Sunday, January 4, 2009

In the Long Run

It's 2:30am, and I'm wide awake. Which does not bode well for the 7 miles I'm supposed to be running tomorrow. Actually, today.

I finished one of my socks. Good news is that it's gorgeous. Bad news is that it would have fit me fine, when I was about 6 years old. Back to square one, with a bigger set of needles. I did check my gauge, but apparently I knit differently in the round than I do the regular way...who'da thunk? And when you check gauge, you make a swatch the regular way. So I didn't even bother to swatch this time. I'm totally guessing. To tell the truth, though, I think the pattern is flawed. The part where it doesn't fit me is in a spot where I was supposed to knit until the sock measured a certain length, and said length wasn't even close to being enough. It's not like I have gargantuan boat feet, people...on the contrary, my feet are freakishly small.

I rode my scooter for a little while today. It was 74 degrees out, and from what I understand it's about to get very cold very fast, so I went all carpe diem and took her out for a bit before it got dark. It needed a thing or two done to it (nothing that prevents it from being rideable), and J offered to let me take his instead, but why in God's name would I want to ride a silver scooter? Part of the point of my scooter - maybe even the entire point - is that she's PINK. I haven't been the happiest person lately, but within a minute of revving the engine and cranking the tunes, I was grinning like a cheeseball idiot.

I defy anybody not to smile when they're riding a pink scooter. It simply cannot be done.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Unresolved

Happy New Year!

I have no resolutions. None. I don't think "figure out my friggin' LIFE" counts.
I do have a mission, though. Bath and Body Works is holding their annual sale, 3 shower gels or lotions for $15. This is the mothership of all sales, and is where I stock up on yummy-smelling things for the entire year. Since I don't wear perfume, this is pretty much it for me. So after I run my 4 miles, which I'm going to do after I post this, I'll go get ready and head to the mall to brave the throngs. Since the line for checkout is usually at least half an hour long, I'll bring my knitting. And y'all KNOW it has to be a big deal for me to even bother with nonsense like that, since I generally don't do the big hectic sales at all.

Which brings me to...my current projects!

Here is a sock in progress. It looks complicated, but that's just the way the yarn is made. It knits up like that all by its own little self!



As you can see, I'm working it on 3 double-pointed needles. The 4th needle isn't shown here, but there is another one. This is so that I can knit it in one continuous tube with no seams. It's a pain to start, but pretty mindless once you've got it going.


And here is the sweater I'm making. Like I said in a previous post, it's very light and sheer, and is meant to be worn over a tank top. I really like how it's coming along so far:





And a closeup so that you can see a little bit of the beading I'm adding to it. The color is more like the first picture shows, though.



Maybe my resolution is to knit more. There's nothing like using a nervous tic to your own advantage.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Treading Water

I finally enrolled in my classes for the spring semster. I'm taking Honors Speech and Honors Comp II.

Go me.

Those two classes don't make me feel like I'm going anywhere at all. But at least I'm taking some, I guess, and both of those are basic requirements for my undergrad. And they'll salve my ego and my GPA after that stupid class last semester. I shouldn't have any problem getting A's in both of them.

Now to take my test for the certification that the aformentioned class from the fiery bowels of hell supposedly qualifies me for in the first place. And to get a job. For now, though, it's enough that I'm enrolled in a couple of classes for the semester.

I NEED to run tomorrow. Christmas threw me off, and I'm getting into this mad blue funk. Total running withdrawal. The Wii and the knitting and the Scout shop and the pants I need to hem and the laundry and my grey hairs that need to be touched up and everything else are going to have to take a back seat for a little while, because if I don't run a few miles tomorrow I'm probably going to start taking sniper shots from a belltower somewhere. It STILL amazes me that a couch potato like myself has gotten so thoroughly addicted to something as strenuous as running, but boy am I ever!

Any big New Year plans? We're going to a party. Maybe. If I can break out of this Eeyore thing I have going on.

Coffeepiphany

I have had a breakthrough.

Life is entirely too short to drink out of ugly coffee cups.

A few years ago, when J's store was advertising on our local WB channel, he brought home a crapload of rather unattractive WB coffee cups. Generally, I have my coffee out of them in the mornings, just out of habit.

Today, I tossed them all out.

I do have a few coffee cups that I like. The one I got at Disney World, which is aqua (for years I've been claiming this is my favorite color...not sure how it's escaped my notice that given the choice, I'll always pick red), and which has "it was all started by a mouse" along the inner rim. The tall one that says "Internet Girl," and has a picture on it of a girl with a laptop who looks fairly similar to me. She even has her hair in the low ponytail with the side part that I tend to wear when I don't feel like messing with it. There's a chip in the handle, but I don't care. And the Starbucks cup that I got from Mom and Dad last Christmas, which is a nice shape and just the right size (I don't like my cups too big, because the coffee cools down before I can drink the whole thing). There's also one that I snagged from a place I used to work, which is really thick stoneware and looks like something from a 40s diner. It has a retro-looking picture of a perky little man and says "try our coffee, it's delicious!"

So, excellent. I have four coffee cups that I love. And I refuse to drink out of another cup I don't love, ever again. I like my coffee too much to drink it out of cups that suck.

I'm now officially on the prowl for coffee cups that I love. I intend to fill my cabinet with them, eventually.

On another note, we are now the proud owners of a Wii. I will never, ever accomplish another thing again in my life.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Reunion

Working Subtitle: Why I Wear Heels to Wal-Mart

Ok, I really don't usually wear heels to the soul-sucking, hellish vortex that is Wal-Mart. It's just that once in awhile, I get a bug up my butt to look nice. Today was such a day. I actually felt like putting my hair in hot rollers, but didn't really have time. So I settled for jeans with heels and a nice shirt.

To go where? The yarn store. Yeah, you read that right. I'm knitting again. I'm currently insanely stressed, and most of you know most of the reasons why. Knitting is great for that. I can fidget incessantly and call it "working on a project." Plus it's portable. I've got two things going on, both of which incorporate things I've never done before: one is a sweater, very sheer and, since I'm not a slut, meant to be worn over a tank top. I'm randomly adding seed beads to it as I go - that's new for me, but I got a lot of compliments on it at the yarn store, so I guess it looks good. The other is a pair of socks, which requires knitting in the round. That's four needles I'm working with, people. FOUR. It's unwieldy, but strangely addictive. And the socks are shaping up to be pretty cute. They're bright, and I don't usually wear any color of socks but white, but I might have to work up several particularly obnoxious pairs to wear with my Cub Scout uniform. These can be Obnoxious Cub Scout Socks Number One. I'll try and take some pictures of my knitting and post them tomorrow.

So I had to go to the yarn store, because my spazzfest of a Golden Retriever ate one of my balls of yarn. Mohair. Not cheap. I love my dog, but I really wish she had a hobby other than creating the most expensive and often bizarre poop she possibly can. We already have polyfill laying around the backyard because she has made it her life goal to consume my sofa in its entirety. The yarn poop should be absolutely fascinating.

After that, Wal-Mart. Where I ran into, of all people, a girl I went to high school with. Now I know why I never run into anyone I used to know when I come home for a visit...apparently, they've all moved here. She was a few grades below me, but I was friends with her cousin. She recognized me right away, I honestly can't say the same for her. Nice girl. She had her daughter with her, who is a fabulous little thing and clearly gives her mother a run for her money. Literally. Last glimpse I had of the two of them, my former schoolmate was chasing the little girl down the dairy aisle at a full sprint.

After that, I ran into a girl I used to work with. I can't stand this person, nor could anyone else who worked there other than a few paunchy, drooling middle-aged management types. She's not particularly pretty, but she's an emaciated blonde who presents herself in, umm...a certain way. She doesn't really do anything productive that I've ever noticed...mostly she takes credit for other people's work, orders co-workers around, and throws people under the bus to cover her own mistakes, which she makes thoroughly and often. I never was able to figure out exactly what it is she DOES, other than what I just mentioned. She certainly did spend a lot of time behind closed doors with her direct supervisor, though (one of those drooling middle-aged management types).

I guess "ran into" isn't really the right term. You couldn't have paid me to talk to her, but we made eye contact for long enough that I caught the "wow, she's lost weight!" once-over she gave me. And it wasn't a congratulatory look. Heh!

So it was nice that I had on makeup, my hair was fixed and I was wearing decent clothes.

Right now, it's equally nice that I'm in my Pepto-pink footie pajamas with the monkeys all over them. Off to bed.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Twitch

I have NOTHING TO DO. All week long.

Well, I have lots of housework I could be doing. But we all know how that works.

I'm not doing well with this whole nothing-to-do thing. It's not even that I'm bored - I'm all jittery, like I've had too much coffee (which I haven't). I'm totally restless, and in one of those moods where you just want to scream for no reason. I really, really want to get out of the house, but to do that I'd have to get myself all presentable, and if I bother with THAT, I'm far less likely to run. And if I don't run today, I'll have to do it tomorrow, and today is really better. Besides, I NEED to run. Six miles will expend just about the right amount of energy, and get me all noodly and relaxed instead of jittery and tightly wound. It will use up some time, too, and afterward I can take a nice long soak in my tub. I'll feel much better after that...everything will fall into place after a run and a soak in the tub, I know. I'll be way more centered. But I have S for probably about the next 3 hours, until The Ex picks him up.

So I have to wait.

What on earth do I do with myself in the meantime? I cleaned out and reorganized my closet yesterday. Today I've scrubbed the kitchen and done laundry. Maybe my dresser drawers? Bleh.

One thing is for sure...I'm not cut out for the stay-at-home domestic goddess thing. It hasn't even been a week since I've been done with school, and most of my days have been filled up since then. I've lasted LESS THAN A DAY not having anything going on.

How sad is that? I ask you.

Friday, December 12, 2008

In the News

Bettie Page has died. You know, 1950s pinup queen extraordinaire? Black hair? Bangs? I know several of you might not agree with me, but I think she was absolutely fabulous, and I'm truly sorry to hear of her passing. She's proof of the often-used "well-behaved women rarely make history" quote.

It seems that they've also possibly found Caylee Anthony. It also seems that right about the time she WAS being found, J and I were discussing why she hasn't been found. I couldn't figure it out...hiding a body is easy, but hiding a body well is not (no, I don't know this from personal experience, but I am enough of a true crime buff to understand how difficult it is to successfully commit murder). As far as I was concerned, that mother of hers is too much of a twit to be able to hide a body well. Then J pointed out that they do, after all, live in Florida, with swampland and gators and whatnot. Point taken. It would be relatively easy to hide a body well in Florida. You'd pretty much just have to put it somewhere secluded enough to give the local flora and fauna enough time to do what comes naturally.

Seems the mother is an even bigger twit than I thought, though, if it does turn out to be Caylee (which, come on, is there ANYONE who thinks it isn't?). First of all...a plastic bag? Seriously?! Second of all...putting the bag in a place where it was known that she used to hang out with all the other twits she went to high school with?

Twit.

I hope all of this doesn't sound too cavalier. I haven't lost sight of the fact that this is a little girl - a beautiful, precious little girl who deserved so much better than what she got. Even so, I hope it is her, if for no other reason than to give her grandparents some peace and some answers.