Friday thoughts

You know, something is seriously wrong with me. I don't mind having to get up early for work (though I do mind it come bedtime). I actually enjoy waking up seeing that the sun is starting to peek out from behind the clouds-or it just might already be shining its lovely rays through the blinds. I even enjoy the mornings when the sun isn't out just yet. When did this happen?? I'm known as the one who likes to sleep in @ work. lol. At some point in time, a shift occurred. I like being done with my workday early I thought as I was driving home at 11:30 this morning. I'm even actually warming up to the possibility of getting a new student soon which would extend my MWF at work. Good thing I was warming up to it..we start on Monday! I'm even used to the idea of actually having to be at work everyday!
For the past six months, I only had to physically be at the Kelter Center MW. I worked a 4-day week but TTH, I was 'traveling' and drove to see my clients. So I thought transitioning into a 5 day schedule that required me to physically be at work everyday was going to be awful and that I'd be dragging my feet through it. I actually kinda like it. I get to hang out and talk with coworkers I hardly ever saw my first six months at the Kelter Center. I also get more exposed to all the drama that happens at my job. No workplace is without its share of drama, is it. Part of me misses me being left in the dark (since, like I said-I was only ever @ work two days a week and when I was there, I was with clients and as soon as our sessions were over, I was out the door!) though it is interesting to hear what my boss is really like. My image of her has slightly diminished since I began working there but it happens. She's human.
I left a place of work where practically all of my coworkers complained about something. There wasn't a day that passed when anyone had anything positive to say. That was one of the reasons I left the place. I couldn't stand working in an environment where people were so negative while I was just trying to do my job. From the get go, I let the incoming staff know that rather than internalize everything that bothered them about our place of work, they needed to just let things go and not let every little thing get to them. Easier said than done, I know. .but that's how you get by. Isn't this common knowledge??
Yes, my last place of work wasn't paradise but it wasn't hell either. Life is what you make it right? Therefore I think most of my previous coworkers created their own personal hell! The Kelter Center isn't bad at all. The things we are doing with our clients are amazing. My coworkers-the ones that have been there a while are fun too..and I love our office manager. So all this drama there (mind you, it's the first week of our summer program!), needs to just stop already.
In regards to my future place of work, I'm still sitting on my paperwork that they just barely sent last week. My sister (ms. I-will-be-a-lawyer-one-day), looked at my contract (I love having free in-house legal advice!!) said that I can't sign my contract because my name is misspelled where I'm required to sign and (this is the funny part!) it has actually expired since it says something to the effect of the contract expiring 5 days after it has been signed. It was signed June 22nd and I received it July 6th. Smart, huh? The guy in charge of paperwork is on jury duty right now but he'll be back at school on Monday so I was told to just wait. I love how easy they are about this stuff. The staff seems to all like each other and get along and it doesn't strike me as a drama-filled place. I guess I'll find out soon enough. In the meantime, I need to go compose something about myself to be added to the school website!!!!!! :)
FYI: on the knitting front, my second saucy is a mere 13 rows from completion done!!! I now have a pair! And, I finally have a finished pic of my finished pair of the coupling socks. While I've been away, I forgot to let you guys know I won a contest! :) Asa had a contest and I won this: It feels soooooooooooooooo amazingly soft! Thanks Asa! :)
And here's my progress on my little lace shrug:I want to get my swell officially completed as well so be on the look out..I'm on a roll today! :)

miss me??

Goodness, it feels like it has been ages since I last blogged. I had the intention of blogging for the past few days but just haven't been able to! My first week of work has been going okay. Although I heard today that I just might have another kid to add to my schedule starting next week. My fingers are so uncrossed for that one. lol. Even though I won't be making too much with the number of clients I have now, I kind of like only having one kid an hour and a half MWF. I thought having to wake up early everyday was going to kill me but I underestimated myself! It hasn't been that bad. It is difficult getting to bed early though. The earliest I can go down is about midnight.
Lots of stuff to talk about..my saucy socks are almost a completed pair! I'm one pattern repeat away from starting on my toe! I absolutely love my saucy sock. :) Here's a side view of my first completed saucy. Here's the main pattern in the front. Look at my eye of a partridge heel!! The toe is done the same way too. :)

I haven't touched thermal (but I've thought about it!) and I haven't really touched my chevron scarf. I did cast on for a new project out of Lace Style though. I casted on for the little lace shrug the other night. It's coming along. I just hope I have enough yarn for it. I've been contemplating starting the two-tone shrug out of Fitted Knits too. I've got some patons wool lying around! I would make it one color though--possibly with some small trim of another color. We'll see. Swell is still waiting on its tassels too! I know, I know..I suck. Life goes on.
My Cookie A. Class!!
Where do I even begin?? First of all, it was exciting to meet a knitting celeb! She's my first one!! She was really cool and funny. There were eleven of us taking the class. A few of the people had been in the class just previous to the one I was taking. I kind of regret not taking all three classes she was offering, but who am I kidding? I'm no millionaire. ;) One was enough and let me tell you, there was a lot of information to take in--especially for me, the one who didn't even want to become a sock knitter yet here I was taking a Cookie A. class!!!!! We talked about the advantages and disadvantages to toe-up and top-down socks, she got into some trig. with us a bit, talked about how to alter a sock for someone with a big instep/heel, etc. It was fascinating! We had one break and during our break is when I got up the nerve to ask her to sign the monkey pattern for Robyn! I said that I was a bit embarrassed to ask but my Canadian friend was wondering if I could get her (Cookie) to sign a pattern for her. She got embarrassed herself (I don't think anyone famous gets used to people wanting their autograph/to take a pic with them!!) and was like, "What should I write? Should I write something nice-or should I write something that's me?" I said she should write something that was her. I will not post what she wrote because Robyn hasn't even received it yet. So if you wanna know what she wrote, you'll just have to wait til Robyn receives her pattern! Oh yeah, she asked if it was for my sp and I said that sp10 was over and that it was actually for my hostess. :) After I asked her to sign the pattern, there were others to ask...and then someone got up the courage to ask to take a pic with her. I didn't need a pic with her. Though I took some candids during our break.
Oh!! everyone at the class got to see and touch my finished saucy sock (including Cookie!). Apparently, in the class previous to ours, they had talked about the eye of partridge heel and the gal sitting next to me noticed the sock I was working on (before class had begun) and I told her what pattern it was, where it came from, and that it had an eye of partridge heel (little did I know they had just discussed those in the earlier class!). She told all the gals that were sitting around the table that I had a sock with an eye of partridge heel and passed it around. It happened again during our class so Cookie got to see it as well. She's not a fan of that heel but whatever. I just liked learning a new heel!
Near the end, we were supposed to swatch this chart she created for us and I didn't have any yarn to swatch with--nor did I have any needles (other than the stuff I was using for my second saucy) and I wasn't about to buy more needles and more yarn (remember, I'm not buying yarn for a while!!). She came around and asked me how swatching was going and I told her that I didn't have anything to swatch with so she grabbed some yarn and needles out of her bag for me to work with. :)
For my first knitting class ever, I think it was pretty good. I would've benefited more had I gone to either the toe-up class or the top-down class I think but I was hoping that everything she taught would be covered in my overview class and the info I expected to get was just kind of glazed over. Oh well...she did have extra handouts from the top-down class so I have one of those. I just didn't get a toe-up handout.
Oh and get this...

I. didn't. buy. ANY. yarn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did buy some patterns though and a really old Cast On magazine. I bought the twisted flowers sock pattern, the gothic spire sock pattern, and I purchased the eyelet cardi pattern from Blue Sky Alpaca. They had one in the window and it was amazing. There was a woman working on one too, and I just had to have it. I was good about not buying the yarn yet..but I don't know how much longer I can wait! lol. Well, it turns out that Cookie was teaching these very same classes @ a yarn shop closer to me...but they were charging more than what Unwind charged. Go figure.

4th of July at Disneyland!

You read correctly, that's where I got to spend my 4th of July--@ least the early evening part of it into the wee hours of the night. And amazingly enough, by the time we arrived at the park, the weather was decent and the crowd wasn't even that bad! The wait for a lot of the rides wasn't bad either. The one ride we didn't get to was the submarines. The wait was @ least an hour and a half and every time we walked by, it looked bad. It's the newest ride to open. Hopefully when we make it back out there, the novelty will have died down. Outside "It's a Small World"
The characters that come out every hour or half hour--I can't remember!
Inside the ride.
And my firework shots. lol. This was the first time I had ever had a camera with me to take pics of fireworks.
I got a lil firework picture crazy.
These are the best of the bunch though.
They were so amazing!
It was at least an hour long show and we found out after we did "Space Mountain" that there was another fireworks show! Oh well.
Oh yeah!!! We went on "Pirates of the Caribbean" and they finally added Jack Sparrow to the ride! It was really eerie because it totally looked like him! I hope everyone had a happy 4th! :)

Scattergories

Okay, Toni had this up and I thought it was pretty cool so I'm tagging myself. If you like it too, feel free! I had some help though because it was tricky!!

Scattergories

The game is SCATTERGORIES…it’s harder than it looks! Here are the rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They MUST be real places, names, things…NOTHING made up! If you can’t think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial. You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your Name: rhoda

1. Famous Singer/Band: red hot chili peppers 2. 4 letter word: ride 3. Street: Rimpau 4. Color: red 6. Vehicle: range rover 7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: T-shirt 8. Boy Name: Reggie 9. Girl Name: rita 10. Movie Title: Replacements 11. Drink: rc cola 12. Occupation: reverend 13. Celebrity: Reese Witherspoon 14. Magazine: ready-made 15. U.S. City: Riverside 16. Pro Sports Teams: ravens 17. Reason for Being Late for Work: do the runs count?? 18. Something You Throw Away: rinds 19. Things You Shout: run!! 20. Cartoon Character: roger rabbit

meme, anyone?

Ren tagged me for this meme. Sorry it took me a while to get it posted--I actually had to do some thinking for this one! INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:

1. Harmonia’s Cuppa Tea

2. Vaguetarian Tea Room

3. BitterSweet

4. Ren Knits

5. left-handed knitting in a world of right-handers Next, select five people to tag: 1. knottykitty 2. AR 3. Asa 4. Carole 5. Toni

What were you doing ten years ago? Hmm..I was back @ my parents' house for the summer, I think. I was still attending SFSU and I was looking to live off-campus for the upcoming school year.

What were you doing one year ago? Last year, I was here in LA and I blogged for the first time ever. It was summer vacation and I was looking for a new job for the fall and still contemplating whether or not I was going to move back up north.

Five snacks you enjoy:

1. reduced fat pringles

2. fruit

3. popcorn

4. ice cream/popsicles

5. dark chocolate Five songs that you know all the lyrics to:

How do I choose?? 1. Please Don't Go Girl (lol!!!!!! and I still love that song) nkotb, of course!

2. Head-on Collision by new found glory

3. Pieces of Me by ashlee simpson

4. My Bloody Valentine by good charlotte

5. tender by blur

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. Buy myself a house

2. pay off all my debts

3. put some away in the bank

4. travel

5. go shopping!

Five bad habits:

1. procrastinating (is that really a habit or just an excuse??)

2. complaining about things

3. being lazy

4. being too helpful (sometimes!)

5. starting something, then getting distracted and starting something else (I blame all the ADHD kids I've ever worked with for this!!) ;)

Five things you like doing:

1. sleeping

2. knitting

3. receiving packages/letters

4. reading magazines

5. watch/listen to the tv

Five things you would never wear again:

1. stir-up pants 2. jellies 3. tight pants 4. white pants (I have a tendency to spill/drop stuff when I'm eating!!) 5. socks with pom-poms

Five favorite toys:

1. hula hoop 2. yo-yo 3. wii (I guess!) 4. the computer 5. my action figures!! lol.

Simpsons Anyone?

Now, I don't know if any of you out there are fans--I'm not but my fiancé is a bit of one and when I found out that one our very own 7-11's was going to be a Kwik-E Mart, I had to take him there. :) First off, there was a line to get inside and there was a security guard at the door! Apu was there but I think his shift ended while we were in line. We showed up probably at about 6:15 or so. The line wasn't bad at all-but inside, it was crowded and the floor was sticky!! Here's what I saw when we first walked in..I don't remember this character's name..sorry! and to our right were people asking if anyone wanted some Buzz Cola. Each person was only allowed two six packs! We haven't had any yet but when someone does, I'll let you all know what it tastes like (if you're interested!).To everyone's dismay, they weren't carrying Duff's Beer. But they did have some Krusty O's. There was a squishee machine. If you look closely, you can see that the straw has Apu on it. Apparently it's a magnet (which I found out while taking this pic for you all!). We didn't actually get any squishees because the machine was making some still and we had heard the only flavor left was 'blue vanilla'. They had other squishee cups but my fiance picked out this one for me he said! Oh, on the back is Marge. (I think--I don't remember!). Here's what it looked like from the outside, after we finally got out of there. Oh, they ran out of the pink doughnuts in the morning apparently so I couldn't get any pics of those. I think I did a decent job pics-wise though since the ones taken while at the store were with my phone! When we got home, we told my sister about it-showed her the pics and then late last night we decided to take her. My fiance and I couldn't believe there was a line when we went earlier, right? At 11:45pm, the line was already onto the sidewalk and starting to turn into an S curve! (You can kinda see the people in line. They're all to the left of the door, along the entryway, and already onto the sidewalk. We did a drive through though and I took these night shots with my real camera! This one I got to take while standing in the moon roof! lol. Marge and Nelson are attached to the right side of the building. Maggie (which my sister pointed out!) was inside up on the wall in the back corner. We didn't notice this when we were in there. It's kinda hard to notice the stuff that's up high when you're looking all around to see what's within the shelves and stuff.
Hmph...I emailed all the pics I took via my cell phone to myself but I didn't receive one of them--one that I wanted to post! Okay, I just resent it to myself and here it is!
Now, the pièce de résistance. :) Homer, feeding my fiancé a hot dog. lol.

P.S. Buzz Cola kind of tastes like Pepsi..though I might be mistaken.

where do I even start??

Well..it was hot. Disgustingly hot--mostly on the way to Salinas and on the way back. We didn't see much of my niece as we normally do. I dunno what was up with that. And, the lil munchkin is squirrelier (like my word?!) than ever!! Here are a few favorite shots.. Here she is looking like she knows she's going to be in trouble if she touches those cds.. Bye!!! No paparazzi, please!

Okay, now for some knitting...for some reason, song lyrics came to mind for the next couple of pics.. "Don't Cry for me, Argentina..."

I finished the second sock when we got to our parents' house Friday night and I decided that since the first sock was too big (like a quarter of an inch or so!) I frogged back to the gusset. I worked like mad Saturday to finish it. Though it was difficult when this lil thing kept getting passed around.. "This ain't a scene, it's a g*dd**n arms race .." It totally went in the mouth after this pic was taken! When she returned, I gave her her own yarn to play with. :)
Um yeah...you can't really walk yet, dude...let me help you!
More yarny goodness. Here's traffic on the 5 North..there really was more traffic but I didn't think to take a pic of the traffic til after the fact.
And look what I casted on for Saturday night while watching Pride with my mom. I had already seen it but was willing to watch it again. It was either that or Black Snake Moan..Oh, it is saucy a free pattern from Cider Moon. I'm using my See Jayne Knit Yarns in Blood Orange. I absolutely love, love, love this colorway. The yarn is a bit thick so I'm sure I won't be wearing these til wintertime! The pattern is so easy to follow and it's similar to the Monkey which I would've casted on for but the pattern freaked me out. Now I see that I was actually missing a few pages of the pattern (hence the reason it freaked me out!!) Sigh..those are definitely next after I complete saucy. I just have to figure out what yarn to use!
Oh, oh!! This is my first eye of a partridge heel! Sorry it's blurry..who knew there was a sockknitter hidden deep inside of me.