Busy busy bee.

We only had two school days last week and I was swamped.  Wednesday and Thursday were eventful for my friend Kate, for whom I played wingman while she got to know a particular guy.  Now the two of them have a date scheduled and are totally gooey-eyed.  It's cute!

Friday night was sorority retreat, we spent the night in tents.  My tent-full went to bed early (12:30 or so) and got some good sleep.  It was great!  I volunteered at Project Cure Saturday afternoon then went to the mall for a few minutes, came back and watched TV and went to bed at 10:30.  Sunday I went to a new church down in Franklin (with kate and her new boy).  I LOVED it!  It was beautiful and a really neat church.  Lunch at Cracker Barrel, back in time to change and go to sorority business meeting, then cafe coco to do homework until 11:30 or so.  Dorm, papers til 1....  Oh, you get the picture.

Basically, I have two exams tomorrow and tonight is a social with a fraternity and pancake night.

*sigh*  College is not normal.  This lifestyle is unrealistic.

I have been knitting a little.  I started on the scarf for Robert with that yarn I post a pic of in the last post.  It is delicious yarn!!! SOOO soft and way warm... It's masculine and reminds me of Fall.  Robert will love it.

That's all for now.  Hopefully I'll have the time later and something interesting to say!

Fall Break

First, got my hair cut today, and had it straightened.  If ONLY I could have it this way every day!  But it takes so long and is such a bother, I just can't do it every day.

Yesterday the Fam and I went to Kentucky Down Under.  We fed lots of birds and pet kangeroos and, my personal favorite, got to see all kinds of sheep!  They had nine rams, all different breeds, including a gigantic Merino.  His wool was oily and gross on the outside, but if you pulled it apart, underneath it was clean and soft.

Naturally, I just had to have some Merino for myself.

And here it is!  For Robert's Christmas present (don't tell him.)

I love it.  It's got a lot of very masculine colors in it and will make a wonderful cabled scarf.  It's also very very soft, and I'm sure we all know mens' tendency to avoid itchy things.  Also, Robert has a very particular sense of style and appearance, so he's sensitive about what he'll wear.  Therefore, I have to author a scarf that involves cable and is preppy but in no way feminine.  I'll stop before I make myself nervous.

Back to school tomorrow.  And I haven't done hardly a stitch of homework.  *sigh*

Looking Forward to a Break...

Weather today: 72 and sunny! Long sleeves (I just took off my jacket for the pic).

Countdown to Fall Break....  Two days.

Amount of homework this week:  Hellish.

Disappointment of the day: Maura possibly not coming to pancake night.  I needed some bestie time.  *sigh*

Looking forward to: Pancake Night!

Having survived (barely?) the Celebration of Knowledge (aka, Exam of Death), I picked up a handout on my way out of Dr. Byrne's class Monday morning.  On the handout: our assignments for this week.  40 pgs. reading due the next day.  100 pages of reading and a 3-page paper due Thursday.  In Microeconomics, Dr. Vilikova reminded us to be working on the assignment due Saturday called Commanding Heights.  Sounded easy enough.  "Watch three videos, answer 5 questions."  Not half so simple.  Each video is 2 hours long and the five questions are supposed to be answered with 2-page essays.  Needless to say, I haven't slept much.  I am, however, knitting while I watch these videos on Microeconomics.  I truly love economics.  It's so logical!

I finished the garter and the red scarf.  Now I've cast on for the fun of it!  I have to start Christmas gifts soon, but a few inches into these fingerless mittens and I just don't feel like they'd do for my sister, so I'll keep them for me.  I want to give Melanie some mittens with mohair lace on them.  Robert will be getting a hardcore hat, hopefully made of unique hand-died.  We'll see.  Mom?  Well, she's incredibly hard to shop for.  She always has everything she needs! And she's forever complaining about what clothes make her feel all hot and she's changing clothes a lot.  I wanted to get her a tea pot, but she pretty much only drinks iced tea and coffee...  Arg!  Daddy's pretty easy.  He loves to shop, so I get him gift cards.  Usually.

Fun thing I did this week:  make a legit list of requirements for my future husband!  Lots of women have these lists.  I had one started, but Sunday my roomie and a friend and I were doing homework at Cafe Coco for nearly 3 hours and we got bored.  So I pulled up my Long-Term To Do Lists folder on the comp and found my incomplete list.  I won't post it here, but we'll be walking some other girls through this fun and hilarious process tonight at Pancake Night!

So, off I go to get on that 100 pages of reading and writing those dangblasted papers.

Studying? yeah, right.

What's the greatest enemy of studying?

The internet.

Seriously, I'm about ready to call a no-electronics day!  I have to disconnect my ethernet cord and turn off Airport to get much studying done.  Class material is slowly becoming more and more electronic.  My gov't class is half online articles, half regular printed ones.  My Ancient World class is the same way, so is my economics class.  Quizzes, tests, study sheets, notes, articles and other reading material, instructions, syllabus... It's all online.

"That must be great!" you say?  "Everything is so easy to access!"

Yes.

But guess what else is on the internet....

Facebook, the home of Flair and stalking.  Abc.go.com, the home of Dirty Sexy Money, Desparate Housewives, etc.  AbcFamily.com, where new episodes of Greek and One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl appear.  Knitty.com, Knotions.com, Yarn Harlot, Panopticon, Style.com, websudoku.com, foxnews.com and CNN.com and Comics.com!

It was  great idea, the TAB option...  I mean, I can have my homework in one tab, then I'll be only a click away from a television show or knitting blog.

I've taken to setting my watch to 15-minute timer.  I'll ready/study for 15 minutes, then take at 5 minute break.... or a 10 minute break..... or... well, you get the picture?

This is why I don't want a job that puts me at a computer.

Knitting update!  I went to a shop called Knaughty Knitter in Murfreesboro this Friday night.  I bought 100% handspun Uruguayan wool in a delicious color: burgundy.  I'm going to make a short scarf in feather-and-fan pattern.  Hopefully I can buy some big sparkly broach and use it as a pin?  I'm in love, needless to say.

I also bought some very pure white kid mohair.  It's for a gift I'm giving a friend of mine who is getting married.  I'm going to give her a regular gift - a toaster or something - and also a handknit garter.  It'll have a very red ribbon through it.  I'll post pictures once I'm cast on.

I'm getting up tomorrow to take a walk.  I find that without regular exercise, I become a restless, edgy, annoyed person.  So, 5:30AM, hello sunrise!  (actually, the sun won't rise til 6:35 according to weather.com)

I found a great quote for the weather text tomorrow morning.

What is the weather text, you ask?

Last year, sometime in the fall, there was a very rainy day.  It has long been my routine to get online first thing in the morning and look at the day's forecast.  So, naturally, I was armed for the rain.  After three or four people said something along the lines of "I had no idea it was going to rain all day!  I wish I'd brought my umbrella!"  I got curious.  So, I asked people.

"Don't you check the weather forecast before you leave your room in the morning?"

And was stared at as if I'd just got off the banana boat.

O......k...... Something must be done!  And so, the weather text was invented.  I got up one morning and texted all my friends, telling them what the weather would be like that day.  They loved it.  I now text around 85 people every morning, usually including some cute quote or encouragement.

Back to tomorrow's weather text.  I was listening to a song by Natasha Beddingfield and it says this:

"A face without freckles is like a sky without the stars.  Why waste a second not loving who you are?"  It goes on to say... "Those little imperfections make you beautiful, lovable, valueable, they show your personality inside your heart, reflecting who you are."

Sweet, huh?

Well, that American Government exam isn't going to take itself.  I've got to get back to studying.  *sigh*  Maybe I'll find time this week to go sit at Angel Hair for a while.  After all, if I'm going to work at a shop, I might as well get involved with one early!

P.S. 95 days til Christmas!

I've been knitting!!!

The past two weeks have been unbelievable.  The 2+ hours of sorority stuff every night and 100+ pages of reading to do a day were pretty much overwhelming, but I'm still alive and got to take a nap today!!! (without skipping class to do it, haha)

There's still lot going on and it makes me reflect on how much is too much.  So many of these college kids seem to have been raised to move from one activity to another.  They're in 4 clubs and taking 19 hours and volunteering and working... Every time I try to do that, I fall apart.  As soon as I stop getting 7-8 hours of sleep at night, I become a depressed version of my normal self.  I'd rather be a very happy - if disappointingly inactive - version of myself than a stressed out, eye-twitching version of myself, you know?

I honestly don't understand what is to be gained by living such a crazy busy life, anyway.  Besides a better job someday?

I got a new keyboard!  Well, actually, I traded my old one with a friend to get this one.  Here's a picture! :) It's still in the box there, but that's really how thin it is!!! And it's not even as wide as the box, if you can imagine.  A tiny little keyboard.  I LOVE IT!!!!!

Okay, so back to my knitting!!! I finally got time to go check out Angel Hair Yarn Co. here in Greenhills, TN.  I was actually pretty disappointed.  I believe they were picked over from the weekend, but there wasn't much of a yarn selection (not compared to Crafty Hands back home).  As a result, it took me a while to find what I wanted, but I eventually picked up some stuff... I don't remember what and I'm too lazy to go find it.  I cast on for some fingerless mitts and I'll post pictures eventually.

I was going to upload a video for ya, but it's not working.  So you'll have to go without!  Too bad...

Back to reading my 100 pages for the night.

Deep Thoughts

I'm sitting in my dorm room, watching Ace of Cakes and ignoring the mile-long To Do list in my planner...

Knitting?  Yeah, haven't been doing that much lately.  Between twice-a-week Program Board Meetings and 3 hours minimum in the PB office, two-hour-a-day sorority recruitment practice and Dr. Byrne's 30+ pages per night of reading, I'm barely treading water.  I was called yesterday and asked if I would make 200 cupcake-cheesecakes for next Friday.  I said yes (bangs head against wall).  I'm such an idiot.

I've done a lot of deep thinking lately.  I don't like deep thinking, but it's time to do some.

Two of my close buddies here are seriously considering transferring.  Both are figuring out what they'll do in the future.  I've been thinking about that, too.  After I graduate, do I want to get a job with a big business?  Become a manager or founder of a small business?  Start my own wedding planning or knitting shop?  If I did decide to do one of those things, I need to get involved with those businesses and learn about them.  I do have a better idea of what I like to do:  I like to work with people, to interact with customers and be in an active space.  In other words, it's time to start planning, preparing and saving.

I still feel insecure here.  I love being with my family and I don't like living somewhere where I don't feel like I have anyone who 'takes care of me.'  I don't mean that I need someone cooking my meals and doing my laundry, I mean purely in a social and emotional sense. I am myself when I feel safe, and I feel safe when I'm with people I've known for a looong time.  This is why I love spending time with Maura or Deborah or other high school friends.  Why I love being at home with my Mom.  These people know me and love me and I trust them.  Sure, I have friends here, but none that are close like that.  Not yet, anyway.

I don't mean that I can't make new friends.  I can and do enjoy making new friends.  But I feel like I need the support and reassurance of my family and old friends on a more regular basis than I'm receiving now.  If I spend a couple hours with my family or an old friend every day, I make new friends faster.  Does that make sense?

A friend today told me that I should try and find my security within myself, to learn to create my own security where I am and not rely on my family so much.

I believe this reliance on my family developed in middle school, when I changed schools after 5th grade and then after 6th grade and again after 7th grade.  We also changed churches within those years.  I was in a different environment every year and wasn't allowed to create and keep friendships for an extended period of time.  The only people who remained constant in that turmoil were my family members.

Now I need to decide if my friends' idea that now is the time to "break away and create your own path" is the correct one, or simply a result of public schools encouraging separation from family as part of life.  There are no great emotional or social or other disfunctions in my family.  We're very healthy people - both mind and body.

What to do?  *sigh*

About those knitting projects...

I'm feeling much better about things today.  Due to troubles with my car, I won't be moving in until Thursday - which means Mom will be helping me!  I've also talked to several friends on the phone and they all have plans to get together and catch up, which sounds nice.  And I miss Cafe Coco...

I forgot to update on the project I mentioned a while ago.  That birthday gift for my friend?  It turned out wonderfully!  The bright colors are exactly what she loves and I went ahead and gave it to her because she had a present for me from her latest Europe trip.  Sweetheart. :D

I have since then finished knitting a sweater.  I still have to sew everything together (I did get one arm on there! haha)  And I'll have to knit the frontbands and sew on the buttons.

Here's what the sweater will look like, only it's a "marsh green" ultra alpaca.

We went to Enchanted last Friday and I think I'm in love!  The shop is beautiful!  I bought some handspun wool/merino blend made right here in Kentucky.  It's a very natural off-white color (I'm pretty sure it wasn't died.)  I'm making this wrap with it: