I used to be and now I am

Meri shared this post on her blog and it made me think back to my graduation day at Mills College.

My cohort and I composed a group 'I used to be and now I am' and we each contributed a line.  I wanted to create my own I used to be but now I am so here goes..

I used to be someone who could depend on her parents and now I am someone who depends on friends that have become my new family.

I used to always see the best in my parents and now I am someone who sees them for who they really are.

I used to worry about the future and now I am someone who takes each day as it comes.

I used to be a perfectionist (damn you Type A!) and now I am someone who is just pleased to get anything done, period.

I used to go out of my way to help people even when they didn't ask for it and now I know better.

I used to want it all and now I am grateful for the things that I already have. 

I used to have to make dinner every night after a long day at work and now my hubs is in charge of dinner!

I used to think I could catch up on the rest of my life during days off from school and now I have realized that is getting to be impossible!

I used to go shopping all the time and now I'm lucky if I can go shopping at all.

I used stick to the plan and now my new mantra is it'll get done when it gets done.

I used to be high strung (really!) and now I am easy-going, mellow, and (kind of) fancy free.

What did you used to be?

the UNTHINKABLE

happened earlier this morning.  Remember those narratives I have been complaining about and procrastinating about for the last month? Well, I was working on my third to the last one (25 pages worth of a Word document).  And guess what? I hit save, and all of a sudden, I had FIVE HUNDRED pages of gobbledygook. Though my gobbledygook had bigger gaps in between and you could make out some sentences but only bits and pieces of them. Pretty  much all of it was gone.  The first thought that came to mind (obviously) was that I was screwed. These narratives are due next Wednesday. They are supposed to be printed and ready to go out in the mail on January 11th. No lies. Second thought was, "How in the hell am I going to type 23 narratives in 5 days?" Then I thought, "I'll just go to the Mac store and they'll fix it." Sigh. Then I thought I'd google to see if I could fix it on my own. As it was, I had been receiving errors from my Microsoft Word while working on these narratives. I kept getting this error about the AutoRecovery not being able to save to its normal destination. At some point, I changed the destination to my desktop. Guess what I was doing right before the 500 pages of gobbledygook appeared? Oh, deleting the autorecovery file and EMPTYING my trash!!!!!! So I tried to remember how I went in and changed all the requirements or whatever for Word. Couldn't find it. Then I typed in AutoRecovery. Long story short, I found my document!! Thank you Mac Forums. :) You saved my life. I have two more to write  and then I am home free. I am going to celebrate by trying to figure out how to double crochet so that I can learn how to make my own crochet ripple blanket. Oh and I just might get back to my knitting. 

hello 2012!

I spent much of today decluttering.  I put away some of the Christmas decorations (though not all of them)!  I read a bit. I started three different books!  I wasn't sure which one I would like most so I figured start all of them and see which one I get into more. I have only one week left of winter vacation. I need to get in as much reading as I can this week!  The narratives are still waiting to be finished. I was supposed to have been working on them over the last few days. HA. That SO didn't happen. I've found other ways to occupy my time. Like spend an entire afternoon watching season 5 of How I Met Your Mother. I know, they're in season 7 now. I don't care. I like being behind!  I've got my blog reading down to only about 11 posts.  All the new calendars are up. I have letters that need answering and I must get to those before the end of the week. So much to do, and yet very little desire to get some of those things done (namely my narratives!).  Maybe when the hubs goes to work tomorrow I'll be able to work on them.  I'm much too distracted in our new home than I was at our last place. Oh well. Life goes on and those blasted narratives will eventually get done. They've gotta get done-they're due when I go back to school. :P

finished knits of 2011

This year, I didn't complete as many projects as I have in the past. Damn school! I made my first vest for the hubs this year and I made 11 shawls in 2011.  For 2012, I intend on attempting to make 12 shawls.  I also want to make more fingerless mitts. I might also finally venture into making myself a cardigan that I can actually wear.

Year in Review Meme

I think about doing this every year but I only remember to do it a handful of times. So here's this year's review of the first sentence of my first blog posts for each month of this year:
January:  I stayed up super late this morning (aside from watching a bad lmn movie on demand-which actually wasn't TOO bad!) to do a little work on my sister's hat.
February:  I've been trying to figure out what I have been up to while I haven't been blogging.
March:  The hubs and I had to make a last minute trip down to LA for the weekend.
April:  As a Kindergarten teacher, alphabet recognition is something I have sort of been fighting with during the course of my first year at my new school.
May:  This is how she entered the world.
June:  It was sooooooooooo much fun and I ate way too much junk.
July:  At Boxland, I raved about all the cool rocks I was buying up.
August: There have been many knitting-related stumbles while I've been away!
September: Well, we are finally out of our old apt and in our new one.
..skipped October...oh no!
November:  I really have had every intention of blogging but time keeps escaping me.
December: just wanted to stop by and mention that i'm slowly but surely getting caught up on my blogs.

It kind of seems as though I tended to blog on the first day of most months. Maybe for 2012 that's what my goal should be!

hiding out

Well, I'm supposed to be working on narratives but I have been more interested in doing other things. Mostly I had to make sure I completed my 11 shawls for 2011 and I did. I just left my calendar with all my dates at home.  I've finished two books (one just today!) and I even answered a letter late last night! I haven't been neglecting my narratives completely though. I'm about halfway finished (about). I have at least a week and a half to completely have them finished. I'm just feeling so uninspired.
My sister arrived the day before Christmas Eve. We baked cookies on Christmas Eve. We made lace cookies (which were delicious though not the definitely not enough cookies!), chocolate covered peanut butter balls, and brown butter toffee cookies (can't find the exact link). We were supposed to make some other cookies but might not get to those until we are back at our own home. (We are dog sitting again!).
The hubs made Christmas dinner (with the help of my sister) and it was delicious. *Apparently so delicious that no photos were taken for posterity's sake!  And we now know why you're supposed to get up at about 6 in the morning to have dinner prepared. We didn't eat until about 11pm! lol. We still have TONS of food too. Everything turned out really well (everything that was actually cooked). We still have green bean casserole that wasn't made or candied yams! teehee.
Okay now for shawl pictures. :) They've all been done for a while. I just hadn't had time to have the hubs take pictures of them all.
First up is the forest ridge lace shawl which has been finished since last month. This photo is not true to color though.

Next up is shredded. It was in the bind off that I ran into some problems. Oh well, too late to turn back.

And here is silver fox (just thought of that name right now!). Here she is blocking.

 A close-up of blocking.

Fully blocked and not true to color. I'd say that the blocking shots are a bit truer to color. Though these last two shots helped me come up with the name!

And finally, purple majesty.  Here she is blocking.

 Another blocking shot--pardon the bad coloring. It was difficult to get it to even look purple!

 Isn't she pretty?

I also finished up a cocoon me cowl.  Though no pictures yet as it is still blocking. Though I do have flower pictures! Our Christmas cactus finally bloomed. It only ever has had one flower and this one decided to open up on Christmas Eve day. :) 

 And here's one of the orchid we got back in March. I'm surprised it's still living. I'm even more surprised that it sprouted another branch with all these buds that are actually opening up!

If you don't hear from me again before the new year, I hope everyone has a good one and I'll see you next year. ;)

psst..

just wanted to stop by and mention that i'm slowly but surely getting caught up on my blogs. I am down to 36 posts from about 120! :) i'm even caught up on emails! here's to getting all caught up on my blogs, getting my christmas cards done (ha!) and making a dent in my letter pile. :)