Catching up

Wow...have I ever been neglecting you guys. I'm so sorry.

What have I been doing instead? Let's see. Math. That's right...intermediate algebra. I'm attempting to convince my subconscious that being afraid of math is a knee-jerk reaction to bad adolescent memories of my step-mother yelling at me from across the dining room table when I couldn't force my brain around geometry.

I've also been learning to knit, and crocheting. I found out that you can buy thrift-store sweaters and pull them apart for their yarn. Which means that suddenly I can afford something more than Red Heart acrylic. Whoo! There is something completely gratifying about spending two bucks on a wool sweater and pulling fifty bucks worth of yarn out of it. (Yes, yarn is really that expensive where I live!)

I've been accepted as a member of a group of people who will work toward state legislation aiding autistic people. The panel is made up of the parents of autistic children and autistic people themselves. I'm SO excited about this...I get to go to Carson City to the participate in the legislation this summer. There's a monthly week-end long planning session/class from now until September, in Las Vegas. I'm feeling more than a little guilty about agreeing to drive 500 miles a month to this thing, but I'm really going to try to make the trip count. The kids will come with me and visit their dad (Adrienne and Nick) and grandparents (Ruby.) I'm going to do a big grocery order while I'm there which will save money (a ton of it.) I'm also going to hit the thrift stores when I'm there.

I've decided to start stocking up on books and clothes and whatever else strikes my fancy for my someday-store. When summer comes, if it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to open a brick and mortar store after all, I can start selling online and make some money for the months when I'm not working. I found a kick ass vintage 70s sweater at our little local thrift today. I've decided to hit that store a couple of times a week. It's so tiny, I can get through in a minute or two, and every now and then they get vintage things in. They're book supply sucks eggs...which is good I guess, if I really do get a store opened.

I was offered a job this week as the editor of Nevada Rancher magazine. It's a monthly publication for...Nevada ranchers. I'm so tempted to take it. Editor in this case is a fancy word for a reporter who has no other editor. I'd have to travel quite a lot (at least one 500-mile round trip a week.) And it pays a salary of $13 for 40 hours a week, no matter how many hours I actually work. I was the only reporter when I worked for this company at their paper in Battle Mountain. I easily worked 60 hours a week, and I had a editor. So I'm pretty sure I'll say no. It's nice to be wanted, though.

As happens every spring, the gardening bug is biting me hard. I have my little seed catalogs all stacked up on the coffee table and I keep looking through them and planting my little garden in my mind. The fact that we don't have our own house and that the one we're renting is not really a long-term place for us makes me all pissed off all over again about the housing market. Obama was on the news today, giving his speech after winning South Carolina, and he mentioned helping people who are being foreclosed on. What about helping those of us who didn't get in over our heads, and now can't even get our ankles wet? Never any talk about that. If they help the potential buyers who are the real victims of this whole shit storm, there might not be so many foreclosures...I wonder if anyone has thought of that in Washington?

I might end up in therapy--housing bubble rage?--before this works itself out.

There's a little house in Ely that a friend of ours used to own. It's a one-story Victorian 1907 house with a wrap-around porch and a wood-burning fireplace. Our friend sold it in 2005 for $145,000. It was on the market again when we moved here for $160,000. It's had a "pending sale" sign more than once, but the sale keeps falling through. It just went on the market again for $95,000. It's a gorgeous house, I absolutely love it. It has a few problems though--the main one being a 5,000 square-foot lot. The lot is barely big enough for a tiny little veggie patch. It is across the street from the local community garden, though.

I know we should wait this market out. It's so damn hard.

Crafty

I've been on this sort of creative streak since the kids left to go visit over Christmas break. Part of what kicked it off was a sort of frenetic desire to make sure I was busy while they were gone, so I went and bought the materials to crochet an afghan. Part of it, sadly, is me making any excuse I can think of (subconsciously, of course) not to write. Can't write if I'm sewing, can I? (Soon as I finish this row, I'll get to writing...I promise!)

Anywho...the aforementioned afghan was sort of a disaster. I didn't like the way it was turning out. So I started fishing around for some other project to work on, and I came upon www.craftster.org. Have you ever been there? It's pretty awesome. Every crafty adventure you can think of...with pictures!

So I heard about people who do this weird thing. They buy thrift-store sweaters and pull them apart for the yarn. It took me a while to warm up to the idea. And then I found this hideous burgundy wool-blend 80s cardigan and a very plain, but pretty red, merino wool sweater set, at the thrift store for two bucks each. Two bucks! What would it hurt...

It took me about two hours to figure out how to pick the stitches on the burgundy sweater and to get it mostly all unraveled (since it was a cardigan, I had to throw away the panel that had the button holes.) In the end I had close to a pound of lovely, bulky, sort of curly, wool blend yarn. At the local yarn store here that much of this type of yarn would have cost me $30. Whoo! I crocheted it up into a sweet, very snuggly and warm, shawl.

The other sweaters were too fine to pick apart. The yarn was too thin. So I decided to felt them. I stuck them in the wash with a little soap and hot water, then I dried them on high heat. The result was thick felt. Lovely! And I got so much use out of it. I turned the sleeves into these cool arm warmers (I just cut a thumb hole three inches from the wrist in the seam, button-hole stitched around with gray yarn and did a blanket stitch hem on the bottom, and then sewed a little gray heart on the the top of the hand.) I made a tiny pair for Ruby out of the hem. I made a little coin purse out of one of the sleeves. And then I cut six and three inch squares out of the rest. When I find a couple more sweaters and felt them, I'll have enough squares to put together to make a wool patchwork blanket. Yum! (You'd know what I mean if it were negative four degrees where you lived right now! Burrr!!!!)

I also crocheted this adorable purse, from Crochet Today magazine.

















Only mine is heather gray and this soft teal. So pretty. I've never liked the end result of any sort of purse or other pieced together crochet that I've done. It always seems bunchy and just not right. This time I blocked it (pinned it to a big old floor pillow and sprinkled it with water, then set it in front of the heater vent and let it dry over night.) The end result was amazing...the purse laid beautifully. I'm going to line it tomorrow, because I'm afraid when I put stuff in it, it'll just get all stretched out of shape.

I will try to get off my ass tomorrow and take some pictures.

What crafty stuff are you in to? I taught myself to knit while the kids were gone, but I'm still not comfortable doing it.

Books, Glorious Books...

When Kevin and I went to Elko over New Year's, I spent an hour or so in the local book store. It was like a little bite of heaven. I can't tell you how much I miss bookstores. This one had a sort of funky feel that I loved. I loved it so much that now I want to open one myself.

The store in Elko is three storefronts in a strip mall (strip malls in rural Nevada are different than strip malls in, say, Las Vegas. They're older, more interesting.) The first section has a huge selection of magazines, as large of a selection as a Barnes and Nobel. part of that and the next section has new books: paperback novels and also some non-fiction and hardback books. The last section is used books. They sell used books for half the cover price and take them in trade for a quarter the cover price (so a $7.95 paperback would sell for $4.00 and be taken in trade for $2.00.) Some of the non-fiction books had prices on them with stickers (I got a cool 1970s crochet pattern book for $2.00, for instance.)

So I've been thinking for the past two weeks about how cool it would be to own a bookstore. There is space for rent right between this neat 50s-style diner (a real 50s diner, not a modern restaurant made to look like a 50s diner. Way cool.) and a laundromat. In my vision, I see it having the same new/used books and magazines as the store in Elko, but also maybe selling some vintage clothes. Just because I really adore vintage clothes. And maybe showcasing some local art, selling locally-made crafts, etc.

I talked to my dad yesterday. He's the only person on the planet who has more books than I do. He's willing to ship a lot of them to me as seed for my store. And he's a business consultant, so he knows how to go about contracting for the new stuff. I figure if I only sold $100 in books a day, I'd earn at least as much as I do substitute teaching. Plus I can bring Ruby to work with me, and Nick can learn a lot working in our own store, AND I can do my homework while I work.

Now I just need a name for the place. The Elko store is just called The Book Store. Any ideas for mine? My Amazon store is called White Pine Books. (I live in White Pine County.) But I think that's sort of boring.

Freedom

Yesterday and today I'm substituting for the band teacher, who teaches at both the middle and high school. This is one of my favorite jobs to take, because the kids are generally happy to be there and I love listening to them play.

At the middle school, the teacher left a video that the kids were to start watching yesterday and finish today. It is mind-numbingly boring, the only redemption being the laugh-factor of seeing the 1980s clothes and hair-styles. The kids were bored, and since I had to watch the damn thing three times, I was too. The last period at the middle school has the most advanced students, the Symphonic Band. I gave them the last ten minutes of the period to do what they wanted, and I was struck by what they wanted to do.

About half the kids gathered around the piano and one girl showed the others how to play something. A couple of the percussionists moved away to the xylophone and bass drum and spent a few minutes getting the melody down.

The other half of the kids gathered on the other side of the room and pulled out their M3P players and shared songs, one person getting one headphone and one the other.

Clearly these kids love music. What would their world be like if they were allowed to spend more than 10 minutes on the day when they have a sub exploring it in their own way?

At the high school, while talking to a couple of girls who were supposed to be practicing their ensemble pieces, I found out that one is the district representative for the Obama campaign for our little town. She asked if she could use her cell phone to patch into a conference call for district representatives. This kid is amazing. She isn't old enough to vote. She asked me if I was going to caucus, she explained to me in clear terms why she thought I should vote for Obama. She picked up her flute and played a beautiful piece of music.

mmmmmm My Soup

I bought a copy of The SuperfoodsRX Diet with a Christmas gift certificate from Kevin's parents. I'm really glad they gave it to me, because if they hadn't I wouldn't have bought this book until it went down in price. It's fantastic.

After reading the book I decided to make some soup today. The author recommends a Soup and Salad Wednesday (where one meal, lunch or dinner, is a soup and salad.) So here's what I came up with...I adapted it from the Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon.

Shaunta's Amazing Cabbage Soup

In a large pot, bring to a boil 8 cups of water and 3 cups of pureed tomatoes (I used canned, you could make your own if you're more ambitious than me) and four teaspoons beef broth granules.

While that's coming to a boil, put three chopped white onions in a pan sprayed with Pam and heated to medium. Saute for a couple of minutes, raise heat to medium-high and cook three minutes, then lower to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for thirty minutes.

When the soup is boiling, add a Tablespoon each of Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper and half a head of green cabbage, shredded.

In twenty minutes add dried parsley, basil and celery salt to taste.

When the onions are done (they should be soft and very sweet), add them to the pot.

Yum yum!

I know that Cabbage Soup sounds incredibly diet-y. I promise this soup is really, really rich and good. I used Cabbage because it was the only fresh vegetable I had in the house and I didn't want to use frozen. I'm glad I did, because the cabbage really gave the broth an amazing flavor.

Plus a whole bowl has less than 100 calories.

Blowing Off Steam

I have this irrational anger. Except, of course, I feel rational in it. What's irrational about it is that it's totally out of character to me. What has me so pissed off is that, in my mid-thirties, with a $60,000 family annual income, we would not be able to afford to buy the house that I bought seven years ago on my own as a single mother with $20,000 a year income. Yep. That's because the house that I bought at the tail end of 1999 for $103,000 is now "worth" about $211,000 according to Zillow.com.

I put the word "worth" in quotations because this house has not more than doubled in value in seven years. It isn't a bigger house. It doesn't have more land. It's still in a borderline neighborhood. It's still zoned to schools crappy enough that a lot of parents scramble to find alternatives. It's still an 1100-square-foot three-bedroom house.

I do find some comfort in knowing that Zillow listed it as worth $240,000 six months ago.

And that's the part that I find irrational. Not because it isn't normal, but because it isn't normal for me. I'm typically the most fair-minded, root-for-the-underdog type of person you'd ever hope to meet. Anyone who knows me might expect me to feel sorry for the people who are really in a lot of trouble mortgage/debt-wise.

The problem is I can't. I can't feel sorry for anyone who has done this to themselves. Their greed has made it so that I can't afford to buy a house. Not even for people I know and love. Because, who the hell needs a $465,000 house? What is the mortgage on that? $3,000? $4,000? Especially when we're talking about a carpenter and his stay-at-home wife. I can't feel sorry for the depression and worry that must be setting in by now, with their former house on the market for more than a year and the adjustable mortgage on their new house about to reset, and Zillow saying the house is worth more than $50,000 less than paid for it a year ago.

I read an article somewhere, sort of an open letter from someone who bought high and with a ridiculous mortgage, that asked those of us who didn't to please stop rubbing it in their face. Why? Do you know how many times I was laughed at during the past five years when I said that it was not smart to purchase a home you couldn't afford? When I dared to point out that taking all your equity out so that you can take cruises and buy SUVs is pretty short-sighted?

So now I'm pissed off. I would rather spend the rest of my life renting reward someone with a gigantic payday, just for being greedy. I wonder how many other people feel the way I do. I wonder if there is a sort of collective anger and if it isn't actually healthy and might cleanse the country of the greed and corruption that has gotten us to the point that we're teetering on the edge of a financial perfect storm.

I do not want to hear one more person tell me that it was bad timing or bad luck that has kept us from being able to buy a house. I don't want to hear one more Realtor tell me that the housing market is holding steady or is on it's way up or has reached bottom. I'm pissed and I'm taking my stand. I will rent until I'm blue in the face if that's what it takes to wait out this ridiculous market.

They're home

All is right with my world today.

That's all.

Money: The Plan

We have a plan. See, our income comes in three chunks. Kevin's pay, my pay and child support from my ex-husband. So the plan is to live on Kevin's pay: pay all of our living expenses like rent, power, phone, food and gas. Then we'll pay all of our debt payments like credit cards, my student loan and the car payment, out of my check with whatever is left (three or four hundred at least, maybe more depending on how many days of work I get in a month), will be used to pay down the debt faster. The child support will stay in the bank as savings. Once our savings account has $5,000 in it, we'll start putting all that money toward debt as well.

The way I figure it, by the end of the year we'll have paid about $12,000 toward debt and we'll have $5,000 in savings. That should pay everything off but the car and my student loan. Six more months and we should have those paid off as well.

My only prayer is that the economy holds on long enough for us to follow through with this plan. Just one year.

We're in the middle of a huge storm. All of our TV stations come from Salt Lake City where they're getting it particularly bad and the new keeps calling it "the storm of the century." I wouldn't care, I've been looking forward to some weather after so long of living where HOT was the only weather we ever got. Only problem is that my kids are on the other side of a closed pass. Snow tires or chains required. I haven't seen my kids in almost two weeks. Yesterday I talked to Ruby on the phone and she asked me if she could come home. I feel like I'm about to get out there with a snow shovel and make an open road myself. This sucks.

This and That...and Happy New Year!

Kevin and I just got back from an overnight trip to Elko. We went to all the different grocery stores getting the best deals we could find (we got a months worth of food for about $450. That might seem like a lot to spend at once, but the same items in town would have cost double that. Elko is 180 miles away, so we only get there a few times a year so when we do, we stock up.)

I miss my kids. I know it seems silly. You're supposed to want some kid-free time, right? But oh my god, I miss them. I talked to Ruby on the phone yesterday. She said," Hi, Mommy! I want to go home." And I broke down right there in the cereal aisle of Super Wal-Mart. Twelve days just isn't going to happen ever again. Well, maybe when she's 20.

We went and saw a movie last night. It's funny, when you move from metropolis to the sticks, little things you used to take for granted are suddenly a big deal. Like stadium seating at the movies. Like having six movie choices, instead of one. Like being able to buy bulk couscous or find chicken sausage. It's the little things.

Anyway, we saw I Am Legend. I didn't realize until I went to look up the book that it was written by the same man who wrote one of my favorite books ever. Richard Matheson wrote What Dreams May Come. It's amazing. The movie was really good, too. But read the book. Matheson did a lot of research into life after death, and that lends a sort of authority to the story that makes it stick to you. It's the same reason that I Am Legend had me on the edge of my seat from the opening, while other zombie movies don't even appeal to me. He gives a scientific edge to the existence to them that is more frightening than all the Computer Graphic monsters they can throw at you.