buckets of crazy

Posted last week on CraigsList... if only it weren't in the wrong direction from where I want to be spending more of my time.....

Massage Therapist for Holistic Medical Center (Worcester)


We are a growing integrated holistic medical center and our massage practice is expanding. We are looking for another massage therapist to help meet this demand, as well as work to bring in more clientele to build their volume. Therapist would be an independent contractor – commission basis, and no rent to be paid.

We currently offer acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, nutrition and sports medicine. All of our practitioners meet weekly for a round table discussion to determine the best course of treatment for each individual. If you are a people person, don't like the isolation of working alone and you love working on teams - this is an exciting way to practice!

Set your own hours, fairly flexible. Great opportunity to start off with a busy schedule. Looking for someone energetic and motivated - being a team player is a MUST!

Interviews will be conducted over the next couple weeks. If interested, please respond via email and we will contact you shortly. Thanks so much!

Have finished torturing my cats for the year day. Vet this morning. Both look good and healthy, nice coats, good teeth. Got rabies and distemper shots. Kaylee is 11.0 lbs, Mal is 15.6 lbs, both about the same as last year. The vet was fantastic. Definitely my favourite vet of all. He was gentle and firm with them, personable, and they were very well behaved. (Dr. David Tubman at Cambridge Veterinary, for those interested.) They are, of course, both ticked at me, but very healthy and that is good.

Also, I might get to do an externship there, doing massage work on the staff. They sounded pretty enthused by the idea. Yay :)

And now for 2009 Year in Review: (first sentence/bit of first post each month)

January (1): I wound up getting to go up to the party at the Castle last night, even though I didn't think I'd manage due to snow.

February (1): I am so tired. Apparently I'm not really sleeping again, though at least I am sleeping a little.

March (1): You ever feel like a day was made just for you? I woke up yesterday morning and stretched across the bed, found a kitten sleeping on either side of me.

April (2): April Fool's Day: best day to officially start a relationship ever.

May (6): Apparently when I have some things in my life that are going really well and I feel satisfied with, the unsatisfying bits show up with more glaring contrast.

June (5): Terrible horrible no good very bad dreams all morning. Dreamt it was snowing; I was angry that it is a week before my birthday and snowing and I'm supposed to leave.

July (20 - not writing much, apparently): OMG, my artwork is for sale in Cambridge Naturals in Porter Square!!! A real shop with real walls and floors and PEOPLE.

August (3): Hello, world. I am, I think, off the no-sugar diet for now. Yesterday I ordered the cake for my party and wound up with an ice cream cone.

September (3): Oh, things and stuff. I went to see a naturopathic doctor yesterday.

October (5): I've been writing a little about my experiments in not eating gluten, and how much better I feel. It is not 100%, but it is a huge difference.

November (Uhh, I didn't post at ALL in November) ... here's Oct 30: I have been on a complete purging and reorganizing binge.

December (1): *sigh* Do you ever have days where it just feels like, if there is a god, it really really hates you?


Holy crow, I need to write more. Whoops.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Had sex with a boy. Maintained a healthy relationship. Didn't go home for Thanksgiving. Took out student loans. Baked bread. Went on a strict diet. Got my artwork in a shop. Broke a bone.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My Resolution Revolution words this year were explore and center. I'm not sure how well I did, really. Most of my plans and plots for the year were thrown off by uncontrollable circumstances (stupid illness).

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
nope.

5. What countries did you visit?
None. Not even any new states. Barely any old states.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Health. A home. A solid career, though that'll wait 'til school is done, I suppose, so how about prospects. (To know what the heck I'm doing.) More visiting with friends.

7. What dates from 2009 will be forever etched in your memory?
Feb 19. April 1.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Oh goodness. This is an incredibly hard question. Probably deciding to go to school.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not being ready for the holiday season, business-wise. Even though it's because I got so sick, I still feel like it's a huge failure; last year I promised myself I'd be ready for it this year.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sorry. Just. Yeah. In 3 months I went from being able to pick up and bike 30 miles for the hell of it to not being able to walk the half mile downhill to the T without feeling dead. Stupid fucking gluten. Also, still healing from breaking my left foot falling down the stairs the week of Thanksgiving.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My computer? School, I hope... I already paid for the first semester.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Anthony. For so many reasons. But mostly for being such a help as I've been so sick, for being almost-constant support, for being solid and letting me feel so much more centered and secure. Some of my housemates for helping out when I'm sick and broken. Sylvia, Kori and Jess for taking care of my broken foot-ness, too.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My doctor. My digestive system. Anthony, for driving me bonkers. :p Mine, often.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Let's see. The money I don't have went to school. The money I did have went to rent and weird food to try and compensate for allergies. My computer was my biggest purchase of the year, but man did I buy a lot of weird flours.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Remembering how to make friends. Teaching. Anthony. Getting my artwork into a shop. Getting my own press. Baking stuff without normal ingredients.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
This Is Everything - Tegan & Sara - Under Feet Like Ours

a handful of mostly a cappella songs from that playlist of Anthony's
(ie Transit's version of Hide and Seek)


17. Compared to this time last year are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier, for sure.
ii. thinner or fatter? oh god, fatter.
iii. richer or poorer? the same.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Artwork. Keeping in touch and seeing friends.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being sick. Feeling sorry for myself.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent Christmas at my parents', as usual. This year was a bit rough, what with my food issues. But I made out like a bandit.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? Yes, yes I did.

22. How many one-night stands? Okay, so, I don't really *do* one-night stands.

23. What was your favorite TV program? Dr. Who

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Again: I don't think I've had reason to hate anyone this year. I'm not so big on hating.

25. What was the best book you read? Hmmmmm. I didn't manage to catalogue my reading this year. What on earth did I read? Right now I'm working on the Outlander series again, which is always delicious. I know I read a bunch, I'm just mostly blanking right now.

Ooh, I know. Gluten-Free Girl by Shauna Ahern has really helped me out with feeling better about food crap.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Hmm. Lately I've been listening to a lot of a cappella.

27. What did you want to do and get?
Bought my own printing press! Got a kitchenaid stand mixer for Christmas.

28. What did you want and not get?
Time visiting far-away friends. A solid etsy niche for my artwork, and a better work ethic for it, too.

29. What was your favorite film of this year? Coraline (3D) or Up

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 26, though I think I'm stuck in my head at 25. I was recently home from Spring; I think I spent it with Anthony.

31. What one thing would have made your year more satisfying? Being able to eat proper food/not being sick from food/not being allergic to gluten.

32. How would you describe your fashion concept in 2009? Actually trying to look like a girl sometimes. Sweaters, this winter. Long socks, as usual.

33. What kept you sane? Anthony. My cats. Talking to Laura. Yoga, but I sure didn't do enough of it. Bike rides. Storytime.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
David Tennant.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Um. Head in sand, all them folks denying gay marriage suck.

36. What is one thing you would go back and re-do if you could? I doubt I'd have any control over it the second time around, but can we please quit this food allergy crap?

37. Who was the best new person you met? Hm. Cera's fun at work.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
I can't do everything by myself. But I can do a lot, when I put my mind to it.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Can I come back to this question?


Hoo boy. It has both been an incredibly long and very quick year. The biggest things in it have been Anthony and my health, with a few other points of interest throughout.

(Aaaand, previous years' for comparison..... the tag goes back to 2004.)

I have been on a complete purging and reorganizing binge. So far I have:
-Cleaned out my clothes and gotten rid of everything (okay, made a pile and eventually put it in bags to go away) that doesn't fit or has too many holes or I don't really wear or I *shouldn't* really wear (oh, favourite ugly shirt, I will miss you).
-Rearranged my entire room. Again. It looks bigger this way. And there was so much fur under stuff.
-Cleaned out my closet of crap and started using the 46 bazillion shoe boxes that have collected for storage actually for storage, and thus moved some rarely-used stuff under the bed... and found space for my yarn and fabric in the closet, with a shelf (so far) to spare.

It is unclear whether or not any of this has to do with the fever of doom.

Unfortunately, it seems, all I have left to clean is one set of shelves that has accumulated crap and (dun dun dunnnnn) The Desk, and it's companion shelves. The Desk (dun dun dunnnnn) has been left to last, because it is absolutely a horror show. *sigh* Here goes nothing, I guess.... can't be worse than waking up screaming from nightmares, right?



ETA: Also, stretching = amazing. I need to do that more often. :D

Today, I choose joy. Thank you everyone who commented on my last post. Between here and facebook, I've gotten a bunch of ideas and so much love and support. I'll get back to individual comments in a bit. I am so blessed to have you guys. So. Blessed.


Who is on their own this Thanksgiving? I was thinking, I'm not going to be able to eat anything my family makes, and if I were just avoiding gluten, I could easily go to Anthony's family's dinner, but adding dairy and eggs is just kind of a crazy pain in the butt to have anyone deal with.

BUT. On my walk home today, I invented several recipes that would make a tasty Thanksgiving dinner. So maybe I'll do my own? ...If there are people to join me.

So far I'm thinking of:

Black Forest (pine) honey glazed carrots
green beans and pine nuts sauteed in fancy olive oil
roasted butternut squash with maple salt/pepper/something
coconut milk red mashed potatoes
cranberry pomegranate turkey/cornish game hens

And something delicious for dessert. Something involving pumpkin. And something involving apples. (I haven't gotten quite that far yet.)

OMG, my artwork is for sale in Cambridge Naturals in Porter Square!!! A real shop with real walls and floors and PEOPLE.

It's on a consignment basis for now, but if they sell well, they'll buy them outright.

I'll make cookies for the first five people who go in there and buy something I made. Go go go!

Sometimes, I wake up kinda cranky and bleh for no reason and the day just doesn't seem to be working, but then all of a sudden I am overwhelmed with love for my friends and the world and everything. Bowled over by the beauty. Struck with a zillion ideas of art to make, how to make the world better, plots and schemes, ideas and dreams.

♥ ♥ &hearts, you guys make the world go 'round. Really.

bwahaha. soon the aardvark will have a friend--the giraffe.

also, the front bits of my hair are vaguely purple.

Hey guyyyyys! Guess what! I opened up my etsy shop today! Go look at the pretty things! Tell people to buy them!

So, a few folks on my flist do this really cool Day in the Life thing, where they take pictures to tell the story of their day. Since today was kind of a special day, I thought I'd give it a shot. It is so not dial-up friendly.

( my day in pictures )