Carolina In My Mind

In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina
Can't you see the sunshine
Can't you just feel the moonshine
Ain't it just like a friend of mine
To hit me from behind
Yes I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind

 

As a native North Carolinian and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, otherwise known as "Carolina", James Taylor's best known song has always had multiple meanings for me.  Last weekend the title of the song, "Carolina in my Mind" took on a whole new meaning.

 

I haven't been on the UNC campus much in the past 15 years or so, and when I have it's been primarily for football games.   So while I knew there had been changes and additional buildings built, etc., what I had seen was mostly confined to south campus, around the hospital and stadium. 

 

While I know that change is inevitable, I realized Saturday that the changes are so great, MY Carolina is now only in my mind.  The dining hall where I ate most of my meals my freshman year... gone.  The woods I walked through to class... gone.  The parking lot where we slid down the hill and onto the ice on anything we could find to sit on... gone.

 

This campus is not one I know.  It has been over 20 years since I left Chapel Hill, and it makes me feel old.  To my young, 25 year old, coworker, who just graduated a couple of years ago, everything looks normal.  To me, at least in a physical sense, it's an unfamiliar place.

 

But emotionally, part of me will always be there.  I can only imagine what it looked like when my father was there in the late 50's and early 60's, and I remember going to football games as a child and playing in the woods next to the bleachers while my parents watched the game in a stadium that held probably a quarter of the people it now holds.  I was born, raised, and bred Carolina, and no matter how much it changes, it will always be an important part of me.

 

So even though the Carolina I remember is now only in my mind, no matter what changes have occurred and are yet to come, Carolina will always be in my heart.


Resting Up and Gearing Up

Wow! I can't believe it's been three weeks. This has been a month of resting up and gearing up for the fun that begins tomorrow, otherwise known as legislative session.

On the resting up front, we spent a weekend with friends down in SC and have otherwise been enjoying some down time. This past weekend was spent laying around the house partially due to the ice outside and the rest a combination of Rob being sick and me being lazy.

On the gearing up front, work has been steadily increasing and I've just been trying to leave at a decent hour every day because I know that soon that won't always be an option.  I've also been trying to work on some personal goals for 2013.

I've decided that 2013 is "The Year of Knitting Socks", so one of my knitting goals is to knit 13 pairs of socks in 2013.

Aren't they lovely?

My other personal goals all relate to my recurring two goals to lose weight and write more.  At least I   keep trying right?  I'm trying a new tactic this year.  I have a "goal notebook" and once a week I set specific goals for each day of that week.  I also have "to do" for each day for things that just need to get done, but aren't really goals.  I give myself a star, yes a real gold star sticker, for every goal I meet each day and a smiley face, yes a sticker, for each "to do" I get crossed off the list.  At the end of the week I total up my stars and smiley faces.  Sounds silly in a way, but it really is fun to see a bunch of stars in one day!  So far, I'm only getting about 50% success per week, but once again....keep trying right?

I had something else in my head to write about today, but once again, trying to post a picture here from my ipad has ruined my mood, and now that I've finally come to the laptop to post the picture and finish this post, I can't remember what I had in mind to say.

Best Intentions

The clouds were very dramatic as I left work this evening, and since I'm trying to be more aware of moments like these, I took a picture.

Then I spent 30 minutes tonight trying to figure out how to get it from my phone to here via my ipad.  I've decided that the Blogger app is practically worthless.  Any post uploaded through the app is written in stone and completely incapable of being edited in any manner for eternity, so heaven forbid you're not perfect in typing on your phone or ipad.  I was trying to use the regular website (that I'm using right now from my laptop), but on my ipad.  Generally, that works well, except for the picture issue I encountered tonight.  I had no trouble getting the picture from my phone to my ipad through Dropbox, but why is it that on my laptop I have an option to upload a picture directly, but that same option does not exist on the browser on my ipad?  Makes no sense to me.  So I uploaded the picture from my ipad to Flickr and tried to link to the url, but blogger kept telling me there was no picture at that url, which was a total LIE.

Finally, I gave up and came to the laptop.  The picture is not really that great, or even necessary to what I originally intended this post to be about, but it was the principle of the matter by that point.  I've always found Blogger to be relatively simple when I was using only my laptop to post, but now that I've become more technologically tethered, it might be time to investigate other options.  I've viewed my smartphone and now my ipad as ways to possibly post more often since I can do it places other than at home, but that idea is backfiring because of the frustrations of trying to do things that seem so logical to me, but apparently are not to the programmers of Blogger.  Then again, I'm not sure I've ever known a computer programmer who thought like an average person.

So now that I've essentially written a blog post on my difficulties with making a blog post, I guess I'll save what I had intended to write about for tomorrow.  In the meantime, if anyone is reading this & has any suggestions for another method of setting up a blog that has an easy method of blogging from both smartphone (Android OS) and ipad, please let me know.

2013 Reading List

Books I've Read in 2013

I also have a Goodreads page where I sometimes provide more

 commentary on what I thought of the book.

January (8)

Big Sky River by Linda Lael Miller
In for a Penny by Maggie Toussaint
On the Nickel by Maggie Toussaint
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
The Abduction of Mary Rose by Joan Hall Hovey
Dare Me by Megan Abbott
Home Front by Kristin Hannah
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

February (9)
Careless in Red by Elizabeth George
Defending Jacob by William Landay
And Then You Dye by Monica Ferris
Cover of  Snow by Jenny Milchman
The Long Way Home by Mariah Stewart
The Wedding Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini
Until Proven: A Mystery in 2 Parts by Nora Gaskin
Return to Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs

March (5)
A Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell
Cold Feet by Karen Pullen
Regulated for Murder by Suzanne Adair
A Place in Life by Robert Hartstein
Two Graves by Preston & Child

April (5)
Reflection Point by Emily March
The Wanderer by Robyn Carr
The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Sand Castle Bay by Sherryl Woods

May
Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman
Wind Chime Point by Sherryl Woods
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
No Bells by F.M. Meredith
Huntress Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff
 

Another New Year

We had a nice New Year's Eve last night, with just one other couple, sitting around a fire in the backyard.  Today was a lazy day of watching TV and knitting.

And so another new year begins.

I've been thinking about my goals for the new year, and trying to make them specific, without making them so specific I fail immediately.  A lot of them are the same general goals I made last year, which I was spectacularly unsuccessful at achieving, but at least I guess I should get points for the fact that I keep trying right?

I'm going into this year optimistic that, despite all the dire warnings in the media, it will be a good one.  I'm definitely a glass half full type person, so I am hoping for the best in all aspects of my life, and the lives of those that I love, as well as the rest of the world.

Hoping you all have a wonderful 2013 as well.

The Year in Knitting

2012 is almost over, and other than the birth of our first granddaughter, it was a relatively uneventful year. 

So in lieu of a sentimental journey through the year, I thought I'd share some of my favorite completed knitting projects from the year.

I had fun making this blanket for Carey for her birthday in March.  Despite the fact that it was stockinette stitch, which is usually boring, the multiple color changes kept it interesting because I was always excited to see what the next color was going to look like with what I had done so far.

My oldest niece Madelyn had her first communion this year, and I made her veil.  This was my first real attempt at some sort of design, although in this case "design" meant pulling pieces from other patterns and stitch books and working out the stitch count.  Still, I was pleased with the result, and more importantly, so was my sister-in-law.

I've made sweaters before, but never for someone else.  This year I made a sweater for my college roommate, based on measurements that I took when I saw her in the spring.  She came to visit a month or so ago and I finally gave it to her, and it fit!

I made a bunch of shawls this year.  I blogged about one of my favorites earlier this year here.  I won't go into details on all of them, but here they are in all their glory.

 With a new granddaughter, of course a couple of baby items had to be knit!  Newborns grow out of clothes so fast I decided to wait until she's a little older to make sweaters, etc. so I made a couple of blankets for her.

I had a little fun with my yarn this year as well.  Dr. Who fans may recognize these next two.  I crocheted an Ood mask for a coworker of Rob's for Halloween, and knit a Dalek for Rob for Christmas.

So that's a summary of 2012 in knitting.  I'm declaring 2013 the Year of Knitting Socks, so stay tuned!

The Holidays Begin

It's the 21st of December and so far the world hasn't ended yet.

We've made it to our daughter's house and tomorrow morning, way too early, we fly out to Texas to visit our son and meet our granddaughter for the first time.

Probably no more posts until after the holidays. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Centered

When people ask where Sanford is, I always say I live in the middle of the state.  Apparently, that's a completely accurate statement.  The exact center of NC is located in Lee County.  Who knew?

We spent some time Saturday at the Alston House, also known as The House in the Horseshoe, for their Christmas open house event.  It wasn't a large event, but we enjoy visiting historical sites and this one is close to home.  You hear so much about Civil War sites in North Carolina, I often forget that there were Revolutionary War battles fought here as well.  

We wandered around for a while and talked to some of the re-enacters and demonstrators.  Met Webb the Weaver, who is extremely passionate about weaving, and boy what a talker!  He did however give me the name of a man who makes looms should I decide I want to purchase one.  (Yes, I'm considering learning yet another fiber craft, as if I don't already have enough yarn.)

It was a gorgeous day to be outside in December.  There wasn't an actual battle re-enactment this weekend, but they did have a 1 pound cannon.  We spent some time talking to the man who owns it, well, Rob spent some time talking to him, I just took pictures and listened.  As you can see, it apparently takes quite a few people to shoot off a cannon.

On the way home, we stopped at the site of an abandoned building by the river that I've always wondered about.  There's a picnic area there, so we knew it was o.k. to stop, we just never had.  It's the former site of the Carbonton Dam and the location of the exact geographic center of NC mentioned above.  It also was an operational hydroelectric power plant until 2004.  It's hard to imagine that this building that looks like it has been abandoned forever was still producing power just 8  years ago.  

Other than our historical outing on Saturday, the rest of the weekend was a combination of relaxing and getting things done in preparation for Christmas.  I've done enough of my Christmas knitting that I'm confident I can finish the couple of small things left to do.  All the gifts have been bought except for picking up a couple of gift certificates.  I just need to pack up what needs to go to TX and get it shipped this week so it will get there on time.

Not doing a lot of the usual things for Christmas since we'll be traveling, but I did make some cheese biscuits today.  No live tree this year, but I bought a small fake one, and while it's a little pitiful looking sitting on the floor and only 4 feet tall, it makes me happy, and that's what it's all about.