Come together

My bike broke.

I had to run downtown to get a copy of my marriage certificate so that I can apply for family housing. I was told originally that we would have no problem getting a house (there are apartment complexes too but they don’t allow pets), but when I went in today with all of my offical documentation, I was told that we probably wouldn’t get anything until next fall. Which would be fine if our current lease didn’t end in May.  So we are looking at   a) being stuck in this horrid, awful place for the rest of our time in Eugene b) moving in with my parents for a term or c) living in our two-door car with all three cats.

I am not pleased. We are also considering buying a place – especially since I will be galavanting all over the world after I graduate with my SLAT certificate and never really knowing how long I’ll be gone, etc… It would be super nice to have a place to come home. However, in case you hadn’t noticed, um…the economy? Not so good.

Anyway, I got my dad to drive me around town, and then to campus so that we could pick up poor Rosalind (my bike) and take her to the bike shop. They had her for a couple of hours and gave her a good fix-up. Apparently I was on the verge of losing pretty much every component of it every time I rode. That’s scary. But now she’s all better, and resting up after her ordeal in Dad’s trunk.

For some reason I decided to spend my evening with my parents? I thought it would be good? I have a little paper to write for my Comp. Lit class, and I didn’t feel like slugging through it at home. However, I have already gotten in a fight with my brother (about Catalonia of all things; my family is odd) and I am freezing and very uncomfortable. I want to go home. This happens every time  I decide to spend time over here, so why do I keep doing it? I don’t understand me.

Despite all of this other nonsense, I managed to really clean up and organize some of the apartment. I have pictures of my accomplishments, and they are coming soon. We have decided that if we are moving again we absolutely have to get rid of everything that isn’t essential. We want to have a nice, large place with nothing in it. Except for cats. And cat litter. And cat food.

But I have to finish this bloody paper so that I can work on my Kangaroo Tunic.

In the backs of cars…

WOW! It’s been ages since I’ve been here. School has been kicking my butt. 18 credits (about 4 lectures + discussion groups) plus 30-40 hours of work per week was perhaps, shall we say, not the best of my plans.  I finally had to go down in hours at work once the boss got word that I was, erm, passing out. Awkward. Way to go Ani.  On top of THAT! I am a transfer student, transferring into a NEW major. So I am taking one low-level linguistics class, plus one upper division linguistics class and its pre-requisite at the same time. Did I mention that this was not a good idea?

I am almost done! However, I think that the term scheduling is ridiculous. This is week 9 of 10, but we will have most of it off due to frakking Thanksgiving. So I basically get a week off (I’m done after I turn a paper in on Wednesday)  and then I have to go back for one more week of lectures and then one week of final exams. And then I get a month off. Does it not seem like it might be wise to…oh, I don’t know…just start classes two weeks earlier?  But then, I am also crazy and think that I should not have to take physics to become a field linguist.  However, I shall save my mad general-education ranting for another time.

Craftwise, things have been highly lackluster. I haven’t had time. You know what takes time? That’s right. I started work on some baby hats for a co-worker who is having a baby in January. And then I realized that I didn’t know how big babies were (it sounds ridiculous, but…well…I just don’t), and my hats looked all wrong and I didn’t think Hannah would really care for them all that much anyway, so I just frogged ‘em and bought her a gift certificate to a spa. That’s what moms need most, right?  I also started making some Very Tall Socks, but apparently I am a midgetfreak? My swatch was perfect. And I even swatched in the round for once, to make SURE. The Thing that I knit could have  encompassed both of my thighs and probably an arm as well. After about 40 hours of work on size 2 DPNS, I probably won’t be starting back on those for a long, long time.

But then! I noticed that the yarn I had bought for Hannah’s baby items was just the perfect colors to match my citrus theme in my room! So I started knitting little pillows to put on the futon mattress that sits propped up against my wall, pretending to be furniture and deceiving my cats into thinking that they can jump on the back of it (this is hilarity en maxima. Lily jumps up and just sinks the entire back down, bogging herself down in it. Then she tries very nonchalantly to make the horrendously uncomfortable position work as if that was her plan from the very beginning. It’s adorable until she can’t get out; then it’s just sad). I have just knit a  single rectangle that folds over into a square. I will get some stuffing, and I was thinking of getting some citrusy potpourri as well? But that comes later, when I have money and some way to get to a fabric store.

For now, I am excited about beginning my first Kangaroo Tunic. I bought some beautiful chunky wool, and some 17 needles. However, I did not realize that I was supposed to get circular needles. So I am knitting it flat as I don’t really mind seaming all that much. I think you can make a better fit with some seaming, but then I was a sewer before I was a knitter. I think I will create a little ribbed flap on the side and get big funky buttons to close it up. Pictures will be posted as soon as I can find some natural light. If you, or someone you know has stolen daylight from the Pacific Northwestern quarter of the United States…I beg you to return it. I miss it. I have forgotten what the sky looks like.