I heard a choir singing....

It rained last night. I walked out into the world this morning, stepped in a puddle, and looked up in surprise. Everything was sparkly. Listened to Tori Amos and Etta James and am fighting a weird surface melancholy, coupled with some deep gladness in the changing season. It is just - I do not spend the majority of my days doing what makes me really, really, really happy. I am tired of a lack of time. I was spoiled by unschooling, I guess - used to hours and hours and hours to delve into projects. I hadn't had a chance to knit yesterday so I stayed up 30 minutes later than I meant to, just so I could do a few rows. I don't like squeezing in things that make me happy like that.

I have a messy house again. Sunday a bunch of people came over to watch football, and it is now trashed. I had homework last night, class tonight, a meeting tomorrow night, class the night after that, and plans with my aunt the day after that. I am frustrated all over the place by a lack of order, cleanliness, and, once again, TIME.

There is definitely the possibility that I am getting sick right now, which I am sure accounts for a lot of the dragging feeling. Right now I would like to wear my orange pj pants, my dad's old heidelberg sweatshirt, and curl up on the couch with my knitting, some tazo tea, and adam's old grungy gray bedspread.

if I continue to feel this sick, I will ask paul if I can leave class early. I think that's a good idea.

I am about 1/4 of the way done with the right front on my slouchy cardigan - I finished the back. It's FUN FUN FUN to knit, but I am going to need more of this yarn.

I made a sale on etsy yesterday! Goodbye big chunky green beanie! You were fun!

......more later.

perfect sunday

Yesterday was one of those perfect weekend days that you just don't want to end. It started early (for me) I woke up at 7am, and didn't go back to sleep! That was great, because I love wakign up early, I just also love *not having to* - so I watched the new episode of The Office (my personal addition), and hung around with Adam, did laundry, dishes, etc. Then I went over to a friend's house, where I used to live in Seal Beach (while my parent's house was being rebuilt after the fire), and we headed over to Long Beach to go to the farmer's market! I am madly, deeply, ridiculously in love with farmer's markets, and have been meaning to go to this one for ages and just keep missing it (it's over at 1pm and somehow I never get there on time). I bought green beans, snap peas, apples, corn, bok choi, onions, carrots, etc. etc. etc. Then we headed over to Sunset Beach and went for a bike ride with a friend of hers.

The weather was beautiful - clear, bright blue sky - and a WIND like you would not believe. Riding south towards huntington beach, we didn't even need to peddle. Unfortunately, on the way back to sunset, we sure made up for it. I think I am still getting sand out of my teeth. :P

Theennn we headed to 2nd street to meet up with some of her old friends at Legends, then went to Alamitos Bay Yarn company - our local yummy yarn store. We spent a huge amount of time in there watching a lady do some needle felting, which I can feel in my bones is going to be a new obsession one day soon. Then we headed to Michaels to buy some cheaper yarn, and stopped at the store to buy kool aid packets, got back to my house, and..

dyed yarn with kool aid! It was AWESOME. The colors turned out really amazingly bright - we used a few packets of the ice blue lemonade for blue, fruit punch for red, the limeade for the green, lemonade for yellow, and half grape half strawberry for the purple. Each color turned out really vibrant - we mixed it in the various pots, added the yarn, then turned up the heat. The yarn totally soaked up all the color, and by the time we poured out the leftover water, it was devoid of all color and poured out clear. We rinsed the yarn, and hung it up on hangers in the backyard to dry. I will try to post some of those photos soon.

Afterwards I made a stirfry with all the veggies I bought at the farmers market, we ate food, she went home, and Adam and I cuddled and watched our sunday night ritual tv shows. I didn't sleep til about midnight - so it was a long, satisfying, wonderful day, full of good food, good company, art, and physical activity. Hoo-rah.

of course, my kitchen is a mess because I didn't feel like cleaning it up last night, but... ah well. That's what tonight is for.
Tonight I also need to do some reading for my abnormal psychology class. I am taking it online, which is useful, but I am fascinated by this subject and wish I had a teacher and classroom full of students to discuss it all with. The chapters I just read were about anxiety disorders, phobias, obsessive compulsiveness, and PTSD. So now every time my heartrate accelerates I end up thinking about panic attacks, but such is the nature of this class.

I am almost finished with week 3 of tracking my points, a la weight watchers. I haven't lost any significant weight, but I know I am eating better and I am proud of myself for it. The key to my success this time does seem to be making sure I write everything down once a day - no skipping days! Also, I have collected a variety of websites which have done all the point calculating for me, so it makes it easier. It's lunchtime, which is why I am now starting to think FOOD FOOD FOOD. I have leftover stirfry and some tomato soup, and new Manos del Uruguay I am going to knit on my break.

Friday morning

Today I apparently have allergies. I have never had allergies before. I am not sure what to do about it, other than just sneeze and sniffle a lot. Maybe it's not really allergies and I am getting sick. I don't know which would be better. :P I need to drink a lot of water today.

It's a hard day to be at work - the sky puts crayola cerulean to shame - *leaves* are actually falling. It's warm outside and so cold in my office. It's Friday, and there are very few people here.

I am making some progress with Alex's scarf - it's very cool. After this one I am excited to use my new intarsia skills and do all sorts of images and patterns. Although I do think my first order of business after this scarf is to knit myself some fingerless gloves. Holy moly it's cold in here.

Yesterday my big afternoon project was cleaning out The Closet of Doom and organizing my desk to make it more ergnomically friendly. My intern and I did great things - she tackled The Closet of Doom with a verociousness that I lack when cleaning, and I timidly approached my desk drawers. I have to admit, that it was all worth it this morning when I got to my office and was surprised all over again by how nice and uncluttered it was. Just another reminder for me that I really do work better when I am organized and uncluttered - the physical clutter feels like it messes up my brain. Sadly, being organized/not messy does not come naturally to me, but it's definitly worth being conscious of it and making it happen anyway.

I really like my job, but I am looking forward to the day when I don't have to work fulltime. This is a huge motivator for me to get my master's - I want to do what my mom did, which was be at home with her kids during the day, and teach nights. That sounds just about right.

It's time for me and my puffy eyes to go do some work - yesterday I mailed the first notice regarding our next big trip - the 2009 Walt Disney World Resort and Cruise! I am anticipating many a call for that today. I'm excited - this will be my first big trip that I orchestrate from start to finish, and I feel really good about it. We've got a year to plan (we'll be going Nov. 2009) and I learned a lot from the Alaska cruise.

I also have a newsletter to finish, so that's what I am going to go do now. (the photo is one I took of a bald eagle in Sitka, AK when I was there on the Cruise.)