and the winner is...

quilting?

can you sense my certainty?

still, I think it's a good choice because what I think is good about quilting is what I think is good about knitting; you (in theory) produce usable/consumable items.

however, I can't help but think that every quilt I attempt is going to turn out like every latch hook rug I ever started and that means unfinished. still, I'm excitied to get started!

in need of hobby

I spent a lot of time doing nothing this holiday weekend. I very much enjoy doing nothing. there's so much something going on most of the time that nothing is usually a nice change. I watched football, ate a lot of food, visited my local library, and watched the first season of The West Wing (oh how I loved The West Wing back in the day!). but while nothing is generally good, I do somethimes get bored with it and, yesterday afternoon, I wondered if I shouldn't find something to do while I'm doing nothing, what some people might call a hobby.

at first I thought: knitting but I feel like knitting became quite trendy a few years ago so now I'm wondering if I should find some other hobby to pass my time and get myself on the cusp of whatever might be trendy next. but what might that be?


macrame?

catalog irony

I'm beginning to think that the Design within Reach catalog (and store) is meant to be taken ironically because how could you think that a $250 pillow is within walking distance, let alone within reach?

fun at work

Mine!,
originally uploaded by leeann.ie.

on tuesday, we had a pumpkin carving contest at work. my team's pumpkin didn't win but I think that's because ours looked way better lit up than it did just plain like this.

a moment of silence

last night I went to see David Sedaris. it was incredibly funny and touching as his essays are and it's been a long time since I laughed that hard for that long. if you ever have a chance to see David Sedaris live, I recommend you do it. unfortunately, Denver was Sedaris' 31st stop on a 32 city tour so unless you are going to be in Boston on Friday night (which a few of you actually might be) you're going to have to wait until the next time around.

at the end of the evening, to fill some time, Sedaris read us a funny entries from his diary: "September 25, 2007 - to mark the occasion of Marcel Marceau's passing, I observed a moment of silence."

the laughter that entry got was roughly equivalent to the imaginary laughter my miming bit received which is to say there was lots of it.

anyway, it's halloween night and I'm home alone watching ghost hunters. I usually can't watch shows like this by myself because I get too freaked out, even when there's nothing scary. people whispering in the dark is enough to do it and I have no idea why this is. it's a live episode tonight so that may be why I'm able to watch it on my own - they've gotta edit out a lot of nothingness and dumb comments that make no sense to come up with the finished product. for example:

dude #1 - hey! watch out!!!!
dude #2 - what?
dude #1 - that's like a 100 ft. drop over there!
dude #2 - yeah, but I'm like 10 feet away.
dude #1 - well that's 10 feet too far!

um...

to distract myself from all the scariness, I'm baking pumpkin cookies that are really sort of like muffin tops. yummy. they are cooling right now and then the final step is to drizzle them with dark chocolate. more yummy.

gone baby, gone

I officially sold my Jetta today. he was on the market for less than a week. only a few days, really. I posted him on the Denver Craig's List Saturday morning and I had an offer by Sunday night.

I definitely got a little sentimental about the whole thing. letting kyle go was like letting go of eight very meaningful years of my life, years through which I changed profoundly and became me. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to that part of my life and so I lingered over the paper work, explained the car keys, demonstrated the glove compartment. the buyers were unphased and seemed like they wanted to hurry things along. the whole transaction only took about ten minutes, which wasn't nearly long enough.

I wanted to give kyle a hug before they pulled away with him but I thought that might be interpreted badly so I just patted him and said goodbye.

the buyers could have cared less about my sentimentality. they were eager to get my car and start their fun and I have to tell you, I was a little insulted by it all. you know the worst part about it? they drove kyle away like they owned him or something.

why wouldn't we?

so at work we've been talking about using wikis to share/store knowledge and I put together a little presentation to try to convince my boss that a wiki is the way to go. I thought only he and one other person would see the presentation so I made it a personal goal to use as many double-yous as possible in the presentation with slides that answered questions like "why would we want a wiki at work?" I guess the other individual liked the wiki idea and so she passed the presentation (and all of it's w's) on to her entire department. wow.

Too bad, Lee Ann

tonight, instead of going to my monday night yoga class, I decided to kick back and have have some me time. I turned on the TV to decompress and then went to get some dinner together. I wasn't really paying attention to what was on TV but then I heard someone say my name... I know my name isn't that uncommon but it's uncommon enough that when I hear someone say it, I look because chances are they're talking to (or about) me.

it turns out jeopardy was on and one of the contenstants was named Lee Ann. I was going to change the channel but I noticed that Lee Ann spelled her name the same way that I do (most other Lee Anns aren't really Lee Anns. they're Leigh Anne's or Le Annes or whatever). I felt an immediate kinship with this Lee Ann and Lee Ann was in the lead. I kept watching and Lee Ann kept winning. that Lee Ann was smart. however, she blew it all at the end when she failed to get the answer "the art of war." too bad, other Lee Ann. this Lee Ann would have gotten that one.

you know, I haven't visited my blog in a while and I forgot that I had added that clock. how annoying is that thing? I'm totally getting rid of that...

so, let's see - what have I been up to in the past few weeks... not much I guess and I think that's good. the times in my life when I've felt less content have been the times where I felt like I needed to achieve more. a few weeks ago, I ran into an aquaintance that I hadn't seen in a few months. he is a troubled individual, sort of angry at the world, and although her tries to make it seem like he has such a fun an exciting life, you can just tell he's unhappy inside. he asked me what I'd been up to and I said "the usual" to which his response was "so nothing to exciting then?" geez. so yeah, I don't have anything major going on but I have an incredible sense of contentment right now and that's one of the best feelings in the world.

anyway, I think the biggest thing I've been up to lately has been shopping for a new car. this is hard. I hate car shopping. hate it. hate it. hate it. I've had my Jetta for eight years, partially because it's a good car and is completely fine and partially because I hate car shopping. I'll spare you the details of the annoying sales people I've dealt with and all the decisions I've been struggling with and I'll sum it up by saying I think I'm going to get a honda element. I know, I know. I know. it's a box on wheels. and it's kind of ugly. I was soooooo very against one of these cars until my officemate convinced me to atleast go check one out. he and his wife have one and the love it. think it's the coolest car ever. so yesterday I went and checked one out.

and you know what? it was very cool. sort of maybe the perfect car for one who lives in colorado and, last weekend, bought a season ski pass! now the question is: what color do I want? do I want to go crazy and get the orange or the green or do I play it safe with something like blue or grey?

and one more thing

did anyone else out there, upon hearing the news that marcel marceau had passed away, react by miming sadness or was that just me?

it's the weekend, and you know what that means

another weekend and that means another race... this time we did the Panerathon 5k. it was a more "challenging" course than last weekend (there were hills) so I ended up three seconds slower than last week. that's such a bummer. however, I did totally blow past this woman on the last hill and I could sort of feel her spirit crumble as I ran by and that was kind of nice.

this week I tried to do an interval workout during the race to see if that made me any faster (you know, one minute on, one minute off, two on, two off, three on, three off, repeat...) I think that's a bad idea during a race. the only thing it seemed to do was mess with the other runners around me. serioulsy, I could tell it was freaking people out. sor-ree.

next week I think we're doing some kind of dinky 5k on Saturday which means I'll get to sleep in on Sunday. yea!!!!!! I can't remember the last time I had a relaxing, sit on the couch and do nothing Sunday. ah... can't wait!

too much drama

about a year ago, I was completely hooked on grey's anatomy. I watched it religiously every week and, if I could be around for the "live" show, I'd make sure I caught it some other way. however, as the season went on, I found myself watching it less and less. I'm not sure if it was the unbelievable dramas with which the characters are confronted or the unbelievable whininess with which the characters deal with their problems that began to bug me. whatever the case, I didn't even bother to watch the season finale. or the episode before that. or the episode before that, or the episode before that...

last night I was home building some furniture that I just bought so I turned on the TV. Ugly Betty was on and I definitely have a soft spot for that show. Ugly Betty was followed by the season finale of grey's. I watched it. and it was bad. full of unnecessary and unbelievable plots and lots of bad acting. so the question is, what's changed? is it me or is it the show? me thinks it's me but me don't know.

anyway, I'm pretty excited about this weekend: Jen and Noble are driving through town on their way from CA to PA and they're staying with me from Sunday night until Tuesday! however, I've got a lot cleaning to before they get here...

oh, and I'm also running in another 5K. last weekend, I was second in my age group (and there were more than two of us!). this weekend, I just want to run faster than I did last weekend. and who knows, maybe one of these weekends I'll be the only one in my age group and you know what that means - I win!

I think it's time

for me to actually own my own place.

on Friday, I sort of had this epiphany, gut feeling, whatever, that I should look into buying a place. not a house. more like a condo or townhouse type thing. and probably not in Boulder. more like in Denver. in a quaint city neighborhood like the one I lived in in Pittsburgh. after a year and a half, I'm kinda done with Boulder. for a young, non-married person, childless person, this place only really makes sense for a few years. don't get me wrong, it's great and all, in some ways. but in some ways, it's just bizarre. so many of the other young, non-married, childless people here are searching for "something." in fact, I'd say that about 80% of the young, non-married, childless people here are searching for "something."

granted, we've all had times in our lives when we've been searching for something and I think that during those times, people are more, hmm... shall we say self-centered? so imagine living in a town that's full of self-centered people.then, on top of that, imagine living in a town where you have to be understanding and mindful of other people's self-centeredness. plus this place is just so small and homogeneous.

so, I've been doing some browsing on-line and getting excited about the prospect of finally getting to pick my own paint colors. today I got a recomendation for a real estate agent in Denver. the next step is working up the courage to call. this could be hard, given my committment issues and my difficulty making big, life changing decisions. however... I think it's time.

smaller numbers all around

another sunday, another race. this time, we did a 5K (so that's smaller mileage) and I ran a lot faster than last week (like 1.5 minutes a mile faster) and, my bib number this week was 10 (last week it was 11). so there you have it. smaller numbers all around. that's a good thing.

next week Boy and I tackle the Panerathon - a 5K sponsored by Panera bread with free food at the end!

where do you live?

I feel like this is an abbot and costello routine waiting to happen.

A: "Where do you live?"

C; "I live on A street."

A: "Well I know you live on a street but which street?"

C: "A street."

A: "No, no, no. What's the name of you're street?"

C: "I already told you. It's A street!"

See what I mean?

happy football season everyone!

yes, that's right, it's started again. football season is here. and, having a dad who had season tickets for the Steelers and only had daughters, I was raised to like football.

the Steelers' posse reconviened today after a long break and it made me realize that I kinda like hanging out with guys sometimes. I haven't seen these guys in almost a year but did any of them question our friendship? wonder what was wrong and if were mad at them? think that I had wronged them by not talking to them for so long? nope. just a simple "good to see you again. how've you been?" and everything was good. oh, and the Steelers won. that's always good too.

I didn't make it to the the game until late in the second quarter because Boy and his brother made me run in a 10K in Nederland, Co this morning (which is like 8,400 ft.). I know this race was at high altitude and all but man, I used to be in way better shape... despite the fact that boot camp has started up again (yes, I'm doing it AGAIN), I'm considering running in some kind of race every weekend from now until... well, until I don't feel like it anymore. this feeling may pass quickly but for now, I'm considering another 10K at the Res. in Boulder next weekend. it's only $20 to enter and you get a shirt. sign me up!

words I never thought I'd say and mean

"I could really use a thimble right now."

the shirt

I've been watching a lot of the U.S. Open these past few days and I'm absolutely fascinated by the fact that in almost every men's match, at least one of the guys is wearing this shirt. in one of the matches over the weekend, both guys were wearing "the shirt" in the same color.

interestingly enough, the shirt has a fairly high sucess rate. it almost always wins. there's gotta be something to that.

spoke too soon?

okay, so thank all of you who have expressed concern over my potentially problematic personal position this past weekend. the good news is that things with Boy are on the mend. after a few days of thinking about it all, Boy and I got together and had one of those really good conversations where you feel connected with and therefore closer to the person you're talking with. I've got to tell you, it restored my faith in humanity a bit which I needed, given what I've dealt with the past three years.

after two disastrous relationships and a few failed friendships with individuals who did things like used a spreadsheet to keep track of the status/value of their friendships and or got crazy, freaky, upset because they didn't get their way, I was beginning to think that people (or the people I tend to find myself around) just sort of suck. (not you guys, of course. you guys are all awesome!)

it's not so much that I thought people suck, more that a lot of people are stuck in their own drama and couldn't give two hoots (or even one) about anybody else. I think this is true about a certain percentage of the population and, unfortunately, a large portion of that certain percentage live in boulder (but that's a topic for another post). I was beginning to think that Boy was one of these people and it's so nice to know that he's not. it's also nice to have that core connection to someone, where you're able to see each other for everything you are, good, bad, and the stuff in between, even if that connection lasts for just for a moment, so long as you get a moment every now and then.

you could probably tell from my last post that things have gotten a little iffy with me and Boy. while all relationships have rough patches, I think it's safe to say this is more than a patch. and, looking back on my blog entries, I can't help but return to the quiz my friends m&m invented for me last summer. Boy did not pass the quiz and I probably should have respected those results. sigh...