The Results Are In

I made it into the writing workshop! Last night was the first of twelve classes, and it was everything I had hoped it would be. I got the email on Sunday morning that I was selected for the class. I felt a flood of emotions as I read it – relief, excitement, hope. I think it’s going to be great.

I spent some time yesterday poking around on the school’s website and looking at their MFA in creative writing program. It would take at least two years to complete and would cost a decent amount of money, but every time I think about applying, I feel giddy. I think we’ll see how this workshop goes first. Applications aren’t due until February.

I can’t remember exactly what I was doing yesterday, but I started thinking about things happening and opportunities arising. Some time ago I wrote about why things happen and how we go about choosing our paths in life. I reread those posts and was reminded how relevant they still are. I was thinking about the recent job interview, inflated hope, and devastation when I didn’t get the job. I was ready to move. I was ready to start over.  I was so desperate for these things that I thought I was ready to sell my soul to the legal profession for a pittance of 2000 billable hours a year…forever.

I now know that getting offered the job is not what was best for me. While my husband and I want to move to a city with more opportunity, diversity and culture, I don’t want to do it if the cost is being a lawyer for the rest of my life. I also recognize that had I gotten the job, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be in this writing workshop. I would have read that tweet and scrolled on right past it. But I didn’t. I stopped, I looked up the information, and then I wrote. And I’m still writing. And, I have never been so grateful to receive a rejection letter.

So, do I still think things happen for a reason? Yes, and now I’m even more convinced that is true.

The Soothing Click of The Needles

About a year ago I was searching for  new hobby – something creative, something I could do with my hands.  I like to cross-stitch, but in all honesty, I don’t really like to display any of my cross-stitch work in my house.  It just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the decor.  I will hang Christmas ornaments, but I only need so many.  I was looking for a similar hobby and decided on knitting.  I have a number of friends who knit, and while it looked very complex, they make the coolest things (including sweaters for baby goats!).  I figured surely I could learn this craft with a good instruction book.  I asked for beginner tools for Christmas.

For the time being, my husband and I exchange our gifts to each other before Christmas.  This particular year we were quite a few days in advance of the actual holiday (it was also the day he proposed!), so I could learn how to knit during the few days I was going to be off work (or so I thought).  I started reading my beginner book.  I was immediately confused.  I got out my yarn and my needles.  I read the section about casting on over and over.  I tried it.  It didn’t work.  Finally, I got out the computer and Googled it.  Apparently, when it comes to knitting, I am a visual learner.

I figured out casting on, and tried to actually knit.  Oh, the frustration!  I had to Google that too.  I had to watch the video a few times, slow it down, but I got it.  Part of the issue was that I am left-handed and my book made no accommodations for that.  Pretty soon I was knitting away at my first scarf.  In the first year of my hobby, I have created multiple scarfs with different types of stitches, a shawl, dish cloths, a purse (well, I knitted all the pieces, I have yet to stitch them together), and a sleeveless shell.  I have worn it – once – but it is very misshapen.  After that, I figured I should get some professional help before I made another garment.

I am now taking a class to make a cardigan.  It is fun seeing it come together.  I am learning quite a bit, and should have considered a class long before now.  I still consider myself a beginner.  I knit nowhere near as fast as my friends, and I have to watch what I am doing.  I’m not one that can do it just be feel yet.  While it was frustrating getting started, I now find it very relaxing, and enjoy listening to the clickety-clack of the knitting needles (I am currently a fan of circular bamboo needles – although I have not actually knitted in the round).

I am enjoying the knitting class, and it’s interesting to gauge everyone’s experience level (pun intended).  A more advanced class takes place at the same time as our beginner class, and the people in that room are chatting away the entire time.  Our group, on the other hand, is much more subdued.  There is some talking, but I have noticed that the knitting slows down.  Overall, I have been pleased with my hobby choice.  I hope that after a few years I am able to make more intricate projects.  It is pretty cool to wear something that you made yourself.  Maybe I should consider dusting off my sewing machine, too.

Ice Storm 2011 – Day 2

Day 2 of the worst ice storm in decades – or so they say.  The freezing rain continued to come down until late evening yesterday, with the wind blowing like crazy.  Another inch of snow was supposed to fall overnight, but when I got up this morning nothing had fallen.  The top crust of ice was still solid.  The dog walked all around the yard without making a paw print.  She even slipped trying to jump up onto one of the benches built into our deck.  It was so slick that her claws provided no traction.

Despite all of the icy rain, the tree branches and bushes were not coated like I expected them to be.  I was expecting to wake up this morning to a fantastic winter wonderland that I could spend the day photographing.  That was not the case.  In fact, I slipped down the front steps and totally flat on my side trying to clear the ice for the mail lady.  Luckily I was not hurt (just my pride – who knows who was watching me out their front windows!), but after that I figured my camera and I should stay safely on dry ground. 

The back yard was a little safe, and I did manage to get another picture of my neighbor’s butterfly bush.  I don’t know its scientific name (I am terrible with plants, trees, flowers, etc. – both with identification and growing) but I know that it specifically attracts butterflies.  And it did attract some beautiful specimens this summer.  Here is the bush yesterday: 

I feel like you can see the ice more prominently in yesterday’s photo.

 

And here is the bush today (below).  It doesn’t look like there is much more ice, but it obviously is weighed down quite a bit more.  Surprisingly we did not lose power, although the winds did wake me up a couple of times during the night.  During the late summer we cleared out a bunch of overgrown bushes and half-dead trees that were handing right over the house.  All of that hard, sweaty work was definitely worth it.  Who knows what would have happened otherwise.

Today was not quite as productive from a working standpoint, but definitely from a personal standpoint.  I started out the morning making blueberry-vanilla scones.  I finally hand-washed all of my sweaters.  There were six of them, all Ann Taylor LOFT.  I have hand washing sweaters even more than ironing.  However, it will seem like I have a whole new wardrobe once they dry.

Unfortunately, I think the dangerous weather has passed and I will have to return to work tomorrow.  I have been reading Facebook posts all day where people have been complaining about going stir crazy or looking forward to returning to work or school.  Not me.  I could work from home every day.  Don’t get me wrong.  I would prefer to be able to leave my house without wiping out, but I could definitely spend the majority of my days at home.  Without the stress of the office, I have all but written three more posts.  My creativity was flowing seemingly without effort.  Work stifles me.

Since it is officially a “school night”, I suppose it’s time to wrap this up and think about easing towards the bedtime routine.  Surely I can survive just two more days of work…

Creative Minds Want to Know

I sat down about 45 minutes ago to start writing.  My husband is working late, so I wanted to get all of my blogging out of the way before he got home (so that he could actually use the computer this evening).  But I started looking at some of the blogs I subscribe to, checked out the blogs of people who had left comments on those blogs, and before I knew it I was engrossed in so many witty and insightful posts.  There are so many talented writers out there.

I have been thinking about this post for a while, and reading other people’s posts was a great way to get the words flowing.  I believe that everyone who undertakes the challenge of writing a blog would, on some level, describe themselves as creative.  It doesn’t matter what you write about – your life, video games, food, computer software, etc. – you must have some creativity to make your writings relevant and interesting.

I started wondering how other bloggers found their creativity, how it developed and was fostered.  I have always considered myself to be creative, and then I started wondering why that was.  How did I find my creativity?  I am certain that it had to do with my parents.   I have always loved books, and their ability to take me to places I would never have otherwise known.  Before I could read, I would look at the pictures in books and make up stories to go along with them.  My mom likes to tell people how I was talkative and outgoing at a young age, how I liked to make things up.  She and my dad encouraged that behavior.  Without that encouragement, who knows how I would have turned out.

I think creativity is something that has to be exercised on a regular basis.  While I have always described myself as creative, about a year or so ago I realized that I really wasn’t exercising my creative muscles.  I stopped to think about the last time I had created something, and I couldn’t remember.  I had become so consumed with my job misery that I wasn’t using my free time to do anything that I loved.  As a result, I was losing my creative edge.  The one thing I felt set me apart from other boring lawyers, and it was slipping away!

I thought then about starting a blog, but I was too scared.  So, I just starting writing down thoughts in a notebook (I still have them), and tried to focus on positive things that happened during each day.  I started taking more pictures (although at the time I still had my small point-and-shoot).  I learned how to knit.  I bought some fabric to make curtains for our kitchen nook windows (unfortunately that project fell by the wayside and the fabric is still sitting upstairs next to the sewing machine…oh, well, the windows aren’t going anywhere).

I started to feel better about my creative muscles after that.  It felt good to point to something and say, “I did that.  That was me.”  Then I got my new DSLR camera, started my photo blog, and eventually started this blog.  Strangely, I do feel better, happier, more at peace, when I set aside part of the day to create something.  Some days it is hard to find the time, I feel rushed, and end up feeling like I have not put forth my best work.  But at least I did something, and I can be proud about that.

Just out of curiosity, do you have a specific memory of realizing you were a creative mind?  What do you do to exercise your creativity?  Other creative minds want to know…