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This morning I went and visited the Skyline Vineyard Church in Virginia. I was very impressed by how friendly they were, and I wanted to write it all down.

Welcome in the Vineyard church

It starts with arrival. I had my Google Maps telling me where to go, but you know how sometimes it's a bit off about exactly how far down the block a place is? Handily, they had these 10-15ft tall flags either side of the driveway. I spotted them before I even saw the steeple.

There was a greeter (in a Skyline Vineyard t-shirt) standing on the front porch. "Hi! First time here?" He shook my hand and introduced himself. Then he opened the door, pointed out the refreshments table, and introduced me by name to two people who'd been chatting in the lobby.

I went to get a cup of tea. They had someone stationed to pour coffee and hot water. That person also made a point to welcome me and introduce himself. As I was putting the lid on my cup, a woman walked up to me and introduced herself. She handed me an envelope (8.5x5.5) and told me this is their welcome packet. She told me that inside I'd find a connection card, and I probably should've let her finish explaining just to see what she said, but I knew what a connection card was thanks to the Church Communications group on Facebook. She did explain a little, that it's just to get some information, and that there's space on the back for feedback and space in case you have something you'd like them to pray for. You don't always see those on connection cards. The back also asked how you found them.

Also inside the welcome packet was a paper explaining what communion is and how they do it.

The guy who poured the hot water for tea/cocoa and poured coffee also pointed out snack trays. There were a few round cocktail tables near the snacks to encourage people to stand around and chat a bit rather than head straight to their seats.

Welcome in a Friends meeting

Often our meetings are in schools and other rented space. Even in meetinghouses, meetinghouses just aren't that recognizable to people who aren't already used to Quakers. I'm not sure I've ever seen a meeting with a lit-up sign until my meeting got some solar spot lights a few months ago (so good luck finding a meetinghouse at night). Mostly if there's a meetinghouse, the sign tends to be simple painted slabs of wood, with text of an appropriate size for foot traffic or perhaps the horse & buggy traffic that was common when the place was built. The text is usually too small for someone driving a car at speed to read, though. There's one meeting I've visited several times and accidentally driven by every time. You'd think I'd learn to recognize it, but I only visit annually, so it's like I'm a newcomer every time. If there's not a meetinghouse, just rented space, then a 1m tall A-frame sign (like you see for advertising the specials at a sandwich shop) seems to be normal.

So, off the bat (and really, this isn't just me, I've heard it from others before, including about the one I keep driving by), if you've had trouble finding the place, you're starting off a little harried and maybe a little late if you had to double back and look for the building.

Joshua from Church Hoppers podcast recorded an episode after he visited a Quaker meeting for the first time. He tells me nobody talked to him until after worship was over. I can see how that'd be the case. (And ok, I've finally listened to the episode now.)

From what I understand, tradition would have worship start as soon as the first person sits down to worship. Traditional meetinghouses don't have lobbies. Thus, if you're in a traditional meetinghouse and you follow that "worship starts on arrival" tradition, the porch is the only place to talk to a newcomer, say hello, chat a bit, explain the way we worship, etc. Given a goodly sized porch roof and nice weather, that probably works out. Winter's probably not so good, though. You'd want to get straight inside where it's warm, and then you get in there, and no matter how "early" you got there, everyone's already in worship, and... well, this is where that joke about the newcomer tapping the guy next to him to ask "when does the service start?" ("when the worship ends") comes in.

At least at Adelphi Friends and Friends Meeting of Washington (FMW), people file in ahead of time, and then the start of worship is actually announced. FMW has head of meeting read out a brief explanation of waiting worship. Adelphi has singing (call out a hymn number) until it's time. When the piano stops, the worship starts. Both have a lobby type area. Neither is very big, but you can fit a few people. This allows more chance to greet new people than the old fashioned way.

I've been to a bunch of other meetings (Pittsburgh, Marlborough PA, Fifteenth Street in NYC, Takoma Park, Bethesda, Stillwater, Greene Street, London-Euston, Frome). Some of them do the first thing. Some do the second. Pittsburgh has a larger lobby area. The really small ones, I've usually been there at the right time to be handed something and put to work with setup, so I don't know how showing up after setup would be. Or, you know, I've walked in late. That happens too.


My first visits at 2 Quaker meetings

I'm just going to use a couple meetings I know well as illustrations, but I assure you, I've seen these patterns elsewhere.

I don't think I ever had the "normal" new person experience at either FMW or Adelphi, though. At FMW, I went to the little meeting next door because I was nervous about the huge crowd in the main meetingroom. Turns out you can be anonymous in a crowd more easily. Oops. At Adelphi, my first visit was with my husband, who'd grown up as a kid in that meeting. I don't think I'll ever have the "normal" new person experience at any meeting, unless I wear my hair down and go in costume as a regular 21st century woman.

If I'm remembering December 6, 2009 correctly (not guaranteed), then I think someone was at the door to Quaker House when I arrived. A brief hello and a point up the stairs to the room where worship occurs. Afterward, there was an announcement of tea/coffee/cookies in the meetinghouse basement. I went over, and I'm not sure I even grabbed anything to consume. I walked into the assembly room door and stood just inside the door, against the wall. A young woman named Lucy saw me from across the room and made a bee line. "Hey, you're new here, right?" Turns out we were going to the same college (I as an undergrad, she as a grad student). She introduced me to some of the other young adults. The next week I went to the main meeting, and I absolutely did not introduce myself during "stand and introduce yourself" time. That was a room with 70 strangers. Heck no. What if that turned into an altar call like at that Baptist church I visited with my family the week before? Nope. No way.

I don't remember much about my first time at Adelphi. By then I'd worshipped at FMW for 3 years and Friends of Jesus for about 6 months, so there wasn't shiny newness about going to meeting. Like I said, my husband grew up in that meeting. I don't particularly remember anyone talking to me before going in to join in the singing, but there are greeters, so that probably happened. There's a potluck lunch every week after worship. We hadn't brought anything, so we didn't stay (thinking it'd be rude). Nowadays, they make a point to say "whether you brought something or not, you're welcome to join us." At the end, just like at FMW, newcomers (and "returning after a long absence") were asked to stand and introduce themselves. By this point I'd visited other meetings and was more used to that routine. And we'd shown up with the intention of asking the meeting he grew up in to marry us, so we weren't worrying about the ability to slip away.

The usual

Ordinarily, FMW has someone on the front bench stand at the start and read out a welcome and an explanation of what's about to happen with us all being very quiet. Ordinarily, someone is posted at the top of the stairs, at the indoor entrance to the meetingroom. I don't believe anyone is posted at the wheelchair-accessible entrance or the other two exterior entrances to the meetingroom. Someone might be at the entry door that's at the foot of the stairs. (I can't remember) Also, it's been a few years since I regularly attended there, so things could've changed—grain of salt.

I don't think I have ever been given a welcome/newcomer packet when visiting any meeting. I know Adelphi has them, and I know they're not new. Maybe things were just a little hectic at the time, or they'd been misplaced or whatever. They do give them out now. Most meetings seem to go for "there are pamphlets over there; help yourself."

Some meetings also have the doors close at worship time (what it seems Joshua was expecting, since he was surprised to find his noise had been audible to the worshippers). Some meetings expect latecomers to open the door and walk in. Some expect them to wait for a particular time before they go in (especially if they keep kids in for the first part of worship, then have them leave for kids stuff). Friends Meeting of Washington switched from one to the other while I was there. That they're supposed to wait until a certain time may or may not be clear to late newcomers. I don't know how common it is for the greeter to wait until the late arrival time to catch late-arriving newcomers.

The Differences

Here are the two main differences:

1. who bears the burden of introductions?
2. when do you get to meet people?

Who bears the burden?

At the Vineyard church, the greeter recognized me as new. The greeter introduced himself immediately. The greeter remembered my name long enough that he introduced me. The regulars were proactive about introducing themselves.

In every Quaker meeting I've been to, the guest is expected to proactively introduce themself. "Please stand up in a room full of strangers and introduce yourself to us." In many meetings, everyone wears nametags. Do we rely on our nametags and fail to introduce ourselves? Probably. I'm pretty sure I do. I need to work on that.

Do we know our own communities well enough to immediately recognize new people? I'm sure the small meetings do. It's easy to say "you're not one of the usual 8 people." It's harder with a bigger group, but it's worth the effort. Greeters really need a certain gift for recognizing faces.

When do you meet people?

At the Vineyard church, the time before worship was dedicated to getting to meet and talk to folks. Afterward, people seemed to just grab the kids and head out. I did chat a little with a couple of people who turned out to be very interested in Pennsic. (One had asked whether I had any travel planned.)

In most Quaker meetings, the time after worship seems to be dedicated to getting to meet and talk to folks. There either is no time before worship or it's dedicated to a Bible study, Bible reading, or hymn singing. Joshua says in his podcast that he found it awkward to find his way through to the right room, discover the door had been open and his saying "wait, which way do I go??" in the hallways had been intruding, and then sit down silently with a bunch of perfect strangers and no introduction. The "good morning" didn't come until the end. Awkward start; friendly end.

Conclusions

I think Quakers need to rethink these two points. Well, I'm sure many churches need to work on choosing and training greeters well and cultivating a culture of proactive welcome. A lot of them are bad at it!

I know, I know, we're a denomination full of introverts (speak for yourselves—I'll talk your ear off, once I have a topic). But there's a difference between being introverted and being rude. If you're an introvert and find yourself face to face with a guest, spot your nearest extrovert and introduce the two.

The part about making people feel comfortable before they enter worship is something I think is worth exploring. Joshua said in his podcast that even having signs saying something like "please join us in silent worship in this room" would've been helpful toward making him feel less awkward/embarrassed about his arrival. Is it actually a theological imperative for us to hold socialization until the end?

And I know those tall flags aren't cheap, but a 10-footer is $200 if you have dirt to jam it into or $250 if you need to set it out on the sidewalk. VistaPrint's probably got coupons too. They've always got coupons running. Maybe that's something your meeting can work into its budget if it's having trouble with visibility. (Yes, Philadelphia. I know, Philadelphia. You have gigantic highly-visible meetinghouses. Thanks for rubbing it in.)

I visited the physical therapist for the first time today**. She says I need better shoes. Ones that lace and have arch support and will give me some ankle stability. She recommends running shoes.

I have one problem with running shoes. They're all butt ugly. I have Rules about shoes. Shoes are one color at a time. There are brown shoes, and they are all brown, and only one shade, darn it. And then there are black shoes, and they are all black. And all the shoes anyone ever needs are one pair of serviceable brown shoes and one pair of serviceable black shoes (to go with whether you're wearing the serviceable brown skirt or the serviceable black skirt). High-heel variations are unnecessary. Sandals are unnecessary. Sparkly bits are definitely unnecessary. OK fine, if you are training for a marathon, you may need a pair of running shoes on top of those two named above, but only while actually exercising. Snow/rain boots are also practical. Serviceable shoes should be serviceable for the office, taking a walk, going out to dinner, dancing, etc. all in one go.

I have not worn leather shoes in several years. My black microfibre Earth vegan "Inhale" shoes and my brown shoes of the exact same model are what I wore for 3 years, and I loved them. Despite their lack of a high ankle area, I didn't twist my ankles. They were Mary Janes, but the tight elastic kept the arch support nicely in place. They are not being made anymore. Earth replaced the entire vegan section with ugly-arse running shoes with all sorts of colors and webbing and things. And then they started making high heels, those sell-outs.

I am willing to wear leather shoes on the condition that they are reparable. The environmental destruction wrought by factory farming of cows can be offset by the fact that a well-made pair of leather shoes can have the sole fixed by a cobbler and last a decade or more. This is compared to non-leather shoes that'll have the upper wear out in a year or two. This is especially offset compared to polyurethane shoes which, in addition to delaminating in a year, are the result of petroleum products. This is why I went for canvas Toms this round. But they lack support, and now I have to give them up, after only a month.

longwing says what rockwood was told as a teacher was "black New Balances." It turns out I think black leather looks really goddamn weird. I'm used to Longwing carrying around all sorts of shades of brown leather, but black shoe leather is just funny looking. And shiny. I don't like it. Maybe if the black leather was smooth, but this thing where the leather looks like overinflated balloon made from a bunch of pieces of scrap leather stitched together doesn't fly. Left, right, tongue, maybe toe & heel pieces of fabric/leather as well. Shoes don't need more than 5 pieces of upper.

The best-looking walking shoes (so, supposedly have arch support) I've come across are these New Balance "Minimus" shoes, but they're Mary Janes, so they probably won't get PT approval. The next best idea I've got is to buy these black Earth shoes and then attack them with a sharpie or black fabric marker or something so they stop having that white swoosh and grey mesh pattern of ugly.

Dear Internet:

Please tell me there are supportive shoes that are appropriate for wear by someone who only wears skirts. I want to look like a grown up, not a kid stuck in gym class. And while I know plenty of Amish women wear these things with their skirts…they're already 150 years out of style; they don't care. I do.

Please leave recommendations in comments.

** I started saying "by the way, I have funny range of motion to start with" and bent fingers back, and she went "wow, hypermobility! Ehlers-Danlos?"

It's warming up again, so that makes it time for more outdoor SCA events and for archery practice to restart.

This past weekend was busy.

I didn't realize Crown Tourney was local this time, but Maryland Sheep & Wool festival was also this weekend. So I went to MDSW, and I picked up a pound of the black Leicester Longwool lambs' fleece I saw get sheared a month back. It's raw. I decided I'll be prepping it and spinning it for submission in the Novice Tourney's A&S competition. So I've been looking for sources for information on yarn used in knit wool hose, and coming up with "buy a used copy of History of Hand Knitting for $200."  Today I was reminded that my partner can check books out of the Library of Congress...which means rare and out of print books are things I can actually reference. Woot! I might have to borrow combs from a coworker since technically a longwool would've been combed in period (cards are for the leftover short tufts after combing), though I've got a flicker which should leave the fibers parallel and in good condition for worsted spinning anyway.

I also picked up a lucet from the Spanish Peacock. It's pretty and made of purpleheart. 

Saturday afternoon was spent making homemade buttercream frosting for the cakes I baked the previous night, as it was the partner's birthday! The evening was spent having a party, and I even got some spinning done (on the spindle at first, then I pulled out the wheel).

Then, on Sunday I wen to archery practice for the first time. I've got the bruises to prove it.

I will be trying to avoid hitting that elbow again, now that I've been taught how.

annalee brought along her 54" recurve bow with no string. Handily, Nuala had a spare string, which is good, because there is no way I could pull back Nuala's bow. Turns out I'm a left-eyed right-handed person, so this means I need to close my left eye if I don't want perspective interfering. Annalee's got her arm and eye lined up, but she needs to keep the other eye open to allow perspective to do its thing, as she's an instinctive shooter. We each shot the 12 arrows Annalee had 3 times. On my second time through, I got the red ring! Didn't get so close the third time through, but none of the third batch went past the hay bales, and 7 of the 12 ended up in the cardboard.

 

Monday morning before work, I spun a bit of lace-weight yarn on my wheel, and I tried luceting some of it on my downtime. It took a bit to get the hang of pulling it tight, and then the string fell apart.

So, back on the wheel it went Tuesday morning, and I added more twist then added more fiber and spun that up til I had 29yd of tightly-twisted lace-weight yarn.

I washed it Tuesday night and let it hang overnight to set the twist. Today before work I wound it into a ball, and during downtime throughout the day I luceted about 30" of cord.

That should be enough for one side of my dresses. Now it needs an aglet though. These are apparently difficult to find, if you need them thin (such as to fit through the stitched eyelets on my dresses). I found a tutorial for making your own aglets out of brass sheeting, so I guess I'll be trying that.

Had a Twitter conversation earlier today with @supermarioex about dating. He thinks the guy should pay for the date then pay for a taxi so the woman doesn't have *gasp* *horror* take a bus. Yes, yes, I realise this post is going to be coming from a really horribly gender-normative and hetero-normative angle. It does leave me wondering who, in this silly notion of a strict gender binary, pays for the date when it's a lesbian couple. The nearest man in the vicinity?

Anyway, moving on. The conversation included me telling him that I'd expect to walk home from dates, since, well, if it's less than 3 miles, that's generally what I do. After spending four and a half years as a student sometimes able to afford public transit (but of course never a car) and sometimes not, I'm pretty well accustomed to just walking everywhere. If the weather's bad or I have a time limit, I might suck it up and take the metro or a bus. I also pointed out to him that taxis are less eco-friendly than public transit which is less eco-friendly than walking. As the sort of environmentalist who winces at using a paper napkin, this seems like a very obvious thing to take into consideration.

He said that if "something happened" in the...*looks out window*...half a block between the bus stop and my door, it'd be his fault for not walking me home or putting me in a cab. Um, no. It'd be the fault of whoever snatched money out of...the pocket I don't have. Or you know, whoever the law-breaker was. I told him I'd be creeped out by someone wanting to follow me home. He corrected that walking home and following home are two different things. They both result in the guy knowing where I live, therefore, still a problem! He found this odd, that I'd be creeped out by a guy I'd just been on a date with. Statistically, date rape is well above stranger rape on the scale of things likely to happen. It's so high up there, that almost every woman I've ever talked to about rape has been raped, and not a single one was by a stranger. If memory serves, they were all date rapes. Contrary to men's assumptions, acquaintances aren't universally regarded as safe. Basically, I'll take my chances with a well-lit and frequently-patrolled Q Street containing a few people likely minding their own business over taking a guy I don't know whether to trust yet (but who obviously has some sort of attraction to me) near my door.

I also told him that as to "who pays" on a date, I'd expect to split the cost on most dates. Occasionally, the better-paid half might pick up the tab, and in the case of my current relationship, that's me. I pointed out as well that dating well-paid feminists is probably a lot different than dating a gold-digger. He said he knows nothing about feminists, but that he's going to blog/vlog about how he thinks dates should work. I told him I'd write him a list of things that historically have been called "gentlemanly" but are, in actuality, demeaning. Here it is.

• Assuming we can't take care of ourselves

Oh, hey, that was fast! And it covers a lot of things! You know, like assuming we need a man to pay for us, assuming we need a man to protect us, assuming we need a man to decide for us what our priorities are, assuming we need a man to decide for us how to interpret our past experiences in determining future actions, assuming we are so bloody helpless we need a man to do every little thing like open a door even when we clearly got their first...

Here's how a first date with me goes:

1. Early person shows up to a cafe, buys a drink, and sits down to use the wifi.


2. Late person shows up, buys a drink, and sits down at the same table.


3. Laptops may or may not be put away, depending upon whether ensuing chatter includes sharing favourite webcomics, laughing at YouTube clips, or discussion of programming.


4. Sign language may be used if there are headphones involved in above activities.


5. If hungry, walk to the nearest vegan-friendly restaurant.


6. First person to the door opens it


7. Eat


8. More geeky chat


9. Split the bill, but don't bother doing math unless there's a huge price disparity


10. Maybe give the other person my Google Voice number (so I can send it to spam instead of my phone if that was a bad idea) if they don't have it already


11. Each go home however they got there

Oh look! It's like we're equals or something!

(Thanks to longwing for never treating me like I'm a delicate snowflake and for not being offended upon learning that after dating over six months he still only had my GV number.)

I know it's been forever since my last post.

June:

Went to Southeast LinuxFest. That was a long drive. Thankfully I had my new GPS (graduation present), so when we hit traffic, it gave detours. It still took a long time though. I spoke at the UbuCon, which was a very large room full of 4 people. I had an Ubuntu Women table there. It wasn't until after I got there that I learned that there was no just plain Ubuntu table. There's no LoCo team in South Carolina, apparently.

July:

I spoke at FOSSCon because they were down to still having an open slot a few days before. It was 100°F with no air conditioning, and I was on the 4th floor. Someone commented on my lack of sweating. FreeDeb pointed out that living in DC, I'm used to the heat. She said she has a strict no-visiting-DC-after-May policy in effect.

August:

I re-learned to sew with a machine. I made a couple chemises and early 16th century Florentine gamurras because I went to Pennsic. I met lots of cool people from Clan Cambion. I even met another Quaker there, Herveus, who works at the White Wolf and Phoenix (his wife's shop) as a tablet and inkle weaver. He offered to teach me how to weave. There are apparently a lot of Laurels in Cambion. longwing said it was like being surrounded by old Vikings, because so many of the people in the group have been SCAdians for decades. A few have been Laurels longer than I've been alive!

I got a few "I hate you"s for my dresses. Like this:
Me: This is my first SCA event
Them: Oh…did you make your garb?
Me: Yeah, first time making a dress. Did it last week. I did right though! I hand-stitched the eyelets instead of using metal rings, and the bodice is corded.
Them: An internal bodice on your first…I hate you.

I followed Festive Attyre's dress diary for a 1515 Florentine gamurra in making my dresses. Photos of the making of the first dress are on Flickr. There are no pictures of me in the dresses though, because I didn't take any pictures of me. Well, there are some of me in that blue stripe dress on Facebook, because I also wore it to a steampunk event (swap in buttoned shirt for chemise, done) and a pirate bachelorette party. I should try to get the picture my mom took of me in the black/natural (warp/weft) dress.

I took classes on spinning linen from flax, blackwork embroidery, period summer seasonal foods, and colour theory for scribal illumination. I saw the Knowne World Choir perform, which was really neat. I resolved that I will absolutely be making a heavy wool cloak soon, because it was freezing in the evenings. longwing and annalee and I agreed that we need to make a canvas tent with high walls so that next year we can have everything raised off the ground, because the dome tent I borrowed from my dad flooded. And with a dome tent, you can't really raise anything off the ground without hitting ceiling. Wet sleeping bags are not fun.

On the way home from Pennsic, I stopped off at my mom's house, and the whole family went out to lunch so I could give her her birthday present two weeks late. It was from my siblings and I, so she'd had to wait overall. While there, she gave me my birthday present as well, since it'll be Thursday.

When I got back from Pennsic, I spent the next week making the marriage certificate for longwing's and annalee's brother's wedding. I put to use what I learned in the scribal class when he and his now-wife requested a vine border. I also finished up another paperweight to hold the certificate during the ceremony the night before the wedding. The morning of the wedding is when I finished the border on the certificate and tailored the dress I was wearing that day.

I also resigned from both the Developer Membership Board and Americas Regional Membership Board in Ubuntu. The burnout got me.

I made my first shawl!



It's done from Rowan Colourscape chunky yarn. I really like this yarn! It's expensive but so pretty and squishy!

I just watched a 10 year old episode of CSI called "Sounds of Silence." The plot centers around the murder of a student at a Deaf university. The way disabilities are handled in this episode is fantastic. First off, they actually cast a Deaf actress in the roll of the university president! This is not the norm.

Second, there's a scene where the university president scolds the investigators for their rude behaviour when they talk to the interpreter instead of to her and kicks them out. Speaking to an interpreter or to a wheelchair-pusher are common mistakes able-bodied people make if they are unaware of disability issues. The show actually made a point of both demonstrating correct behaviour and pointing it out so people know how rude it is to make that mistake.

Third, after Grissom talks to the university president, he is found sitting in his office with earplugs. A coworker asks what he's doing. He answers, "thinking." She asks if it's about being deaf. "No, about hearing," he replies. He's exploring privilege. And they actually bring this up on the show! That's awesome!

Mainstream media handling disabilities properly? WOW.

Today, annalee and I met sassbandit and synecdochic and a bunch of other people. There was a bit of knitting circle, and I got awesome pretty pink polka dot stitch markers which I am going to show to the owners of my usual yarn shop to try to convince them that synecdochic is a totally rad local artisan whose stuff they should be a retailer for just like all those shawl pins they have for sale. I think this could work.

Also, now that I have stitch markers, I can use circulars. And I really think an interchangeable set makes sense, but only at certain pricepoints. The set they sell at the usual yarn shop is fuck-all expensive, like $170. The Internet tells me a very nice set called "Denise" can be had for like $50, which comes out much cheaper than buying individual sets.

I just got done reading "Unclutter Your Life in One Week" (in ebook form) last week, which isn't to say that I'm uncluttered already. I've been working on it though. Moving twice in one year really drove it home that I have too much stuff and need to organise it. I've written before about the amount of clothing I have being more than I think I need. Well, now I'm on the organising thing.

I got a bunch of Kassett DVD boxes for my DVDs. Four of them hold my Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Sarah Jane collection. Two more hold all the rest of my DVDs. On the last move, I didn't have to pack up DVDs. They were already in boxes. Yay, progress!

I got a Kindle for Christmas, and I have a whole bunch of books I haven't read since high school. The ones I think my little cousins will like are getting put into boxes labelled with age ranges (about 10 are for them now, 15 more when the eldest hits 13, and a dozen more when she's about 15), while most of the rest are being dropped at the used book store. The collection of hardbound Harry Potter books is of course being kept. I'm rather pleased that I turn out to only have about 5 books that I haven't read yet. I'm going to read them, then decide which pile they go in. I also just learned that Amazon now does trade-ins for textbooks, so I'm shipping them the ones my school didn't want.

Following hints from the book, I've picked up a binder, sheet protectors, and little stick-on tabs. This will hold the pile of recipes I've printed out from the Internet, scribbled down, etc. instead of them being a pile of paper on top of the fridge complete with the risk of spilling something on them while trying to use them.

Another one I took from the book is that I got a 13-pocket file folder for holding cards. Not that these are new to me—I have one for my genealogy and another for warranties/bills/bank statements/etc—but this usage is. See, the way it works is each pocket is a month and has an index card with a list of that month's birthdays. At the beginning of the year, I would (or in this case, when I have money again) take my pile of index cards to the store and pick out a birthday card for each person along with a few blank-happy and blank-sad cards for things that come up throughout the year so instead of buying cards on the person's birthday when Facebook or my calendar reminds me then posting them the day after…I would already have them and be able to just drop them into the "to be mailed" pile at the start of each month.

Something else I'm thinking I'll do when I'm moved into a new place is replace my single-hamper with something that has more sections so I can sort the whites/colours/handwash as I undress instead of trying to find all the whites when it's laundry time and then missing one half of a pair of socks. I'm thinking of one of those things that has a frame and multiple laundry bags hang in it, and I'm hoping there are ones where the frame is foldable. Answer: there is!

Oh, and I picked up some velcro cable ties the other day (though not enough) to tidy up the cable-trunk.