purekatherine

I am severely under motivated today. I have thoughts on the image below and I would love to discuss it, but it’s just not coming. I think the image speaks for itself anyway.

Sadly I don’t know who designed it. I found it through Facebook, they guy who posted it stated that he didn’t design it, did not credit who did, I assumed that he doesn’t know either.

You know what, screw not being motivated. I’ve got an hour before I need to leave for work and I can spend at least half of that time writing!

The fact that I have that kind of time means that I should use it for something productive, and this isn’t even the most productive thing I could be doing! The fact that my time is only interrupted by the fact that I have to go to work is amazing, and I should remember that.

I’ve let myself get discouraged and frustrated by things lately that are either beyond my control, or just silly to worry about when you put things into perspective. I mean, while I’m struggling to make sure that I have rent tomorrow and I have way more debt than I’d ever like (as in I have debt at all), I still know that I have a place to stay, whether my own or through the help of some awesome friends, and I have no doubt that I will have enough to eat today (or any other day for that matter). There are a lot of people in my own town who don’t know that these things will be happening for them, or maybe even know that it won’t.

This poster came at the perfect time for me. It has helped to refocus my perspective and is helping to push me more to work on the community garden in the hopes of having excess produce to donate to food pantries!

So thank you very much to my friend Joyce over at Cayelani Studio for bringing this to my attention. I wish I knew who designed it, possibly even get a print to remind me of just how blessed I am.

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Now for a slight focus change on the name issue. This time it’s not my name, but the name I have to come up with for something. I hope you remember the post last week about my desire to start some sort of urban community farm. Perhaps you’ve even noticed that tab in the top right corner that I’ve started in hopes of getting some information about this project up and make some decisions. (Don’t bother clicking on it just yet, I have nothing there, hopefully by the end of the day I will though!)

I’d like to get going on this project and start getting the word out there, but I feel as though I should have some sort of name for it before I go handing out flyers or business cards or anything of that sort. A name gives it some sort of authority, purpose. That’s where the name question comes into play.

I could easily go with something like “Midtown Farm” except that it’s not the only community garden in the midtown/downtown Sacramento area, and I don’t want it to be misleading. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and I’ve had pretty much zero inspiration on that front. Since some of the information is going to be tied to this site for at least a little while, I was thinking of using “pure midtown farming” or something like that, but (and I know this is going to shock some of you who know me) I don’t want this to be all about me.

If this is supposed to be about the fruits and vegetables, it should probably be more about that. So I’m asking for help. With the collective minds of awesome people reading this, I’m pretty sure we could have a name in no time.

The best part though, is that I’ve decided that I don’t really need a name to get some information out. So while we’re working on that and getting it figured out, I’ll be putting together some information and trying to build some interest around the neighborhood.

I figure that once we actually have a site and people involved to have some direction to the project, that’s when we can figure out a name that matches the spirit behind the project.

Even so, I’d like to have some ideas to go into it, so let’s get some ideas flowing!

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I used to have some very serious opinions about what I wanted to be called. Mostly that involved me getting as far away from my full given first name of Katherine and sticking to Kati. (No, that’s not a typo, in 6th grade I asserted some independence by changing the way that I spelled my commonly used name, I’m such a bad-ass!) Until just a few years ago, going by anything other than Kati was totally not okay by me. The change and slight acceptance of Katherine happened about the same time that I noticed just how popular the name Katie had become for parents to use just a few years after I was born.

Since I’ve always looked young, and I was now trying to be more professional for desk jobs and such, I figured that embracing Katherine could be a way to separate myself from this mass of girls and maybe making me seem more sophisticated? I don’t think that it necessarily worked from an outside perspective, but I do think that it got me acting more professional because for a long time I was used to only hearing Katherine when I was in trouble or when my second grandmother (as in not technically my grandmother) was around because we shared a name and it was the first time it seemed like a cool name. (Wow, that was a long way to not even really say that when she was around I would try to act more grown up to impress her.) I guess I didn’t really have to seem more polished with the use of the name, I actually was that way, which I guess is nice. The facade would have faded.

I’ve been Katherine at work almost everywhere that I have worked for about 7 years now, starting with the oh-so-sophisticated Virgin Megastore. Working at Barnes & Noble though, I have been Kati so far because the lovely Megan who recommended me knows me only as such (or maybe better as “Kati with no e”) and has for the past 5 years. There’s a slight problem with that though. There’s already a Kaity there. Again, no typo. It’s short for Kaitland. I’m not going to comment further on that.

I’m sure you’re now thinking that Megan should just get over it and start calling me Katherine, but the reason that I didn’t just start there as Katherine is the previous Store Manager. She was on a leave of absence when I started and officially left just a couple weeks ago. I guess she wasn’t the most popular person in the store, and there are a few people who have mentioned that they don’t want to associate me with that name because of it.

I personally think that we should just change the thinking of Katherine because it’s getting complicated to have two Kati/Kaity employees.

It’s such a big deal though, that I was somewhat accosted in the break room yesterday after my shift was over. I believe there were six or seven people in the room besides me all trying to figure out what to call me. All of these people were female, though there are some guys who work in the store who do care about the issue. The guys just seem to call me Katherine if they know that I’m okay with it and that’s that.

After 3-4 minutes of things like “Kitty” or just my last name being used (and then adding a cutesy nickname to it) as suggestions, they realized that Megan was the only thing standing between us and the simplicity of calling me Katherine in the store.

I’m not completely sure, but I think that I’m now Katherine at work.

Sorry Megan.

Wow, how could I have not included this!? One of the things that’s awesome about going by Katherine now, is finding more of them! Like my awesome name doppelganger in Seattle, and this awesome book by an awesome author!

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Want to know what I did on my day off? Probably not, but this is my blog so I’m going to write about it anyway.

The day started with a little bit of sleeping in, which surprised me because I slept to much yesterday. I was fully awake around 10, at which point I read on twitter via my phone (as in I was still in bed) that there was a tutorial in the Etsy Virtual Labs that sounded interesting, so I got up and made my way all the way to the couch to check it out.

The video was interesting and I found some great sources for sewing and hopefully quilting through it, but I think missing the first few minutes of it really made me miss the point. I guess I thought that a Virtual Lab put on by All People Quilt would have been more about quilting than about pillow cases, so I assume there was something to address that in the first few minutes. I did check out the website and the specific video they were referring to, which allowed me to learn how to make a French seam, which I have to say is kind of an impressive thing for people who notice details. Also, it’s really simple!

After that I wasted a bit of time online. Just being a little lazy and catching up on blog reading and such. I had a request to wash some uniforms for this week’s XOSO games for a particularly awesome player, so I went to grab those shifts from his floor before returning the redbox movie to Safeway and stopping by what seems to be a well-established community garden to see how things work.

I ran into some trouble there, as the garden is locked and there was no one there for me to talk to and possibly let me in. I have to admit that in my walk around the quarter block that the garden comprises, I was impressed by some aspects, but rather disappointed in some others. While it seems that there was lots that was growing well and that is awesome, it also didn’t seem so welcoming. If I do end up making a go of this Urban Community Garden I definitely want it to be welcoming and feel like a place that anyone can come to enjoy.

After being disappointed by the garden I went over to the downtown Ace Hardware to just take a look at some things and have a couple of keys made. While I was there I was treated with the unintentionally worst customer service I’ve had in a while. I was actually pretty pissed about it, so I’m sure that you’ll be hearing the full story later.

It was still only like 1:00 at that point, so I came home and put on a movie while I did some dishes and made some macaroni. When I put the mac & cheese in the oven I started making some fruit roll-up!

For the rest of the evening I cleaned up around the house (though it’s nowhere near where I hope to have it at the end of the week), took a shower, dried my hair, cut my bangs and even cleaned my ears in a doctor-approved fashion (q-tips are no acceptable people).

All in all I’d say I had a very productive, though domestic day, and you know what, I’m really proud of that! I mean, how many people do you know who make homemade macaroni & cheese, fruit roll-ups and cut their own bangs all in the same day? And look amazing while doing it all!

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I was sick yesterday. I threw up in the middle of the night and again just about an hour before I needed to go to work.

Because of this, I decided to break my goal of not calling into work for several months. Something about my customer service experience told me that it would be better to not have the potential to be hurling on the sales floor.

I hated it because I have today off completely and being able to take every shift I have would be awesome, but it just doesn’t make sense to me to be at work while seriously sick.

Today I am in pain because I did so little yesterday, but I am determined to do something about that. So instead of telling you guys all about the dodgeball game that I wasn’t at, I’m going to go take a walk through one of the community gardens downtown and see what kinds of inspiration I may find.

Maybe I’ll tell you about the close call that was last week’s dodgeball game tomorrow.

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I’m a dork geek.

Wow, I thought I was a dork.

You all know that.

If you didn’t know that from before, read pretty much any other post and you’ll probably figure it out. I mean, I mentioned that what bothered me most about Eclipse was Bella’s hair. Do I really need to prove my case any further?

Anyway, not really the point of this post. Today I am geeking out over a magazine I found at work the other night. I was at the back cash wrap, which means that I was in charge of recovery of the news stand section at Barnes & Noble.

That’s when I came across this little beauty…

Seriously, a quarterly magazine dedicated to urban farming and sustainable living! Do you know how perfect that is? Tons of information, and yet it comes out only often enough that I will actually read it all and take it in, if it were monthly I have no doubt that there would be a lot that I would miss.

Side note about spending money and finance issues, I did not actually purchase this magazine. I believe that I will in fact purchase this issue, and ask for someone to buy me a two year subscription for my birthday! Actually, there are back issues (only three counting the current one that goes off the shelf on August 2) available here and it would be super awesome if someone would buy the first two and a subscription for me. Oh wait, it looks like for the most part they are actually pdf files. If only I could get them in print!

Back to the point.

I really want to get into some form of urban gardening. If I could find a way to make a community garden work I would love to start that up, and tonight I found a few awesome websites to point me in the right direction of being able to do just that. RebelTomato seems the most helpful, plus it’s got a fun name!

I also posted on Facebook asking about interest in community gardening. I’ve got a few people within 10 blocks from me who might be interested, so I think I’m going to do what I can to start something up. Right now it will probably just be dinner with the friends who are interested, maybe bike rides to check out possible lots to look into, and then flyers around the neighborhood? I dunno, maybe I’ll look into starting a website to generate interest and direct questions as well.

I’m not sure why I would want to take on something like this when I have a whole bunch of stuff going on, but I’m kind of loving the idea, so I’ll see just how taxing it is before I decide to forget about it!

If you have any knowledge of community gardening or have found some particularly helpful websites, please let me know. Maybe I’ll have you over for dinner next year when we’ll actually have a decent harvest!

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I know that most of you know that I’m crafty, but did you know that I’m planning on making my own quilt in the next few months?

Well I am. And I’m rather nervous about it, but I’m going to anyway. I’ve been planning it for a little while, I might have actually mentioned it here, I just can’t remember. I’m trying to find the right resources to guide me through this first quilt for me.

While watching Twilight: Eclipse I found the exact style that I want to make, but of course I can’t actually find pictures of it anywhere. Anyone reading this who happens to have a decent picture of the quilt that Bella’s mom gives her I would love to be able to send it to my aunt and discuss how I can get started.

This is the best I’ve found so far, but I can’t see what the weight of the quilt might be based on that page.

Then I found a page with the closest quilt I’ve seen online, but nothing about how the girl went about making it! Frustrating, but at least there’s something, right?

I plan on making a small quilt first to see what it is that I need to be doing, and then hopefully I can start on the real one by the end of August!

Anyone out there who has any quilting experience, I would love some help.

Any tips on where I should start?
How big would you suggest I make this?
Any suggestions on what sort of backing to use?
- Is there any way to get a backing that’s already in one piece?
How much planning should go into this ahead of time?
What is the kind of quilt I want to make called?

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One thing that I never expected from working at a clothing store was more self esteem. Well, I should probably explain more there. The act of learning a new skill and starting on the way to financial stability is great for self esteem, but I work with some really gorgeous women and often our customers look amazing in the clothes because they are pretty much designed for our typical customer. So what I really didn’t expect was to feel really awesome about my body and the way that I look from working at a clothing store.

That’s just what’s happening though, and I love it.

The other day I was working when it was a little bit slow, so we had go backs in the fitting rooms, but not so many people at the registers. This means that I was in and out of the fitting rooms a bunch, and going by mirrors pretty often.

I was very happy to truly see that I’m much thinner than my mental image of the pudgy girl I was in high school. It’s very easy to still see myself as the size 12 that I was in high school, it’s not so easy to remember that my size 6 jeans are starting to feel a little big.

When I walk into the fitting room area though and see the mirror at the end of the way, it’s hard to see anything other than how tiny my waist is now. And yet… I still have my awesome hips!

Dancing at the Rice wedding. (I'm on the right.)

Oh man I love my hips. I know that they’re the only thing keeping me back from a size 4 at the moment, and the possibility of ever being a 2, but that’s really okay, because those hips are awesome.

They are actually one of the only problems that I have with fitting into some pants and dresses that are designed to make someone look more curvy than they are. I don’t need to look more curvy. I have perfect curves, I just want clothes that will show how I look already!

Anyway, I think this rant is getting a little off topic. I’m very happy with the new appreciation for my own body that working at a clothing store is giving me and I look forward to keeping myself in that same mentality.

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In the past three days I have done something that I don’t think I have ever done before. I’ve seen a movie a day. As in, a new movie, in the theater. I mean, just watching a movie a day in general is definitely something that I’ve done. I tend to do that during the school year all the time. It’s so much easier for me to work when I have a familiar movie on in the background. Don’t ask me to explain, it just works.

So what movies did I see you ask?

On Saturday the boy and I had a mini date night and went to see Despicable Me in 3D after I got off of work.

Sunday we had the time before I had to work to see Inception with a couple friends.

And finally on Monday it was a girls’ day with Laura that brought me to see Eclipse before going for frozen yogurt.

And now of course, the more important part, what I thought of them!

Despicable Me was cute. Jake and I both laughed at times and Agnes is definitely the new Boo, Boo was just better because all of her best lines weren’t given in the trailers.

I think Jake put it best when he said that the jokes were cute but not clever. So if you want to see it and need to entertain children, go for the theater. If you just want to see it at some point, I’d say wait just a couple of months and it will be in stores and on Netflix.

Sunday’s viewing of Inception was awesome.

Christopher Nolan is simply amazing. I mean, the ideas in this movie are kind of complicated and I’m going to have to see it a few more times to feel at all like I really understand them. As Jake and I were talking about walking out of the theater though, even when you get lost for a moment, the whole thing is done so beautifully that you’re not in any way lost in the whole movie.

Also, any director who can take an adorably skinny guy like Joseph Gordon Levitt and make him the star of my now favorite fight scene deserves some sort of award just for that!

Definitely go see Inception.

I know it’s been out for a while already and I probably could have just waited until it came to DVD, but Laura and I haven’t hung out in a little while and it’s much cooler in the theater than it is in my house after 2PM.

I enjoyed the movie. Of course, I also enjoyed the books. The thing is, all I was really looking for out of either of them was entertainment. I would not recommend this movie to anyone who hasn’t seen the others or who is in any way against the whole Twilight trend, but for someone just looking to get caught up in some super crazy teenage drama for a couple hours, I’d say go for it!

I do have a problem with Kristen Stewart wearing a wig for this production though. I mean, with the kind of paycheck that you’re getting for something like this, you’d think you could avoid cutting your hair for a couple of years. In the previous movies I really liked her hair, in this one it was a total distraction for me.

Bryce Dallas Howard, you’re adorable and I like you in other things, but the original Victoria was better. Sorry.

It was cheesy, over the top and not exactly a thinker, but the whole point is entertainment and I was entertained. Enough so that I would totally go to a marathon of the first three movies before the last one opened if someone had one. I heard at the last minute that a local theater showed the first two movies before the midnight showing of Eclipse and thought that would be fun if I could do it without the fanatics around.

On a note about movies in general…

I think I’m over the whole 3D thing. I mean, unless something is coming at me from the screen, I don’t get the point. It felt a little pointless to me in both Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me, but if I’m going with someone who wants to see it that way, I guess I’ll join in.

Oh, and I will definitely be going to see the new Harry Potter movies in both 3D and regular versions. I heard that they weren’t actually shot in 3D, so I definitely want to see them the way that they were shot, but come on, how can I resist Ron Weasley flying at my face?

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Due to the fact that I was not able to be at the dodgeball game last week, I have no real update for you today. I have a brief summary as assembled from my roommate and Jake, but don’t be expecting much from it.

It seems that we continued our winning streak. The most recent score was something like 8-1. I assume there was nothing too notable about the match up because I didn’t hear anything specific. Instead the most noteworthy aspect of the night was the game after our official one.

Apparently our crushing defeat of Taint Funny was too much and they could not bring themselves to play their game against the JV team, so an experiment was had!

Since the two Sausage Sampler teams all know each other, and are almost all veteran players, the league owner/creator, Nick, asked them to test out some new balls. Apparently these are partially foam balls, and smaller than the typical dodgeballs we’ve been playing with. From the description I was not enthused. From playing with them, neither were they.

I love that Nick is looking into ways that we can play and have less people get hurt (I’ll have to tell you another time about our friend Marissa who has had two fingers broken at different times while playing). I’m bummed that this doesn’t seem to be the way though. I heard reports that they are very difficult to control, and not as fun to play with.

Here’s hoping that there is another solution! Thanks for looking out for us Nick!

If you’re ever interested in finding out more about dodgeball, or the other sports that XOSO offers, check out the website! xososports.com

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