March Madness and the Wearing of the Green

I'm one of those girls your friends warned you about.

The kind of girl who gets invited to sweeten the pot of some office sports pool, and then has the gall to select teams purely on a sentimental whim. Girls like me wreak havoc on the odds of winning, because even though by all logic they should not be able to beat the guys who spend hours painstakingly reviewing statistics and listening to sports commentary, they routinely do.

For your consideration: March Madness 2007

Ok, ok, so I'm not actually WINNING our office pool as it stands right now. But I could! I'm currently in 8th place out of 18 people, which I feel is not too shabby given that I spent all of 5 minutes setting up my bracket. With only seed numbers as a rough guide, I raced through my picks with logic such as, 'Bridget lives in North Carolina, and I was just there visiting her. Even though she works at NC State, I'm going to pick North Carolina to go to the championship game,' or 'Bryon from our small group really likes Kansas - I'll pick them to go to the Elite 8.'

Some of my picks clearly had no logic at all. For example, I picked VCU over Duke. No one picked VCU over Duke - it would be a big upset, the 11 seed over the 6 seed. But I did, and amazingly I was right. Why did I pick VCU? I have absolutely no idea. In fact, I kept having to refer back to my bracket because I honestly couldn't remember who I was supposed to root for in most of the games. I finally printed it out over the weekend, and kept a copy in my pocket for reference.

One of my picks is probably not the smartest pick by "bracketology" standards, but for me it was the only choice. The Oregon Ducks will go all the way!!!!!!

Yes, I am a Duck to the core - I attended there from '96 to '00, and since graduation I have followed the football team with passion every year. This year, I decided I really should give the basketball team some attention too, and to my great delight it has been a fantastic year for Oregon basketball!

I'm one of those crazy sentimental fans who truly believes, every single season, that MY team could be the best. I wear green and yellow with pride on game day, and I take it personally any time we lose. Any penalty on the Ducks is erronious, and any obvious penalty NOT called on the opposing team is probably the reason we lost the game. I learn by osmosis from my husband about other teams in the league, but only so far as it pertains to our ability to march all the way to the championship. I simply can't sit all day and watch whatever game happens to be on....unless it directly involves my beloved Ducks.

If I'm 100% honest with myself, it's a long shot for the Ducks to win the championship this March. So why would I stake my hard-earned $5 buy-in on a long shot?

The first reason, which I decided from the beginning, is that I could not bring myself to bet against my team. I'd be disappointed if they lost, whether I picked them to win or not, so I might as well have all my disappointment at once.

The second reason, which didn't even hit me until this weekend, is that I now actually have some personal interest invested in the tournament. Suddenly all the close games matter to me, and I have a team to root for. It doesn't matter that I never even heard of Virginia Tech until a week ago - I was crushed that they couldn't pull out the win against Southern Illinois. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Ohio State pulled ahead of Xavier in overtime. Instead of looking for every opportunity to change the channel, or patiently waiting for my husband to check the scores, I'm the one scanning the scoreboards at the top of the screen and yelling the loudest for the teams in my bracket.

In the break between games since Sunday, I've found myself looking forward with excitement to Thursday and Friday's action. ESPECIALLY Friday at 6:40pm, when the Ducks take on UNLV to try and push through to the Elite 8. Naturally, I'm convinced in my heart that they can make it happen - and just as naturally, I will be crushed, deflated, and personally offended if they were to lose. But that's just not going to happen.

GO DUCKS!!!!!

*Update 3/26/07*

This is how very sad my kitty was when the Ducks lost yesterday.....guess we're done until football season....

iPost on MyBlog

First I'd like to say a few things in praise of my iPod.

When they first came out on the market, I thought they seemed silly. But then my mom got one, and I tried it out. It was love at first sound. My wonderful husband got a Mini for me as a birthday gift (the biggest part of the gift being that he got me the pink one, which pretty much eliminated the possibility of him borrowing it to take to the gym). I loaded my songs, figured out how easy it was to purchase songs from iTunes, and soon I had a great selection on music and was crafting custom playlists.

Listening to my iPod while doing the dishes, working out, or just going for a walk is like having my own custom soundtrack to my life. I can alter the mood of the scene just by the song I choose to play. If I hear a song on the radio that I really like, I can go buy it for a buck, where in the past I wouldn't have spent the money on the whole album for one song. I can pick and choose my music, and gradually iTunes is able to recognize my choices and recommend songs I might like. They are eerily competent at this.

Yes, I am quite fond of my little pink iPod. It's so me.

However, as I consider it this morning, I can't help thinking of the conversation we had at our Community Group this week. In our discussion about this past Sunday's sermon, we evolved into the topic of selfishness versus being more others-focused. Selflessness, or even unselfishness, seems to be very counter-culture.

We are born with an innate need to be selfish, as a form of self-preservaton in our more vulnerable state, but as we age we are supposed to be taught to see and care about the world outside ourselves. We are supposed to learn that "it's not about me." If we're lucky, we have great parents who will model this for us, and teachers who will expose us to the bigger picture and the needs of others. But these days it seems that even if we do, they are fighting an uphill battle against so many other societal forces.

In large part, I'm talking about advertising. 99% of advertising that you see in some way or another feeds our selfish instincts. The voices on the television, radio, and billboards whisper, 'YOU can make it happen. YOU deserve this. YOU can have everything. It's all about YOU.' (Ironically, they're so good at it we forget that it's a lie - it's really just a clever way for THEM to live out their dreams of getting filthy rich off of YOU.)

In our group discussion, Cherie made a terrific point. She was talking about a family with teenage boys they know, and how difficult it is to combat all these societal forces as parents. If you look at the technology that is so essential to their lives these days, it's all about the iPod, iTunes, MySpace. I. Me. Mine.

Soon after, Cherie's husband Rob did something I appreciate - he challenged us on how we are going to take action as a result of our discussion. We decided that as a group we need to spend a little more time looking outside ourselves and even our close-knit group, helping those in need. We kicked around a few different service projects we could do together, and before long we had conceived of a website for our Community Group where anyone from the church could go and post a description of their need, and then we could review them periodically and vote on which ones we would take on that month. With the understanding, of course, that we wouldn't be able to get to everyone's request.

"I know," Cherie said, "we'll call it iChurch!"

I really appreciated her sly observation at that moment. Sometimes we can get so caught up in really cool ways to help others that we can completely lose sight of the reason why we're doing it. Helping other people can suddenly become all about us, which essentially defeats the purpose. For reasons I can't explain, this reminds me of a line from the movie "Clueless":

"If you ever did something that wasn't 90% selfish, I'd die of
shock."
"Oh, that'd be reason enough for me."

As I go through the weeks ahead, I hope I'm able to let the truth of this message sink in. It's not about me. It's not about me. My iPod is great, but it's not about me.

The Sewing Perfectionist

Last week's Sewing Expo was very fun. Though not a lot of actual sewing happens at these things, it's the perfect chance, if you are so inclined, to spend a LOT of money. I was proud of myself for holding back and only purchasing five different fabrics, a handful of buttons, embossing powder and ribbon, and a few magazines for beginning sewers. More importantly, though, I came away inspired to start sewing!

The first fabric I purchased was a light teal flannel with adorable little dresses printed all over it. It was a good value and I envisioned making pajama pants out of it. And as it happened, at the Simplicity booth they were giving away a free pattern for pajama pants. Perfect! The only challenge was that I had purchased the last of that fabric from the bolt, and it came in two separate pieces.....not quite enough to make the pattern. So yesterday my mom and I drove out to Fabric Depot on the east side of town to look for another flannel fabric to make a cuff at the bottom of the pants.

Fabric Depot is known for their enormous selection and their 40% off sales, one of which was happening this weekend. It was a bit overwhelming to be surrounded by so much fabric, with my mind suddenly racing about all of the great projects I could do. My mom was delighted to see me so excited about sewing, and she helped me pick up some notions that I needed and select a skirt pattern for some tweed fabric I'd purchased at the Expo. We found a fun flannel to go with my pajama pants in a zebra stripe, and I was thrilled. We also found some beautiful lace to do a little inverted V-shaped cutout at the bottom of the cuff - an idea I'd picked up at the expo and was eager to try out.

After braving the crowds to make our purchases, we returned to her house where she has a fully decked-out sewing room with everything we could possibly need to work on my project. We washed and ironed the fabric we'd purchased, and spread it out on the cutting table to figure out how we would piece together this project. I had a few ideas in mind that would take us off of the beaten path of the simple pattern instructions (a bit ambitious for a beginner!) so we had some figuring to do that would require our best math and geometry skills.

As we worked, I started to realize something: I was worrying too much about making everything just so. Each snip of the scissors as I cut out the fabric, each pin I placed, I felt I needed to double-check with my mom to see if I was doing it right. Sometimes my mom would encourage me to be as careful or detailed as possible, but much of the time I got answers like "It's close enough," or "Just eyeball it. It doesn't need to be perfect."

I was trying to be a sewing perfectionist. I honestly think this may be at least a part of what had been keeping me from sewing before....I was afraid to cut into the fabric or try a unique pattern because I might not do it correctly. Without someone standing over my shoulder to say "Yes, that's right," or "No, do it this way," I was just too intimidated to try. And when I did attempt a project on my own, the 1-hour easy project took me over three hours because I agonized over each step, re-reading the instructions five or six time before each stitch.

I think this is why my friend Jen has become such an accomplished seamstress in such a short amount of time. She dove into the process without fear, and learned both by instruction, and by trial and error. She didn't let the possibility of a mistake keep her from trying something out, even if it wasn't exactly what the pattern instructions told her she should do. If her project didn't turn out exactly how she had hoped, she simply found a creative way to fix it - usually with an even better result.

I suspect there is a larger application here than just with sewing. At work, or in life, if we try to be "perfectionists" then we find ourselves paralyzed. We are so afraid of making the wrong decision that we make no decision at all. Or we try too hard to control our circumstances, and suddenly find that we haven't made the progress we had hoped for. We're stuck on step 3 of 15 while everyone else seems to be moving on to something else.

I know that there are times where the little details truly do matter. As I worked on my pajama pants, my mom pointed out that I should sew a certain part from the top side of the garment, because "that is the part that will be visible." Sometimes it's okay to have some sloppy stitches or uneven edges on the inside of the garment, because it's not really going to be noticed anyway. So, if I'm having company over to my house, and I'm breaking my back to have the place spotless....is anyone really going to look behind the sofa to see if it's been vacuumed? Probably not.

On the other hand, there are also times where you need to pay close attention to the items "behind the scenes," because otherwise your entire garment can come unravelled. I realized this recently with the boxers I had made a few weeks ago. I didn't take the extra time to press and sew the edge of the fabric at the waistband, and after one washing that rough edge is starting to fray. It's the other side of the coin, where if you're not taking care of yourself then all of the beautiful finish work that's visible to the outside world can just come apart.

It can be difficult to know at times what is worth your attention, and what you just need to release control of. It helps me to think of the consequences. If I consider the worst-case scenario, and decide I can live with it, then I think I can let go more easily.

So, when I return to my mom's house today to finish the project I've started, I'm resolving to pay closer attention to the things that matter....and to relax about the rest. Maybe after that I'll start another project on my own and try to let go of the fear that I might make a mistake.

After all, there will be another Sewing Expo next year, and Fabric Depot will have another 40% off sale. If the worst-case scenario is that I need to get some more fabric because I've destroyed what I was working on beyond recognition or repair.....I can live with that.

Sewing and Stitchery Expo 2007

This evening I am going to my first sewing expo in Puyallup, Washington. This thing is a BIG DEAL....hundreds of vendors, over a hundred classes offered each day, fashion shows and lectures galore. Hotels within a 15-mile radius routinely sell out for this event, which stretches over a period of four days. We will be there for just two.

And, there are two reasons why I'm going.

First of all, I recently inherited my mom's old Bernina sewing machine. It's a quality machine and I've actually used it before, so I was pretty thrilled to receive it. But it has sat, nearly unused, in our office ever since. My problem is that I don't really know where to begin. I know how to operate the machine, and I can effectively sew two pieces of fabric together. Beyond that.......there is an entire world of feet, needles, tension, seam allowances, and other sewing lingo that I only have the most generic grasp of. So I am hoping this week to gain some knowledge - and some inspiration - so I can start actually using the machine that many seasoned sewers would be delighted to have.

The second reason is actually the more compelling reason. While my mom can't make it this year, much to her great disappointment (especially since she has been hinting for months that I should go with her this year) I will be attending with my Aunt Terri and two of my best friends, Selina and Jen.

Selina is quite a seamstress. Having majored in Interior Architecture at the University of Oregon, where we met and became friends, she has an amazing talent for color and design. She creates beautiful home dec items, recovers furniture, and constructs fun items of clothing for special occasions. She and her mom made her wedding dress together, which was nothing short of a work of art - just absolutely stunning. So basically, she knows what the heck she's doing when she gets in front of a sewing machine.

Jen just started sewing at the end of last year, but she has dived in headfirst. A friend of hers finally taught her how to use the machine her husband had bought for her as a gift some time before, and the next thing we knew she had made boxer shorts, curtains, pillows, and even some knit tops for herself (which to me seems awfully daunting). Given her busy schedule - she's a lawyer and works for the Department of Justice in Salem - I am impressed and inspired by how quickly she has picked it up.

So, several weeks back, the three of us sat down (while the boys played Munchkin in the other room) and poured over the class schedule. We selected a good range of classes - some individually, most together - and submitted our registration.

The reason I am most excited about this trip is to get in some good GIRL TIME! I can see us staying up late, oohing and ahing over gorgeous fabrics, and giggling uncontrollably over all of the BAD fashion we are guaranteed to see ("Embellish a Themed Sweatshirt Jacket" - come on! ). As much as I love my husband, and enjoy spending time with family and other couples, there is absolutely no replacement for time with your girlfriends.

Men do not understand why women attend sewing expos. Every single man I've told about this trip has, intentionally or not, given me a look that says "Why on earth would you want to do that?" This is because men do not really understand the depth of female friendships, and that we attend events like this because they are as good an excuse as any to get together.

These are girls with whom I can be both silly and serious, sometimes over the same cup of coffee. We have shared common experiences and interests over the years, and our conversations are filled with inside jokes and quotes from TV shows we all enjoy. We encourage each other, celebrate together, and sometimes cry together. We are willing to stand up and fight for each other.

I am lucky to have such friends in my life.

Puyallup, here we come!