Well, if you read my previous post and the 2 comments there, you’ll know that I got smacked yesterday.  Aparently Bug was born 12/31 instead of 1/1.  Who can remember such things?  (I am usually doing well if I can remember how to spell my own name much less everyones birthdays – remind me to thank my mom for that one)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I think perhaps one of you have noticed that I haven’t blogged in a few days week.  I always hate the “end of semester crunch” in which all professors thing their classwork takes precedence and then go and assign a lot of work.  Fortunately graduate school is not that bad, but with a full time job, bible study, 8th grade bible study and then SCHOOL, the end-of-semester-crunch often gets the better of me.  Right now I have a paper due on December 2 (10 pages) that I have not even started reading for yet because I have another paper due on December 1 that I – literally – just finished.  So you can see where I’ve been lately.  The ONLY reprieve that I’ve had was the Twilight movie madness excursion last Thursday at midnight.  I have fully recovered and have dreamt about vampires every night since.  Last night I was pregnant with one…don’t know how that happened…but I woke up before I got to see what a .5 vampire/.5 human looked like.  I guess I’ll have to wait for Twilight movie 4 for that one.  The movie wasn’t all that bad – definitely a teen girl flick – and it didn’t have any yucky vampire sucking stuff, so that was good.

I am going to Plainfield for Thanksgiving and hope to have some pictures of bug to post over the weekend.  I can’t believe that he will be 6 on January 1.  Really, that last time I saw him (in August) he was 2 months old.  I swear.  I purchased Kung Fu Panda today and I hope to watch it with him on Thursday.  Lest you think that I’ll be slacking on this trip, I am purposefully taking the train so that I will have 2.4 hours there and 2.3 hours back of uninterrupted reading time.  (Unless I decide to take my knitting with me and that wins the battle – please pray that that does not happen, as much as I would like it to, because the PAPER is more important than KNITTING right now – and if you’re thinking of having me committed just for saying that, then you are probably right, just don’t commit me until after finals please). 

So I’m currently sitting in class (it hasn’t started yet…) and writing this instead of reading.  Which I think I’m going to do now.  TTFN!

I have this friend who is in to the Twilight books series and with the release of the movie at midnight tonight has talked be into going with her to see the movie.  At MIDNIGHT.  Tonight.  Hello….I have work tomorrow, sleep to be had and 2 papers to write.  But instead I’m going to see a vampire move that I know nothing about (except that the main dude is somehow a teenage girl’s dreamboat.(roll the eyes…) ….) at MIDNIGHT.  Tonight. Just commit me now.  Please.

I took a little hiatus from writing…did you miss me?  :- )  I was a little sick last week and missed work on Thursday and Friday (or rather it missed me).  I consider myself lucky though, that I am fairly healthy and don’t get sick all that often and when I do it is just a little cold that goes away after 2-3 days.  I’m not completely better but at least I can think clearly which is half the battle.

I had some success this weekend writing one of my papers.  My little cold could not have hit at a worse time, but I’m glad that at least by Saturday I was cognitient (I think I just made up that word) enough to think strategy and write about 4 pages, and I now have a clear train of thought and organization – usually half the battle with me.  Now I just have to read for, understand the content for, and write the second paper.  And have both of them perfected by December 1.  UGH!

Needless to say I have not done much on the SSMO.  I believe that I am at about 50 inches and am shooting for 70, so I’m getting close.  I figure that I’ll have at most 6 whole days to devote to it in order to get it done by Christmas, but realistically I could give it to my Mom and finish it afterwards.  We’ll see how close we get before 12/25.

I have knitter’s block when it comes to my mittens…which are being more and more necessitated lately due to the fact that it is SNOWing and COLD outside and I can’t find the other 4 pairs of mittens/gloves that I already own.  Its the thumb hole that is hanging me up.  I’m too chicken to try something only to have to frog it back – due in part to the fact that I’m doing the Magic Loop method and have 2 mittens on 1 set of needles.  Far too intimidating of a situation for me – and with the stress of school….it’s just not working out.  If ANY of YOU out there know how to knit tip-to-cuff mittens on 1 long circular and can offer advice on how to do the thumb hole, will YOU PLEASE LET ME KNOW?  My blue hands would appreciate it.

Shout out to Harry and Alex – Hey guys!  Thanks for all you do me.  My body appreciates it.  (They are my physical therapists for my neck….heh….I knew what you were thinking….)

The news and weather people are in cahoots again today claiming that there is a possibility of snow this weekend.  Second weekend in November.  Snow.  Not ready for it.  My mittens are not done for one thing.  I can’t seem to get the idea of the thumb gusset worked out.  I’m doing tip to cuff mittens, nothing fancy, and I’m to the point of doing the thumb, but I’m just not “getting” it.  So it can’t snow, not until I get my mittens finished.

I’m also thinking of knitting a cowl this year.  Not sure yet, but it would certainly help with the whole snow idea (which, btw, I firmly believe is a scare tactic dreamed up by all the manufacturers of all stuff snow to get us to go spend money on their stuff…) and keeping my neck warm.  Snow or not, it is going to be cold out there.

Toodles, and stay WARM, not snowey.

I have an addiction.  This is my confession.  Everything started with the circumstances of my birth.  Perhaps if I had not been born in Louisiana, or had a lineage back to the deep roots of the South, then I might have had a chance.  But it was not to be.  I have fond memories of my mother fostering this addiction in me, never realizing the proportions to which it would eventually grow.  I often wonder that if we didn’t live in the healthy, anti-fat, anti-carb, eco, green culture if my addition would have turned out the way it has.  But I will probably never know since this is the only reality in which I have ever lived.  In the grand scheme of things this addiction is probably not the worst thing to have happen and I am thankful that it is not of a nature that would require in-patient/out-patient care to kick.

Sweet tea.  That is my addiction.  Shocked?  I’m thinking perhaps you are guffawing over my disproportionate idea of the seriousness of an addiction that seems trivial to you.  I can understand that.  But the addiction has taken on a life of its own over the last 7 months and I’m having trouble keeping it under control.

Here’s what happened 7 months ago that started me down a road from which I am having trouble returning.  Do you remember my first escapade down to Oak Lawn in April to attend a book signing by the Yarn Harlot?  It was the one that ended up with my muffler/tail pipe stranded somewhere down near Midway Airport, in the rain, and with a painful, dreadful sound in my car (I would presume it is the sound that would happen if all cars were to drive without mufflers – thank goodness for thatinvention).  Well, my “friend” Kate suggested on the start of the excursion that we stop at McDonald’s (yes, that dreaded institution of all things bad) and get some sweet tea.  “Sweet tea?” I asked, not knowing that McDonald’s sold such a thing – and this far up north of all places.  “Yup – and it’s really good”, she said.  So we stopped.  And it was only $1.  For the large.  And that was the start of this hideous backsliding of all things “Sweet Tea” that I’ve been living for the last 7 months.  Please, if you see me walking around with a large McDonald’s cup in my possession, please swat it out of my hand and reprimand me.  Seriously – please don’t help me foster this addiction any more.  This is my plea for help.  HELP!

I have to say that yesterday was big.  A really, really BIG day for America.  I congratulate President Elect Barak Obama for his successful campaign.  I think most of you know that I voted for McCain (and if you didn’t and are now in cardiac arrest…well, get over it) and while I’m sorry to see McCain lose, both candidates ran a good race.  I almost (but not quite) regret not being downtown last night to hear his acceptance speech.  In thinking about it this morning I realize what an opportunity I had to witness and partake in history and exhaustion should not have played a factor in lack of interest (I mean, really, how tired do you think Obama was yesterday? )  Anyway, differences set aside momentarily, I hope and pray that he will live up to his promises and that he has the insight and wisdom to hire extremely knowledgeable people and then to also listen to their advice.  Kudos to you Mr. President Elect.  Race well run.

(Before I commence with today’s post, I want to give a “shout out” to Terry and Stu.  HI!  They are, for all intents and purposes, my surrogate parents.  They were our next door neighbors for close to 17 years and are wonderful, wonderful semi-parents.  Anyhow, I miss you guys and I send all of my love out to Tuscon…where it is much warmer that here…

Okay, so today is Sunday and it was not my day to serve at church today, which meant that I had the rare opportunity to sleep in and enjoy the morning.  So I did.  I slept in.  I went to Panera.  I relaxed and took my time.  Then I decided to be at church around 10:20 so that I could chat with people before the 11:00 service.  I walk into the lobby and I see Jennifer with her new daughter so I wander over and chat.  I mean, by now it was nearly 10:30 and the 9:00 service was still in full swing and I’m thinking this is a little strange, so I make a comment…and well, I think you know where this is going.  I totally forgot that the time had changed.

My theory on this is as follows.  One.  I grew up in Tucson (see first paragraph, this is where Terry and Stu live) and the most wonderful, beautiful and diverse state of Arizona (whose state abbreviation is AZ and not AR, for those of you who needed to know that) does NOT observe Daylight Savings Time.  So for the entire first, um, 20 years of my life I didn’t have to worry about the bizarre idea of time falling back and springing forward.  Granted that I am now almost (but not quite) double that age, and have spent a nearly equal portion of my life outside of the state of Arizona (AZ) and I had in it, one might think that my brain had gotten used to the idea of time flopping all over the place, but it hasn’t.  So that is point number one.

Two, while I do have a roommate, she and I are on completely different schedules and don’t really communicate to each other all that much.  So even when it was 9:30 (according to my pre-realization-of-time-change-time) and she was still sitting in my big blue chair watching the news or weather and totally not being concerned about her church (which starts at 10), I thought this a little strange.  But, as already stated, we don’t communicate all the well or often, so I didn’t ask and she didn’t offer up thoughts about a time change.

Three.  I don’t watch the news.  This is actually a travesty in my life, but I rarely even turn on the TV.  My total TV watching minutes in the last 2 weeks (serious, this is how pathetic I am) has been the last 20 minutes of ER (when did Jon Stamos get on that show?) and the first 90 minutes of Memoirs of a Geisha (which is technically a movie, but I’m including it in with my TV viewing minutes because, well, it actually involves the TV).  I only watched the first 90 minutes because I was so tired that I decided it would be worth it to go to bed.  Needless to say I didn’t hear the “news” that the time change was this weekend.

Four.  Nope, I can’t think of a fourth thing.  So I’m done; three is enough.  But you get the picture.  At least I was an hour EARLY to church instead of an hour LATE.  But can I ask just one favor?  For those of you who interact with me on a regular basis, consider this a plea to remind me next year when the time changes again, because I can almost assure you that I’ll forget again, and knowing now how much contact with the world that I actually have, I’m going to need all the reminding I can get.  Besides, next time I will be late.

So I’m now at office, after spending way too much time at church today, doing some much neede reading for one of my papers.  I have 2 due in about 5 weeks, so I had better get cracking.

Oh, and one good thing that did happen this morning. (Not that there was just one, but I’m only going to tell you this one thing.)  I have a friend, Charlotte, who is the other “Visuals” person at church (we trade off every other week, so she was the one working today) and she happens to own a lake house.  It is about a block from one of the Chain-O-Lakes lakes, which is basically due West from my house about 45 minutes.  She is going to let me stay there 2 weekends from now as a sort of personal retreat.  I’m mentioning this because I: 1) want to publically thank her for being gracious in letting me stay there, and 2) want to drive some business her way.  So if you are looking at a vacation rental in a charming little lake-side town, then please visit her website here (The Meade House) and book a spot.  It looks to be a charming little cottage.

MOM – PLEASE DON’T READ THIS POST – IT IS ABOUT YOU!

So.  I got home last night and was pooped.  A week of therapy (literally every…single…day), school and work caught up with me.  So what did I do?  I knit, of course!

I actually made about 1.5 inches of progress on the SSMO, which, the way this thing has been going is REAL progress!  I’m estimating that I am about 2/3 of the way finished…or something close to it.  And boy, is it looking good (Mom, if you are reading this (and ignoring my advice not to), I’m not going to say anything more about how it looks or the progress I’m making…’cause it is supposed to be a SURPRISE, which is why I asked you NOT to read this post.)

So I’ve spent most of the day preparing for my Wednesday night bible study (a whole 5 days in advance…aren’t you proud?) and I’m too, uh, brain dead intellectually unstimulated to do any reading for either of the papers that are coming up (I mean, I still have 5 whole weeks left…), so the only thing to do is to….you guessed it….KNIT!  More progress to be had!  What a weekend.