Nothing

Blah. I'm feeling very blah.

Ranger Man's home, but my work schedule has been weird and of course his has been weird so we don't have any sort of schedule or routine. Webster's starting to get used to having him home, but I'm not used to it yet.

Work's been driving me nuts for various reasons, although I think the upheaval that prevails through the rest of my life is just affecting work, which feels like the only thing I can control. So I'm hoping that I just feel like work is worse than it actually is.

I finally heard back from one of my thesis advisors, so I'm back on track for that- but without the aforementioned routine/schedule, I'm still not getting anything done.

I am accomplishing knitting though. Lots of knitting. I'm sure I'll have pictures soon.

If I could just figure out how to bring up my energy level a bit- I don't know where it has gone, but my energy has been next to nothing lately. Oh energy, come back! In the meantime, I have nothing exciting going on besides a raging tension headache that won't go away.

Attention Students:

This just in:

I can hear you. When you're griping and whining and complaining about your professors... I can hear you.

And I talk to those professors. I don't think you want me knowing exactly how you feel about them!

Please, save the "I hate Prof. X" talk until I leave for the day.

Also- just for your edification- if Prof. X says that you need to turn in a paper with 1000 words, and your paper doesn't have 1000 words... no. You have not met the requirements of the assignment, and Prof. X has every right to point that out and penalize you for it.

One more day in this quarter, just one more day...

Edited to add a note to the Nighttime Security Guard, who just asked me if I was "sure" that the students in the library weren't taking a test. Um, dude, seriously? I'm pretty sure I would know if I were administering an assessment of some sort.

Death Monkeys

I'm a sock making machine lately. I've got three pairs about to be off the needles, but here's the latest completely finished project:



Monkeys, using Wollmeise. Saami colorway. The entire pair took about a week- Monkeys are the quickest socks ever. Webster, however, apparently doesn't like them. You can see his face, but you can't see the death in his eyes...

I put these sock on and immediately, he decided that those brightly colored things must.die.now. He was not happy. Of course, I wasn't happy because my feet were inside the socks that he was attacking, and he has sharp little teeth! It's so weird how he reacts to some yarn with absolute hatred and vehemence and he absolutely loves other yarns.

My Weekend...

This weekend I got to:

start a new pair of socks and have ample knitting time as I waited and waited and waited...

go running with my running partner...

go grocery shopping with my grocery shopping partner at the commissary...

watch my bike finally get put together (it's been sitting in a box in our living room for months now!...

feel hugged and kissed and loved over and over again...

not worry about where my cell phone was and whether I could hear it ring at every moment...

not refresh my inbox every 5 seconds...

watch someone else do the dishes... (I helped a bit. Sometimes)...

and watch Webster play with his Daddy.

It was a good weekend. Welcome Home Darling.

Happy Graduation Day to Me...

Theoretically, today is my graduation day.

Of course, I still have my thesis to finish- but today is the day that I could have walked.

I found out today that the requirements for my thesis have changed AGAIN. So while I originally thought I had a year from now to complete this, and then found out I only have six months- now I find out that until I finish it, I will have an "F" on my transcript. Or an "NC" which means No Credit (polite F)- which can be changed to a grade after I finish the thesis. All of this extra work has to be done by the professor who has made it clear that he doesn't think I will be able to complete this project at all.

When I emailed him in February, asking for an "Incomplete" until I'm done writing- per his current syllabus (!)- he didn't bother to tell me that it couldn't be done. He didn't bother to respond at all. Which doesn't make me hopeful that he's going to be bothered to change the automatic "F" that I'm going to get since there's no way I can write my thesis in the 2 days or whatever it is until grades are due. (or, I could pay another $700 to enroll in a one credit class to keep my student status active. Thanks for NOT putting that in the syllabus or informing us of the changes!)

[sigh]. Did I mention that neither of my thesis advisors has responded to my (albeit rather disjointed) requests for input thus far? And that I really want to change my topic, but need approval from them to do it? Of course, approval would require that the RESPOND TO MY EMAILS!

Did I mention that the person in charge of my future is convinced that I'm going to fail at this whole process? This is not an encouraging feeling... Can they do that? Can they change course requirements for a current course (thereby making the syllabus invalid/inaccurate)?

Happy Graduation Day...

Punchy.

Things I discovered yesterday (including unexpected things that came out of my own mouth, and others...)

When in doubt, Knit it out. (this is now my theme song)

I will make a good grandmother.

When discussing trivia about children's toys from the eighties, and "My Little Pony" in particular, my brain will come up with Teddy Ruxsben (sp?). wtf? I don't even know what that is, it's some kind of bear, right?

Old-school Marvel X-men are way better then Spiderman.

If the crazy library person launches an impromptu lecture about the Iran and Afghanistan during the Cold War in Afghanistan- some students actually will listen. Some students will then launch into a neo-con tirade, the remedial math instructor will launch into a liberal tirade and some students will nod and think contemplatively and move on.

The day that I"m not in the library is the day that someone will leave their car keys and wallet with credit cards out and they will get stolen. I will then get to play crime fighter and review surveillance footage to try to determine who it is. Moral of the story: Do not mess with the knitting crazy library person.


... I know you're wondering what happened yesterday ...

The student government elections (ostensibly run by students, in reality run by me)- were yesterday. I spent 14 straight hours sitting in the same chair with a total of 67 votes. 4 votes per hour. gr. At least I had my knitting. What a long day. Towards the end, coupled with the above-mentioned math teacher who was keeping me company, there was some punchy-silliness (how else would "My Little Pony" have come up?)

I did get a lot of knitting done. I'll see if I can't take some sort of picture soon. Of course, I have to go back to work today. And announce the results of the election. I may need a strong drink after dealing with a certain disapointed individual...

Finished

I turned it in! My last paper of my last class of my school on The Island. Now to finish that darn thesis...

On a more serious note:

Depression is hard to talk about. Here's a good article- please read it. It's not necessary to fully understand what depression feels like to be able to empathize, and sometimes a little empathy can help. Depression is hard to describe by those who feel it, and this author does an admirable job.

Even just reading a simple article like this can help to eliminate the stigma of mental illness.

fail.

I did not finish that paper yesterday. I got five more pages done, and so I have five left. I failed on my mission yesterday. This paper has been HARD to write.

Is it bad that I'm really glad Ranger Man isn't coming home this week because I don't want to deal with any more stress? They can keep him this week. I'll start lobbying for his return after this week is over.

I did run yesterday though- so I ran, I wrote 5 pages, and I ate enough... I think that's a somewhat productive day. If I'd had a full weekend of days like that I would be done with this paper now. Instead I had to work- yuck. And now I'm back to work today, for hell week.

I must be stressed, I've been doing some yarn shopping lately online... way too much, but yarn is so soft and makes me feel better!

Here's a picture, for example. I actually got this for Christmas: Mountain Colors Bearfoot. (Barefoot? I should go find the ball band... )



See? Don't you feel less stressed now? I may take yarn to work with me this week, to put on my desk.

I will...

Today I WILL:

Finish the D#$! rough draft of my paper- there will be 20 pages total written by the end of the day today. I'll fix it after that.

Okay... I guess other than that one, I don't really have anything I HAVE to do today.

But I would like to get some exercise of some sort, and I'm seriously thinking about making cookies. But I have so many more pages to write!

10 pages down, 10 to go.
Edit: 13 pages down, 17 to go!

Oh, and so this isn't just for me... Remember the camel yarn? I promised a picture...

bleck weekend

I had to leave these:

(the cat and the socks, not the legs) to head to the main campus of my work-school for a two day workshop this weekend.

The socks:

Glynis, from Cookie A's Book.
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Socrates from The Loopy Ewe
Verdict: I love the yarn, super soft and cuddly, but the bamboo content made it a touch too splitty to do any sort of a complicated pattern that may or my not have required un-knitting of one form or another. But I would definitely recommend the yarn for non-complicated patterns.

Other than that, my head is all 'splodey from everything that's going on. 'splodey heads and leaving the cat behind make me cranky. I do not like having to work all weekend and leave the cat behind.