One more day!

The list of things to do is dwindling, still long, but at least starting to shrink. After a short hiatus, I'm wearing the shoes that I'm bringing that give me blisters. I think it worked! (said in a loud whisper). I'm not totally convinced but I think my feet are ready to take on the shoes. We'll see.



Last night I got home late from a meeting, and woke up early this morning - only 6.5 hours of sleep (not good). Also, I was going to pack last night and that didn't work out. So it all comes down to today. Must get everything done. I'm at the point where I'm trying to figure out what's important and what can just wait.



The hotel is booked in Porto so we have a nice end destination we can just collapse into when we finally are done with traveling (I realized it's 24 hours of traveling - time zones are included in there, so maybe not literally 24 hours). I've been keeping an eye on the weather it's at least 80% rain every day so far (if not more).



Change in news, I checked the weather less then 12 hours later and we're now down to 5% chance of rain for most of days and mid-70s. That's pretty nice, so think that's the forecast I'm going to go with. Well, this is the last post for awhile as I finally hunker down and just crank away. I can't wait to leave dodge for a bit - take care.

Yikes!

Be forewarned that this is a bit of a rant.



I feel just a tad bit overwhelmed right now. I'm running out of time on all fronts. I leave in 2 days (yea!) but am pretty much booked between now and then. So there goes my wonderful plan of being very well rested to deal with our red eye and crazy connections that we'll be facing over two days of traveling. I can't wait until I'm finally at our gate, made it through security and can just breath.



I had packed a week ago, but then unpacked as I realized the clothes would get wrinkly and not be super fresh all cooped up in the suitcase. So need to repack and hopefully not miss anything. I have a few things I need to return so I can get full credit (not store credit) back - I got a little excited about the trip and wanting to find just the right shoes and bags and everything. Need to reign things back in.



And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Things on the work front are c-r-a-z-y in a completly different way. Can't say much, but let's just say I was starting to explore different options and all of a sudden I find myself being courted left and right. It's both wonderful and overwhelming at the same time. I just need to step back and take a break from things for a little while instead of being pulled like a rag doll back and forth. Maybe leave the country. Amazing how the timing of things all work out.



Knitting is going no where fast. I'm in a stalemate with one huge project which is time sensitve. This has created a domino effect in that I feel like I shouldn't be working on other projects until I wrap this one up, but also have other time sensitve baby sweaters. There's just too many babies. Last night I was trying to figure it all out and finally just gave up and decided to go back to the good old tried and true Pea Pod baby sweater. I'm working on #4, #5, and #6 right now (not qutie #6, but the yarn is getting packed). The one thing that is nice about this pattern, besides how it looks and the fact it works for both boy and girls and isn't too fussy, is that the sizes are great. They offer up 3 months and 9 months, which if you're knitting for babies, having just 6, 12, 18 months doesn't always cut it.



But on the up side, I've downloaded my podcasts and music mixes for my MP3 player. I've prepped my camera. I've bought all the last minute things like batteries and gum and reading books. I've arranged a cat sitter who seems like a much better fit then the last one. I've cleaned most of the house (although, yesterday, after cleaning the previous day, I come home to cat throw up on the rug in my bedroom - it never ends). So if I can just survive the next two days, I'm golden.

Trip Preparation - the good and the bad

I'm planning on using the ATM card while traveling as my source of cash. But that means I really don't want too much extra in the account just in case. So this afternoon I figured I'd just quickly move the extra into my money market account (that's nicely insured considering all that's going down recently). Well, I don't have the link set up apparently. And it'll take about 5 business days or so. Which means it would be tight. And I want to cross this off the long list of things left to do before I leave. Normally, I'd be stuck. But guess what, this isn't the "bad" referred to in the title. I came up with the brilliant idea of another way to dispose of the cash.



I, like many, have some student loans from my most recent escapades in higher education. I consolidated my loans right when the rates were at an all time low and locked in a marvelous 2.625% interest rate - sweet right? Even with today's economy, that's still pretty good. Except there was one small loan I couldn't. It was through the university directly and not the federal government. I just checked and the rate was 5% - yikes. And paying $50 a month really wasn't doing much. So I just paid it all off. It was about the amount I wanted to transfer anyways, so seemed like it was meant to be. And I feel a big relief. I hadn't realized that this had been weighing me down, but I had been meaning to take stock of my student loans and figure out the best course of action now that I was back in the black after the whole house fiasco. It's paid and done and I'm that much freer.



Granted I still have the big student loan left. But good news is that since I hadn't checked for quite awhile, the remaining amount was 10 grand less then what I had in my head. Still not chump change and will take awhile to pay off, but not as bad as I had remembered. I hate debt. I like to live within my means, and with a nice rainy day buffer. It makes me nervous when people use their credit cards like they do. It just doesn't make any financial sense, and there's no reason most of the times. Just wait until you have the money. But now I'm starting to rant.



So that was the "good" that came out of the whole trip preparations. The "bad" is that I came up with another marvelously brilliant idea. Since I had nailed down what I was bringing - outfits and everything, that I would just wear the shoes I was bringing all this week and next. Well, I'm on Friday and my feet really, really hurt. The fabulous heels are giving me a killer blister. Just one, on the heel, but it's so raw. I now walk with a slight limp regardless of the shoe and bandaids applied. Yet, I still have hope. It's a good plan, just need to wear the feet down (no pun intended). Luckily, I shouldn't really be wearing the heels too much over there.



Only an hour left of work and then I'm picking up a little gag gift for a friend. He is going to be in Madrid about a month after I'm there. I'm going to hide the gift with a note somewhere and then send him a postcard with clues on finding it (kind of like letter boxing if you're familiar with that). He's really excited, so now the pressure is on to make it good. But what do you leave for a month in a public place that someone might find and is potentially exposed to the elements? I need to get it today so this weekend I can package it all up so that it's waterproof and everything.



This weekend I'm trying to balance rest with chores. I need to wrap up the trip plans and clean the house as I have a friend staying over Monday, but will also go apple picking with some friends. Should be a good balance. Next week is fairly busy and then I'm outta here on Thursday - less than a week!

Porto!!!

Last night I was up until 1 AM packing. Now if you know me, I'm usually in bed by 10 kind of girl. I like me my 8+ hours of sleep each night. However, this weekend, I basically just slept tons, which meant by Sunday evening I was very well rested (maybe, you could say a bit too well rested), especially if you consider I took Friday off from work. So after a nice 2 hour conversation Sunday night with my traveling partner figuring out more details, I just went crazy and packed everything. We're trying to travel without checking bags. We have some crazy transfers (ie. short) and the airports are cracking down on bag dimensions. And I just wasn't sure. The thing that's killing me is the heals for the wedding. But I don't think I can let them go. I have to have them to make the dress dressy. So I made final decisions, realized it's a country where, worse come to worse, I can always buy things. Good news, everything fits, with room to spare. Don't quite have everything packed, but anything that isn't is on a list. I think I'm good to go. With 10 days to spare. Can you tell I'm excited to skip town?



We nailed down where we're going to travel. Basically, since it's a short trip, we're splitting our time between Madrid and Porto which is a short flight to Portugal, and yet in a different time zone, so exciting. I've been trying to learn spanish, but that's gone by the wayside.

And forget Portuguese. I'll just bring language books and learn on the spot when needed.

I have tons more I want to share, I'm just giddy with excitement, but really want to leave work right now. I'm finding it's more and more draining and really not healthy. Case in point this weekend. I spent three days resting up and rejuvinating from being drained at work. Fully rested this morning I found an hour into our staff meeting I was tired again. Originally I thought it was my iron levels, but it seems like it's environmental. Things need to change, but I'm working on that (she said cryptically).

The good news is that I had thought if it was iron it would effect my trip, but if it's situational, I'll be good to go. And from the conversations, I'm all Pollyanna. It's going to be wonderful!

Timesheets

This morning I came in and was frustrated to find that all the blogs I check of friends had no new postings. And then I realized, who am I to complain - I never have postings. I was trying to put off for a few minutes the inevitable timesheets. It got me thinking. I work in the building profession - always have, even though I've changed careers and jumped back into school a couple of times. The problem is that you're a consultant and have to account for your time. And unlike some consultants, I generally work on multiple projects. Especially now. The benefit of my job now is that I just jump in during the parts of the project that have to do with sustainability. I don't have to deal with all the rest of the regular mumbo jumbo. But this means that I work on many many projects. Over the last several years I've moved up (in job description if not in title) so that I now manage multiple people managing multiple projects. My point is, that if I fall off the wagon, which I always do, trying to fill out my timesheets is a bear. I hate it. I just finished. It has been three years since I became an environmental consultant which is about my maximum stay and then I move onto another career. I'm not saying that I'm switching careers, but having just dealt with the bloody timesheets again, I thinking of all the jobs I might want that have no timesheets whatsoever associated with them. I wonder, will I ever have a point in my life where timesheets don't exist? (besides retirement of course). Well, the best way to escape timesheets is vacation - only three more weeks until Madrid and the exclusion of all timesheets.

Spain!!!

Today has been hard as I didn't get a lot of sleep last night which always throws me more then most people. I had a big meeting this morning with a bunch of big-wigs in suits which is draining, fun, but draining. It's Friday and I've been suffering from a mild case of burn-out at work. So coming back to the office later this morning, and being tired, I was all for winding down for a relaxing weekend. And then.... I bought tickets to go to Madrid for a week and a half. Crazy!



This afternoon, I've been checking out where to travel and get the good deals. I think perhaps Portugal might be part of the visit. I'm all excited and giddy. I think half the fun of trips is the planning and figuring out where to go.

It's a last minute thing. A friend is going to a wedding in Madrid at the end of next month. I happened to mention I've had the itch to travel recently (it's been over a year and a half since I've last left the country). The friend wanted company traveling. I wanted to travel. I was hoping to do something last minute like this last year with another friend. It seemed like it all fell into place. So I did it. Not really part of the financial tract I had budgeted for myself. But these opportunities don't come around often. Hopefully we'll be able to stay with friends to help defray some of the costs. But regardless, I love traveling to a place where you know the people who live there. You get to really visit the place. Not as a tourist but as someone who lives there.



So, in exactly four weeks from yesterday, I'm going to be on a red-eye heading to Madrid. The tickets are bought and I'm locked in. I feel all cosmopolitan - getting to just up and leave town. I'm really excited. I didn't realize how much I needed something like this. Don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed my summer, hanging out with family and friends. But sometimes you just need to get out, get away from it all for awhile. Plus the person I'm traveling with, although similar in some ways, is very different then me. And although we've technically known each other for over a year (we have a mutual friend that goes back 10+ years), we've only started to hang out recently. It should yield to some interesting travel. Best case scenario, it's amazing. Worst case, it's horrible, which frankly makes some of the best tales to tell over a glass of wine with friends (Dublin is an example, although not miserable, some good tales in how it wasn't such a great trip from the college days).



In my search for what we could possible do when we're not in Madrid, I've been finding it's actually cheaper to stay up in the glacier mountains of Portugal then on the beach towns. The downside is that you need a car to get there which can be pricy. The upside, driving in another country is always super fun (I wish I got a chance to drive when I was in India. I was just itching to join in with folks who were more intune with my preferences for driving then back here in the states, so rule abiding. I have a hard time with stop signs and speed limits. They're not always properly allocated.) Frankly I'm up for anywhere. We've been kicking around Portugal, northern Morrocco, some islands in the Mediterranian, southern France, maybe even Cairo - although I think that's too far, and that's all within the last day. I think it'll be Portugal in the end. But you never know.

Knitting Styles

I don't know about you, but I'm a proud knitter. The only places I feel reserved about my knitting are in meetings with clients and on first dates (sometimes second and third dates too, depends on the boy). Otherwise, I'll pull out the knitting. I knit on the bus, on the subway, outside waiting for someone, inside waiting for someone, in staff meetings, anytime I have time to kill. I generally always carry knitting with me. You never know when the elevator will break down and you'll get trapped (which makes me think I should start carrying around some food too, just in case, maybe some water as well).



Now, I know I'm not that unusual. Knitting in public has become a lot more acceptable these days. I come across someone else knitting out in public about once a month. It helps that I use public transportation so am exposed to alot more knitters. Well, yesterday, my bus arrives, I board and sit down behind this lady who is knitting two socks at the same time, toe up. It was interesting to watch as this is something I've been wanting to try, using the magic loop approach. She made it look quite simple. I pull out my knitting, something basic that I've got completely memorzied and am even starting to get bored with. Well, I start to knit, while watching the woman in front of me knit.



Long story short, this doesn't really work well for me. The whole time, I don't think the lady knew there was someone knitting behind her. My problem was that she knit at a completely different pace which threw my plodding knitting style off kilter. What I realized is that I really do have a slow knitting style. I know I do. But I'm most often aware of my actual knitting when I'm teaching it to friends who are learning, and are much much slower. They're beginners after all. Thinking of my more experience knitting friends, they use a similar style. You see, I use my right hand to knit. This person (and others), use their right finger. Sometimes the pointer. This lady was using her middle finger to move the yarn. I've tried doing this before, but it's really hard to break old habits and I never really got the hang of it.



Which leaves me with the question? Should I spend more time and really commit to learning the more professional, efficient style of knitting? Or I'm just find with the style I'm using now? I'm more a process knitter than a product knitter. But it'd be great to whip things out faster. More knitting can be done. And sometimes, if I knit for really long stretches, my hand cramps up (although usually my left), would this help? I don't know, will have to sleep on it.