I was thinking I was going to be a nanny/governess since I went to school for three months for it. But at this point, that's looking rather unlikely really.
So here I am again!
I'm "home" in Iowa. I would say with my parents, but they're actually flying here or driving. I'm a little confused on their schedule.
At anyrate, dad had an eye conference in California and mom went with him.
So all weekend it's been me and the dog. And what a weekend it was. It really wasn't all that exciting.
I was rather certain that someone would break in and kill us both, but thankfully, I was wrong. Yay.
I did learn that Pico can fall asleep while sitting up, and I learned how to drive to the library. I almost found starbucks too, but it was hidden inside Target, and I wasn't aware of that till after I got home and looked it up again.
I found some books at the library, including Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin. I read a trilogy he wrote for youth while at Nanny school because it was illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg on whom I was writing a report. They were pretty good. Helprin would come to Hillsdale and teach creative writing classes and do lectures and things. I never actually made it to them, which I always regretted, but the connection through Hillsdale made me interested in his books.
Freddy and Frederika is quite good so far. It seems to defy description so far other than being a very long book (550 pages) with very ridiculous situations involving the fictional prince and princess of Wales. It's been quite funny so far, but it wasn't really what I expected after the Swan Lake trilogy I read or what I would have thought it would be considering the Hillsdale connection.
I've been knitting too. It's a lot of fun, but I mostly rip it all out and start over because of tinsy little mistakes. Actually it's rather exasperating. I don't know where the mistakes come from and I'm so very careful, and the more careful I am the further I get before some mistake sprouts out of the middle somewhere and I have no idea how to fix it or go back without ripping it all out and starting over.
But here comes the wonders of a library---I looked up knitting on the library catalog and found a book all about how to fix knitting mistakes without ripping them out. The only foreseeable problem I'm facing right now is I don't know how the mistake came about so I'm not sure what fix to use. But with any luck I'll figure that all out and avoid knitting the same project for the rest of my life.
Lately I've decided that maybe I have a problem with follow through. I have about twelve-hundred books started (well probably more like 50) and three times that amount of crafts and at least 4 instruments that I've been intending to learn for the past 10 years or so. Maybe this is just part of being human, but it's really bothering me. The problem is, everything takes a long time, and I think as a modern human I want everything to be done as fast as I think of doing it. As soon as I think it would be nice to read Anna Karenina I want it finished after a nice half an hour of reading. And when it's not I move on to the next book on the list anyway. And it's the same with everything else. When I pick up my mandolin I want to be proficient and when I'm not I get annoyed because I have no idea how to get there and so I put it away and listen to Chris Thile instead.
Because of this I'm bent on learning some things well. I'm not sure what they are. I'm going to finish my knitting project. I know that one. And I want to learn how to play the mandolin, piano, and guitar. But I think that might being biting off a bit much, which means mandolin will probably win because it's mine and it's portable. And I want to finish a lot of books, both ones that I have and haven't yet started. Which means that I think generally I'm going to have to find a way to be more efficient with my free time so that I can accomplish all this.
I've found that lists help me a lot. I love crossing things off lists. I have to break everything down so that I get to cross of things often otherwise I get annoyed and give up, but I think it's a start.
Speaking of which, I need to go transfer laundry and fold the dry stuff...which is on my list :-)
Jessica
