Meme

Rules:
1) Copy this quote into your journal.
2) Bold any one you've done.
3) Italicize any one you've not done, but have been trained to do.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Heinlien

ravelry

My life is being sucked up by Ravelry lately. I have TONS of projects planned for after I finish my current project including getting into lace knitting. Anybidy else out there on this awesome site?!?

Relationship Guidelines

So this is what I'm going to do from now on as regards any and all of my relationships. This is not aimed at any one person, nor is it a response to any one happening. these ideas have been evolving for quite a while and it's time.

If I have any sort of relationship with you I care about you and want to keep it that way. I won't be cutting people out of my life haphazardly or defriending in bulk. But I also won't be chasing after anyone's attention/time in any manner any longer.

It's very simple at least conceptually. If you care about me and want me to be a part of your life in whatever manner, you will bloody well make the time to contact or spend time with me regardless of what else is going on in your life (barring death, depression, or other huge trauma).

If I call you and you don't feel like talking, hell I understand. We all go through hermit phases. But I do expect that you'll be the one to initiate the next form of contact whatever that may be. Let me be totally clear- I count email and phone calls, posts and meet up as contacts. Text messages also count though they will not suffice for more than a couple of weeks as primary contact for me.

In the past I have given people chance after chance, called them (and sometimes emailed as well) multiple times before I threw my hands up in the air and said "Well they'll contact me when they want to." From this point on 1 or 2 chances is all there is folks. I can't waste the time and the emotional energy getting anxious about why you won't contact me.

I have also been very forgiving about missed or canceled meet ups, or hearing that someone else has seen you 2-3 times while you haven't contacted me. We all need different people in our lives at different time, and that's fine. But I expect some small degree of reciprocity and people (generally) doing what they say they will.

If, for whatever reason, we fall out of touch I will be quite happy to hear from you again. I won't stop answering the phone or emailing you back. But if this becomes a pattern in our relationship, I will start leaving it more and more up to you to contact me and take control of to what degree you want me in your life. I will endeavor greatly not to take any such distancings personally or to talk to you about it if I am doing so.

I have not always been great about many of these things, partly because of emotional exhaustion brought on by carrying most of the weight in some of my relationships. Hopefully these changes will give me the resources to be a better friend as well.

DAMN the DMV

So, my bday is next week. And in the loverly state of georgia that means that you have to 1) get your emissions checked 2) pay your ad valorem tax and 3) make sure your license isn't going to expire.

Sadly, mine is expiring. Which should be a simple online fix, but no the DMV neglected to send me my renewal paperwork so I can't do it online. And there is no place I can get it done within 10 miles of me. Oh and of course, all of them close at 5 PM so there is no way I can get there on any day I work.

So that leaves me with no option other than to spend several hours going to a "Service Center" to get it renewed tomorrow before I go help a friend pack up thier house.

I really didn't want to get up tomorrow. But Sunday I'm on call for my boss since it's father's day, and they aren't open anyway. I work Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I'm off but it's the only day J and I will have togther anywhere near my bday when I'm not on call. Thursday's the big day and I'm on call from 7 AM Thursday until 8:30 AM Monday. Luckily most of that is practice call, with only 24 hrs of hospital call. So at least I can meet up with some friends that Saturday, albeit with beeper in tow.

Damn the freakinf DMV anyway.

Gas and Consequences

One of the effects high gas preices are having on me is my unwillingness to amke multiple trips into the city unless absolutely necessary. Depending on where exactly I'm going getting into ATL and abck again can be anywhere from a 40-90 mile roundtrip. So I'm combining trips and limiting travel as much as possible, especially since I often have to drive the 30 mile roundtrip to the hospital multiple times per week, even though I plan my days such that I don't have to make a double trip.

This week I've already had a much needed dinner with a friend and a yoga class, so I won't be going to knitting club tonight. Especially since tomorrow will see another trip into town with multiple stops/errands and another meet up with a buddy.