So last week was extremely stressful. This week is like the total opposite. It's quiet, it's calm. It's like we're inside the eye of a hurricane or something. huh. I just used an annoying simile. I'm sick of similies and metaphors.
At work the "powers that be" are referring to a tsunami and the wave effects. I've also heard the whole "we'll give you a bite of the apple," bit, the "we're a mile wide and an inch deep"routine, among other classics. Gag Gag.
So I'm joining in on this new phenomenon- or should we say, "jumping on the band wagon." What is a band wagon anyway? I said yesterday to my boss if there have been any "aftershocks" to last weeks meetings. While I said it I cringed on the inside a wee bit. I hate that kind of jargon- especially when it's coming out of my mouth. Just say what you think in plain english. Once in a while it's ok- but not with EVERYTHING.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
What's wrong
I'm really frustrated with everything around me. Work, home, the one dinky class I'm taking, what's on TV, what's for dinner, how my shoes fit, EVERYTHING. I'm not raggin it. I'm not hormonal. I'm just frustrated.
Maybe I need a vacation. Or maybe I should stop complaining. Or I should just suck it up and deal with it. I'm not the only one in the world with problems and my problems will probably bring me to shame when I hear about other people's hardships. OR, just maybe, I should frikkin start yelling at people; get out of my easy-going, go with the flow, accomodating kind of personality and really start being a total bitch. Will I then get my way? Probably not. I'd likely just get a reputation for being manic or something. Just my luck.
Oh and one more thing------people in the history of Wyoming class--- please- for the love of Pete, use spell check already! They are Indian warriors- not worriers. (sheesh) And "ecosystem" does not, repeat, DOES NOT have anything to do with Native American casinos. It's about the wildlife and landscape! It doesn't take a genius.
Maybe I need a vacation. Or maybe I should stop complaining. Or I should just suck it up and deal with it. I'm not the only one in the world with problems and my problems will probably bring me to shame when I hear about other people's hardships. OR, just maybe, I should frikkin start yelling at people; get out of my easy-going, go with the flow, accomodating kind of personality and really start being a total bitch. Will I then get my way? Probably not. I'd likely just get a reputation for being manic or something. Just my luck.
Oh and one more thing------people in the history of Wyoming class--- please- for the love of Pete, use spell check already! They are Indian warriors- not worriers. (sheesh) And "ecosystem" does not, repeat, DOES NOT have anything to do with Native American casinos. It's about the wildlife and landscape! It doesn't take a genius.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Licitarska Srca
from http://croatiagifts.safeshopper.com/261/1313.htm?130I'm a hunkie.
I live in Wyoming, but yet my Croatian roots from the good old melting pot of Pittsburgh aren't too far away. I say words like (spelled phonetically)"flooka" or "haluski" or "Jeshish, Maria" and most of the time even my husband asks me what the heck I just said.
Anyway, I volunteer to make a Christmas Party favor every year for my Grandmother's Croatian Group, Hrvaska Zene. I actually enjoy doing it. I can get my creative juices flowing and play with a glue gun until my hands are blistered. This year, though, is the last year for the club. According to my Gram she's the only active officer left and too many people are unable to come or are passed away. That's depressing. It's not just sad for her and her friends, but its the end of an era. See, my family's church was a Croatian ethnic church, and that was one of the groups that was founded there. Now it's like any memory of what "was" is going to be gone. Just a memory.
So, as a finale of sorts for the Christmas favor, I decided to incorporate a few things: it has to be something Christmas-y, something Croatian, and something that would bring about years of memories for the ladies. Easy task, right? Not so much.
After much searching on the internet for ideas of Croatian patterns, costumes, traditions, etc. I decided to make Licitarska Srca. They are "licitar hearts" that are a traditional cookie, sort of like gingerbread that is often used as a Christmas ornament rather than be eaten. One of the designs is to put a little mirror on the front of the cookie and then you give it to the one you love. When they look in the mirror- they see who you love. --- Well I thought it was perfect!
Many minutes (or hours, I donno) were lost from trying to figure out the supplies to make a "fake" cookie, but in the end I decided to make them out of sculpey. I pretty much ruined my rolling pin- as it is now bright red from rolling out red sculpey, but I now have a bunch of red hearts all over my kitchen table. I'm going to attempt to use puffy paint as the "icing" sooner or later- depending on when I feel brave enough.
Yes, I know it's only September, but I feel that making these little things is important both to me and to my Gram. I have got to get it right. Now, I have so many other projects at home to work on- too many to mention here without sounding like a total slacker. But yet I am so motivated to get my Gram's project done. Is it because she truly appreciates what I do? Maybe. Or is it that I so want to please her and impress her lady friends? Yeah sure. But I know I'm also doing it this year to have a bit of closure.
It's been almost 3 years now since St. Nick's locked its doors. My Mom isn't over it. My Gram tries to be over it but I know it still bothers her. And I feel that I moved away at such a time that I wasn't effected the way they were. This place was where I grew up pretty much. The place I also dreaded most of my adolescence and young adult years. But yet now I look back and see something different.
I feel like Linus in Charlie Brown Christmas when he puts his blanket around the little tree everyone made fun of and said "It really isn't such a bad little tree. All it needs is a little love." I feel like that when thinking of that little church.
I could go on and on about this. How my family's lives were changed. But it's not my reason for writing this entry. I'm writing about the significance of a little heart. And my Gram. I sometimes think about how she's not going to be around forever. So it's these times when we're working on a "project" together that I savor even though we're so far apart. I'm proud to be a hunkie. An Americanized, non-croatian speaking, ethnic-tradition keeping, palecenka-eating hunkie.
I live in Wyoming, but yet my Croatian roots from the good old melting pot of Pittsburgh aren't too far away. I say words like (spelled phonetically)"flooka" or "haluski" or "Jeshish, Maria" and most of the time even my husband asks me what the heck I just said.
Anyway, I volunteer to make a Christmas Party favor every year for my Grandmother's Croatian Group, Hrvaska Zene. I actually enjoy doing it. I can get my creative juices flowing and play with a glue gun until my hands are blistered. This year, though, is the last year for the club. According to my Gram she's the only active officer left and too many people are unable to come or are passed away. That's depressing. It's not just sad for her and her friends, but its the end of an era. See, my family's church was a Croatian ethnic church, and that was one of the groups that was founded there. Now it's like any memory of what "was" is going to be gone. Just a memory.
So, as a finale of sorts for the Christmas favor, I decided to incorporate a few things: it has to be something Christmas-y, something Croatian, and something that would bring about years of memories for the ladies. Easy task, right? Not so much.
After much searching on the internet for ideas of Croatian patterns, costumes, traditions, etc. I decided to make Licitarska Srca. They are "licitar hearts" that are a traditional cookie, sort of like gingerbread that is often used as a Christmas ornament rather than be eaten. One of the designs is to put a little mirror on the front of the cookie and then you give it to the one you love. When they look in the mirror- they see who you love. --- Well I thought it was perfect!
Many minutes (or hours, I donno) were lost from trying to figure out the supplies to make a "fake" cookie, but in the end I decided to make them out of sculpey. I pretty much ruined my rolling pin- as it is now bright red from rolling out red sculpey, but I now have a bunch of red hearts all over my kitchen table. I'm going to attempt to use puffy paint as the "icing" sooner or later- depending on when I feel brave enough.
Yes, I know it's only September, but I feel that making these little things is important both to me and to my Gram. I have got to get it right. Now, I have so many other projects at home to work on- too many to mention here without sounding like a total slacker. But yet I am so motivated to get my Gram's project done. Is it because she truly appreciates what I do? Maybe. Or is it that I so want to please her and impress her lady friends? Yeah sure. But I know I'm also doing it this year to have a bit of closure.
It's been almost 3 years now since St. Nick's locked its doors. My Mom isn't over it. My Gram tries to be over it but I know it still bothers her. And I feel that I moved away at such a time that I wasn't effected the way they were. This place was where I grew up pretty much. The place I also dreaded most of my adolescence and young adult years. But yet now I look back and see something different.
I feel like Linus in Charlie Brown Christmas when he puts his blanket around the little tree everyone made fun of and said "It really isn't such a bad little tree. All it needs is a little love." I feel like that when thinking of that little church.
I could go on and on about this. How my family's lives were changed. But it's not my reason for writing this entry. I'm writing about the significance of a little heart. And my Gram. I sometimes think about how she's not going to be around forever. So it's these times when we're working on a "project" together that I savor even though we're so far apart. I'm proud to be a hunkie. An Americanized, non-croatian speaking, ethnic-tradition keeping, palecenka-eating hunkie.
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