Grammar: the great equalizer

I attended a two day training session this week.
The class was entitled "Business Writing and Grammar Skills."
Before I got there my conceited thought was, "What can they teach me. Honestly."
Man did I learn a lot.
Plus we had a lot of fun.
But what is funny is when you take a group of people with different education levels and job responsibilities, put them in a room and then tell them to place a semi-colon correctly, well let's just say egos can deflate very quickly.

You are the apple of my eye

Angelika passed this award on to me.
And now of course I will pass it on as well.The rules are as follows:

"Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

Well I don't really expect to get this award too many times, mostly because I'm a moody bitch and a bit too eclectic for any one group. I live to be a paradox.
And that's okay.
In no particular order here's my list of the 10 people whose blogs I read regularly.
No, that's too simplistic.
These are some of the people who inspire me through their blogs:

1. Major Knitter - she taught me to knit and she's just an all-around fantastic, caring person - what's not to like
2. Kathleen - the one who encouraged me to blog in the first place - blame her if you don't like what I'm doing
3. Angelika - because I am so inspired and in awe of her knitting - and she's a military wife and understands many things
4. Caroline - I've never felt such a connection with someone I've never met - you rock, girlfriend
5. Purl - we met through a Knit Tea Swap and found out that we have so much in common - that is awesome and amazing - and so is she
6. Laurie Halse Anderson - because she's a fantastically talented writer, a down to earth person, and lives in Central NY (and she knits too)
7. Rachael - she makes her life fun
8. Wendy - she's the queen of knitting blogs and an inspiration to all
9. The Little Professor - I am just in awe - I write about fried ravioli, she critiques a book - if I only had half of her intellect
10. PostSecret - Frank Warren rules - and he's coming to campus in March - now that is inspirational

Go forth and bestow good wishes on someone.

There's gotta be a fork involved...

...because it's done.And on to the next project.

Is there such a thing as too much tea?

I bought a new cabinet to hold my tea things.
Here is the view with the door closed.
Looks nice, don't you think?
Believe it or not I do actually have more teapots but there is just not enough room in here to hold everything.See all my tea on the bottom shelf?
And that isn't even all of it.
(There's actually still more not shown in any of the pictures.)
When is the next Knit Tea Swap anyway?

Birthday Knitting

Today we had a small party for my mother's 77th.
Cake was eaten.
Knitting was accomplished.
Sisters hung out.
A good Sunday.

Evenings at the Mall

We went out to the mall this evening to make some exchanges.
The mall is always an interesting place on Saturday nights.
While you have plenty of families out shopping you also have the teenagers who treat the area as their hangout/boxing ring/drug dealing location. And they do have fights at the mall. Just recently there was a knife fight and my friend Joani was there and saw it, with the blood all over the floor and everything.
Remember in this climate where the evening temps hover below 20 degrees you have to perform most of your illegal activity indoors.
Nice place to go on a Saturday night, right?
Well this evening we saw a girl getting arrested for shoplifting at Claire's. I know stealing is wrong, but it was hard not to feel sorry for this poor girl there at the front of the store crying as mall security came into the store to take her away.
Then we went to Arby's and one of the girls behind the counter was so drunk she could barely stand up. She wasn't working but she obviously works there and she was loud too. All I could hope was that she didn't fall into the hot grease or something equally horrific.
An interesting evening, I have to say.
Before we went to the mall we had an outing with Girl Scouts.
Here we are ice skating:
Yes, SN2 actually came along with us. He must have some strong feet because those rental boots kill mine. I swear that this year I am definitely going to buy some ice skates so I never have to suffer with rental boots again.
Of course this is what I said last year when we went ice skating.
Guess I'll have to head back to the mall, but I'll go during the daylight hours when the crowd is not so wild and dangerous.

What a difference a week makes

My weekend plans are much more normal this time around.
No major crises, well none that you want to know about.
So the road ahead, at least until Monday morning at 8:00 is smooth sailing.
Here's what I have planned:

Movie to watch: Check
La Vie en Rose

Magazine to read: Check
"Knit 'n Style"

Book to consume: Check
The Moonstone

Knitting to finish: Check
Chevron Scarf

Chocolate to crunch and inhale: Check and check
Green Peanut M&M's

All set?
You bet!
Bring it on.

CPR

Just before Christmas the people in my office were trained in CPR.
I haven't done CPR training since 1987. It is true that it does stay with you but it was interesting to do it again, to find out that I could still do the compressions correctly, and also to find out that the technique has changed (2 breaths to 20 compressions instead of 5 breaths to 15 compressions). We also learned how to use the defibrillator.
And you can't help but take this training seriously because you just never know when you might have to use it.
So if I ever find someone on the street, or say inside their home and unresponsive, you can bet that I will make that 911 phone call and begin to perform life-saving techniques.
I won't call any celebrities to find out what to do, you can count on that.

Fried Ravioli*

Sounds kind of gross, I know.
But consider this.
You fill something with meat and cheese.
Bonus.
You bread it and deep-fry it to a golden perfection.
Bonus, bonus.
You serve it with marina sauce for dipping.
Triple bonus.
I think I've found my new favorite food.
No knitting tonight - I went out to dinner with some ladies from work because my friend Debbie is moving on to a different job.
We will certainly miss her.
But there will always be fried ravioli.


*Ed. Note: Okay, so the menu actually calls this Toasted Ravioli, but a deep-fried Twinkie is not really masquerading as a baked cake so why even try to call it that, right?

Oh, Wilkie Collins, how I love thee

I began reading The Moonstone this morning.
What a wonderful book full of pith and well-developed characters.
And a great story too!
There are some time discrepancies, but that is minor.
Swimming in 20 minutes - should I read or knit? Oh the horror of having to make a decision.
I tried to read The Woman in White and I vow that one day I will get through it -- but it is a very long book and I think the print in the book I have is much too small (or my eyes are too old).
I adored The Haunted Hotel - fast read and quite intriguing.
But nothing of Wilkie's that I have read so far beats The Moonstone.
And Wilkie, dude, while you are awesome couldn't you consider trimming your beard?

Update: I accomplished both knitting and reading while my youngest swam her heart out. I read for 40 pages and then I knit for the rest of the time available, which equals 12 rows (or 3 pattern repeats). I feel satisfied. Yes, I can do it all. Within reason.

Stick a needle in it...

...it's done.
My first FO of the year and it took me much too long to complete this.
But I have knitting ADD and the two row pattern repeat is easy enough but soon gets to be pretty dang boring.

Although it does make for a pretty pattern.
Now all I have to do is weave in the ends.
That should take me another 6 weeks or so.
I'm a speedy knitter, can't you tell?
Maybe by the time Phil sees (or doesn't see) his shadow I should know whether or not I will wear this scarf during this winter season.

Knitting Discipline

It's hard.
It is so very hard.
I desperately want to go into my stash and find some yarn and start another project.
But I am exercising knitting discipline.
I am only knitting on two projects - the Chevron Scarf and the My So-Called Scarf and that is it.
All other knitting will have to wait until these two are completed.
Hopefully it is soon.
Back to knitting.
See how I crack that whip?
I'm good.

Power On

Our power came back on at 12:36 AM.
It was a very cold night, everyone fell asleep early and on the couch in front of the fireplace.
What relief to be able to wake up to the light.
And heat.
Knitting has been accomplished today - getting closer to finishing my Chevron Scarf.
And with regards to my DVR, I've watched 3 out of the 4 episodes of Ghost Hunters that are in my queue.
Life is good.
Well at least better than yesterday.

There Goes the Weekend

I had a great weekend planned.
I was going to do some cleaning, watch some tv (lots of stuff on the DVR), knit and read (and probably eat too much).
Instead something happened at 6:15 this morning that might preclude me from having a leisurely weekend:



Fortunately no damage to the house but it did rip the electrical meter from the house and tore off the line. We are currently without power but an electrician has come today (I'm sure at great $$$) and is repairing the meter. However, our electric company is saying they may not get out until Monday to hook our power back up.
Like hell, I say.

Dysfunctional Dog

My husband's dog (please note the use of the possessive) is dysfunctional.
Truly.
She suffers from separation anxiety (she's like a toddler in many respects) and because of this and the fact that she chases the cats she has to be with an adult at all times. Or in her crate.
In the morning we let her roam around while we are getting ready and because DH and I get ready at different times she usually ends up sitting in the bathroom while we take our showers.
If she is in there with DH she doesn't really misbehave.
When I am in there she likes to get things out of the garbage and chew them up into small pieces.
Don't ask me why but you know I end up cleaning up whatever she's been chewing.
If it is a tissue, that's kind of disgusting but not too abnormal.
When it's a feminine hygeine product - like it was yesterday - that is uber-disgusting.
Collectively now - "EWWWWW"
This morning I told her not to touch the garbage and she didn't - she was good.
However she did grab ahold of my underwear and had it by her when I came out of the shower.
What's up with that?

Knitting Help

It can be kind of funny to see how everyone connects to each other in blog world. Not a lot of my readers are knitters* so I try to vary my content and include non-knitting items too. Considering my rate of knitting speed (super slow) there's really not a problem that they will be overwhelmed by pictures of my FOs.
But there are some amazing knitters out there and I do like to read (and feel envious) of what other knitters accomplish. Now because I know that many of us do not read the same blogs I wanted to repeat something here that I found on The Scottish Lamb today.
She had a link to these wonderful knitting journal pages. You need to go see these and download them.
And then we all need to send a big thank you to Grace, because while it is not difficult to make forms it does take time and imagination and then generosity to share these with other knitters. She could have charged and we would have paid, but she is not and that is awesome.

*my two most faithful - Sheri and Jean -- are you free for dinner on Friday??

KT

Tonight DN2 swam and I engaged in some KT -- knitting time.
I spent almost the entire hour and a half hour swim practice knitting.
Has anyone sat in bleachers lately and knit?
I just can't seem to get my posture right when I'm sitting there and this causes me to lock in my upper arms so that they are tight and a bit sore along with my upper shoulders and lower back.
Makes me miss the days when I used to be able to do what Olga Korbut could do:I think if I tried this now I'd herniate a disc or something.

My pupils are taking in a lot of light

Why, you ask?
Because I've been to see the eye doctor today and 5 hours later I'm still having trouble seeing because of my pupils being dilated.
Fortunately for me, relatively good news.
Although I'm pretty blind my vision has not decreased at all in 2 years.
For me that's miraculous.
He did give me some contacts to try out for a week to see if I like them, so I have to go back and see him again.
DN2 also had her eyes checked.
She has said that she has been having trouble reading the board at school.
So for 2 weeks she's been talking about getting glasses and will I help her pick them out.
Well she came out with the doctor and he said, "Her vision is perfect. 20/20."
I couldn't believe it. "Really?" I asked.
"Yes, she does not need glasses."
He took me back to his office and told me that he knew she really wanted glasses but that she just does not need them. And he also talked to me about why her vision may be blurry when transitioning from looking at a paper to the board.
I think it's amazing and I'm very happy that she has no problems with her eyes (speaking as someone who has had problems literally since the day I was born). Well once we got outside the tears began. We had walked no further than 3 feet from the doctor's office door before she started complaining that her eyes hurt.
But I knew there was something else.
And I found out.
She wanted glasses!
While I was in being checked she had even picked out a pair and she was sobbing because she couldn't get glasses!
Please.
As SN2 said when he found out why she was still crying (yes, even after we got home), he told her, "You're crying because you can't have glasses? That's straight up wack!"
Too right.
I wish I had that problem.

Sometimes it pays to have a packrat for a mother

Look what I brought home from my mother's house.
Gasp.
Can you believe it?
My mother has been saving these for me for years.
They're not collectibles but they sure have a place in my heart.
And look at the prices on these things -- 12 cents, 15 cents, 20 cents!
Remarkable.
No, better than that -- these are Groovy!
Dig it.
Hopefully no one bothers me tonight -- I'll be up in my room reading.

Mopping my Plate

I don't always join a lot of Knit-a-longs (KALs) but I have joined some.
And then I'm not always successful at keeping up with the KAL - I often lose steam and never finish, or intend to start and then think it's either too hard or I get distracted by something else.
But I think I like this KAL - it is called Clean Your Plate 2008 and according to the blog host there are, "no rules, no deadlines, just finishing projects and feeling good..."
Now this is a KAL at which I can be successful because I have really cleared a lot off of my needles, mostly because the projects have been unraveled and the yarn neatly (most of the time) stored. I do have three projects hanging around that I am truly working on finishing.
First up is the My So-Called Scarf:
I have been working on this for much too long and it really needs to be finished. I am approximately 75% done and if I continue to take DN2 to swim practice three nights a week and I knit instead of read then I could complete it. Either that or take vacation and stay at home, watch movies and knit. I like that.
Next up is the Chevron Scarf:
This scarf has been hanging around for much too long as well, and the problem is I screw it up and then let it sit until I fix it. Angelika could have knit 2 dozen of these scarves in the time it has taken me to work on one, but that's why she is a knit wiz (and why you see her work featured in KnitPicks). Well my balls are shrinking and the scarf is nearing completion. Because I am an idiot (in case you hadn't heard) I failed to order 2 skeins of each color so my scarf will not be as long as the one featured in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It is probably a blessing in disguise because DN2 would be graduating from high school by the time I would have it completed if I needed to continue.
The last project I have is a cape from Lion Brands Just Wraps:
This picture shows only the yarn.
Want to know why?
Because when I have the yarn I can't find the book. Once I find the book, I misplace the yarn (yes, even in a nice container like this.) I never seem to have these two items together at the same time. I'm not sure why...if I think about it I might come up with a plausible reason (messy house) but I really know it's because The Borrowers must need it for something.
Once these bad boys are done you know for sure I'm picking up those DPs again and I vow, with God as my witness, I will never go hungry again...no, that's not right...I will knit socks and successfully turn a heel if it kills me.

Ding, dong, ditch

I'm really considering installing a doorbell on my revolving front door.
Technically it is the side door, but you know what I mean.
We don't have a doorbell or even a door knocker, so there are times we might not hear people knocking at the door (like when everyone is gathered in front of the television playing either Guitar Hero or Rock Band).
Last summer the front door was left unlocked and some campaign guy, obviously thinking this was student housing, walked in the front door, up the stairs, knocked on DN1's door and asked her to sign a petition.
Last Friday we were sitting on the couch, clearly not watching the Boob Whisperer what with no new episodes because of the writer's strike when in walks one of SN2's friends.
He looked at us and said hi.
We looked at him and said, "SN2 is in there."
He left and we continued to exercise the fat in our butts by squatting on the couch.
Shortly after that one of SN1's friends came walking into the living room.
She looked at us and said hi.
We looked at her and said, "SN1 is in there."
DH and I then looked at each other with puzzled expressions.
Clearly no one knocked at the door but these people felt it was okay to walk in.
Do people feel so comfortable here that they treat this place as their own?
I said to DH, "We really need to buy a doorbell."
He said, "We really need to lock the door."
Too right.

Why can't you be like that mom?

Have you ever heard that?
I have most recently from my youngest.
What is it with these kids?
What is it with the marketing agencies?
It really started with that stupid Wal-Mart commercial about the kids and the toys.
In it there is a montage of kids looking at all the great toys the Devil's Store sells and at the end a little girl asks her mother, "Mom, can I have it?"
The mother replies, "At the Wal-Mart price, I'm sold."
Or something equally noxious and lenient.
Mine asks me, every time she sees that mother agreeing to buy an unneeded toy for a spoiled kid, "Why can't you be like that mother?"
And I ask, "What, buying you a toy that you don't need just because you want it?"
Commercials like this make me glad that we're rarely home in the evenings because of swimming and Girl Scouts.
Next time she asks me for something I might have to react like this cat:

Gale Force Winds

I awoke this morning to the wind pelting the rain against my window.
Those winds were 75 miles per hour!
Garbage was strewn all over the streets (for those of us who had garbage day) and there was a Christmas tree in the middle of the street, blown there from the side of the road.
One of my co-workers was driving into work this morning and a tree branch fell onto the hood of her car. A few inches more and it would have been through her windshield.
Fortunately she's okay but her car is going to need repairs.
A boring yet busy day for me and what I had in mind to post about will never come to fruition, at least for today, because I haven't had time to take pictures!
I guess it would help if I would get my butt up out of bed earlier than 6:00.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

Alpha Female

This girl knows who the alpha female is in our house.
It's the person who is cooking the burgers.
(Look away if you're a vegetarian.)
It was 65 flipping degrees here today and I had to bust out the grill.
I'm still not feeling so hot but it was too nice to drive my car so I decided to ride Pippa to work.
If you recall Pippa is my new ride whom I had on layaway. I hadn't named her when I first got her but decided that Pippa she is, and Pippa she shall be.
Anywho, it was seriously warm and lovely today.
We all got to see what the spring forecast will be for our lawns because all the snowbanks are melting and revealing the garbage they've held insulated in white for the past month. Since no one will pick up their trash it will just be buried again by the next snow storm only to be revealed again in the spring.
It's not a pretty sight.
I bought my books today for my class I'm taking this spring.
$99.95.
I couldn't have guessed that total even if Bob Barker were holding a slim microphone in my face and promising me I would win the Showcase.
Speaking of The Price is Right has anyone watched it since Drew Carey took over?
Whenever I'm home on weekdays (too rarely for my taste) I usually stick with TCM and forget about network tv but I would like to see how Drew is doing.
He's a former Marine as some of you may know.
Back to my schoolwork -- I've decided to take a class that the catalog calls "Studies in English Renaissance Literature" but which the instructor has fine tuned into "Ovid and the Renaissance".
I wasn't sure if I wanted to take this class because I was considering "Studies in American Literature 1920-1945" but three things helped me make my decision.
Firstly, the Ovid class is on a Thursday night and I've had Monday night classes for the past three semesters. Mondays are cruel (and not April, as has been widely proclaimed).
Secondly, I've never read Ovid and have wanted to for a while.
Thirdly, the professor describes Ovid's Metamorphoses as, "...a surprisingly smutty read."
Ding ding ding.
Now that sounds like fun!
(If you want a really baudy read, check out Francois Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel.)
And in making my decision www.ratemyprofessors.com did not figure into the equation in its final stages but was only be used as a variable. (I guess someone could start the website called www.ratemystudents.com - but I think professors already have -- it's called GRADES -- and that is why the students get so pissed).
Now that I'm registered and have paid for my books (but still have to pay for my class) I need to hurry up and clear my knitting plate so I don't have much hanging over me when the semester begins.
And that leads us into tomorrow's post!
Y'all come back now, ya here!

Who Got Me Sick?

Someone did.
I started feeling yucky on Saturday night and started self-medicating immediately.
On Sunday I took the tree out and my pictures prove I took everything off the tree, but what you won't see is that I haven't put any of the ornaments away!
They are all over the floor still!!
What a slob, I know but I felt so bad that after I finished with the tree that I had to sit down on the couch to watch a great movie and rest.
The movie?
Only Angels Have Wings starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur.
If you haven't ever seen it, you should, and disregard all the fake special effects. Yes, we know those planes are not real, you can practically see the strings on the toy prop planes, but the story is wonderful.
I made it to work today but ended up coming home early. I thought I'd feel better if I worked at home but honestly I feel awfully weak and unable to do much.
I can knit, but slowly and only 4 rows at a time.
So I'll sign off and hope I feel better tomorrow.
Perhaps this crackling in my ears will be gone by then.
Cheers!

Goodbye Tree

The end.

Of Santa, of course, and also for our tree.

It is time for it to go.
This was the biggest tree we have ever had and it was real too.

Just for reference, DN2, seen posing with the dog, is 4'11".
This tree was big, at least 9 feet tall.
But now it is by the curb waiting for the town to pick it up and throw it in the wood chipper after which the highway department will use the mulch somewhere in town.
I read the article in the paper but I didn't pay much attention beyond the part that said, "Leave your trees by the curb and the town will pick them up."
Roger that.

Goodwill for Men and Women

This past weekend we discovered the Goodwill store in our town.Granted we always knew where it was, we just never ventured out and entered it to see what treasures it contained.
And let me tell you, it has some treasures for sure.
Well and some nasty stuff too.
And that smell - you just can't get away from the smell in a shop like that no matter how new and clean it is.
SN2 found some $50 pants for $6 each - so of course we bought both pair - and some sweater vests and a cardigan. He was a happy camper.
DN2 couldn't find anything, but then she was feeling fussy anyway.
I found a Burberry's tweed coat for DN1 - Saks Fifth Avenue label and everything and the Burberry's lining - not a counterfeit (trust me, I've had enough stuff purchased in Korea to know what is fake and what is not) - for $12.00.
I only hope it fits, but they have a policy where you can return the items within 14 days.
Wait, look, my errant daughter has returned from a weekend of debauchery in Toronto in time for me to take her picture.
We wonder if it might be a man's coat, but you know what I say?With that Saks label and a $12 price tag, who cares?
(Especially when it's like 10 degrees outside.)
She could totally rock this coat with a red scarf.
Speaking of yarn...no good yarn there. I know because I checked. Yucky stuff in yucky colors - all acrylic - which has it's time and place but not when it's just funky, ugly yarn.
Oh well, no good craft stuff but you should see the books.
Oh the books!
Oh my - I got a crick in my neck just from keeping my head turned sideways for 15 minutes trying to read the titles. A lot of crap (Danielle Steel and romance novels), but some small finds (plenty of Maeve Binchy and spy thrillers if that's your thing). I did purchase Black Like Me for $1.99 - kind of a high price - I would have appreciated 25 cents - but the Goodwill does have to make up for the loss of money for selling a Burberry's coat for $12.00 I guess.
I think we've found our new Wal-Mart.
And Goodwill doesn't serve the devil.
Just blind and visually impaired people.
Like my mother.

Missing Camus

It's not as if I knew him personally, but I've always felt a connection with him.
And through his writings I can connect with his thoughts.
So of course I miss him - along with many others who feel the same way.
He inspires a kind of obsessive following.
Albert Camus was killed in a car accident on January 4, 1960 - 48 years ago today.
If he were still alive he would be 94 years old.
I first heard of him when I bought a book by a German-Jewish writer who wrote a powerful story of a young French girl helping the Resistance during WWII (Simone by Lion Feuchtwanger). In this book someone had placed a clipping from an American newspaper detailing Camus' death and it stayed in that book from 1960 until 1978 when I purchased the book at a used book sale. I recall reading the clipping and thinking to myself, who is Camus and why have they kept the clipping for so long? I still have it and now I can understand why.
Of course I read The Stranger in an Intro to Humanities class in 1984 and hated it. Come to find out later it was a bad translation, because when I finally read Matthew Ward's translation I understood it so much better especially when comparing his version with the original written in French.



Camus died young, only 3 years after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first African-born writer to win the award.
Fortunately his work will live on forever.
If you haven't read him or if you have bad memories from high school English, like being forced to read The Guest and not understanding it at all because your teacher was too busy putting on makeup and anxious to get the day over with so she could go get high...oh wait, that was my teacher, seriously, give Camus another try.
Some of my favorites are The Fall (La Chute) and The Adulterous Woman from Exile and the Kingdom.

Frost on the Windows

For those of you suffering from the heat and slightly cold temperatures -- it is freezing here!!
Correction, it is below freezing.
14 degrees outside - feels like 6 degrees (I'm reading this off The Weather Channel).
And I think my office is probably at about 40 something.
We have no heat at work - they turn it off for the 2 week shut-down in order to save money.
It is so cold I am shivering and afraid to move away from my space heater. Not exactly a cost-saving device, but it's saving my life right now.
Why am I here?
Good question.
(Perhaps I'm here so you don't have to be - ever think about that? Give it some thought.)
It is a perfect day for some hot (and I mean hot) tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich - my favorite lunch - which since I had Shepherd's Pie for lunch might actually be what I have for dinner tonight.
I understand that other parts of the country are pretty cold right now too.
My sympathy goes out to y'all.
Alright now, back to your regularly scheduled programs and try to stay warm.

Accepted

I haven't talked about this publicly before because I didn't want to appear to be a big goof (bigger than I am) if something bad happened.
By way of explanation, I applied for the graduate program (Masters in English Literature) in November.
Due date = November 15.
I turned everything in....November 15.
Leave it to me to wait until the deadline to get my application materials in.
Timely as ever, right.
I walked away from the building towards home thinking, "Why shouldn't they accept me?" followed quickly by the fear, "Why would they accept me?"
These were the thoughts that accompanied me for over a month. Fortunately I was too busy completing my paper for my Young Adult Literature class and getting ready for Christmas and dragging DN2 to swimming to worry about it every minute.
I only thought about it every other minute.
(No Jean, I was not being Lazee.)
And of course I had people at work who would ask questions.
"Have you heard yet?"
"Noooo," is what I would have to reply.
And I discarded any ideas that anyone, including me, should call to find out the status.
After all I really wanted to get accepted based upon my own abilities and not because of connections.
Then on December 9th I turned in my 15+ page paper for class and I waited on a grade for that too.
And waited.
Two questions being asked of me by concerned folks, and I gave "no" answers to both. (To both questions, not both concerned folks; honestly, I do have more than one friend.)
Finally on Friday the 21st I looked in the system and saw that a decision had been made regarding my application.
But that was all it said.
Decision Complete.
Egads, what was the decision?!?!
Was I really going to have to wait until something came in the mail? And when would that be? We had just shut down for 2 weeks!
No other information was available - and trust me I looked everywhere I could.
Fortunately for my blood pressure (which is always on the low side anyway) there was an envelope in the mail on the following day.
It was an acceptance letter!!
And also on that same day I found out that I had received an A in my class.
What pain and torture I had to endure in order to receive such blissful news.
I felt excited and relieved and totally awesome all at the same time.
Huge sigh of relief.
Then as I looked forward to signing up for a class for the spring semester I began to worry.
I don't know this professor.
What if she doesn't like me?
There's no rating for her on www.ratemyprofessors.com (which is always subjective anyway), but even still I have no way of knowing what she is really like.
Yikes, now I have to worry about whether I will do well enough to stay in the program or think about how I just might fail in a very dramatic fashion.
Damn.
Here we go again.

The Number 12 Looks Like Your Mother

In my typical obsessive-compulsive fashion I have spent the better part of the past 48 hours watching The Twilight Zone marathon on the SciFi channel.
The ball dropped in Times Square?
I missed it because "Time Enough at Last" followed by "Two" were being shown.
Then because I had napped on the couch (honestly through most of "Time Enough" and then the first part of "Two") I couldn't get back to sleep so I continued to watch The Twilight Zone until about 3:00 in the morning on New Year's Day.
Of course now I want to have the entire set.
Anyone got a spare $185 sitting around?
DN2 was adverse to watching the show but she soon became hooked although she did escape from the house for a while in the afternoon.
She's fortunate, though, to have a mother who will sit in front of the television and record the episodes for her.
Lucky girl.

Resolving to Change

This year I resolve to...

1. Blog more often.
2. Become more organized.
3. Keep a cleaner house.
4. Read more books from my library.
5. Be proactive about schoolwork deadlines.
6. Finish all UFO's (knitting and cross stitch).
7. Knit and stitch from my stash.
8. Write more.
9. Save money.
10. Hire a housekeeper so I can accomplish resolutions 1-8.

Happy New Year everyone!