I downloaded my Ravelry stash as an Excel spreadsheet, totaled it up, and discovered that I have 24,208 yards of yarn. That equals about 13.75 MILES of yarn.

And that’s not even including my secret Wool-Ease blanket stash. *blink*

Suddenly, my yarn diet successes seem very meager when viewed in perspective of all the MILES I have left!

Posted: October 31st, 2007 under Knitting.
Comments: 2

The weather is GORRRRGEOUS! Here in Virginia, ol’ Mother Nature finally got her booty in gear and we now have fall weather! I was so sick of 80 degree highs, you have no idea. The past couple days I’ve worn sweaters to work and gone to the park to eat lunch (in the car, but it’s still nice). And evenings are quite chilly now! I LOVE IT. Finally, all those knit hats, scarves, and gloves that I keep making suddenly seem justified, though it’s still not THAT cold yet. But soon! Soon it shall be, muahaha.

I do this weird thing when I’m at work *coughnotworkingcough*…I make lists and notes and then email them to myself. As in, I’ll send an email from my work address to my gmail address. Even though I could just, oh I don’t know, write it down by hand or something. The way I see it, I’m saving a poor little Post-It note…but I think what it really comes down to is that I am too lazy to write something by hand when I can type it instead. yesss I am that lazy.

A list I just emailed myself is “WIPs to finish”–these have moved up in my mental “finish these, you lazyass” queue. (oops sorry, haha.) Because I am so scatterbrained sometimes that if I don’t make that list, that note, I will actually forget that I have two scarves in progress as well as something like 5 socks that need mates, and instead might actually cast on another project (which is very, very likely) instead of finishing said WIPs.

On the bright side (yes, there is one!), I noticed today while looking at my Ravelry stash that 1/3 of my original stash has been given away or sold since I’ve been on the yarn diet. YAYYYY! (I started off with approximately 60 listings in Ravelry, and I’m now down to 43 or 44, I think.) Seriously, that is such a (literal) weight lifted off! My stash was overwhelming, at least for me…and I had major buyer’s remorse over all that yarn and no inspiration or plans to knit it. But now, it has gone to better homes, hopefully, and will probably be used soon.

Now, back to “finish these, you lazyass…”

Posted: October 30th, 2007 under Knitting, My So-Called Life.
Comments: 2

I just deleted all the audio and video files from my server because they were taking up too much space. (I was worried I’d have to upgrade my hosting account but now that those files are gone, I have soooo much more space.) So in case you go back in the archives, click one of those links and get a 404 message, that’s why. Carry on!

Posted: October 29th, 2007 under Domain.
Comments: none

I just had a realization about my impending second job, which I start on Thursday. I’m going to have soooo little free time. (I know, duh.) I will make time to knit, of course–I already do that in the mornings before work and during lunch break, if I’m not reading–but I’ll be coming home at night around 9:30, at least, and if I want to get any sleep I won’t have much time to do stuff at night before bedtime. Maybe check email or blog or whatever. Which means I’m going to have even LESS of a social life than I have right now. Granted, my current social life is practically non-existent anyway, but it’s going to be officially non-existent pretty soon here.

I keep reminding myself that it’s the big picture I need to focus on–getting out of debt and saving up enough money to move out on my own–but I feel so frazzled about all of it right now. I guess I’m wondering if I can handle the extra stress.

What’s really surprising is that I work with a girl right now who is younger than me by several years and not only is she working full time and taking FIVE classes (I nearly keeled over when she said that), but she also is married and has a child under 3. Good grief!! And here I am whining about working two jobs. It could be worse, I suppose. I could be working two jobs AND trying to go to school (which is soooo not happening in the near future, though I would like to finish my degree sometime before I die).

I have trouble with perspective. It’s so easy to get caught up in the world of me when things could always be much worse.

Having said all that, I am still nervous about the new job. I’m *always* nervous when I do something new–I’m not one of those people who goes into new situations with wild abandon and no fear, though that would be nice once in a while! But since I tend to obsess over things, I’m always worried that I’ll hate it, or the people will be mean, or something. (I’m a pessimist, what else can I say?)

I’m sure (at least, I hope) by Friday morning, I’ll be saying great things about the new job. But for right now, I’m so nervous and kind of scared!

Posted: October 29th, 2007 under My So-Called Life, Working Girl.
Comments: 7

I’m about to post a private entry, and I’ll be using a different password from the one I’ve used for all the previous private entries. Confused yet? Anyway, email me for the new password (mixedupbeauty at gmail.com) if you want in.

ETA: I decided to delete the private entry from the other day. If you read it, no big deal, but if you didn’t, all you missed was my mad ranting.

Posted: October 28th, 2007 under Domain.
Comments: none

I’m about to upgrade to the current version of WordPress, so if the blog looks all kinds of weird, that’s why. Carry on!

ETA: all is upgraded and (to my knowledge) working! YES!

Posted: October 26th, 2007 under Domain.
Comments: 3

This week was a loooong one. I had fun (the TAPS event), but work? yeesh. Let’s not go there. I try to take it one day at a time but it’s tough when the work crap from yesterday bleeds into today and tomorrow.

But let’s focus on pleasanter things!

I’ve been on a quest to destash, as you likely already know. Recently I’ve managed to sell several stash items via Ravelry, which is great! So far I’ve only swapped once since being on the yarn diet–I traded my pink RubySapphire yarn for some camel colored Louet Gems Opal, which arrived today. These will be perfect for future work socks. Other than that, I have not acquired any new yarn. I can hardly believe that I’ve managed to remain true to the yarn diet and not buy yarn for almost three months. I know I’ve saved so much money by abstaining (hehe) and that’s a good feeling. I wish I had destashed more to date, but when I look at my “tossed or traded” page on Ravelry, I realize how much yarn I’ve unloaded in recent weeks, so I’m not doing too badly.

I finally made it to the municipal center to fill out my paperwork for my second job at the library. Originally I had an appointment to do this on Tuesday afternoon, but the HR lady canceled that morning (which ended up working out really well because I was able to drive up to the TAPS event earlier than I would have, if I had gone to the appointment). So this morning before going to my regular job, I went down and filled out probably a dozen different forms–employee info sheet, W-4 form, direct deposit form, release for criminal background check, and several others I don’t even remember now. When I thought I was finished, I took them to the HR lady and then she said, “ok, now I’m going to send you down the street to the police station…”

Me:

“…where they’re going to fingerprint you…”

Me:

“…just so we can make sure you’re not an axemurderer!”

Seriously, she actually said that. Granted, she was joking, but wow…so after driving up and around and down the street no less than three times in attempts to find the police station, despite the fact that she had given me a map of the whole area, I finally found it, parked across the street, and walked to the police station (in the rain–drizzle, more like), where I was FINGERPRINTED. All ten digits, then the eight main digits (everything except my thumbs)…yikes! It was a little weird. I’ve never been fingerprinted AT A POLICE STATION, just for a job! But then again, it’s at the library, which is a city job, so…I understand. And now I can say that I’ve been fingerprinted like a common criminal or something, sheesh.

Then I had to go back to the HR building to finish more paperwork, yay. When all that was finally done, the HR lady said, “oh, and there’s one more thing…” to which I said, “oh…?” (mug shots, mayhap?) And then she said, “You get a shirt and a lanyard, as our way of saying welcome!”

Now that’s pretty cool. And it’s a nice polo shirt with the VA Beach Library logo embroidered on the front. sweet! Turns out that I’ll have to go back one *more* time to get my photo taken for my ID badge–I’m not sure why we didn’t do that today, but she said I would come back after I “get going” at the job. Maybe to give me a little bit of time in case they decide I suck at the job and they want to can me. phew! What a process, and I haven’t even worked my first shift there yet!

After that, I went to my normal job, which wasn’t too bad today. Maybe the people who usually bother me over email were relaxed since the weekend was near.

After work, I went to Barnes & Noble to use a coupon they emailed me–I swear, B&N owns my book-loving soul. They send me coupons once every week/week and a half, it seems. And actually, I think the more I shop there, the more coupons they send. Just the other day, they sent me a 50% off coupon (!), which I used to buy 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders for eight bucks! The way I see it, not only are knitting books allowed on the yarn diet, but I’ve built up such a pattern library that I have NO excuse not to use up my stash. I’m trying to be strategic about the yarn diet, really I am!

Anyway, I’d been wanting to read The Celestine Prophecy, so that’s what I used my 10% coupon on today. One of my sisters read it years ago and recommended it, plus I’d heard other good things about it, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

I know I should patronize the library instead (maybe once I start working there I’ll actually use it?), but I must be one of those people who has a “thing” for new books. And not just the smell of them (though new book smelling is definitely one of my quirks).

Speaking of books, can anyone recommend a good reference to start reading up on existentialism? I found one at B&N (it’s cheaper on Amazon) but I’ll check if the library carries it before I buy it. I’ve been on a quest to read up on that, but am unsure where to start. Wikipedia isn’t really helping me much.

This week has been so rainy and autumnal, but still warm most days. I’m waiting for the weather to turn completely and be cool or even cold. Even so, the rain is a nice change…it’s challenging to drive in, especially on the interstate–I passed yet another accident today on the way home. But I think this weekend, as it’s my last “free” weekend before my second job begins, I’ll spend it relaxing inside, re-watching my Ghost Hunters DVDs and The Number 23 which arrived from Netflix today (kc, have you seen it yet? I remember you mentioned you wanted to!), working on my Secret of the Stole (I’m behind one clue–I think #4 was posted today but I’m barely into #3), and just kicking back!

Posted: October 26th, 2007 under Bookworm, Knitting, My So-Called Life, Working Girl.
Comments: 4