Leaping Lily

Last night I finished my lovely lily pad socks. Searching for things to knit next. Here are some ideas:

• I'm really interested in knitting some sort of lace shawl/stole. Maybe the Bleeding Hearts Stole from the current issue (Spring 2008) of Interweave Knits. Dream yarn for this project would be Schaefer Andrea in the Indira Gandhi colorway (100% silk and 100% delicious), but it's wicked expensive ($52!!). I'll probably end up using Knit Picks Gloss in Aegean or Blue Bird (total cost for the project would be less than $12).
• I've signed up on Ravelry (awaiting my invite!) in hopes of finding the Jaywalker sock pattern. I'd like to use this Lana Grossa Meilenweit Color Tweed in Pink/Orange/Brown for the project. These would be for me!
• My mom wants socks for Mother's Day. She's decided on the Dublin Bay socks, using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Whisper.
• I want to make a little boy's cardigan as a companion to the little girl's cardigan I finished recently. I'm thinking about the argyle cardigan pattern in Debbie Bliss's Special Knits. I'll use Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in dark blue (for the body) and cream (for the argyle diamonds). I've already got some little dark metal buttons for the project!

Bad Blogger

I'm a bad blogger. I've rejoined the ranks of LiveJournalers because it's so much easier to log into. Because I'm always logged in. Blogger signs me out of Gmail every time I log in, which is inconvenient for me because Gmail is where I talk to my sweetie.

Still, I don't want to abandon my blog. I love this thing.

Anyway, updates:

• I finished the ribbon-edge cardigan from Debbie Bliss's Special Knits. Super cute.
  
• Now I'm knitting socks. Woohoo! I'm working the gusset of the second sock. I'm using the April 2008 limited edition Lorna's Laces colorway, Lily Pad. The pattern is the Retro Rib Socks pattern from the Winter 2004 issue of Interweave Knits.
  
• Flavio & I are taking a trip to Annecy, a village in France, when I go visit him in Italy.
• They're changing all of our schedules at work. At the moment, I'm not very happy about this. But if I get an OK schedule, I guess it won't be so bad. Maybe I'll have 3 days off every week. That would be pretty sweet.
• It's cold. Wtf?
  

Sprouting

Wow, I suck at updating this thing. There hasn't been a ton going on, though, really. It's finally spring! I mean really, really spring. With rain and crazy wind and budding trees and sneezing and everything in between. Today I transplanted my grape hyacinth plants (pictured) to a bigger pot. Their poor little roots had gotten all intertwined in the tiny pot they'd been sharing. But now they've got plenty of room to spread out and grow! I'm excited to see them bloom.

I miss Flavio more & more every day. Especially lately, when it seems like he's always too busy or too tired to talk to me. I feel guilty for being upset that he doesn't have time for me. It's not like he's just blowing me off to hang out with his friends or anything. He's working and studying. Still...I wish we had more time together.

I've been spending a lot of time cooking lately. I bought a Betty Crocker brunch magazine at the grocery store a few days ago, and a couple weeks ago I bought the latest issue of La Cucina Italiana (which I've decided to subscribe to), so I'm trying out a bunch of new recipes now. It's nice being back in the kitchen. I'm also knitting a lot (currently in the middle of two baby cardigans), growing flowers (besides the hyacinth, I recently planted lavender, poppy, and rudbeckia seeds), and eating a ton of gelato (so far, I've had bacio, stracciatella, red orange, lemon, chocolate basil, peanut butter, watermelon, and strawberry). I think spring must be my favorite season because I always feel so...reborn. My creative energy is through the roof, and all I want to do is explore. Explore new techniques. Explore new foods. Really just crawl out of myself and experience the world around me. It's a wonderful feeling!

Time of My Life

The past two weeks have been incredible. Flavio's visit couldn't have possibly been any better unless he'd stayed forever. He's the perfect person for me. He fits so well into my family--my mom already says she loves him like a son. He's sweet and gentle and affectionate and funny. He made me dinner and told me that my snoring is adorable. I miss him so much... Luckily, he's coming back this summer...hopefully during August, so he can go with me to the Jack Johnson concert in Bonner Springs (I bought tickets a couple days ago).

Otherwise, I've been knitting again. Yesterday I finished a cute little baby shrug from Simply Baby, and now I'm working on a mini-cable cardigan from Knitting for Baby. I figured this latest project would keep me busy for a while because I'm using a fingering-weight yarn on size 4 needles, but I'm knitting the smallest size (3 months) and it's actually going pretty quick.

The weather has been GORGEOUS the past few days. Today I'm wearing a linen skirt, a bright pink cotton sweater with eyelet trim, and pink/purple/aqua/yellow madras plaid ballet flats. I'm also doing lunch at Uptown Bistro, followed by gelato at Caffe Moderne. Because I'm obsessed with gelato.

T-minus 40 hours...

I really should update this thing more often, but the login process is a pain in the neck.

Anyway...Flavio's coming to visit in less than 2 days. About 40 hours, actually. Emotionally, I'm wavering somewhere between a state of elation and a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, I have a ton of things to do before he gets here, so at least I'll be busy instead of sitting around freaking out.

I've been knitting like crazy lately. In the past week, I've finished the striped baby sweater I started over the summer, plus I knitted a cute cabled sweater vest (modified from the original pattern, which had sleeves). Next I'll be knitting a little cabled cardigan.

Now I'm trying to decide if I should go to bed or stay up & clean. I know that I should go to bed because I have to work tomorrow night. But I'm not really very sleepy, and I have *so much* to do.

Cleaning Break...

Valentine's day was wonderful. I took my mom out on a "date." We saw 27 Dresses and had a late lunch/early dinner at Ted's Montana Grill (one of the few restaurants I really like). Friday was not such a wonderful day, however. Personal and professional problems abound, and I spent a good portion of the night blubbering like a baby. But in my experience, a little sleep cures a lot of problems, and by Saturday morning all was once again set to rights. And now I smell like arancia e cannella (orange and cinnamon), an odd combination which smells surprisingly...perfect.

At the moment, I'm attempting to clean up the mess I've made in the living room over the past several months, because Flavio's coming to visit in 11 days. I'm so excited to see him! I'm also watching Becoming Jane, which seems good, although I haven't been paying a lot of attention to it.

After I finished The Time Traveler's Wife, I was going to read The Fourth Bear, but it was horribly boring. So now I'm reading Fire Bell in the Night, which is good although so far not very compelling. I'm not very far into it yet. It's well written, but the characters aren't that interesting.

You don't always have to hold your Head higher than your Heart

I just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife. It was so...beautiful. In the way that sadness can be beautiful. Like Eva Moves the Furniture. So heavy and complex. So much love and so much loss and...so much sadness. I think I should've taken more time to read it. Not because I feel like I rushed through it and couldn't understand/appreciate it. Just because, when I read things like that, I need to process them bit by bit. Now it feels like an awkward weight dragging my head down to my heart. That doesn't make any sense. Anyway, the sadness will probably linger for a few days. It's coming at a bad time, too.

My mini-vacation was so relaxing and peaceful. I spent almost the entire 5 days at home, creating a cozy space in my room. Decluttering. Sorting. And we had a couple of lovely, warm, spring-y days. It was all very therapeutic. And then I went back to my job and the weather got crappy again and I've been feeling very insecure and I'm just so frustrated with everything. This is not a good time to be burdened with the heavy sadness of an emotional book.

I just need to cry it out. I've cried twice today already. I'm sure more tears are on the way. I'm not a cry baby or an emotional wreck, but I think most girls would agree when I say that it's such a release to cry. So much more peaceful than yelling. It's got a lovely way of just washing things away. Crying is so final.

Avoiding Sleep

Update on the NYRs (new year's resolutions): it's been balls cold (to borrow a phrase from my Canadian friends), so walking Max has not been happening. But I've been eating so much healthier! And more regularly. And I made dinner tonight (pork loin with mushroom cream sauce). I deposited $100 in my savings account a few days ago. Also I've been pretty conservative with my spending. And less than a week left in January, and I've still got enough money for a latte in my Starbucks budget. Oh, and if I finish Franny and Zooey by the end of the month (which should be easy...I've read the first half in the past 3 days), I will have read 4 books in January, which is pretty much right on track to do 50 in a year. So yeah, I'd say I'm doing really well with my little lifestyle changes. It hasn't even been hard.

On a completely different note, I'm really shocked by the whole Heath Ledger thing. I still don't completely believe it.

On another completely different note, I've started up a new blog, Bright Copper Kettles + Warm Woolen Mittens. Just a place to write about all of the little things I love.

Monday Ramblings

Last night I actually went to bed at 10 o'clock. I slept for almost 12 hours. Pure bliss.

Only two weeks left until my appointment at work ends and my 5-day break begins. I'm really looking forward to having that time off work, which I plan to spend finally cleaning my room. I've already started the process a bit, by reorganizing my bookshelf yesterday. I also got some new bedding to spring-ify the place.

I haven't been keeping up with my resolutions very well so far. Well, I did walk Max (and Xena) once, and I'm keeping track of my savings (although I haven't added anything to the pot yet). I'm eating a *little* better, and drinking less coffee.

The sun is shining, so it looks warm outside, but it's actually pretty cold. This has been the typical weather this month (although it was pretty warm for a few days), which has made it less depressing. Also, the month is going by pretty quickly. I can't believe it's the 14th already. THANK GOD. And only a month until Valentine's Day!

Reclaiming Thursday

Now that Christmas is over, I'm enjoying my Thursdays again. Today I did lunch & a little bit of shopping with my mom. Really, I can't think of a nicer way to enjoy my day off than with green bean fries, a steamy cinnamon dolce latte, and the latest issues of Radar and Blueprint (my two new favorite magazines). Not to mention discussing books, J.J. Abrams, and Italian verbs with my sweetie.

Super-seriously looking forward to next Thursday and a new episode of Ugly Betty (finally!!).

P.S. Am also ridiculously thrilled that Obama is winning in the Iowa caucus. Have loved him since the '04 DNC.

Feeling Old-ish

I just found my first wrinkle, a laugh line. :-\

I'm only 23!! What the hell??

2007: In Books

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
If Aristotle Ran General Motors by Tom Morris
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Didn't reach my completely unrealistic goal of 50, but I think 19 is a pretty respectable total, considering I was in school for almost half of the year and several of these books were 400+ pages long.

Bienvenue, 2008!

A new year, but not a new me. I'm really happy with where I'm at right now. Of course there are things I'd like to change a bit, because there's always room for improvement, but I don't feel hopeless. It's a good feeling. :-)

I started the year at work. Maybe not the best way to ring it in, but probably better than being by myself at home. I did a little shopping this morning, and I was really proud of myself for not going overboard. I also spent the day taking down my Christmas ornaments and putting them in a couple of small storage containers I bought at Target. I have 78 ornaments now, and although that's probably more than enough, I know I'll never stop collecting them. Maybe I'll just try to limit myself to 5 ornaments per year, though. I think I accumulated 15-20 this year. Holy cow. I also got to talk to my sweetie twice. ♥

I'm exhausted with winter. Longing for leafy trees and warm rain and colorful flip-flops. I miss flowers and sweet bird songs and everything springing to life.

P.S. I've had the greatest idea ever. When I move out, I'm going to get a sister for Maximus. Her name will be Minimus, but I'll just call her Minnie. :-)

Merry Christmas!

New Year's Resolutions

I know most people don't do this until after Christmas, but today I started thinking about my New Year's resolutions. Well, I'm not really thinking about them in those terms, I suppose, because when I think of New Year's resolutions, I think of ridiculously idealistic goals that nobody ever intends to see through. No, I want to set some real goals. Things I can realistically accomplish and feel good about. Things that are actually relevant to my life and the stage I'm at right now. Specific, achievable goals. Anyway, here's what I've come up with so far:

• Walk Max at least 3 times a week (but aim for every day). Obviously long periods of ice and rain would be reasonable exceptions. I'm setting this goal because both he and I need the exercise, and it's also a good bonding time for us.
• Save $1000 by the end of the year. I'd like to save more, so I might change this later, but I think this is a fairly reasonable goal for now because it's about 85 bucks a month. I plan to accomplish this by cutting my spending in the following areas: food/Starbucks (I've already started this by becoming bff with our little coffee pot), extraneous spending (stop buying clothes because I've got enough to outfit a small village, start checking out books at the library instead of buying them), gas (if I'm not constantly running to Starbucks or the mall, I won't need to fill up as often).
  
• Declutter. This project might take all year. Right now, my room is basically an unlivable space because clutter has taken over. I want to go through ALL of my clothes (including the ones packed away in the garage) and throw out/give away 50-75%. That's my goal. I've got an obscene amount of clothing, most of which I don't wear. Having less clothing will solve three problems for me: 1) I'll actually have room to put everything away; 2) I'll be forced to do laundry more often, so dirty laundry won't be allowed to pile up; and 3) This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I think it'll give me more confidence if I only have clothing that I love. As it is now, I get down to the last few articles of clean clothing, and they're not really things I like, and I end up feeling uncomfortable.
• Eat a more balanced diet. Lately I've been subsisting on coffee, Cheerios, and frozen pizza. It ain't good.
  

Aspiring to Goodness

Tonight at work I finished reading Pride and Prejudice, which I truly loved. I think I want to read Persuasion next, maybe. I'm going to Borders in the morning to wrap up my Christmas shopping (since Amazon is stupid and couldn't ship my stuff in time, even though I ordered it early enough), and I'm also going to pick up a new book to read (even though I've got about a million laying around that would probably do just as well). I have to say, reading 19th- and early 20th-century literature is completely retooling my idea of romance. As in, reminding me that romance actually existed at one point in time. And there's no reason why it shouldn't still exist. This is why I don't like most contemporary literature. There's so much sex and so little real romance. There's no courting. No passion. I'm sorry, but jumping into someone's bed is not an act of passion. I think it's sad that our culture is so obsessed with instant gratification that we sacrifice real, lasting, soul-stirring connections for temporary, physical "pleasure." Why does everything have to be now? Doesn't it make it that much better if you wait, if there's a build up of anticipation, if you spend time really getting to know someone? The more I learn about the past, the more I think we've just been passing time. Things have changed, but have they really changed for the better? Is it better that a side-effect of feminism is children coming home from school to empty houses, resorting to sex and drugs for attention from their parents who are just too busy to notice? Is it better that a result of sexual liberation has been a rapid decline in romance and even MORE pressure on women to put out? Is our society better off now that racism has been confined to private conversations between parents and children? Shouldn't we be striving to be so much more than this? Shouldn't our goal be to create a family environment in which children are nurtured, not neglected, by both parents? Shouldn't "women's rights" include the right to be respected, not pressured or harassed? Shouldn't parents teach their children about love and tolerance ALL of the time, not just when the cameras are rolling or the neighbors are watching? AND WHY IS IT SO HARD TO DO THESE THINGS? It sounds so simple, and so beautiful, and exactly what we should all want...so why isn't anybody doing it?

I don't know. Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth caring about. I can try to live my life in this way, but who will it matter to? The best I can hope for, I guess, is that it will influence my own children and inspire them to live this way too. Maybe by the time I'm dead, being a better person will be the new hot fad and everyone will aspire to goodness. But really, I doubt it. I want to be optimistic that we're just in the hedonistic extreme of a moral cycle in society. But who really knows?

P.S. Jack Johnson's new album is coming out Feb. 5th, the anticipation of which is almost enough to make the abysmally-long January a little more bearable.

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

Oh lord, it's December. My holiday work schedule started today. Six days a week, 8-12 hours a day, for three weeks. Cha-ching! Tonight was a "light" night; I only had to work 7h45min.

Thursday was a big day for me. I got my oil changed and managed to play the dumb daddy's girl and still not get screwed over. After that, I went to the mall and bought myself some Christmas presents. I had every intention of buying myself a ring for Christmas, but when I was at Helzberg I fell in love with two and couldn't choose. So I bought both. A yellow gold smoky quartz ring and a white gold garnet ring. These pictures don't do them justice...they're so much more delicate & beautiful in person, especially the garnet ring, which sparkles like light hitting stained glass or red wine in a crystal glass. Right now they're both being sized, and I'll be able to pick them up next Thursday. I probably won't be able to wait until Christmas to wear them, though.

My grandpa is home & recovering nicely, and I'm also bouncing back from double ear infections. Things are going pretty well for me right now. Let's hope it sticks.

Entertain Me

Yesterday I was looking at my reading list and thinking, "Wow, I've read 17 books this year! That seems like so many!" Really, it's not. It's not even half of what I had planned to read this year. But it's probably more than I read in all 4 years of college combined (not counting books for classes). So it feels like something to me. :)

Instead of going to bed Saturday night, I stayed up and finished reading the last half of Joy in the Morning. It was such a good book, I wish it had never ended. It reminded me a lot of the J.D. Salinger books I loved so much in high school. Not in subject matter, really, but in tone. And the characters. I miss the Glass family...I should re-read his books sometime. I'm not sure exactly where they are, though.

Yesterday I bought the original Nancy Drew movies on DVD. There are 4 (it was a set), but I've only watched one so far. Well, I've seen most of one of the others, but that was on TV. They're really good! And Bonita Granville makes me laugh.

I really want to go to Starbucks and get a peppermint white mocha frappuccino, but I'm debating whether or not to also go to Dillons while I'm out. I can't wait to get my new debit card because writing checks is irritating.

Random Thoughts at Work

Tonight I work I had a shocking revelation: I actually like my job! I've gotten past the bullshit, have actually come to accept it. Of course there are times when I don't want to be there, but the pay is nice, and the work isn't really difficult. Plus I get to do three of my favorite things: listen to music, read (during my breaks), and think. Here are some of the thoughts I had tonight at work:

• The beginning of "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service feels like an epic game of ping pong between my ears.
• I'll never understand why Sondre Lerche isn't popular.
• I'll never understand why half the music I listen to isn't popular.
• I really love Joy in the Morning. It reminds me of the books I loved to read in high school.
• I should read an Agatha Christie book soon, mostly because I miss the phrase pukka sahib.
• Cheerios are the best food ever.
• I love my car.
• I'm having a crisis of conscience over a piece of mail I keyed. The zip code was written 72304, and it was addressed to Conway, AZ. The street was Dave Ward. I know in my heart that the zip code should've been 72034 and the state should've been Arkansas, so I keyed it that way. Is it more right to follow the rules or key a piece of mail to the correct destination?
• If I saw a piece of mail on my screen that was addressed to me, would it be like in the movies when someone visits themself in the future? Would my screen explode?
• It's taken me 6 years, but I finally really love the shoes I wore today.
• When I walked outside after work, it had rained and it felt exactly like an early spring morning in Arkansas. It even smelled the same.

Happy Halloween (I'm not dead)!!!

I guess this will be my only post for the month of October. Oops. :) I haven't been doing much, other than working. Last week I had my 90-day review, so my probation period is over now. It's weird to think that I've been working there for 3 months. Well, that includes training and everything, but still...three whole months, and I haven't made a single friend. That's weird, right?

Tomorrow night I start my cake decorating class at Cake Stuff. I'm mucho excited!

I need to get my oil changed soon-ish.