Not Dead Yet!

I started my student teaching last Tuesday, though, and while it is a hoot (hoooooooot!) I am having a strange time adjusting to the fact that although I am getting up a full 4-5 hours earlier than usual, I actually have less time in the day to Get Crap Done. I hear you say, "huh?"

Here's that breakdown.

Previous schedule:
10am - Rise
12 Noon - Shine (shut up, it takes me awhile!)
9pm - Start Getting Shit DONE
2am - Bed.

Current Schedule:
5:55am - Alarm
6:15 - Rise
7:10 - Leave house
7:45 - Teach 1st period juniors
8:49 - Teach 2nd period freshies
9:54 - Prep, begin to glisten a little (depending on caffeine intake)
11:06 - Teach 4th period juniors
12:10 - Sigh with relief
1pm - Head home
8:30pm - Go to bed

Unless there's derby that night, in which case there is skating from 8-11pm and I finally fall into bed - after showering and eating everything in sight - around 12:15am, only to drag my ass out of bed 5 hours later and nap the next afternoon away. Thus with this schedule change have I lost all 5 of my prime Get Shit DONE hours and much of my shine. I imagine I'll get used to it, but as of right now I tend to wander about my little place losing everything that's not in plain sight and wondering whether it's 8:30 yet.

I did finish some knitting as well as half of my January spinning project. Seeing as today is the 25th, I should pull out the wheel, I suppose! There's chicken soup in the crock pot, Bones on Instant Watch, and clothes in the dryer. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this schedule after all.

I Came to Dance

Since I moved away from Ashland back in 2003, I've been on the lookout for a dance club that I like enough to go to more than once or twice. San Jose was a big ol' bust; hip-hop is not my jam, and I am not partial to being asked if I "want a ride, mami?" while walking down the sidewalk. And while handsome junior executives in button-down shirts and crisp jeans are always good eye candy, the scent of desperation surrounds the girls in bandage dresses and teetering high heels who tend to accompany them. You know who isn't generally into picking up guys in bars? This Girl.

Roseville was also a bust. There was the awkward roommate situation, and more importantly that group of people - including THB - tend to like dive bars with pool (karaoke optional) over dance clubs with beats. You know who loathes pool? This Girl.

Nadia and I have hit a few clubs in Sacramento and encountered homo hipsterus en masse. We should have anticipated this, as the door charge is usually a cool twenty bucks (!!). Added to the plethora of handsy Haitians (why are they always Haitian? It's a mystery), the small dance floor and the weird Latin hip-hop with an MJ backbeat - one of these things is not like the other - we bailed on the dancing. You know whose ass is not public property? Yea.

It turns out that what we were looking for all along was a gay bar. In the case of Sacramento, that's Faces. Four (4!) dance floors, at least 4 bars that I saw including one in the coat check (!!), and the sense that you can dance until your heart bursts because no one is creeping up to ask for your number or if you'd like a ride on his disco stick. Also, just enough hip-hop to keep Nadia happy but not enough to exhaust me. The cover was cheap, the well drinks even cheaper; I think I spent a total of $10, including coat check. We went with a few of my fellow Derby Mutineers last night, and even though I could hardly walk for being sore yesterday, a few ibuprofen and a drink or two made it totally worth it. For the first time since moving out of Oregon, the Tiny Dancer in my soul feels satisfied and at rest.

Me, Bobbye Jo, Nadia, and Jenni.

And Begin Again!

It's January third already. Why is it that the years you anticipate always seem to whizz by? Amazing. Nevertheless, while I tend to hate the build-up to the new year, I definitely like the sense of putting off whatever negative things may have happened last year (a family full of cancer, anyone?) and looking forward to what the new year will bring. I feel like the last couple of months have set me up nicely for a fresh start as well as completing some goals, some of which are even from my neglected and in need of editing 101 in 1001 list! (I cooked 5 new-to-me recipes in the last month! There will be brief write-ups.)

I started this year at the apartment of my friend Suzanne and her new boyfriend, accompanied by my dear friends Scott and Michael. We drank champagne and ate scallops wrapped in bacon over pasta with homemade alfredo sauce. It was a good New Year's. Then Scott and I went down to his parents' house in San Jose and hung out for the rest of the weekend. Since we've both moved away from the Bay Area (some of us farther than others, SCOTT), we spend a lot of time hanging out over video games online but not a lot of time face-to-face, or in the case of this weekend, face-to-Dr. Who. It was lovely. 

Now I'm back home and today has been a very puttery sort of day. In about 10 minutes, the pile of boxes in the front of my living room went from this: 

The pile of to-be-unpacked boxes is only slightly larger than this. Progress!

to this:

Clearly I need more DVDs. And books. Or fewer...

I obviously found the cord to my Canon, so there are pictures of the last knits of 2010:

Primavera Socks, Creatively Dyed Calypso Sock Yarn, "Gris."

Basic Mitts, same yarn as above

Basic Mitts, Fannie's Farmhouse Sock Yarn, "Victoria"

These are made from the leftover yarn from Crazy Sarah's 2009 birthday socks, which were nearly finished at the Great Alameda Pub Crawl of 2010 and finally made it to her at the Sacred Family Skate Night this year. I apparently never photographed or blogged them, so just imagine this same yarn, but socks.

And also the first finish of 2011: 

Basic Socks, 316 yds.

These are my standard k3p1 rib with a 9" cuff. I bought six (6!) skeins of this Paton's Stretch Sock in a haze of I-don't-know-what during a trip to Michael's over Thanksgiving. I figured that I'd get 3 pairs of socks, but it's looking more like five (5!). Or perhaps a three pairs for me and one for an as-yet-undetermined male. I'd say THB, but he's on Knitwear Probation. Good thing I have other brothers!

I also started a new scarf: 

Is it my imagination or does this yarn smell faintly of graphite and wood shavings?

I am in love with this yarn; no wonder Madeline Tosh is so popular right now! My only gripe is that it has only one knitting life; don't think you're going to be able to unravel it and try another project, or rip back several rows with impunity. Beauty comes with a price, mis petits amis, and this is definitely beautiful. I think my favorite thing about it is the way the dye job makes it look even more three-dimensional than it really is. Mmm. Pattern: Aria Delicato from Knitspot.

In my last post, I promised to show you the pictures of my neatly arranged stash closet and the overflow pile in front of it, and since starting the new year with broken promises is not really on the agenda, here you go: 

It's tidy! And organized! But there's more:

More. Sigh.

Yipes. There was also a list of things I wanted to do before the new year, and I got all of it done except cleaning the cherry Schact. Darcy "helped" me organize yarn: 

I forgot I had all that CashSoft Aran. And Crystal Palace Creme. /facepalm

I managed not only to get that pile of boxes down to only the two big ones at the bottom, to pick out my Stashdown 2011 projects, but also put them all in paper bags to maintain an element of surprise! 

These bags make up the second big box. The other one is full of yarn, of course.

The fiber ranges in weight from 2oz of 50/50 merino/yak from A Verb for Keeping Warm to 25.5oz (!!) of superwash merino from Crown Mountain Farms, which will be this year's Tour de Fleece project. I tried to choose a range of dyers, colors, and blends. I'm somewhat inspired to try this 12-month thing with sock yarn too, but I haven't decided yet. At least the sock yarn stash is already organized and doesn't require (much) tossing!

And lastly, I've made an important executive decision. This year's quest will go to ELEVEN. It  seems only right. If you wanna play, grab the button!

Or a smaller version for sidebars, etc.: