Jeans and Sneakers

I’ve made myself write in my paper diary every night.  I only missed one night this week.  But it seems that writing there has completely obliterated any posting here.  I’ll try to balance more.  I’m really bad at time management.

Rob and I ran out of Xfiles dvd’s.  We’re waiting for the next netflix shipment.  In the meantime, we’ve started watching Lost.  I have a massive capacity to be a couch potato.  I know because I used to be a hardcore couch potato.  I kind of gave up TV when my sister went to college, because I couldn’t stand sitting in the living room watching tv by myself, with my little brothers running around making noise and my mom yelling.  There was no tv in my room, so I just stayed in my room and listened to my parent’s old records.  That’s when I really started liking classical music.

Anyway, I haven’t really been all about a tv show since around then, which was back in 1997.  So almost 10 years.  (DAMN!  Has it been that long!?!)  But this show is pretty good.   The characters are awesome, the plot line is not gaudy or showy, I’m really enjoying it, and I’m really surprised.

I kind of put the new sock down.  I got to the heel, gave it a go, and totally messed it up.  I had to rip it back to the end of the cuff and start the heel again, but I never finished it, and I haven’t picked it up again yet.  I will. . .but I’ve been knitting my dad’s sweater instead.  It’s going to take forever because he’s a very tall and long torso’ed man.  But that’s ok.  The yarn I’m using is so much more gorgeous than I thought it would be, so even though it’s just navy blue, it’s not just navy blue, and I’m constantly amused every time I lay out what I’ve done so far.

Work has been getting stressful.  My boss hired another kid, but we’re becoming more popular in the industry, and since heating season is upon us, business is really picking up.  It’s great for the business, but horrible for me.  I’m having a hard time getting all of my work done, and helping all of the customers that call and email.  It’s rough.  I’d be lying if I said I was still really happy with the job.  But they are paying me really well, and I have a goal to reach.  I’m not going anywhere until I pay off my debt, unless something extreme happens, like they try to make me work 12 hrs in a row without a break or something.  I really can’t complain too much, I’ve got Monday off for Yom Kippur, and I’m not even jewish.

The stress level has been sustaining itself though.  I stress about work, and when I come home, I’m all tense and can’t focus on anything, so I don’t get anything done in so far as ideas/planning/action towards starting my own business.  And that stresses me out because although I am accomplishing something by paying off my debt, I know it would be WAY smarter of me to get the business going while I already have a steady income, so that when it comes time to quit, there’ll be no break in cash flow.  There’ll definitely be a decrease, but no break.  But I’m not getting anything done.  I don’t know where to start.  I don’t know what I want to do exactly.  I just know that I need to ultimately work for myself and bring in a decent amount of money.

But knowing that, and seeing that I’m doing nothing about it just restresses me.  I think about how it’s a cycle and I get worse.  I told Rob that I need to relax so that I can get my creativity back so I can figure out wtf I’m going to do, but I have no idea how to do just that.  So I’ve been coming home and slacking on chores and watching too much tv.

Blah.

It was actually a pretty mellow time this year.  I got pretty trashed on Saturday night, but nothing crazy happened, just hung out with everyone and had a good time in general.

8 hours in the stock passenger seat of an 88 RX7 is not the most comfortable way to spend your Friday night/ Sunday afternoon-evening.

I started the Practice Socks, and tonight I just started the Cambridge Jacket for my dad.  But for now, I’m just relaxing watching X Files and trying to think of ways to start a business.  Work’s grating on my nerves pretty bad this week, and I’m anxious to not have to go back.  It’s stupid really, there’s nothing at this job like there was at all of my others to make me absolutely hate it.  But I guess that’s what’s making me realize that I can take tens of thousands of office jobs, either here or anywhere in the world, and I’ll most likely hate it.  This is not what I want to be doing, and the sooner I can convince myself that no office job will ever keep me happy, regardless of the people I’m working with and how much I’m getting paid.  I’ll still wake up to my alarm clock in the morning and want to hit “Off” and roll back over, snuggling up to Rob.

Today is the birthday of my amazing boyfriend. :] He told me not to spend a lot of money on a present for him this year, so I didn’t buy him anything. Everything I wanted to get him costs a lot of money. :[

I'm sure I'll try to find a way to make it up to him. :]

Birch is done. I hand delivered her to my mom yesterday. I was so worried that after all of this effort she wasn’t going to like it that much. Man was I wrong. It’s so much fun to see your own mother dancing around in something you made, giggling like a young girl. :]

Here’s a picture of Birch next to my Weber Grill, for size comparison. My mom’s pretty short, and isn’t a good example.

I’m so excited a) to be done with this, and b) that my mom liked it so much. It really feels great when something you’ve put a lot of effort into makes someone else so happy.

Now to start on a) my dad’s sweater, and b) the practice socks before I make Rob’s socks. It looks like I’ll not be completing the jaywalker pair until I can buy some red sock yarn. I don’t have enough to make a second sock.

I’m off to cook birfday dinn0r for my baby, and then watch some season 1 X-files. : ]

Birch is DONE!!  Pics to follow!

So. . .I didn’t really get anything done all weekend.  I had plans to finish the shawl, and to clean the house a bit, but I just ended up playing Oblivion the entire time.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I got stuff.  Rob got me a new camera, because my old one was dying.   It’s awesome!!  So many settings and features and stuff!!  The first thing I did was take off the sticker.  You know the one, the sticker that companies put on their electronics that boasts of it’s features.  The one that tourists and morons leave on their cameras and laptops!

It’s small and purdy.  I love it! It takes awesome pictures, all of the ones in my blog today were taken with it.

Rob’s mom likes to buy me jewelry, and she got me something exceptionally awesome this year.

The necklace it’s on here was mine already, (a thrift store find for a dollar, score!) but I think it goes really well with the pendant.  The stone is called a Picture Jasper or Picasso Jasper, because when cut in a cross section like this and then polished, they look like paintings.  But that’s just how the stone naturally is.  I think it’s awesome, and this one looks like a snow scene.  It’s bo-ti-foo!  (Watch some Jet Li movies if you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say bo-ti-foo.  And watch them with english subtitles, with the original language tracks. :]  )

I’m excited to have a piece of pretty jewelry that I can wear with just about anything, since it’s just white and black.
And since I haven’t had a progress shot of Birch in forever, here’s one:

I’m going to try to push to get her done this week.  I really miss knitting things that don’t take forever, and also, my new camera needs a case.