it's been a while

It has definitely been a while since I last posted. Summer has been extremely slow. The job hunt has been slow, knitting has been VERY slow, photography has been even slower, and the lack of any activity is now apparent in my blog. Sorry!
Hopefully things will start moving again.

I have much to share, but, for now I'll show you my current and most important WIP.
A Harry Potter scarf!



A few weeks ago I decided I'd knit a Gryffindor scarf for the opening of the new movie. On Saturday I had been working on the scarf for a week and a half and I was exactly half way done with my scarf. Pretty exciting. I checked my calendar and calculated that I had a bit less than a week left: 6 days to be exact to finish my scarf. I'd definitely have to up my pace, but, I figured I could do it.
While surfing the net I ran into an ad for the movie that said it opened on Wednesday the 11th. ... yeah... so, today being Sunday I'm left with only 3 more days to knit the second half, block, and add fringe. I'm a liiiiiitle scared.



I've decided to dedicate the rest of tonight towards knitting the scarf and hopefully I can get about 3-4 stripes done per day. I'd ideally like to finish the knitting by Tuesday so I can block overnight and add tassels on Wednesday before the movie. Hmm. I'll have to hope for the best.


In other news I was tagged for the weird things meme. Here's a quick list of mine:

1. This hasn't happened in a while, but, through most of HS and a few times in college I'll have a day where I have intense urges to make things on my body symmetrical. If I had an itch on my left ear and scratched it, I would have to scratch my right ear as well for balance. If I accidentally hit my left foot on a door frame I'd make sure to hit my right foot as well. It would just go on and on. During these days I'd also have a desire to touch certain points on the line of symmetry of my body. Mainly, the top, center of my head. The point between my nose and lips. My adam's apple. And somewhere near my xyzphoid process. o_O I'm glad those days are over, for the most part.

2. When I'm in bed I can fall asleep within 5-10 minutes. I've had this on-going "story"/"soap opera" in my head since my sophomore year of high school that i relive most nights before I knock out. It's my belief that I've subconsciously associated the fantasy with sleeping. 9 or so years later, all I have to do is pick up where I left off in the story the night before and a few minutes later I'll be asleep. Needless to say, the story doesn't get very far and I have a tendency to repeat part of the previous night's episode.

3. I like to shelter myself. I already know what I don't like and I'll do whatever I can to prevent myself from experiencing it. For example, I used to love getting scared watching horror movies in the theatre. But now, I know that not only will I be scared in the theatre--I'll be scared for at least the next five days. So I've stopped watching scary movies. I'll close my eyes and cover my ears if a preview for a horror film is on TV. If I'm reading a book and it is the least bit spooky I'll stop.
I also don't like to be sad or realize how twisted some people can be... to prevent myself from experiencing/realizing I don't watch the news.
Those are just two of many examples.

4. I don't mind doing things alone and in some cases I'd prefer it that way. I'm always eating alone in restaurants, watching movies alone, going shopping alone. Once in a while it would be nice to do those with someone, but, sometimes no one is available and I'm a big believer of indulging in your desires at the instant you have them. I hate grocery shopping with other people though. hahaha. Especially comparison shoppers. On my list of things I've done alone that actually made me feel lonely or self-conscious (meaning I'd rather not do them again) include going to great america alone AND riding rides, and going to the art institute alone.

5. When I'm nervous or uncomfortable I'll start finger spelling. Sign language, you know? Most of the time I don't even know what I'm spelling until I actually look at my hand or focus on what I'm doing. The word always comes from something I hear--maybe on the radio or in a passing conversation. I never spell words with double letters like "spoon" or "letters" or "moon" etc. unless it's an "L" like "hello". And it's mostly nouns or verbs but never proper nouns (aside from my name which I tend to finger spell even when I'm not nervous).

6. When I write in notebooks I never use the first two pages (sometimes even 3). This started originally from wanting to design a cover page and also form a table of contents after the notebook was filled. When I'm taking notes in a class, if any of the first 3 lines of the page looks messy or ugly or poorly written I'll restart my notes on a new page. If it gets messy further down in the page I ignore it.

7. If I'm eating something small that requires taking bites... like, a chicken nugget I have to finish what I start. If I take a bite out of a nugget put it down and it falls on the floor I have to pick it up and finish it. I freak out if someone else eats something I've taken a bite out of. With something big, like a burger, I can share... but I'd rather the person take a bite from an area that I had not previously taken a bite from. If I'm eating something smaller like, a potato chip, the chip that is in my hand moving towards my mouth must be eaten by me. If it falls in the mud I have to eat it. Crazy? Probably. I actually have an explanation for why I do this... but... explaining it would make me appear even more insane. Has a lot to do with un-fulfillment and mouth shapes.


So.. that's some randomness about me! I'll tag... whoever wants to share some of their craziness. ^_^ Now to my Harry Potter scarf.