Hello, Holidailies

I guess it would have made more sense to make an introductory post on the first day of the month instead of four days into it. Well, that's thing one to learn about me--I don't always do things the easy or sensible way. Yes, I count it a character flaw.

I'm a 27-year-old woman who still has a hard time feeling responsible and grown-up enough to identify with the label "woman" as opposed to "girl." You can call me Thel. I live in Seattle with Mr. Thel and a large black dog named Chloe. I work in the office of a nonprofit agency, where I do a lot of filing, entering data, and answering the phone. And date-stamping--don't forget the date-stamping. Critical duty, date-stamping.

I read a lot of books and sometimes I write about that. My 2006 New Year Resolution was to read 50 books this year, and I'm up to 40. I don't think I'll make my goal, but I did move into a different house last week and that process sucked up a lot of valuable reading time. I've been knitting for about a year and a half, another activity that took away time from reading; sometimes I write about the knitting, too.

I'm hoping to buy a house in the next few months, but I'm perpetually pessimistic about the likelihood that some stupid detail will prevent me. I've been abysmal at keeping personal records and paperwork in order in the past, and although I'm getting better at it, well, some of those past errors may come back to haunt me.

In the meantime, having been unceremoniously booted from our mother-in-law apartment situation by a landlady claiming to need the space for a relative, Mr. Thel and Chloe and I are subletting a little cottage with a big back yard until the middle of March. We're hoping this will give us time to work out the details on purchasing a house as mentioned above. It's nice to have that option, but it's depressing as hell to live in a house full of unfamiliar things. I'm trying to diminish my sense of alienation by making up stories about the strangers whose pictures adorn the walls (that one on the bottom must be Gram and Grampa, Myrtle and Fred. Fred was in the Navy in WWII and became a preacher after; Myrtle met him at one of the traveling revivals he led, and it wasn't but a month later that she up and moved to Montana to be his wife.).

Stories are fun but it still feels like we're living in a motel.

Did I mention that I don't deal well with change? That's another true thing. Here are two more: I'm afraid of spiders, and the thing that keeps me up most consistently at night is my simultaneous terror of existing forever and of permanently ceasing to exist. I also don't like my hands feeling sticky. I'm told that at my "Happy First Birthday!" party when a cake was placed upon my high chair tray for me to gluttonously demolish, I delicately dipped one finger into the frosting. Then I held aloft my frosting-smeared finger and whimpered until someone wiped it clean. I may not be as whiny about it anymore but my sentiment remains the same.

That's a lot of distaste, Thel. What are some other things you actually like? I like puppies and rainbows and lollipops, naturally. I like hiking and bicycling, knitting and crocheting, writing and drawing, and I like to read whatever's handy. I've been known to flip through a dictionary for fun; yesterday I started reading Mr. Thel's cryptography book and ended up spending two hours playing with substitution codes. Actually, that was more calming than anything else I did yesterday. I think I'm going to go read some more of that.

It's nice to meet you, Holidailies. Questions? Quibbles? Do my petty concerns pale beside yours? The comments are open!