Embrace the World

In case anyone was wondering, decaf coffee doesn't taste like regular coffee. At all. It actually tastes remarkably like dirt. And I don't make a habit of eating dirt, so...

(This is not decaf coffee. This is yummy-licious real coffee. With caffeine.)

On another, more relevant to the usual subject matter of this blog, note...

I have decided that gauge is my knitting downfall. I know that I've mentioned before that several other things were my knitting downfalls (lace, fair isle, craft store crappy yarn, the list goes on), but gauge really irks me.

Apparently I knit to tightly, as I have to go up several sizes of needles every time I make something. Or maybe too loosely... I can't tell. I have trouble visualizing things like that. Which is probably in some way contributing to the issues I'm having with physics class.

"Well, all of the math you just did would be right, except for you forgot to take into consideration that the elevator is going down, so that's a negative, so your answers wrong. Physics is more about conceptualizing than it is mathematics."

*Sob*

But I don't know how to conceptualize, Mr. Physics Teacher. It's not your fault, my head is just so never going to work that way. Which is probably why I'm destined to a life time of knitting other people's patterns, and never designing my own. Yet another knitting downfall.

To be fair, though, I never really wanted to design my own patters. I guess there's really no cause for complaint in that aspect.

It's all good, though. I'm fairly certain that Dream School doesn't even have physics. As long as I pass this year, I'm in the clear.

Oh... speaking of which...

I sent in my acceptance reply to Dream School, telling them that I'm coming!!!! Eeeeee!!!! A future in writing beyond this blog is in the cards for me! Eeeeee!!!!!!!

At some point in time there was a definitive point of this post. Now I can't remember for the life of me what it was. Hmm...

Maybe it was to see if I could set the record for number of ellipses used in one post...

...

...

I count 8, including the last two...

Oops, 9!

Song of the Day*

"And the shadow of the day will embrace the world in gray, and the sun will set for you." - Linkin Park, "Shadow of the Day"

*Song of the Day Disclaimer- I normally don't like Linkin Park at all. Like, at all. I listen to music primarily for the lyrics, with a few select exceptions. Linkin Park's lyrics contain a lot of f-words and really sad, angry, miserable language. Well, to be fair, sometimes I can't tell what they say over the screaming. But I heard this song, and the lyrics are actually kind of nice, even if they are repetitive. And Boyfriend is pleased because he thinks this means that I came over to his side of the Linkin Park Opinion Station. It doesn't. I still don't like them. Sorry Boyfriend!

If It's a Hero You Want, I Can Save You

I have the irrational tendency to name inanimate objects, then refer to them by using "he" or "she" rather than "it." I'm sure that it stems from watching Toy Story when I was little, and not wanting to take any chances at finding out that all of my stuff was coming alive when I wasn't in the room and planning a mutiny because I never named them properly.

I'm not crazy, just imaginitive. Hence, writer.

At any rate, I named my laptop Billy. I don't know why, but his name is Billy right down to the name at the bottom of the screen with all of the user icons on XP, that says "Turn Off ___." And normal people write "Family Computer" or "My PC" or something to that effect. But I put Billy. And so Billy he is.

Billy was always defiant, right from the get-go. I bought him four years ago from BJ's Wholesale Club, with a coupon, and within a few months, I couldn't even turn him on without him freaking out and going to some horrible blue screen within 10 minutes of being on, before finally shutting himself down.

The support center had no idea what was going on, and we had to send him back to the company. Within a week, he was back home, and just about everything from the motherboard to the hard-drive had been replaced. Basically, it was a brand new computer in the old case.

Billy has been fine since then, up until recently when he's been acting down-right pokey, and freezing in places that he never did before, and refusing to coorperate with the printer. It could just be that he's four years old and outdated, but I think it's because he knows that I'm going to college soon, and will need a new Billy that is lighter and smaller and better-behaved. Shelly and Pharmacy Pete want to get it soon, in case there's another Episode, we'll know about it in time to fix it before I have to leave for Dream School.

Oh, I forgot to tell you...

I decided on going to Dream School. I'm just going to be poor forever. It's worth it.

And Boyfriend's being so nice and supportive about it. We're only going to be about 40 miles apart, which with public transportation, is, like, 10-15 minutes. No biggie.

Annnnd.....

I got onto Ravelry! Yeah! It's so very overwhelming, but everything I thought it would be.

And also......

I figured out how to whip-stitch live stitches and attach a new ball of yarn in the middle of a row without having to ask my LYS lady! I was so crazy proud of myself it was ridiculous. I just sat down with some Red Heart that I had lying around that my grandmother on Shelly's side had given me (or, as I like to call her, Big G. Janice. She's not that big, but Average-sized G. Janice doesn't have the same ring to it), and I just figured it out! Granted, my hem isn't that pretty, but it's on the inside, so it doesn't matter.

And knowing how to attach a new ball of yarn means that I also figured out how to do fair-isle! I own!

Song of the Day:
"I'm trying real hard not to shake. I'm biting my tongue, but I'm feeling alive and with every breathe that I take, I feel like I've won. You're my key to survival. And if it's a hero you want, I can save you. Just stay here." - Secondhand Serenade, "Awake"

You Know the Movie Song

I have never been so overwhelmed in my life.

And no, not because I spent an inordinate of time blowing up an inordinate amout of balloons this weekend. Even though I did.

Boyfriend took me to my real live LYS today.

!!!!!

As I've mentioned here before, I'm not a highway driver. There are too many crazy drivers doing crazy things, and I am just not up for that. I take defensive driving very seriously. As a result, I rock the craft store acrylic.

But I really wanted to make that pretty tank top, and the acrylic and wool that I would have gotten at Michael's would a) be too warm, and b) not hold up very well. It's okay for a scarf or a hat or something that I'm not going to wash every time I use it (not good, but okay), but not for this.

I told Boyfriend, and he took me. He volunteered to take me. I didn't even have to ask him. I have to keep him around.

Of course, the yarn isn't the only reason why I have to keep him around. Just one of them.

So we go there, and we were greeted by this extremely nice woman who was so full of energy that she made her little converted barn seem so much bigger than it really was.

The shop was a barn behind her house, that was every inch of wall space was covered with shelves and shelves of yarn. There was even yarn hanging down from the ceiling. And it was all so pretty.

I showed her the pattern, and she showed me three yarns that would work well with it within five minutes of me walking in the door.

I never would have thought to pick out those yarns on my own. She was so knowledgable, and so friendly, and so helpful, that I want to keep going back there. She even told me that if I ever had a problem with a pattern, I could come and she would help me with it.

I might love her.

And all the yarn. I didn't know yarn like this existed. She had Debbie Bliss, and Berroco, and Manos de Uruguay, and I think some Rowan, but I could be wrong about that. She knew just how much of it I had to buy, too. Including enough for a swatch for gauge.

Then, she took me around and had me feel all of the diffent kinds of yarn. I had no idea that alpaca and merino yarns were soft. Like, really soft. Like, Caron Simply Soft soft. The merino that the craft stores have is kind of scratchy, and I'm not even sure they have any alpaca.

I am a changed knitter. I have an LYS.

This is what I bought:

Isn't it pretty?!?!?!?!

As soon as I finish BFF's birthday scarf (which is almost done), I'm going to start working on the top until I find a coupon to Michael's so that I can buy yarn for my grandpa's hat.

I still don't know what I'm going to do about blocking the scarf, because it's so so curly on the edges, but I don't want to wet it or steam it and have the teal and purple bleed into the grey. Sounds like a job for Vogue Knitting!!!

And in college news, I talked to Shelly about the scholarship that I got to Second Choice, and about how I didn't want to just throw it away. But she thinks that, for what I want to do, Dream School is really the only place for me, and that she'd hate to see me not go there.

It's good to know that Shelly and Pharmacy Pete won't get mad if I have to take out loans that I'll have to pay back until I'm dead.

If I don't go to Dream School, I'm so afraid that I'll never be able to get published. And if I can't published, how can I save the world? Writing is the only thing I know how to do that can influence and inspire people. I want to help people, and save them in anyway that I can. I want to inspire them to do great things, and I want to save the world from all of the hate and crap that goes on.

I have a while to decide, anyway. But I think I know what I'm doing.

I bet my LYS lady would know what to tell me.

Song of the day:

"Juliet, when we made love you used to cry. You said, 'I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die'. There's a place for us, you know the movie song. When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?" - Dire Straits, "Romeo and Juliet"

Morning Walks and Bedroom Talks

When I applied to college this fall, I applied to four schools: Dream School, two schools that I didn't like as much as Dream School but will go to if I have to, and one school that I only applied to because it is 20 minutes from my house and I felt like I wasn't applying to enough schools. I got into Dream School and one of my second choices a while ago, and today I just heard from the other second choice.

I got in... and their going to give me an annual $16,000 scholarship to go there. Which is great, except that I'd rather go to Dream School, who hasn't given me anything.


Dream School has such a better writing program than Second Choice does. If I go there, I know that I'll have a better shot at getting a job in a publishing company and then eventually publishing a book. But I'll have to take out thousands and thousands of dollars worth of loans just to pay for it, when I can take out less and go to Second Choice.

I don't know what to do. It seems crazy to want to pay so much more money than I have to, but at the same time, I've always wanted to go to Dream School.

Grrrr.

I'll never be able to afford yarn again. Even Simply Soft with a coupon, as is my style.

Speaking of which, in recent knitting endeavors, I have come to realize how tedious stockinette is. I started knitting a scarf for BFF's birthday not that long ago, and I did it all in stockinette so that I could make sure it would be done for her birthday, which is only in a few weeks. And that's super and everything, and it's going quickly, but it's so boring. Really. I am a cable girl, and without any cables, I am just bored.

It is pretty though. Dull as it is, there's something to be said for the purity of stockinette.

And can I just say, that these pictures were not easy to procure? My sweet little purple Kodak was being so moody and tempermental. I don't know what has gotten into her.

And also the scarf is so very rolly. Can you even block acrylic?

Hmm... I just did the math, and realized that over 4 years, I will save $64,000 by going to Second Choice. That's a lot of yarn. And a car. And a wedding.

Or think of all the puppies I could get with that kind of money. Lots!

Song of the Day:
"But we sure had a good time when we started way back when. Morning walks and bedroom talks were how I loved you then." -Jim Croce, "Photographs and Memories"