New Starts and Finishes

Maya and Bryan watching Obama become president!

By the time you read this, we of the United States will have a new president. This is a very comforting thought in a sense, but is also cause to celebrate. We here in Bangalore will have our own celebration. We need to. We are removed from our home country but are very much aware of how others in the world view US. We need to hope and trust that this view will become more positive. President Obama will have a tough job, but at least I feel and trust that he will do this job to the best of his ability with integrity and courage. Really, you cannot hope for more. So tonight we head to a gathering for the Democrats Abroad of Bangalore and we are going to celebrate.

Now, some weeks back I made a comment about registering for school. Now given that I am the mother of quite a few children, some several of which are still attending school at some level, you may have made the assumption that I was referring to one of them. Not so. See, it all began quite a few years ago. Twenty-Four years as a matter of fact. I had been attending a local community college, puttering along in my education trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I was successful in some of my classes, usually the ones that related to art (I also did well in English writing/composition classes). So somehow I got it into my head to apply to Art School. It was not something that I had seriously considered before that due to financial issues, but a conversation with an informed counselor convinced me that through grants and student loans I could do it. She was right. The next year I was a student at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco and had one of the most rewarding academic experiences of my life. I loved every class, got excellent grades, enjoyed spending days in San Francisco and learned much that has continued to be useful to me in life. That year was incredible. But, that year I also got married. While this is not something that I regret (even though I am happily married to someone else now) this change in marital status had a significant impact on my educational life. The grants that I qualified for previously, were no longer accessible to me and so, I never completed my BFA.

Now, some months ago I was looking at accredited online educational opportunities for my 19 yo daughter. I discovered that the school I had attended all those years ago, now known as the Academy of Art University, offered many of their degrees online. So, after a brief but supportive and pleasant conversation with my husband (I really am a lucky woman!) and a bit more research, I decided that I would like to pursue finishing my degree online. So, yes. I am going back to school to finish my BFA in photography!

This is going to mean that I have a bit less free time, maybe even a LOT less, as I will be spending more time like this...


...but it is something that has been unfinished and dangling in my psyche for a long time now. I have completed many things in my life and feel like I have spent the last 20 years raising some pretty fantastic kids, but doing this is a really, really exciting thing for me. I am also very aware that if we were living in the US at present I probably would not be able to do this, I just wouldn't have the space in my life. So, there you go.

Now... how about the knitting department?

Well, I did stock up on sock yarn while I was back in California.


Now please note that I actually gave a way quite a bit of this yarn to some of my Bangalore knitting friends! Still, I do have to keep in mind that Sock Madness is coming up again.... But, I figure that since I had so much more sock yarn that I should perhaps finish a pair that had been on the needles for a while.

Yup, I ran out of yarn. Cute huh?

I also managed to finish a cashmere lace scarf that I have been working on since October.


Still needs to be blocked, but it is going to be pretty lovely! (and really, cashmere? Lace? What's not to love!) This yarn was received as a gift, and my intention is to give the scarf as a gift as well. Sometimes that is just the way to go, you know?