Oh. Right. Monday.

Nothing much this week. I'm planning to turtle extensively for a little while, and hopefully reemerge feeling human at some point.

My Olympic knitting? Yeah, it goes slowly. This picture shows about 1.5 hours of work. Just the knitting, just this bit. Those 1.5 hours don't include the swatching, measuring, pattern-combing, plotting, calculations, ripping out, other attempts... none of that. Just this bit. 1.5 hours. The increase patterns are insane, but they're all I've found that will look good and lay flat(ish). Never again, NEVER AGAIN does Deb get to dictate exactly what she wants in a knitted item.


I no longer worry that I was setting the bar too low by choosing just this hat for my project.

Question 18

If you live in Maine, VOTE tomorrow! NO on 1!


Live in Washington? VOTE tomorrow! YES on 71!

There is no valid reason to legislate inequality, or to overturn legislation which prevents it.

18) Which is my favorite Harry Potter book?
a) One
b) Two
c) Three
d) Five
e) Six

I have no content this week. I tried all weekend to think of some, but I couldn't. What I have instead is whining. Aren't you lucky?

• I have a 1 to 2-page paper to write for class today. The class at 2 p.m. I haven't even started yet. There are 10 questions I need to answer in this paper, and I have all the answers written down and organized. I've had that part done since last Monday. By the time I answer those questions, I'll probably need to shrink my font size to make it fit on 2 pages. All weekend, this paper has been hanging over my head, dripping big glops of doom onto my head. But I can not get it started. Why is this paper kicking my ass?
  

• My mother is home already. She Will. Not. Stop. Talking. To. Me. Whyyyyyyyyyy? She knows I'm trying to finish this blasted paper.
  

• I haven't started NaNo yet, and my plot/idea has fled.

• There's a thing about the blogs I've been reading this week that I want to whine about, but I can't figure out how to say it. You can thank me later.

• It has been over 18 months since I've had a hug. This is not right.
  

Answer to Question 18: Book 3 is my favorite. Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and early enough that the government isn't so blatantly evil? Yes please!

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

Blogs

Yes, this post is a week eight days late. Let me distract you with pretty pictures.





Both pictures are from here. This is another of the several new blogs I've found lately. I haven't finished all of the archives yet, and sadly The Other Andrew is no longer writing, but I've still got over a year's worth of entries to keep me happy. And a list of blogs to check out after that.

In case you're interested, I've now read all of the archives of Ted's, Mel's, Kenny's, Chris's, and Paul's blogs. I finished James's, which I mentioned starting last time. Oh, and I've read a blog by another Chris as well, about coming out at age 48. I've enjoyed reading all of the blogs (or I wouldn't have done it), but this Chris writes about parts of my life. There are a jillion differences between us, really obvious ones (I'm not a gay man, for instance.) and more subtle ones (I'd never have had the courage to come out in his situation, no matter how soul-destroying it would be to continue to deny such a large part of myself.) that a lot of people don't necessarily know about me. But some of his posts articulate things in my life that I'd never say, don't even like to think about. Like his post about the holidays. If you read it, don't forget that my birthday is right after the New Year. Four kicks for me.

It's been a hard couple of weeks. Maybe I'll post more about it later, and maybe I won't. It probably wouldn't be much fun for you to read anyway. Some school stuff, some crap with my sister, and some of it's just the ever-decreasing amount of daylight around here. I hate -- HATE -- knowing that things are going to get worse before they get better. H.A.T.E. But at least knowing that means that I won't have to wonder what's happening, what's wrong with me. I guess that's an improvement. Have to believe that it is.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some blog archives to escape into.
(Yes, KD, you were very, very right about that. Even though I hadn't put two and two together yet.)

Question 16

Yes, I'm late again. I apologise. It completely slipped my mind yesterday that it was Friday. I finally remembered when I was heading to bed at about 1 a.m., so I guess I can honestly say today.

16) How many companies have I worked for since leaving school?
a) Four
b) Six
c) Seven
d) Eight
e) Ten

I have no knitting photo (again) this week. Instead, let me distract you with a picture of Lilac in her cat bed. She is scrupulous in upholding her reputation as our princess cat, so she will not lie in the bed unless it is placed on the couch.


Yes, it has a padded base and a coordinating pillow on top of that. Princess.

I suppose that I should post a photo of Spare, for equal time and all, but I don't really have one. This is because I don't like her much and she returns the favor. The only time I think she looks at all cute is when she's cuddled into her cat tent -- at the far end of the laundry room (which is at the opposite corner of the house from the room I'm usually in).



Oops, that's Lilac again. She's not a fan of flash photography. :)

Nothing exciting has really happened this week. I ended up ditching my HIT class on Wednesday because I couldn't find parking that was within walking distance (for me), even with my parking permit. Anatomy ... continues to try my patience. The good news is that he handed out practice midterms for us, and I got an 87% on it. Even though I haven't read several of the chapters yet, and we haven't even had lecture on 2 of the organ systems that will be on there. (The midterm is on 10/14.)

I also tried to go to the zoo on Thursday. I used to love going to the zoo. I've been a member (myself or on my parents' membership) since 1979. There were some years when I went about twice a month. Now, with the walking & breathing, I haven't been there in years. I went to their website a couple of months ago and discovered that they now have ECVs (Electronic Convenience Vehicles) available to rent, and I got all excited. Unfortunately, even though I'm under the weight limit, I can't fit into/onto the seat. The handlebars and controls are too close. I wish I'd known that before I got there. It was quite the disappointment.

On a brighter note, I've found another knitting blog that I enjoy. QueerJoe's actually been blogging since 2002, but I have spent large periods of time residing under various rocks, so I never got over there until very recently. I'm in the process of reading all of his archives, and am now up to 11/26/07. I am, perhaps, unreasonably excited by the knowledge that I own the same color of Malabrigo Laceweight Merino that he bought back then. (He knits with the most beautiful color combinations.)

Answer to Question 16: Eight. I'm not going to list them by name in case of future Googling. By description, they're as follows: (1) a department store outlet, (2) an answering service, (3) an office temp company, (4) a steel grating manufacturer, (5) another office temp company, (6) a data entry company, (7) the same office temp company as #5, so it doesn't count towards the total, (8) a real estate title insurance company, (9) #5 AGAIN, and (10) a car dealership. Ten jobs, eight companies.


These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

Question 14

14) I am a good liar.
a) True
b) False

I think I'm going to start doing my blog posts on Fridays. I mean officially. I thought that Thursday would still be okay, since I don't have classes. However, my classes on Wednesday go for long enough that I'm usually a bit (or more than a bit) wiped out, and then I spend most of Thursday recovering and not thinking too much. So Friday it is. At least until these next 23 class days are done.

Hmmm? What's that? I wasn't counting down, you say? Well, tough. I am now. I was going to count down by weeks, but because of the way some days off fall, that makes it sound worse (12 weeks, plus finals) than it really is (23 classes, plus finals). Okay, not much worse, but still worse.

This Wednesday, my afternoon class (HIT - Health Info Technology) was as bad as my A&P class, and that's saying something. We were supposed to have a computer-based lab, and getting proper access set up for all 15 students (the prof never did get her own set up) took the first 1.5 hours of the class. Not the prof's fault, since apparently someone on the IT end at the service that hosts the labs didn't get the permissions set up properly. However, it was still really annoying. That's also the class that we had a test in on Monday. When we got to the lab, we were told that we'd have to retake the test this coming Monday because there'd been 2 Question 24s on the test, and someone had (against the prof's instructions) answered them both, throwing off all the rest of their answers, etc. The usual ScanTron problem. I was appalled, but most of the class seemed excited by the prospect of improving their scores. I guess I was one of the few who was satisfied to start with. But then the prof decided to just drop that test from the possible points for the course. I guess that's marginally better than having to retake the test, but I'm still a bit irked. All that studying for nothing. Oh well.

A&P was just its usual frustrating self, complete with Doritos chick fondling her Doritos bag. I promise you, that's the most innocuous word for her actions that I can possibly come up with. She reminds me a bit of Dr. Evil stroking his cat. But louder. And more annoying.

My computer class remains my favorite of this semester. That's probably due in large part to the fact that it's online, so I never have to meet my classmates. I really expected to be frustrated by this class more than by the others, since this is one of those required-for-my-degree classes that covers really boring stuff. In fact, part of one of our assignments was to write an introduction including our reason for taking the class, and every single one of us is taking it because it's required for some degree or another. Not one person mentioned anything about being interested in the subject matter. But it's my favorite class at this point. *rolls eyes*

In non-school whining, I had my 6-month check-up this week, and got a flu shot. Apparently I was also due for a tetanus booster. The appointment was on Tuesday. There's still a lump on my arm, and it's still rating somewhere between sore and outright painful. Stupid tetanus.

Trying to move away from whining altogether, my mom and sister got home from vacation last Sunday. They brought all kinds of northern Wisconsin goodies with them: bran muffins, cashew turtles and brittle from a wonderful candy shop, cheese, sausage, etc. I asked my sister to bring me some soap from Gitchee Gumee Soap Company in Bayfield, but she hasn't given me any. I hope she's just saving it for Christmas.

No knitting pictures because no knitting has been accomplished. I really need to find a way to study and knit at the same time, since I've got a lot of yarn to knit up for Warm Woolies by the end of November. And, of course, November is NaNoWriMo, so I'd really like to finish the knitting before it starts.

Answer to Question 14: I say True. When my sister took the quiz, she said that she can always tell when I'm lying, but that she thought my answer was true anyway. I think that, if she can always tell, she's remarkably adept at not indicating it, but perhaps that's beside the point. If nothing else, I'm wonderful at lying to myself, so it's true on that score. I do try not to lie to people who matter to me. It's just that some people who don't matter too much (people like co-workers who I used to see once a week, or fellow students in one of my classes whose names I haven't even been told) seem to think that they should matter a lot.

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

All Right, What's Next?

This is not my weekend.

Erin, the other part-time cashier/receptionist at my dealership is in a wedding today, so I was planning to work both shifts. I got up at 4 a.m., dragged through my morning routine with lots of sore muscles and aching joints because of the fall yesterday, and headed off into (okay, technically away from) the sunrise. When I was about 5 minutes from the building, my cell phone rang -- unusual in and of itself, but particularly so early. It was Erin, and she was calling to tell me that the service manager had just called her and said that the service advisor who opened today called him (Is anyone else reminded of junior high here?) to say that all of the managers from the other store were there, and they were taking all of the new and used cars, and apparently they're closing our dealership. Oh. This should be interesting.

I continued to work, figured I'd at least find out the official version. Cursed a lot in my head about that 4 a.m. wake-up call for nothing. When I got there, I found out that they wanted me to work until 11, basically answering the phone and telling people to go to the other store. After half an hour or so, they decided that I should call all of the customers who had left cars at our location for service and tell them that they'd have to pick up their vehicles at the other store. You know what? Absolutely none of those customers were happy to hear that. Most of them stopped yelling at me when I explained that I had arrived at work and been told that we were closing, and that I would have loved to have given them more notice, because that would have meant that I'd had, yunno, ANY. One didn't, but I think I'd woken him up. Maybe he's always grumpy in the mornings.

So this weekend officially sucks. And now I get to launch a job hunt. J.O.Y.

Well, Blast!

I want an attached garage.

This is not a new want. I've thought for years that it would be nice to have a garage that's closer to the house, so it wouldn't be so far to carry things. Attached would be wonderful so that it wouldn't be quite so cold or so hot on the way to the car. So I wouldn't get rained or snowed on. Basically, I wanted one because I was lazy.

Well, okay, maybe the lazy still applies a little bit.

I fell again tonight, because it was raining hard when I got home. Rather than spend the night in my car in the garage, I chose to walk to the house. In retrospect, this may not have been my brightest moment. Balance is never my strong suit, but when it's raining hard enough that not only are my shoes slipping on the sidewalk/driveway/porch/lawn, my feet are also slipping around inside my shoes, things do not go well. My cane was steady on the ground (non-slip tip -- truth in advertising FTW!), but the manufacturer never claimed that the handle would be equally steady in my hand. Rats. Insult to injury (however minor): I didn't fall until I was taking the final step into the house. In my defense, opening the door did not magically dry my feet, shoes, porch, cane, or hand, and there's actually a fairly steady fall of water through a poorly designed roof/gutter join right over the door. However.

The good news is that I think I'm only going to lose half of a toenail this time, and a good whack off the tip of the one that got ripped off last September and had nearly grown back completely. I've also got two cuts and a bunch of scrapes, but that's it. Not even any bruises. Well, okay, a bunch of banged up places that will probably still be sore for a few days, too. Anyway, it could be much worse.

But I'm still sick of the can't-walk-well thing.

Silence

"Dark have been my dreams of late." -- Theoden

That quote explains quite clearly the blog silence for the past couple of weeks. I've been knitting things that are secret/surprise gifts, so I can't post about that. Work is normally so boring that it's of no use as blog fodder. (Although I am pleased that the dealership where I work is not one of the ones that's being forced to close, the other two dealerships owned by "my" auto group are on that black list, so who knows what's going to happen as they scramble to consolidate positions and job descriptions?)

My mom and sister are on vacation right now -- at this moment I believe they're still on their whale watching cruise out of Port Angeles, WA. That's been another fun thing lately -- explaining to all who ask (and they all ask!) why I'm not going with them. Vacations/trips used to be something I lived for. As soon as I returned from one, I was planning the next. Getting over that is proving to be more difficult than I'd like.

Oh, and I might be becoming more proof that anxiety frequently goes with depression. For example, since I'm home alone for 10 days, I've got my cell phone within 3 feet of me at all times, just in case I fall and break a leg or something. What fun! [/sarcasm] It turns out that I internalized a lot more of the "Ella's so stupid, always nervous about everything. And lazy! Depressed. Hmph. She should just snap out of it." comments about my grandmother (that I'm sure I wasn't really supposed to hear when I was a child) than I'd realized. Fun again! Joy and rapture even.

Oh. Um. [/sarcasm] Again. No, I mean it this time. See? I've stopped typing.

I'm doing you a favor, really!

I have a cold. There are few things on this earth that make me more whiny than having a cold. Seriously. I've been trying to think of something to write about, and every idea I've had has been so full of whining and self-pity that I can't make myself finish typing it out, much less summon the will to ask you to read it. Therefore, I will post again when I'm well. Or at least better. Or less whiny.

Besides, you should all be busy reading this.



The latest book by Lois McMaster Bujold. The fourth (and final *sniff*) book in her Sharing Knife series. Fawn and Dag take on... Well, I'm not going to actually post spoilers. But you should read it. And the rest of the series. And her Vorkosigan books. And the Chalion books. Seriously good book(s).

Where do my weekends go? I've been trying to post every Thursday or Friday (my weekend. Weekend = 2 consecutive days off), but I keep looking at my blog late on Saturday night and realizing that I've missed my deadline again.

So anyway, I've been trying to think of something to write this week. I don't really have any knitting pictures to show you, since all I'm working on at the moment is a slightly longer version of the scarf I already posted last week. I was thinking about doing some sort of anti-holiday post, trying to explain why I dislike this time of year, but that seems unkind -- like I want the rest of you to be miserable, too. (My sister and I have decided that I'm naturally green, like Oscar and the Grinch. I've just got some really good pink-skin make-up or something.) Besides, OneSweetTart just posted one that's really good, much more comprehensive than mine would have been, and which includes personal experiences of friends/co-workers of hers who are also non-Christians. So for non-Christmas stuff, I direct you there.

However, I think I will post about my new shoes. I love my new shoes.
Last year, I looked at the Mammoth Crocs, but I thought that the fleece lining would be too hot. Well, I admit that I do sometimes take them off when I'm at work, but I do that with all my shoes, so I'm not sure it counts. But they're nice and toasty when I'm wading through snow, and my feet don't get wet (unless I don't kick the snow off of them before getting into the car and turning the heater on). They've got better traction than regular Crocs, and the slightly higher heel cup really helps with stability, too. Basically, YAY! and Why Didn't I Buy Them Last Year???

I hope everyone is having a good solstice -- it's very sunny here, which is appropriate and ironic at the same time. And Merry Christmas to those of you who will be joyfully celebrating later this week. (Keep your chin up! and *hugs* to others who will be "celebrating," but not so joyfully.)

"Nice" and "Ninety?"

No no no no no. "Nice" and "ninety" absolutely do not belong in the same sentence. Well, maybe if you're talking about a person who's ninety. Or a tree. Or ... well, I suppose there are a few possibilities. But I categorically refuse to concede that they ever belong in the same sentence that is describing the weather.

The weather guy on the radio this morning had the audacity to tell me, "It's going to be nice today, in the low nineties." On my way home from work, the weather chick was burbling on about the "beautiful" weather, and then read off a whole string of ninety-plus degree temperatures. I know that neither of them are meteorologists. (It's a dead giveaway when they can't pronounce things like "hurricane" or "cumulus" correctly.) However, I really expect more intelligence than that, no matter what their educational background.

You know, I'm as fond of alliteration as the next person, maybe more fond. But no one needs to natter on about nice nineties. Never.

Clearly I need to move farther north. That's not really an option at the moment, but it's definitely something I'm keeping in mind if the opportunity ever presents itself.

Ninety. Ugh.

Country Music

You know, it's probably not a good thing when a Brad Paisley song sounds like your life. I was listening to his Part II CD tonight ... for several reasons, none of which were a burning desire to hear any of the songs on this CD. And I realized that the chorus to one of his songs fits my life quite well at the moment.

Of course, the rest of the song's about wanting to get back together with his girlfriend, which doesn't apply nearly so much.

"Two Feet of Topsoil" chorus
There's two feet of topsoil
A little bit of bedrock, limestone in between
A fossilized dinosaur
A little patch of crude oil
A thousand feet of granite underneath
Then there's me.