I have found my new favorite website / blog.
I want to make out with it...and perhaps...have its babies.

Stuff White People Like

"Ah ha ha, it's true, it's true! We're so lame!"
- Homer Simpson

I need to keep this up. For my own writing ability and for my one reader.

I'll have a more intricate post later. Right now I'm tired and thinking about the brownie I got from Flying Monkey yesterday.

I had a lovely good Friday off. I bought the best smelling lip balm, some much needed moisturizer, and delicious soap. Then I met up with Aaron to see the Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute.
So...I'm glad I only paid $10.50 a ticket for the evening admission. It was short and missing a lot of props I'd expect to be there (no Ewoks???? WTF?) It was worth the cheaper admission but not at all worth the $20.50 daytime and weekend admission. Sure, you get to see the rest of the museum with the higher price, but it really hasn't changed much since the last time I was there 7 years ago. And we ended up just walking into areas anyway...not one person asked to see our ticket to the rest of the museum (which was supposedly closed but full of people)

I do admit to not being the biggest Star Wars fan. I was always kind of blah about the whole franchise. My heart belongs to Star Trek. But I do admit to getting kind of gigglely when seeing Chewbacca. The costume was really amazing...just huge and hairy and detailed. All I did was dork out over the details in the costuming.
I think it confused the nerds a little bit.

I'm tired.
And lame...for being so tired at 10:30 pm on a Thursday night.
I don't even work tomorrow....double lame.

That's about all I can must from my sleepy head.
I just think I need to say something...keep this blogging/documenting kick alive.

For the one person who reads it..
Hello one person.

I was tempted to take my last post down. The grammar was atrocious! But I won't. Its what I said in that moment in time, no matter how sloppy or poorly thought out.

Sometimes it amazes me that I used to be a writer.

I've fallen head over heels in love with the Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace. I have 5 colors in total but 6 skeins (I repeated Seattle because its the most wonderful neutral ever!) I just want to sit and look at it all day...occasionally petting it to make sure its not some wonderful yarn dream.

I love it almost as much as I'm loving John Adams thus far....
Sigh...Thomas Jefferson was so dreamy.

I'm taking many pictures. Until I have a flickr account up and running I'm posting a picture with every entry. The pictures are keeping me more active here then strictly text.

I'm very sad I didn't really see snow. I read blogs from Canadians with multiple feet of snow, and daydreamed of being in a cozy warm house with snow falling outside, but it would not have been practical in my current housing situation.
I welcome spring with open arms, and scowl at summer coming up right behind it. I feel more awake and alive with the longer hours of daylight. My commute doesn't feel as hellish as it did, even though I am looking forward to moving away and ending that horrible train ride once and for all! We cannot move back to the city soon enough!

The suburbs are nice for some people but definitely not for me! How do people do it? I feel trapped and stir crazy. If I had a few acres and a big house maybe, but anything smaller then that is hell! At least in the city I can walk dozens of places without even thinking about my car.

I need to go back to fawning over my Misti. Its exactly all the colors I've wanted for years...

I'm still feeling particularly antisocial. I think its a combination of work stress, work horribleness and the long drawn out winter.

Although going home with the sun still up is a vast improvement (I don't leave my office until 6:20, I don't get home until 7pm)

We have a new photo program to play with so expect lovely pictures soon. This magical program can even make my retarded landscape pictures marvelous!

I'm excited for Top chef tonight. I didn't even know it was premiering until Saturday. I'm so behind in my pop culture.
I won't even explain my excitement over the John Adams mini series starting this weekend on HBO. I am OBSESSED with period movies, always have been always will. I love early American history, and I have a weird crush on Paul Giamatti.
I'm just going to watch it over and over and over. I can't wait until the DVD!!!!

I'm on an egg salad kick. My mom grew up eating it everyday during her childhood so she hated to make it. I could only occasionally talk her into making it for me. I'm also fascinated with Deviled Eggs but they seem to really only exist for parties. But I digress...my egg salad is delicious and I could eat it until I got sick of it, which I swear would be never!

I ordered 3 skeins of the new Misti Alpaca Hand painted laceweight yarn. I bought it for the soul purpose of designing a shawl from it. I may just sit at my door at work and watch for the postman every day until it arrives. I love Webs....truly and deeply for brining this treasure to me. My local yarn store 3 states away.

I think that's all the conversation I can muster. And that took a lot.
I do feel kind of bad though. Its hard to explain to people that you just don't feel like talking...or only talking to a very tiny amount of people. Most don't really understand it. I'm kind of confused be people who need to socialize all the time. Don't you ever just feel like being quite and alone with your thoughts? So weird.

I just haven't felt myself lately. I feel like an awkward teenager.
...I'm hoping I'll hit my 20's soon.

Lucretia My Reflection

Maybe it's the newly imported Cocteau Twins on my Ipod.
Maybe it's the end of winter.
Maybe it's my work situation finally becoming calmer so my mind has time to wander.

Something is making me have lust and longing for all that is dark.

My current shawl is black, aqua and brown. Much darker then I normally knit with. (and it's Anne of all things!) I obsessively think about the Raven series from Blue Moon Fibers and how much I want to get two color ways in Geisha. I'm itching to start my kimono sweater in dark black purple. If it's black and purple i want it. If it's black and blue i want it!

And now.....oh Webs....you filthy whore of a store! You tempt me with the new Misti Alpaca hand painted laceweight yarn! Its too much temptation!

I'm not on a yarn diet or anything else ridiculous...my budget is just so small it hurts to look at anything except necessities. A splurge for me right now is spending $1.50 on a soda for lunch...and that is living the high life.

But one day....oh....you dark little beauties will be me all mine!



(although...I admit, the misti colors I like are not dark or depressing...they are down right bright and cheery....but....that would have kind of ruined my momentum, don't you think?)

EW!

http://welcometophilly.com/food/index.php

I am never eating anywhere in this city again. EW!

Except Franklin Fountain...it's an all ice cream existence for me!

I seriously wish I could burn everything I read about places I go to out of my head.

I'm going to go wash my eyes out with soap and water.

(titles are stupid....)

Seriously...this may be the best picture of me recently.

I don't know...my face hates cameras.

What you can't see is my head of curly hair. I turn 31 and all of the hair on my head becomes curly. I'm completely perplexed. I literally had to buy all new hair products to deal with my longer curly hair.
I had to buy a hair iron for heavens sakes!!!

Nothing else new to report. I work all week, drink on Saturday's, and play Mass Effect obsessively in between. Its hard to pull my self away to get any knitting done.
I'm on my second play through of the game and I'm not sick of it yet.
Now if I could only find a way to make money obsessively playing a video game over and over again.

I've also been out shooting with Aaron a lot. Shooting pictures that is.
We've become mildly obsessed with a lovely stretch of roadway near our apartment. West River Drive (yes...I know its now MLK blvd or whatever it is they named it....but I will call it West River Drive until I die!!!) is scenic but far less crowded then its sister road Kelly Drive. The walk way winds next to the river and there's very few people on it. It even has two feirce patrol geese! The meanest and nastiest geese I've ever met. They hissed at us, ran after me, and hissed even as we drove out of the parking lot.

I should have a flurry of knitted items finished shortly. Perhaps some pictures. If I can pull myself away from my dreamy space fantasy that is.

I married the best boy ever two years ago today.

He will always be my Valentine!

Forever, and ever, and ever!

WTF???

What the hell just happened???

The Patriots were supposed to win...they were supposed to wipe the field with the Giants.

WTF???? Giants won...what?

I can't watch football anymore...it makes me too mad.

(and yeah...I know since I'm from NJ I should be a Giants fan, which I kind of am, but I really do love the Patriots....and an undefeated season would have been awesome)

I'm so frustrated...I need to go stare at the wall for a bit.

Are those pictures on the horizon?

I FINALLY have a camera.

Finally.

One of my very own.

The most adorable little digital camera. It lives in my purse. I take random pictures of buildings on a daily basis.

I'm not the kind of person who takes pictures of people. I'm more of a things, stuff, and buildings kind of gal.

I have it named it yet. It still hasn't had a name jump out at me.

But what does all of this have to do with my blog and you...my...well...one reader?

PICTURES!!!!
I will not have a naked blog any longer!!!!

....now if only I would actually finish a project or two..

Heath Ledger...so sad.

Seriously depressing.
He was such a good actor and he had such a young daughter.
Definitely some of the saddest hollywood news I've heard recently.

RIP Heath Ledger.

Seriously...it is not January

Its been warm, like spring warm. I would like to enjoy it, but its doing quite the number on my lungs. As I've posted about previously, I'm still sick as a dog. But I plan on spacing out all weekend so hopefully my poor little lungs and nose will heal during this mindless time.

The only thing that has cheered me up is:
- new yarn. New lace yarn. The kind of lace yarn that makes me daydream at work of all the things I'd like to make with it
- new patterns, for new lace yarn
- The speed I've seem to built up when it comes to knitting lace shawls. I can make a shoulder shawl in a week, at about an hour or two a night. So if I had nothing else to do I could probably make one in a day, if that's all I did and I wasn't horribly ill. Maybe making shawls on the side to sell isn't as insane of an idea as I thought it was.
- Flight of the Conchords.
- my sense of smell and taste is kind of back. I can taste strong flavors and I can smell strong smells. I'm looking forward to the day when even the tiniest scent can be noticed again
- Franklin Fountain...my favorite historical ice cream shop...is now open all year long. Last year they closed for winter....I'm glad I can stop in for hand made soda and a hot fudge Sundae any Saturday I choose.

Aa just bought a camera so picture coming soon!

Ugh.

I was healthy for about a week. I caught a cold last week, which has morphed into a sinus infection and hacking cough. I feel horrible. I blame 3 things: 1. public transportation 2. a really warm and dry work environment 3. Crazy up and down weather patterns.

Just sitting here typing feels like a big struggle, because its hard to stop coughing long enough to type.

Aa is looking into buying a nice, new camera so pictures may be coming soon.
I just finished a baby sweater but sadly gifted it before taking pictures.

Since I'm not up to conversing yet here's some bullet points of interest:

- I'm already in love with Parking Wars. Its follows the parking authority in Philadelphia. Every "fuck you" makes me beam with pride
- I'm in the teeny tiny stages of making my fiber dreams come true. I'm thinking of starting my own yarn based business. That's all I'm going to say for now, but I really am hoping that everything works out this year.
- I like buying yarn from Etsy more then any other place. Seriously. So many creative people out there. I will say it.....the web will be the LYS of the future.
- There's too many video games to play right now. What to choose....space alien RPG or weird puzzle game with a homicidal computer. So many choices....and all reviewed well. Too bad none of them will be as swoon inducing as Bioshock was.
- I'm looking forward to the superbowl. My pick: The Patriots, and that is not just because Tom Brady is cute (although I'm more of a Brett Favre kind of girl myself)

More soon. I'm getting tired just sitting up at this point so I need to go take medicine and lay down for a bit.

My life is nothing more then work and snot.

I go to sleep and dream of inputting orders and talking to customers about their mis-shipments. Seriously...its all I ever think about anymore.
My job normally consists of more interesting things but the title wave of web orders has made my life revolve around this one obsessive compulsive thing.

Sigh.

And my head is so tightly packed full of snot and mucus that I'm amazed I can have any thoughts at all. I have a horrendous cold. I guess working non-stop has made my lousy immune system more lousy then normal and I've picked up the crappy cold everyone else has had.

I'm going to work tomorrow for a few hours.

Tomorrow is Saturday.

Stupid fucking holidays.

Wait.....what? Who? When? Wha?

I'm so tired.

The Christmas shopping season may sound completely awesome to most people, but it completely sucks for the few of us who actually have to sell things to the general population. Our web sales have already tripled, which means my work hours have already greatly increased.

Just this little bit of extracurricular computing at home seems to be too much.

Please excuse my absence. I'm only averaging about 11 hours at home any given day, and 6 hours of that is devoted to sleeping, I'd like to hang out with AA for at least a few hours a day, even if its in a barely conscious state.

I'm not dead....I just will kind of feel that way until January.

Time flies when you are not having fun

This fall has been horrendous. Simply a mess. Between moving and work, everything has been a giant headache filled blur.

Sorry I do apologize to anyone I have been out of touch with. We've been moved into our new place for about 3 weeks now and we are still living out of boxes and bags, that is exactly what our life has become. We are so busy we can't even put anything away. I actually bought new jeans and underwear because it was easier.
And it is only getting worse. We've lost two employees at work, during the start of our busiest time, so my 9 hour work day will most likely stretch into a 12 hour work day, and I will definitely be taking the stress home with me. I wish the paychecks were nice and plump too, then I wouldn't feel as bad about everything. I just hate feeling like I'm 2 weeks behind every single day. And now that we are horribly short staffed its only going to get worse.

My birthday was pitiful, I have a cold that will just not go away, and my stress level is through the roof. I'd go on vacation but I can barely afford a latte. I think a full nights sleep would be lovely...too bad our new neighbors are constantly fighting. Sigh.

Thanksgiving can't come soon enough. Free food and a night away from Philadelphia seems like the only thing I want right now.

I have one new skein of yarn...it was my one and only splurge because it matches my new coat, but our camera is dying so no new photos until the holidays. So...picture to come later!

If anyone sees a big bag of money laying around please send it my way...it would be much appreciated!

the hardest anniversary I have.

January 20, 1941 - October 25, 2005

My mom died two years ago today.

It feels like so much time has passed, like a whole lifetime, but it all feels so recent too.

I still cry most nights. I still can't look at her handwriting and I still start sobbing whenever I go into an AC Moore.

Its weird what memories I think about most. I'm always picturing her hands, and the silly face she would make at me or the short but sweet voicemails she would leave me.

I was a stronger person when she was here I'd like to continue to be, make her proud of me, but sometimes getting out of bed and dragging myself to work is all I can muster.

I miss her everyday....and I will forever.

I love you mom...and I always will.

I'm missing you.

Lake Shore Drive
by the Innocence Mission

Regret has gone down in my estimation now.
The old world had you smiling out,
putting your arms around.
I tell myself now
things I would have told to you,
the smallest plan, the greatest news.
The more days come, the more it's true.

Right now I've got to get back home,
in from the sad day out.
Missing you forever,
yes, I shout, yes I, yes I, yes I am.

It seems the right time
to let go of the steep incline
of this day and to know you're mine
forever and I will be fine.
In me will you shine,
shine, shine, will you shine.

I'm stepping through
the streams and fountains of the sad day out.
Missing you forever,
yes, I shout, yes I, yes I, yes I am.
Yes I, yes I, yes I am.



I miss my mom.

Practice makes perfect.

Maybe if I post regularly I'll get so into the habit I won't let it drop off for months anymore.

Too bad I have very little to say right now. I'm so full of conversations and loud noises all day at work that the last thing I want to do when I'm at home is be communicative. (well, I'm constantly talking to Aaron, but he doesn't count, he lives with me, proximity makes it easier to keep conversations going)

Lists have become my new best friends. And short bullet points are easier to read then full complete paragraphs.

I've finally been not so lazy about acquiring new cds. I work a few blocks from a record store but never bothered to walk over there. I blame the summer heat and lack of money. But I have finally started to fatten up my music collection. And..well..after listening to the same dozen albums on my Ipod for 6 months straight, it was time to listen to something else.

So....new albums I have recently picked up and have fallen head over heels in love with:
- Iron and Wine - The Shepard's Dog. Ok, this actually just came out, but I can't get enough of it. I want to play it non-stop in my head at all times. His voice...oh lord his voice.
- Sufjan Stevens - Michigan. I'm still confused as to why I didn't like him when I first heard him years ago. I had it in my head I didn't like it....but he sounds like every other band I listen to. I'm glad I've finally turned. His music is lovely.
- Hayden - Skyscraper National Park. I've wanted this album for ages but never seemed to order it. I've heard it before, but that doesn't make me love it any less.
- Denison Witmer - Are You a Dreamer. He's from Lancaster, PA. He knits...even going so far as to knit the entire cover of this album. He's friends with Innocence Mission and don Peris produced his album with Karen singing on a handful of the tracks. Its beautiful. Its quiet and lovely.
- Calexico - The black Light. Another one I've been meaning to get forever but never got around to. Mexicana/country/rock/indie/folk mix. Its hard to explain. I love them so.


We have 4 places to go look at tomorrow. I'm hoping we see something we would actually want to live in. I thought it would be much easier then it has been. Who knew so many houses could be so depressing.

Wish me luck!