I'm not very good about posting here anymore, am I? You should probably blame my awesome friends, who hear most of the ideas and stories I have to tell via instant messenger, which means I'm not left with a strong urge to write about them here on my LJ. Also, when I'm not stressed out, I have less to process here.

Anyway, I feel like I should record the information that I am now officially a Sales Associate at Walmart in the Jewelry Department. I have . . . mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I need the money very badly. (Living on $200 a month all summer was . . . interesting.) And my coworkers in the Jewelry Department are all quite pleasant and fun. In fact, the work atmosphere is surprisingly pleasant, at least on the human end.

But then, you've got the corporate end. And that's not so fun. I've had to sit through hours and hours of what they call CBLs (computer-based learning)--it's basically a Powerpoint slide narrated by a very bored voice actor, with a quiz at the end. Some of them are to convey important information (like how to pierce ears or operate a cash register), but a lot of them are just corporate policies for convincing the employees that Walmart cares about them. For example, they REQUIRED me to go in and work up a 'career plan' for my time at Walmart. Sam Walton said, "You don't have to leave Walmart to change careers." . . . seriously, the rest of my life at Walmart? I would rather stab my eyes out.

Then there's the obvious downsides, like spending eight hours inside of a Walmart. Brr.

( What's going on in the rest of my life, in list format )

I'm at that place where my head is full of blog topics, but I can't find it in me to write any of them. I wanted to write about my road trip with Jessica, which was a TON of fun (there's something very satisfying about camping . . . facing all these tiny challenges like gathering wood and lighting a fire and cooking dinner)--I decided I want to live in the Southwest for sure eventually. (I'm already kind of Southwest, but I'd like to be south-er and west-er.)

And then I wanted to write about my first day on my new job (proofreading the local newspaper). It's pretty cool, because it's basically like being a Classics major, except I get paid to pay attention to tiny details and talk about grammar. I think I may be a little over-educated for the job, though. I got teased for writing "STET", and when I started talking about serial commas, people just kind of stared. On the other hand, all the people who work there are really nice, so I think I'll enjoy the job. If nothing else, it's nice to have a job that actually uses my skills.

And then I wrote most of an entry about the memorial service for the man who was my youth pastor, but couldn't bring myself to finish it. I don't really want to talk about it here, either, because it feels strange and sort of wrong to lump that in with the other little inanities that I've been thinking about. Suffice it to say that it was very sad (he was only 37, with three young kids), but also very inspiring.

And now, if I wanted to, I could write about spending the past few days at the Palisade Bluegrass Festival, where I was delighted to discover that I wasn't the only fiber-lover who skipped the Estes Park Wool Market this weekend--there were two alpaca farms in a booth, and I scored 7 oz. of beautiful brown alpaca, which I've been spinning rabidly all day. I'm super excited about it.

(By the way, this entire post is an example of praeteritio. Cool, huh? And they tried to convince me I wouldn't use my Classics major!)

Finally, after literally years of wanting to learn to spin, I'm doing it! I have a drop spindle my stepdad made for me, and I've already blown through my first batch of wool roving. (I just got a pound of wool in the mail today . . . I've already spun up two ounces of it.) I'm now wearing my very first item made out of handspun yarn, a really cute (and warm!) hat.

And, oddly enough, it took spinning to finally get me addicted to Ravelry . . . I've had my account for a long time, but now I can take advantage of all the great spinning forums! Maybe I'll even start posting my finished objects now . . . anyway, those of you who are fibery sorts, if you're on Ravelry, look me up! My account is museofastronomy.