Under the Arch

First, I would like to say if you've sent me an email or other such internet based message and I haven't responded, I apologize. I can't remember the last time I checked my email and I haven't been on twitter in weeks. I've hit a point where my real life is more interesting than my internet one, and I've spent all my spare time playing with friends and enjoying the sunshine when it graces me with its presence.

Because of this, I won't be going to BlogHer this year, even though it's only a few hours away. I will probably go to Chicago this summer (IKEA is calling my name) and my friend Will and I are tentatively planning a road trip to California at some point, where he has promised to teach me how to surf.

I had jury duty last week, but I'm all talked out about it, so I won't say anything more than it sucks ass, and if I ever get it again, it better be a civil case this time. (Oh, and if you were as dismayed as I was to find out that knitting needles aren't allowed, I found that no one says anything if they're plastic.)

I had to finally get mean with the jealous ex-boyfriend. A couple of days ago, he essentially said that he thought something would happen between us further down the line. I as bluntly as possible told him that wasn't going to happen. He didn't take it well and spouted the bullshit that guys say when their pride is wounded. I'm beginning to realize that this is a typical reaction and after I stopped laughing, I was just relieved that it was over and I don't have to placate him anymore. (Lies said to hurt or undermine someone's confidence piss me off like you wouldn't believe.) I decided to be the better person and not tell him what I really think. ;)

I also forgot to tell you that I'm moving, which is something else that has kept me busy. My friend Will lives on the next street over and his building is cheaper than mine, so he talked me into moving into the apartment above him. No more ghetto neighbors with a crying baby below me using my washing machine! It's actually a slightly bigger apartment with a different set-up, which will work well with my furniture. We already have big plans to build raised garden beds in the backyard for flowers and veggies. I spent most of the day today sorting and packing, I should be in the new digs by the end of April.

You probably noticed that I haven't posted any photos for a long time. It's not that I don't have photos to share, it's just that my computer won't let me show them. Trying to work with photos, even uploading them slows my laptop down so much I can't do anything. So, I'm computer shopping with my tax refund and I'm hoping to remedy that soon. ;)

In the same night we found a doctorate of bats, Will and I also met a man we called "mysterious man" who was flitting about the bar, wearing a fabulous hat. We did eventually pin him down to ask about the hat and talked for a while about hats and Frank Sinatra. He invited us to another bar this week for karaoke. I love making new friends.

Some of the night is rather fuzzy, but I remember taking off my shoes several times, and I think I may have asked Will to hold them for me, poor man. On or off, they got many compliments. Here they are, on one of my favorite sites for shoes.

I met a volleyball player from New Jersey, with the accent and all. He was also an excellent dancer. He insisted that I MUST see New York, which then , of course turned into me giggling over Will and I living in New York ala "Will and Grace". This is the ridiculous stuff that pops into my head, people.

Anyway, a great time was had by all and I'm looking forward to many more nights dancing my ass off there.

Other things I've been up to...knitting. I'm in the middle of 3 projects, cuz it's next to impossible for me to just work on one at a time....a sleeveless shell, a hat, and arm warmers.

I watched last week's LOST on saturday (I know, I know, I was busy) and HELLO this season is screwed up! Ben kills Locke and makes it look like a suicide?! And then Locke comes back to life?! Then the other plane crashes on the island?! WHA?! Can't wait to see what happens next....

Here's how it all happened....

First, came the jury duty summons in the mail. That's. just. fabulous. I've never had jury duty before and all I could think about was the weird fruit guy from the episode of Sex and the City when Carrie had jury duty and sat in the courthouse all day waiting for something to happen. So the good news is I would get some knitting done, right? Except on the list of prohibited items next to guns, knives, and chemical weapons is...you know, knitting needles. I'm sorry, what?! The FAA allows knitting needles onto airplanes, but I can't knit at the courthouse, makes perfect sense.

I made a new friend at work. He loves fashion and knows way more about it than I do. We crack each other up and make Mean Girl comments about customers together. His dream car is a Jeep Wrangler. When I found this out I insisted we must have been separated at birth. He's the perfect guy friend, fun, sarcastic and gay. Oh, and he lives less than a block away and has a doctor friend that he thinks I might like. ;) We have plans to drink wine and paint my apartment now that I've finally decided on colors.

Okay, the left boob thing....I started taking birth control since I had a real live boyfriend again. It had been a year since I was taking the bc and it sort of screws with my system the first month. PMS has been FUN!! In a surge of hormones, my boob swelled, which ok isn't that unusual but the fact that only ONE of them did, is. Oy.

The hours available at work have been sort of ridiculous, so I told my manager that I would need a full time position at the new store or at my current one, or I'm going on a job hunt. Since I'm awesome, she agreed that I deserve the opportunity, and she's going to talk to the district manager. Go me for being proactive!

I know, I know enough about all this trivial shit, what about the boyfriend?! Well, poor boyfriend, it was a case of nice guy that you really wanted to see a future with, but just didn't. Frankly, he was too nice for me. I'm a nice person, and an excellent friend, but as you may have noticed here, I'm also sarcastic and I have a bit of a temper. Plus, he had been kind of recently divorced from a woman who cheated. I think he TRIED not to be a jealous guy, but he just couldn't help it and I don't have the sort of patience to constantly reassure someone going through that. So, to make a long story short, it had to end and I had to end it. Have I told you how much I hate confrontation? Let's just say a lot. That wasn't fun. I am now on hiatus. I'm going to go out with friends, dance, sing, paint my apartment, and celebrate my birthday, then I'll think about men again. That is the plan.

So, what have you been up to?

Guess who got a new camera for Christmas? Guess who hasn't completely figured out how to use it?

As far as New Years goes, I don't really do resolutions. (I think last year I called them self-delusions, though I did manage to follow through on a couple.) I do have the new camera that needs to be broken in and Moosh in Indy mentioned a 365 project she will be participating in, so I thought I'd give that a try.

I do have some ideas for things I'd like to try this year, but I think I'm going to keep those secret a bit longer til I figure out if I can. ;)

I did volunteer to write about my online dating experience and to round that out a bit, I'd love to hear stories from others, blogger or not, especially guys. Email me, k?

Yes, I did start dating someone new since Christmas and we are getting along swimmingly. My head is sort of spinning actually and I'm not sure whether to be thrilled or terrified. ;) (He's not a blog reader, isn't that nice? lol)

Until, I can get the photos I've already taken uploaded, here are a few posts from last year that I especially liked.

My resolution to keep knitting is off to a roaring start

Making fun of my brother

Enjoying the weather

Where I first talk about my issues with food

Taking a walk in the park

One of my more popular Naked Monday posts that was discussed over drinks

Bossy's visit

The first time I was mistaken for a hooker

Meeting a Cardinal's baseball player

My cat goes crazy

The post with the most hits (it's the bikini post, are you surprised?)

The ones about my car accident

The BlogHer posts, plus the hostel and my first troll

Exposing my messy side

Blogging while online dating can be hard

This is a meme, I was tagged by Sonrie at 1017.

Why, yes, I AM cheating and you will be shutting up now.

1. There will be a new post up today at Photo Bliss authored by little ol' me. I figured out how to put photos in blogger posts without losing your mind.

2. Speaking of photos, I had my hair cut again.

3. Speaking of hair, I color my hair several times a year, lighter in the summer, darker in winter. It's time to make it darker.

4. I also have something interesting in mind if I can find the stuff I need. It's a surprise, you'll have to wait. ;)

5. I use laundry detergent that is dye and fragrance free. If I can remember without going down to the basement, I think it's ALL. (the brand)

6. I ordered some yarn to make a baby hat and booties for a girl at work. She's having a boy. She almost cried when I asked if that was ok, but I just have to have someone in mind when I knit, I don't know why.

Rules for this meme are simple, link to the person who tagged you, list your 6 things and link to 6 people. Not sure if all of these people will play along, but what the hell...

Roseyland

Mocha Momma becuz she's on a hiatus, but she might want something mindless to do

Kendra of A Thousand Words

Heather of Desperately Seeking Sanity

Jason of The Jason Show

Whitney of The Ugly Green Chair

I forgot Naked Monday! Sorry about that , I had a nasty headache and went to bed early. Naked Mondays will return next week, I promise.

I realized today that I'm going to have to eventually come up with other ways to be naked for you without exposing any naughty bits. Hmm, maybe you would like to see the hair bunnies under my bed? No? Humph! Well, I'll think of something, I guess.

Here's some updates on my life since I know that you're dying to know!

I heard from my friend Dan, he's fine and managed to survive his first few seconds in Afghanistan. (He would often tell me that the average life expectancy for his job is 9 seconds or something. Yes, he's an ass.) Since my life is often terribly boring and he promised to email updates, I'll pass along any non-sensitive information I get.

The Bunny job ended the day before Easter and I start a new one tomorrow at the same mall. I was looking for something part time so that I could start substitute teaching and one of my favorite stores was hiring. Forever 21 called me back, I had the interview monday and orientation is tomorrow. It won't be much money, but helllooo employee discount! Hopefully everything will work out, keeping my fingers crossed.

My blogging friend MP is going to Aruba (lucky bitch lol) and I offered to guest post. I'll put a little reminder over here when I do.

The spring cleaning is going well, I sorted out a ton of clothes for good will, and I'm even getting rid of shoes and books, believe it or not. I also threw out a bunch of craft stuff that I keep hanging on to and I hung up pictures! I also hung up an old window frame that I've had for years. I found it in my parents' barn, painted it and intended on hanging it on a wall, but never did. It's been in storage in three apartments, but now it's on a wall!

Some pictures I've taken recently....

Hayden, my nephew, at the Galleria a couple of weekends ago.

That's me in the bunny suit.

Angel was tired of me knitting and refused to get off this hat I was making.

The pictures I put up and the window frame that used four picture hangers to get up there.

Sorry, I know I said I would post when I had heard back from my winner...should have posted this yesterday, but I totally forgot!

The winner is Giabella Designs!

Check out her site, she makes these adorable aprons. I love aprons, but I don't cook. Hmm, that could be a problem.

Your scarf will be on its way this week, Sue! Congrats on your employee of the year honor!

I thought I would join in with these lovely ladies and offer up my humble prize......a hand-knit scarf, knitted by me, of course. I had been saving this scarf for some sort of contest and one just fell in my lap! The item to be won:

A close up of the stiches....

Me modeling the scarf in my ratty Jeep sleep shirt....

It's a drop stitch scarf made with Lamb's Pride yarn, a wool/mohair blend in, as you can see, orange, or as the yarn label says, "Orange you Glad". I love the yarn and the pattern, but orange and I do not go well together. So, if you would like your very own, handmade scarf, and you look lovely in orange (or know someone who does, gift!), just leave a comment on this post. I will draw the winner Saturday, Feb. 2nd when I get home from the Mardi Gras parade and inform them via email, so make sure I can contact you. Good luck! (Oh, and click on the logo at the top to find the ginormous list of others who are offering goodies, including Summer who is giving away a lovely set of jewelry!)

I tore out what I had managed to finish on Dan's hat last night.
I was about ready to start reducing to close the hat at the top when I realized that one of the stitches had fallen off one of the needles a couple of rounds ago and I hadn't noticed. Damnit.

I decided to go the "easier" route and buy a circular needle. (two needles connected by a cord or tube) Easier my ASS. I had trouble with it from the start and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.

"Damnit!! You're supposed to be easier! Be easier, you fucking thing!"

Needless to say, that didn't work either.

Then, I found a website that said when I had finished casting-on my stitches, I needed to stretch them out so that they covered the whole thing.

"OOOOh! Ok!"

So I cast-on my stitches again and stretched them out, and....no go. The cord was too long. What the hell?

After cursing the air blue, my cat was staring at me warily and I made a radical decision.

"I'll just cut it!!"

I estimated how much needed to go, cut it off, and after trying to use matches to fuse the two ends together and failing...miserably, I went to the kitchen, turned on the burner, and stuck both ends in the blue flame and smooshed them together(that's the technical term).

"Holy crap, it worked!! I'm a genius!"

bwahahahaha!

This is the knitting project I've been working on lately. My friend Dan is in the army and will be deployed to Afghanistan in March. I've been told it's quite cold in the mountains, so I thought I would make him a hat. The color doesn't show up very well here, but it's called "putty" if that helps. It was the manliest color of yarn I could find. But, here's my dilemma....this is the pattern. If you ignore the fact that the model in the picture is a girl, the pattern's not too girly is it? Help me out, here.

I've been thinking about resolutions all day and what I could actually stick to were I to make some, and this is what I came up with......

1. Make more conscious decisions
basically what I mean by this is to stop letting things just happen as they will rather than make the decisions that will effect my future

2. Keep knitting
I have a bad habit of starting a project only to never finish it, I don't want knitting to one of those things. To help, I have been on the lookout for easy stitches to try and people in my life that NEED a scarf, since that's the only shape I can do so far.

3. COMPLETELY clean my apartment and attempt to keep it that way
It would be easier if I had a housekeeper, but I'm poor, so that's never going to happen. But, I told myself if I can keep up something that even resembles clean, I'll get a puppy in the spring.

4. Try to work out my flabby arms
I've lost 30 pounds in the past year and my flabby grandma arms have become even more obvious and I'm sick of looking at them, they have to go. (This is prolly the least likely of all that I will keep, but it does concern me, so I'll try.)

5. Work on my writing
I want to write more (better quality would be nice also). I'm hoping to actually register a domain sometime this year.

That's it, short and sweet. What would YOU like to work on this year?

Remember how I was having problems with the whole stockinette thing?

Huh?

You know, I would get to end of the row and totally forget what stitch I had been doing? And I was all frustrated because it looked awful?

Ok sure.

Well I figured it out.....

Wait. What did you figure out?

The stockinette stitch.

The stocka what?

Stockinette. S.T.O.C.K.I.N.E.T.T.E.

But it sounds like Stalk Annette.

Yeah.

So...you're Annette's Stalker?

(sigh) Yes I am.

Rock on.

The beginning of Mom's scarf...I asked her what color she wanted and my conservative, dresses like a stereotypical middle-aged woman, prefers to live in the background , Mom said she would like a yellow one. Sunny yellow. Who knew?

Some are silly, some are serious, but all are wishes...for myself.
(I'll be updating this one periodically.)

1. backpack around Europe
2. knit a sweater
3. sing the National Anthem at a major league baseball game
4. ride a horse on a beach in Hawaii
5. scuba diving in the ocean
6. wander around New York city
7. own a used bookstore
8. sell my art
9. live in a place with a closet big enough to hold all my clothes and shoes at once
10. take a cooking class
11. take a ballroom dance class
12. visit the Grand Canyon again
13. go on vacation and do nothing but lie on a beach and eat amazing food
14. learn to surf
15. Go to BlogHer!
16. Take my own Jeep to Camp Jeep