Quote of the Trip

While walking down the streets of Salisbury...


Jay looks around and turns to me. "This kind of reminds me of an old European town."

"Now why might that be?" I ask, laughing.

--------------------------------

Real update to come. We had shockingly good weather until the last two days. The usual traveling hassles - delayed luggage, snarky car rental guy, screwy directions, one of the worst meals ever, roads that change name at every intersection - and some extremely pleasant moments as well. And SO MANY SHEEP. I have never seen so many sheep. In fact, I don't think I really believed there could be so many sheep in one small country. Sheepfest 2007. For real.

Whoosh!

Denver wedding was very nice - had a great time hanging out with two really neat women from college who I knew then, but not all that well. And it's always nice to breathe the dry air of the Mountain Time Zone.

Picture added: left to right - Sarah, Jess, and Kathryn the bride.




And now we're off again! Should be in London in about 15 hours. (Unless my sleepy calculations are totally wrong.)

See you in June!

First things first

Passport arrived! Jay called me while I was at the airport in Detroit (on my way to Denver for a wedding) to let me know that the FedEx guys pulled into the driveway at the same time Jay got home. Yay!

As another note of praise for Bernie Sanders's staff, Kelly called me to confirm that she had been tracking the package and that it looked like it had been delivered safely. I am in awe.

I have free wireless in the hotel here, but last night it was EXTREMELY slow, so I'm just now getting around to the tag Sue stuck me with. Gosh. So, seven random facts or habits about me...

1. I hate the telephone. When I was cell phone only for five years, it was not uncommon for me to use twenty minutes TOTAL for an entire month. I think it's because I'm not an auditory learner by any means, and that if I need to really listen and retain information, I either have to write everything down or else it will be pretty much gone five minutes after I disconnect, except for the general ideas. No wonder I prefer email.

2. I've always had really long fingernails. Not intentionally, but just because they grow really fast and are pretty strong. I can't stand for them to be uneven though, so from the time I was about 9 years old, I've always carried a nail clipper with me.

3. I don't know if I actually dream in color, or whether I just remember certain things as having particular colors. Last night I dreamed that someone braided extensions into my hair with long red ribbons. (Clearly, I've been watching too much America's Next Top Model.) I also remember a dream in which my then-boyfriend (not Jay) was sitting at the end of a driveway juggling a basket of blue oranges. (I'll leave the interpretation to you on that one...)

4. When I was in seventh grade, my best friend's mother (a professional artist) offered to give me private lessons for free after seeing my sketch book. How stupid was I to turn that one down. D'oh.

5. I've always been pretty shy, but sometimes I can fake an outgoing chatty personality really really well, and with no alcohol involved. It works best when the people around me are either also shy, or don't know each other either. (In other words, weddings are prime.) Other times I morph back into the little girl hiding behind mom's skirt. But I can put it on when needed. Good to know, I think.

6. The trip starting Tuesday will be my ninth trip to Europe, but will be the second time in England. However, on previous trips I only left London twice - once to visit a friend in Edinburgh, and another to visit a friend in Oxford. Both of those trips were in October, so I've never actually been to England when it wasn't raining...

7. I like cats. Jay says I am part cat. Cats like me. Unfortunately, ever since my childhood cat died in 1998, I have had a brutal allergic reaction to cat dander. First the skin that came in contact with cat starts to itch, then turns red, and if not promptly washed, will break out into ginormous hives that will spread across my body until I kick them out with a nice 5-9 day course of steroids. So when people ask if I like cats, I say, "Yes, but the steroids are a killer."

I think I might just love my elected official now

Or at least, I love his staff.

24 hours after my call to Bernie Sanders's Burlington office, I got a call back. The staffer spoke to the National Passport Agency people and they expedited my passport and are sending it Fed Ex. I even have a tracking number.

I'm still anxious, but not vomitously so.

And on the upside, my nervous energy allowed me to finish this next project in only 8 days.





It still needs to have a crochet edging added to the short sides, and then, of course, it needs to be blocked, but I'm pretty amazed at how quickly this went.

Cursing, much cursing

This is so not good.

I spent two and a half hours on the phone with the passport agency (most of that time on hold or cycling through the voicemail options, of course). Despite the fact that I mailed my renewal application at the end of February, it was not logged in until the end of March. It is currently being processed in New Hampshire. The guy I talked to sent an emergency email to the center and said that would most likely get my passport to me before we leave (IN EIGHT DAYS!!!!! yes, I need all those exclamation points because they're standing in for the cussing, okay?).

MOST LIKELY.

So I tried to make an appointment at the regional passport center in Boston. First available appointment? May 18th. We're supposed to leave May 15th. Not helping.

Either my passport shows up this week, or this trip might not be happening after all.

Guesswhat

I found a part time job for the summer.

No really. I shock myself.

I saw a sign in the window of a new store that's opening in the nearby metropolis (ha ha) where I do my grocery shopping. Experienced Knitter Wanted for Part Time Help. No job description, just a phone number.

And I called.

And the store owner called me back.

And I went in to see her with a bag full of my recent knitting (which I will eventually post pictures of, but some things are intended as gifts to people who read this so they will have to wait).

And she loved my work.

And even though she was primarily looking for someone to open the store every day (which I can't do), she wants me to be "an independent contractor" for the store, helping with knit samples, filling in for her or the other employee, and even teaching classes this summer.

How cool is that?

Pretty cool.

That's right. I'm brilliant.

Hah. (Thanks to Sue for the procrastination tool. Just 12 more research essays to go!)

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Just one thing missing

Woo hoo! Finally heard back from my London contacts and we are good.to.go! So we've got two nights in London, three in Salisbury (near Stonehenge, for you non-anglophiles), three in Derby, three in Keswick, one in York, and the last night back in London again. I also have our rental car reserved - can't wait to watch Jay drive stick backwards. Heh.

Just one thing needed though. My passport.

I sent in the renewal forms the last week of February. The forms said standard processing time is 6-8 weeks. Other people I've talked to have said that they received theirs in 7-8 weeks. Eight weeks would be today at the latest. And the passport could conceivably be in our rinky dinky post office right this very minute. However - and there's always a "however" - when I signed on to their website to check the status of my application, they are now claiming 10 weeks to be the norm. TEN. We leave in a little over 2 weeks. If it takes the full ten weeks, I won't get it until practically the day we leave. So if it doesn't show by Monday, I need to call and beg.

*imagine profanity of choice here*

I knew I should have forked over the extra $70-80 for expedited service.

Our Viewing Pleasure

Or displeasure, as the case may be.

Recently, Jay insisted that he, too, would like the responsibility of choosing movies via Netflix, so I set up a queue for him and allotted him one of our 3 at a time movie selections. So far... kind of hit or miss. He's done well with documentary selections, though they've centered around sex and profanity. (I'm a fan of both, of course, so that's fine.)

On the non-documentary front, he's not done as well. First there was Transformers: The Movie. Note that the remake, live-action version of this film is not yet released. That's what he though he was ordering. Nope. Instead, we received the 1986 cartoon version. Which I did enjoy... when I was TEN. We returned that one unwatched.

Last night we had Superman Returns. I think Jay summed it up well when he said, "It's like someone forgot to edit that movie."

Really, how does one make a dull movie about a comic book character? The only character worth watching was the little kid, and even he annoyed me at times. Gah.

gah

Jay got me sick, the meanie. Sinus something. I can hear the snot forming in my sinuses and my face feels like it's going to splinter off from my skull.

Guess what I'm supposed to be doing this weekend? Yes. I'm supposed to be grading research essays. Guess what I won't be doing this weekend. That's right: grading.

Which means that next week is going to suck as I try to get everything done during the week, but so it goes.

I find this appalling

News story about women as second class citizens

Actually, it's an article about the Supreme Court ruling on partial birth abortions which does not have an amendment allowing for abortion to preserve the health of the mother. Women as incubators.

This kind of legislation seems to be pushed through by holier-than-thou patriarchal nimrods who believe that pregnant women and their fetuses need to be protected from bizarre non-maternal instincts. Because, truly, there can never be a legitimate reason to kill babies, can there?

Do they really believe that women who have been carrying a child for six months or more are going to take the decision to terminate that life so lightly? I can't imagine the pain that has to go into that choice.

(Sorry if this seems stilted... what I really want to be writing involves a lot of profanity, and that would probably just detract from the message.)

Why do women lose rights to make decisions about their lives when they become pregnant? Why do other people think that they have the right to decide ANYTHING in a stranger's life?

Would these same people welcome a stranger who told them that they were not allowed to go to church anymore because some religions caused people to be violent in the name of their god? (Of course not, because those other religions are false, and theirs is true and good.)

Or is this all part of the War on Terror? Thems hates us for our freedomses... so we'll take away those freedoms (especially from the womenfolk) to solve the problem.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Happier Days

Work is still making me sick, but I'm ignoring that for now in favor of making reservations for our upcoming trip to England in May. (Last minute? Who, me?)

So far I have 4 of the 13 nights covered... still need to confirm Salisbury, Keswick, and London. (Derby and York are all set). London might be set, but my former French host brother who was living in London (and with whom I intended to stay) informs me that he's now living in Tokyo. Tokyo! Crazy kid. But he thinks he can hook us up with one of his London friends (who we've actually met before).

But anyway... enough fun. Back to grading. Gag.

Definitely not worth it

The trip to visit the folks was very nice - that's not what I'm referring to, never fear.

No, it's the job that's killing me. I haven't written anything except this blog (other than grading comments) since January. Sunday nights, I get so upset at the thought of going to work the next day that I feel like screaming. (Sometimes I do scream.) I'm having trouble sleeping. I'm gaining back weight that I lost.

I spent hours this last weekend looking at job listings in the area. I am either over qualified (cashier/deli worker/etc) or underqualified (surgeon/dean/sales exec/etc) for every single one of them.

Something needs to change.

In the meantime, I need to survive the last 4 weeks of the term. Not as easy as one might suppose.

Somehow it's appropriate that we leave on April Fools

The thing that irks me the most about living in the boonies is that the nearest airport is a two hour drive away. For our 9am-ish flight tomorrow, we have to leave the house by 5:45am. Meh.

But the earlier departure means that we will be arriving in Pittsburgh before 2pm, which is nice. Only other flight I could find with the frequent flyer miles I had arrived around midnight... never fun.

Blah blah blah.

Going to bed now. 5am comes way too quick.

The Raging Koala

See, I promised, and I occasionally follow through. (I'm still waiting on the kayak pictures, too. Not my fault - I swear.)

About a month or so ago, we were invited to a game night at a fellow faculty member's house. Much fun - best chocolate chip cookies I've had in ages - and a whole bunch of games I had never played before. One of those games was called ImaginIFF. The idea behind the game is that you roll the dice and based on the roll, one player is "it". Then the person who rolled the dice picks a card that reads like this: If player X was a house, what kind of house would he/she be? Then it lists six different options, and everyone selects the option they think best fits. Majority wins the right to advance on the board.

Everyone ends up as the focus multiple times throughout the game. Some options are more revealing than others, and it doesn't really matter if you're correct according to the player in question, only that you agree with what everyone else thinks about the player in question. Don't know if that made sense... but regardless... enough set up.

Two questions with me as the focus: "If Kate were an emotion, which would she be? Sadness, hatred, envy, love, lust, rage. Consensus went with "love". Safe and inoffensive, right? Guess which one Jay picked?

Rage.

And you know what? He's totally right. I have an insane temper. And I'm not using the word insane lightly, either. I can laugh off a lot of things, but when I get really angry, I become a different person. I don't have any control of myself when I get a rage on. It's genetic. Seriously. Why do you think I don't live near the folks? This, I'm sure comes as no surprise to the people who know me well. But I'm at least glad that I don't project that image to the people who don't already know and love me.

So that's the raging part. The koala part comes about in much the same way. The only funny part is that out of the choices (panther, golden retriever, palomino, crocodile, koala, and something else I can't remember) all but one person out of the eight who were there chose koala for me. Even the ones who didn't know me. I guess it's the ashy blondness, slight pudginess, and my undeniable cuddliness.

But when you put the two together: Rage + Koala ... slightly incongruous, non? And yet, oddly representative of my personality.

*Note to self: must find picture of berserker koala

Lazy Girl's Post

This is the blanket I made for my FIL and his new wife as a combined wedding present/xmas gift. That's a full-sized bed in the picture. I will never make a garter stitch blanket that big again. No no no.



I am working on a post about raging koalas... but that will have to wait until after I figure out what we're doing in class this afternoon... sigh.

Lacey Goodness

I started this on my birthday (March 6th). (Someday I will even figure out how to get my pictures in focus...)






That's one pattern repeat. I'm now done with three pattern repeats (as in, it is now about 3 times as long). The pattern is from Winter 2006 Interweave Knits magazine. The recommended yarn is a fingering weight merino. I'm using laceweight (finer than fingering) 100% alpaca. I'm really loving the way it is turning out. I'll post more pictures when I'm done.

Back to the grind

On the last day of my 30th year...

I really need to be prepping for class, but I didn't want to leave Grandma's obit at the top of the page any longer.

So, here's the easy way out:

This is the hat I made for K2's birthday last month. My own pattern.



These are the matching mittens.



And here's what happens after grading 30 english comp papers:

Marie O'Keefe Vorobely

My dad just called. Grandma died last night.

I met Grandma when I was just a little girl, 2 or 3 years old. She lived in the apartment complex opposite ours. She had other grandchildren - her sons' kids - and we all used to play together. I remember that she used to have the flavored ice cream cones - the cake cones that were brown, pink, or green. She wasn't biologically related to us, of course, but that never made her any less family.

Her first marriage was abusive, and with the help of her parish priest, she escaped and divorced. I can only imagine how bad the marriage must have been for a Catholic priest to actually condone divorce. She was a tough lady with a sparkle about her... my mom always referred to her as a leprechaun. The last true memory I have of her is from 1999 when I took her to a Dervish concert (Irish music) in Pittsburgh. She practically danced in her seat the whole time. She wasn't even five feet tall, but her spirit was huge.

That sparkle has been extinguished for many years now. Alzheimers took her mind and spirit long before her body died, but I still feel incredibly sad to know she's really gone. And her husband Sam will be devastated. I don't know how he's going to keep going without her. Their friends have slowly disappeared, unable to cope with Marie's slide. Grandma was always the social butterfly, and Sam was the cranky old man with the heart of gold.

I'm worried about how that heart's going to hold up through this.

But wherever Grandma is now, it has to be a better place than the one she'd been trapped in for the last eight years. So I'm going to picture her in her gingham square dancing dress with the fluffy petticoats and that impish grin and twinkling eyes.

I hope you're dancing with all the handsome young men. I hope they can keep up with you.

What I've been doing instead of blogging

Now, hopefully, I'll get this picture thing right the first try... here goes.

This is the belated xmas/valentine's present for my G'ma-in-law:



Note my teeny tiny desk and the resulting mess. Also note the brand new MacBook! Now, knitting lace is kind of nifty because it looks all soft and squishy (and far smaller than desired) when fresh off the needles. To change this, you have to soak it and then stretch it flat and pin it in the desired position like this:



I have more pictures to post, but I'll stop momentarily to test the process.