First day...

I'm back taking classes at the main campus of SPSCC for the first time since June 2007. It's very strange, especially since I am also taking an online class, but I have high hopes. My goal is all As, which is sort of a high expectation, but I need it to get my GPA up. The cumulative is currently 2.97, after adding my fall quarter 4.0. If I get all As through spring quarter, my GPA should be around 3.2, but that's not necessarily true considering if SPSCC uses specific weights for certain classes. I can at least expect it to be over 3.0 which is good.

I would rather have a 4.0... hmmph.

ETA: Well I guess I only need a 2.5 do be considered for UW, but I would still rather have a 4.0

Lookin' good

Painting my nails.. I baked a whole chicken today! It was actually pretty easy, the hardest part was making sure it was defrosted and battling the smoke detector during cooking. I'm deathly afraid of the apartment's fire alarms (these giant, scary looking, office-grade alarms connected with metal pipes all around the building), so I refuse to disable the smoke detector because it warns us before the fire alarms go us. Although, there really was no fire, and my chicken turned out great. Shane did most of the work, but I made the seasoning and told him how to do everything. And I pulled out the lungs or liver, I'm not sure which it was. I don't really like handling raw meat, and I was in the middle of doing 3 hours worth of dishes. I also papered my dishes cupboards (previously were scantily clad in the ugliest paper ever, and where they weren't clad, they were sticky or gross), and reorganized the dishes, pots, pans, mixing bowls, appliances, tupperware, utensils, and cooking accessories. I found that easier than papering a drawer is finding some fabric and folding it up nicely, sort of like a little pillow for whatever goes in the drawer. I also consolidated our junk drawers (we had two) and had Shane sort the result out. Yay for progress! Here's what I've been doing:

Nails. This stuff is FABULOUS for doing nails. It's Avon's quick dry spray, and within 10 seconds it makes your nail polish/topcoat/base coat/whatever dry. Sweet!

And here they are, filed and base-coated. I still haven't decided if I want red nails or natural nails...

Writing/Drawing. For a couple days I literally had to get up and draw or write because I couldn't sleep with all the images and words dancing in my head. I think it's one way I deal with pain, and it's certainly pain I'm feeling, losing my uncle.


Shrinky-dinks. I've been thinking about opening a page on Etsy, and selling my stuff, since we're certainly not rolling in dough, but I am rolling in craft supplies! These ones are an idea I have for earrings. They're swans, I think, but at least some kind of bird.

These two will be pendants. I'll call them, respectively, "Freeform" and "Jungle." They haven't been shrunked yet, but I forgot to ask my mom to bring the hole punch, so they'll have to wait some more.

Last but not least, knitting! Here's the progress on my turtle, it's just the body. I hope Jo will like it! All I need to do is pick up stitches along the side for legs, head, and a tiny tail. So cute! The diameter is shorter than my pinky finger.

Here's my progress on Sharon's GLB. It's looking pretty fine, if I do say so myself. 22 pattern rows down, 14 to go...

This is my very own knitting spool, in the shape of a mushroom :) It makes i-cord really quick, and it's super easy to use, and HEY it's a mushroom. Awesome.

This is mad scientist knitter Megan's latest experiment, knitting with wire. I think it looks pretty swell for a first try, and I'd definitely have to practice, but I can see potential. There are patterns for knitted wire earrings on Knitty.com, but I kind of want to make my own pattern. I don't know that I can sell something I made with someone else's pattern, or that I feel okay doing that, even if I can.

I've thoroughly exhausted my latest doings, and neglected to decide whether or not I want color on my nails, so it's out to smoke and read and make an impulse decision I'll probably renig when I get inside.

Also, there is going to be a Gears of War 3! Exciting!

What would Megan listen to: Amplified Heart from Everything But the Girl

For shits and giggles

What I need to do today

• Dishes
• Clean up a bit
• Use the ground beef for something
• Bake a chicken

What I want to do today

• Read my romance novel
• Play GOW2
• Make a family tree
• Knit
• Watch a show
• Make jewelry
• Make shrinky-dinks
• Play with the kitties
• Make a song with Electroplankton
• Write
• Fuck around on Librarything
  

Aaaauuugh!!

What would Megan read: Blue Dahlia, by Nora Roberts

Rabbit rabbit

Happy new year everybody!

I had a horrible dream last night, and woke up dripping sweat, although really I should say I was woken up dripping sweat, since despite my dream terror, I was really awful to Shane when he tried to wake me up.

I started knitting a little tiny turtle for my grandma, because although I was going to make her a bookmark, I was in a bad mood while I was making it and didn't like anything I was creating. The turtle is very quick and fun, so I figured I would enjoy that more for now. It only takes a few yards of yarn to make.

Okay, here are my wishes/resolutions for 2009:

• Keep blogging, even if my theme is dumb
• Get all As winter and spring quarter
• Apply to UW
• Make patterns and at least try selling some of my knitting/crafts
• Keep a date book or calendar of some sort
• Do dishes regularly (Which should be easier when we get rid of all the dishes we have that don't match. We have a set of dishes my mom gave us that all match, and about the same in dishes we bought from Goodwill. Since we have so many, it's that much easier to put off doing dishes, since we can have piles of dishes all over the counter and still have clean dishes in the cupboard.)
• Keep up reading novels even while I'm in school
• Quit smoking, maybe
• Spend more time with my family
• Stop spending money frivolously
• Enjoy each moment
• Turn in library books on time
• Take my pills every day
• Stop picking at my zits
• Move into an apartment with a dishwasher
• Get all achievements on Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3
• Let my brother spend the night more often
• Keep a clean house

They don't seem too hard to keep, as resolutions go. I've given myself room on quitting smoking (I have a love/hate relationship with cigarettes, because I certainly like smoking them and I like going outside to do so, but it gets irritating needing a smoke break every once in a while, especially when it's cold, they're expensive, and I want to quit before I decide to have children. That last part should be easy since I don't plan to have those anytime soon...) and most of them are achievable simply by changing my perspective. I like goals like that, that I can work to accomplish but that don't really have a set finish, so I can decide if they're finished or not finished whenever I want.

We're due at Tas and Teresa's for new year's games, so I suppose I'd better jump into the shower.

P.S. I tried the rice bag my mom gave me. You heat it up in the microwave and then put it wherever you hurt, but unfortunately it's heavy and constricting and although the heat feels good, it isn't good enough to counteract the above that makes my neck hurt worse. Poop.

Fuck it

My fucking neck hurts like a bitch, I died about a million times at Gears today, and this stupid theme has plus signs everywhere. ?? What the fuck?

Although I've had a pretty good day, for the majority of it (except for the four hours after I took a Vicodin for my stupid neck) I've been in a shitty mood. I have no clue why, but it's really irritating. I'm sure if it's irritating myself, it's probably irritating the people around me even more. I did get sushi today, though. Grandpa Jim treated us all.

I'm going to knit my grandma a bookmark with the remaining Rowan Felted Tweed I have. God, I can't even get excited about that! I need to unwind...

What would Megan read: Born In Shame, by Nora Roberts
What would Megan listen to: Radiolab from WNYC NPR

Frustration, anyone?

My neck and back both hurt, and for the life of me I can't find a suitable theme for this dumb blog.  Hmmph!  Not only that, but I managed to die last night in Gears 2, and now we have to do the whole dang thing over again.  At least my knitting is going well...

Back in the swing

Okay, so it's a little early, but my new year's resolution is to blog. So here I am.

I've been knitting a ton since fall quarter ended, and I've finished three fingerless mitts (yes, only three, none of them match, and they're all the left ones), three hats, and one teddy bear. I think it's relaxing, and it's so easy to do while I'm watching TV or listening to music or a podcast. Shane's mom Sharon and his dad's ex-wife Florence both asked me to knit them hats, and I've finished Flo's and am working on Shar's. They're this great pattern from Loop Knits, called the Grace Lace Beret. The pattern is so simple and beautiful, I love how it turns out. This is the one I knit for myself:

I love how it fits on me, the ribbing is just tight enough to stay on my head, but loose enough that it doesn't mess up my hair or feel like I'm wearing a hat at all, really. It's very comfortable. I knit it with some plain old red yarn I had laying around (the only yarn I had enough of to knit a hat). I think it would have turned out better if I used a lighter weight yarn. I also didn't quite know how to do the double decrease (slip two stitches as if to knit two together, knit one, pass the two slipped stitches over the knit stitch). It's supposed to look like a regular knit stitch that's just raised (as if it were embossed), but on mine it looks kind of like a sloppy k2tog (knit two together). Oh well, I had fun making it, and the one I've made for Florence was even better. I'm using Wool Bam Boo from Classic Elite Yarns on Sharon's, and I'm finding myself wishing again that I had enough money to buy yarn from Canvas Works all the time. Sigh. College life doesn't give me much room in my yarn budget. I did, however, get a giant box of yarn from Florence. I think I may even have enough for a sweater!

My uncle Dylan passed away on the 20th of this month, and the whole family is really distraught. It's very hard, although I'm not sure it's supposed to be easy. One way my body has apparently decided to cope is by having neck spasms. It's really frustrating and painful, because my neck is always tense. I don't often have pain like this, and it's helping me empathize with my boyfriend Shane, who has chronic back pain. Also, I've gotten painkillers from the doctor, which are quite enjoyable.

What would Megan play: Gears of War 2
What would Megan read: Born in Ice, by Nora Roberts