A few quick things

Here are a few random things for you...

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First, I keep seeing commercials for Proactiv (and I'm sure everyone else does too, they're trying to take over the world with that stuff). For a minute every time I see the commercial I consider buying it, it seems like a good product, I know people who are using it and they seem to like it. However, I always stop myself and here's why: I'm one of probably 5 people worldwide who saw the movie Catwoman with Halle Berry and the bad guys in that movie created a face cream that was supposed to magical and fabulous but with extended use it horribly disfigured your face and made you sick unless you used it religiously for the rest of your life, in which case it would basically harden into a protective forcefield around you and your skin would be invincible. This is the thing that stops me from buying Proactiv. I'm afraid it will end up being some freaky science fiction thing that will either disfigure me or turn my face into a forcefield. I can't explain it.

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Second, I'm completely fixated on Johnny Cash at the moment. It hit me all of a sudden this morning. I'm so fixated on Johnny Cash right now that I went on Amazon and bought The Essential Johnny Cash which will be delivered tomorrow (thank you, amazon prime). My plan is to sit around my apartment this weekend wearing black, sunglasses and listening to some Johnny Cash. I'm not sure if it's funny or sad how excited I am about this.

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Third, yesterday I stopped at the Highland Convenient Food Mart down the street from my apartment to pick up a few things and there was this guy in line in front of me who smelled like an impressive combination of cigarettes, BO, sickness and some kind of drugs or something. He didn't appear to have washed himself at all recently and he was not exactly steady on his feet or having much success with talking clearly. He had come in with $100 of lottery winnings and proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes picking out instant lotto tickets to equal that $100 so he could win even more. The problem he ran into eventually is that he couldn't decide on which tickets to buy. There is an impressive collection of instant win tickets at the Highland Convenient Food Mart, but still this guy couldn't find enough to buy. The store owner kept suggesting ones to him that he hadn't already purchased but he kept dismissing them as not being good enough. It was quite the process. I later saw this same guy trying to get on his bicycle in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Winthrop in the middle of rush hour with cars trying to dodge him. I would say if he made it back to his house it's probably a miracle. Wow.

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In other news, it's been a long week, I'm excited for the weekend. Aside from that I'm feeling particularly boring at the moment so I'm afraid that's all you get. :)

This is why Tuesdays are the worst

Tuesdays are not my favorite day of the week. In fact, in my ranking of days of the week (yes, I actually have one) it comes in at #7. Bottom of the list. Even lower than Monday. Quickly, because I know you're curious, here is the list:

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1. Saturday, for obvious reasons. Sleeping in, no work, staying up late, getting into trouble and still having a whole day to make up for it, etc.

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2. Friday. You have to work that day which isn't so cool, but you can still stay up late and do fun things and then sleep in the next day.

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3. Sunday. Yea, you don't have to work, but the knowledge that tomorrow you have to go to work puts a damper on the whole day. Not to mention (if you're me) you have to get all the productive things done that your lazy self didn't do on Friday or Saturday.

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4. Thursday. The week is almost over and it's by far the best night of TV.

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5. Wednesday. Workweek half over, you can at least see the weekend on the horizon.

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6. Monday. Actually not the worst day because you've still got some residual "weekend high". No, not in a druggie sense, but in the sense that you can still vividly (or whatever) remember the weekend so you can sort of ride on that through the day.

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7. Tuesdays really suck. The weekend was two days ago, the next one isn't for another 4 days and it's just work work work work work. It's always the day of the week that feels the longest, drains you the most and just generally makes you wish 5:00 would hurry up and get here.

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Now I know this probably makes it seem like I hate my job and that it's just how I pass my time from weekend to weekend. That really isn't the case. Most of the time I quite like my job. It involves enough of what my major in college was to make my parents happy that they didn't waste all that money on my education and it's enough of everything else that I don't want to repeatedly stick a letter opener in my eyeball. The majority of the people I work with are completely great and it's an enjoyable work experience. But let's face it, it's still work. If I had my way I would be independently wealthy, I'd have a large estate next to a large body of water to stay at and host fabulous parties that last for 4 days when I'm not driving around the country in my totally awesome car (that is of course environmentally friendly and gets excellent gas mileage) on an extended road trip seeing as much cool stuff as possible and staying with all the people I know around the country for various periods of time. (you should know that in this scenario I'm about 5 inches taller, my hair looks good every day and the fact that I'm basically living out of my car does not limit the size of my wardrobe or the number of shoes I own in any way)

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Sadly, I'm not quite there yet.

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But now, back to Tuesdays. Particularly this one. I don't think it's completely necessary for every Tuesday to end with a splitting headache shooting right behind my eyes to the point where I probably look a little like a psycho killer from a bad movie, but that doesn't seem to stop it from happening. Recently I've been making some effort to have more peace and harmony in my life (26 is supposed to be the year of peace...it's true, I make a theme for each year of my life) so whenever I feel myself getting worked up I try to step back, take some deep breaths, calm myself down so that I'm the picture of grace and balance. Well, if you know me you can pretty much guess how this has turned out. Yea. Kindly stop rolling your eyes right now.

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Even beyond that, I just have bad luck on Tuesdays. The last time my shower broke it was a Tuesday, when my electricity "accidentally" got turned off it was a Tuesday, last Halloween was probably the worst I've ever had and THAT was a Tuesday. You get the idea. Tuesdays are my arch-nemesis in weekday form.

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Oh well, at least I'm getting my hair cut tonight, which is my preferred method of relaxation. Then when I get home I'll put on my pj's and walk around my apartment in pretty shoes (my other method of relaxation).

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Until next time!

* You see what I've had to resort to in order to get a space between my paragraphs? Ridiculous!

Here we go

This weekend I'm in Lynn, MA (not exactly a destination spot) cat-sitting for Sacha while he's out of town.

The cat:

Yea, it doesn't look comfortable to me either, but apparently he enjoys it.

It's kind of isolated out here (pretty much the only thing close is a grocery store and some shady characters), so I have a lot of time on my hands for the next couple of days. One thing I'll be working on is this:

The aforementioned yarn for Toni's socks (Socks that Rock in Little Bunny Foo Foo). I'm going to try and get them done in time for her birthday (which is in like 3 weeks) so that'll be a bit of a challenge given my lack of attention span.

The progression of the blanket is as follows. Thursday night, it looked like this:




Right now, it looks like this:

Looks sort of finished, right? Yea, I haven't sewn the pieces together yet, which was my plan for the weekend, but I forgot to bring my notes along to try and figure out the best way to go about this. I mean, I know how to seam and everything, but I want to figure out how to make the seam flat since this is a blanket and you will be able to see both sides of it at some point. So, I think this will have to wait until I get home tomorrow night. Alas.

I did not run out of yarn, which is a good thing. And with that, I think you'll agree it's about time I start working on some socks!

Oh, and because I know you were concerned, UPS did finally deliver my DVD, so last night I got to watch Transformers. I love that movie!

Victory is mine!!

I just won my first auction on eBay!! I got 9 books by an author I really like (Patricia Cornwell, mystery/thrillers and sometimes her stuff seriously gives me trouble sleeping but I still like it) for $0.99! Ok, I admit that I already have two of the books, but still! That's 7 books I've never read for $0.99 plus $9.95 shipping and handling! Hooray!

So can you tell I like to win? :) I'm so happy. I will now obsessively check the progress until I actually have the books in my little hands.

Now, off to check if stupid UPS actually decided to deliver my DVD of Transformers today instead of leaving mean little notes like for the last two days and completely ignoring my signature giving them the ok to leave the package.......

why why!?!?!?

So have you noticed how the last couple posts have paragraphs that all run together? I can't make it stop. No matter how many times I hit "enter" between them when it publishes they all go away! I do know to put an extra space between paragraphs, it just won't let me !!!!!!!!!!!!!




Does anyone know how to fix this??

Email Junkie

So here's a fun fact about me. I'm totally addicted to checking my email. I know, I know, so is everyone else. But here's the kicker. I tend to take it personally if I check my inbox and there are no new messages. Like everyone I know got together and collectively decided NOT to send me email. I also manage to convince myself on a daily basis that if I simply don't look at my email for an hour or two I will without a doubt have a message from someone telling me something about their life or my life or SOMETHING (because how could it be possible that an entire TWO HOURS would go by that no one would think to tell me something?). What's more is I'm genuinely surprised when it doesn't happen (which is most of the time).

Ok, here's the thing: I like to think of myself as a mostly rational person. I acknowledge that I'm a little crazy sometimes and I tend to fly off the handle now and then and I may have been described as "scary" and "kind of intense" once or twice, but generally speaking it doesn't take me too long to find my way back around to being reasonable.

I can't make myself be rational about this. Perhaps it's a sign that I'm sadly lacking in a social life, but I don't think that's the case. I have great friends and we do quite a bit together and I'm also fiercely protective of my alone time (I do love me some alone time). I really just don't understand this email business. There have been times where I'm daydreaming and I think to myself, if I was somehow unable to check my email for like 6 months (in a coma, stranded on a desert island, kidnapped by pirates, off communing with nature somewhere) who would check my email to make sure all those little messages were saved for when I get back? Yea, you'd like to think I'm joking, but I've spent more time than I'd like to admit thinking about this stuff. It's completely ridiculous.

I know I promised pictures, but I couldn't stop thinking about this email business so I thought I'd put it out there. Pictures to come, I promise. Although I should tell you that really the only thing I've been working on is this baby blanket because I know that if I let my attention wander even a little bit this child will never see this blanket. It's taking every ounce of my willpower but the good news is that I should have a finished product this weekend. Still keeping my fingers crossed (although I am cautiously optimistic at this point) that I will not run out of yarn.

Book Day

I was thinking about it today and I could probably break the topics I like to talk about into 7 categories:

Knitting

Reading

Movies/television

Music

Weddings
Sports

Things that cause my mother to exclaim, "Jessica!" in an exasperated tone.

Today I have books on my mind. Keeping in mind that I spend approximately 45 minutes each way on public transportation every day (approximately 7.5 hours a week) and there's definitely not enough room on the train to knit what with all the people crowded everywhere (not to mention I get very uncomfortable when strangers talk to me on public transportation and knitting seems to invite that), I go through a lot of books. I am a little weird about what I read on the train, because I think people will judge me based on the book in my hand. I also don't want strangers to know anything about me so I go to great lengths to hide the cover of the book so no one can tell what it is I'm actually reading. And before you ask, yes I do realize that I'm a freak. I'm about one step away from making myself book covers out of brown paper bags like in junior high so that I can be super secretive and no one will ever know anything about me. Ever. I'm holding off because from there I fear it's not a very big step to hiding in my apartment and thinking the whole world is in a giant conspiracy against me. It's a road better not traveled.

My tastes when it comes to books are what some could call indescriminate but what I like to call open minded. Here's what I mean:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I've been trying to read this book since July. It's been sitting in timeout since the end of August because even thought I bought a paperpack with bigger pages and really small print, that is a HUGE book and it gets really heavy lugging it back and forth every day. Not to mention the fact that there are about 100 main characters and I was starting to get confused about who was who. I would like to state for the record that I did plow my way through almost 300 pages before admitting defeat. I'm thinking I'll try again this winter when the weather is crappy and I stay inside all the time. But it will be more of a read at home while it's sitting on a table because this book is deceptively heavy and I only have about a 30 minute attention span for it kind of situation.

Now I Can Die in Peace by Bill Simmons. This is by my favorite espn.com writer, it's basically a collection of all the columns he wrote from 1998 to 2004 starting when he almost gave up on baseball altogether and leading up to the Red Sox winning the World Series. He's completely hilarious, and I liked this book even though it's all about loving the Red Sox. The unique thing about this guy is that he writes from the perspective of a fan cheering for (and getting his heart broken repeatedlyby) his favorite team as opposed to just a regular sportswriter talking to all the athletes and coaches and insiders. If you're a fan of baseball, or really if you have a huge spot in your life for something over which you have no control yet still dictates all your feelings and you don't mind a bit of a potty mouth, this is a good book for you.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice. The author is the daughter of Tim Rice (very famous lyricist for those of you unfamiliar) and it's a story about a girl in 1950's London-ish growing up post WWII in which her father was killed, her family is running out of money, and American music is starting to take over England (mostly Elvis). It's about falling in love, friendship, family, growing up and all that goes along with it. It was kind of fluffy, but I like a fluffy book every now and again.

On Borrowed Wings by Chandra Prasad. This one is the story of a girl living in a small mining town in Connecticut whose brother gets accepted to Yale and has therefore found his chance to get out and have a new, better life. Unfortunately, the brother is killed in a mining accident and Adele decides to assume his identity and enroll in his place (as women weren't allowed to attend Yale in the 1930's). So off she goes and experiences both the freedom and restraint of pretending to be a man. It got a little weird in parts but overall I really enjoyed it.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I'd never heard of this one until I was in Michigan a few days ago and my sister-in-law's mom mentioned it. Then, when I was at the airport headed back to Massachusetts there happened to be a Border's across from my gate and it was sitting right there in the front. I took it as a sign and bought it. It was VERY good, I definitely recommend it. Seriously, go out and buy it right now (or you know, get it from the library). I mean, it also has a couple questionable parts, but it was extremely good.

Every time I read a good book I'm so impressed with how a person comes up with an entire book that's interesting and fits together. I can't even imagine it. These are people with far more creativity than me. Sometimes I think if I read enough maybe some of that creativity will rub off on me and I can make a living out of writing books and buy a large estate in Maine where I will live peacefully at one with the world when I'm not on a book tour or selling the rights for a movie.... someday (sigh).

Yesterday I started Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, on the suggestion of my friend Corene. I got a voicemail from Corene not too long ago in which she brought this book up asking if I'd heard of it and if I'd be interested in reading it (Corene and I tried sort of a long distance book club thing a few years ago which sort of petered out) and I haven't been able to get it out of my head so I thought what better way to stop thinking about it than to actually read it! I'm very susceptible to the powers of suggestion, you see. :)

Once I finish this one it's on to A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I'll be honest, I really have no idea what this one's about, but I think that's an impressive title and there was a big thing on the cover saying it was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. I'm clearly also guilty of judging a book by its cover, but I'd like to think the Pulitzer folks know what they're doing so it's probably ok to take a chance on this one.

Does anyone have any suggestions of good books they've read for when I finish these?? I'm constantly on the lookout for a good read, it really makes the commute go SO much faster. I'm also trying to get the hang of this whole ebay thing (for book buying purposes) but so far I have not managed to be victorious at anything on there. I almost had a couple of the Princess Diary books for $0.99 but the auction ended when I was at the airport and apparently I watched too long without actually bidding. Alas. My new mission is to successfully find a reliable source for good, cheap books. Or to you know, actually win an auction on ebay. I can do it. Really. I'm sure of it. Sort of.

Next time I post I promise the post will be about something that includes pictures. I know it's boring with nothing bright and shiny to distract you from my rambling on and on, but really how interesting would a picture of me holding a book be? That's right, not that interesting.

Until next time!

I may have developed a problem

First, let me just tell you how good it feels to sleep in and have a day in which there is absolutely nothing I have to do. It's pretty great. By the end of the workweek I was pretty much sleep walking and my brain felt completely fried. So this weekend I'm just takin' it easy and watching movies and knitting up a storm.

Next, I think I might have a problem. With sock yarn. I keep buying it. I can't stop. Here is a quick tour of my next few projects, with another on the way....

Yes, this is the sock yarn that was just a short time ago the mystery socks for whom I had no recipient. I now have a recipient, but I ripped out the sock because I wasn't thrilled with the pattern and I discovered the complete ridiculousness of knitting a pattern I didn't like on a part of a sock that was going to end up covered by a shoe. so I am going to start over and do something cool with the cuff. Fear not, Andrea, you'll still get your socks. :)

Next, this is the yarn I found in a cute little shop in Arlington that I happened to walk past one day. I took one look and thought my mom would love it (it was only when I got home later that I realized it's almost exactly the same color as the last pair of socks I knit for her so I will definitely have to come up with some sort of cool stitch pattern for this one)

These three I bought online from a place called the Sheep's Tale (which was super on the ball about getting their stuff here quickly... I can't exactly remember where I found them, but I'm pretty sure they have an ebay store). Some solid colors, always good - I don't think I've ever knit a solid colored pair of socks. And I accidentally bought beige (I thought I was getting dark grey) but that's ok because now I feel confident that I have a color for sock yarn that a man would consent to wear (possibly my older brother who lives in northern Michigan. I'm sure his feet get very cold). I'm also confident that at some point I'll think of people who like pink and purple. :)

Next is yarn I just received in the mail today from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, in a colorway called "Olive Garden". I have to tell you that I didn't really expect it to be this sort of flecky coloring, no other Socks that Rock I've ever knitted have been like this. But I'm reserving judgment until I actually start working on them. Anyway, my sister-in-law absolutely loves the Olive Garden restaurant, so when I saw this I thought I'd make her some Olive Garden socks. I know, it's pretty cheesy, but I have a problem and I will justify it any way I can.

Soon to arrive is another Socks that Rock colorway called "Little Bunny Foo Foo". These will be for Toni, and she specifically requested the color from her perusal of their website. She claims that she picked it based on the colors and not the name, but I know better. That girl is crazy about bunnies.

The pink sweater is currently sitting in timeout because I don't want to actually deal with the sleeve situation. I'll finish it one of these days....

In non-sock related knitting, I'm working on this baby blanket for a friend from high school and his wife who are expecting their first child in December (can you guess if they're having a girl or a boy?). It's knitting up quickly and I'm mentally blocking the fact that each strip will have to be sewn together at the end, and just thinking about how cute it will be. It's the pattern for the circle of friends garter stitch blanket in Last Minute Knitted Gifts, only I've changed the colors. I'm having anxiety about whether or not I have enough yarn, but I told myself when I was ordering that it was only going to require one skein of each yarn, and that two of each would be wasteful and obviously double the price. Won't it just serve me right if, in the end, I have to order each color again and then not only will I have doubled the price, but chances are the dye lots won't match either. Alas. Also, because I am unable to properly follow directions, I accidentally started in the middle of the blanket. The white blocks will go through the middle. I know, this isn't a big issue, but please keep in mind that my major in college was accounting (which means chances are good I have a little bit of an OCD problem) and when things go out of order it makes me a little crazy. I've been trying to work on that, and apparently my subconscious is doing its part to help me out.

And, lastly, look at these super cute shiny red shoes my boss gave me yesterday! She bought them a year ago but despite the fact that the size is what she wears, they're too tight for her. She brought them in for me to try and I fell in love with them at first sight and was more than happy to take them off her hands. You know what's better that supercute new shoes? FREE supercute new shoes. I have to think of a good occasion for them to make their debut.

Now, if you'll excuse me I'll get back to my very busy schedule of sitting on my couch making pretty things for other people. :)

there and back again!

Hello! I have returned from the land of my birth (that sounds way cooler and more epic, right?) all in one piece and am glad to be getting back to the norm. I had a GREAT time, but it was sort of a whilrwind three days. And that's ok, because I get to go back again in 6 weeks and stay for a long enough time to actually catch my breath while I'm there.

A few things of note from the trip:

My flight left Boston at 6:00am on Saturday. This means that I needed to get to the airport before public transportation started running, and I don't have a car. This really isn't a huge problem, I called the local cab company and scheduled a pickup for 4:15am. I actually managed to finish packing and go to sleep fairly early so I could be up in plenty of time. It all went off without a hitch until we actually started driving to the airport and I was afraid I wouldn't even make it that far (I only live a few miles from Logan airport, it takes like 10 minutes to get there). My cab driver was chugging coffee like it was his job, driving like a bat out of hell and I believe the tires were completely bald, if the constant squealing was any indication. Good thing for me it wasn't at all slippery on the road. Anyway, I did, in fact, make it to the airport, where...

Security had not yet opened for the day. While admitting that I am slightly to moderately obsessive about making sure I have plenty of time when traveling, it's not unreasonable to get to the airport an hour and a half before your flight leaves, and in fact they TELL you to get to the airport at least that early. Therefore, I do not think it unreasonable to expect security to be open accordingly. While waiting in line for the checkpoint to open, I was standing in front of a couple headed on vacation somewhere (I'm guessing). It's amazing to me how some people stay together, for example: These two were standing in line, she was yelling at him for not making her breakfast and complaining about how hungry she was. She then magically pulled some food out of her bag and ate it, stating she had intended to save that for later but then she was sure they'd take it away from her during security. He explained that it was probably fine, since it wasn't liquid and she snapped that she has no idea what the rules are and for him not to even touch her. At this point I wanted to turn around and be like, "whoa buddy, are you sure about this chick?" and that was before the real kicker. This girl turns to her boyfriend and says to him, "you know, for your birthday I was going to buy you a nice trip somewhere, but I decided on something better. I'm getting you rhinoplasty because I hate looking at your nose." This clearly surprised the guy and he asked her why she would say that when she's always said he's cute, to which she replied, "no. I have NEVER liked your nose." I'm sorry to tell you that I thought it would be kind of rude (and obvious) for me to turn around at this point and look at them so I can't tell you exactly how bad his nose was, but wow. I realize it was 4:30 in the morning and people can be a little cranky at that hour, but I can't think of any situation in which it's ok to tell the person you're in a relationship that you hate their nose and they should have surgery. Seriously, if it's that bad, break up and find someone with a less offensive face!

Anyway, aside from that and the girl sitting next to me on the plane who didn't understand about personal space, it was a great trip! I actually managed to have some down time to relax and just enjoy life, although that doesn't stop me from being incredibly tired.

I'll leave you with a few pictures:

A view of northern Michigan starting to change colors.

The wedding tables, very fancy.

My little brother and me (I stand corrected, Mom) at the wedding.

overload

I have too many thoughts in my head today. And not in a "oh, I'm so smart there are just so many important things I'm thinking about I can't even sort through them" kind of way. It's more of a "I'm really excited to go to Michigan on Saturday and I have a lot to do and I'm excited for Grey's Anatomy tonight and I love baseball playoffs and I also love football season and I once again wish I had gotten a Tivo so I could watch Grey's Anatomy AND The Office tonight and I was just reading this really cool thing online this morning and I wonder when so-and-so who I like to read on espn.com/tvguide.com/foxsports.com/msn.com will write something again and I can't wait to see The Jane Austen Book Club at some point and I just bought a ridiculous amount of sock yarn this morning and weddings and babies and unicorns blah blah blah blah blah" type deal. Seriously, my attention span is all over the place. And I suppose it's fair to say that at some point in all the blah blah blah blah blah I'm thinking about work related things (you know, since it's 12:37pm on a Thursday) but really it's like 20% at most.

It's no wonder I have a hard time picking things to write about, I can't think about any one thing for long enough to develop a cohesive string of thoughts! Anyway, I guess it's going to have to be a little bit of everything.

First, last night's TV:

I watched the premier of Pushing Daisies and I'm pretty sure I liked it. I don't want to commit to an opinion just yet, but it had the right mix of trippy and "real" (for lack of a better word). I like the guy playing the main character, and I'll watch pretty much anything with Chi McBride (who is the coolest of the cool). One thing that kept throwing me was how much the chick in it looked kind-of-but-not-exactly like Zooey Deschanel to me. I have no idea what her actual name is and I'm pretty sure I've never seen her in anything else, so I will call her almost-Zooey until further notice. Anyway, the show is kind of like a cross between Big Fish and Monk (although not so much the OCD, more just that they solve crimes and the main character has a "quirk" if you will). If you like either of those things, I recommend checking it out.

Private Practice. Again, I can't commit to an opinion. One minute I'm watching and thinking "Hey, I'm enjoying myself, this is entertaining!" and the next minute I'm looking around my apartment for something to do to pass the time. Not a good sign. I will admit that it did make me cry at one point, but then again I'm a huge sap and I've been known to cry at commercials and greeting cards so take that with a grain of salt. I will say that I could live with less random medical issues and more of the characters' issues (I know, it's a medical show - sort of. I say it's an extended chick flick and should act accordingly).

Dirty Sexy Money. Let me tell you right now, I love Peter Krause. I have loved Peter Krause since SportsNight and if you don't know what that is, go netflix it right now because it's GREAT. Every time I watch those DVDs I secretly (or not so secretly) wish that there was a way they could reunite the cast and start back up again. Oh man, that was a great show. This show is ok too, but if they take a turn and start to make Peter into a lying, cheating jerk I will be so furious.

Yesterday was the first day of baseball playoffs. The Red Sox won.... I can't make up my mind if I want them to do well and keep winning or if I want them to lose so they can stop smugly talking about how good they are. What's worse: Red Sox fans complaining about how they blew it and bitching and moaning until the spring or Red Sox fans being all smug and braggy about how they keep winning? Honestly, I think it's even, so I don't really care what they do. My pick to win the World Series is The Diamondbacks. It hurts my feelings because I love the Cubs, but I just don't see it happening for them this year and I'm pretty sure that the Rockies will have come back to reality by the 2nd round and since the ALCS will probably be the Red Sox vs. the Yankees, it'll surely be overhyped and drag on and on and the NL will come along and sneak in to win the World Series. Anyway, as long as the Yankees lose I'll be happy. Stupid %()&#@#% Yankees.

Over last weekend I watched a couple of my netflix movies: An Officer and a Gentleman and Anchors Aweigh!. I had never seen either. In fact, it might be the first time I've seen Richard Gere in a movie with brown hair instead of gray. And let me tell you that Gene Kelly was one hot man in his day. (when did I start rhyming? how does this happen?) The problem now is that I can't get the Anchors Aweigh song out of my head. I don't really know the words, so it's running through my head a little something like, "Anchors Aweigh hm hmmm, ANCHORS AWEIGH!!!" Driving me crazy.

Now I'm trying to think of some sort of picture situation I could add to this post, but unfortunately I don't have any recent pictures of anything interesting. I'll try to remedy that this weekend. Also, since apparently no one liked the socks I'm making as no one has tried to bribe me into giving them the pair and the pattern is kind of turning out to be a pain on such a small scale, I'm pretty sure I'm going to rip them out and start over. I don't know, I keep changing my mind every 5 minutes. I feel like I'd be more motivated if I had a recipient in mind. Very strong hint: if you want something pretty and knitted personally for you by me, GET ON IT and tell me! Also, my mother is excluded from this, as her next pair of socks has already been determined and is about to get underway as I put these on hold until someone claims them.

Anyway, that's that from me for today, Happy Thursday to everyone!

Fine!

OK, you win. I went back and forth on the inclusion of the picture but you're right. It's kind of boring without photographic evidence of the scary bedazzledness. Here you go.....

There now. You see?

travelin' travelin'

As many of you know, I'm returning briefly to Michigan this weekend to celebrate my nephew's second birthday (!) and attend the wedding of a family friend. I am INCREDIBLY excited about it, so much so that I've been so far able to ignore that when it's all said and done I'll have spent approximately 3 and a half hours in an airplane (round trip) and 11 and a half hours in a car (approximately) as well as all associated airport/baggage claim time in three days.


What some of you may not know about me is that I'm completely neurotic and more than a little bit crazy. For example: I needed something new to wear to the wedding (well, needed might be a strong word, but whatever) but I hate the mall because I have no self control and am easily distracted (same reason I hate the grocery store and yet the major reason I love Target. Figure that one out) so I thought I'd solve this problem by shopping online, picking out a few options, trying them on at home and returning whatever I didn't like. I am a believer that it's always a good idea to get a second opinion on an outfit choice, particularly one for a special occasion, so I figured I'd try these on, have one I was leaning toward and just get confirmation that it was the way to go. Except that in the end I had 5 choices and honestly couldn't make a decision on them to save my life. I took pictures of each outfit (by the way it's not easy photographing your outfit as you're wearing it) and sent them to my fashion advisors begging for help.


Now, one of the shirts I bought looked online as though it was a muted bluish/green with something shimmery across the middle. While I do wear color, I pretty much stick to very muted tones and I will admit that most of my dress up clothes are black. So I thought this would be a nice little change of pace while still not being in your face. When the top arrived, I found that it was actually impressively royal blue. Like "HEY LOOK AT ME!!!!" royal blue. With some sort of bedazzled jewels across the middle, instead of the shimmery material I thought it was. I refer to it as "the scary bedazzled shirt" in fact. Of all the outfit choices I had, I absolutely knew this was the one everyone would hate and tell me to send back immediately, because it was both scary and bedazzled. However, in the interest of full disclosure I included it in the options if only to be able to laugh and say, "isn't this shirt scary and bedazzled?" Here's what I wasn't expecting: 100% of my trusted advisors chose the scary bedazzled shirt outfit as the clear winner. I then showed my choices to my boss and she also picked the scary bedazzled outfit (I'm seeing how many times I can legitimately type 'scary bedazzled' in one post. right now we're at 6). I guess it goes to show that I shouldn't be trusted to pick my own clothes. Of course, all the other choices looked ok too, just not for this occasion so my grand plan to save money by avoiding the mall has totally backfired as I am now keeping all the clothes I purchased. Oh well, I guess it was probably time for some new clothes anyway, right?


At any rate, my outfit is chosen (scary and bedazzled as it may be), my pre-flight trip to CVS has taken place (although I think I forgot at least three things so I will be going back...of course), I'm already mentally tallying everything I need to pack (but I bet you I still won't start to actually pack until sometime late Friday night and I'll still forget something) and I'm living in fear that I will somehow forget to call the cab company to set up my pickup for 4:30 Saturday morning so that I can make my flight that leaves at 6. Or, I'm afraid the cab company will forget to pick me up. There's no basis for this paranoia, I just can't help it. By the time Friday rolls around I'll be so on edge I'll probably be unbearable to be around. If I'm not already. Oh well, I usually settle down once I'm actually on the plane.


The other thing I'm doing this week is attempting to train myself to wear my hair in some configuration other than a ponytail. My hair has been in a ponytail since June, pretty much without interruption. All day it's in a ponytail, I sleep with it in a ponytail, pretty much the only time it's down is when I'm washing it, and then straight back up. Now, I'm planning to wear it down on Sunday at the wedding, and I knew that in order to do that I'd need some practice (hey, I told you I was crazy). Well holy crap my hair is long. I mean, I've been trying to grow it out for bridesmaid-in-December purposes but I was unprepared for this. Now the trick will be to see how long I can handle it before I make a hair appointment and promptly cut it all off. My guess it somewhere in the neighborhood of December 16 or when the weather starts to turn bad. :)

On the creative front....

I've been bitten once again by the knitting bug it would seem, so there has actually been some productivity on that end. And last night I got home about 1am and did a little online shopping, so it would appear that there is more to come.

First, I finished a pair of socks for Grace out of Wildfoote yarn. They're kind of pretty (I'm not much of a pink and purple kind of girl) and at the moment they're thick like armor. VERY sturdy. I'm going to try washing them before they go to the intended recipient to see if that softens them up at all, otherwise she's just going to have to wear them a little until they soften up.

Next, I've been working on this sweater from the spring/summer 2005 Family Circle Easy Knitting....

I'm using Cascade Key Largo that I bought at the MMKG garage sale a couple years ago from Irene. It's very pretty and super soft (35% alpaca and 65% cotton) but MAN alpaca is sheddy. I have little pink hairs all over my apartment. I'm working on the second sleeve at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to go back and do the first one over because somehow I think I accidentally knit it 5 rows too short. I'm not entirely sure how that happens, but it wouldn't be the first time I've had problems following directions so it's not altogether surprising. Anyway, here are all the pieces in a big jumble, but you can get a pretty good idea of the color.

Last, I started another pair of socks yesterday. I'm not entirely sure who they will be going to at this point, but I'm making them a pretty average size among all the people whose feet measurements I have so I'm sure it'll come to me eventually. Either that or if one of you is reading this and your foot has an 8.5" circumference you can send me an email telling me how much you love me, these colors and this pattern as well as how long your foot is from toe to heel and who knows? They might end up being for you!

As for my online shopping, soon to come your way is a baby blanket and yet another pair of socks. I have to say, I think sock yarn is the most fun kind of yarn to buy because it doesn't take that much and you still have a wearable garment. Infinitely cheaper than, say, regularly knitting sweaters. And let's be honest, I do live in one of the most expensive areas in the country and it would be a smart idea not to spend everything I earn. Right?

Well, I'm gonna get back to watching some football (go Lions!!!) and knitting on these socks and thinking about how at this time next week I'll be in Michigan with my family (yay!) attending a wedding. I can't wait!!

the weekend at last....

I don't know about you, but I'm so happy it's Friday.



I'm also happy to say that the season premier of Grey's Anatomy was everything I hoped it would be. :) I laughed, I cried, I actually cheered at one point. OK, so it's possible I get a little too into these things, but I'm ok with that. One thing I'll have to get used to, however: for the last two seasons I always watch with Grace, either together or via satellite with phone calls during commercial breaks (since I moved to the East Coast). TV is so much more fun when there's someone to discuss it with as it's happening. Well, Grace had to go and move herself to the Mountain Time Zone so she pretty much had to screen my calls all night and I have to wait until she's finished watching it in order to talk about it. Oh well....



The downside of this whole Thursday night television situation is that The Office comes on at the same time as Grey's Anatomy and through the wonder of netflix I've become addicted to that show as well. I almost had myself talked into buying a Tivo a couple of weeks ago just for Thursday nights. In the end I decided that would not be a judicious use of my money so I will simply have to hope that I can find The Office online this weekend so I can stay caught up. You know, unless NBC decided to stop being jerks and put all their shows instead of just the random crappy ones that nobody cares about..... although maybe I shouldn't judge until I check that out.

*******************************************************************************

And in the end, it's a good thing I checked because right on the front page of nbc.com it says "you asked for it, we delivered!" or something like that, and anyway you can watch full episodes online. In case that bit of information is helpful to you.

OK, I promise to not write quite as much about television in the future, and my internet will (I hope, I hope!!) be fixed tomorrow so I can post from home and include pictures and everything!

Grey'sGrey'sGrey'sGrey'sGrey'sGrey's

Who's excited for the season premier tonight???? I know I am.

Last night I watched Private Practice and while it wasn't a life changing event or anything, I have hopes for the show. It could be good, and I would be happy for Taye Diggs if he was finally able to be part of a television show that wasn't completely terrible and on its way to cancellation after 5 minutes. I have heard that it gets better after the pilot episode... we'll have to see.

I also watched Dirty Sexy Money last night. I'm not sure how I feel about it. There was kind of a lot going on. I think it also has potential. And since Wednesdays have traditionally been kind of a wasteland for television (I am not a fan of Lost. I've never seen it, and I'm not that interested so I hope when it comes back they don't move one of these two shows to some time when I'll never be able to watch) I hope these can be good for those times when I'm home on a Wednesday with nothing to do...or wait a minute. That might be the definition of what a Wednesday is. :)

Countdown until my internet is finally (hopefully) fixed: two more days...

Detroit what?!

So, since I moved out to the East Coast, there has been no shortage of peer pressure for me to switch sports loyalties and cheer for all Boston/New England teams and forget where I came from. I have resisted. I have stayed true to my roots and kept my loyalties intact (as any legitimate fan should do), and not without consequences.

For anyone living under a rock, the Red Sox are the end-all, be-all of sports in this town. These people live and die by how the Sox are doing. Anywhere you go in Boston during the summer months (and ESPECIALLY toward the end of September), you'll hear a conversation about baseball. Will they make the playoffs, will they win the AL East, will the Yankees come from behind and steal their thunder, will they win the World Series blah blah blah blah blah. I'm amazed any work gets done. Ever. And it's not like in other parts of the country where there are people who like baseball and people who don't. It's EVERYONE. It's like a religion. Anyway, everyone I work with grew up on the East Coast (or has lived here for 20+ years) and I am the lone little Tigers fan, upon whom all abuse is heaped. Now this was great when one of the maintenance guys made a super cocky bet with me about a Red Sox/Tigers series in which the Tigers swept and I got a free lunch. But as the season progessed and the Tigers threw away the division and are not looking so good for the wild card (@$&^#%$ Yankees) I get no end of hearing about it. I was out sick yesterday and someone started a nasty rumor that it's because I couldn't face how badly the Tigers' season was ending....sigh.

And now is the added bonus of football season. Despite overwhelming reasons to stop cheering for the Lions, I just can't do it. And I enjoyed the brief, shining moment when they were 2-0 for the season, until last Sunday, which I'd rather not even talk about. I'm sure that most of you have heard about CameraGate/SpyGate/Beli-Cheat by now (if not, the Patriots were caught cheating during the Jets game). Shortly after that, someone put up a sticker (from our label maker) on our key box that said "Cheaters Patriots" which I thought was funny and pointed out to everyone else. I was UNIVERSALLY blamed for this. Now, there are three reasons I didn't do it:

1) I'm not stupid enough to taunt an office full of people

2) I would never have called attention to it if I had done it, I would have waited until someone ELSE noticed it

3) I would definitely have come up with something more clever than "Cheaters Patriots."

The next day I came into my office, bleary eyed as I usually am before noon, sat down to read my email and notice one from our building engineer that says, "I'm out today, and I didn't do it." A suspicious email if ever there was one. At that point I start to look around my office and notice that there are stickers saying "Looser Lions" (that's how it was spelled on the stickers) ALL over the place. I have found 16 of them so far, and there have been indications that there are still more. On my door handle, on my tape dispenser, my computer, the filing cabinet, the bottom of my desk, the picture on my wall, and the back window where I still can't reach to get it down. That was my favorite. You see the abuse and the false accusations? I do have to be honest here and tell you that I got my revenge in taping down most of the things in Bill's office with packing tape so he'd have a nice little surprise when he got back in the office, but still. I maintain my original innocence.

To add insult to injury, at some point during the middle of Sticker Day I noticed that in addition to Lions-hating stickers I also had some that said, "No playoffs for the Tigers". Ouch. It's a tough life I lead.

Anyway, if anything, this has reaffirmed my faithfulness to Detroit athletics.... but I wonder, is it worse to be a cocky, obnoxious cheating winner or a sad, it's better not to even get your hopes up perennial loser? I don't know, you decide.

one more thing..

Is anyone else as excited as I am that the new season of TV is starting tonight??? (yes, I know, I have no life)

It's kind of disturbing how impatient I am for Thursday to get here so I can watch Grey's Anatomy. I managed to make my way through all the season 3 DVDs last week and over the weekend. Before that it was rehashing season one of Heroes, which I'm super excited for tonight.

I figure TV shows are like mini movies and you get a sequel every week, which explains my attraction. However, is there some way to stop the networks from taking random 6 week breaks in the middle of the season so that I completely forget what was going on? I can't even begin to explain how that drives me crazy.

My 2007 so far....

So, the last year or so (well, 10 months if you want to be specific) I have been neglectful, I have been absent, I have been....elsewhere. In reality, I had decided that I was not getting the desired fulfillment from the blog universe, and I quit. Cold turkey, no warning, quit. However, I now find that I miss an outlet for me to spew all my craziness (and I have a lot) that doesn't involve one of my friends being singled out to take it all on at once. So I'm giving it another shot. I make no guarantees that I'll be all that interesting or all that regular with the postings, but at this point I'm pretty sure everyone has abandoned ship so it's unlikely I need to worry. :)

Anyway, my internet is down at home (yet again...) and I'm posting at work (shh!) so there are no pictures as of yet, but here's a brief recap of this year:

January

I went back to Michigan for a minute to see the fam and attend Sarah's baby shower, which was a lot of fun...suffered through a ridiculously cold and windy winter (with surprisingly little snow)...

February

I didn't do anything in February. I'm looking at my calendar right now and I think I must have been a hermit for the entire month...one exciting thing is that Sarah actually had her baby who I am very much looking forward to meeting in a few weeks...

March

I went home for a weekend to surprise my friend Jenny who had just gotten home from Federal Law Enforcement Training (she's officially a badass) and got to hang out with my college friends...a friend from high school came out to Beantown for St. Patrick's Day and while I know we had fun, the weekend is more than a little fuzzy when it comes to details...experienced the first storm of my life in which my apartment actually shook from the wind...

April

Amy & Marie came to visit and we did an honest-to-goodness walking tour of Boston and had a great time...another scary storm in which my apartment shook for an entire weekend and led to my watching the first Boston Marathon of my time in Massachusetts from the comfort of my couch...was happy to hear that my college roommate Stephanie and her boyfriend got engaged...

May

Went to Rochester to visit Toni and had a blast, although there was also a weird light headedness situation that was never adequately explained...started going to movies after work by myself sometimes as a way to relax (which actually is great as long as I remember a sweater, the Boston Common theatre is FREEZING)...went to my first Red Sox game in which they sadly beat the Tigers...

June

Fell on my a** walking/dancing to the car after a Revere Beach barhop and sprained my ankle which made the next weekend awesome when....my mom and Grace came to visit for my birthday and we took in the sights and had a swell time (despite the sprained ankle and all my complaining)...was very excited when Amy and Todd got engaged shortly after his return from Iraq and am looking forward to the wedding in December... April had her second child, who I am also looking forward to meeting in a few weeks...

July

I officially became a psychopath when my preordered Harry Potter book failed to show up the day of release because the postman opted not to climb a flight of stairs and knock on my door, instead leaving me a note. This led to me taking a walking tour of Winthrop in which I was stalking the guy for approximately two hours and never caught up with him and ended up having to buy the book AGAIN the following Tuesday because I just couldn't take it anymore. To this day I have still never seen my original book...went to a gallery opening for a show in which Toni had a piece, which was amazing (my friends are extremely talented)...housesat for Sacha and Toni while they were in France getting engaged (are you noticing a trend?)...

August

Got myself some awesome librarian looking glasses to make me look as smart as possible....got a call from my college roommate Jen that she got engaged on a surprise birthday trip to the Dominican...went to a bachelorette party for Carrie that involved a few scary drag queens and lots of dancing....also rearranged my living room so it looks like an actual room instead of a space with a couch and some crap thrown in it...

September

Finally finished unpacking my bedroom during what will go down in history as one of the most productive Labor Day weekends I've ever had (yes, it took me 14 months to unpack my bedroom)...started preparing myself for the next three months which will involve three trips home, two weddings, one birthday party, one major holiday, a bachelorette party and what I hope will be a chance to catch up with everyone I miss when I'm out here...

And that pretty much brings us up to date. As you can probably tell, I'm practically surrounded by people who are getting married at the moment. It's great and I'm unbelievably happy for everyone planning to tie the knot, but it does seem like a bit of an epidemic. It'll be a good excuse for celebrating for the next couple of years, that's for sure.

Anyway, that's about all I've got for now so we'll see how this blog business goes from here on out (although I have to be honest, I really hate the word blog. Is there something else I could call it? I'm going to have to marinate on this one and see if I can come up with a word that I think is a little less creepy - any suggestions?).

Back in the land of the living...

I am on the road to recovery from being disgustingly sick all weekend. I didn't think it was that bad, but my boss all but shoved me out the door at noon on Friday telling me to go home and go to bed. I got home about 1 and fell into my bed, where I stayed until approximately 8pm Saturday night. Yep, that's right.

I'm feeling much better now, never fear. My voice isn't at 100%, but I think that's the tail end of whatever it was that sidelined me all weekend. Obviously I'm still taking it easy and trying not to overdo, because I really don't want to suffer a relapse.

Anyway, obviously there's not a whole lot that's new, due to the fact that I've been in bed for like 3 days, just doing my best to keep you posted so you don't think I deserted again.

The good news is that my footies are coming along nicely, because I'm motivated by the fact that my feet are freezing. :) I hope to finish the first one tonight and start on the second tomorrow.

Sorry, no pictures today. I thought maybe I'd have a picture of a snow covered landscape or something after the weekend, but we've had 0.4 total inches of snowfall so far this year. And that's not enough for a picture. :)

Casper

So I was just reviewing yesterday's post, and I noticed two things:

1. My legs are so pasty white that they're actually glowing in the pictures. I glow in the dark. Now that's pale. I'm going to have to stop wearing white shirts, because I'll just look like hair with pants. Holy crap.

2. I knit both of those socks from the same hank of yarn on the same size needle (the same needle, in fact) and one has significantly thicker stripes than the other. I know that they say gauge changes from one to the other (which is why it's recommended to knit both socks at once) but MAN, that's noticeable. The other thing is, when I put them on they don't feel that different from each other.... I wonder what the deal is?

Anyway, here are the newest socks:

If you think that the toe of this looks very flat and wide, you're right. It is. The reason for that is that my feet are shaped like this:


Yep. I walk around on two rectangular boxes that masquerade as feet. All of my toes are approximately the exact same length, they just begin at a lower point on my foot as they go from big to pinkie. And you know, even though this is an outrageously wide toe, I still have my doubts as to whether it's quite wide enough. I think this is why I prefer to go barefoot or just wear flip flops..it's because of my poor, freakishly shaped toes.

Anyway, as soon as I finish these, I will start these:


It's the leftover lace weight silk from Grace's shawl of ages ago paired with a lace weight alpaca/silk blend which I think could make some lucious house socks. No, not for me... let's not get crazy here. I'm hoping there's enough there to make them for Grace, but it's gonna be pretty close, she's got feet like a giant. :)

I'm also working on a replacement pocket scarf for Toni. A couple of years ago I made my friend Toni a scarf with pockets at each end and she liked it so much that she has practically worn it out and she needs a new one! I will always be ok with having to reknit things because someone loved them so much they got worn out. See? This is why I knit. To make things for people that will make them happy.

Ok, time to get ready for Heroes and Studio 60!

A pair!

Yesterday's completed sock:

Today's finished pair (the yarn is Socks that Rock in peacock, which I got at Rae's back home before I moved to Massachusetts...the pattern is from Sarah's toe-up sock class, with an after-thought heel (http://www.handknitter.sarahpeasley.com):

On to the next!

I have decided to *gasp* make a pair of knitted socks for myself. I always said that I enjoyed knitting socks but I never really wanted to wear them. It's more of a thing I have against socks in general. My toes like the freedom of bare feet. However, I notice recently that my feet are cold a lot. Mostly when I'm in my apartment, and even if I have the heat on. So... I'm going to make some little footie-type socks to wear around my apartment for the winter...cause you know, they say it gets a little chilly out East. :)

something's finished!

I've spent most of today knitting away and watching movies as a way to relax after a hectic weekend at home for Thanksgiving followed by a crazy week at work.

And, I'm happy to say that I have finished something for the first time in approximately 6 months....actually... 5 months and 2 days. I looked it up. :) That's partly attributable to moving, starting a new job, being really busy and partly due to a general lack of an attention span for finishing anything. Or starting anything, for that matter. Knitting in general took a back seat for a minute.

But now it would appear that I'm back in the game (the picture I had up the other day was of the socks without any heels, and so unfinished)!

The picture of the finished sock was meant to be here, but I seem to be having some technical difficulties with actually attaching them to the blog. I can't figure out what the deal is... all I get is the dreaded white box with the X in it. Alas, hopefully tomorrow?

Yes, I know, I have only finished one sock and there are supposed to be two socks in a set. The other one is simply awaiting a heel. But I'm going to count the one sock as a finished object anyway, despite the lack of a completed pair. I have high hopes to finish the mate this weekend, possibly even tonight! But for now, I'm gonna let my fingers have a little break and sit in quiet contentedness that I finally finished something. (and try to figure out what's going on with the picture situation)

Still smarting

So, I took quite a beating over Thanksgiving for lack of posting.

Consider my wrists slapped. :)

I give you a pictoral history of the last month and a half or so (it's faster)....

Isn't my city pretty?

At the beginning of October some pals came to visit and we had an outrageous time for three straight days. Three days that ended with a headache unlike any I've ever felt before (from the drinking) and a broken toe (the cause of which remains a mystery)...but we DID get to see THIS GUY:

There's nothing like a guy wearing a giant pair of underwear. Sweet.

The very next weekend, my parents came to visit!! I think they had a good time, they crammed themselves into my tiny apartment (don't worry, they slept at a hotel, I love my parents but there IS such a thing as too much togetherness). Here is a picture of my parents in front of Faneul Hall (I have no idea how it got this small).

Next came Halloween (I mean, there were days in between, but nothing exciting happened so why bother?)

For Halloween we went to Toni's apartment in Rochester, NY for a rockin' party.

That's me, on the left, Static Cling. That's Sacha, on the right, the hillbilliest hillbilly that ever sat through a party drinking Red Dog beer just to stay in costume. Now there's dedication.

Next, I got a haircut, made a couple of changes on the color front:

Apologies for the very serious face, but I was concentrating very hard, this was taken with my cell phone (because I had once again lost my camera, which I have since found).

Lastly, remember this?

This was incarnation #4 of this pair of socks. Incarnation #4 becomes incarnation #5:

That's about all I've got on the knitting front for now, but along with the holidays tends to come my inspiration, so I'm sure that'll be picking up soon as well.

Peace I'm outta here!

Are you kidding me?

*warning - this is a bit of a rant*

There are no words.

However, I'll strive to do my best to relay the debacle that was my commute home tonight.

I didn't go straight to the train today, I had a little shopping to do, so I wandered about the city for an hour or so (and I managed to go into a DSW and out again WITHOUT a new pair of shoes. That might be the first time that's happened. Ever) It was a lovely evening and I had a nice little walk adn was feeling all content with the world in general.

Anyway. So I finish making my purchases and it's time to go home. I go into a T stop at State Street and I journey through a long maze of tunnels until I finally find my way to the Blue Line (which is the line I take to get home). So I get on the train and there are no seats (this is not unusual between 5 and 7 pm) so I'm standing and holding the bar while avoiding eye contact with everyone else, as is standard operating procedure for riding public transportation. The lady sitting down facing me apparently did not get the memo. She kept talking to me about the difference between my shoes and her shoes, and then my glasses and her glasses. She couldn't possibly understand how I could be wearing flip flops with "that thing between your toes" and she assured me in very passionate language that her shoes were a much prettier color when they were new (pink). Also that she can only wear very small pumps, but not real high heels, because her feet are too small. Also, her glasses are sort of similar to mine, but she has bifocals. She hopes they work great, but she's not sure because she won't get them until next week. I have friends that don't even give me that much detail on their lives. This didn't really bother me, however. I think the weird people on the train are usually pretty hilarious. There was the guy once who started serenading us during rush hour, the goth kids who had a contest to see how hard they could jump into the ceiling without knocking themselves out, the woman who had no shame about sitting practically spread eagle in a mini skirt, etc.

So we go along pretty smoothly, the chatty lady gets off the train and I'm just three stops away from where I get off to catch the bus. All in all it usually takes about 10-15 minutes to get from where I got on the train to where I get off the train. Then we come out of the tunnel on our way to the airport. And there's a signal problem. This happens quite a bit actually, and it'll slow you down for about 5 minutes or so. NOT TODAY. We would move forward a couple of feet and then stop. Then the announcement, "due to signal problems up ahead, this train is standing by." Repeated over...and over...and over.... There are also several small children in my particular train car who are starting to get more than a little antsy and progressively louder. I did manage to keep pretty calm and zen about the whole thing until the THIRD time we stopped for a signal problem and then I was feeling motion sick from all the lurching to go and stop all the time, I was tired because it was the end of a long day and I just wanted to go home, and these kids were really starting to give me a headache. Not to mention all the other commuters who started to get loud and yell at the announcement every time it came on, as if that was going to help. And of course everyone has to get on their cell phone to complain to everyone else they know that the train is delayed. At long last, 40 MINUTES after I got on the train, we finally pulled into the station.

Now to the bus. The first thing I will say is that they unveiled all new buses today, which was pretty exciting. However, the bus that was there when we pulled in was labeled as though it was my bus, so I got on it, only to find out that the driver hadn't quite figured out how to work the signs yet and it was the other bus route, so there was 75 cents down the drain. I get back off the bus and sit on the bench to wait for my ACTUAL bus, and then loud cell phone girl decides to sit next to me and yap away to make sure that she would have a car to do her shopping with tomorrow. Lord help whoever was on the other end of that phone if she didn't get a car. Anyway...

I'm happy to say that when the correct brand-new bus pulled up it was my favorite driver (I have them all ranked from best to worst based on braking habits and accuracy in hitting the stop where it's actually supposed to be) and all things went smoothly from there on out. I managed to make it home all in one piece, and now I look forward to a relaxing night of watching Gilmore Girls and going to sleep early.

Here's hoping tomorrow goes more smoothly!

A Little Change of Pace

So I thought I'd change it up a bit and update the format of el blog-o. Whatcha think? I like it... I also noticed that I was still listed as living in East Lansing, which is clearly not the case, unless they suddenly got an ocean in Michigan. Somehow I doubt that. :)

In knitting news... I seem to have somewhat of an attention span disorder at the moment. I keep starting projects, working really well on them for about 2 days and then I lose interest and either leave it sitting around or rip it out and start over. For example, I'm currently working on the 4th version of a sock. The first version got halfway through the gusset, the second version made it past the heel and the third version only made it about two inches. The current version is actually a recreation of the 2nd version, which is mildly irritating, since if I hadn't ripped it out, I'd probably be on the 2nd sock by now. Oh well.... here's my progress so far:




Next, I started a baby sweater, which I thought was SO adorable (I still do) but then I hit a little snag on the front that was going to require some math, so this is the work that took me 3 days and has now been sitting for about 2 weeks because I just don't want to think.


And finally, I realized I had this old yarn sitting around forever so I thought I'd make another very simple yet wildly popular seed stitch pocket scarf. Again, I was extremely productive for about a day, and now...not so much. But it could materialize into a Christmas gift I suppose...we'll have to see. And, pay no attention to the clutter all over the floor. My filing system is in progress.


Oh! And I almost forgot...the most pitiful of the bunch: The dish cloth I started the day I moved here and worked on for the span of one movie before I got really tired and put it down. It has not moved since then (that was July 29).


Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll get around to finishing things. And in a related topic, maybe one of these days I'll finish unpacking. You know, one of these weekends when I'm not doing anything else... whenever that is.

Well, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my evening, and to remember what it is I've been missing in the last few years of not having a home phone....people calling all evening asking for money for various things...ugh. Luckily I remembered to register on the do not call list tonight, so I can only hope this'll be a short lived thing. :)

Back in business!!

At long last I have internet service in my apartment! It took a month (almost exactly) and it was a big hassle, but at last I am again connected to the rest of the world. So hello again!

I'm having a good time in Boston, it's a great place. :) I have two jobs, I'm enjoying both. During the week, in my "real" job I work as an administrative assistant for a property management company, and it's pretty interesting. On the weekends I'm working in a custom handbag shop in Cambridge, selling purses. Not a bad gig. And when I come home at night, it's to this view:



I think you'll agree, nothing bad about that.

I've been a busy girl this last month or so, working a lot and getting settled in. Now that I've gotten my phone/internet situation straightened out, maybe I can move on to tackling my cable situation. We'll have to see.

From now on I hope to be able to keep you posted on my adventures, since I have the ability to do so.

one down, one to go

So, I have managed to find myself a place to rest my head, which I will be able to move into August 1. I'm very excited, it's a cute little place, I can see the ocean from it and there's a very cute little back porch/balcony thing that I plan to spend a lot of time on. :)

The job search is in progress.... not much news there, I'm just interviewing and applying like crazy, and hopefully one of these days something will come of it.

That's about it, I don't really have picture capabilities at this point, but soon I hope.

Today we're finally getting a nice little break from the heat so it's at least bearable....well, I think I'm off to go sit by the ocean for awhile. Have a good one!

Well, I'm here

So, I guess I'm a resident Massachusetts now, for about a week. I still sort of feel like I don't exist, however, as I don't have a job or an address. I'm currently working on both of those things, fear not.

Thus far my time here has been well spent... when not looking for a job or a place to live I have been experiencing what Boston has to offer (which is quite a bit). I am quite enjoying that on any day it's not raining I can walk about 5 minutes and sit by the ocean and just look at the water and enjoy the scenery. I am also enjoying that the actual city of Boston is a 10 minute subway ride away, which should come in handy for when I actually get a job.

It did rain here today, quite hard. In fact, I'm not sure I remember seeing rain quite like that in my time here on this planet. It was like an instant flood. We walked into a store and 10 minutes later we walked out into a giant storm and flooding all over. We did manage to make it home safely so don't worry yourselves on that count, but MAN. That was some rain.

Now, as long as I can manage not to get trapped under a falling tunnel or be involved in a major subway derailment, I'll keep putting every day in the win column. :)

I hope everyone in Michigan is doing well, and I hope you miss me as much as I miss you!

Pictures!

The camera cord has been located! It was put away, which is a clear indication as to why I had trouble finding it. :)

Anyway, here are pictures of the socks (well, one of the socks). Now the recipient's foot is a little bigger than mine so if the toes look a little funny, that's why.


Also, I finished my dad's vest today, after much seaming and end-sewing. The finished result was well-received and it looks excellent! He'll be very stylish this fall on the golf course.


That's all for now, I'm leaving pretty early tomorrow so I need to see to some last minute packing details. Happy 4th of July!!

The success of JessFest

My birthday last weekend was a rousing success... I would say that I managed to ring in 25 with a bang (or at least some really really terrible karaoke). We went to Crunchy's here in E.L. and a birthday is just not a birthday without matching t-shirts. Here are a couple photos for ya, and then a little game:

The shirts, as you may or may not be able to tell, contained some movie quotes that I really like or that seemed particularly good for the occasion. I will put them here for you, and see how many of them you know. Any non-pg words have been abbreviated or substituted so as not to offend anyone's sensitivities. :)

If anyone gets all 10 I will be hugely impressed (and if you were there and I told you what they all came from, it doesn't count):
“Austin? Austin, Massachusetts?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m kind of a big deal. People know me.”
“This one time, at band camp….”
“Earmuffs!”
“Goonies never say die!!”
“Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m a schizophrenic, and so am I”
“There’s no crying in baseball!!”
“Erroneous! Erroneous on both counts!!”
“Yippee-kay-yay, mother-f*&^*r”
“Every now and then say, ‘WTF.’ ‘WTF’ gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.”

On the knitting front, I just finished a pair of CMU socks that I was asked to knit for a woman whose daughter is going there right now. I really liked the way the striping went along the socks, I just hope she does too. I would like to point out, however, that it's quite difficult to take a picture of one's own foot while getting the proper angle and lighting, etc. Either that or I just made it harder than it needed to be. Which is probably much more accurate. And on that note, a picture will have to wait because my camera cord seems to have wandered off somewhere...I can't find it. Oh well, a picture will be forthcoming.

Finally, the move date approaches. I am leaving Michigan on Tuesday, July 4 (Independence Day....irony? coincidence?), I got a one-way ticket to Massachusetts and some of the most wonderful friends imaginable who are allowing me to stay with them for a short time until I find a place of my own and so I say farewell to all of you in Michigan, I will do my best to keep in touch and hope you will do the same. Check ya later. :)

So THIS is where I left my blog....

Would you believe I've been looking for this darn thing for 4 months? It was my unicorn, the thing in my life I simply could not grasp. Always slightly out of my reach. But I persevered, I pulled through and in the end I am able to savor the sweet flavor my victory.

Okay.

I admit it.

Absolutely none of that is true. In reality I had a mental block about this, I didn't have anything ineteresting to say, I didn't have anything interesting to show, I was simply not interesting.

Suddenly, today, it all changed. Who knows why these things happen really, but today I feel really REALLY interesting. Hugely, in fact.

First, a quick recap: In the last few months I decided to move to Boston with nothing but my smile and stunning personality, sooo I left my job and am now furiously looking for employment out yonder in Beantown, as well as a place to rest my head at the end of the day in order to leave on my scheduled date of July 1. Does this crazy move scare me at all? Oh, I'm freakin' terrified, but it seems that to me a thing just isn't worth doing unless you can procrastinate it long enough to put yourself into fits of anxiety wondering what the heck you were thinking in the first place. It'll all turn out fine, I'm sure. Like they say in Shakespeare In Love:

"It will all turn out well in the end"
"How do you know?"
"I don't! It's a mystery!"

Words to live by. Words that will probably give my parents strokes, but what are children for if not to add to the number of gray hairs on their parents' heads, right?

Anyhow, I appreciate all thew well-wishes and tips/tricks/contacts I've gotten from people everywhere since the news that I'm going and I'll surely keep you posted on what happens to me on my adventures out East.

Moving along, I'll throw in a couple of pictures here, since if it was me and I came across a post with no pictures I'd keep right on moving, because what's the fun in that? Exactly. There is none.

First: I made a pair of socks for my good friend Jessica awhile back...it might be hard to tell from the picture but there's a cabled fabric on the top to make them a little more interesting. The second pair of feet in the picture are her son Cameron's, sporting a pair of socks made for him by their neighbor Kathy. The color may not be that true, but alas...it was the color or the pattern.


And next, a picture of a cow. :) Last weekend I was in Boston (I know, who decides to move somewhere and then takes a vacation there two weeks beforehand? Some crazy person, surely) there were these cows everywhere, and it was never fully explained to me as to what their purpose was. However, this obliging little friend set a nice little scene for a picture (from L to R, me, Toni, Mihai).


And I'll leave you with that... as well as a question, I'm sure, as to how long it will take me to post next time????