2010 has been quite the eventful year so far, with no signs of letting up.

It started with Rich encouraging me to take a beginner’s sewing class that another girl in our ward was taking. As he put it, “You need to start hanging out with girls who aren’t 15.” In other words, start making more “adult” friends instead of just doing stuff with the girls I work with in the LDS Young Women’s program. My fantastic mother-in-law had taught me a few things, and I’d made some pajama pants over the Christmas break and I’d made a few simple skirts before, but I definitely still needed a basics class.

The class was 3 weeks, about 2 hours each week, and the class promise was that by the end, we’d have an Amy Butler reversible bag! The class was given at Fabric Crush, and when I had walked in to buy my fabric for the bag, I was a little overwhelmed with all the fabric! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED their fabric, but I was nervous about having flowers and stuff on my fabric for my bag. What if it turned out with half-flowers all over the place? But I decided to dare and got some cute fabric – purple for the outside and brown for the inside, to match the two colors I seem to wear most these days.

During the course of the class, I learned a lot! For example, not all sewing machines weigh 20 pounds. Not all sewing machines sound like a sewing factory (cured when my mother-in-law helped me oil it later). And I LOVE how simple my sewing machine is. Sure, it only has 6 stitches, and the tension and stitch length are changed with dials, but I love it. I didn’t have to keep pressing buttons on the machine to finally find where the straight 2.5 stitch was; and the needle on my machine stayed put when I unplugged it (my friend’s would go back to the default location, throwing her seam size off every time). I also didn’t realize how much about sewing I didn’t know. The funny part (for my hubby) was watching me helping my friend along with her bag. As my friend put it, it was the legally blind leading the truly blind.

However, during the blind-leading-blind time together, my friend had made one of the bag handles a little too narrow. She commented what a cute headband it would make. The next time we were working on our projects together, I took her headband, and, with my husband’s help (“Couldn’t you just put the elastic from end to end instead of threading it all the way through?”), we created a reversible headband to match her bag! I got jealous of her headband and made one for myself. Ta-da! Coordinating headband and bag…CHECK!

After the project was over, I started itching for more. I had bought a number of patterns for skirts and tops that I hadn’t quite tackled yet. I had tackled one that called for knit as a fabric option, and my mother-in-law had helped me learn how to read it and cut my fabric, but I had even more information now! I wanted to apply it! So…I decided to take out another one of the skirt patterns, buy the fabric required, and start a new project.

And voila – a new skirt made from a cute rayon print! WOOHOO! The fabric was tough to work with; I learned how to increase my stitch tension so the thread wouldn’t keep skipping stitches. There was a LOT of ripping seams for this one. I finally decided I’d just hand-hem the bottom. Of course, that hasn’t been done yet…but it’ll get done eventually. (Okay, so my sister-in-law and cousin-in-law have influenced me on this one…nobody will notice and it looks just fine as-is, why bother?)

After that skirt came a visit from my in-laws and my mother-in-law taught me how to bind a quilt. I haven’t quite finished it yet, but once I do, I’ll post a picture. My sister-in-law pieced the quilt, my mother-in-law quilted the quilt and helped me bind it. I hope to have it completely bound in the next week or so.

This last weekend, rather than work on binding the quilt, I decided to inventory all of my fabric I’d purchased in years past and done nothing with. I was a good girl and washed all the fabric I was intending to use. I found some red velvet type of fabric that looked like it was enough for a skirt. I couldn’t remember where I’d gotten it from, though. I decided I’d try out another new pattern that was a simple 4-panel skirt with a yoke. I learned to read the pattern through FIRST, BEFORE cutting the fabric. After cutting the first two panels, I decided to look at the pattern and realized…I only had enough fabric left for a third panel! OOPS! I put my new-found knowledge to the test, though, and, in the end, had a cute 3-panel skirt with yoke. (NOTE: I realized tonight as I was taking pictures that my seam for the yoke did NOT actually match up with the back seam as intended…oh well, I don’t tuck my tops in anyway.)

In addition to the skirt, I made another 3 reversible headbands (only to realize when I was done that I don’t have much yellow in my closet!) and two ribbon headbands (my friend shared this awesome link with me that gave instructions on how to make them).

Next up…my first try at making a top and an introductory embroidery class!! I’m loving this!

Genetics. Deoxyribonucleic acid. The thing that makes us individual…unless you’re an identical twin, in which case, it makes you exactly the same as one other person.

I was listening to information about genetics, chromosomes, DNA, assays, and alleles today, and it renewed my sense of wonder for the world of genetics. Genetics is one of the majors I’d considered after high school. When I was in AP Biology as a junior in high school, to me, nothing was as interesting as the section on genetics. That stuff was SO intriguing. At the time, the Human Genome Project was still fairly new, and I thought it would be so cool to be a researcher on the project. My grand plan was to major in genetics and music. Only one school in Washington offered genetics as a major, though – Evergreen State College. Somewhere along the line, my mother had heard that the field of Genetics wasn’t going to grow much after the Human Genome Project was done. For some reason, I didn’t consider the idea that the Human Genome Project would just be a starting point in many senses, and that there would be a vast array of applications for the study of DNA and genes.

I remember making grids to map out potential traits that could carry over into children, depending on the parents’ genotype. I had a BLAST doing that mapping.

In college, I took a microbiology course (because the description of the course said it would include a section on genetics) and one of the labs was analyzing our own DNA. We got a photo paper with our genetic markers showing…I honestly kept that thing for YEARS. I don’t remember why I finally tossed it; I think I looked at it one day and thought it was a little silly to be carrying around this picture of my DNA. But, I kid you not, I thought it would be useful to someone if they found my body somewhere and needed to do some DNA testing. I thought it was a better form of identification than my drivers’ license.

I don’t know why I felt the urge to post this, other than to walk down memory lane a bit and publish my ultra-geekiness to the world. Some day, I plan on going back to school to take genetics classes, just for fun.

Yes, I’m definitely a GEEK.

I know it’s the middle of January, which is nearly like being in the middle of 2010, but I had grand plans back at the end of December to post a 2009 in review. But that never happened. I never did take the time to write my very serious reflective piece about things I learned in 2009.

So, since I didn’t do it then, I’ll just share a few things now.

Movies

I think there were more movies I was excited about in 2009 than I remember being excited about for a long time! Among my favorites – Star Trek. I grew up a kid trekkie (sans Spok ears), watching the original, then Next Generation, then DS-9, Voyager, and Enterprise. Some time in my teens, I remember Star Trek phasing out of our weekly TV watching. So when the Star Trek movie came out, I was EXCITED. Watching that movie, I giggled and kept turning to Rich explaining the jokes about characters in the original Star Trek as though he wasn’t familiar with the series.

Later, when I realized that there were people who did not know about Kirk and Scotty, I was in shock. I felt…OLD.

Seattle Life

Growing up on “the other side of the state, where it’s dry and sunny,” Seattle was this place to visit on occasion. I really didn’t know much about what happened in Seattle. When I was in high school, I heard about Pike Place and how cool it was, but never visited it. Later, in college, I actually went to Seattle. I remember going to Pike Place and thinking it was cool, but really crowded, and loving the Piers. Never did I think of Seattle as a place that people LIVED in. Even visiting it with friends for a weekend vacation a couple of years ago, I commented that I couldn’t see anybody living in Seattle.

Z, my dear, eat thy words.

Seattle is cool. It’s pretty snazzy, even. There was finding Alderwood Mall (HUGE), walks around Green Lake, a kayak ride with Rich on Green Lake, taking a boat around Lake Union and stopping at the dock at Ivars on the lake with my team at work, but maybe the biggest highlight was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Dressing for the evening, I felt like I was playing dress-up. I even paid attention to the bag I was carrying and swapped out my canvas bag for a little bag that only held my wallet, my cell phone, and some lip gloss (you know, like those big girl evening clutches…kinda). Walking into the theater, I was almost giddy. Thankfully, my husband was helping me not make a fool of myself who wanted to act like a little girl in a candy store. It was definitely an evening to remember.

Friends

Having lived in one place basically all my life, it was hard to move to a new city. It was tough having to find all the basics, like grocery stores. It was even more tough to realize we’d have to exercise those friend-making skills. I was asked to work with the teenaged girls at church in the LDS Young Women’s organization, and I remember feeling extremely nervous. I didn’t know anyone there, and I was supposed to teach and help the girls learn about God and grow into beautiful young ladies. But I met

This picture was taken out of the window of the car as I was coming down a hill on my way home from work. This, for those unfamiliar, is what traffic at about 5:30pm in the middle of the week can look like in Seattle.

So, what does one do when in such traffic?

Option 1: Get Mad

The option that some might be inclined to take is to simply get mad. This could be accentuated with various exclamations: “Oh my WORD this traffic is slow!” “What on EARTH is going ON?!” “CAN WE GO ANY SLOWER!??”

As you get mad at the situation, you can then extend that to the cars that are trying to change lanes in the middle of the craziness. Again, some worthy exclamations might be: “NOT in front of me! I’ve already been in line too long, buddy!” or “You’ve GOT to be KIDDING.”

Once in awhile, just for added measure, you could try smacking the dash of your car. This is best done while uttering some exclamation (see above for examples of things to exclaim).

By the time you get home from the drive, you’re thoroughly disgusted with the traffic, with Seattle’s traffic system, with the lack of more lanes of traffic to ease this situation, and with anything having to do with cars, people, or life in general. “I HATE Seattle!” would be the culminating exclamation for this choice.

Option 2: Chat on the Phone

Here’s a second option for drivers stuck in this traffic – get up to date on your friends’ lives by chatting on the phone! After all, it’s not like this will be hazardous to your driving, right? Nobody’s really moving that fast anyhow, and you’ll be plenty aware of what’s going on around you.

As an added bonus, if you see something cool happen, your friend could get a detailed description of the scene! It’s like being there live! Depending how far you need to go while the stop and go traffic is stopping and going, you could get a great half hour conversation in!

Of course, if you’re really getting into the conversation, you could find yourself not moving, or not paying attention, leading to one of two things: people honking at you to MOVE (perhaps by someone choosing Option 1 above) or people honking at you because you’ve now been involved in an accident in which you rear-ended the person in front of you when you didn’t realize how close they were.

But hey, your friend got a full description while it was happening!

Option 3: Contemplate Life, Learn a Little!

Here’s another option for these traffic times: enjoy some time to contemplate life and maybe even listen to some great music or a great book.

Let’s reflect on the situation: nothing I do will move the traffic any faster, or move me any faster. I’ve learned that changing lanes to get into the “faster lane” only seems to make it the “slower lane” and I end up in the wrong lane when I need to get off, making the people around me upset as I try to squeeze in the 6 feet of space that someone has left for me so I can try to get across to my exit. It’s better to just keep plodding along on my course for home, and take some time to listen to some great music.

I know it sounds cheesy, but the traffic time turned into “me” time. I haven’t yet actually started listening to books on DVD, though I’m planning on it. After all, my drive home is usually about 30 minutes anyhow, why not get something nice out of it? I’d rather spend 30 minutes winding down than spend 30 minutes fuming…or catching up with friends and getting into and/or causing accidents (this is of course not taking into account the fact that talking on a cell while driving is now a ticketable offense, secondary, yes, but I’d rather just not do it).

Option 4: Take the Bus

I’d be remiss if I didn’t post this fourth option of mass transit. My only problem with this is that it takes me longer, even in poor traffic, to take the bus than it would to simply drive. We live near an entry to the express lanes, which typically reduces the time I spend driving were I to take the regular interstate route, but it can still get slow at times. There are days I wish I took the bus just so I could catch up on some reading, but I also know I’d spend my time looking out the window and seeing what’s going on, rather than reading. So, car it is for me for now!

Quick…name the person who originally said, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been getting back to an early-morning workout routine. I’ve been taking it easy, so that I don’t make the knee and foot pains bad, but I’ve been getting up early a few days a week to exercise. I decided that today, instead of exercise, I’d get to work early to work on a big project.

I didn’t get less sleep than I have on other days, so I don’t know why I was so out of it when I got to work, but out of it, I definitely was.

I parked the car and decided against the stairs. I’d done some pretty intense workouts the prevoius two days and wanted to give my legs a break. So I went to the elevator and pressed the Up button. The elevator showed up, I got on, and then it went…DOWN. Confusion point #1: I thought I pressed the UP button?

A security guy got on the elevator and pressed the button for the 1st floor, so up we go. He gets off, the elevator closes, and…nothing. It does nothing. Confusion point #2: why isn’t the elevator moving?

I look up and realize the button I’d pushed to get me to the floor I work on wasn’t lit. Confusion point #3: didn’t I push the button for my floor?

So, I do what any normal person would do. I pushed my floor button again. No light. Again. No light. Again. No light.

Now I’m really confused. Why won’t the button stay lit? Worried the elevator DID move and I’m stuck on the elevator (note: I never felt it move after we reached the 1st floor, but I could have been mistaken), I press the Open Doors button. Half-expecting to see a wall, I instead see…the 1st floor. I press the Close Doors button. THEN I press the button for my floor. (See? It was DIFFERENT.) Nothing.

Open Doors. Look out. Close Doors. Press Button. No light. Repeat.

Review the definition of insanity…again.

Open Doors. Looks out. GET OUT. Let doors shut BEHIND me. Press the Up button to call a DIFFERENT elevator (because obviously, that one was broken). No light. Press the Up button to call an elevator again. Elevator doors open. I look at them. They close. I decide the elevator has something against me.

I take the stairs.

As I went to the stairs, I saw a guy heading to the elevators. “Good luck,” I think to myself. “You won’t ever get them to work for you! They’re BROKEN. See you on the stairs, buddy.”

Only…I never hear the door to the stairs open. NOW, I’m irritated. How’d he get the elevator to work?!

I relayed the story to a co-worker later in the day. She reminded me that when you show up outside of the building core hours, you need to swipe your badge in the elevator so it knows to let you go to any floor of the building.

DOH. Foiled again by security systems. (Sadly, I had figured this point out before when needing to get into the building AFTER hours, but it never seemed to occur to me there would be BEFORE hours building hours.)

P.S. Benjamin Franklin.

So, last night, I felt pretty guilty about having come home to simply eat and then work, pretty much blowing off Family Home Evening. I’ve enjoyed the FHE nights that Rich and I have, mainly constituting playing a game together. It’s just nice to have that dedicated time together.

Last night, though, I ended up working and Facebooking while Rich was playing a video game. Go me.

So, after finally shutting the computer, I offered to play a game with Rich. Since he was already on the XBox, we chose something there. My favorite thing to play on XBox 360 is Settlers of Catan but we’d just played that over the weekend and I didn’t know if Rich would be up for it.

Instead, we played an old classic, now playable on XBox 360 thanks to EA Games, Battleship!

Here’s a game that’s a definite classic. And yet…there are variations I’d never heard of before playing it on the Xbox. My favorite variant is Salvo – you start with 5 hits (one per unsunk ship) and lose one hit for each ship your opponent sinks. MUCH BETTER than the one by one shots in the traditional Battleship.

When we first got this, Rich got such a kick out of me playing … with every hit, I’d kick up my legs (we, of course, were sitting, not standing) and shout, “BOOM!” much like a little kid. I was having a BLAST (no pun intended). Last night, I was tired, so no shouts, but I still get a kick out of this game. I think part of it is having Mr. Potato Head watching to the side as you play. Yes, Mr. Potato Head. What can I say, I’m a fan!

I still feel guilty for having to bring home work. I really hate when it happens. I treasure my home time and do whatever I can to keep work and home completely separate. It’s just worse when we have plans for a great FHE that have to be set aside so I could get work stuff done!

I’ve read a few friends’ blogs recently and wondered…why can’t I write fun stuff like that?

Then I realized: I don’t have a camera that I take snapshots with, so my blogs end up picture-less.

I don’t write short things, but long exposees on random topics.

I don’t do enough fun things to capture people’s attention. My blog would probably end up being about work, the LDS Young Women’s program, and boardgames.

Okay, maybe it COULD be a cool blog after all.

So, apparently, in my old age, I’m starting to break down. A couple of months ago, the toe-next-to-the-big-toe on my right foot started feeling odd after long walks, or after a spin session, or after running… You get the drift. It wasn’t all the time, but once in awhile I’d get this odd tingling in that toe. After awhile, the tingling became a dull ache. I also started getting weird pains in my right knee – and not really pains, I just couldn’t lock my knee like I usually do without feeling like it might break. And my right hip started feeling wacky; I’ve always had times when it feels like it needs to pop, and I usually can get it there, but this time, no matter how to contorted my leg, it wouldn’t pop. In true Z fashion, I kept working out, but I finally decided to go to the doctor when the toe wouldn’t stop bugging me. Doctor told me to try a physical therapist. Physical therapist found issues with my lower back, in addition to the knee and foot issues. For awhile, I was starting to just do the elliptical for a workout, but my doctor had said healing might go better if I laid off for awhile from the workouts. So, though I’d cut back quite a bit, I figured I’d actually try to do what the doctor recommended and lay off for a bit.

Meantime, I had a flight to Atlanta and then girls’ camp for church. Both were enjoyable, but sleeping in a long house for camp didn’t help the right side issues. My pad wasn’t really thick enough to mask the fact I was sleeping on a wood shelf, which made sleeping…interesting. At any rate, I felt active, but it was going on two weeks without a workout. I did one workout before going to camp, but my knee kept me from feeling comfy doing squats or lunges, and though I was kickboxing, I ended up just shuffling a bit on the ground and punching as much as I could. I felt like a total mess.

It’s now been a week back from camping, and I still haven’t worked out. Rich and I finally went on a 3-mile walk a couple of days ago, but my knee started aching on the last hill back. For those of you who know me, you know how much of an exercise junky I am. This is like torture for me! I was loving my running and the long walks Rich and I were taking, and to think that my knee was bothering me just after a 3 mile walk is really painful. I got a massage yesterday that felt great – except I realized afterwards that I couldn’t bend forwards! At that point, I just wondered – what on earth is going on, really? Why am I suddenly feeling like I’m 90?! I want to run, cycle, kickbox, jump!

I keep thinking of all of those articles I’ve read about people becoming huge pilates and yoga fans after having injuries that kept them from doing their high-impact workouts and how they all got flatter tummies than they’ve ever had and better muscle toning… But I just can’t bring myself to do the pilates and yoga! If I’m not drenched in sweat after working out, I haven’t worked out in my book. I have no problem adding it to a workout regimen, but I can’t grasp the concept of that being my WHOLE workout regimen. On the other hand, considering I can’t do my other workouts without worrying about getting seriously injured, I might get a lot of benefit from the stretching and toning that could come from the low-impact stuff.

Interestingly enough, I actually have been so busy for the past two weeks (camping included) that I haven’t given too much through to my limited exercise ability. It’s been odd not to really be going completely crazy because I can’t do all my zany workouts. I expected to be handling this much worse!