Did you hear about the mysterious paper sculptures that have appeared at various locations in Scotland, including the Scottish Poetry Library, the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and (my favorite) the Central Lending Library?
Here’s a few images:
You can read the whole story here.
After seeing Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, speak, I think someone should make one for her.
I wanted to tell you about a project a blogger friend is working on. Colleen over at Communicatrix is turning 50 years old. She decided for her 50th birthday, she would try to raise $50,000 in 50 days. Her chosen charity is WriteGirl, which helps empower girls through writing. Writing is close to my book-loving heart!
I find Colleen very inspiring, and I hope that in 17 years I’ll do what she’s doing now. In the meantime, I’m off to make a donation.
I think most everyone has already done their 2010 list-about-whatever by now. I thought about doing a reading list, or a look back at the year like I did last year, but I have something else in mind.
I want to share with you some of the gems I found in 2010, some of the best books I read, the best moments, the best blog posts (not mine!), etc. Let’s get started, shall we?
Stand and Deliver – a blog about breastfeeding and home birth that is amazing. Rixa continues to inspire me on a daily basis, and there are aspects of her labor and deliveries that I’ll be trying to emulate.
Seth’s Blog – I’m sure I was subscribed to Seth Godin before 2010, but I really started focusing on him in 2010. He talks the way I think, and has inspired me in many ways. However, I admit I’m leary of his publishing venture and am not sure we quite agree on the state of the publishing industry. I understand his points, but don’t think opening up publishing to anyone who can put words to paper and write a check is a wise thing to do.
The world’s worst boss. – As I read this post, I was nodding my head, berating myself for being a terrible boss. But then I realized that that’s not the point. The point of the post is about managing yourself, and I did that AWESOMELY in 2010. It’s hard, and sometimes I resented other people with an easier lifestyle, but I learned that I’m a kick ass boss is most aspects.
Loyalty – I’ve thought about this post more than I’ve thought about anything in a long time. As someone who has a side business and is soon-to-be self-employed, this is my singular goal every time I sit down at the computer.
The Recruiter – This post by my friend Melissa cracked me up. I think about it often and it’s already taken a leap into the all-time favorite posts category.
My ‘like’ button is a dirty racist. – What I love about Raych is that she can be incredibly deep but incredibly funny all at the same time. I will take this on as my own goal as soon as I can read more than a book a month.
WE PAID OFF OUR CREDIT CARD DEBT. Dude, that was the albatross around my neck that I never thought I’d lose. When Dave and I first got married and we combined our finances, I couldn’t believe the amount of debt we’d wracked up as individuals. I’m not talking $5,000 or even $10,000. It was a lot more than that. But it’s gone. We’ve paid it off. In two years. We did something similar to the snowball method, but what really helped keep us on track is the spreadsheet I used to track our debt. I would enter the balances every month in a spreadsheet, and I had a formula that calculated what percentage of our debt we’d paid off. It was incredibly motivating and kept us focused on our goals.
Before we paid off our debt but when I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, we decided to try to get pregnant. We didn’t consider getting pregnant before that because I want to stay home with my kids, at least until they’re in school. With the debt we were carrying, that would have been impossible. So with a little trepidation, I got off the pill. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant because I’d never been pregnant before and Dave doesn’t have any mini-me’s running around. I wanted to have children so badly that I told myself repeatedly that if we couldn’t have kids, then that was okay. If we had kids, we’d go down one road, if we couldn’t have kids, we’d go down another road, neither of which is better than the other. I imagined that if we didn’t have kids, we’d get to travel more, we’d be able to buy a bigger house sooner, we’d have more money to do the various hobbies we have. I knew I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t get pregnant, but I also knew that I didn’t want to be one of those women who’s perpetually unhappy because she can’t make a baby. I didn’t want to be that woman who can’t go to a baby shower, who can’t be happy for her friends as they get pregnant and start their own families.
So I prepped myself with some serious talking to. I also prepped Dave by telling him if we couldn’t get pregnant, that I wanted to get more animals. My dogs are my kids, and if I had my druthers, I’d take in all the stray and abandonded and abused animals I could find.
I was excited for either direction our life took: a life with kids or a life without kids. Either way I would be fulfilled and on a path that brought me contentment.
I’ll never forget the night when, at 9pm, I decided to take a second pregnancy test, on the off chance that the squinter I’d seen earlier that day was actually a positive pregnancy test. Nor will I forget the first phone call I made to a friend to tell her I was pregnant (hi, Becky!).
I got a promotion at work. Not only did I get a promotion, but my bosses couldn’t be happier with my work. They took a leap of faith by giving me this higher position, and I’ve worked my tail off so they wouldn’t be disappointed. I’m so happy they’re thrilled with my work.
I won’t say that 2011 has big shoes to fill, but 2010 wasn’t too shabby.
I hate when shampoo bottle companies make it so you can’t take the lid off of their shampoo bottle so you can scrape out the last of the shampoo when you get down to the end. I’m looking at you, Matrix Essentials. Not only do I use my finger to scrape the very last of the shampoo (or conditioner) out of the bottle, but when I’ve gotten everything I can, I add some water, shake it up, and use it one last time (or two or three times, depending on how effective my finger was) (that’s what he said).
But like I said, some companies make it nearly impossible to unscrew the lid. I will not be foiled, though! After turning the bottle upside down and using as much of the shampoo as I could squeeze out of the bottle, I put the bottle up to the shower head and stood there while water trickled into the tiny opening. I shook it up and have been using it for the past week. Yesterday I added a little more water, shook it up again, and was able to use the very last of it today. Haha! Who needs an easy to remove cap to make sure you use all the shampoo you possibly can?
So far in 2011, I have already bested a shampoo bottle.
Trish – 1; Shampoo Bottle – 0
I’m not the best at keeping up traditions, but one thing I’ve done for the past two years is celebrate Festivus, which starts off with the Airing of Grievances. Anyone with a blog knows that blog traffic is slow during the holidays (because people are hanging with family, whether they like it or not), so YOU CAN SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT. No one’s going to be reading this anyway. 
I’ll start!
Now it’s your turn. Go!
(Oh, but before you go, I want to tell you all how much I love you. It meant the world to me to have so much comment love when I announced my pregnancy. I know posting here has been sparse, and book reviews have been even sparser, and my commenting on other blogs has been non-existent, but that’ll all change when I’m back down to one job. I know I’ll then have a baby, but really, how much time can he take? So for all of the grievances I’ve aired today, this blog is my safe haven, and you all are my warm fuzzies.)
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