Socks and Typewriters

It has been a good week so far. 🙂

I feel so much more positive than I’ve felt in months.  I think the fact that it’s getting cooler out is helping.  I’ve never loved summer.  Too warm and not enough hand knits. 😉 I love fall.

I’ve started really knitting again.  Last year was spent figuring out my favorite stitches and mastering important to know techniques.  I’ve decided that this year I’m going to work more on textures.  I’ve always been intimidated by lace and chart knitting, but I’ve spent the last month or so really working on different kinds of socks.  I’ve discovered my favorite heel, cast on, and cuff size.  I love my new socks!

The first picture is of my finished Snow Day Socks! YAY!  That only took 8 months.. 😉  Next are my Mojo socks.  Awesome for getting back into the knitting groove as they focus on knitting, purling, and ribbing.  I used the Schopelle-Wolle Zauberball yarn that my mom and I found at Stitches Midwest.  The colorway is “crazy”… and it is.  The third picture is of my Kalajoki socks.  The pattern is supposed to mirror a Finnish river.  I had to rip out the entire second sock at one point because my river got a little out of control.  Finally, my Watercress mocks (mystery socks) .  Ravelry’s Sock Knitters Anonymous has a different challenge every month.  September’s was to knit all in one color: Chartruese.  They also offered a mystery pattern with clues throughout the month.  The pattern was good and forced me to embrace lace.  The color really grew on me. 🙂

I have a few more socks in progress right now, but then I’ll be hanging up my size 2 needles and getting down to some sweater business.  I have at least 3 sweaters planned for this winter and I already have the yarn for each, so no excuses. 😛

Meanwhile, I went with my sister, niece, and Jeremy to the Barn Sale at the Kane County Fairgrounds last weekend.  We found a few books and something even more fabulous…

  That’s alright, you can go ahead and be jealous now… 😉

It’s a functioning 1963 Smith-Corona Sterling typewriter.  I’ve always loved typewriters.  They force you to really think about what you plan on writing because there is no backspace key.

I’ve never owned a typewriter before because if they’re cheap they often don’t work and if they do work they’re far our of my “unnecessary accessories” budget.   Jeremy found this one though and just take a guess as to how much it was… You’ll never guess, so I’ll tell you: $1.  That’s right.  ONE DOLLAR. 🙂

Epic score.

Seven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWLpTKBFcU

“No one ever said it would be this hard” – Coldplay

Today marks the beginning of our 7th month trying to have a baby.  It’s been a bad day.  I’m frustrated.  I’m angry.  I’m sad.

We spent so long trying not to have a baby.  We were so careful because we knew we wouldn’t have been good parents then.  We didn’t want to be parents.  We didn’t have steady income, didn’t have our degrees, didn’t have space, didn’t have time, didn’t have the desire to parent.  Now, we have all of those things.  And no baby.

I look at all the women around me who never had to try to have a baby.  Women who got pregnant on accident or on their first try.  And I’m so jealous.  And then I’m angry at myself because I have so much to be thankful for.   I have a wonderful husband, a wonderful family, a place to live, fabulous friends.   But we always have a tendency to look at what we don’t have, don’t we.

I’m trying to keep myself busy now.  I’ve remade quite a few dresses and shirts that I don’t wear lately.  I just got our new dog collars listed in our store.  I finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I always try to read books before the movie comes out.  I like to critique them. 😉  It was a good book.  I’ve really gotten into African American lit since I took Kim Ruffin’s Af Am Lit class last spring (and aced it 😉 ).  I re-read The Hunger Games trilogy in anticipation of the movie that comes out next year.  I think that might be up there with my favorite series ever.  I like that there’s no magic, no mystical figures.  I like that the main character is an average person with obvious flaws.  Right now, I’m reading Inconceivable by Carolyn and Sean Savage.   They underwent IVF for their very last baby only to find out another couple’s embryo got implanted by mistake.  Oops.  It’s a really good book though.  It’ll make you pretty weepy.  I think that brings my grand total for the summer up to 10 books.  I need to keep reading though.  Books help me stay busy.  Betty White’s autobiography is up next and I’m sure that will keep me entertained. 😉
Meanwhile, my grandmother is coming to visit on Friday.  She’s teaching my sister, Becky, and me some fabulous cooking tips, since the two of us are pretty incompetent in the kitchen. I know, Mom, we can read recipes…. 😉  I’m hoping cooking with her will give me another hobby to hop into.  Poor Jeremy doesn’t always get the most nutritious dinners…
After she leaves, I’m heading up to Wisconsin to visit Jessica and Tyler for a couple days.  Here’s hoping for an early labor, Jess. 😉

I need more distractions.  Teaching is going well and my knitting class is scheduled to start in September.  Becky, my mom, and I might be taking a ceramics class at the community college this fall too.  I’m really looking forward to that.  I love ceramics and I love spending time with my sister and mom.

I’m trying to focus on the positives.  I’m trying to stay optimistic.  It’s not abnormal for young couples to try for a year before they get pregnant.  Plus, I just ordered a fancy digital ovulation kit via Amazon.  Technology and science are on my side. 😉

And so, here’s a brand new chart, for a brand new month.  Anything can happen…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Beginning of the End…

Je suis très bien!

Most people complain that 3 weeks of winter break are too short after usually having 5.  I argue that it was just about right.  I had a nice vacation full of sleep, knitting, getting old, and young adult adventure novels (my vice, you know 😉 ).

I just started my last semester as a degree-less student! 😉  It was a good day.  I loved my forensic anthropology class, but then again, I never really doubted I wouldn’t. (Suck on THAT double negative.  Or something).  I’m not going to lie, that was by far the most interesting class of the day.
My Native American Lit class and my American Lit courses went well, but they’re just the same old English class.  I don’t think I can sit through being taught how to write a literary question one more time..  Thankfully, I won’t have to.

I’ve officially decided that I won’t be going to graduate school for English or an MFA.  I don’t think either would do anything for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I in no way regret getting an English degree.  In fact, I think it was one of the most perfect subjects to usher me into adulthood.  It helped me learn how to think critically, to analyze things in front of me, and, most importantly, how to write.  That being said, I think I’ve gone as far as I’m able.  I can’t do much more reading a story, analyzing, and trying to come up with a unique paper topic.  That does nothing for me and does nothing to better the world.
I have a few ideas as to what comes next, but I’ll let you know next week when I have things a bit more figured out.

Tomorrow: African American Literature.  Wednesday: Criminology!

15 1/2 weeks until graduation, you know.

🙂

In other news, Jeremy and I are moving in with his parents at the end of February.  Our lease on our apartment is up and it makes more sense for us to move back to the suburbs, save a ton of money on rent, pay off some student loans, and, eventually, buy a house.
They bought a neat, old two-unit house a year or so again and have been doing a TON of work on it.  The rooms that are finished look WONDERFUL!!! 🙂  We plan on spending our weekends for the next several weeks helping them get it ready for four people and three cats to live in comfortably.  I knocked out a wall over the weekend.  It’s true, I’m a badass… 😉

I really am looking forward to being back in suburbia again.  I’ll miss the city, but I think it’s time, for now.  My friends are all graduating and moving (or have moved– CHRISTINE!) away.  I miss our family.  Being with them more often is worth the little bit of extra time it will take me to commute to the city.  It will also be nice to be living with my in-laws.  I don’t think we’ve spent nearly enough time with them since we’ve been married, and even before that.  Now they’ll get nice and sick of seeing us every day… 😉

tootles until tomorrows update. 🙂

ps. did you know that Whole Foods sells bath salts?  Yum.

Final Exams and Final Thoughts

It’s  cold in Chicago today.  Like Epically cold.  It’s even ice cold in Starbucks.  All the more incentive to make myself some fingerless mits… 😉

In other news… Finals have begun..

Or, rather, they’ve been begun.  I’m so close to being finished for the semester it hurts a little.  My motivation is lacking more than ever.  I have to give a debate today about the dire negative effects of global warming.  Who might really disagree with me I have no idea.  After that, I need to write a 6 page paper on Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”  It will probably only end up being 5 pages because I just don’t care anymore.  To finish the week, Lukasik’s final portfolio is due on Wednesday afternoon.  Cake.
I have a final on Monday, but I don’t plan on even thinking about it until Saturday night.
I found out after my sociology class today that I received an A+ on my final paper and thus secured an A in the class.  I really liked that class.  For the first time, I think I’m a little sad about a class ending.  I know I often complained about the class not presenting multiple sides to an issue, but I feel like it’s one of the first times I’ve had a class that helped me learn how to think critically about the world I live in.  Everything we talked about this semester is applicable to current events.  I do love English and literature, but little of it has real world applications.

I don’t think I’ll be getting my masters in English.  I might work on an MFA at some point, but I think I’m finished studying English literature.  I’ll look into sociology or education or something that can be more productive in helping people.  I definitely wasn’t ready to choose my career at 18.  Or at 19. Or at 20… Or at 23… So, I’m very glad I opted to get a degree in something that allows me to be more flexible with the direction I go in next, something that grew as I grew and allowed me to become anyone I wanted to be.

In other news, an elderly gentleman next to me just asked me what “LOL” means…  It made me laugh out loud. 😉

Off to a week full of caffeine!

 

PS. CHRISTINE, DON’T LEAVE ME!! KOREA DOESN’T REALLY NEED YOU!! 😉

So THAT’S Why I Majored in English….

I had my first English class of the semester tonight and I feel completely relieved. 🙂

When last semester ended, I was seriously questioning why I had majored in English.  I was burned out, and fed up with school.  So I opted to take a philosophy class over the summer and opted to use up 2 gen ed classes on non English credits this fall semester.  I had those two classes yesterday and I was completely ready to just drop out of school by the end of them.

My sociology class is dealing with urban issues and social constructs, while my political science class is an introduction to international relations.  I thought they would both be useful for whenever Jeremy and I move abroad.
But….
They. Are. So. Dry.
I assumed it was me and I was still feeling like I was feeling at the end of spring semester.  Until I got to my Modern American Literature class tonight.  I had to drive out to Schaumburg — a 45 minute drive on a good day– so I was already in a bad mood about it.  But once class began and we started to discuss the wonderful world of literature, I was reminded why I chose this major: I Love Books.  Its not even just the reading of them (although that obviously plays a big part).  Its the way they fit into history, the way they are history.  Its the feel of a book in your hand.  Its the act of interpreting what an author could mean.  Its debating the pros and cons of certain authors.  The act of immersing yourself into a story the way you might immerse yourself into a pool of water (or a bathtub 😉 ).  The act of understanding characters and letting them become a part of you briefly.   The reasons I love what I do are endless and ongoing.  As books will always continue to be written and the way you can interpret them are limitless,  my eduction is also limitless.

Does this have any practicality in the real world you might ask?  I’m still working on that one… 😉

Tomorrow: Creative Writing.  Delicious.

Alsoooooooo, I started my first sweater today.  NO FROGGING THIS ONE!  I used my Eco Wool that I bought during the Chicago Yarn Crawl with Christine.   I think its going to be super comfy.  Or rather, I hope its going to be super comfy. 😉