Just a little post...

to keep you all posted.

After losing my job at the end of January, I was spending 3-4 days a week teaching at Bolton Valley. I continued skiing with the office team I put together for the corporate race league every Thursday night, and had a great time doing so. Um, until that last one...

Sports fans, I blew out my ACL.

It was my second run of the night, I was on my new skis. The whole team had been putting up great times, and we were all in a rowdy mood. Racing against VTKiwi, I slipped out of a gate and over-corrected...then over-corrected again, and before I knew it, I blew out of the course. As I was falling, I could feel the twist, and knew it wasn't going to be pretty. I got my first-ever ride in the ski patrol sled, after which we decided it was actually only a sprain. Hooray!! I took my baggie of snow (icepack) and happily walked to the bar with my team.

The next morning, I could barely move it or put weight on it. Not cool. Went to my doctor, they got me right in for an MRI at FAHC. That afternoon I had the results: ruptured ACL, bone bruise, and pulled LCL. I met with the surgeon the following Monday morning, and he basically told me if I ever want to be a skier again, I have to get the surgery.

So that's that. I have a month of PT, which I affectionately refer to as my 'Jane Fondas.' After that I'm meeting with the surgeon again to schedule the surgery.

Roger was SO patient with me when I was still in a brace and on crutches. He quickly figured out that we now take stairs one at a time instead of all in a mad dash. One morning on a walk, he saw a squirrel, tensed up to chase it, but then looked back at me, and kept walking. Seriously, he's smarter and more compassionate than some people I know.

So now, 11 days later, I'm doing great - I'm mobile, working on regaining full range of motion. It's my left leg, so I can still drive, and I'm off the crutches. Once I have the surgery though, I'm going to take you all up on the offers to walk Roger or pick up groceries!!

2009: Things I'm Looking Forward To

It started as a numbered list, but these aren't really the type of thing one can easily rank.

• -The inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama.
• -KSV's Corporate Race League team, The Disrupters!
  
• -Tulip season, expanding my vegetable and flower gardens
• -Warm weather run-arounding with Roger
• -Camping, hiking, cliff-jumping w/ Roger and the boys
• -Feminist meet-ups
  
• -Home improvement projects - painting and stenciling my bedroom!
  

Personal Highlights 2008

#1: Adopting ROGER

(Um, duh. We all saw that coming)

#2: KSV

I love my job, I love my company. I love walking to work. In reality, this should be first on the list, since it made so many of these other things possible.

#3: Buying my condo

Finally, I'm the girl who can entertain company at a moment's notice!! Impromptu happy hour after work, weekend guests, etc - oh yeah and I'm building equity, blah blah blah.

#4: Watching Haiden grow

My amazing godson will be turning 2 years old in March, can you even believe it?! He's turning into such a cool little person.

#4.1: Watching Erin's belly grow
Erin and Ryan are due February 11th, I'm so excited for them!

#5: Making Friends

Here at KSV and through my feminist meet-up group, I'm making friends! (Meeting people after college is HARD!!)

#6: Reconnecting with Family
My cousins Patrick and Sara both got married in 2008. Traveling to St Louis, seeing family and going out drinking with the cousins was wonderful!

Resolutions 2009: A work in progress

Resolution #1: Arrive at work on time
This is simple enough - or should be, considering I only live two blocks away.

Resolution #2: Purchase and consume food responsibly
My inner bargain hunter LOVES buying larger-size packages at the grocery - just look at that unit price!! However, as much as I love a deal, I HATE waste. There's no savings in buying food to throw away.

Resolution #3: Lose weight
A classic, needs no explanation

Resolution #4: Put money in savings each month
Thanks to my mortgage, my savings have taken a serious hit. Now that I have a signed lease with a tenant and no more car payments, it's time to start rebuilding. AND, since January is a 3-paycheck month, this one gets a boost to start the year!

Resolution #5: Keep my house clean and clutter-free
Over the holiday weekend, I cashed in my gift certificates to The Organizer and The Handyman (Mom and Dad), and my place looks AMAZING!! Now I just need to keep it that way...

Resolution #6: Update my blog regularly
I love writing my blog. Lately I guess I've been busy with other things, and I'd really like to get into a regular groove of updating.

That's all for now! There may be more to come, plus the highlights of 2008, and what I'm most looking forward to in 2009.

Wanted: Housemate

I mean, I would think Roger and I make a pretty attractive package, as far as housemates go. Why is it so tough to find a match? Perhaps I'm too picky...

Available Nov 1 - $625/month

The Deal: Room to rent in my 2br condo. Off-street parking, dishwasher, laundry. Heat included. Two blocks from the waterfront, just a few blocks from the bottom of Church St. Room can be furnished or not.

Me: Mid 20s professional woman, no smoking/drugs, occasional drinker. 2yr old male dog (catahoula/lab mix). Clean but not a neat freak. Skier, craftster, feminist.

I might be open to a friendly dog/cat, but my dog would have to make that decision.

Drop me a line if you're interested.

The ladies love him - and he loves us back

(Just in case you think I've been spending too much time doting on Rogerdog lately)

I would like to direct your attention to the newly-launched Feminists for Obama site, a project of the Feminist Majority. It features a run-down of the issues, and a side by side comparison of the candidates' platforms. The Feminist Majority fully supports the election of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden. They are strong supporters of women’s rights including the right to equal pay for equal work, programs to reduce violence against women, a woman’s right to choose legal and safe abortion. They believe in access to affordable birth control, work/family balance, and the end of the Iraq war.

From Eleanor Smeal, President of Feminist Majority -

“Obama/Biden are running on the strongest platform for women’s rights of any major party in U.S. history. But it’s not just platforms. Voting records show the stark difference between the Obama and McCain tickets.

Women simply cannot afford a President McCain. He would stack the Supreme Court and federal judiciary against women’s reproductive and economic rights for future generations; stubbornly pursue a policy of endless war no matter the cost in human lives and dollars; and continue Bush failed economics and political policies.”

Take a spin through the site, and share it with anyone you know who might be unsure what to do on November 4th.

Save Bitch Magazine!

Bitch Magazine's fate is in our hands

Don't let this smart, relevant feminist voice fall silent.

First the bad news: The print publishing industry as a whole is staring into a void. Across the board, newsstand magazine sales are in a slump, subscriber numbers are down, and paper and postal costs continue to rise. But it's not magazines like US Weekly or Vogue that you'll see disappearing from the newsstands—they have the parent companies and the resources to weather industry ill winds. It's the small, independent magazines like Bitch that will disappear, because the odds are already stacked high against them. And simply put: Bitch needs to raise $40,000 by October 15th in order to print the next issue of Bitch.

Now the good news: While it's true that $40,000 is a lot of money, the number of Bitch supporters is in the hundreds of thousands. And they're asking each of us who values independent, nonprofit media and intelligent feminist cultural analysis to contribute what we can to ensure that Bitch thrives. And while they can't say what form Bitch will take in the future (their direction will depend, in part, on our feedback), they can say that they've been hard at work to find an innovative publishing model that will allow them to maintain the spirit and integrity of Bitch while also reflecting the changing world around us.

As a nonprofit, reader-funded media organization, Bitch's fate really is—and always will be—in our hands. Bitch doesn't need a parent company. They just need us!

::: Please help continue this important work by donating and sharing this message :::

Get banners for your site here!

email to my Mom

Hi Mom,
So crapola, I forgot to bring my bike rack back with me, and this is the only week to bring things in for the bike swap. I'm still going to check out the swap/sale to see if I can buy a roof rack for a reasonable price.

I think I like my plan of staying until September then heading west. That will give me the opportunity to build up my savings again (with the car maintenance expenses my bundle took a hit), enjoy the summer in Burlington, and have a more solid timeline to work towards. As we know, I'm an expert at finding ways to entertain myself, so even though I won't have the guys to fall back on, I hope I can make it a good summer. For example, I am totally IN LOVE with biking to work. My time is improving already! This plan also gives me plenty of time to get an apartment, job, etc set up in CO.

Just out of curiosity, I requested furniture moving/relocation quotes from a website. The one quote I got in so far was like $1,500...so, that's a bunch. Not that I have any point of reference yet - that might be fantastic. That's for door-to-door service from the Bur to Denver. The deal with this site is it'll send me up to 6 quotes from different companies so I can compare. Of course the best would be to fit everything intoy own car, but that clearly rules out my bed and chair...and I would probably have to leave much of my fabric. Of course it's just an IKEA bed and I could probably get the same one out there if I really missed it. I'll ask Meg, but just looking at the mileage it would be over $200 in gas for the trip, not counting food and lodging. So that brings the cost of just the move itself to $2,000. That's pretty much the extent of my savings at the moment.

On a brighter note, I did a little apartment hunting last night on craigslist Denver. Rents are a LOT lower in Denver. I know VT - Burlington in particular - is disproportionately high, but they had condo-like places twice the size of what I'm in now in the mid $500 range! Cool! I found several more house-like apartments on Capital Hill in Denver, the area I loved so much.

I guess my current issue is that I really love Burlington, like a whole lot. Last night I went out with Rachel to the Radio Bean, a bar/club a block from my apt for "Honkey-Tonk Tuesday." She goes every week, and introduced me to all her friends. There was a girl there I had met at Courtney's party, and a member of Mike's band I had met Friday at the Hot Buttered Rum show. Not that I think I'm destined to be life-long friends with any of these people, but I'm starting to find a network, make the connections among my friends, and friends of friends.

Why do I call this an issue, why do I see this as a problem? Because I want to give the Bur a fair shake. I want to fully enjoy my time here, and get all I can out of it. I guess I almost feel guilty for leaving too soon. That's how I feel about Boston - I can hardly say I lived there, because I was only there for...three months? And most of that time was spent in our apartment job-searching and researching compost. If I had known I would be there for such a limited time, I know I would have gotten out more, y'know?

So that's just some stuff that's on my mind these days. UVM has finals this week and next, then Johan's gone. Cliff is around for another week I think, then he's gone too. I guess that'll be the real test of...something.

Okay...back to work. I hope your day is going well.
Love
Lou