Interesting, but not too Interesting...

Check it...

2008-07-09T19:57:00.010-07:00

(click it and make it big)

1. What is your first name? Leah
2. What is your favorite food? Cheese
3. What high school did you go to? Which one?
4. What is your favorite color? Blues-greens
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Adrien Brody
6. Favorite drink? Blood Orange Soda
7. Dream vacation? Florida beaches!
8. Favorite dessert? Strawberry ice cream
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Happy
10. What do you love most in life? Family
11. One Word to describe you? Fabulous
12. Your flickr name? Lulu

Now go ahead, make one of your own. Here's how:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

...and because I respect that these photos belong to others... here are the links back to flickr:

1. DSC04073-v2 - Fire Angel - Leah with fire fans (San Francisco), 2. "I, Piórko, like Cheese!", 3. → L I G H T N I N G ←, 4. Exhibitionist!!, 5. adb041g, 6. Sangría, 7. Florida Beach, 8. Flickr meltdown, 9. Call of the Raven (formerly Nature's Special Effects), 10. Pinky, 11. Some Trains Go Nowhere, 12. Sister I'm a...........

This made my day.

2008-07-01T23:48:00.001-07:00

There's nothing like 90210 to brighten up your life.

I took this a year or more ago... the results are basically the same.

2008-07-01T13:43:00.003-07:00

When you take the test, they show famous people on your chart... I'm nestled right in between Hillary and Barack. Pretty accurate.

You are a
Social Liberal
(78% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(10% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid.com: Free Online Dating
Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Crossing over

2008-06-29T22:51:00.008-07:00

I reached a milestone in my work last week! I realized that I haven't posted about actually training since my first few trainings. I've probably done two dozen trainings since then. I know the material, but there are still facts, figures, and statistics that I am acquainting myself with and because of this, I nearly always get really nervous before each training. Any-who, I wasn't really looking forward to the 8 hour training I was scheduled to do on Wednesday, partially because it was 8 hours long and partially because of my nerves. I arrived and went through my normal introductions, still a little bit nervous but making it work. Then, while I was showing a short video, something clicked. I realized that I was standing there because of my expertise. The 24 people in that room weren't experts in the field judging and critiquing my knowledge and abilities. They were there to learn from me. It's okay if I don't have all the answers. It's okay if I don't have a million facts, figures, and statistics memorized. I know my material. I understand domestic violence. I am able to teach and explain the information in a way that is easy to understand. I've worked with victim/survivors first hand. I know what I'm talking about. The video ended and the following 7 hours turned out to be the best and most dynamic training I've given so far. The group filled out evaluations afterwards and they were the best evaluations I've ever received. It feels good. I feel as though I've crossed a threshold. I've gone from being the rookie trainer shaking in my boots to the confident and friendly trainer who isn't afraid of the "hard" questions. It helps that this job is the most empowering and supportive work environment I've ever been in. There are jobs out there where you can be treated like an equal! Can you believe that? It's great.

Because I said I would....

2008-06-29T17:01:00.008-07:00

Here are some photos from a recently finished project. I knitted a pacifier clip for my sister as she's about to have baby #3! This was one of the easiest projects I've ever done. I got the pattern from Susan B. Anderson, it's free on her website, which I've linked to on my sidebar under knitting links. The photos were taken with my camera phone and some of the backdrop is my leg and some is a random pillow case, 'cuz that's how I roll.

Miss me?

2008-06-17T21:26:00.005-07:00

Yeah, me too. I just haven't felt very creative lately. My knitting is neglected, my bedroom looks like a clothing/shoe store vomited in it, and I'm basically boring. I work, come home, sit on the couch or my supa-fly new recumbent exercise bike and watch tv/read news on the web. Oh yeah, I hang out with my family a lot too. But on the bright side, my foot is mostly better, I'm well-informed on current events and I'm more of an activist than ever. Many thanks to my job for that. I really enjoy the work I get to do and I'm able to stay up on the issues I care most about and get paid. I've encountered some really amazing people and some really CRAZY folks as well. My favorite part of my job is watching light bulbs go on as people really grasp what I'm saying. The even better part is when a training lights a fire and someone becomes committed to the cause of ending family violence. So, while I may be mostly boring in my personal life, my professional life is great and things are generally good all-around. I am going to post my most favorite quotes of late pretty soon. Those aren't boring! In the meantime, click the link below and find out how rich you are in relation to the rest of the world. It made me feel a little bit greedy, but also helped me recognize that there are little things I can do to help others. It's cool, I promise!

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

The Girl Effect

2008-06-06T10:41:00.003-07:00

This is very cool. Watch the video and check out the website.
The Girl Effect.

There are more people enslaved in the world today than at any other time in human history.

2008-05-21T10:03:00.002-07:00

Conversation

2008-05-10T17:37:00.004-07:00

Bank Clerk: I love your earrings!
Me: Thank you!
BC: You got them at Mervyn's?
Me: No, I got them from a local artist.
BC: (Gives me a quizzical look.) A what? Not at Mervyn's?
Me: (Returning the quizzical look.) No. A local artist made them and I bought them from her.
BC: Oh. That's odd. They're pretty though.
Me: Thanks?

Do you think he's single?

2008-05-06T21:58:00.001-07:00

This is the greatest thing I've seen in ages. He has more videos on YouTube and plays more produce!

I think I forgot how to be funny.

2008-05-01T20:01:00.003-07:00

My life consists of working and sleeping. With various t.v. shows mixed in.

I need a diversion.

A vacation.

An adventure.

But I'm a total stick-in-the-mud.

I work a lot.

I'm finally on the path to true financial security...

And while this thought is comforting and I'm quite proud of myself, I want to be reckless and use my money to travel the world, not to save for the future.

See? I'm so focused on grown-up things I'm totally boring!

No one cares about my finances or my workaholic ways.

You want adventure, romance, intrigue. Right?

You must, because that's what I want. Sheesh.

Well, I'm boring myself so much that I'm getting sleepy, so I'll try to pencil in some adventure time for myself this weekend and then pencil in some more time to record it here.

Goodnight.

REDUCE, Reuse, Recycle

2008-04-16T11:47:00.002-07:00

I just read an article about plastics and how they are ending up in the oceans, the food supply, and our bodies (causing cancer among other things). It's really quite an interesting read. Check it out here.

There are simple (and not so simple) things that each of us can do to conserve and protect the environment. I really have zero tolerance for apathy. You are involved in the problem whether you accept it or not. Choose to be involved in the solution.

Remember that time when I had a blog?

2008-04-05T21:16:00.001-07:00

So... it's been a really long time. How'ya doing? Good? Glad to hear it.

Life's good, busier than ever, but quite good. I really like my new job. It's going really well. I've spent the last 6 weeks shadowing the other trainers and learning the tricks of the trade. Thursday morning was my first solo presentation in the community. I spoke to a social work class at a University. I was a little bit nervous before-hand, but not too bad. It went well and my boss gave me really good feedback. Thursday night I participated in Take Back the Night at one of the other campuses (I manned a booth). It was cool. Next week I'm doing an 8 hour training for CPS employees and then I'm participating in a community diversity fair where I'm presenting twice. One workshop on DV 101 and one on Teen Dating Violence. The keynote speaker that day is going to be Ishmael Beah, author of "A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier." I'm excited to hear his story. I really have the coolest job ever.

My foot is doing better. I'm out of the boot and driving, but my foot still hurts and my toe is still swollen and my doctor seems to think that this is somehow okay. I'm going to seek a second opinion.

This basically sums up my life. I need to take pictures of my knitting and post them here. I'll make this my next goal.

I was feeling Nostalgic....

2008-02-09T14:27:00.001-07:00

Oh how I miss the good ol' days!!!

For those of you wondering what this means, this is one of the songs I sang in the little cover band with Joe and Moydie in Provo. Good times.

Don't hate. I'm not. Seriously. Maybe a little.

2008-02-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

I have something to say. And if it makes you mad, just promise to read it to the end. Because I'm not trying to be a hater, I just really want to make a point.

I'm glad that Mitt Romney resigned his campaign. Not because I hate him or disagree with him or anything else (although some of these things could be true). Because now it will force members of the LDS Church who were voting for him merely because of his religion to look at the issues. We can't jump whenever someone says that they are "conservative" or religious. I wish Huckabee would resign for the same reasons. Listen to me, the extreme Christian right does not respect you. They don't even recognize you as a Christian. Why align yourself with them in the name of conservatism? Okay, I'll admit that the last bit was a bit hater-ish, but true. My point is, please look at the issues individually. Truly.

The End.

I'm really really hot...

2008-02-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

I'm seriously cracking up at the photo I posted. My sis, Mojo, took it around Christmas time. I know, it's sad that I crack myself up so much. Who else is going to? I'm sitting at home blowing my nose and drinking orange juice with my foot up. I called in today because I had a fever and felt so terribly unwell this morning. I'm doing better now, thanks for asking. But I've been thinking about that photo and how it really does look just like the picture of me in the hospital the day I was born. It's uncanny. So I'm going to find that picture this weekend and scan it and post it here because then you'll see that I don't look a day over... a day. Don't hate me because I'm ageless... or infantile.... whatever.

Speaking of pictures, one of my roommates took some hot photo-tos of me a few weeks back at our friend's wedding. I'm gonna try to get my hands on those and post them here as well. Not that my most recently posted photo wasn't hot...

Good news for the Trainwreck

2008-02-05T22:12:00.001-07:00

This is what I looked like when I came out of the womb... sans the glasses and mascara and eyebrows.

Thank you to all of my beautiful friends for your get well wishes and support. Ya'll are the greatest. Okay, so I'm a really bad blogger/friend and make promises and don't follow through. The suspense! Alright already, the news I've made everyone wait so very very long for is that I have a new job. Many of you are smarter than the average bear and figured it out already. I was waiting to post it here until I'd given notice at my current job because some of my co-workers know this site and I didn't need them to spill the beans. I gave notice at the shelter last week and my last day there will be February 15th. It's a happy/sad situation. I've been at the shelter for three years and it is my HOME. I love it. This new opportunity just seemed to fall in my lap back in December. It's with the Coaliton Against Domestic Violence for my state. The second week of December, I was in a week long training at the Coalition and thought it would be really cool to have a job where I could basically stand on a soap-box preaching about a cause that I'm so passionate about. The trainers seemed really especially cool and it got me thinking. The second day in training, they announced that they had a training position open and stated all the requirements. Something inside me changed and I knew I had to apply and that a new chapter in my life was unfolding. I applied on Friday morning, had my first interview Friday afternoon and I was told that they'd call me the next week if I was going to be offered a second interview. I was really confident that I would get called back and sure enough; they called me on Monday and set up a second interview for the second week in January. (They needed time with the holidays and all.) Because I'd had a month to stew in the idea and am prone to self-doubt and a touch of anxiety, by the time the interview rolled around I was really unsure whether I was right for the job or was ready to leave the shelter. I very nearly called and canceled the interview. They told me it would be a two hour process and to come prepared to give a 10-15 minute presentation on DV101. I wasn't worried about the presentation at all, I was mostly just worried that I might actually get the job and have to leave the safety of my current situation. The interview was conducted by the three trainers I'd become acquainted with in December and began with a series of questions about DV. No worries there. Then they had me present with no clock to see how well I can time myself... I warned them first... and then went over by 7 minutes. It happens. Then they threw all the crazy stuff that people bring up in trainings at me to see how I would answer. It had been an hour and they asked me if I had any questions and I thought I was in the clear. Then they had me draw a card out of a hat. The card said, "DV in the Workplace." Then they sat me at a computer for one hour and had me create an outline for a one-hour presentation on DV in the workplace. Then it was over. They told me they'd contact me sometime within the next two weeks either by phone (a yes) or by letter (a no). They called me a week later. I start on February 19th. My official title is Training Coordinator. My job will involve staying up on all of the latest research and stats about DV and facilitating trainings all over the state. I'll be traveling quite a bit and will get to interact with shelter staff, law enforcement, and those fighting to end family violence all over the state. It's truly an amazing opportunity for me and I feel really blessed that it has come my way.

In other news....

My toe isn't broken. Hooray! My foot is. Crap. Seriously. I have a non-displaced fracture in the fourth metatarsal in my right foot. The fracture is is up high in my in-step (very near the cuboid) and according to my podiatrist, the more I walk on it, the higher the likelihood of it displacing and ruining my life. The solution?

There isn't one that works with my life.

I'm not supposed to walk on it at all. The only way to do this is with crutches. The problem with this? My collarbone is still very tender and because of this, I cannot use my arms to bear my weight. The only solution is to stay in bed. With a bed-pan and a ~~maid~~ houseboy. Again, not a viable option. So I continue to wear my walking boot, use my crutches to keep me from putting too much weight on my foot, and go about my business. Because I can't get off my foot the way I need to, it ALWAYS hurts. ALWAYS. I tapered off the pain meds so I don't become a junkie and I'm going to have to go back on them because I can't sleep at night. It's not like I'm on narcotics or anything, I'm just not used to taking any kind of meds. I take small doses of ibuprofen only when needed. Even for my migraines. Not a fan of meds. To top it all off... I'm coming down with a cold and may or may not have a stomach bug. I've just decided that all of my bad luck is going to happen at the beginning of the year so the rest of my year can be grand.

Here's to a grand rest of the year!!

You are not going to believe what had happened to me....

2008-01-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

If you want the good news, check my Facebook profile or call me. I probably won't post it here until Tuesday. For the bad news, see below.

WARNING WARNING GORY DETAILS WARNING WARNING
GORY DETAILS WARNING WARNING

Thursday night; the long version:

So.... about an hour after I wrote my last post, I decided to take a quick shower before going to bed. I had only been in the shower a few minutes and was shampooing my hair when I turned slightly and my bad foot gave out. I fell forward very hard and very fast. So fast in fact, that I couldn't even use my arms to stop myself and I hit my neck and collar-bone on the faucet. I could feel really sharp pains shooting through my bad foot and I very carefully righted myself using my left arm. Once I was sitting upright, I looked down and noticed that two of my toes were swelling up and one had a gash across it and was bleeding. Intense pain was radiating from my collar-bone and shooting up my neck and down my arm. It was at least a minute before I realized that I was hyper-ventilating. I had to focus on breathing slowly. I very carefully felt my collar-bone and neck and since no bones were sticking out or felt displaced, I lifted my right arm to see how it felt. It hurt, but it was movable. I carefully washed the shampoo out of my hair, washed the runny black mascara off my face, turned off the water, and slowly and carefully lifted myself up onto the side of the tub. I put my legs over the tub, slowly stood up and felt stabbing pains in my right foot. I wrapped a towel around myself, threw a towel down along the length of the bathroom for traction and gingerly limped my way to my bedroom. I sat down on my bed and just sat still for a few minutes. Then I picked up a mirror. I was surprised to find that my face was puffy from crying since I hadn't even realized that I was crying and then directed the mirror down to my collar-bone. There was a gash across my collar-bone and my neck was swelling just over my jugular vein. I carefully dressed myself and looked around for my phone. I began crying again when I realized it was in the family room. I briefly debated laying down and going to sleep but feeling uncertain about my collar-bone and my ability to move once I woke up, I grabbed one of my crutches that was conveniently next to my bed and slowly and painfully made my way to the family room. I sat on the couch and picked up my phone and then began crying in earnest. A thousand thoughts crossed my mind; why hadn't any of my housemates woken up when I fell? I really should get those traction strips for my shower. Will my work-comp cover this since it was caused by my previous injury, but happened at home? Will I ever get to drive again? I'm going to have to buy all new shoes. Can I still get an MRI in the morning? Will they do an MRI on my neck while I'm in there? Did I almost just die? What if that had been my face? What if that had been my head and I were a vegetable? Would my family go through my stuff? I'm going to have to go to the ER with wet hair and no bra. Are all my toes broken? Those collar-bone braces are ugly. Did I get all the mascara off my face? What if I can't go to work for weeks? What am I going to do about my new job? How am I going to get all the way to work everyday if I can't drive? Will my agency still pay my medical bills after I quit? Do I really need to go to the ER?

While all these thoughts were running through my head, I was crying hysterically. It took me 30-45 minutes before I felt calm enough to call my sister. As soon as she picked up the phone, I was hysterical all over again. I was finally able to choke out that I'd fallen and that I thought my collar-bone and toes may be broken. She told me to stay put and that she was on her way. After she hung up, I realized that my door was locked and my housemates were all still sleeping, so I calmed myself further and called one of my housemates and told her what just happened and she came racing from the top floor to the basement where I was camped out. She was awesome. It was really comforting just to have someone sitting next to me. My sister and brother arrived shortly after that to take me to the ER.

The ER visit deserves its own post because it's good entertainment... so I'll tell you all the details later. Just so you know, my collar-bone is NOT broken, just terribly bruised. I broke the fourth toe on my right foot, but everything else is intact. I've been camped out at my mom's all weekend and I have bruising up and down the right side of my body. I feel amazingly blessed that my injuries weren't more serious.

More to come later.

I'll be a G-I-M-P 'til I D-I-E.

2008-01-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

I'm still gimpy. I have to get an MRI on my foot first thing in the morning. It's been 5 weeks since my injury and I still can't walk or drive and after three sessions of physical therapy, the pain intensified - in the extreme. I really really hope that it's just the moderate sprain as originally diagnosed and that it's just taking a little bit longer to heal that anticipated. So basically I'm in denial.

It happens.

In other news...

I have really good news. I'll announce it tomorrow.

This is Beautiful.

2008-01-22T21:40:00.001-07:00

Christina Aguilera - Save Me From Myself [Official Video]

Rainbow-colored love

2008-01-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

When I learned how to knit, I only had one pair of knitting needles. In one size. That's all I needed for my class. I've used these needles to work on the dragon. When I got the pattern for the baby blanket, I bought one set of circular needles and brought my collection up to the grand total of two pairs. For those of you who don't knit, different projects require different sized needles and some patterns call for more than one size. So, as I've recently acquired several fantastic knitting books and have gotten really excited about projects I want to do, I needed to expand my collection. Then I found a website called "Knit Picks." They have some BEAUTIFUL needles and all the various reviews I read online said that they are really great. So I purchased a set - it comes with 9 pairs of needles. And they came today. They really are gorgeous. Much much prettier than any of the pictures. I did a google image search to show you what they look like as I'm still as yet digi-cam free. Here are some of the random photos from the web:

Listen up, Yo.

2008-01-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll.

So... many of you know how I feel about the importance of getting out to vote. Seriously. It's REALLY REALLY important. I'm non-partisan and try to be very objective and look at each issue individually. I won't go into my personal views here as I don't think it's necessary right now. How and why you vote is your business and I will leave you to it. My point is, DO IT. I got my hands on some statistics today that I really want to share with you. They have to do with who is voting, by age. I'm assuming that most of my readers are relatively close to me in age (25-35). So I'm addressing this information to you.

This is who is actually voting, broken down by age:

35.5% are 55+
21.3% are 45-54
19.5% are 35-44
14.5% are 25-34
9.3% are 18-24

Why does my age bracket only represent 14.5% of voters? Come on people. This is shameful. I have had amazing philosophical and political conversations with many of my friends who fall in my same age bracket. Many of you have ideas that are amazing and inspired and that can literally change the world. This said, we must get out and vote. Apathy is not okay. Even if you don't spend weeks and months studying the candidates, take an hour or two and look at the issues. Decide where you stand. Don't let anyone else decide for you. One of my favorite quotes says, "Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul." Mark Twain. Put a little bit of effort into this. Younger voters are turning out in record numbers to the primaries... lets keep the momentum going all the way to the election.

Here are some voting links. Get registered, get informed, get to the polls.

Rock the Vote
USAY Foundation
Project Vote Smart
USA.gov Voting Information
Declare Yourself
Voto Latino

Hands and Feet

2008-01-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

I'm knitting a baby blanket... and the poor little dragon has fallen to the wayside. Literally... his little tail is poking out from under my bed. The body is done and even stuffed, he just needs his legs and wings. How sad. The blanket is halfway done though. I think that I'm probably going to knit the same way I read, several books at a time. I currently have 4 books next to my bed. Oh well. I'll finish when I finish.

I can stand on my foot... but still can't drive or wear a regular shoe. I went to the doctor yesterday and he was concerned because any pressure on the top of my foot causes really intense pain. I can stand flat footed and have regained most of my range of movement (walking is still an issue). He says that the x-ray may have missed something and that if things don't improve with physical therapy, I have to get an MRI. Great, just when I thought I was in the clear.

Other than that... I should have some new news for you after the 14th, but I won't mention anything here just yet... just know that it could be really good or kinda disappointing. Cryptic enough for you?

For Old Time's Sake...

2008-01-02T20:57:00.001-07:00

I was wandering around in my favorite knitting store last week and this song was randomly playing... I had a flashback and felt this was necessary.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

Follow my lead and don't set any year-long resolutions!

I don't believe in them! I set short-term seasonal goals, they're more manageable and empowering. I'm knitting and limping my way into 2008. Both my knitting and my foot are improving day by day. This will be an excellent year because I'll be 28 this year and 28 is my lucky number.

Have a Lucky New Year!