Purls and Tails The Chronicles of a Ferret-Owned Knitter

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You? Take the Test to Find Out.

Ack! I was so busy being outraged, I only just noticed I'd been tagged! And by none other than that color-licious dyer herself, Susie!

So, here are the rules.
1. Link to your tagger and post rules
2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random and some weird
3. Tag 7 people at the end of post and list their names
4. Let them know they were tagged by a comment on their blog

1. I started "greying" at 15. *sigh* I once had hair so black, it looked purple in sunlight and now it's this wimpy brown, with almost 50% silver, so I color it with Clairol's professional line at Sally's Beauty Supply "reddest mahogany red". I'm very overdue....I should go do that now.

    

2. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Applied Science. I have gleefully forgotten just about everything I know about programming, but I love putting computers together. I've assembled all five of the desktop computers and one of the servers in our house. I've assembled one for my Mom and one for a close friend of hers. One thing not to cheap out on is the case. Or the fans. Or the power supply. Everyone always sinks their funds into the processor, the memory and the video card (everyone I know, 'cause they all want to play games on their computers). Gotta remember the case, the fans and the power supply.

    

3. I lived in South America for a year when I was in high school. I learned the Rotary Club has an exchange program, so I applied and spent my junior year in Rancagua, Chile. This was 1986-1987. While I was there I had my appendix taken out, the Pope visited the country, and I had a machine gun pointed at me when I visited a friend. I didn't realize until much later her father was a "right hand man" to Pinochet, who was in power at the time. I had arrived at her house just after some incident which had them all on high alert!

    

4. I met my husband, Randy, on the 31st of August, 1989. We were engaged on the 11 of September, 1989. When my parents pulled me from school that winter, I decided to move out and move down to where he was. Instead, we set the wedding date up (it was originally going to be May of 1992, after I graduated). We were married Friday, the 17th of August, 1990. Some people said it wouldn't last six months. In May of 1992, I was pregnant with Nicholas! Randy and I just celebrated 17 years together. I want seventeen hundred more.

    

5. I love post-apocalyptic fiction! My first taste of this was Pat Frank's "Alas, Babylon" (1, 2), written in the 1950s. Other favorites include "Footfall" (1, 2), "The Stand", "Lucifer's Hammer" (1, 2), and "Farnham's Freehold" (1, 2). We take a lot of things in our daily lives for granted, for example, easy access to food and basic medicines. I like the mental foray into what would become of those people in society who live by the grace of our modern cultures--like me!. I'm not physically fit and my fibro wouldn't go away just because we suddenly have to revert to a more physical way of living. So what could I provide to such a world? Thus, my love of the textile arts! These are "luxury" skills as long as our world remains industrialized and mechanized. But should things change, the knitters, spinners, weavers and other textile artists of the world will find themselves teaching others how to create clothing from fibers.

    

6. I have two tattoos and two non-ear piercings. My first tattoo is a labrys, on my right shoulder, done in 1997. My second tattoo is a gecko, worked over the top of my left foot and up onto the side of my leg a little. My first piercing was my tongue piercing which I had done in 1997. I've since removed it (less than a year ago?) 'cause I'm terrified the next tooth I hit will crack! I have a nose piercing on the right side of my nose. I haven't worn anything in it for a long time, but I'm reasonably sure it's still open. Since I've started wire wrapping, I've wanted to create something "uniquely me" for my nose piercing. And I'm "jonesing" for my next tattoo, though I don't think Randy likes the idea of what I want: a vine wrapped around my left leg, across my back and down my right arm. So, maybe I'll get something smaller instead.

    

7. I have a little giraffe collection on my desk, started by a professor at the community college in Arizona where I took another creative writing class (there've been several!). She brought in these cute little wooden animals from her trip to....Disney World, I think. Anyway, she said for each of us to select an animal and write a poem about how we're like that animal. I couldn't grab either of the elephants---already taken---so I grabbed the giraffe. And wrote this:

   I, Giraffe

   Sky high
   above the ground
   eating fluffy dreams
   head so far above
   the muck my feet are in

   Blissfully
   Chewing
   Dreams
   into being

   Balanced in between
   the heart
   blending muck and fluff
   into future imaginings.

   After that, I found a giraffe with this long graceful neck and just bought it. Like that. No waffling, just did it. And then there was a third one...and now my mom has added two more....and I don't know where this will end, but they've all been desk-accessory sized.

    

8. Bonus random fact: Apparently (see the above 7 points), I cannot just list a simple fact without explaining it and expanding on it. Oh wait, I just did. *grin*

I read a number of blogs out there in "intarweb land", but I know very few of those that I read, so let's see if I can come up with seven whole bloggers!

1. Lorinda
2. Danielle - I just found her blog, but I love her stitch markers, so I'm tagging her!
3. Deb -- My *ahem* other fiber supplier.
4. Linda
5. Claudia who needs to put up more ferret pix ::ducks quickly, knowing she should too::
6. Nicol (again, more ferret pix!)
7. Katie 'cause her Mom tagged me! ;)

Now, I have to go de-lurk on some blogs and tag some wonderful women!

Got this from Lorinda:

The career meme…

1. Go to Career Cruising, www.careercruising.com.
2. Put in Username: nycareers and Password: landmark.
3. Take their “Career Matchmaker” quiz.
4. Post the top twenty results.
5. Put the careers you have seriously considered in bold.
6. Italicize any that are part of your current job/career.
1. Fashion Designer
2. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator (I would consider this one
   seriously if I could draw!)
3. Medical Illustrator
4. Industrial Designer
5. Website Designer
6. Interior Designer
7. Musical Instrument Builder and Repairer
8. Writer
9. Critic
10. Translator
11. Print Journalist
12. Upholsterer
13. Technical Writer
14. Furniture Finisher
15. Picture Framer
16. Market Research Analyst
17. Veterinary Technician
18. Artist
19. Graphic Designer
20. Computer Animator

What fascinates me about this quiz is that there were no questions that appeared to lead toward the home-based textile arts industry (spinning, weaving, dyeing, knitting, sewing, and so on...). This quiz is really focused on "getting a job", not finding a career, IMHO. *smile*

One of the few things my father got right was when he would say, "Pick what you would do on vacation. Make that your career and you'll never work again." That's true, for the most part. It won't be "work" all day, every day. It'll be something you enjoy and have a passion for. But the flip side is that all jobs have "bad stuff": paperwork for those who hate paperwork; time clocks for those who hate schedules; a crappy boss; an annoying co-worker. So, choosing to do what you are passionate about makes those annoying parts less so.

I tell my son, "It's not how much you make at your job that matters. It's how happy your job makes you." I don't care if he grows up to be a garbage man or a lawyer (well, maybe I'd mind the lawyer...). I don't care if he becomes a car mechanic or a doctor (similar tasks, different "patients"...and a mechanic sure doesn't have the malpractice insurance a doctor does!). I just want him to be the best he can be at whatever he chooses to be.

Meanwhile, here I am at thirty-seven, a "writer" who hasn't really been writing lately and isn't sure what she wants to be when she grows up. Have you seen those new Cingular-now-AT&T commercials where someone is sitting on a stool and the backgrounds keep changing 'cause they're in contact with people all over the world? Near the end, they say something like, "...'cause my place is ." That's me. That's my career wants: architectalpacamamaspinnnerweaverknitterhorticulturistcartoonistauthor.

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

1. Yourself: unfinished
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): amazing
3. Your hair: annoying
4. Your mother: nurturing
5. Your Father: self-centered
6. Your Favorite Item: many
7. Your dream last night: terrifying
8. Your Favorite drink: carbonated
9. Your Dream Car: spaceship
10. The room you are in: small
11. Your Ex: none
12. Your fear: alone
13. What you want to be in 10 years? Independent
14. Who you hung out with last night? family
15. What you're not? drone
16. Muffins: okay
17. One of Your Wish List Items: land
18. Time: crawling
19. The Last Thing You Did: wrote
20. What You Are Wearing: comfortable
21. Your Favorite Weather: Arizona
22. Your Favorite Book: many
23. The Last Thing You Ate: Chinese
24. Your Life: blessed
25. Your Mood: harried
26. Your best friend: husband
27. What are you thinking about right now? goals
28. Your car: white
29. What are you doing at the moment? eating
30. Your summer: muggy
31. Your relationship status: personal
32. What is on your TV? remotes
33. What is the weather like? sunny
34. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday

That's.
All.
For.
Now.

I received this from my Mom:

Here's what I want you to do. Describe me in ONE WORD...just one word! Send it to me only, then send this message to your friends and see how many strange things people say about you! This is really fun! Just hit reply and send me my one word back. Then forward this message on to your friends (including me) and see what they say about you!

So, instead of sending this to "all my friends", I'll just put it here and anyone who wishes can respond.

That's all for now. (Hey, Vlad the Impaler beckons me!)

Jody is having a 100th post contest and has invited comments on her blog to answer the following questions. I thought I'd share them here as well.

1. Since it is my 100th blog contest – If you have a blog – how many entries have you made?

44 --- Wow, I thought it'd be more than that!

2. What is the first thing you notice about a person when you meet them for the first time?

Hmmm... The writer in me notices the details that make a person stand out from "brown hair, brown eyes"---the little impefections that make us human and real. The b*tch in me notices pantylines (I'm horrid, I know!).

3. What are you currently reading? And what is your favorite book of all time?

Currently: Wyrmhole by Jay Casselberg, Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

Favorite: (the *very* abbreviated list) Fledgling by Octavia Butler, everything by Wen Spencer or Jim Butcher.

4. Where is the furthest you have ever traveled from home?

I spent a year in Rancagua, Chile during my Junior year in high school. At the time, I was living in Ohio. I'll let those more inclined to figure out the math.

5. I’m sure everyone has some knitted project that they just can’t seem to get around to starting. I know I have several. What is something you would like to knit “One day”?

There's a cardigan on the cover of the premier issue of Knit Today (UK magazine) with wooden beads in it. I want to make this but I need to size it up for plus size.

6. And finally – since it is October - what are you going to be for Halloween?

Asleep? Just kidding. A couch potato, most likely. We don't "do" Halloween around my house.

That's all for now.