Restless Ramble
I’ve been off work now for nearly two and half weeks and I’m starting to get antsy.
There’s been no success on the work front, but that’s not very surprising considering the short amount of time (2-3 weeks) I had available. I’ve been reluctant to commit to a volunteer gig because I was hoping for paid work, but now I’m hoping to get a few days of volunteering in next week if they’ll have me.
I feel a bit silly, because when I’m working I complain about not having enough time to do creative things or read or work on the house, but now that I have time, I find it hard to settle down to these activities. I think, also, I’m just starting to feel quite lonely. Kate is at work most days and I can’t afford to go travel or visit anything in London, so I stay in the house mostly. I should get out and bike around more. I’m hoping it doesn’t rain so I can go for a ride today. The cloudiness we’ve had for the last week or so hasn’t helped my mood.
Sorry, I’m sort of moaning even though I know it’s my own fault.
In good news, Kate and I recently went to her mum’s wedding. It was very simple and lovely and we were honored to be witnesses. Kate’s mum and her new husband sort of glowed with happiness. After the ceremony at a very grand old manor where the register now is for their area, we returned to their house and had some of Kate’s mum’s delicious cooking, as well as chatting and a bit of dancing. I ended up spending quite a lot of time talking and playing with Kate’s two nephews (5 and 7 years old). They are very considered boys (except when it comes to each other, of course) and they ask wonderful questions. I found myself explaining Kate’s and my relationship to them (i.e. we’re going to be married/civilly partnered). It went something like this:
J: Are you married?
K: No. I’m with your Aunt Kate. We’re going to get married.
J: But you can’t get married. You’re both ladies.
K: Well, we’re going to get something called a civil partnership, which is a lot like getting married.
The older one particularly seemed intrigued by this concept and asked if I was going to be/am a part of the family. Kate’s mum, bless her, says that I already am. I’m very lucky to have landed such wonderful new add-ons to my family. J asked what I was going to be to him and seemed confused with the concept of having two aunts.
On the lighter side, we attempted to play pooh sticks on the bridge in Kate’s mum’s garden, but some of the finer points (throwing the sticks in all at once and doing it on the upstream side) escaped the younger nephew. Still, we had fun throwing sticks, leaves, bark, and so on into the river. We even had a discussion about why pebbles don’t float, which I ended up passing off to Kate as she’s the one with a science background. I did try to explain air being in sticks and people, but J came up with the brilliant idea of putting a hole through a rock. Yeeeeeah, I wasn’t quite sure how to put the argument against that in 7-year-old terms. I should learn to as I work with kids of that age.
The other bit of socializing we’ve done was the next day when two of Kate’s friends came to visit. It was slightly challenging as they were on the Atkins diet (no sugar or carbs) and we normally eat next to no meat. I ended up making salmon that turned out pretty well. They were very nice and we had a relaxing afternoon just chatting about this and that.
The last couple days I’ve been working on wedding invitations for October. I had an idea for them that I really like, but that’s taking a bit of time. The whole wedding thing is feeling a little much at the moment because Kate and I have realized that we’re very short on money and we’re not sure we’ll be able to take a honeymoon as planned. Luckily, because we both have really caring and generous moms, we don’t have to worry about most wedding costs. So it could be miles worse in terms of money woes.
I’m feeling very scattered at the moment and I think I’m going to need to sit down and make a to do list as well as think about my finances. Always a bit depressing…
Anyway, the plan for today is to call the volunteer place, take a bike ride, clean the house a bit, and do some writing for 52 weeks. I think I’m just going to use a bit from the invitations for my 52 weeks visual as it’s taken me so much time.
Oh, I'll leave you with this link to an NPR interview (still having trouble linking with putting the whole URL on the page). It's quite fun.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93022254
There’s been no success on the work front, but that’s not very surprising considering the short amount of time (2-3 weeks) I had available. I’ve been reluctant to commit to a volunteer gig because I was hoping for paid work, but now I’m hoping to get a few days of volunteering in next week if they’ll have me.
I feel a bit silly, because when I’m working I complain about not having enough time to do creative things or read or work on the house, but now that I have time, I find it hard to settle down to these activities. I think, also, I’m just starting to feel quite lonely. Kate is at work most days and I can’t afford to go travel or visit anything in London, so I stay in the house mostly. I should get out and bike around more. I’m hoping it doesn’t rain so I can go for a ride today. The cloudiness we’ve had for the last week or so hasn’t helped my mood.
Sorry, I’m sort of moaning even though I know it’s my own fault.
In good news, Kate and I recently went to her mum’s wedding. It was very simple and lovely and we were honored to be witnesses. Kate’s mum and her new husband sort of glowed with happiness. After the ceremony at a very grand old manor where the register now is for their area, we returned to their house and had some of Kate’s mum’s delicious cooking, as well as chatting and a bit of dancing. I ended up spending quite a lot of time talking and playing with Kate’s two nephews (5 and 7 years old). They are very considered boys (except when it comes to each other, of course) and they ask wonderful questions. I found myself explaining Kate’s and my relationship to them (i.e. we’re going to be married/civilly partnered). It went something like this:
J: Are you married?
K: No. I’m with your Aunt Kate. We’re going to get married.
J: But you can’t get married. You’re both ladies.
K: Well, we’re going to get something called a civil partnership, which is a lot like getting married.
The older one particularly seemed intrigued by this concept and asked if I was going to be/am a part of the family. Kate’s mum, bless her, says that I already am. I’m very lucky to have landed such wonderful new add-ons to my family. J asked what I was going to be to him and seemed confused with the concept of having two aunts.
On the lighter side, we attempted to play pooh sticks on the bridge in Kate’s mum’s garden, but some of the finer points (throwing the sticks in all at once and doing it on the upstream side) escaped the younger nephew. Still, we had fun throwing sticks, leaves, bark, and so on into the river. We even had a discussion about why pebbles don’t float, which I ended up passing off to Kate as she’s the one with a science background. I did try to explain air being in sticks and people, but J came up with the brilliant idea of putting a hole through a rock. Yeeeeeah, I wasn’t quite sure how to put the argument against that in 7-year-old terms. I should learn to as I work with kids of that age.
The other bit of socializing we’ve done was the next day when two of Kate’s friends came to visit. It was slightly challenging as they were on the Atkins diet (no sugar or carbs) and we normally eat next to no meat. I ended up making salmon that turned out pretty well. They were very nice and we had a relaxing afternoon just chatting about this and that.
The last couple days I’ve been working on wedding invitations for October. I had an idea for them that I really like, but that’s taking a bit of time. The whole wedding thing is feeling a little much at the moment because Kate and I have realized that we’re very short on money and we’re not sure we’ll be able to take a honeymoon as planned. Luckily, because we both have really caring and generous moms, we don’t have to worry about most wedding costs. So it could be miles worse in terms of money woes.
I’m feeling very scattered at the moment and I think I’m going to need to sit down and make a to do list as well as think about my finances. Always a bit depressing…
Anyway, the plan for today is to call the volunteer place, take a bike ride, clean the house a bit, and do some writing for 52 weeks. I think I’m just going to use a bit from the invitations for my 52 weeks visual as it’s taken me so much time.
Oh, I'll leave you with this link to an NPR interview (still having trouble linking with putting the whole URL on the page). It's quite fun.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93022254