Karen

About Karen

Posts by Karen Kaminski:

Friday Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information

1. I could have written this short essay about not becoming athletic until my latest possible 30s. Anne Helen Petersen is a runner but I was nodding vigorously along to the whole thing:

I just think women’s relationship to endurance, generally speaking, changes with time. Plus running is so much easier than so many parts of being in your late 30s. Like, if I could choose between running a half marathon and figuring out how to successfully resubmit a rejected health insurance claim….I would pick the half-marathon. […]

But there’s also something about pushing past your own understanding of your limitations that frees you from other arbitrary limits. As in: that was really hard. But my body can do really hard things, I know that now, in a way I never knew before, because I wasn’t actually interested in finding out.

 

2. This Burnt Toast interview with Sharon Hurley Hall is a must-read. “I don’t know any Black person who’s worked in a white majority space, especially a woman, who has not had some white person in their office space, make free with their hair. ”

 

3. My friend group found the best Twitter account this week:

 

A Poem About Nice Things

By in poems

I caught my own imagination with my joke about an “Autumn of Ease and Abundance” on Tuesday and I’ve been letting what that looks like simmer in my mind for a bit. It might look like the things in this poem: bird watching, walks in the woods, cake.

 

Reasons to Live Through the Apocalypse
by Nikita Gill

Sunrises. People you have still to meet and laugh with. Songs
about love, peace, anger, and revolution. Walks in the woods.
The smile you exchange with a stranger when you experience
beauty accidentally together. Butterflies. Seeing your grandpar-
ents again. The moon in all her forms, whether half or full. Dogs.
Birthdays and half-birthdays. That feeling of floating in love.
Watching birds eat from bird feeders. The waves of happiness
that follow the end of sadness. Brown eyes. Watching a boat cross
an empty sea. Sunsets. Dipping your feet in the river. Balconies.
Cake. The wind in your face when you roll the car window down
on an open highway. Falling asleep to the sound of a steady
heartbeat. Warm cups of tea on cold days. Hugs. Night skies. Art
museums. Books filled with everything you do not yet know.
Long conversations. Long-lost friends. Poetry.

The Summer Of Struggle Continues

By in Uncategorized

We started the long road to Toby’s diabetes diagnosis in April, when his digestive system kind of blew up (sometimes literally). His insulin dose really seemed to resolve most of it, so I got out of the habit of the morning Poop Check for surprises.

We upped his dose a little last week and it caused some upset again, so once again I was spraying carpet cleaner first thing in the morning. Thankfully (hopefully!) it was only for a couple of days, but I must have missed something on a recent Poop Check because we ran the Roomba.  And guess what it hit.

All I will say is, thank GOD it was Matt’s day off and he was downstairs to stop it after he smelled it, because usually I start the Roomba and then go upstairs until it’s done. He was a hero and tackled cleaning the Roomba while I cleaned carpets, and just…there has been a lot of poop in my life for the last few months. I would like for there to be less poop now?

(Hilariously, Toby managed to look offended at the fuss and smell while we cleaned up, very clearly giving off, “I am not responsible, I did not start the Roomba” vibes.)

Sewing Lately: The Duds

By in sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

Last week I mentioned a string of projects in a row not working out for me. They included two pairs of undies (one a new style I hated, one in a pattern I forgot I altered to be too low rise); a hat; and a too-small pair of pants that ALSO had incredibly disturbing pattern matching across the butt:

The tigers were an expensive Euro knit and I thought that since I’d made a successful version of these pants previously, I’d be fine using it. Except I didn’t think to check the stretch percentage on this knit and they’re just barely too small (and being stretched to the fabric’s limit really doesn’t help that six-legged tiger be any less disturbing).

As for the hat, it’s just meh. I can’t get the wave out of the brim, even though I used the recommended stabilizer, and I don’t like the shape of the crown. I keep wanting to be a hat person but then I never like myself in any hat, so maybe I just need to accept that.  At least this was a free pattern and I used fabric scraps for it (recognize the patio chair cushions?).

I don’t post the duds much but they do exist–especially in this Summer of Struggle. Between Toby and my job, I have limited mental capacity for anything extra (even the gym lately) so it’s extra frustrating when the sewing I do manage to get in doesn’t work out.

But maybe the Summer of Struggle will be followed by the Autumn of Ease & Abundance and I’ll be back to complicated, beautiful projects?  Here’s hoping.

Refilling The Nature Rx

By in nature

I’ve found myself longing for the apocalypse a lot lately…and realized we hadn’t been up Millcreek to splash around in about as long. It was cloudy and hot in the valley but rainy and deliciously cool at the top of the canyon, plus all the wildflowers were in bloom.

Maybe I need to apply a dose of Nature mid week? It’s a pretty powerful prescription.

Time For A Moodboard

By in gram time

Someone I follow on Instagram has been visiting the Amalfi Coast for a week and I can relate to this:

I can also relate to this:

My mood this week:

And my mood always:

Wednesday Poem

By in poems

Ada Limon was just named Poet Laureate of the US. I’ve liked everything I’ve read from her, but I like this one the best.

 

How to Triumph Like a Girl
Ada Limón

I like the lady horses best,
how they make it all look easy,
like running 40 miles per hour
is as fun as taking a nap, or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger,
after winning. Ears up, girls, ears up!
But mainly, let’s be honest, I like
that they’re ladies. As if this big
dangerous animal is also a part of me,
that somewhere inside the delicate
skin of my body, there pumps
an 8-pound female horse heart,
giant with power, heavy with blood.
Don’t you want to believe it?
Don’t you want to tug my shirt and see
the huge beating genius machine
that thinks, no, it knows,
it’s going to come in first.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Sewing Is Coping

By in sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

There was record heat on Sunday, our door was boarded up, and I was already dreading Monday back at work, so I holed up in the sewing room for a few hours and made cat pants to calm down.

One pair was for a friend:

And one pair was for me, using my fabric payment from said friend:

They are both the Greenstyle Cavallo Leggings and the fabric is from Spandex World. I’m waiting to deliver my friend’s pair so it’s unknown whether the fit will work for her, but I wore my pair to the gym this morning. I’ve had about 4 projects in a row not work out, so it was nice to have two quick wins to get my sewjo back.

Ending The Week With A Bang

By in Uncategorized 1 Comment

We took our nephew to the amusement park Friday, rode all the roller coasters, and didn’t get home until dinner time–when we saw that the sliding glass door was smashed:

Everything in the house looked fine but we couldn’t find Toby for about 10 minutes. That cold feeling of panic that he’d gotten out settled in…until we found him squeezed behind the washing machine upstairs.

After we found the cat, it was just a giant mess but not a tragedy (nothing was taken, either). Three hours later, we had it cleaned up and boarded up:

Because it happened Friday night, though, I still haven’t been able to get in contact with an insurance agent or a glass company. So that’s on the agenda for today.

We still don’t know what broke it (probably never will) but it could have been a lot worse. But it does kind of feel like the universe heard me say, “This was the hardest work week I’ve ever had,” and said, Hold my beer.

 

 

< 1 2 3 4 5 >»