Come Together

Box by Box, it's starting to look a lot better. We can see the office floor and my bedroom floor (of course). I can even compute at my desk now. I think my favorite spot is in front of the window in the bookcase because there is a spot between the bookshelves where you could actually make a cushion and sit there, but for now it's my favorite spot to sit in front of with mackie my mac. I know. Totally unoriginal name.

So far i have survived Day one of closing week. This is a good sign because all my deadlines are on monday. Goal number two: survive night class. LOL.

I have been purusing allposters.com for art prints to hang up in my bedroom and possibly my living room. I know I want some andy warhol prints in my bedroom. I also want some buildings, sort of like my print that shows the stages of building the Eiffel Tower. As for anything else, I'm not sure, but we have a whole ton of cream colored walls to cover up.

It's kinda of weird not hanging out with my mom and the dogs as much. I have a feeling I am going to wrack a load of frequent flier miles. I am already marking things in my guidebooks.

I am reading a really awesome book by Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone writer. called Love is a Mix Tape. It is such an awesome book. I first read about it on the Pop Candy blog and liked it so much i ordered it right away from Amazon.com. Some of the playlists are pretty good, so I might download the songs. There was also some good Gilmore Girls characters playlists on cwtv.com. I just wish that they would put GG episodes on the web. I would even download from Itunes if I had to.

I am still a chick without a crochet project. I have this obscenely large pink/purple multi-colored skein from Wal-Mart that i could probably make an entire baby afghan from and I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm still kind of tired/recooperating from last week's hell week of moving/work/class/catchup, so when I'm extremely tired, I tend to read more then I crochet or knit.

Finally

We are finally moved into the new house. We are 75% unpacked. I really have no idea where all my stuff is, I just know that it is here somewhere. While I in Owasso with A my co-worker and MP my other co-worker, my dad locked both sets of keys in the house and i had the other set. I ended up coming home and not going to the community college basketball game in Coffeyville because I was just too tired to go back. I had been up since 6:30 am so that I could take some stuff over to the house before I met my co-workers in Coffeyville. My dad is voicing his opinion every five seconds so that is getting old very fast. Did I mention that I absolutely hate moving and that is why I try not to very much? Buying all that little house crap and cleaning supplies gets expensive too. It cuts into my yarn budget. LOL...

Other than the fact that I am tired and feel like a zombie things are going well, just at warp speed. It doesn't help when you work out of town and have three night classes in town.I feel like I have been moving at warp speed all week. This is the first time in weeks that I don't have a crochet project on the hook.Our internet here is super fast too. My sister and I hate slow internet so that was more imporant to us then having 6 million tv channels. We have encrypted too so people can't mooch off us.

Sunshine, you will not believe how bare our walls are. It is an ecru palace. We will have to look for wall art when I come visit and some curtains. We have COLORED MINI-BLINDS...Yikes...I haven't seen any scary neighbors yet but I think it's in the upper 20s so I might not see them for awhile.

Our House

My sister and I ended up acquiring a washer, dryer, and a fridge today at sears. It was scary spending that much money. appliances tend to last longer than boyfriends, you see. they will be delivered on friday and dad is supposed to make arrangements for the cable company to come out that day too. mom is going to stay at the house that day and wait for the people because they never come at the precise time they say they will and this is the worst week in the world for me to take time off. january always seems to be a wicked month for me. sometimes i wish all that i did was crochet and go to class, but i know i would be tired of that after the first week. i forgot to mention that gas has dropped down to 1.87 in town. that is really nice because it means i can fill up my tank for twenty bucks instead of $30 +. while i was going though my stuff and trying to pack this weekend, i found some really gems. i found my aerosmith scrapbook circa 1994. i was 14 and thought Steven Tyler was the sexiest man alive. I also thought I was bad ass. Those were the days. I also found a stack of journals from college. i might re-read some of them tonight just to see how cheesy i was.

Red scarf #2 is almost finished. i should be able to finish it monday night if i'm not stuck at work late waiting on stupid people. I would like to say that I really do love my addi hook. When this moving stuff calms down I am going to order some more.

The funny thing was that we ran into the controller at sears. he was buying a washer and dryer for his son! LOL...He's my boss' boss. What a hoot. I'm not sure that he knows about my dad's transfer yet but i bet he will monday morning during the exec staff meeting. Although, he is the type that wouldn't let on about it if he did. He is the silent observer.

So Desperate Housewives was awesome tonight. Bree totally rocked! I don't really like this whole Orson storyline but spunky Bree was shining in full glory. Brothers and Sisters was really awesome too. i would go shoe shopping any day with the senator. I am really looking forward to the return of Gilmore Girls. Grey's and Betty will be good this week too. I heart ABC.

i don't want to go to bed but i should because this week is going to totally kick my ass. one day at a time. one day at a time.

All the things that i have done

There are so many events today and so it might just be easier to make a list.

1. Since we get the house on Wednesday, my sister and i packed up a shitload of stuff. i am hoping that we are all situated by v-day but we will see.
2. THANKFULLY, we did not get the big nasty snow storm. it was too warm. we did get a little sleet that didn't really do anything.
3. Read the 4th Sisterhood of the traveling pants book. sooo good.
4.Made two funfetti cakes and one yellow cake in my easy bake oven and all three turned out really good.
5. finished winding the yarn for red scarf two.
6. mailed off a ton of stuff at the post office
7. watched a documentary segment on the discovery channel about the manufacturing of sanitary napkins. which was actually really interesting.
8. i don't like driving on slush, i prefer hard surfaces, so i really didn't go anywhere. plus we have house stuff to set up, so it was a good thing.
9. today is Baby L's first birthday. time flies by so fast.
10. i was naughty and bought three magazines at hastings friday night in preparation for the storm that didn't happen. lol.

things i need to do:
1. pack pack pack pack
2. make a list of house stuff that we will need to eventually procure
3. burn mixed cd
4. become friends with accounting textbooks. yuck
5. finish red scarf 2 so that i can start something new
6. watch how to eat fried worms.

Sunshine, i hope things are going better. i hope that you don't have any more yucky storms so that you don't have to worry about power outtages and falling trees. hopefully the weather will behave for the next month and we can see each other, cause I miss you!! i need you to help me pick out house stuff.

WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!!

In a total case of pure serendipity, my little sis found us a house to rent with a big back yard, a fence a one car garage, a black and white kitchen, bUILT iN BOOKCASES, a bathroom and some other stuff that is exciting for only $525!!! YAY!!! It's a brick house from the 50s but the owners maintain it and are really nice. We sign papers next Wednesday. Hopefully we won't get snow tomorrow so the ice crap can continue to melt off. it's on a cul-de-sac in a decent area. no psycho neighbors. my mom approves, so by god this place must be pretty special, because she is one of the pickiest people on earth.

Today was a long day at work. i did get a lot of things done, so that was nice. it is behind me now. i should be really pissed off but i've decided not to let it get to me because there are worse things in life.

i stocked up on pop. i have yarn, a spankin new easy bake oven and pop! i am disaster-prepared! tonight i shall dream of hello kitty curtains--my new bedroom is going to be phat! there will be pink and hello kitty and whatever the hell else i want in there. my red kitchen aid utensils are going to look beautiful in the kitchen. the third office/bedroom is covered with built in bookcases. totally drooling. i think this is going to be nice. the bathroom is in good condition. the carpet is newer--like a light beige/taupe and there are wood floors, so no disco shag.

anyways, i'm tired. but i will have more stuff to yak about this week. red scarf three is finished so i am winding the final skein so that i can finish red scarf number 2.

All Work and No School

I have made it into work every day this week which is nice because i need to continue to make money with the upcoming move and all. So far my tuesday and wednesday night classes have been cancelled. Most of my classmates and teachers don't necessarily live near by and a lot of them live in towns with no power due to our ice storm. I can't top the adventures that Sunshine has had during this storm. I will say this, I am busting out after work tomorrow. I need mountain dew and some other things.

Thursday, if the conditions improve, my sister is has appointments to look at a couple of rental houses for us in town. I gave her a list of things "for her consideration" since I can't be there in person to voice my opinion. My dad's promotion/transfer hasn't been announced at work yet, which is nice because i don't have people hounding me and asking me dumb questions all day. Did I mention that it was 71 degrees in Charlotte, NC when my dad talked to his new bosses down there? I don't mind cold weather but I get cranky when I can't shop.

My skein of Cascade 220 persimmion arrived in the mail today so I will be able to Red Scarf #2 this weekend. I am starting to become concerned that I will not have enough to finish Red Scarf #3. This is why I shouldn't be conservative in my yarn expenditures. I am still debating on what I will crochet for Little S' wedding present. I can't decide if I'm disciplined enough to make an afghan, and if I finished it, I would not want to give away my first one. So I am still looking at patterns.

Boston Legal was awesome tonight too. James Spader cracks me up still. Denny Crane.

Boxes Boxes Everywhere

You know when you get to the point in a major purge/house cleaning where the donation and trash bag piles are so big you don't have room to really sort any more? Well, we are nearing that point rapidly. Due to the lovely ice storm I couldn't go to the post office or Goodwill to send off some of this stuff. I just got my car back from the damage that crazy lady did, I really don't want another insurance claim. My sister and i don't really have that much stuff, just too much for our tiny rooms. A lot of it is dishes and household stuff from dorm life in college that we wanted to keep for this very time. We are getting a set of dishes and matching mixing bowls from my mom. We honestly really wanted her set with the avocado daisy-like flowers on it. They are retro cool. Most of my trinkets and picture frames are boxed up now. I kept some stuff on the walls because I HATE NAKED WALLS....My sister and i also went through my sock drawer and matched up all of my socks. I didn't have any orphan socks either!

I am sneezing like crazy too. I had to dust stuff as I was packing it up. We ran out of bubble wrap so all those t-shirts I saved for sentimental purposes are great for wrapping up picture frames and other breakables.

I have started Red Scarf #3 but progress is slow because I have been cleaning like a mad woman. Thank god we taped Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. I need something to entertain me while I am sorting.

Packed Ice

Well, my area got close to two inches of ice pellets. I went out to the mailbox and the grass was frozen so hard you could walk on top of it. Any concrete is solid snow packed ice. It all stopped some time last night but until we make it above 30 degrees it will be a hockey rink outisde.

This weather makes it perfect for packing. Gee Shoegirl, why do you have to pack? Well, my dad accepted a promotion/transfer to Charlotte, North Carolina. He starts February 1st and will be flying back and forth the next couple of months. My parents have to hear back from the relocation specialist first, but it looks like april and may will be house selling time. My sis and I have jobs here and i'm so close to finishing school that we are going to get a cute little rental house here. My sister's friend S is going to be our realtor because she has mega knowledge of the decent rental houses in town. S's husband is an assistant manager at a local liquor store in town so he is going to set aside boxes from their shipment on Tuesday for us. Liqour boxes are small and sturdy and are awesome for moving your shit with out breaking your back. Our goal is to be moved out by March so that we can be settled in and it will make it easier to show the house and clean carpets and stuff. It was our idea, our parents aren't kicking us out or anything like that.

My mom, my sister and I went through all the movies and split them apart. Holy cow! I could operate my own video store. We have at least two plastic tubs full to donate to the library sales and three huge bags of books too. We don't believe in garage sales, we think that they are tortuous to put on. At some point I need to empty out my dresser so that mom and i can glue the drawers back together, some of them have really loose joints (it was my mom's first dresser when she moved out of her parent's house in the 70s).

Let's just say I could use a week long stay at a knitting spa. I have my Annie smile on though. Change is good.

Random Thoughts Tuesday

I forgot to mention that in the blur of it all, the "Gulf of Mexico" scarf was finished. It's made out of two of the other skeins of SWTC Karaoke that my little sis bought me for Christmas. I love soy/silk/wool blends. They are awesome. I went to my first class tonight of the semester. believe, there is nothing exciting about NFP/GOVT accounting. Yuck. But the professor is one of my favorites so I know he will do his best to make it entertaining. I stayed up very late last night to read Without You by Anthony Rapp. It was so good. He starred in a lot of my favorite movies growing up and hello, he played Mark in RENT. That's like cool points times infinity. anyways, his autobiography was awesome and parts of it moved me to tears. It has been awhile since I have read a decent autobiography. I will definitely be re-reading it over and over. I also starting reading the Al Gore book, An Inconvient Truth. Also very good from a environmental science-y standpoint. Al Gore makes environmental issues accessible and breaks them down in a way that the average person can understand. I have not started any new crochet projects yet because I am waiting for pay day so I can order yarn to finish red scarf #2 and I am trying to figure out what to make for the celebration discussed below.

I also received a save the date card from Little S. She is marrying J on May 26th. I am excited about this wedding because I think the two of them are good together and have an equal relationship. Since she is the one who taught me how to crochet, and founded "crochet sweatshop (this is meant in a positive light)" I think it would be fitting if I crocheted an afghan for them. M thinks that is crazy. If she devoted 1/4 of the time she spent on lousy sex to things like career, crochet or friends I think she would be a much happier person. I think this is possible because I have realized that if you just do a few rows everyday while watching tv, or while you are waiting on carpool, you can make a lot of progress. That's how I've been able to make so many hats and scarves recently. So I thought, hell if I can do that surely I could finish a nice afghan by May 26th. Anyways, i had no intentions of talking to M tonight, but she calls me after class and is all like how come you haven't called me. I was just like you have a phone too. Why should I have to use all my minutes on someone who doesn't even act interested half the time in conversation because she is either getting ready for one of her hook ups or watching tv while on the phone. If you don't really want to have a conversation, then don't call me.

Anyways, I didn't talk too long cause she was just making me annoyed and I was not about to miss one second of the new boston legal tonight. so I gave her a taste of her own medicine and told her that i had to go because boston legal was going to be on in five minutes. Seriously, people that show is one of the current highlights of my week. Plus, William Shatner was playing a trombone shaped kazoo! It had a moveable slide! How freaking cool is that!!!????

By the way, I am an awful musical afficiando. I forgot to wish Elvis a Happy Birthday yesterday. Happy Belated Birthday Elvis! You still rock!

Anyways, those are my rants and raves for the day. I am going to take some allegra-d so that i can peacefully sleep and be able to breathe out of my congested nose in the morning. I am also going to read some more since i have purchased several books over the holidays and reading more frequently is on my "Be the Change" list of resolutions.

Warm Fuzzies

Just after Christmas I had sent off two boxes of yarn, hooks, needles and knitting magazines and leaflets. I sent off my doubles, the ones I knew I wasn't going to make anything out of to this really awesome organization called Warm the World in Colorado. They have some really cool outreach programs and other organizations that they help and just reading about their accomplishments gave me a good feeling. So I stuffed two flat rate boxes full of goodies and I encluded some fairly recent knitting magazines because I know they aren't cheap and most people probably don't think to donate things like that or won't part with them. They were happy to receive them too. I see it as part of my "Be the Change" resolution for this year. Knitting and crochet make me extremely happy so if i can turn that into good works for others, that makes it even better.

Today at work was kind of yucky. The stress level around me is awful. I bet if someone took the blood pressure of everyone in the department we would all probably flunk except for the payroll clerk and myself, because we are young and fun and sometimes we just shut the door and laugh until we are about to cry.

On the upside when I finally came home from work, there was the nice e-mail from Warm the World. I was very relieved that my boxes made it to them and weren't buried in a snow pile. I received a Christmas present from my aunt E. She sent me a diamond heart necklace, a really awesome three strand heart necklace from AMERICAN EAGLE and a $50 giftcard to Wal-Mart. I can afford a tiny bit of caffeine now!!!! Yay. The books I ordered from BN came as well. I must say the pictures and stories in the Al Gore book are just breaktaking (this also follows my theme too) and I will probably stay up very late reading parts of his book and the autobiography of Anthony Rapp (one of the stars of RENT!!!). A-dolly's Easy Bake Oven Gourmet Cookbook also arrived and their is a bourbon chocolate birthday cake recipe in it. Oops! Lol...When I agreed to be her fairy godmother, I never promised to teach her about morals.

Night night...

Food

So I got up early this morning and met J in Owasso for a little Starbucks and Tar-jay. Tar-jay had one Kitchen Aid spatula left, which was good because they didn't have any at Linens n' things but i did get a new cookie sheet. My sister got pampered chef ones at a teacher party but they are stone and there's all these rules about cleaning them. I had a 20 % coupon so I got your basic wilton cookie sheet. I got the cutest wash cloth at Tar-jay that is pink and has rows of different colored hearts. It's adorable!!! I also found a copy of Gregory Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister on clearance for THREE DOLLARS!!! I about died! It is one of my favorites and usually it is $12-15 in paperback. I think it was returned because there was some mark on it but it wasn't missing pages so I was like hell yeah! Very good deals. Then I went home and I ended up going to Garfield's to have lunch with S. He always complains because we never hang out but he says that he wants to and usually flakes out on me. Lol. Why do all of my flaky friends live in town and my good ones all live out of state?

I can't believe that I actually start classes again on Tuesday. Wow. I told my sister she has to give me back my calculator for class. She has one, it's just buried somewhere in her room.

I got a phone call from Aunt D this afternoon. A-dolly received the little Easy Bake Oven cookbook that I had put together for her. Apparently she made Aunt D read all the recipes to her out loud last night and she carries it with her eveywhere. She has already tried out two of the recipes. I couldn't believe how many recipes were out there on the internet, and they use common incredients and small amounts, Much more afforable then the $5-6 mixes that they sell in the store. I might suck at cooking but I am good with computers and I can make pretty things. It's my way of being in her life since we live in two different states. Hopefully I will get to visit them in March maybe over Spring Break. I miss A-dolly. She is just little Miss Sunshine. DISCLAIMER: All this gushing still does not make me want to have my own. I am happy just to be fairy godmother to A-dolly and L.

At Last!!!!

I GOT MY CAR BACK!!!!!! HAPPY DANCE HAPPY DANCE HAPPY DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited? We got the call at work today so we left a little early. It is shiny and better than new. They put this shiny stuff called wax on it and my Subaru freaking sparkles now. I don't think my car has seen wax since 2003. The body shop did a fantastic job....Two thumbs way up to them.

I paid the big nasty tuition bill today. I survived the baby shower. It was basically a foodfest and watch her open up presents so that was good.

Seriously guys you can't smack the grin off my face. I didn't realize how emotionally attached I was to her until she had to go to the shop. Huge relief. I don't have to borrow cars or beg for rides. Reunited just in time for school to start next week too. YAY!!

Last night's Ugly Betty was pretty good. I can totally relate to Betty on many levels. A new purse always makes me feel beautiful. I also received the new Lion Brand Yarn Catalog in the mail today. I was seriously impressed. They have some really cool crochet afghan patterns that I could actually make (and want to).

YAY!!!!

Edit: I just finished the Rainbow scarf. How awesome is that! I think I am going to make another one with the other two skeins of SWTC Karaoke that my sister gave me for xmas with the other addi hook that i bought that has gold glitter inside of it. Can we say sparkle hook? I am very proud of myself for crocheting from my stash and i didn't even have to join a group to motivate me.

Make that a Double Expresso, please.

This was a two doubleshot Expresso day. We had to start the process of closing the December books the day we came back from over a week of Christmas vacation. My stuff was going fine but because two of my co-workers were up shit creek and couldn't row themselves out, I had to bail them out at my boss' request on top of my jam-packed day. See all my deadines are on the first day of closing the books and then i am done except for doing my reports. What really hacked me off is that these two co-workers snuck off for a 1 1/2 hour lunch in the midst of it all. It's okay to take a long lunch every once in awhile, but don't do it during closing week when you can't meet your deadlines. Lazy bitches piss me off! I made sure to inform my boss that I met all my deadlines today. I am also very glad that there are only two more days left in the week. .

Okay, so I am calming down. I am done venting. I am listening to Three Little Birds by Bob Marley, and if that song doesn't give you some calm vibes than I don't know what does. My snoopy checks arrived in the mail today just in time to pay tuition on Friday. Lol...the irony of that.

I started a skinny Rainbow scarf last night. My sister bought me 4 skeins of Karaoke by SWTC in two different colorways. This yarn is 50% soy silk and 50 % wool and it feels heavenly. The two skeins that I am using for this scarf are color #298 which translates to dark rainbow colors, there is some deep navy blue and indigo purple that makes it look more manly than some of the other Rainbow scarves I have crocheted. I am using my new favorite Addi hook for this one too.

Sunshine, I totally feel your car pain. Cars suck right now. I'm so glad that you received your surprise (perfect timing too!). Spoiling you is fun and it makes me happy. Plus, we needed the turner so we could have more cooking adventures.

Boring Day

Well work on Red Scarf #2 has come to a standstill. Lol. I underestimated how much yarn and I would need and the additional skein hasn't arrived yet. So, I was going to make something with my hank of Lisa Souza yarn. I don't have a ball winder or a handy yarn swift, and in my true nature, I was on the home stretch of winding it into a ball and turned it into a bit of a mess at the end. It is possible to fix, however, I have decided to wait to finish fixing it. My sister went back to work and my dad disappeared for the day ( i assure you this is completely normal so my mom and I were stuck at the house all day. I made a lot of progress working on #2 while watching former President Ford's funeral.

I am sort of happy I am going back to work tomorrow but I am not excited about closing December's books when I get there. It is probably the most stressful closing week out of the year and I am sure I will have a bunch of e-mails with stupid people questions when i return. However, I would like to make some money, so I will gladly show up. Because today was a government day of morning, I also couldn't go in and make my tuition payment either so I will have to go in late to work on Friday and pay it.

I don't know, this was just a boring day. I did watch some episodes of Boston Legal today. My sister brought home her labelmaker tonight so I was able to label my notebooks for my classes this semester in the hopes of bringing the right one to class. Lol. Each class is on a different night, T, W, and R, so it will be another semester of taping shows.

Flat on My Face

So it is Day one of 2007. I overslept until 9am and almost missed the Rose Bowl Parade pre-parade show. Then my mom fell asleep and overcooked the roast beef (which I didn't know she was even making cause i was asleep too). So she sent my sister and I out to the grocery store to get some beef gravy to compensate for the dryness. Well, we didn't make it out of the garage without catastrophe. It was all my fault. I am a complete moron. In my defense, I virtually only drive my beloved Subaru Forrester. Apparently, when I drove my sister's honda civic to pick up the pizza last night, i forgot to turn off the lights. The forrester's lights automatically turn off when you turn the car off because it has daytime running lights. IF i regularly drove the civic I would remember to turn the lights off. Anyways, we had to tell my dad because we had no idea how to jump a car, or whether the jumper cables would be in the garage. Alpha male (dad) + alpha female (me) = bad because he just would not shut up about the fact that I ACCIDENTLY left the lights on. He's done way more dumb things to our vehicles. Anyways, we jumped the civic, it's recharged and i will always know how to jump a battery for as long as i shall live. I MISS MY CAR!!!!!!!

The Rose Bowl Parade was awesome. There was sunny weather, storm troopers, Oklahoma Centennial floats, Kristen Chenoweth, Imperial Fighters and freaking 6 foot tall roses. On the Oklahoma Rising float, a real-live Rocket Man flew out of the birthday cake on the float. He was airborne for like 30 seconds and it was freaking awesome!!!! Of course there was some damn good marching bands, cause that's why I really watch the parade. My mom and I even watched the Rose Bowl game this evening. USC beat Michigan (i'm an iowa fan so i refuse to root for Michigan because they are a big rival, but i don't like USC at all either). We just watched the 2nd half which is when most of the action happened anyways. I was working on Red Scarf #2 while watching, cause we all know that I can't sit still. It is 16 inches long and the average adult scarf is 60 inches. I'm getting there. It would go faster but I am a bit of a perfectionist, i have to count the stitches in each row twice after I finish a row so that i know for sure that each row has an even 23 stitches. It's my ocd/accounting side. I am loving how easy it is to crochet with Cascade 220. It lends itself very well to the hook.The shade of red I am using is the color of Mister Rogers' cardigan. Lol. Don't you love my technical terms?

I was semi-naughty and ordered two Easy Bake Oven cookbooks for A-dolly online this morning. See, my A-dolly loves her new Easy Bake Oven, and cooking is a very useful educational tool for children because you can teach math, science and social skills in the process. Since I am her official fairy godmother, I am responsible for her education, especially her arts education and she is the heir to my throne after all. So I found two of them online and ordered them for her. I also found some free recipes by doing a google search (i loooove google) and put them into a little booklet for her. It's sad, A-dolly has more cooking skills than I do. LOL...Maybe I should have added that to my resolutions.

In my defense, i used the remainder of my gift card and since my debit card is a mastercard I got to use the $10 off promotion from Barnes and Noble. So basically, my order was 50% off. YAY for me! This order also included Anthony Rapp's new autobiography about RENT and other life experiences and since I'm a bleeding heart liberal, I ordered Al Gore's latest book about the environment called An Inconvient Truth. I've read excerpts and it sounds very interesting. I just like to read about everything. I like science, just not as a profession. I leave that part to my sister the physical science teacher.

By the way Sunshine, after I got off the phone with you, M called. She's started off the new year with a bang, to say the least. Rolls her eyes big time. I felt like Emily Dickinson after I got off the phone with her. Boo to her, props to you for starting a blog, I think that's awesome.

Based on my experiences today, I have decided that my official theme for 2007 will be Alanis Morrisette's cover of Crazy, which was originally made famous by Seal. I originally heard this version when I was hanging out with Sunshine before break and then I was watching The Devil Wears Prada yesterday and this version is on the soundtrack. I like both versions of the song, but Alanis' version brings a certain element of girl power to it.

New Year's Eve Organization

Yup. I'm an organizing bandit. I created new file folders for all my "important papers" and it's all happily filed in one box instead of in multiple places. I have outgrown the shoe box method. It works for temporary saving but not for long-term purposes. Plus, how I am I ever going to convince Sunshine that filing and organization are great, unless I lead by example? Plus, there is a high possibility that my father might get transfered, so I could be moving later on this year.

I made another Dulaan hat today. I am now working on a baby camo hat for Hunter, Y's new baby. Y is a family friend that lives in Wisconsin and she had a baby boy named Hunter in August. It was one of those Christmas card surprises and mom talked to Y's mom who happens to be her best friend so we are making a box of baby things to send to her and since he's named Hunter, I decided to make a baby camo hat because Wisconsin is cold as hell and they actually get snow up there where they live.

E invited me to a last minute party that her and her husband decided to throw, but I politely declined saying that I had a previous engagement. My sinuses are still recovering from hanging out at her place Friday note not to mention that I come home smelling like a bowling alley and I have to take a shower to get all the smoke nasty out of my wild mane of hair. And they live in the ghetto part of town and I don't think that's going to be a very safe place to be on New Year's Eve. I have just grown out of those types of parties.

I heart Crochet

So I have mostly been working on crocheting Red Scarf #2 today with my new Addi hook. It is the perfect hook. Seriously, I have tried many different brands and types and this one is my favorite by far. Of course, it's the most expensive, but since I don't follow patterns it doesn't really matter what size hook to use. I am using Cascade 220 for scarf #2, it's not the fanciest wool yarn in the world, but it is good quality and I like the feel of it. I also made two more Dulaan hats today. This makes a total of 15 hats that are in my Dulaan box now. Lol...i can't help being organized. i'm a recovering Type A.

I watched this awesome documentary on Showtime this morning called Life After Tomorrow which is about the child actresses that played Annie and the orphans in the Broadway musical Annie. It was really neat because it showed the effect the show had on them and what they were doing now. I remember my parents taking us to see Annie at the Des Moines Civic Center when we were in elementary school. I can sing the whole score to Annie, and I'm not the type to memorize music like that. Sometimes when I am having a crappy day I dig out my old VHS copy of Annie the movie with Bernadette Peters and it cheers me up. I secretly love Broadway muscials. I am hell bent on seeing Wicked this summer when it comes to OKC.

Not much is really going on. I have had so much free time that I even painted my toe nails! Holy shit Batman! I'm also having very strange cravings for Dr. Pepper.

2007 Goals - Be The Change

It is very late in Melissaland and I just got home from spending the evening at E's new place. I went over there because I had called her to thank her for the Christmas card and she sounded like she needed some girl talk. So we hung out and chatted over some queso dip while her husband sat in the back room smoking and playing Warcraft..... Anyhoo, since my sinuses are all clogged and after hearing all her drama, I thought I should sit down and write my goals for 2007.

1. Finish my accounting degree.
2. Travel travel travel..This includes my week off in May and possibly taking a weekend off in August to see DCI in Pasadena( or at least one DCI show this summer...sweaty muscles and shiny instruments baby!!).
3. Learn more advanced knitting and crochet techniques and along with that, make more hats and scarves for my favorite charities.
4. read more books regularly. In college, I used to read every night before i went to bed and I have been slacking on that lately.
5. Cut back on pop and junk food. Become one with nasty diet pop and trick myself into thinking that sugar tastes like shit.
6. Normally, by now I would have some goal about dating or such, but I say to hell with that shit. Que sera, sera.
7. Quit buying stupid crap and save more money. I have been doing better at this but I know I can do even better than I have been. I need to start at least keeping track of what i spend so I can make a realistic budget and forecast my expenditures/financial disasters. I will start this on Jan 1, to be on the easy side.

I think 7 is plenty. I like manageable goals. I am going to log off now and crochet some more on red scarf #2 that I started tonight before I went to E's house. I am using Cascade 220 and my new Addi Hook. ADDI HOOKS ROCK!!!!!!! They are the best things ever and I will be ordering more of these in the future.

Day Four Already?

So Day Three kind of just flew away. My sister and I had received these gift cards to Barnes and Noble for Christmas, and we needed something to do so we drove down to Tulsa. I still have money on mine!!! Isn't that a hoot! First time in the history of Melissa! I bought a Frank Lloyd Wright mini wall calendar, a really awesome Skyscrapers coffee table type book that has awesome pictures and the history behind these cool buildings, two magazines, two cute little notepads, a copy of A Christmas Story (60 % off baby!!!), two copies of the mini Mister Rogers book. Then we ate at Back Yard Burgers. We have a favorite one in Tulsa and the manager knows us by name and always remembers what we order and who orders what. Awesome service there!

Then I made my sister go to Utica Square because there is this really awesome yarn store there called Loops and they were having this totally awesome after Christmas sale. I bought a skein of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Blue Blood Red, one skein of red Cascade 220, two samples of Soak (wool wash), and this Rowan leaflet with Kim Hargreaves that was marked down to 3.99!!!! I was being seriously conservative because of vacation and the big tuition bill coming up. Plus, I didn't "need" any yarn because of the infamous 19 skeins I received for Christmas, but this is like a once a year sale, so I wanted to at least see if they even had any yarn left, which they did.

We left Tulsa after that and went home so we could see the 4:40 showing of Holiday. That movie was awesome, and Jack Black didn't annoy me, which was great and Kate Winslet was awesome. We got home from the movie about the same time that my dad got home from work with my accident report. Boy that was hilarious. It actually is written on the police report where she admitted to being "lost" and talking on the cell phone. Call me naive, but I don't know how you could be driving a brand new 2007 Chevy 1500 pick-up and not be able to provide proof of insurance. I could understand not having a copy but she didn't even have a name of a company or her old policy or anything, so I think that was a total crock of shit but that's okay because she got two tickets and my insurance company is going to go after her skanky ass.

What lies ahead for Day 4? Well, it's pay day so I am going to the post office. I am working on hat eight right now. i have a ton of new books to read and some yarn catalogs to drool over that came in the mail today. There will be some more Boston Legal involved and I am waiting for two packages to arrive today.

Finally, the question you really want the answer for, What's on my ipod?

1. I wanna Dance with somebody - Whitney Houston
2. One Wing in the Fire - Trent Tomlinson
3. And I am Telling You I'm Not Going - Jennifer Hudson (the dance mix from the Dreamgirls soundtrack)
4. Santa Monica - Theory of a Deadman
5. Gonna Fly Now - Bill Conti

Day Two

I am calling this Day Two because it is the second day of my vacation. The weekend doesn't count because I always have that off. So yesterday was Christmas and my sister and I went to see The Pursuit of Happyness. I finally figured out why it is spelled wrong. The movie was awesome, so now I want to buy the book and find out more, because I am a sucker for a good true-life story. I have made it through Disc Three of Boston Legal Season 1. I am surprised that I have not cracked a rib laughing. I wish I could show up to morning staff meetings with a light up star on my head. It might make them bearable....

I did buy the matching tote purse at American Eagle to go with the party purse and the wallet, all in gun metal gray. Did I mention that they match one of my favorite pairs of Converses? that was all that I bought because there wasn't any really mouth dropping stuff on sale and that purse was the only thing that I have really been toying with purchasing recently.

I made the dreaded visit to the bank to order some overpriced checks. Had I know my routing number or my account number I might have ordered them online for one third of the price, but I think in a cleaning frenzy, I accidently shreaded that piece of paper with that information. See my original bank merged with another bank, but I could keep using my old checks cause they were connected, but the box of checks that I got when I opened the account my second year in college finally ran out. there are two things that I have to pay cash or check for, no debit card allowed, so I am therefore forced to order another stinking box of checks that I will not finish because most likely I will be moving by the end of this year. When I do so, I am getting a new bank, one that doesn't charge fees for using your debit card, doesn't charge you out the ass for checks and is open either past five o clock or at least a little bit on Saturdays because some us have to work long hours and don't fit into banker's hours. The only positive thing about this whole dreaded experience was that i got some cute Snoopy checks. Trust me, they were the best choice out of my limited options. Who really wants Mr. Potato Head on their checks?

On a happier note, I did go to see Rocky Balboa today and it was stinking awesome. It had the magic of the original Rocky and if you can't help but feel motivated when you walk out of the theater afterwards. Milo was awesome as Rocky's son and I loved the pea coat that he was wearing.

I am currently working on making my fifth hat since Christmas Eve. I am not power knitting because I am on "vacation" and this is supposed to be fun and not the cause of hand cramps. I'm thinking that I should make a funky scrap afghan with the leftovers from making hats out of my 19 skeins of yarn, but we will see. Afghans aren't the most portable project in the world and couch space is limited in my house.

I am hoping that I will get a call from the body shop saying that my parts are in because I would really like to get my car fixed before any more tiny plastic parts fall off. We will see what happens.