahead)

Posted on March 13, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Wow, how time flies when you’re working/keeping obscene hours…

This weekend was the go-live weekend for the first phase of a major system implementation. In non-dork-inese, that means major computer system changes. Which equals a lot of hard work. While it wasn’t my team doing the work, it was Terry’s team and it affected some of the systems for which I’m responsible, so I got involved. In fact, since their changes meant that my systems would be inaccessible for a period of time, I seized the opportunity and did an upgrade of a system. Hooray for using someone else’s imposed downtime to achieve my own objectives! 😈

The upgrade was a pain. All was going smoothly until, halfway through the upgrade, the server crashed. Boom! Okay, restart, recover and continue with the upgrade. Whew! No problem. Except for the file that the server was working on when the server crashed. I won’t go into details, but there was only one person who was concerned about the upgrade and, go figure, it was her file that was affected. Okay, so I did some thinking, realized what the problem probably was and fixed it. No problem. Woohoo! Everything works now. Waited a little while for Terry’s stuff to finish up and went home around 10:00 PM.

That was Friday night.

10:00 AM Saturday morning – back in at work, but this time I’m providing moral support while waiting for the parts where I need to be involved. I stitched on my World Trade Center quilt panel until I was forced to stop because I was missing one color for the stitches and the backstitching color (after several hours, I was getting seriously sick of stitching anyway and had no “good” projects with me to capture my interest). Imbibed regular amounts of cold medicine. Brought my systems down so that they could do their work. Went to Walmart and picked up more cold medicine (I have a rant about that, but I’ll save it for later), plus some black and white floss (they usually don’t have either in stock, so yay!), but still couldn’t stitch because I was missing the one color for 3 teeny, tiny little bits of stitching. I mean, less than 10 stitches. Seriously. Did some web-based thumb twiddling. Had an IBS attack and was extremely thankful that there was no one else in the building (especially females). Left around 1:30 AM. We needed gas for the car. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a gas station in our area that’s open at 2:00 in the morning? Only 1 of the 3 gas stations on our way home was open. You don’t know how thankful I was to see a gas station that actually had the lights on! We didn’t absolutely need to fuel the car right then, but I didn’t want Terry to have to worry about it in the morning, because he was going to have less than 6 hours of sleep before he needed to go back to work.

8:00 AM Sunday morning – Terry headed back in to work for a 9:00 AM start time. I went back to sleep and completely overslept (I didn’t get up until after 1:00 PM), waking up with a headache because I’m a dummy. Logged in to work so that I could see how things were going. Periodically checked in. Spent the evening watching movies. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to stitch any more than the missing couple of stitches on the WTC quilt panel. I kitted up two new pieces to start, but couldn’t make myself start them with the guilt of the unfinished projects surrounding my stitching chair eating at me. Around midnight, I got the signal that I could bring my system back up and start checking for errors. I found some little ones and fixed them. Then I found a big one. And hey, guess whose file it was? Oh yes. That one. AGAIN. Now, at this point, you have to realize that I was tired and fairly grumpy. So I was conferenced in with these guys and I started uttering the F word. I told you I was tired. I figured out the problem… AGAIN and reran the necessary conversions. Everything went smoothly, so I thoroughly inspected every little nook and cranny relating to it and it looked okay. I’m just hoping that we won’t have problems in the future. I really should have pulled the file from the backup that we made before the upgrade, reupgraded it and rerun the conversion when I had problems with it the first time. That’s if I wasn’t sick of the whole thing. But I was. So I didn’t. At 2:30 AM, I finally decided to sign off and drag my weary self up to bed. The headache didn’t respond to two or three different medications. So, I popped another one and crossed my fingers. Set an alarm for 7:00 AM to take my migraine prevention med (this is standard) and went to sleep with a stuffed animal tucked under each arm, hoping to find Terry beside me when I woke up. When I closed my eyes, I saw what I can best describe as a lightning storm in my head. It was dark, as it should be with my eyes closed, but there were white stripes that flashed through. Some were in the background, some hit closer and were brighter and they seemed to correspond with a shot of pain in my head. It was interesting and yet disturbing. I’ll have to tell the neurologist about that one.

7:00AM – Monday morning – I woke up alone and with the same headache I went to bed with, so I took my headache med, my anti-anxiety med (this is a new standard, as a test for a month) and 2 Excedrin and tried to go back to sleep. 45 minutes later, still awake and full of anxiety (guess the med isn’t working or hasn’t kicked in yet), I crawled out of bed, put on a bathrobe and headed downstairs to log in again. Terry and the team were still awake (no naps, no nothing, despite Terry having taken the air bed with him) and still working. I started testing my systems again and doing some cleanup. In the process, I found another couple of little bobbles that I’ve now fixed. So, I went to work on the test system. More bobbles. More fixes. More cleanup. I watched people log into the production system. I watched their logins fail. I watched them get the customized error message telling them to change their password. Terry’s team watched them change their passwords. It’s all good. I went in and changed my own password, found some minor issues in that system that Terry then fixed. Hooray, I’m helping! (Sorry, botched Futurama reference there.)

It’s now 10:30 AM. I’ve been conferenced in with the guys since 8:00AM. They have been up for over 24 hours. They’ve been implementing, troubleshooting and problem fixing. They’ve been there to watch people in Asia Pacific come online. Then Europe. Then the eastern portion of the US. And finally, the western portion of the US. Terry actually expects to leave in about 30 minutes. Am I dreaming? Is he really coming home? I think I’ll run up and take a shower (so I don’t disturb him while he’s trying to sleep) and maybe put on a pot of water to boil so he can have some tea, if he wants it.

BTW, Terry has my cold. And so does his team. And after this stint, their bodies are going to be so rundown that I predict they’ll all be miserable this week. But hey, they knew it going in. They knew I was sick, they knew Terry would probably get it and they knew that they would eventually get sick, as well. However, to date, Terry has been in far better shape than I was. So, with any luck, this won’t knock him down so far as to cause him to get radically sicker (more sick?).

Now, THAT is what I call dedication to your work. Not me. Terry and his team. I was just along for the ride. But, those guys ought to get an award. But they probably won’t. Because we’re IT. And that’s what happens to us. People expect things to run, they expect things to work. We only hear about it when there’s a problem. Rarely does anyone get credit for “flying the plane.” Oh well. Such is the life of a computer specialist…

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 9 Comments

Surprise from Anne!

Posted on March 11, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I’ve been putting off this post for two days, waiting until I had time to take photos, but I can’t wait any longer. I was the happy recipient of a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful (should I say it again?) surprise from Anne in Australia this week! She stitched a stunning scissors fob for me on this gorgeous purple fabric that I could just about eat, it’s so yummy, in sparkling metallics and the design is … can you guess? A shooting star! Now tell me, does it get any better than that? Well yes, actually, because she included a sweet card, a pad of lovely stationery and some scrumptious overdyed threads, too. I have been well and truly spoiled! Please be sure to visit Anne’s blog to see pictures, especially until I can find some time to take my own. 😉 Thank you, my dear friend!

Posted in Stitching | 9 Comments

SBEBB Valentine’s Exchange Received!

Posted on March 9, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I know it’s not Valentine’s Day but yesterday almost felt like it! I was home sick from work (again? still!) and had just laid down to take a nap with Phoebe curled up at my head when the doorbell rang and she went flying off the couch, barking like a maniac (this is standard procedure). I waited a minute to see if she would calm down, indicating that the danger had passed (I assumed that it was just the UPS guy dropping off a package), but she continued, so I went out to calm her down and checked the door. I was surprised to actually find someone standing on the other side. It was the mail carrier – the nice lady, not the guy who jams packages of all shapes and sizes into my mailbox like a typical male. I was shocked that she took the time to come down to the door, much less stand there for a little bit after ringing the bell (usually they take off after hitting the doorbell). She very nicely told me that she had a registered package that I needed to sign for. After I passed the signed slip back to her, she gave me the package and then extended her other arm and gave me the rest of my mail! My jaw nearly hit the ground! Then she proceeds to calmly walk the whole way up my front yard to her car!

I was flabbergasted on so many levels. 1) She actually waited for someone to answer the door. 2) She was quite pleasant. 3) She brought the rest of my mail up to the door with her, instead of putting it in my mailbox first and then coming to the door with the package. 4) She actually walked down from the road instead of driving down the driveway. So is the difference in the sex of the mail carrier or just the attitude? Or does one equate to the other? ‘Cause, you know all of us gals and just so sweet! 😉

Anyway, the package turned out to be my SBEBB Valentine’s Exchange package all the way from Leena in Malaysia. She stitched up a very pretty heart design from Lavender Wings and mounted it onto the top of a box. She also sent some cute goodies, like 2 skeins of overdyed floss, a decorated pen and a little box covered with roses that I cannot believe actually made it from Malaysia without a single chip in it!

So, thank you to Leena for such a sweet Valentine’s Day exchange package and to the local post office for sending the nice lady out!

Posted in Stitching | 10 Comments

SBQ – March 8, 2006

Posted on March 8, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Today’s SBQ is:

Do you have an organizational system for your patterns? If so, how do you organize them? If not, have you considered organizing them?

Yes, they are somewhat organized. I have a plastic box that holds hanging file folders that I use for my charts and magazines. This limits my space and organizational options somewhat, since having one folder per designer would take up too much room with just the folders.

As a result, I organize first by cross stitch versus hardanger, then chart versus magazine. From there, it breaks down into designers, if I have enough to justify a whole folder for one designer, or designers that are similar. If that doesn’t work, then I go by subject matter.

For example, I have a folder with all of my Mirabilia charts and also a Stoney Creek booklet containing angel designs, so that is my fairies and angels folder. I have enough Just Nan and The Sweetheart Tree charts for them to each warrant their own folder. Cross stitching magazines are in one folder and hardanger magazines in another. Thea Dueck of The Victoria Sampler almost has her own folder for hardanger designs, but I ran out of space, so I also tucked two Judy Dixon designs in the folder, as well. Those are just a few examples.

Freebies are in a 3-ring binder, grouped solely by cross stitch versus hardanger and then in the order in which I found them and printed them out.

Posted in Stitching Blogger's Question | 1 Comment

SBQ – March 1, 2006

Posted on March 8, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Cheryl and is:

What cross-stitch magazines or other publications (as opposed to blogs) do you read on a regular basis? What do you like about them? What do you not like? What would your perfect publication include?

As I think others have already beat this topic into the ground quite thoroughly (and BTW, I think Heather gave the best answer), I’ll just say that I don’t read anything on a regular basis for all of the reasons that others have already cited. The patterns are hit or miss – mostly miss. I actually just subscribed last month to the new online magazine called The Gift of Stitching and it’s pretty nice, but once again, I have a similar problem. There is no one other person in this world who has the same exact taste in designs that I do. Nor is it reasonable for anyone to be able to predict everyone’s likes and dislikes. But it’s inexpensive and save trees because I can print only what I want and not have the glossy, newspaper-thin pages to deal with. I do have to say, though, that I like the contents of the UK stitching magazines over what the US companies choose to offer.

Posted in Stitching Blogger's Question | 2 Comments

Words of Wisdom

Posted on March 7, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Mercilessly stolen from Outi:

You are strong… when you take your grief and teach it to smile.
You are brave… when you overcome your fear and help others to do the same
You are happy… when you see a flower and are thankful for the blessing.
You are loving… when your own pain does not blind you to the pain of others.
You are wise… when you know the limits of your wisdom.
You are true… when you admit there are times you fool yourself.
You are alive… when tomorrow’s hope means more to you than yesterday’s mistake.
You are growing… when you know what you are but not what you will become.
You are free… when you are in control of yourself and do not wish to control others.
You are honorable… when you find your honor is to honor others.
You are generous… when you can take as sweetly as you can give.
You are humble… when you do not know how humble you are.
You are thoughtful… when you see me just as I am and treat me just as you are.
You are merciful… when you forgive in others the faults you condemn in yourself.
You are beautiful… when you don’t need a mirror to tell you.
You are rich… when you never need more than what you have.
You are you… when you are at peace with who you are not.
(author possibly Nisha Nair)

Posted in Life in General | 2 Comments

Out of Commission

Posted on March 6, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Ugh. *sniff* *snork* Yes, that cold that was wearing me out last week thoroughly whomped my behind this weekend. I had a fever, terrible sore throat, stuffy nose and didn’t leave the couch all weekend. The fever has broken and I stopped taking medications for one day just to see how I was really feeling. In a word – crummy. I had a very important two-day meeting of which I have now missed the first day, but there are too many people who have to hop flights back to their hometowns later this week and I couldn’t risk infecting them. I can’t imagine trying to travel feeling like this. Besides, I couldn’t stand up long enough to complete my shower early this morning. Had to sit down for a few minutes half way through.

So, anyway, too sick for stitching. Terry seems to think that I looked better when he got home from work, so I’m hoping that a dose of medicine before bed will help to set this blasted cold on its last legs. Mix that with one more day of rest tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be back to normal soon!

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments