Just A Knit Wit

Sewing!

2009-10-30T20:17:00.003-05:00

I made my costume this year. Because, yeah, there wasn't enough going on this month. Anyways, here I am!

I'm supposed to be her:

This is my first sewing project that involved a pattern or anything more complicated than a square. I'm rather tickled about how it worked out.

The Blank Canvas

2009-10-03T09:07:00.004-05:00

A quick tour of the apartment, before all of our stuff got moved in:

The master bedroom:

The second bedroom (also known as the game room):

The living room:

The kitchen, with the grooviest tile in the world:

The cats are slowly adjusting, but here are a few shots of them from the first day:

Stinky had to be taken out of the litter box after a few hours:

Brother and sister protecting each other:

They're doing better now. They're still leery of the new place, but they're exploring a bit more. They still prefer to be in whatever room Dan is in.

Scary

2009-10-02T13:59:00.002-05:00

Dan and I moved into our very first apartment together yesterday. (Photos to come, I promise!) The cats are traumatized to the extreme and probably won't forgive us for a few days.

In other news, I have a problem student in the class that I am teaching. He is extremely disruptive in class and basically acts like a high schooler.

A few weeks ago he got really upset at me for asking him what his paper topic was and I got so alarmed by his violence that I contacted the Dean of Student Affairs, in case anything further happened.

Well it did. Today I kept him after class because he was screwing around, as usual, and he went off on me. To the point that another student actually stayed in the hallway when she heard, to make sure that I was ok. I contacted the Dean again for help and he's being charged with two counts of student misconduct and has to have a meeting before he's allowed back in my class.

Oh yes, and there will be a plain clothes police officer in the hall outside of my class on Monday. Just in case.

God it's horrible that these are the plans that we have to make. Apparently the police officer is standard in these situations, to make sure that the student doesn't come and do anything stupid. At first I just thought they were being over dramatic, but when you think about the different things that have happened recently...

I'm just glad that I have such great support from the other departments. And a house full of boxes to unpack and distract me.

It's a World of Laughter, A World of Care...

2009-09-16T10:35:00.003-05:00

Imagine if you will...

I am sitting in a small conference room with seven other graduate students, all of us preparing for the wacky adventure called teaching.

It's during a break. We are chitchatting, discussing ourselves, our lives and other unimportant things. I confess that I'm living with my boyfriend in his parents' basement until we find an apartment. Another woman laughs and shakes her head, "All these things you keep saying remind me of my ex."

I smile and nod. "That's cause I think I am dating your ex. Did you date Dan Lastname?" Her expression answered the question for me. She looked HORRIFIED. I, on the other hand, having come to the conclusion a few days prior to this, was laughing hysterically. I think it's the funniest damn thing that's happened to me in a long time.

It's a strange situation, you can't deny that. She's in another class with me and sometimes I look at her and wonder "Why did they date?" and at other times I look at her and understand "Oh, that's why they dated!". It's a weird opportunity to observe this woman who he used to love. I try not to compare, and we're very different so it's easy, but still... there has to be something about me that is similar to something about her.

It's a small, small world.

Meet The Kids

2009-09-13T15:39:00.004-05:00

When I moved in with Dan I got a lot of things that I didn't have before. Access to back rubs 24/7, a nightly blanket thief, and a whole slew of Steven Seagal movies. I also became co-owner to three furry blobs.

Stinky:
Stinky, so named because when he was rescued he thanked Dan by tooting in the car all the way home, is my cat. I have adopted him as my own 100%. He is the fall guy for the other two. They'll cause trouble and poor Stinky gets the blame. I've become his protector. Admittedly he is a trouble maker, but he does it with good intentions.

Isis:
Also known as Princess PrissyPants, Isis is Dan's baby. If the world was ending and we were getting into an escape pod, Dan would help her get settled and then decide if there was room for me. She's a very sweet cat who loves to share my desk chair with me. She has the cutest little chirruping meow and is so fat that she looks like she swallowed a cantaloupe. I'm trying to figure out a kitty diet for her.

Sebastian:
Brother of Isis, Sebastian, also known as Bubbah and Captain FuzzyPants, is as dumb as a post and is 100% Dan's cat. He wants nothing to do with me. If Dan is at his desk, Sebastian will be in his lap within seconds. He is also the most photogenic cat I have ever seen.

The cats are all adorable and they're slowly getting used to the idea of me being around all the time. I don't think Isis enjoys sharing the bed with another female, but she's getting used to it. I'm eager to see how they react to having a whole new house to explore.

Next post: It's a Small World After All, how I found out that Dan's Ex is in the same Master's program as me.

A New Sort of Life

2009-09-10T10:12:00.003-05:00

I almost feel like this is a whole new beginning for the blog, it's been so long since I posted anything with real content. Whole new life, whole new location, whole new Kelly to go along with it.

Here's a short, short version of everything that has happened since graduation:

*Mom made a full recovery from her sickness.
*I spent the summer getting hit on by middle-aged men while serving beer at a golf course.
*On August 8th, I moved in with Dan, in his parents' basement.
*On August 24th, I started teaching and taking graduate classes.
*I started a podcast!
*On Sept 7th, Dan and I signed the lease on our first apartment together.

The whole apartment thing is... almost eerie in how well it worked out. We had been looking for a while, always disappointed because they wouldn't allow 3 cats. Then we called this one ad, but the apartment wasn't in the area we wanted.

But wait, said the guy on the phone, I have another apartment coming available soon in the area you want. For a rent that seems like pennies. And I won't charge you extra for the cats. And I'll pay for your heat, water, sewer and trash. Would you be interested?

Needless to say, we were. It's an adorable apartment, 2 bedrooms, in a nice area, close to everything, including school, and on October 1st, it's ours. After signing the lease, we decided to celebrate in as adult a manner as possible:

Next post: Meet my new kitties!

Work At A Golf Course

2009-06-08T20:03:00.000-05:00

You'll be out in the sun!

Nothing Short of A Miracle

2009-05-27T23:26:00.004-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted. Two or three lifetimes it seems.

Mom is coming home tomorrow. After a long stay in a physical rehab place to regain her strength after being sick for so long. Her recovery still makes me glance upwards in appreciation.

As I said in my last post, she went downhill abruptly in the middle of the week. The doctors were planning to do the tracheostomy on Monday. When I spoke to the nurses on Sunday evening, May 3rd, that was still the plan.

I was at work on Monday (May 4th) when my phone started ringing. I dropped what I was doing and ran to take the call. It was Dad.

"She's awake. She's... they... She's off the breathing machine, awake. I was going to check on her, sit with her for a while before going to work and I turned the corner and she was up, looking at me, with just the mask on her face."

Needless to say, we were all in complete shock. Dad called me somewhere around 10 times that day and just kept repeating himself "I turned the corner and she was up, with just the mask on..."

None of the doctors can explain it. She hadn't been making very good progress at all, but apparently that changed overnight.

She stayed in the ICU for a few more days, then was in a regular room, then was sent to a physical rehab place. And tomorrow, between 10:30 and 11:00 she is coming home. Home after over a month in the hospital, 10 days in a coma, brushing elbows with death and coming back to her family.

It's nothing short of a miracle.

And in the midst of all of this, I graduated. It was hard, knowing that I wasn't going to have any family at graduation. Dan and his entire family were coming, but it just wasn't the same as having my own family there.

Night before the big day Dan was helping me with the last minute packing and suggested we go out for dinner. We headed out and I got the shock of my life. There, waiting at the restaurant, was my brother and sister. He had flown in from the West Coast, picked up lil sis and drove the 5 hours down to school to surprise me, because he didn't want me to not have family there at graduation. It meant more to me than I think anyone will ever know.

Graduation itself went off without a hitch. I do wish Mom and Dad could have been there, and they've both tearfully told me that they would have given the world to see it, but what is important is that I still have both my parents with me. And Dan recorded it, so it's all on video.

It's all... big

2009-05-01T14:38:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago today my mom went into the hospital via ambulance because she couldn't breathe. She had been fighting a chest cold for a week at that point.

On the following Wednesday I got a phone call at 8am from my Dad that they were moving her from a regular room into the ICU. I left work, Dan left his student teaching job and we drove back home. I spent the night in the ICU with her.

The next morning, Thursday, she was placed in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator because even with an oxygen mask on, she was unable to keep her O2 levels within a safe zone.

It was very scary, watching her struggle to breathe. And when they decided to put her in the coma and on the ventilator it was such a rushed decision, my dad and I were pushed from the room and I didn't get to say anything to her. The last thing I said before she went under was when she got upset at me and I told her not to be sassy.

Since then, everything has been hurry up and wait. Wait for her to get better. Wait for her lungs to empty of all the fluid that is, in effect, drowning her. Wait to see if she's going to be called away from us.

Because the semester is coming to a close, Dan and I were only able to stay for a week. Leaving her bedside was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.

So she was placed into a coma. And she FOUGHT against it like you wouldn't believe. The nurses said that, with the medicine she was on, she should have been completely unconscious. Instead, stubborn as always, she kept waking up and looking around, a few times she woke up, looking over at me and started to cry.

In the midst of all of this I was at the house, washing dishes when Dad came in. There was such an expression of... pain on his face that I was positive he'd gotten bad news from the hospital. He looked at me for a second before looking away. "You know that we can't come to graduation, right?" I told him it wasn't even anything that he needed to worry about right then. Before I headed back to school to finish out the semester he gave Dan the camcorder so that he could record graduation. (I'm graduating cum laude!!)

Since I left her condition worsened considerably. This past Wednesday she was recieving 95% oxygen and her body was only retaining 92%. The doctor in charge of her case told my dad that he had never seen someone as sick as Mom was.

Then... last night I got a call from Dad. Mom's nurse for the next few days is a self proclaimed "Stubborn Polack" who was sick of seeing Mom in her ICU, so she was going to force her to get better. After a few hours in this woman's care she was down to 60% oxygen and was retaining 98% of it. This morning she was down to 55% oxygen and was keeping 93%.

I don't want to risk jinxing it, but I'm really hoping that she's starting to heal. This upcoming Monday they are going to do a tracheostomy because they can't keep the tubes down her throat for any longer because it'll damage her vocal cords. The good thing about this is that with the trech it's easier to wean her from the O2 because if she has a crisis all they need to do is clip the tubes to the trech instead of intubating her.

Now I just hope that they don't wake her up until after graduation otherwise she'll make herself worse worrying over missing it. As for me... I just want to go home and be with her.

Cahokia Mounds

2009-04-05T21:39:00.004-05:00

Ever since I changed my minor from linguistics to anthropology, I have been learning things that I never knew existed. Such as Cahokia Mounds.

Cahokia was an ancient Native American city located near modern day St. Louis. It consisted of hundreds of mounds, serving both ritual and common needs. The largest of these is known as Monk's Mound, named for the monastery that was built upon it.
This is Monk's Mound. Estimates believe that it took around 167 years to build and is made entirely from dirt. See that tiny speck at the top of the mound? That's Dan. :)

We headed to Cahokia to listen to a lecture so that I could earn some much needed extra credit in my New World City States class. After the lecture we headed out to Monk's Mound.
It's quite a climb to get up there. I lost count when I was trying to count the stairs. It suddenly seemed more important to remember to breathe.
This is the second set of stairs that you have to go up to get to the top of the mound. This set alone has more than 100 stairs. The first set of stairs isn't as large and only has, at most, 50 stairs.

We were both winded. Mouth to mouth was necessary for survival. ;)
I love that we wear our geekiness on our shirts. He with his Chuck Norris, me with my Ghostbusters.

This sign pleased me more than I can say...Sledding down that huge hill hadn't even occurred to me. Especially as there is a major road directly in front of it.

Wow...

2009-04-01T17:19:00.002-05:00

I GOT THE GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be teaching three courses over the next year. One in the fall and two in the spring. My tuition will be paid for by the department and I will also be receiving a monthly stipend from them. I am SO excited!!

I GOT IN!!!!!

2009-03-19T15:18:00.001-05:00

I GOT IN TO GRADUATE SCHOOL!!!!

Time to party!!!

Still waiting to hear back about the graduate assistantship.

Alive, But Just Barely

2009-03-04T14:46:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since I updated! I hang my head in bloggish shame.

However the time in between posts had not gone idly by. Dan and I got married.

Just kidding. :)

I submitted my grad school application. And my application for a Graduate Assistantship. And submitted one of my papers for a scholarship award that's being given out later in the semester.

Not kidding.

Now the waiting begins. Waiting to find out if I was accepted into the grad school. Waiting to find out if I will be getting my tuition waived, teaching a course
(!!!!!) and helping students out in the writing center on campus. Keep your stitches crossed for me!

It's highly stressful. I keep suddenly realizing that all this stressful life changing stuff is out there, waiting in the ether, waiting to be judged, waiting until I hear back about whether or not my life will continue on the path that I'm hoping it will, and then my heart stops, my stomach twists and I have to try not to cry.

I have two FOs that I need to photograph and post, but my knitting time has been drastically reduced by the amount of homework that I have from day to day. Spring break is next week and I'm not going to have any time then either, as I'm scheduled to work 37 hours, have 3 books to read and two research projects to get started on. But I do have a few projects that I'm hoping to work on during the break.

How have you been?

Roses

2009-02-18T19:24:00.001-06:00

Look how beautifully the roses Dan got me are blooming!

Awww!

2009-02-16T22:04:00.004-06:00

Dan and I were both sick over Valentine's day, so we were unable to spend any time together this past weekend. So we spent the weekend talking via IM, poor Dan had no voice, and picking on each other.

I teased him about faking sick to get out of Valentine's day and being 0% romantic. Little did I know!

I walked out of class today and was actually on the phone with Dan, heading towards my car, when I saw him standing at my car, with a dozen roses and his traditional gift, a jar of pickles*.

I was very excited, not only because I hadn't seen him in over a week, but also because these were my first ever Valentine's roses. It was the sweetest surprise ever, and boy did I feel like an ass for teasing him about being so unromantic!

*Pickles became a traditional gift when he gave me a jar for our first Valentine's day together, as he views purchasing and handling pickles as the greatest display of love that he can imagine, since he abhors them with a passion and cannot be near me when I eat them.

Wow

2009-02-02T19:33:00.002-06:00

So I'm in the process of applying for grad school and an assistantship. It's all very scary and different and, as such, I think that's feeding into my whole loss of mojo.

Enter my current English professor for my senior seminar. During class I pointed out a theme in the poem we were discussing and he got all excited because someone had spotted it and then told me to take the discussion. I spent the next 10 minutes basically teaching the class, pointing out different parts of the poem where this theme entered, etc. It was very cool.

After class I stayed to ask him about my first paper that I'm working on. While walking down the hall he asked what my plans in life were. I told him I wanted to be a college professor his response was "Good, excellent. You know, Dr. Suchandso speaks VERY highly of you. Are you applying to grad school?"

I said yes, somewhat stunned that anyone, let alone two PhDs, had been discussing me. He asked my GPA and I told him, cumulative is 3.64, in the English department it's 4.0.

"Applying for an assistantship as well?" I nodded slightly.

He smiled at me and nodded. "You'll get in. You'll get it. Don't you worry about a thing." And with that, he headed down the hall to his office, unaware that he'd single-handedly replenished the mojo I had so recently lamented losing.

Insert Witty Title Here

2009-02-01T20:17:00.003-06:00

My knitting mojo has left me. In fact... all of my mojo has left me. I am remarkably lazy and bored most of the time these days. I started a pair of endpaper mitts and then yanked them out. Frankly I'm impressed that I managed to get my laundry done today.

The dorm drama goes on. We had another blow up wherein I informed Cassie that she was a liar, a child and so not worth the time I was wasting speaking to her. Since then she has managed to do her cleaning so time will tell. And, as I tell myself at least twenty times a day, it's just til May.

I'm getting a bit annoyed with how much drama is starting to develop on Ravelry. It seems like every time something good comes along, like a community site where people with similar interests can come together, it goes to shit. In the past few weeks I've seen more snotty posts and ridiculous amounts of high school clique behavior. You may or may not have seen the stuff about some indie dyer possibly faking her own death. Beyond the drama of that, the people who claimed to have all of the info about it were refusing to tell anyone outside of their discussion group, that they were, quote "Keeping this one in the family folks". Because apparently now groups on ravelry are the mafia. Oy.

I'm really hoping that it's the weather. That everyone and everything will relax, reboot and go back to some semblance of normalcy.

Until then... here's a photo of a cookie.

Anyone else think it looks naughty?

Snippet of Conversation

2009-01-20T22:26:00.003-06:00

"Sorry I missed your call sweety. I was translating the Magna Carta for Amanda."

"Well shit, here I am struggling to grade a few papers. Why don't you kick me in the balls while you're at it. You gonna cure cancer too?"

And then we laughed for a good ten minutes.

A Better Shot

2009-01-12T19:18:00.001-06:00

Of the hair, not so much of my face.

Yay!!

2009-01-11T20:17:00.002-06:00

OK, so we remember the way my hair used to look:

And here, though horrible webcam photos, is my new hair style:

I love it. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Can't wait for Dan to see it.

The meeting... not so good. It kinda went in a circle. Started badly, got good towards the middle and then ended badly. But I voiced a lot of stuff that I had been keeping in, including her calling me "it", "the creature" and "inhuman" behind my back. Her face when I confronted her about that... priceless.

It ended badly. There will be fake and forced politeness and I know she'll continue to talk about me behind my back, but she knows I know about it, so maybe she'll be more careful to keep it on the downlow.

Best comment of the meeting:

Just because you hear me say your name and then that you're a bitch doesn't mean that the overall statement was negative.

Oy...

2009-01-10T22:28:00.003-06:00

It has been a strange day.

I left work early to go get my hair cut and dyed.

She chopped off my hair. Then dyed it dark brown. Then told me that they needed to close and I would have to come back for the highlights. Then called the owner to see if she should stay. Then told me the owner said to come back. Then the owner called back and yelled at the woman for taking too long and told her to stay and finish, which pissed off the woman who then began aggressively combing my poor hair.

I decided to leave and go back another day to get the highlights done. Tomorrow morning actually.

I returned to the apartment, pulled off my jacket and wondered why it felt so cold. I checked the thermostat and found out why. Cassie had turned the heat off before she left. She had also made cookies and left them sitting out on the pan and gotten my spatula dirty without washing it.

I sent her the following text message:

I don't appreciate you turning the thermostat down to 55 so that I have to sleep in a cold apartment. Also, if you cannot wash my kitchen things after using them, don't use them.

Apparently she was next door, so she ran over and started in on me. How was she supposed to know that the spatula wasn't hers? (I pointed out that if she didn't buy it, it doesn't belong to her) She didn't turn the heat off, she didn't know who did it, maybe her boyfriend did. (Whereupon I lost my temper a little, informed her that he had no right to touch the thermostat as it isn't his bleeping apartment, and either way it's still her problem to deal with because he's her guest)

She left, I showered, got into my PJs, turned on my heated blanket to warm up my freezing room and got into bed to watch some TV before going to sleep.

There's a knock at the door. It's the RA.

Yes, because I confronted her about turning the heat off she arranged a mediation meeting with the RA. We're meeting tomorrow after I get off work at five.

So tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion to this week's installment of

Dorm Room Drama!!!

Snip Snip

2009-01-08T19:23:00.003-06:00

My hair has gotten really long. Like... stupid long. It's long to the point that I have to lift it up before I sit down in chairs, otherwise it's pinned and I can't move my head.

So I've been debating a haircut for a while. What style, how short, highlights or no. I've decided on this:

I know, I know... a Buffy cut? But I've actually had this haircut before and it worked with my fat face.

Pictures as soon as I get it done, which hopefully will be within the next week, as soon as my student loan refund gets into the bank.

New Year

2009-01-05T10:54:00.002-06:00

My year, thus far:

I've had a raging sinus infection for nearly two weeks
Due to this, I haven't been able to taste food for the same amount of time
I had a killer migraine a few days ago
The thermostat housing unit on my car broke and I lost my heating system
My account at school wasn't cleared so I was freaking out about deadlines for graduation.

BUT

I'm now on antibiotics and I'm sure it'll clear up in no time
The problems with my car were fixed for free!
I called this morning, my account is cleared and all is well
I'm back at the apartment and there is no one else here with me. All is quiet and calm
AND!!!!!

While at home I found a bag of clothes and brought them back to school with me. Sadly I realized they were a size smaller than what I'm wearing and started to put them away, then decided, what the hell, and tried them on.

THEY FIT! I've gone down an entire size while at school.

Classes start next Monday, I have today off of work. I'm planning on running a few simple errands and then knitting my little heart out.

Snow Kisses

2008-12-24T08:08:00.003-06:00

`Do you know what to-morrow is, Kitty?' Alice began. `You'd have guessed if you'd been up in the window with me"

`Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty? How nice and soft it sounds! Just as if some one was kissing the window all over outside. I wonder if the snow LOVES the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently?

And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again." And when they wake up in the summer, Kitty, they dress themselves all in green, and dance about -- whenever the wind blows -- oh, that's very pretty!' cried Alice, dropping the ball of worsted to clap her hands. `And I do so WISH it was true!

Happiest Holidays To You and Your Families

Christmas Photos

2008-12-19T18:36:00.003-06:00

As promised, here are the pictures that Dan and I had taken last week. I'm so pleased with how they turned out!

Dan Quote: "Aw.. your hat is bigger than mine!"
Traditional shot.
Yup... he's a wrestling nerd.
I absolutely love his expression in this picture. But here's how sweet he is. After we left he made sure to tell me that he doesn't feel that way about my knitting.
Now they just need to be put into their frames for both our parents.

Holiday Knitting

2008-12-16T09:40:00.002-06:00

I actually finished my holiday knitting early this year. Which means that I've been adding projects to the list. But they're all small.

Anyways, here are the projects I finished.

For one of Dan's sisters:
The Soul Sucking Scarf from HELL!!!!
I mean... the spiral scarf from Scarf Style.

For his other sister, I decided to do the Devil Hat from Stitch n Bitch:
Except it looked more like a red blob with bug pinchers on the top. So I snipped off the horns and added kitty ears...

Still not as cute as I'd hoped, cause now I wish I'd knit it in black...

And for my mom:
It's the Wool Peddler's Shawl from Folk Shawls. I knit the body in gray, the lace in a soft pink and then finished off with the gray again. It took FOREVER but I'm glad I stuck to it and finished it. I'm excited to see how Mom likes it.

Dan and I went and got professional portraits done last week to give to both our parents for x-mas. I'm so happy with the pictures. They're adorable. We brought props and cracked the photographer up with our different poses which are:

The traditional couple's pose
Us in black hats, back to back and looking at the camera
Him with a wrestling championship belt across one shoulder while I roll my eyes
Me knitting while he stands captive with the yarn wound around his hands

As soon as they get in I'll scan them and post them here, cause I absolutely adore them.

Well... time to write a few essays and study for finals!

$3 Holiday Cheer

2008-12-14T10:41:00.003-06:00

This is the tree that decorates my apartment right now. Sadly I didn't get to put it up this year. The annoying roommates saw it sitting out, as I planned to decorate it after I finished writing a paper, and decided to do it for me. Now I'm a pretty big grinch, but that made me a little sad because I was looking forward to doing it.

Classes are over. I have two finals and a presentation to do next week, assuming that the ice storm heading towards us doesn't stop life as we know it for a few days. I've been wrapping up my holiday knitting. I still have a few more projects to finish up, one that has yet to be started actually.

I am so glad this semester is over. It has been horrible. Here's hoping next semester will be better.

Strange Week

2008-11-16T20:24:00.003-06:00

This past Monday was my birthday. As per usual, the week either before or after my birthday is always.... interesting.

Take this week for example. Monday one of my professors had an emotional breakdown in the middle of class. I had left class after she announced there wasn't going to be a quiz, so I missed the show, but apparently she cried. I feel bad cause she cried. But she is a flake.

Wednesday another one of my professors had a breakdown in the middle of class. Only this time I had no sympathy and was about ready to stand up a slap her because she asked us to tell her why we weren't doing well in the class, inviting the criticism, and then got all uppity with us. At one point she responded to one of my comments, asking her to post class notes earlier than 15 minutes before class, by informing me that I'm lazy. Yeah. Then she announced that from that point forward she was dealing with adults. I wanted SOOOO badly to ask if that meant she was going to start acting like one too. I refrained. With difficulty.

Thursday I found out that I still haven't been paid by the second job I've been working at for nearly two months now. In fact, there's not even any paperwork in process.

Friday I was working and totally fried a powerstrip, losing all of the work that I had done during the morning. Obviously I had to switch projects while it was fixed, so I went to work on a different project and was reinforced in my opinion that people I work with, student workers at least, absolutely HATE me and cannot stand being near me.

Thankfully Friday ended with Dan meeting me at my place, us going bowling and then me spending the night at his place and us lounging together all day Saturday.

The semester is reaching critical mass and I'm looking forward to next week, when Dan and I will be spending Thanksgiving break with my family, lounging, relaxing and otherwise wasting time. It's just a matter of getting through this last week.

At the moment there is a teenybopper relationship support group going on in the living room and I keep catching little snippets of the conversation during quiet moments of my music. Allow me to share:

"We didn't even have sex this weekend. We didn't have it except for once!"
"I'm not ready to seriously date someone. That's why I want to just be dating him!"

Oy.

Anyways, to celebrate my birthday Dan's sisters made me two of the coolest cakes ever. And these ladies have never had a single class on this sort of stuff. Just made it up on their own:

Speaking of his sisters, I'm knitting them each gifts for the holidays and I finished one of them. It's the Spiral Scarf from Scarf Style, but I prefer to call it the Soul Sucking Scarf From Hell.

Just a few more holiday gifts to knit up, I'm keeping the list short this year due to time and money constraints.

Time to return to homework...

Class Notes

2008-11-05T20:15:00.002-06:00

I'm really getting my money's worth in this class..

Dear America,

2008-11-04T23:08:00.003-06:00

I am SO proud.

Thank you for believing in change. For believing in hope. For believing.

Today history was made. Now lets work for the future.

Midterm Slump

2008-10-19T21:58:00.002-05:00

I really want to be excited and eager in regards to school and life in general. But I am exhausted.

The semester is moving along and projects are looming in the near future. Over the next few weeks I have 7 papers to write and two presentations to prepare for. I'm not enjoying 3 out of 5 classes, which makes things interesting.

I keep trying to bolster myself up. Fall is here, it's my favorite season. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to enjoy it. I know a big part of my problem is that I'm not managing my time wisely. I seem to make schedules for the sheer joy of ignoring them. I don't knit. I don't read. I don't write. I just... sit and stare and worry about classes and money and homework.

The thing that's bothering me is that life is not bad.

My roommates and I have reached an agreement, wherein we are all polite and they leave me the hell alone. It's not a cozy place, but the horribly unwelcome feeling is gone.

Last week I went to a Graduate School seminar and was thrilled to hear that all applications submitted that day would have the $35 application fee waived. So I am officially an applicant for the SIUE Graduate Program.

Last Thursday my dad was in town, so Dan, he and I all went out for dinner at a local casino. This was not the first time he'd met Dan, but it was the first time we'd been in an intimate atmosphere. I think that things went well and Dad seemed to like Dan, which is always good. Highlights of the evening include Dan sitting down at his very first slot machine and bidding 1 cent at a time until we showed him how the machine worked.

Dan and I are both insanely busy, but we're finding time to be together, even if it's just a few hours here or there. Next semester, when he's student teaching, will be much harder, but we're committed to making it work.

Class registration was last week and I got into the senior seminar that I wanted, which was essential to me graduating in May.

My yarn sale was very successful and I want to thank everyone who purchased something.

I found out that I've been on the Dean's List due to my good grades since last year, which will look GREAT on that Graduate application.

Dan and I are spending Thanksgiving with my family, including a hockey game and lots of leisure time.

I've been going to knitting night at a local yarn shop and I really enjoy spending time with the ladies there, they're all great. And they've made me feel very welcome into their group.

Things are good, I'm just... tired. I'm thinking I'll double up on my vitamins, add extra veggies and the occasional cookie.

For Sale

2008-10-10T15:33:00.011-05:00

All Items are available on a first come, first served basis. All items are from a non-smoking home.

Any help that can be given is greatly appreciated. Please pass the link to this page along to anyone you might know.

A Plea For Help

2008-10-09T10:34:00.002-05:00

This semester isn't going very well for me. I wasn't able to move, all the places were taken or completely inappropriate for me to move in. So I'm stuck in the apartment, but things are at least a little better. There are still moments where I want to slap someone, but I just stick my headphones in my ears and go sit in my room.

No, the real problem is... money. I'm working 2 jobs, about to start a 3rd and just submitted applications to find a 4th.

And so leads to my plea. I'm selling some of my yarn. I'll be taking photos tonight and posting them with the prices. I'll also be listing some photos of stitch markers that I've made.

Now What?

2008-09-27T21:34:00.003-05:00

I'm still waiting to hear back from school about places I can move to. But in the meantime...

C, the one who is really the cause of all the trouble, and I had a long talk today. 2 and a half hours long. And we talked about everything that had happened, how I feel unwelcome in my own house, how the dirty looks she gives me, the immature games, how all the stuff she does has managed to drive me away.

She took responsibility, apologized, offered to change, to compromise, to try and fix things, then told me she didn't want me to move out because she thought our living together would be a good experience for us both, that she knew it would be a good experience for her.

Problem is... this is not the first time that I've gotten a 'too good to be true' response to talking to her. And last time it turned out to be just that and things got worse. And if I decided to give her another chance, stay and see how things will work themselves out, then I'll miss my chance to leave until next semester, be stuck in hell and be very cranky.

Either way, it sucks. If I leave, I go into an unknown situation, could be good, could be bad. If I stay, I go into an unknown situation, could be good, could be bad.

Maybe I'll just run away to Tanzania.

Waiting Game

2008-09-22T18:05:00.002-05:00

I still haven't been able to move dorms yet. I submitted my request last week and hopefully things will get into motion soon.

Living here is... ridiculous. I can't walk into the apartment, leave my 2x2 space in the corner of the dining room or try to sit down and watch TV without getting glared at, as if I'm an intruder in their house. I haven't sat in the living room since the first week of classes. The chair I used to sit in was pushed into the dining room, as if to further enforce the idea that I'm NOT welcome anywhere else except my exiled area.

It's remarkably lonely to be unwelcome in what is supposed to be my own home. I'm very anxious to move, if just for the peace of mind. Last week two of the girls stood in front of my bedroom and discussed what they'd do with all the extra space once "she's finally out of here" which is... just great.

It's actually starting to affect my schoolwork. Between the loudness of their constant parties and television viewing and the emotional drain of being hated so thoroughly, most days I just go into my bedroom and distract myself with yarn or books.

Building Traditions

2008-09-15T21:28:00.002-05:00

As Dan and I have passed the 1 year mark, we've started considering the future. Our lives together, all of the what-if's that are included along the way, and what traditions we'd like to have with each other.

After a lot of serious discussion, some soul searching, and a bit of compromise we came to one very serious agreement.

Friday night... is pizza night.

My sweety is many things... a cook is NOT one of them. I joked with his mom this weekend that I wasn't marrying him until he took a Home Ec class.

Please note how, while I lightly dusted his face with flour, he all but dumped the bag over my head.

The perfect pizza. Half cheese, half cheese and black olive. And no, I didn't take bites out of 3 slices before the photo. Somehow, while I cut the pizza, the middle was demolished.

His pizza. A sausage and pepperoni nightmare.

The recipe, should anyone care to know, is very simple. Each pizza takes 1 box of Jiffy Pizza Dough mix, some sauce, cheese and toppings.

Preheat your oven to 425. Prepare all your toppings before you start the dough.

Pour the mix into a bowl.
Add 1/2 cup hot water and mix.
Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Flour your hands and surface and knead the dough a few times.
Smooth dough onto pan, working from inside out.
Put dough in oven for 2 minutes (DON'T SKIP THIS PART!!!)
Let cool for a few minutes, then add toppings.
Bake until cheese bubbles up, then let cool.
Cut with a pair of scissors. (Family tradition)
Eat. Eat. Eat.

Happily Ever After

2008-09-10T14:49:00.002-05:00

So I realize that my story cuts off short and, as Dan has pointed out on many occasions, makes him look like a doof, so I will fill you in on the happily ever after.

After trudging inside, feeling deflated and sad because I thought there was a real connection, I curled up in bed and decided to forget all about it. But the next morning when I woke up there was an e-mail waiting for me.

He had realized a few seconds after he pulled away what had happened and rather than turning around and going back he remembered that I'd mentioned the name of my blog, googled it, found my e-mail through my blog and wrote to me.

And so here we are, a year later, still giddy at the sight of each other, still all gross and cuddly/smoochy, completely in love.

And hopefully, they'll live happily ever after.

How They Met

2008-09-06T11:07:00.002-05:00

This Friday is D and my 1 year anniversary. In honor of the day, I decided to share the story of how we met. I wrote the following for my final ENG 200 paper, emulating the writing style of an author, Thomas Pynchon, that we'd read during the semester.

She had to switch seats, class was difficult enough to follow without sitting behind the pumpkin headed man, who seemed to have a strange psychic connection with her, knowing when she was craning her neck to see around the bulbous mass of his head and moving in sync with her, blocking the entire blackboard and the oh so important notes that Professor Tangent was scribbling down. Walking into class she headed for a desk against the wall, far away from where Pumpkin-Head liked to sit, pulling out textbooks, notebooks, reference books, date book, folders, pencils, pens, highlighters, paperclips, stapler and the college elixir of life, anything with a lot of sugar and even more caffeine, it was a necessary evil when it came to these long-winded professors who felt that they had to tell you absolutely everything ever written about their subject, but couldn’t manage to do it in an interesting way.

Professor Tangent ran through the names of the students in the class, glancing up each time, trying to connect names and faces, giving it the old college try you could say. “Kelly Anystudent. Oh, you moved.” His observational abilities amazed her at times, but she only smiled and nodded slightly, doubting that he or Pumpkin-Head would appreciate the humor in the truth of the matter, that one’s voice barely registered to her as coherent speech and the other’s fat head blocked her view of the only written record of important lesson details. Of course, now that she’d moved to a place where she could see Professor Tangent barely touched the chalk, instead droning on and on about place of articulation and tongue placement in the mouth, all of which she imagined going in one ear and out the other, floating through the air, unabsorbed facts off to join their peers in the college graveyard of unlearned information.

“Turn to the person next to you and note the tongue placement as they say buh-buh-buh-guh-guh-guh-wuh-wuh-wuh-luh-luh-muh-muh.”

Looking left, Kelly saw that the Doodler had already paired up with someone, her notebook covered with a strange mixture of notes and drawings, much as if she were an archaeologist, trying to decipher the strange hieroglyphics she’d discovered on a temple wall. Looking right she found herself face to face with a man around her age, one green eye and one blue, David Bowie eyes, Ziggy Stardust singing his songs on the stage while the girls all scream and cheer for him despite his feminine appearance, it just makes him more attractive because it means he’s a manly man who isn’t afraid to get prettied up.

“You go right on ahead.” She said with a grin, propping her chin upon her hand and watching him as he blushed and laughed, nervous and hesitant to make an ass of himself in front of someone he didn’t know. It was a strange introduction to make, two returning students around the same age, making stupid noises at each other, laughing and forgetting the whole point of the exercise, something clicking audibly between the two, heard even over the ridiculous recitations of “buh-wuh-guh” of their fellow classmates, Professor Tangent roaming the desks, pulling tongues out students’ mouths to show their partners the places of articulation that were being used and occasionally the shiny tongue-ring that the other person was sporting.

After class had finished she wandered with her newfound friend Dan Everyguy over to find food and a place to sit down somewhere on campus, launching into conversation and then both diving headfirst into a friendly competition of who was the biggest nerd, even though she really preferred the word dork because it had a more feminine sound and because she could then use her witty and cute mix of adorable and dork, labeling herself as adorkable.

“I knit.” It was best to start with the small stuff and keep building up, it really wasn’t nerdy at all because knitting was a productive hobby and it took skill and patience and dedication to each individual project and even though society immediately connected it with old ladies, rocking chairs, old-maids and being completely boring she found it best to mention right away because she carried some with her everywhere and really it was cool and relaxing and stereotypes annoyed her anyway so he could deal with it or not.

He smiled, thought for a bit, then threw out his first challenge. “I watch Smallville.”

“Buffy.”

“Wrestling.”

“X-Files.”

“I film short movies with my friends.”

“I do reenactments at the Renaissance Faire.”

“I own three Star Trek movies.”

He’d trumped her, hands down that was the clincher, Trekki beat Rennie no matter what the circumstances were, the nerd factor was positively through the roof. She was impressed that he’d confessed such a thing to her on their first discussion. Things like that usually came out a week or two after the honeymoon, unpacking boxes together and pulling out items you’d never expect to find, staring at each other with wide and horrified eyes, one holding the entire collection of Xena DVDs, the other with a box full of VHS recordings of every single college football game that has ever played on TV in the past 25 years, both wondering if it’s too late to get out.

Dirty laundry aired between them, the pair ended up at her apartment watching a horror movie, except that they never stopped talking so the movie was mostly background noise so that the nosey roommates in the next room couldn’t follow every word they said, even with the paper-thin walls. It was dark before he finally left, the pair walking to his car and standing in the warm air, laughing and joking long after repeated good byes. Irish good byes he called them which only launched them off into another long discussion which led to several more, both of them babbling on and on, saying things that they’d likely regret the next day when they ran the events over in their head or relayed them to friends or family.

Dan had one foot in his car, the closest they’d gotten to actually saying a real goodbye, when she took the leap and laid it all out on the line, set the cards down on the table, wore her heart on her sleeve, swallowed her pride, bit the bullet, took the bull by the horns, seized the day, charged forward and knocked it out of the park. “So… I could give you my number. Maybe we could hang out over the weekend...”

He looked at her and smiled, settling himself down into the driver’s seat of the car. “Oh, no thanks, I’ve got to work.”

She watched as he pulled away, heart sinking like the Titanic, his casual rejection the iceberg that had punctured the steel resolve she’d built up over the years, each last hope struggling to hang on as it slid into the icy pit of her stomach, drowning slowly and painfully as she turned and headed back inside the apartment, bracing herself up against the inevitable coos of her immature roommates, excited to see her with a boy.

~End~

House Bunny

2008-09-01T21:06:00.003-05:00

So D's parents invited me to see a movie with the family, very sweetly supporting my current attempts to be away from the dorm of doom until the transfer can be made.

So we all headed out to see a movie. And they picked House Bunny.

Oy.

Being me... I can't stand movies that try to have a deep message, but in the end are just "be thin and pretty girls, that's the best way to be!"

Let me summarize the movie for you all. For those who might be inclined to see it, consider this your SPOILER WARNING...

Playboy bunny gets fired and booted out of the mansion.

Searches for new home.

Decides that a sorority is EXACTLY like the playboy mansion and tries to find a job as a house mother.

Ends up at the "nerdy" sorority that's about the lose it's charter cause of lack of pledges. The members include: the nerd, the pseudo-lesbian-almost-goth, the super-butch-farm-girl, the girl in a back brace, the pregnant girl, the short girl and the girl who doesn't talk.

Playboy bunny proceeds to skankify the girls in a montage that is every confident woman's worst nightmare, i.e. midriffs are ALWAYS to be shown, cleavage is NOT an option and the bottom of your ass-cheeks should be visible beneath your shorts/skirt.

Playboy bunny teaches the girls how to get members, by throwing drinking parties, pretending to be stupid cause "boys don't really like girls who are smart", and, of course, dressing like skanks.

Fast forward to the end of the movie where everyone learns the same lesson. That it's OK to be who you are, so long as you're beautiful, covered in make-up, wearing designer clothes and hiding your stranger personality traits.

I felt so empowered when I left the movie. I wanted to go out and.... get something waxed. Or possibly just retch, I get those two urges mixed up sometimes...

A Letter

2008-08-28T10:09:00.003-05:00

Dear Resident Assistant,

I am currently living in ****** and I would like to request that I am moved to a new apartment. Unfortunately, the people who I have been assigned to live with have very different personalities and values than myself.

I am a returning student and will be turning 26 this year. I have worked hard to return to college and, as such, my grades are immensely important to me. I value a quiet place to study, and unfortunately I have been denied that. My roommates, and one in particular, like to have parties every night at our apartment. It has become clear that, if I wish to study, it will have to be elsewhere.

I believe that part of the problem is the fact that the school matched up two sophomores with a senior. Beyond the heavier workload that I will, and already do, have this year, there is a vast difference in maturity. They have decided how things are going to work in the apartment and "compromise" seems to mean that I let them have their way no matter what.

At the moment the apartment is civil, but just barely. I have been isolated in a corner of the dining room, where I have around 3-4 feet of space in which to move, as the table and my desk are forced up against each other. This was decided, as are most of the decisions regarding the apartment as a whole, and done while I was at work, leaving me unable to protest until everything else had already been moved.

I have tried to sit down and talk with the one girl in particular who seems to be the center of the problems. Unfortunately the talk seemed to go very well, both of us agreeing on several points, but since then she has done everything short of telling me that I'm unwelcome to make me feel unwelcome. In short, she is resorting to very high school-esque behaviors, which I am several years removed from and no longer have the tolerance to put up with.

I do not think that this is anything that mediation can fix, especially as we've already talked and she doesn't seem to have a problem with lying straight to my face about things and then doing the exact opposite. I have already struggled through one hellish semester, living with a person who thoroughly disliked me, and I refuse to put myself through that stress again. I have a right to a safe, quiet and comfortable place to live. At the moment I do not feel that I am being granted that right.

I would really appreciate it if you could please contact me about moving apartments as soon as possible. If at all possible I would like to remain on the 500-side of Cougar Village. Please e-mail me or feel free to call my cell phone at 123-456-7890. I am working all day Friday and Saturday, but if you would like to meet somewhere and talk about things in person, I would be happy to oblige.

Thank you very much,
Just A Miserable Knit Wit

Time Warp

2008-08-26T21:35:00.003-05:00

Do you all remember this teeny cutie pie:
Well two weekends ago, before the roommates showed up, she and her mom came down to spend the weekend with me. I can honestly say now that it was quieter with a 2 yr old than it has been with the new roommates. But seriously... how cute is she?

I didn't even prompt her to take on this fantastic Ray Charles-esque pose. That's natural comedic talent.

Post Ho-Ho face. Note the napkin. She is a very tidy toddler. Take a bite, wipe the face. Then abandon the plate and run off to play until mom threatens to "eat" her food. Then she runs back, giggling, and "steals" back the bite.

We went to the St. Louis Zoo to visit all the animals while they were here. I'd ask her if she wanted to go see something else and she's sort of gasp "Oh yeah!" before hurrying off towards her next big adventure.

And just in case you were wondering, her favorite animal at the zoo?

The train.

Wonders Never Cease

2008-08-24T23:07:00.002-05:00

Imagine my surprise when I approach C and ask if she would please sit down and talk with me about our sudden friction and she agreed.

Imagine my surprise when we talked civilly and as adults.

Imagine my surprise when she apologized for upsetting me so badly, for taking so many liberties, for making me feel unwelcome in my own home.

I have to say, things couldn't have worked out for the better. I addressed the problems, explained my upset and she explained her reasonings and thought processes.

Admittedly, she didn't have a good reason for assuming control of the apartment, but she admitted to it and assured me that it wouldn't happen again. Likewise with her drunken comments, she was horrified and apologized profusely for them.

I know that a lot of my own upset was due to flashbacks to Ly and all of the drama surrounding that, but she admitted to a lot of things I assumed she would deny, apologized for all of them and, at the end of it all, shyly asked if we could still be friends.

I think that lucky penny I found before leaving work was the real deal.

I Am Sitting

2008-08-23T19:15:00.003-05:00

In the corner of the dining room, where my things have been forced, listening to my new roommate C, who is drunk after polishing 2 bottles of vodka off with her friends between 3 and 7pm, talking about how much she hates having me as a roommate.

She has been here 3 days.

This morning I woke up to a note that informed me that she and Am would be rearranging the living room while I was at work. I made two requests... be gentle with my TV stand because it isn't stable and leave my plants on the table by the window.

When I got home from work my plants were on the porch and I was told to move my TV for them. Then I was told that having my plants by the window didn't work for their plan, that I needed to find a new home for them and that I also had to take down the ONE SINGLE decoration that I have in the entire apartment because C has decided that it isn't cute.

I ended up leaving, sitting in my car outside of Borders, crying on the phone with my parents because I am flashing back to last year with LY, where everything was bad and I spent the entire semester with heartburn.

Help... please...

Insert Happy Dance

2008-08-13T21:36:00.002-05:00

Got all A's for the summer semester.

And my Chaucer professor thinks I should submit my final paper for the English Department's Undergraduate essay contest for this year.

The summer semester was a real challenge for me. Having classes crammed into 5 week packages, teachers who were fairly unsympathetic about that same fact, papers were due one on top of the other and I really had to buckle down and push myself, hard.

I am very proud of myself. Now if I can only keep the A's coming.

The Post Without A Title

2008-08-12T20:44:00.005-05:00

Stupid freaking spider scared the crap out of me when I walked past the window. Just hanging there, looking creepy. (ETA: Yes, he's outside. If he was inside I wouldn't have been taking pictures. I would have been crying and begging D to drive 45 minutes to squish it for me)

I'm knitting another of Jean Greenhowe's wonderful patterns. Robin Hood is coming along nicely. He's somewhat less freaky with hair, but he still needs a nose, mouth and for his arms to be sewn into place.

I Have Him Well Trained

2008-08-10T11:28:00.002-05:00

How I love that man of mine!

Hoppity Hoppity Hop

2008-08-08T22:50:00.004-05:00

I have been riding the euphoric high of being completely finished with all my classes and using it for productive purposes!

Took me 2 evenings' work to knit. I love Jean Greenhowe's patterns. She is an absolute genius.

Up next:

I've actually got his legs and torso done. He's a sad, headless freak of nature...

2008-08-08T18:55:00.000-05:00

It's all hilarious, but at least watch until 1:00

DONE!!!!

2008-08-07T19:27:00.002-05:00

I finally finished the damn paper. My summer vacation can officially begin!

I am going to do nothing but knit, bead and read for the next two weeks until classes begin again.

Up first:

Pointless Updates

2008-08-05T10:39:00.002-05:00

I'm struggling to find the inspiration to write a 10 page research paper. It's actually harder than I imagined, as the class is over and I took the final. Classes are done, why do I still have homework!?!

On the roommate front, we have two new girls coming in this August, which means we'll be a full house (4 people, 2 rooms, 1 bath) for the first time. Already they're giving me a headache as I got an e-mail yesterday informing me that because the two had decided to live together, Am and I WILL be moving into a single room together so that they can share. Not "would you mind, could you be so nice, I know this is a pain in the ass, please let us live together oh you are so kind and gracious", but "you and her can move in together and that way we'll be able to share because we already decided we would be sharing a room so you need to move".

I've decided it isn't worth the drama, so this weekend I'll be moving all my crap into the other bedroom, rearranging stuff and making it all fit so that Am and I can live together and give the others their own room. I already know Am, I know I get along with her, I know she's neat and all that good stuff, so there's no worries there.

In sad news, the ring I bought and had shipped from Ireland for D for an anniversary gift does not fit. I'm currently trying to get it figured out and hoping that they'll ship me one a size larger.

I should probably get to work on my paper...

Imagine If You Will

2008-07-30T18:19:00.002-05:00

Me doing the Happy Kelly Dance all over my apartment.

Got an A on the paper I handed in last week.

Got 100% on my presentation I gave Tuesday.

And there's only 2 more days of summer school left.

WOOOOOT!!!!!!

Days 1 & 2

2008-07-29T21:55:00.002-05:00

My first night without TV was restless and entirely unproductive. I roamed around the house, groaning about being bored, reading a few chapters of a book, flipping through my many knitting patterns, looking at my many UFOs and not doing anything. It wasn't until around 9:30 that I finally settled down to something productive.

Day 2 went much better. I called my grandparents and had a very nice conversation with them both, did my homework and then finished the book I'd started the night before.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting, as I'm done with school at 2, which gives me much more than a few short hours to occupy.

100 Day Challenge

2008-07-28T18:05:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday I had a revelation while watching Spongebob.

I watch too much TV.

So today, during the walk from campus to work, I decided to embark on a challenge similar to No TV November. Except I wanted to raise the stakes.

Thus the 100 Day Challenge was born. 100 days without TV. Starting today.

My mom is joining in on the challenge. You can follow her progress on her blog. I'm sure she'd be appreciative of any supportive comments you care to give.

My goal for the challenge is to see how productive I can be when I'm not entirely enslaved to the idiot box. I'm rather amused that the challenge ends on Nov. 5th, Guy Fawkes Day.

Awww!!!

2008-07-24T22:26:00.002-05:00

D gave me a sparkly!

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary (in September), D gave me a beautiful diamond promise ring. (The one on my ring finger)

If you're curious why I got it today instead of on September 12th... well we're not the most patient types when it comes to presents. He got 2 x-mas presents early last year, and he got his birthday present a month early as well.

Still Alive

2008-07-21T15:13:00.001-05:00

I'm still alive, struggling through summer classes. Due to a complete lack of anything interesting to say, I distract you with D's kitties:

This. Sucks.

2008-07-12T12:11:00.003-05:00

So at 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon the power transformer for my apartments blew. Caught fire and went kaplooey. Now there is no power. No power for to run the air conditioning in the 90 degree heat and 100% humidity. And they don't expect it to be fixed until Tuesday at the soonest. I crashed with D last night and he keeps assuring me that I can stay here as long as I like, unfortunately I'm positive that his parents will thing otherwise about having a random house crasher.

The school's solution is to stick us all in the freshman dorms, where there are no kitchens, no fridges and there will be overcrowding and chaos.

I'm debating just camping out in the apartment and trying to survive for a few days in the good old fashioned amish way. Knitting by firelight does have a certain charm to it. Except that it's already so damn hot that fire seems counter productive.

Probably my biggest annoyances are;

1. All the food I'm going to lose
2. All the money I'm going to end up spending having to eat out for the next 4 days.
3. The fact that my choices are cold showers, no showers or showering at the gym every morning before class.

Thus endeth the pouty rant.

Yay Karma

2008-06-28T17:05:00.003-05:00

So apparently I've got some wickedly good Karma going at the moment. It all started when I was at work the other day. I had pulled up the picture of Lil D all knit up and my boss asked me "Oh hey... I was cleaning out my parents' house and I found a huge cedar chest full of yarn. You wouldn't want any, would you? Otherwise I'm going to throw it all out.

Needless to say, I claimed the yarn.
5 boxes so far, with more to come, and "A huge bucket of needles and hooks too. About the size of a paint can."

That same day on campus the used book store in the library was outside with some books. $4.25 for all these books.

I finished knitting this beret a long time ago. I need to felt it a little, as it's fairly large. I have problems with my ribbing always stretching out and losing the bounce. Maybe I need to knit some elastic into my hats...

Continuing with the great deals, I found this gorgeous necklace in a local thrift store today for a whopping $2.

And this fantastic knitting book for 25 cents.

And, to top it all off, I've been searching everywhere for Jean Greenhowe's Knitted Toys book, on and off for the past year or so. I was perusing Amazon and I saw a used listing for $2.98. I was positive that it was a fluke, that it would be one of her shorter pamphlets, but even for one of those that's pretty cheap so I bought it figuring whatever I get, I get.
WOOT!!!

Still Knitting

2008-06-24T07:37:00.002-05:00

Knit this little guy up for D as a surprise present. He absolutely loved the costume he wore in the play he was in, but couldn't keep it.

Ruffles and a little bow tie.
The twins.

An Apology

2008-06-19T15:15:00.002-05:00

I feel so horrible. I've neglected my blog, which is bad, but worse than that is that I haven't commented to a single person in ages. Summer classes are kicking my ass all over the place. It's just too much. I mean it.

But I'm stealing a moment tonight and FINALLY heading out to the LYS to go to a knit night. I've been saying that I'm going for months, since I moved down here really, but I've chickened out every single time. Not tonight. Tonight I'm going and that's that.

In knitting news, I've been knitting some. Working on a few projects. One super special awesome project that will hopefully be revealed Sunday, assuming I finish it in time. Present for D. He's so spoiled, he gets all my knitted goodies.

Anyways, I apologize to all the people that I have neglected. Hopefully the second half of summer semester will be quieter and I'll have a chance to make the bloggy rounds.

My Theory

2008-06-09T19:09:00.002-05:00

Summer classes are kicking my ass. 16 weeks worth of information in 5. It's just insane.

In my literary criticism class there is a guy. A really really really annoying guy. You've all met this type of guy before. The one who knows a little bit about EVERYTHING and talks as if he's studied that single thing all his life. The one who takes your comments and rephrases them using $10 words.

Yup, I have one of those guys in my class. And it's driving me nuts. I am a firm believer that with intelligence comes a certain amount of responsibility. Just because you know every answer doesn't mean you have to blurt it out. In fact, you shouldn't. Give others a chance to shine once in a while. But no, he's got to interject his 'wisdom' into every subject, sometimes cutting off the professor.

If he didn't keep cutting me off so that he could gift us all with his wisdom I'd probably think it was funny. He's 23 I believe and talks about how he lived in Hollywood, New York, Mexico, Europe, Maine, etc. Now I'm thinking army brat but he talks like he's some great world traveler and loves to reminisce about "my time in Hollywood".

But today. Oh my today was FANTASTIC! We were discussing Freud. Not my favorite guy. Very focused on male superiority and all of his theories tend to discount women as anything more than jealous creatures with penis envy. And I didn't hesitate to point this out in class to explain my annoyance. Then... oh then...

He cuts the professor off and proceeds to go into a speech about childbirth and childrearing and how evolution formed women as weaker because in all cultures women, when pregnant and afterwards, do nothing but lie in bed because they lack the strength to do anything else, that it was a universal truth, that that was why men were superior, because they were stronger and didn't have these periods of "innate weakness". Then caps his speech with "but, I mean, I'm a total feminist and I think that girls rule."

At least we're already halfway through the course. Only 2 and a half more weeks to deal with him. But I think I may need to stop bringing my knitting to class. It's too tempting. Plus I'm sure the blood would stain the bamboo.

What The Dickens??

2008-05-25T22:41:00.004-05:00

So I went from no knitting at all to knitting like a crazy person and 4 finished objects to show off.

I'm in love with Raynor Gellatly's patterns that have been adapted from those great teeny crochet patterns.

I have her monkey pattern a try and ended up with Dickens:

Hidden Ninja Monkey!

Highly Disapproving Monkey

Drunken Monkey

I also knit up the mini turtle and the little hippo:

And a beret. No action shot, it's hard to take a picture of yourself in a beret. I'll see if I can get D to take a picture for me eventually.

Stupid Bees...

2008-05-16T20:01:00.002-05:00

I missed straight A's this semester by one stinking class. ONE CLASS! UGH! I could really just spit I'm so annoyed. It was all the final too. The essay questions were wonky and I didn't really have a good thesis for my essay. Stupid class. Stupid B.

Summer classes start on the 27th. It should be interesting, taking normally 16 week courses in 5. I'm taking:

Literary Criticism
Introduction to Anthropology
Survey of American Literature-Civil War to Modern
Canterbury Tales

Then fall classes start after a 2 week break.

In possibly the best news I've gotten in a while, I was hired on permanently at what was a temp job, so I have a job there for as long as I'm a student at SIUE. WOOT!!

Tomorrow D and I are heading to the zoo to enjoy our leisure time before classes begin. I am knitting, but not much at the moment. I'll have pictures from the zoo and other fun stuff soon.

I'm DONE!!!!!

2008-05-07T20:40:00.002-05:00

I am finally finished! I just e-mailed my research paper to my professor and I am DONE!!!

Out of 20 required pages I ended up writing:

27

I am really proud of all of my papers, to be completely honest.

7 page research paper regarding Victorian divorce policies in relation to Hard Times by Charles Dickens

6 page satirical creative paper which I've already gotten back. A. Woot!!

11 page research paper regarding the role of women in Gothic literature, focusing on The Castle of Otranto and Dracula

and my 3 page contribution to a group research project.

On top of that, I absolutely love my job and stuff with the family has been taken care of. This is the way to end a semester.

7 More Days

2008-05-01T20:58:00.004-05:00

So last week, with all of the drama with people going into the hospital, was bad. Left me drained.

This past weekend was exhausting. Writing 3 papers in 2 days, one of them a research paper.

Sunday I found out that my paycheck bounced for the SECOND TIME. So I quit my job.

Monday I interviewed for a temp job and spent 2 hours struggling to get people to focus on our group project that was due Wednesday.

Tuesday I got the job and celebrated D's birthday.

Wednesday I turned in the group paper and just realized that, because one person didn't e-mail me her section until midnight on Tuesday, I pasted her section of the paper over the conclusion and had to take responsibility for it with the professors. I'm sure that'll be great for my grade.

Today there was lots of drama all over the place. I'm so exhausted and emotionally drained. I still have an 8 page research paper to write, though it isn't due for a week.

Tomorrow is my last day of classes and then I'm driving home to do damage control and deal with the latest dose of drama in my life. Upside, I'll get to go to a hockey game. Downside, gas is f-in expensive!!!

7 days until this semester is done. Then I have 2 weeks to relax before summer classes start up. I plan to sleep mostly.

Home and Healthy

2008-04-26T15:57:00.004-05:00

Thank you all for your kind thoughts for both my mother and sister. They are both at home and doing much better.

Now there's just the terror of 4 final papers and 3 finals to tackle in the next two weeks.

Of the 20 pages worth of research papers and essays that I need to get done, the count stands at:

5

Good Thoughts

2008-04-24T14:11:00.001-05:00

My mom went into the hospital yesterday and has been admitted for tests.

A few minutes ago my dad called to say that Kari had a serious seizure and is on her way to the emergency room.

Please send them all the good thoughts that you can.

Society of Shoppers

2008-04-20T22:29:00.002-05:00

I saw these two products this weekend and they both struck me as so... stupid. I had to share.

First off, we have Olay Filling and Sealing Wrinkle Treatment. Now, call me crazy but... isn't this the same thing as spackle?

Seriously, have we gotten that vain that rather than have a few wrinkles women are willing to spackle their faces? I wonder if it comes with a little pink piece of sandpaper so that you can smooth out the finished product.

And then we have these:Jelly Belly Sport Beans. Choke full of vitamins, electrolytes and even available in caffeinated flavors.

Because while I'm at the gym, working off the day's indulgences, I sit and think to myself "I want a jellybean. But not just any jellybean. I want a healthy, sporty jellybean."

People... if you don't want your money you can give it to me.

And Another

2008-04-18T11:47:00.003-05:00

I'm not positive if it was another quake or just an aftershock, but it happened again this morning.

It wasn't as strong, which is good, since I was on the top floor of one of the oldest buildings on campus. Middle of class I suddenly get very dizzy, then realize it's because the whole building is moving!

It's all anyone is talking about. You hear people on their phones on the bus assuring people they woke up, that it lasted 5 minutes (more like 30-45 seconds), that they were thrown from their beds, etc.

Rumbly in my... Bed?

2008-04-18T05:00:00.002-05:00

It's 5:00 am.

There was just an earthquake.

The whole building was shaking like it was going to come down.

I could have sworn I was in Illinois, not California.

Yay D!!!

2008-04-15T22:52:00.002-05:00

D auditioned for a play on Sunday and today got the call that he got a part.

Not only a part. He got the lead!!

I'm so proud of him, I had to brag.

Oy...

2008-04-14T22:42:00.003-05:00

Sick as a dog right now. Started in my nose on Friday and settled comfortably into my chest around noon today. D, sweetie pie that he is, dropped by with medicine for me. I took today as a sick day but it's back to classes tomorrow.

The semester is coming to an end and I really need to get my ass in gear about these research papers. Got the books. Got the articles. Just need to start reading and thinking and, most important, writing.

Got an e-mail from a girl who will be rooming with us over the summer. I'm bummed because I thought I might actually have the place all to myself for a month or so, but nope.

I'm a little worried because she seems very worried about fairly superficial things. She wanted to know if we were clique-y because "there was a situation in my apartment last year" and then wanted to know who she would be rooming with because "I'm really used to having my own room because I live in Evergreen, but this was cheaper, I just don't know if it'll work out cause I'm not used to it."

Frankly... she's sounding a lot like Ly from last semester. This is the one thing I really hate about campus housing. I have no control over the people who come in and out and there's a lot of anticipation and anxiety that builds up.

Will they be complete psychos like Ly?
Will they want to have wild drunken parties every weekend?
Will they be complete slobs who never clean?
Will they be slackers who disrupt my study habits?
Will I find a good place to hide the bodies?

See? Just too many variables for me to handle.

Ooo... Post Grad even...

2008-04-11T16:47:00.001-05:00

Taken in the Ladies Room on Campus

2008-04-08T14:22:00.003-05:00

Just what every educated college woman needs. Condoms and lip gloss.

Changing My Major

2008-04-07T17:40:00.002-05:00

Just so I can say that I was educated by Professor Moriarty. Maybe I'll take up violin and find someone named Holmes to teach me...

(Yes, this was taken at my school. Apparently Moriarty survived the fall too.)

Taco Hell

2008-04-03T18:15:00.003-05:00

I feel like I became a real college student today. I ate Taco Bell for lunch (in itself a rare occasion in my life) then went home and took a 2 hour nap with D. It was lovely. He was amused by the fact that I drooled on my pillow but I didn't care. I needed that nap.

But oh, the indigestion! I woke up with fire in my throat and all but ran to get one of my antacid pills. Taco Bell is evil. I wanted soup. I was looking forward to soup. But they didn't have any good soup. Just bean with bacon and broccoli cheddar. I just wanted some nice chicken noodle soup! So instead I got tacos. Ugh. I honestly think I'm going to die. That's the last Taco Hell I'll be eating for a loooong time.

It's pouring out. And thundering.

I took my copy of Victorian Lace Today to my Victorian Lit class, as we had a presentation on Tuesday about fashions of the time and I thought it was fitting. But my teacher displayed dismay and disappointment that I hadn't knit up everything in the book to show the class. Then, pausing on a page with a beautiful shawl, she asked, a little too casually, how long it would take to knit it.

I have learned my lesson about knitting for others. I looked at the shawl, smiled and responded "Oh, between 4 and 5 hundred hours." No way I'm getting suckered into knitting anything else for anyone else. Especially not this teacher.

Small Bursts

2008-03-25T18:13:00.003-05:00

As the semester trudges on I'm trying to find a few minutes a day to knit or be otherwise creative so that I don't completely stagnate. (Like my blog has.)

The projects can't be big or I end up consumed with working on them and end up ignoring my homework, which is bad. So here are the small projects that I managed to finish this month:

A photo collage: I bought a poster frame, lined it with some fun fabric I picked up and then used fabric glue to attach the pictures. I did it in two evenings. Quick. Fun. And it'll make moving my photos around much easier.

A springy 3-strand bracelet:This has been floating around in my head for a while now, so I hunted down the beads I needed and whipped this up last week. The colors are much brighter in person.

And then there's Oogie...Oogie is my personal gremlin and will also serve as a very good dammit doll when I'm having a bad day.

I knit him up Sunday while doing laundry and then did the finishing and detail work today.

He's based off of the Jelly Baby pattern from Jean Greenhowe's Gift Dolls book. I used my leftover yarn from my badly needed hat & scarf that I knit over the winter.

In the meantime, I have 3 research papers to write and no ideas on what to write about. Wheeeee!

Wow, Wah and Weird

2008-03-24T18:02:00.002-05:00

Wow: My teacher used my mid-term essay exam to teach the class today. Read my intro paragraph to start discussion, read a few bits through the class. I was stunned. And I got a perfect score on it.

Wah: I had all my classes set up and then it all went to poop. So everything changed, it all fell apart and it turns out that I have to take 4 summer courses instead of 3, which is just more debt I'm wracking up in my name.

Weird: The owner of the company I work for just called me and asked me to check my bank. My last paycheck bounced and I was charged a fairly large fee, but he's promised to mail a new check and that he will cover the fees.

But I just happened to look out my bedroom window, where two does are nibbling on the fresh grass that's been growing. It's all good.

Favorites

2008-03-19T21:57:00.004-05:00

You know what my favorite part of yesterday was?

When La got drunk off her ass.
Talked all the way through the movie I was watching.
Threw up in the kitchen sink.
And then used my dish-washing sponge to clean it up.

You know what my favorite part of today was?

Me telling her the next time she was queasy to throw up in the garbage.
Her asking "Why? It's a sink. You put soap in it anyways."
Me telling her it doesn't matter, don't barf in the sink.
Her asking "Are you aware of the things that have gone down that sink before we moved in?"
Me adding "I'm not talking about then, I'm not talking to people who have lived here before. I am talking about now and I am talking to you. Do. Not. Vomit. In. The. Kitchen. Sink."

~~I hate it here!~~ It's fun living here. ~~Please shoot me.~~ Every day is an adventure. ~~I'm counting the days until she moves out.~~ I'll miss her when she's gone.

Just What My Self-Esteem Needed

2008-03-14T22:15:00.003-05:00

I'm cleaning the bathroom, being tidy and all domestic and I crouch down to get the glass cleaner.

RIIIIIIIIP!!

Split my pants from ass to knee.

Pass the celery please...

The Creeping Week

2008-03-04T22:23:00.002-06:00

The weeks have been flying past with barely a chance to notice them, so of course this week, when I am excited about the upcoming weekend, when I'm dying for the time to pass, it's creeping by.

This Friday D and I are driving up to Chicago so that he can meet my dad. Yeah, it's that serious. The best part was breaking it to dad that we'll be sleeping in a hotel. Together. Alone. Yup... he took that real well. But he's dealt with it and moved on and D and I are really excited. We've got the entire weekend planned out. Museum, a hockey game and karaoke on Saturday and Sunday, when we head home, I'm bringing Kari with me so that she can spend spring break with me.

But of course this week is crawling past. Monday felt like a year and today was a snow day, so it positively crept past. Here's hoping that the rest of the week goes a bit faster.

In other news, La is driving myself and Am insane. Not because she's mean or selfish or anything like that. But because she's apparently regressed into a 3 yr old.

Example:

I'm sitting on the couch, knitting and watching Buffy, enjoying a short time of quiet procrastination before I begin my homework. Enter La:

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Knitting."

"What episode is this? Who's that? Where's Buffy? Have you gotten to the part where Angel goes bad yet? How come you watch so much Buffy? Do you think vampires are real? How could they possibly exist today? I don't think they're real. That would be really freaky. Why did they make Spike blond? How can he smoke if he's dead? Is the guy playing him really British? What are you knitting? Do you think I should cut my hair? What about go blond? I'm hungry. Do you want to play poker? Lets get drunk together! Is Intervention on tonight? Oh wait, I have a text message..."

That is NOT an exaggeration people. She doesn't give you a chance to answer between questions. It's annoying in a really funny way. Except when she does it when I'm trying to read. Then I get cranky and want to hit her with my book.

An Education of Intolerance and Sexism

2008-02-25T18:11:00.003-06:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was having a few issues with my Brit Lit professor and his tendency to force the subject of religion in class when there's no reason, in context to the text itself. But he just keeps getting worse!!

We had a paper due last week, so he brought in an old paper to share with the class. He had us read it and then started the conversation with "There's a reason that I chose this paper. You'll notice that it's written about a female character. Now I want you all to avoid following the fad of writing this way, of falling into the trap of feminist criticism." Yup... feminism is just a wacky fad right now. Or for the last, oh, 100 years. I'm sure it'll fade any day now.

But today... oh wow.

We were discussing some of Shakespeare's sonnets. Including 20 which was written for a man and 144 which was written to discuss his pain in being torn between the man he loves and the woman he's having an affair with (never mind his poor wife and children!).

So he reads 20 aloud and then looks around the room and opens the floor for discussion with "As disturbing as it may be to even consider... could Shakespeare have been gay?" Well the woman in front of me immediately had her hand in the air and asked why in the world would it be disturbing to consider that anyone is gay? And he responded with "Well I think that most anyone would agree that it's a very odd concept to grasp about anyone." Oh yeah, the woman? Lesbian. I thought she was going to throw her book at him, she was so pissed. And I don't blame her a bit. Oh and he closed discussion by declaring "He wasn't gay. He was paid to write the sonnet for someone to convince him to get married." (BTW - There's a fairly large percentage of academic agreement that he was at least bi-sexual.)

So eventually we moved on and got to 144. In it the "dark lady" is not spoken about at all nicely. So he opens the discussion with "So, obviously we see again this expression of women being poor companions for anyone. What with mood swings and the usual female trickery, their constant lusting, and these are the Bard's words, not mine. But you know... stereotypes exist because what they say is true."

I actually went to another professor today to ask if there was another section of the class that I could transfer into and when she questioned me about why I told her freely and her response was "Sadly you're not the first student I've heard this from. Every year several students approach me about this problem." In the end she advised me to tough it out so that I don't lose the money I paid for the class and if things get really bad, talk to the department chair. So I'm trapped in this hell of intolerance.

Stampede!

2008-02-21T23:06:00.002-06:00

Ok, so it's just one elephant. Not really a stampede. But it's a stampede of cuteness!
This little guy has been a fantastic project for me this week, which was immensely busy and stressful. He was the perfect escape. 2 legs one night. A body and the other two legs another night, etc.
Pattern is the Elefante (PDF), though I had to change the ears because the crochet ones were just not working for me.
Look at that face. I adore him. But he needs a name.

Herbert. Herbert the Elephant.

D Made A Funny

2008-02-21T20:22:00.002-06:00

I'm on the phone with D and he just came up with this witty little joke:

K1, K2 and the Notorious T.O.G. - The Knitting Rap Group

Imaginary

2008-02-19T21:26:00.005-06:00

I'm starting to wonder if D exists only in my imagination.

Today we went to lunch, went shopping and on the way back to my apartment we were discussing our plots to run away. He wants to go somewhere tropical. My latest idea is to go to Wyoming.

"Why in the world did you pick Wyoming?"

"Cause... I could have a farm. With horses. And sheep! And alpacas!!"

"And you would make yarn from them?"

"Yes, I would."

"Hmm... this could work. We could get a farm, get some sheep and alpacas-"

"And a goat or two. Just cause."

"Ok, and a goat or two. And we could set up a yarn farm. I'll bet we'd do pretty well."

"Yeah. You could shear the sheep and wash the shit out of the wool and I could do all the fun stuff with it, spinning and dying and knitting it. This is a good plan. I like this plan! Way better than running away to become hermits in Tanzania."

This is why I love him. He lets me have these idiotic little fantasies and doesn't squish my happy dreams. That and he called me earlier to tell me that he'd bought me this:
It's a CD player made to look like the Dead Man's Chest from the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The heart glows when you play music.

How many different types of awesome is that?

Safety at School

2008-02-18T22:15:00.002-06:00

A student was arrested Friday morning on campus. Someone had tipped off the school about an "indirect threat" made on his myspace page. In his car were 2 BB guns, a 4 inch knife and a taser gun.

How was I alerted to this? By the school, dutifully alerting students to the potential danger? Sending warnings via e-mail, advising us all to stay away from campus, to keep indoors, to stay safe?

No. I was alerted to this today. When my father called me to ask if I knew the kid who had been arrested. My response was "Huh? The Northwestern guy? Didn't he die?"

There was a gun wielding potential shooter on campus and they decided not to alert students because, and I quote, "the university community was not alerted to the incident "because there was no direct threat to the campus.""

I feel betrayed by my school. I was on campus Friday morning. I was there. So were countless other students. When does it become a direct threat? Is it when the shooter is in the building and the bullets are already flying? Is it when innocent people are injured or dead?

I feel betrayed. But worse than that... I don't feel safe.

Uncomfortable Work Environment

2008-02-17T08:27:00.003-06:00

I'm a promoter on the weekends. I stand in a booth and smile at people and get them to fill out cards to win fabulous prizes (and add their phone numbers to our calling lists). Doing this, I get to see a lot of different trade shows. Travel shows. Home shows. And this weekend... it's a hunting show.

I'm very much anti-hunting. I fail to see how sitting hidden in a tree and using a gun to shoot innocent animals can be considered a sport. And I knew it was going to be a challenge but...

There are dead things in every booth! And my booth is kitty corner to the judging tables, so all these proud ~~killers~~ hunters are bringing in the decapitated heads of deer they've "bagged" and hanging them up to see whose is the best.

More disturbing than the glass eyes of dead deer looking at me all day is the violent culture being taught to innocent children. I hear parents asking their kids if they'll be able to kill that big a deer when they grow up. Kids are walking around with shirts that say lovely things like "If it flies, it dies" and "If it's brown, it's down."

There's a fishing pond set up, filled with fish. Kids buy 5 minutes with a fishing rod to try and catch a fish. And if they do they get to keep the fish. So the good, kindly people throw the suffocating fish into a ziploc bag, without water in it, and hand it to the kid, who laughs as they watch the poor creature struggling to breathe. I've seen several bags where the poor thing has dropped eggs in their terror.

Walking to the bathroom is torture because I have to pass by 2 booths for taxidermists, booths full of stuffed animals and I'm not talking cute, fluffy toys. It's horrible. Today is my last day at this show and I will NEVER work another hunting show again. I can't take it.

Shooting...

2008-02-14T17:57:00.002-06:00

It wasn't my school for anyone who was worried.

My heart is with the students at Northern and their families. I can only hope that those who are injured pull through without any loss of life. The violence was senseless enough.

Hmm....

2008-02-13T21:55:00.003-06:00

I've been knitting a log cabin blanket for a while now. It's great for when I'm reading or reviewing notes, no real focus needed. Which is perhaps why I haven't noticed until now...

I'm using my Knit Picks options and one needle is a size 9 and the other is a size 8.

This is the first time I've used the size 9s since I bought the set, so the problem is in the needle tips. I e-mailed them and got an auto-response saying that it could be up to 10 days before I hear back from them. Holy crap, are they having that many issues with their products?

Emo FO Photos

2008-02-10T19:24:00.000-06:00

I finished up my badly needed hat. We've been having schizophrenic weather lately, summer on Monday, arctic blizzard on Tuesday, spring thunderstorms on Wednesday, etc. So I knit up a hat to go along with my Irish Hiking Scarf. I took a few pictures of the hat on and every single one looks like it's an emo MySpace picture.

I also finished an annoying little project I've had on the needles for over a week. My supervisor at work showed up with two skeins of Red Heart and asked me to knit her a scarf just like my cabled one. But thicker. With a keyhole so she could tuck it through. You know, cause I'm not a college student with anything to do with my time...

Well the cables were out, I just didn't have the time, so I cast on lengthwise and knit up a thick scarf in feather and fan with a keyhole. Here she is in the scarf, which I finished today while I was working with her:

I'm done with these sort of projects. They just end up annoying me. I need to learn to say no to people who approach me with yarn that isn't a gift. Or better yet... charge them.

Updates

2008-02-06T20:03:00.001-06:00

Reading:

The Castle of Otranto - This book was fantastic. Published on Dec 24th, 1764, it marks the beginning of the Gothic tradition in literature. Chock full of spookiness, fate and otherworldly events, it's a quick read that I really enjoyed.

Beowulf - I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I haven't read this before this class, as it's such an iconic story. I enjoyed it, but I didn't enjoy the class discussions. My teacher is a very religious person, which I have no issue with, except that he wants to teach Christianity and it's affects on British Literature, which is NOT the class I signed up for. One discussion topic was "Does Beowulf go to Heaven?" and me being me, I raised my hand and asked why it mattered and what it had to do with the text. He didn't answer me.

Fellowship of the Ring - I enjoyed this book FAR more than the last time I read it for a class. And I'm finding Tolkien's excessive detail and unnecessary histories far less aggravating than the last time.

Exercise:

I love the school gym. I really do. I go Monday, Wednesday and, if I don't have to work, Friday. If I do have to work I try to visit Tuesday or Thursday instead. And I try to go at least one day on the weekend. I bike for 30 minutes, which is between 7 and 10 miles depending on how fast I go. I'm not sore afterwards, I feel more awake, I sleep better and I lost 3 pounds. YeeFreakingHaw.

Deep Tissue

2008-02-04T18:30:00.000-06:00

When all is said and done, I've had a pretty shitty 4 weeks. Every Monday it's a new adventure.

First it was Ly and that whole upset, the aftershocks of which left my other two roommates a little afraid to do anything to piss me off after seeing the full extent of my temper.

Then it was a family upset, with people who should learn to keep their mouth shut making trouble and mountains out of anthills. Oh yeah, that was fun.

Last week I was sick. To the point that I missed 4 classes and had myself banished to my bedroom to keep the germs from spreading all over the apartment.

Today my wireless router quit on me. Just randomly quit. So now I have to drop $$$$ to get another one. Good thing I'm rich. Oh wait...

Needless to say, all of this crap, on top of the regular stresses of school and work and life, I have been a wreck. Prone to tears, tense, poor D has been so patient with my perpetual PMS. Seriously, that guy deserves a gold medal or something.

So I scheduled a massage at the student fitness center. I did a little juggling with the budget and found the $20 it costs for a half an hour. And let me tell you, that was money VERY well spent. It wasn't a soft, lazy, relaxing massage like I'd expected. No, she went for the deep knots and worked those little bastards out. It was almost, and this is going to sound nasty, like she was popping zits. She'd work the knots up to my shoulders and then pinch them until they melted away. I kept imagining little knots of yarn popping out of my skin and accumulating on the floor.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. But it was a good hurt. A healing hurt. I'm positive I'm going to be a little bruised around my shoulder and neck area, but the knots are gone and I'm chugging water like I was told, to keep them from coming back.

Bestest part is... all I have for homework tonight is to review Frankenstein. And we're supposed to get wicked thunder storms tonight.

500th Post!!!

2008-01-31T20:13:00.000-06:00

Wow... 500 posts of me babbling about random things. I can't believe I've found that many things to talk about.

Well, in honor of my 500th post (not really, but shhh, we'll say it is) I have a whole bunch of pictures.

Action shots of D knitting!He's so proud of his "coaster" as he calls it. He cast off that night and began something new. You should hear him plot his projects out. He is truly one of us. And he's toying around with the idea of starting a blog!
He came over on Tuesday night to take care of me, I've been fighting a cold all week long. To cheer me up he brought this little guy with him:
Continuing with the D theme, I just finished this plain garter stitch scarf tonight for him. It's short and simple, strictly designed for warmth. It's quite a trek from the visitor parking lot to my apartment and whenever he gets there he is absolutely freezing.
It's really difficult to photograph the color. It's a heathered black and teal, very manly. Probably would have photographed better on a carpet that isn't black, but...ah well.

Some recent stash acquisitions include:Stahman's Shawls and Scarves, I won this one on e-Bay.
The Bumper Book of Knitting. I ordered this on December 12th and it JUST got here.
2 hanks of Creatively Dyed Yarn in Gras and King
A hank of Gypsy Girl Creations in Blackberry Bramble

And the WIPs right now:They're knitted olives. They're olives and they're knitted. I am in love with this pattern.

A hat to match my Irish Hiking Scarf

And my in-class knitting. Just a plain garter stitch corner to corner baby blanket. I started it last semester but it's moving much quicker now that I have 3 classes I can knit in, instead of just 1.

It's snowing here, we're expecting 6-10 inches. And the girls downstairs built a giant snow penis. I'll get a picture if possible.

Quicky Post

2008-01-28T08:56:00.001-06:00

So the piano lesson never happened. Silly me, I should have known better than to teach someone to knit and then expect them to want to stop. But D, and both his sisters, took to it like fish to water. It was actually kind of scary. Of course I brought my camera with me, but did I get a single action shot? Nope.

I did get pictures of his adorable cats. Two of them anyways. Isis is not pictured because I think she was PMSing when I was over and did not look like her usual cute self.

Anyways, here is Stinky.
His real name is Short Round, but I've never heard D call him that. And believe me, this cat is stinky. He was lying in my lap, bathing, and whoo! Did he have the kitty breath. D says that Stinky is in love with me, because he sat on my lap 3 or 4 times on Saturday and he hardly ever sits on anyone. Personally I think it's just because I'm willing to scratch his bum.

And here's Sebastian.
Sweetie that he is, he was helping me knit.

You know you have a quality guy when he's got 3 fat, happy and obviously spoiled cats. And when he texts you in the morning with "I'm sleepy. I was lying up late last night, knitting in bed."

Be still my heart...

Damn Those Weeks Pass Quickly!

2008-01-25T08:14:00.000-06:00

I can hardly believe that it's Friday again.

The Beethoven concert was amazing. It was such an intimate setting and we were in the 3rd row, so all I could do the whole time was gape at the violinist's bow as it moved.

I also dropped a class this week. I did some serious thinking and admitted my own limits and withdrew from my Literary Theory course. Perhaps if it had been a different teacher I'd have battled it out, but this guy seemed nuts! He read to us a whole bunch of student reviews saying that they'd never been so glad to pass a class with a C-, that they'd never had to work so hard for a C- in their life. He told us that in a class of 20 people, 6 were going to get Ds. That's just how it had to be. I'm not fond of teachers who have grading quotas, so I dropped the class and I'll take it over the summer with someone else.

In happier news, this weekend D is going to learn to knit. He asked me to teach him last semester and I agreed, but honestly I thought he was just, you know, fibbing to seem more interested in my hobbies. Well I was wrong. He keeps pestering me to teach him, as he's started promising knitted gifts to friends.

I'm especially excited, not only because I appear to have found the perfect man, but also because he's going to teach me the piano in return. This makes me very happy as I've always wanted to learn to play.

Other parts of this weekend will be spent in intense work on a paper due Thursday and the accompanying presentation to go with it. That I have to then present. To the whole class. Eek!!

I miss spring.

30

2008-01-20T21:07:00.001-06:00

Hours. That's how many I worked in the past 3 days. 11 Friday, 12 Saturday and 7 today.

I'm pooped. My feet are actually bruised from standing so much and for so long. And, if you can believe this, I actually strained my wrist while talking to potential customers because I had my hand on my hip all the time and it over-extended the muscles.

I know, what a moronic injury to get. It's like falling out of a chair and breaking a leg or something.

But you know what? Things are great. My refund check came though so I no longer have to decide between bread or milk. I have a few papers to write, but I also have the next two weeks off of work, so I can get them done in more than enough time.

Tomorrow is a holiday from classes, so I'm going to try to get a little ahead on my homework, do laundry, make spaghetti and then D and I are going to a Beethoven concert on campus. And it's free! Woot!!

Settling Down

2008-01-17T19:51:00.000-06:00

After a rather dramatic start of the semester things have settled down.

Ly officially moved out on Tuesday, turned in her key and everything. But beyond that, she apparently quit school entirely. She was having issues far beyond what I could have imagined and I hope that she works her way through them.

But I am so glad she's gone. The entire atmosphere in the apartment is changed. No doors are shut, we all goof around with each other, go to the gym to work out together. It's comfortable here now. In fact Monday I'm making a big spaghetti dinner.

My classes are great. I love all of them except one, and even that one isn't horrible. It's just that the teacher is a little too religiously focused for my tastes, especially about a British Literature class. But I've got soooo much homework to do every day. Reading and papers and presentations. My time is scheduled down to the second. As it is I've a 4-5 page paper and presentation to prepare for the 31st on Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

But it gets better. Amid my classes and papers and other things, I'm also working crazy hours. Tomorrow I have class from 10 until 10:50. Then I work from 11 until 10. Saturday 10 til 10. Sunday 10 til 6. Then home from work to do laundry, read more and start researching critical essays for my presentation.

But there's still time for fun. It's just... compacted fun. Fun in convenient bite-sized packages.

Holy Crap...

2008-01-14T20:54:00.000-06:00

So Ly finally came back from vacation. And I had been dwelling on what I wanted to say to her after a certain stunt she pulled my last day at home, along with the fact that she left a dirty pair of underwear, and sundry other dirty clothes, all over the floor. When I got back to school the bedroom smelled so bad, even with the door open and a fan going, that I had to go out and buy an air freshener to make it tolerable.

So I told her I needed to talk to her. We went into the bedroom and I shut the door so that La and Am (the new girl) couldn't hear. And I started calmly. I told her that I couldn't live the way I had last semester. That I wasn't going to put up with dirty underwear on the floor.

And she started arguing with me. Telling me that I had no right to make unreasonable demands of people and I had to learn that not everyone could live up to my high expectations and that she was sorry that I came from a house that picked up and kept things clean, but she didn't.

But the clincher... the thing that broke me down and made me lose my temper, was that she told me it wasn't just my room (she who comes home, runs into the room and shuts the door, gets annoyed with me if I go in there), I'm not Queen of the World and that I'm childish and need to grow up.

Ladies... I lost it. I don't think I've screamed that loud or sworn that much in a looooong time. Every little injustice she's done to me over the last semester came pouring out and every time she tried to cut me off I'd just get louder. I finally quieted down, told her that this was the only time we would be having this conversation, the next time I'd be listing grievances with the housing department.

And then... she packed up her shit and moved out. I'm not even kidding.

At first I felt this blissful euphoria, having purged myself of the toxin I've been carrying around for the past 5 months. But now I'm all upset, headachy, and waiting for the ax to fall. Because when I went to see our RA and was leaving a note for him when he wasn't there the person at the door asked "So, are you La?" I'm positive that she's going to try and get me booted out of housing or something like that. Make it seem like I forced her out or made her leave or something along those lines.

Yeah, great way to start the semester.

Oh yeah, and yesterday I slammed my finger in my car door.

Bring it on.

ETA: My RA just stopped by to talk to me. He talked to Ly first and was trying to help me see how it was equal guilt. You know, I'm guilty of being... umm... clean. I'm so disgusted.

A Finishing Machine!

2008-01-10T08:35:00.001-06:00

Pattern: Irish Hiking Scarf
Yarn: Wool-Ease in Avocado (2 skeins)

Sorry for the crappiness of the photos... I took them at 10 last night after finishing it.
The top photo is closest to the real color.

It's a fairly decent walk from the bus stop to my apartment. And it's a fairly decent walk from one building to another on campus and I realized that I don't have a fancy scarf. All I've ever knit for myself are plain 2x2 ribs or garter stitch scarves. So on Christmas morning I cast this on. I knit 51 repeats of the pattern and it's over 5 feet long. The pattern was engaging enough to not get boring. In fact, I'm knitting a matching hat to keep my ears warm.

Another One Done

2008-01-09T17:54:00.001-06:00

Well, I just finished The Mill on the Floss. And I hated every second of that book.

It was like the Seinfeld of books. A book about nothing. Except without the comedy. Nothing happened at all until around 250 pgs in. And then when something did happen it was all misery and pain and that annoying Victorian self-denial.

I'll probably start Frankenstein tonight, as I had a training session at work today and found out that I'll be working a minimum of 26 hours this weekend.

It's So Lovely Out!

2008-01-08T15:44:00.001-06:00

So after finishing my reading for the day (100 pgs) I decided to go for a walk to check the mail, as I'm expecting a few magazines.

I put on a hoodie and began the walk. About halfway there a few stray raindrops began to fall. When I got back to the apartment I looked like this:

What you can't see is that my jeans were soaked completely. The wind was blowing the rain directly into my face.

Damn I look chunky in that picture... No wonder I've been going to the gym almost every day.

Just A Knit Wit

Sewing!

The Blank Canvas

Scary

It's a World of Laughter, A World of Care...

Meet The Kids

A New Sort of Life

Work At A Golf Course

Nothing Short of A Miracle

It's all... big

Cahokia Mounds

Wow...

I GOT IN!!!!!

Alive, But Just Barely

Roses

Awww!

Wow

*Insert Witty Title Here*

Snippet of Conversation

A Better Shot

Yay!!

Oy...

Snip Snip

New Year

Snow Kisses

Christmas Photos

Holiday Knitting

$3 Holiday Cheer

Strange Week

Class Notes

Dear America,

Midterm Slump

For Sale

A Plea For Help

Now What?

Waiting Game

Building Traditions

Happily Ever After

How They Met

House Bunny

A Letter

Time Warp

Wonders Never Cease

I Am Sitting

*Insert Happy Dance*

The Post Without A Title

I Have Him Well Trained

Hoppity Hoppity Hop

DONE!!!!

Pointless Updates

Imagine If You Will

Days 1 & 2

100 Day Challenge

Awww!!!

Still Alive

This. Sucks.

Yay Karma

Still Knitting

An Apology

My Theory

What The Dickens??

Stupid Bees...

I'm DONE!!!!!

7 More Days

Home and Healthy

Good Thoughts

Society of Shoppers

And Another

Rumbly in my... Bed?

Yay D!!!

Oy...

Ooo... Post Grad even...

Taken in the Ladies Room on Campus

Changing My Major

Taco Hell

Small Bursts

Wow, Wah and Weird

Favorites

Just What My Self-Esteem Needed

The Creeping Week

Insert Witty Title Here

Insert Happy Dance