Jeans and Sneakers

My husband and I, surviving through all of the photos.

We made it home, after an amazing time in Barbados which, after the wedding and hanging out with people, it did not take long to realize that we planned a REALLY long vacation/honeymoon.

We’re homebodies.  For us to be away from the house for 9 days. . .with limited internet access. . . was interesting to say the least.  I read 3 books.  Rob read 2. We went to the beach a LOT. We ate food.  We saved a crab from our private plunge pool and we tried to catch a teeny frog.

Anyway, we’re home now, and there’s much to be excited about! The lower level of our house is mostly complete!  We had the carpet installed yesterday, and last night Rob set up his amazing 7.2 speaker/home theater system.  We inaugurated the event by watching The Dark Knight, and it was awesome!  So much better than going to the movies, on so many levels. (I can have a blanket if I get too cold, our seats recline fully, there are no annoying people getting up or talking through the show, and if we wanted. . .we could watch movies naked! WIN!)

I love our new set up, but it has become obvious, as I knew it would, that there is no place in the house (not even my room) where I can “escape to” if Rob feels like listening to music really loud on his system. Which he frequently does when he’s got a system worth blasting.  Which is DEFINITELY the case now.

I’ll be starting school in September, (and I just saved like $400 on books! WORD! Thanks Ebay!) and school means homework and studying.  Now I’m not saying that Rob is so unsympathetic as to blast music when I have to study.  If I ever asked him, he would undoubtedly turn his music down.  My problem is, I look at it like this: Why should Rob have to turn down his music when he wants to listen to it loudly just because I have to study? I think I might be spending some time at the library this semester.  Also, I’m pretty sure I need to get a more traditional “job”.

I’m really not happy about the job situation, but it comes down to this.  Weddings, even ones that are planned with every best intention to be as cheap as possible, are expensive.  My bills still come in every month, I owe people money for some of the wedding planning, and I need a steady source of capital to pay it back.

I wonder what kind of job I can get with my school schedule that will be worth doing.  I have at least two days of the week where I have class in the morning, and then the other days I have class at night.  So I can’t get a full time day job, or a full time night job either.  Which brings me to part time, which also makes me sad.  Most part time jobs don’t pay very much.  :/

While in Barbados, all of the boredom free time gave me a chance to stop and sort of take stock in my life, my current situation, and things of that nature. And what I found was sort of worrisome.  I’m not sure if computing is still a field I want to work in.  I mean, I still have interests in programming and such, but the more I think about the likelihood of me finding a job in a related field that I’ll enjoy and that pays me what I want to be paid. . .I dunno.  I mean, that was part of my whole reasoning for going back to school, was to try and get into a field I enjoy and to make more money than a secretary’s salary. I haven’t made any life changing decisions, I’m going to continue going to school, but I am thinking about it now, with a mind open to how well I adjust to my upcoming classes.  I don’t know, we’ll see. I miss doing crafty things. :[

I also really want to write.  I’ve been watching episodes of The Vlog Brothers on YouTube, and with all the talk about John Green’s book Paper Towns (I know I haven’t caught up yet), and having read 3 books in the past week, I really want to try writing a book.  I already had plans to actually participate in NaNoWriMo this year. But something else in me wants to write a book NOW, not wait until November.  The obvious problem with this urge is of course, the lack of book idea. Hopefully I can come up with something and start writing.

I also have a slight urge to start up a YouTube channel.  I’ve had a really fun idea for a few years now, and I think that I could turn it into something awesome. . .if I get motivated enough to actually do it.

And that’s all for my rambling update for now.  I have not been knitting.  A fact that I hope to remedy soon.

It is Wednesday, August 12th.  HOLY EFF.  Where did the time go?! In 24 hours, I will be getting ready to leave my house, to drive to JFK airport. . .to FLY TO BARBADOS. . .to get MARRIED!!  YAY!!!

Seriously, I am so incredibly excited.  SO SO SO SO SO excited. We got luggage, and I started packing, and we’re talking about making a movie list for movies to bring to watch on the flight.  I have to get my nails done tomorrow, but I’m wondering if it’s really going to last until Saturday, so I’m seriously also considering just doing my own nails on like, Friday or something.

I wasn’t supposed to be awake now.  I woke up at like 9 am today (I really mean yesterday, Tuesday), but then was so awesomely comfortable in bed that I stayed there. Now it’s 5 am and I’m still awake.  Though I am kind of tired, I don’t know if I should go to sleep, because it’s going to seriously mess up my proposed schedule for tomorrow (today).  We were supposed to wake up at like 8am, so that we’d be tired enough to go to sleep early so that we could wake up at 4:30 am on Thursday to leave by 5:30. And here it is, almost 5:30 am on Wednesday, and I haven’t slept yet.  And I have to give Rob a haircut.

Refraining from beginning this sentence with “Seriously,” because I did that already, I am not joking when I say that I’m so excited right now, and I don’t know how to better express it.  I feel like jumping around and dancing, but I am starting to get a little bit sleepy so I’m not going to.

I’ve been watching the Vlog Brothers videos (holy crap it’s hard to type with long nails and not typo.  Backspace is my best friend for this post.), and I have been greatly influenced by them.  I want to start making vlogs again, only I had an idea about making a weekly show or something that wasnt’ a vlog but like . .a show.  A fictional show, sort of like a short story, but a short show.  So every time I posted a video, it would be this little mini movie or something, that I’d write, and then act out.

We have a video camera, so I CAN do this, I just haven’t yet. Maybe when I get back from BARBADOS HOLY EFF IM GETTING MARRIED!!!

It’s been a really long time since I’ve been planning for my wedding and stuff, and there’s been a lot of stress and waiting and hoping and wondering and anticipation in the whole thing for me and now that it’s 4 days away (HOLY CRAP) I’m really starting to bug out in the best way possible.

In weird other news, my stomach was not bloated today for the first time in since I can remember in my short term memory. I thought about what I ate yesterday and realized that I did not eat anything bready yesterday.  I heard about this disease or digestive intolerance of wheat gluten, and I really do think I might have it which would suck because I love bread and cakes and stuff that has wheat gluten in it.

I just looked it up.  Celiac disease.  Apparently it’s really hard to tell if you have it by symptoms alone since it’s symptoms vary wildly in different people.  All I know is, my stomach has been bloated for at least a month straight, and this morning (Tuesday) I woke up and it was mostly flat (I’ve gained some weight. :[ ), and I didn’t have anything bready or wheaty in the past day. I tried to not have anything bready or wheaty today to see if it would continue, but I sort of failed.  I don’t know if those noodles you get with wonton soup have wheat in them, but I ate some on my asian chicken salad from Panera today.  And I also had some Smartfood popcorn, which may not have wheat gluten in it, but it did have cheese on it, which I know gives me gas.  STUPID LACTOSE!!!

Anyway, I’m really, really, really, really excited that it’s almost time to go to BARBADOS!!  And I have to go take a shower now.

I’m pretty excited about it.  My final dress fitting is on Thursday.  Everything else has been all settled and planned for months, so now it’s just waiting.

We went to go see StaticX tonight, they put on a pretty good show.  What a pain in the ass it is for us to get to the city though!

The house is coming along well.  We’re ready to sand and paint the lower level, at least some of it, but we should start painting later this week.  Things are happening so quickly now.  I have to contact Stony Brook soon to see if there’s room for me to attend this semester or what.  I’m not really holding my breath though.

I keep slacking on getting my portfolio site done.  There are a few things left to do, and then I can just update it here and there, but for some reason it’s really hard for me to sit down and work on it.

I’ve been listening to audiobooks lately, and knitting.  I started a Baby Surprise Jacket for a friend of mine in AZ who’s having a baby boy soon.  I might be late with it, but I don’t think she’ll mind.  I don’t even know when she’s due, I should probably find that out, along with her mailing address.

I need to start running, now that my treadmill is fixed.  I also should start doing situps and stuff again, I kind of slacked off hard with that. And trying to get to sleep at a normal time.  Now is no exception.

Is it just me, or does everyone always begin a traveling expedition with minimal amounts of sleep? Ever since I can remember, a trip meant excitement, unknown territories, and it all begins with one endless night of imagination and lack of sleep.

Tomorrow we’re flying into New Orleans for a wedding on Friday.  I took a melatonin.  It hasn’t kicked in yet.

I’m wondering about all of the awesome things we’re sure to see, all of the fun we’re about to have. . .and sleep is nowhere on my mind. Except that I know that I should be sleeping, because I know come 8:30 tomorrow morning, my alarm will be going off, and I’ll be running around like crazy making sure I’m not forgetting anything.

More later, hopefully with pics.

Has officially started.  My first class, Computer Programming, was this morning.  I’m pretty excited about it, since the teacher of this class doesn’t seem like as much of a douchebag as the guy who taught the intro to programming class.  Time will tell though.

Work gave me my first big, big assignment, so I’m pretty excited about that.  And off to a head start on it also.  Getting back into the flow of writing web pages is interesting, but I’m sure I’ll acclimate easily enough.

I finally finished the Long socks!!  Check it out:

I didn’t realize I started these bad boys in MAY.  I kept putting them down for long periods of time, especially during the musical.  I don’t think I really touched any knitting during that.

Well, I’m back on my knitting game and these came out better than I expected.  Well, I guess I really mean I like the finished product way better than I thought I would.  They’re warm, soft on my skin, and long enough to either pull up or slouch down.  The colors are vibrant, and the stripes kind of grew on me.  Yay new socks.

I also finished Rob’s hat, that was a very quick knit, I just needed a movie or two to keep me in one place long enough to knit on it.  And that means, it’s time to cast on something new!!  Actually, I’m working on the other endpaper mitt but I do have plans to make another anthropologie inspired shrug in grey.  Wooooo!

This is weird.  Weird like yesterday, when Rob and I had time to play video games before work.  Actually that was really fun.

Got to bed/sleep at around 11 yesterday, and thusly woke up at 6 this morning.  I had time to lay there for 30 mins and do nothing, before showering, getting dressed (an actual outfit and not just pj’s), making breakfast, eating it, and now I’m sitting here messing around on the internet.  And there’s still an hour to go until I officially should be “working”.  This is so weird, but definitely in an awesome way.  I never thought I could do this.

In other, non-astounded news, I actually started doing stuff for work.  It’s challenging, and I got pretty downhearted yesterday, but by the end of the night (and I do mean end, I was working on stuff until around 10:30), I had accomplished something and it felt good.  Looking forward to the same today.  All that working left me no time for knitting though, and that kind of sucks.

Today I have an eye exam.  On Saturday my left eye decided to not like my current prescription, so I found a place around here with a coupon for $20 eye exams.  Woot.  Too bad that’s not for contacts too.  Oh well, I can always go back.

I think I’ll be keeping the orange hair for awhile.  I kind of feel dumb, but seriously, who cares.  If you can’t dye your hair some absurd color and then rock it, then wtf is the point of doing it in the first place?  None.  That’s right, none I tell you.  Besides, I want to take some pics of me with the Holga with the crazy hair.  And I need a blow dryer.

Anyway, It’s Tuesday, things are looking good, I’m home, relatively warm, fed, drinking tea, and about to start work.  Life is good.

Rob decided he needed a new winter hat (mostly I think because he can’t find his old winter hat) a few days back, so we picked out yarn and a pattern and he ordered the yarn.  It came in today, of course, malabrigo, and I cast on.  This was my first time using the long tail cast on, and most people probably wouldn’t believe me, but I found the Italian tubular cast on easier!  I did the Long Tail for this because it’s a hat, and the hat begins in 2×2 ribbing, something I couldn’t find any info on for the Italian version.  Though now that I think about it, I probably could have done it that way too.

Anyhow, new project cast on, Turn A Square, by BrooklynTweed.  It should be a quick knit since I’m not doing any stripes or anything, Rob just wants a plain black hat.

I finished the first Endpaper Mitt. . .and I’m not sure if I have enough CC yarn to make another one.  I’ll probably try anyway, but I want to go to a yarn store tomorrow and see if I can find one of those finger yarn guide things.  I’m also planning another pair already, to help me loosen my stranded knitting technique, and so that I can make up my own chart, dunno what I’m going to do yet, but the idea is there.  I really should finish those socks.  There’s not much left, I just got so bored with them!!

The first day at my new job was pretty mellow, but all that really happened was I got setup with everything and then started reading some tutorials.  The work seems pretty straightforward, we’ll see when I actually start doing things.  I haven’t done enough yet to not be worried about it.  I do plan on trying out some of the things I learned today on some of my sites.  Maybe redo tot.  We’ll see.

Happy New Year!!

My internet new year’s resolution this year is to try to blog more, and not about boring stuff that no stranger on the internet would want to read.  So in keeping with that, I’m writing today, and I bring you this:

My very first stashbuster (Endpaper) mitts, the first one anyway, nearly completed.  The second photo shows all of the progress I made yesterday, showing just how much I can get done when I really put my mind to it, or when I’m trying my best not to fall asleep.  Lol.

I’m excited about these, but this one is really tight, I’m going to have to try and ease up my stranded colorwork.  Hopefully I can, or I’ll have to find someone with ridiculously skinny hands and wrists.  My hands and wrists are pretty darn skinny, so that’ll be difficult, especially since I don’t know of anyone with a 7 year old girl.

My plans for today consist of making waffles, finishing my laundry, watching Rob play video games, and finishing at least this mitt, if not starting the other one.   I should be finishing my socks, but I’m so ridiculously bored with them, I needed something else.  These mitts are fun, the chart is easy to follow, and mostly I just take a quick glance at it and make sure I know the pattern of the row, and then I don’t look at the chart anymore.  I can already see me making another pair of these with my own custom chart.  That’ll probably come right after this, even though it’s 2009 and no longer the year of the stash for me, I’m broke until probably February, and I still have stash yarn to keep me happy.  :]

Oh, another quick note, I removed the progress meters from my blog.  I figure I can write more about my knitting rather than just updating the meter, and besides, my projects are all on Ravelry anyway, complete with progress meter.  This blog is overdue for an overhaul, I’ll see if I can come up with something soon.  I start my new job tomorrow!!  I’m nervous about it but I’ll probably be fine.  There’s no rest in sight, as my cousin might want to hang out on Saturday and Sunday I’m getting my hair done all day (pics when I get them).  That’s all for now, enjoy the day off!

Finally, I can post about it!!  I put in my two weeks notice last Thursday at my job.  For all too many reasons, I’ll be more than happy when my last day there has passed.  I got a job learning programming stuffs with a friend, and I’ll be working at home starting Jan 2.  Thank goodness, and good riddance.

I finally got one.  A macbook.  And not just any macbook, the newest, awesomest, coolest macbook that is definitely worth the high price tag (but not too high, student discount, ftw!).

I’ve wanted a laptop since I first saw one, and now I finally have one.  This thing is awesome.  I’m imagining all of the silly things I can do with it.  :]  I might even blog more often having a full sized keyboard to rant on.