The Year of Twos and Eights

I'm not much into the whole "New Year" thing... but it certainly is a convenient time to stop and reflect on things.

Let me tell you, folks...

2008 is going to be a fabulous year.
I can feel it in my arthritic 28-year-old bones.

But before I delve into my big dreams for this year of twos and eights, let me bring you up to speed on what I've been doing since I last wrote.

Trips (and Oliver)
After visiting Carrie's family in Arkansas, we drove up Hwy 63 to spend the night at my parent's house in the Missouri "wilderness". It was a brief visit, but I was glad that I got to spend a little time with my parents before going back to work at the UPS Store. We played card games with my parents and hung out with my mom's awesome dog, Oliver.

Oliver can be hard to take pictures of because he's always moving. But here's a good one.




Work
The UPS Store has kept fairly busy since Christmas, but we're starting to slow down a bit now. I'm working mornings mostly. There are a couple of guys that come in at 1pm, so I usually just open at 8am and stay until they show up. Having the afternoons off is nice, but I don't like getting up so early. Especially now that...

Highway 40/Interstate 64 is CLOSED!!!!
So apparently this major stretch of road in Saint Louis is in need of repair. So someone had the bright idea that they could get things done quicker if they just closed the whole road, rather than doing partial closings. I'm sure this is probably true. I mean, it makes sense. But this is definitely one of the more well traveled routes through the city and it is affecting a lot of people. Here is a map showing my previous route to work (in blue), and my current route (in pink). It takes about 10 extra minutes, barring any stupid back-ups from the other highway being closed.



Knitting
For some reason, I decided that I should start knitting again. I've picked back up on the baby blanket I started more than three years ago. I also am making a hat for Matt's soon-to-be baby. Here is a picture of the hat in progress:



UPDATE: I finished the hat tonight. I just hope it will fit a real baby... at least for the first few days of its life.



Home Again
Sometimes it is strange being home again. It almost like I never went away to Tamarind. I'm getting used to driving everywhere again. I'm used to my bed and the chilly house and my cat whining for food every other second. I'm getting used to working and looking forward to coming home from work. Trying to find things to do around the house and trying to avoid things I need to do around the house. It is comforting in some ways, but I also don't want to get too content here. I don't want to fall into the same old routines.

More than anything, my time at Tamarind has reminded me that there are things I want to do with my life and it's helped me to realize that I'm actually capable of accomplishing these things. As much as I love standing around all day at the UPS Store, I've got bigger things ahead of me.

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008!