A cluster of small new things

Had a lot of fun yesterday at dr_alycat and cook_ting's place, where I got to teach some juggling and learn some chef-style knife skills. It's kind of amazing how good both those things felt... holding juggling balls in my hands, plunk plunk plunk. I've missed that. And I'll be using my new vegetable chopping style almost every time I cook from now on. It's the kind of thing that, looking back, I can't believe people aren't taught in high school or middle school.

I also tried navy blue mascara for the first time, on advice from someone on the internet. It was extremely subtle. Couldn't really tell if it brought out the blue in my eyes any more than my usual black stuff, but someone did tell me I looked pretty about five minutes after I put it on for the first time, so it certainly wasn't a failure.

To add to the list of dexterity-related stuff this weekend, I've been teaching myself to knit with the yarn in the wrong hand. It's not just masochism, it's a useful skill for doing any kind of stranded work (for instance, like anything shown here). All traditional Fair Isle patterns use 2 colors per row, and the best way to do it is to hold one yarn in each hand, and for this you need to know both methods. Pretty badass.

heisenbug and I have probably decided on our sixth (wedding) anniversary gift, which this year will be to both of us, from both of us.

Anniversaries

One of my friends, miyyu, just posted that she's been in her house one year as of today. It got me thinking about annual things that I tend to notice....

Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve/Day, birthday. A few other birthdays.

The day bad things always used to happen to my ex (January 26. He was dumped on that date for 3 years in a row, got injured once or twice, etc).

My real, getting-together anniversary with heisenbug. My wedding anniversary with heisenbug. Valentine's Day with heisenbug.

My "Zillian birthday". Various real things happen to make this worth celebrating, like stock options vesting; the company also gets a bit festive on one's behalf, showing balloon animations on one's internal directory page.

The day I lost my virginity (but kept the box it came in), usually noted quietly.

Sometimes I remember to think "we closed on our condo right about now", but not always.

I've seen people celebrate blogaversaries, knitaversaries, the day they stopped smoking or sobered up... and of course they remember anniversaries of deaths. It gets me thinking a bit... I like celebrations and ritual, but we can't remember everything without cluttering up the year to the point of not leaving it mentally free for new and different things to happen.