Things that you would have learned this week if you were me...

Long time, no blog!

It's been a pretty intense couple of weeks. I have been working 40+ hours at one job, and 20+ at another. According to my math, that means that I've been averaging anywhere from 60-70 hours a week since I started the new job. You would think that this means that I don't have time to do much learning, and you're probably right, but these are just a few of the many discoveries you would have made if you were living my life this week:

1) You can do anything for a month or two, so long as there is an end in sight.

Working two jobs is positively exhausting, especially because I've been picking up extra hours at both in order to try to cover the expenses incurred while not working enough through most of the summer and fall, as well as the impending holidays. That being said, I'm pushing through and doing it with the best attitude possible with the knowledge that eventually I won't have to do this any more.

2) When people tell you the life you live is not conducive to a canine pet, they're probably right.

I love my dog and y'all know this, but so help me, if I didn't have a dog walker a couple of days a week, I would be screwed. She is a high energy dog and all of my energy is getting eaten up by the extra hours I've been working.

3) Good girlfriends are hard to find, but totally worth the wait!

It's funny, I've never been one to have girlfriends. I guess I've always just been a little course. That being said, I have unexpectedly found a couple of awesome girls who have crazy schedules like mine, who get that instead of spending a day mall-hopping or pub-crawling, maybe a night at home with some knitting and a movie is just the ticket.

These couple of girls are pretty amazing, both holding down 2 jobs or a job + school and some serious family commitments, and both come from backgrounds similar to mine, which means that we have a lot in common on all levels. None of us expected to find good friends at a part time job, but we did and for that I'm immensely grateful.

4) Most girl-on-girl hate and frustration comes from a lack of maturity.

Girls are talented when it comes to undermining the confidence of other women. Most of us are damaged in one way or another, and we recognize it in other women, and when dealing with each other it is really easy to make another girl feel about two inches tall using that small crack for leverage.

Women of a certain maturity level don't participate in this kind of behaviour, but some do, and it doesn't matter how grown up you are, when someone decides to play this kind of game, or use this kind of psychological-warfare-like tactic, it takes a strong woman to not fall victim to it.

5) As a society, we often fix things that aren't broken, and we should really stop it.

I'm all for progress, please don't get me wrong. I just think that certain things were fine the way they were. Sure, I could buy a sweater at a store, but then I've deprived someone I love (or myself) of the time to sit and knit (see: meditate) at the end of the day and make something truly beautiful. I've also deprived a LYS (Little Yarn Shop) of the business for the wool, and the artisan dyer as well. I'm really starting to be concerned about the global impact of these huge companies like Walmart and Target on not only the local economy, but also the creativity in our society.

Broad strokes here, folks. I'm really doing my best to hold my world together, but my perspective on the small things is changing in big ways, and it's forcing me to re-evaluate my focus. This whole extraordinary life thing... I'm working on it, but with that change in focus, comes a lot of reevaluation to be done, and changes to be made.

Patience. I think I need to work on patience.