Pamming About

Still Here?

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 00:25:00 +0000

Wow. This blog still exists long after I abandoned it. I was pruning my bookmarks list, the bookmark list itself being a quaint idea, when I can across links to all the blogs I used to read daily. To my surprise and joy, some people have kept on keeping on, like Bob at Pure Land Mountain and Shannon at Tonari no Shibafu. You guys make me feel like a quitter. Which is fair because I am one. I moved along to "social media platforms" like Facebook and Instagram. I miss writing. Now I do more curating. So many things have changed and some have not. Maybe I'll stop by here more often.

Unbelievable

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:30:00 +0000

I used to work with Craig and would sometimes go out with him for beers. He wasn't married back then. His story is heartbreaking.

Can Dogs be Agoraphobic?

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:59:00 +0000

I think my dog is.

Best summer snacking is found in my backyard.

Sure summer, get all nice and perfect right before I'm heading off to Japan where everyone is telling me it's crazy hot and humid.

That is all.

Holding Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:01:00 +0000

So, late tomorrow night (tonight I suppose, but in reality early Friday morning) my girl is starting off on her journey to Japan with her dad for most of the month. It's kind of freaking me out. (Kind of might be an understatement.) She is going with her father and staying with her grandparents and rationally I understand that it's highly likely that everything will be fine, but the non-rational part of me is not happy that my only baby is going to be so far away from me on the other side of the planet. I'm not handling it particularly well and I'm afraid I'm going to eventually turn into one of those wacky basketcase empty-nest moms when she finishes high school and leaves for college.
When I was going through the divorce I was really afraid my ex might try to take her back to Japan, in which case I would have been screwed because Japan basically condones parental kidnapping by Japanese parents. (See here if you really want to get into). It obviously didn't happen but it was a huge fear of mine for a long time. My girl is no longer the compliant little buttercup she used to be. She's about to become a high school freshman and has that "kicking ass and taking names" attitude some kids develop at that age. (It can lead to recklessness, but it can also lead to not taking anyone else's shit, which I think is good in this situation.) I'm pretty sure one within one day her grandparents will start lamenting that she will have to leave them at the end of the month and they will do that emotional pressure thing they are so skillful at, where you feel like you should sacrifice your own interests because they're old and will be sad. (Well, I got sucked into that whole thing WAY more than I ever should have, but maybe that is just me.) I've made sure the girl has the information she needs to get help from me and several other people she can count on, if it comes to that. I'm even going to be in Japan myself for about half the time she is there. And yet, I'm still holding on to something that keeps me a twitch away from breaking into tears at any moment.
I'm mostly trying to cope by incessant internet surfing, watching stupid tv and knitting. (Kind of like a self-induced stupor without substances.) I break that up with yoga, trips to the gym and walking the dog. I feel better if I don't talk much and my appetite is pretty much shot, but that's good because it's helped me drop about 3 pounds and if I drop a couple more before I go then I will have reached the high side of an "acceptable" weight versus the actual weight I have weighed since about last summer, which is 5-10 pounds on the unacceptable side. (And which is not even all that terrible or health-threatening or anything. I just don't like those numbers.)
So, now that I've shared probably too much info, I guess I can go to bed. I think I've been staying up so late because it lets me sleep in later in the morning. This stupid wet, gloomy, sunless weather isn't helping me much either.

Work Stress + Sore Neck=Poetry?

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:24:00 +0000

It's easy to admire the girl from afar
seeming so deep with her angst and guitar
Her anguish illuminates your eyes
You hope your support will advise
the continuity of her art
Although another way to read her is
self absorbed and shallow heart
if it makes you feel attached to her dim orb
you put your attentions in the abstract
and not where you are

---

It's easier to love the idea of someone
than to actually love someone.
It's easy to admire their differences
when you don't have to live with them.
The grass is always greener
when you don't have to mow it.
The bird in the bush is prettier
than the one on the carving board.
But the one on the carving board feeds you.

Proposition

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:01:00 +0000

I was reminded that it was time for me to write my monthly blog post. Seems to be about the pace I'm keeping these days. And just to show what a yarn/knitting slut I can really be, I am propositioning anyone who still reads this to complete some random stranger's (but she's a knitter, so how bad can she be?) survey and then leave me a comment (or an email if you have that info) with the random number you selected and the sex/gender you entered so I can steal your effort and get myself better odds at winning Ravelry swag.
Of course, if you want your own Ravelry swag just take your own info and email it to her and steal my lock on the prizes. If this is all nonsense to you, just go take the survey and let me know your secret random number. Please.

Why All This Connectedness Doesn't Suck

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:10:00 +0000

I'll admit this blog is one of many that has fallen by the wayside as the latest wave of social networking sites has occupied my attention. Is that good? Is it bad? I'll reserve the value judgments for now.
One thing I can tell you that is good is that I can probably attribute a totally unanticipated 30 minute phone call this morning with one of my best friends from college who lives on the other side of the world to all the new fangled sns sites. He got me to join Twitter last month, which gives me a window onto his day to day doings. We were both logged into Gmail chat this morning and started chatting, which led to him asking if he could call so we could talk, which is a hell of a lot more efficient and fun than chatting online anyway. With really good friends the catching up part really never matters that much anyway, but at least the new networking options help us stay caught up.

Oh Gee. This Is Like..Shocking

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:45:00 +0000

Your Word is "Think"

You see life as an amazing mix of possibilities, ideas, and fascinations.

And sometimes you feel like you don't have enough time to take it all in.

You love learning. Whether you're in school or not, you're probably immersed in several subjects right now.

When you're not learning, you're busy reflecting. You think a lot about the people you know and the things you've experienced.

What's Your Word?

I'm so suprised...not.

For Knitters Only

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:55:00 +0000

If thrums are supposed to be a "gateway drug" to spinning, I think I am in no danger of developing a spinning addiction. Making thrums is a pain in the ass.

At Last

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:32:00 +0000

What a day.

Just before she went to bed my daughter told me, "I feel so safe now that Obama is president."

I like that she feels safe. I feel a little safer too, but I know there are still many hardships for this country to overcome.

I was teaching the first Intro to Japanese Culture class of the semester today from 11 to 12:30 and I took the class into the language lab next door to watch the swearing in and the new President's speech. As we embark on a semester of learning about another country's culture it seemed important that we experience this huge change happening in our own and to see where we stand at this moment in time and what we stand for. I wouldn't understand half as much about myself and my culture as I do now if I hadn't spent so many years abroad. Sometimes you need a foil to see what it usually as invisible as air.

I feel like I learned a lot today about who we are as a country and how we are beginning to succeed in taking it back and making it for everyone. The President quoted George Washington about faith and virtue. Seems like it's high time for a return to virtue.

Yay!

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:20:00 +0000

"Awwwwww!!" enthused the girl. "He's wearing the hat you made him for Christmas! That's so cute!"

So said my girl as we drove home from school and she spied my 13-year old nephew walking down the street with a bunch of friends on this cold sunny afternoon wearing the hat I knitted for him for Christmas. He did look cute in it and I was happy to see that I had made the right choice for his hat.

Diversity in New England?

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:12:00 +0000

I decided to stop dropping too much money on mall store bras that cost too much and don't really fit or spending 3 hours trying on every bra in Macy's and then finally grabbing a couple of things that will suffice because I can't bear to leave empty handed after all that time invested. There's a nice little boutique in the area that advertises its bra-fitting expertise, so I decided to suck it up and go get myself some undergarments that will do the job, and do it well.

Friday morning seemed like a safe time to make a visit. Probably wouldn't be too busy or anything, I figured. I made my way down the treacherously icy sidewalks of Exeter and walked into the shop to find an old guy with a balding pate and a long white ponytail who appeared to be wearing quite a bit of makeup chatting with the pretty blonde sales clerk as he made his purchases. Since my whole purpose to be there was to get a proper fitting I just killed time poking through the racks of merchandise while this guy continued on with whatever it was he was talking about. After about five minutes he left and the clerk came over to me, very flustered. I really wasn't phased by the old dude buying himself expensive lingerie, but the poor woman who worked there was a little shaken up. She was really cute and gave me a hug and apologized when she found out it was my first time to visit the store. I've seen all kinds of stuff and thought it was pretty interesting to see that type of diversity in a conservative little New England town.

(I also got some very nice items that fit and look kind of fabulous. It's part of my ritual to psych myself up for the end of my winter hybernation and my reappearance at the head of the classroom in a week.)

Day on the Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:22:00 +0000

Aside from the blisters(!?) on my inner shins, skiing was a blast. First time to go in 10 years and everything was fine. I started by taking a group lesson, which helped alleviate the fear of so much time passed. Quite a bit has changed as far as lodge buildings and new lifts, but I still remember that mountain pretty well. I skied there nearly every weekend as a kid. As soon as my lesson ended I jumped on the super quad and headed for the summit because I knew some of my favorite runs came down off of there. There were some icy patches, but nothing that spoiled a run or ever made me feel I was in over my head.

The Girl and her friend had a 2-hour lesson and spent the rest of the day diligently and adorably trudging up the bunny slope and gliding back down. That left me with nothing else to do but enjoy the mountain and the day with its the wild weather, which went from sunny to blizzardy and back with clouds whipping across the sky and the sun a glowing moon-like disk behind them.

It was a great pay off from a last minute decision. I plan to get back out there a few more times this season.

Back in the Saddle?

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:14:00 +0000

I got a generous Hanukah gift from my Dad and decided it is now feasible to take The Girl to Gunstock to learn how to snowboard. My plan was to take The Girl and a friend to do the newbie snowboarders' program and I would do something mellow, like taking a newbie x-country skier lesson. I called the Nordic Center to ask for details about the program and was told that the warm spell we just had has basically wiped out their snow base. That leaves me with a choice of sitting in the lodge all day, exploring the Laconia area (not all the exciting) or getting myself back on the skis for downhill action. (Suppose a newbie snowboarding lesson is a possiblity, but I tried that years and years ago and I spent most of my time falling down and getting up again. I have better odds of enjoying myself with skis.) The mountain offers a deal that includes an all-day lift ticket, equipment rental and a 1-hour group lessons for $95. It's kind of last minute for me to decide that I'm going to do this after a ten year gap, but I grew up skiing Gunstock every single weekend and I know there are nice gentle runs that I can stick to and be the pokey little skier I am.

R.I.P.

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Wow. I just read that Ijima Ai was found dead in her apartment. I was never a big fan of hers, but I did admire how she came from her rough start as a porn actress to become a published writer and mainstream tv personality. She was a lot less dumb than so many of her counterparts.

Holiday Hell

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 01:11:00 +0000

I lived it this evening. It actually took one hour to get out of the parking lot of the Fox Run Mall because the traffic was so insane. Why in the world was I at the mall 3 days before Christmas at the end of the business day? Because The Girl needed to buy presents for her friends. It was a little bit bad getting into the mall around 3:30. It was insanity trying to get out an hour later.

And somehow, I seem to find myself in that position every year because I think, "Oh, it's early enough in the day for me to just run in and get that little whatever it is I need to pick up without too much trouble." It's like a roach motel. Easy to get into and impossible to escape!

Christmas Crunch

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:18:00 +0000

I thought I had it all under control when it came to knitting Christmas presents this year. I started before Thanksgiving and had a few gifts done even before December rolled around. And yet, here it is, less than a week before Christmas and I have four projects that need to be finished. It's not impossible to finish them all in time, but it would help a lot if I stopped wasting hours doing things the wrong way and then re-doing them the right way. That would definitely help.

Ice Out!

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:42:00 +0000

An ice storm came through on Thursday night that left us without electricity for a day and a half. I don't recall the storm seeming overly stormy and the next day it got sunny and things started melting, but the power didn't come back on. Luckily the Boyfriend is pretty magnificent when it comes to winter and survival. He had a fire going in the fireplace starting on Friday morning that kept us warm until we got power back this afternoon (Saturday). He also knew where to find the flashlights, candles and camping lanterns that kept us from being totally in the dark.

He also recently purchased a solar/USB/ hand crank-powered combination radio and flashlight that let us get some news from the outside world. That's how we learned that about 300,000 of PSNH's 500,000 customer's were without power. The worst outages ever here in New Hampshire.

I spent most of Friday moving from knitting to reading to playing my new DS game.

By the afternoon I was getting stir crazy and it was nice out, so I decided to venture out in search of coffee. I stopped by my sister's house, which also had no power, and tried to call my mom, but her phone service was knocked out. A drive through town revealed that some neighborhoods and businesses had full power and were open and packed.

Once the sun set it got cold and we ended up sleeping in the living room, near the fireplace.

Saturday morning and we still had no power. I hung out for a while, but was getting really irritated at this no electricity thing. The charge on my cell phone had died overnight and I had no way to charge it and no way to get in touch with anyone, so I went out in search of a mobile charger that would work in my car. It looked like everything along Central Ave and all the big box stores in the neighboring town were open for business. At my fourth store I finally found a charger to work with my phone. I plugged it in and drove around a bit (after waiting in a drive-through line at Dunkin Donuts for some coffee) and finally was able to call my girl, who was at her dad's house that had never lost power through this whole ordeal. I was supposed to get her at noon, but couldn't even call her until 12:30 (there are no more pay phones anywhere!) and when I got a hold of her, I advised she stay there until I got power back at my house.

Once I got back home Boyfriend and I decided we would finally see what we could salvage from the fridge and freezer. It was a nice chance to clean them out, actually. Just as he carried the big cooler out onto the deck, the power came back on. Obviously we should have put all that stuff into the cooler last night because if we had, the power would have come back on then.

I went and got my girl, came home and took a shower and am now enjoying being clean, warm, and having access to all things electrical. One interesting thing about these winter weather events is that you get a chance to appreciate how it feels to be home with your people without any of the usual distractions. (On the flip side, I suppose that could be an uncomfortable scenario for some folks.) We were quiet, but I thought it was kind of nice and cozy.

I'm Back...?

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:58:00 +0000

Holy crap. A whole month? Really?

I can look at this a few ways. I'm not spending much time blogging because I am spending more time participating in my life rather than analyzing it. That's not so bad.

Or I'm uninspired to write. That's kind of true, too, but not in a bad way. Just in a "I don't really feel like it now" way.

Maybe it's just that life is pretty good these days and I'm content. And contentment does not inspire me to blog. But that's not a bad thing.

My Election Day Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:36:00 +0000

I was a poll checker for the NH Democratic Party in my ward this afternoon. I figured in the polling place, away from any "electioneering", the tv and the internet was the sanest place for me to be. The turnout seemed very high. The majority of names on all the pages of the poll books I saw were checked off as having voted either in person or by absentee. There seemed to be as many new voters registering and voting as there were registered voters casting their ballots.
I voted at around 7:30 this morning, which seemed to be late enough to miss the early morning opening time rush. I was at the polls from about 2:45 pm to almost 7 pm. I was expecting to see a late afternoon rush, but I think it was busier from 3 to 5 than it was from 5 to 7. I think everyone was expecting to encounter long lines and decided to vote early. There weren't really any appreciable lines the entire time I was there. It got busy, but the polling place was run very efficiently. I liked being there. In future elections I think I'd like to work as a poll worker rather than a partisan participant. It was cool to see the wide variety of folks coming out to participate in our democracy.

It's Finally Here

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:53:00 +0000

After I got out of the shower this morning a song popped into my head. I'm full of cautious optimism at the moment since I already went to cast my vote. And yet...

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
--- The Who

Secretary of Suck

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:49:00 +0000

I recently read somewhere that NH's official state voter information website was ranked last of all 50 states. I'd say that's about right. They don't even have the proper poll hours or voting locations listed for my town. I called the Secretary of State a couple of minutes ago to ask if the information on their site was correct because I had read something different on my town's website. The reply I got from the SOS was that, if indeed the voting hours and a polling location were not as stated on the SOS website, it was my town's fault for not informing the SOS of the new information. To follow up on this I just called the Dover City Clerk's office and reconfirmed the information on their website and also told the woman that the SOS website had old info and told me it was Dover's fault for not letting them know the current info. The woman told me they informed the SOS of the changes after the primary in January and that she would call them about it again.
What kind of nonsense is this when the state agency in charge of elections has a website with an election news page reporting 2004 and 2006 results and and an Elections Division page that looks like someone composed it with the wysisyg editor from Netscape Navigator. So much for the "high tech" state of New Hampshire.
I know it's late in the game to get anything done about this, but if you have an extra moment give the state Election Division folks a call at 603-271-3242 and ask them about the accuracy of the information contained on their site. Maybe they'll do something about if before the next elections roll around.

22 Hours Until It Starts!

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:54:00 +0000

I can't wait for Election Day to start and end already. I've been trying to think about what to obsess about next. It will probably be about knitting up holiday presents and whether or not Pierce Law will actually merge with UNH thus allowing me to actually consider going for a law degree without plunging myself into serious debt with student loans.
I started volunteering one evening a week with the Obama campaign back in early September. That approach worked well for me. I put in a decent number of hours and yet didn't burn out. Tomorrow afternoon I will be volunteering in my local ward polling place as a poll watcher. I think it will be a good place to be. There is no electioneering allowed inside the polling place. I will be away from the TV and the internet until at least after 7 pm, which means I won't be checking my "regular" sites every 2 minutes to see if anything new is posted.

SNL

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:25:00 +0000

I hope these guys are tonight's musical guests on Saturday Night Live with Sarah Palin.

Some Knitting to Break Up the Political Crap

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:54:00 +0000

Evangeline On Fire
Originally uploaded by bassbot

These are the fingerless gloves I made from the yarn I dyed a couple of weeks back. Don't they look toasty? (Except for my finger tips which will be sticking out all cold and what not. I don't care.)
Today I had a lunchtime knitting session with some ladies at school who I hooked up with via Ravelry. Knitting and chatting at work!? God I love the internet and all the fun it brings.