Just a quickie

I would like to invite you all to gaze upon the (finally photographed) finished Clapotis!

(Told you I would show you. Eventually)

May 31st

Today is the day that I will graduate.

I cannot believe that I am graduating from High School. Wasn't it only yesterday I was a freshman? Wasn't it the day before I was entering Middle School? And wasn't it only the day before then that I started Kindergarten? I know Mom feels that way... But I've kind of been walking around in a haze all day.

We had the Baccalaureate mass tonight, and it was truly a very different experience. Alycia and I sang a beautiful duet during the reflection ("You Raise Me Up") and apparently gave people chills and made people cry. That was some of the highest praise I received tonight.

Right now, I finally have a chance to slow down, and it's a quarter past midnight. So officially, it's the 31st of May and I graduate in 14 hours and 15 minutes. You'll see pictures in future blog posts, I am sure.

With all of this talk about my future, I'd like to take you back a few years. Bear with me here, it's not that painful. Go back five years.

Today, five years ago, I realized how much I loved to write.

Today, five years ago, I was sitting a science final exam and itching to return to my computer to write my first story. It had been brewing all day, all week, and I finally wanted to get it down on paper. Was desperate to get home and write it.

Today, five years ago, my life changed. For the better, of course. Without realizing my talent, I doubt I would have become the editor of The Word, I would have never participated in the Literary Magazine... I can't imagine that I would be much like who I am today. Mom told me that I've always been a good writer, always very creative. But sometimes, don't you think that you need to realize something for yourself to truly nuture it?

So I've been writing for five years. May 31, 2003.

I graduate today. May 31, 2008.

Wow.

On Dentists and Fast Food

I went to the dentist's this afternoon. The dentist's office is not one of my favorite places to be. It's not that I am afraid, or that I feel the urge to dash madly out of said dentist's office when the tools come out... I just really don't like being there. I have many other things I would rather be doing than sitting in the chair having my mouth prodded and my teeth scraped. It's uncomfortable, it's unpleasant, and I really would rather never go to the dentist's.

That said, the dentist who cleaned my teeth today was very impressed with the fact that I had five wisdom teeth. She looked at my xray and said that it was something that she would expect to see in a textbook, and she'd never met anyone with more than four wisdom teeth. And then she shook my hand, and that was a little bit weird.

As I was sitting in the uncomfortable chair, I realized something, though. Something that I'm not sure why I get, but I think I have a theory.

Every time I go to the dentists office, I crave fast food. McDonald's, Chic Fil A, Burger King, whatever happens to fall into my sight first.

I'm not sure why that is, but here is my theory: When I was little, when I went to the pediatrition, I would beg mom to take Duncan and I to TCBY. The reason for this is that there is a TCBY in relatively close proximity to the pediatrition's office, and I must have gone there once or twice after a visit.

I used to go to an optomitrist's office where, when he dialated your eyes and you had to wait for them to fully dialate, he would give you a coupon to go get a cookie at the cookie place around the corner.

I suppose it makes sense that at the dentist's office, I would crave another form of unhealthiness.

Bird watching

The other day, mom mentioned how annoyed she was that these birds had made a nest outside our front door. They use the dog water bowl to bathe in and they poop all over our stoop.


But you know, it sure is hard to dislike the little birdies when the alight right outside of my window and look so pretty. (The cardinal just happened to flutter right on by as I was photographing the other birds... sparrows?)

Things I love about summer

Summer vacation!!!

I love summer vacation. Wanna know why? (Too bad, I'm going to tell you anyway)

1. Travel time! I'm obviously loving this one. I'm officially in Europe this summer as well as going up to New York to visit my favorite people ever in mid June. :) Can't wait to board a plane and get going!
2. Being turned from White to Slightly Less White.
3. Loud music, loud tv, loud noise while other people aren't in the house.
4. Being able to watch a movie that you love three times in one day if you really feel like it. Because you have all that spare time. :)
5. Staying up late and sleeping late!
6. Swimming. Spending time outsidfe.
7. Hanging out with friends for long periods of time.
8. Time to do absolutely nothing. Because you can.

And speaking of having time to do nothing, I'm going to go use mine to go read a book. I spent about an hour and a half laying out and reflecting the sun earlier today, and now that the sun is not so high in the sky I'm going to head back out and lie in the hammock.

Step Two: The Easiest Step

Mother,

Get off of my tail, because it hurts when you step on it. I've done (half of) what you asked, and my closet is now half full of things that I (am pretty sure I) will wear in the future. I stuffed three bags full of clothing we can give to goodwill or whatever, and I've only got three pairs of jeans and some cute shorts left in my dresser drawers. There were a few items of clothing that I'm sure I will never wear again, but can't let go of for sentimental reasons. If only to stuff in a box and pull out in the future to show my children.

So now you only have to nag me about cleaning my room and car. Come to think of it, I should probably go clean my car if I want to fit other people in it...

Sincerely,

Your Daughter.

P.S. The yarn was harder to get rid of.
P.S.S. We're out of milk.




P.S.S.S. We're not really out of milk, but that just sounded like a funny post-script.

Feet? I have no feet. (Ow.)

Friday I worked four hours.

Saturday, I worked four hours.

Today, I worked eight hours.

(Owwwwww.)

I even wore my really ugly (though comfortable) shoes to work, and that still didn't help.

Feet? What feet? My feet can't hurt because they don't exist. (Perhaps repeating this will help?)

Tomorrow I will (Damnit, I will!) start to clean my room. After I sleep in. Until noon. Because it's summer and I damn well can. Hah.

(I apologize for my french. I haven't had the best day today.)

Weeding

So I own a lot of yarn.

I love it all. Some of it was acquired with my money, a large portion of it was aquired through gifts and "hand me downs", if you will.

I decided that I needed to shed a few Stash pounds, and because the Yarn Harlot has been doing her semi-annual Stash Toss, I figured that I should give mine a toss as well. Really go through and decide what I will never use. It was difficult, but I did manage it.

Brandlyn helped, and with her adamant "Stef. Seriously," I managed it.

Before: ~22 lbs

After: ~8 lbs.

I shed 14 lbs of yarn. I'll be donating the yarn probably to goodwill or somewhere like it, if they'll take it... But I can't just throw away all of that beautiful yarn. It has so much potential... just not for me.

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In other news, Brandlyn crocheted a hat.

She is very pleased with herself, and hasn't taken the hat off since she bound off about 2 hours ago.

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In other, other news, I knitted a "Lovey" toy to bring with me to the Czech Republic, for Petra, who just had a baby boy.

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In other, other, other news, my poncho is coming along well. I knit a lot of it and it's about 15 inches long now and I'm about done with the third ball of yarn. I'm thinking that I'll knit as much as I can stand of it (until I burst, probably) and then cast off. A poncho can't really be that long and be awful. There's an awful big margin for poncho length. Unless, of course, you wanted it to be a dress, at which point I would hit you and say "WHY?!"

Blip... blip...

I like how I was talking to Brandy today and we both agreed that the final exams we're taking aren't really a big deal. In fact, they're hardly a blip on our radar. They're kind of like a minor inconvenience in our otherwise fantastic day.

Brandy and I both only had the English exam this morning at 10:30, and so she drove over to my house and then we went to IHOP (woo!!) for breakfast. And then at about 10, we drove on over to school and took our tests, and then we hung around for a bit. After that we went home, readied our respective yarn crafts, slipped into swimsuits, put on sunscreen, and then went outside. Brandy started to crochet an adorable little hat, and I knitted my Harlot Poncho, which is coming along fantastically.

(It measures about 11 inches, and I think it'll be about 30 when I'm done. The yarn is Araucania Atacama, the flavor Moonlit Oasis. It's alpaca and it's delicious, if a wee bit scratchy on a tummy that is trying to get a little bit of color. Oh pleasepleaseplease let me not reflect the sun too much...)

When we decided we were hungry, we ate lunch and then we turned on movies and kept on yarning our projects. And then (much, much later) we made a huge dinner for ourselves, Duncan, and Alek. Now, Alek is writing his notes for our physics exam tomorrow (frankly, he's copying my notes) and Brandy is making him do it.

Tomorrow I haven't got any plans, but I think it'll look a lot like today, except that I have two exams in the morning. I'll probably get outside to swim a bit and then knit the poncho.

See? Minor blip.

Oh, by the way,

Today I attended my last classes of High School.

Tomorrow starts finals. Which I will ace, of course. (Duh. ;) ) After I sleep in and eat breakfast with Brandy at IHOP...

AND...

I FINISHED MY CLAPOTIS!!!

More on that later. I'll take photos. :)

I have a dilemma

I am not hungry.

Today I have consumed:

-Cap'n Crunch cereal
-A coke zero
-An iced tea
-A few chips
-A muffin
-A little bit of chocolate.

Do you see the nutritional value in all of that? It equals to nothing.

And yet I am not hungry. There's nothing I want to eat, nothing I crave, nothing that frankly even appeals to me. I need to eat something of nutritional value. But I want nothing.

And because my hormones are all out of whack, I want to cry or scream or something about it... I hate being a girl.

I have proof

I have definitive proof that I am a good writer.

We had to read 1984 in class this year. Me, being a senior in the throes of senioritis as well as being a busy, busy girl in the midst of work and rehearsals, kept forgetting to read it as the chapters were assigned. (Stop looking at me like that!) Eventually, I just let sleeping dogs lie and I read sparknotes. :)

Well, we had to write an essay as our test on the book. Ms Armstrong gave us the prompts in advance, and me, being a good senior, kind of thought about one of them in advance... Well the test day came and I just pulled the biggest load of BS out of a hat and turned it in. "Whatever. I'll deserve whatever grade I get. That was awful!" I went around for a bit chatting with other seniors, talking about how embarassed I was about this essay that I had written, and how I'll fail and (probably) deserve it.

I got my essay back today.

Um.

I got a 93.

In which I prove I am a teenage girl

I saw the new Narnia yesterday with Brandlyn, and it ROCKED. I loved the movie. I, being the grand Tolkien scholar(-ish) that I am, I know that Tolkien and Lewis were best buds. Practically BFFs. They (like totally) sat in pubs and had drinks with a few of their mates and they all talked about these books they were writing and, I imagine, they compared their worlds, characters, plots, etc. Both Tolkien and Lewis were Catholics, and it certainly shows in their books. (Besides the fact that Lewis wrote many essays and books about Catholicism.) Yesterday, I kept whispering to Brandlyn the common themes I kept on seeing between Narnia and Middle Earth, and at one point she turned to me and was like, "Yes, Stefanie. Watch the movie." For the record, one of the strongest similarities between Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings were the themes of industry. I know that Tolkien was not a fan of industrialization, though he was kind of on the tail end of it (LotR was first published in the 50's I believe...) (I just checked. It was 54-55. I totally rock.) and industrialization was well on its way to creating global warming and eating a hole in our ozone. In any case, remember the scene in The Two Towers where the Trees destroy Isengard? If you don't, the essence of the scene is that Merry and Pippin convince the Ents (trees) to march to Isengard, where Saruman of Many Colors was chopping down the forests to fuel the furnaces to create weapons for his Uruk-Hai army. The Ents smash and flood the whole area and Nature conquers Industry. (Yaaaay).

(Have I lost you?)

Well, comparison to Narnia. In this movie, the four Pevensie children (Plus Caspian) witness the forests being destroyed to create weapons (Huh. De ja vous?) and then in the great battle that follows (much, much later in the movie) Aslan wakes up the forests, who promply destroy the enemy (Say it with me, nature conquers industry.)

So beyond my obviously Great Intellectual Mind in the ability to know pointless and arbitrary facts about authors and books, I also happen to be a teenager. And the actors who play Prince Caspian and Peter Pevensie are absolutely dreamy.

I will freely admit under no duress that Brandlyn and I absolutely drooled over these two boys the entire movie. We might have done a little bit of sighing, too.

(First one is Prince Caspian, played by Ben Barnes, and the other is Peter Pevensie, played by William Moseley.)

I love my sock yarn swap buddy

So I have a lot of yarn.

Some of it I wonder why I bought. I know, I know... I love it, but I often wonder what kind of aneurysm I had to even have ever wanted that yarn. I will never wear it, my friends will never wear it... So why did I have to have it?

I signed up for a "Sock Yarn Swap from your Stash" swap in April. So I put my name in and I was given the name and address of a woman in Arizona to send my yarn onto. So I put a package together of some odds and ends of the yarn, "knit knacks", chocolate, and tea and sent them on.

Well a woman in Mississippi was given my name. And I just got my package in the mail. :)

I couldn't have asked for more beautiful yarn. I would have never bought it, myself, but isn't that the grand point? She also sent me some DPNs, hot chocolate, tea, stitch holders, coupons, and a picture frame.

The yarn is Regia Bamboo. I wish I could find the flavor on it, but I don't see it on the label.

So thank you Beckey! You made me a very happy gal, and I can't wait to knit that yarn up. I've already consumed most of the godiva chocolate and those little FruitaBu snacks... Yum!

This is how I knit

Warning: knitting content ahead!

So I came across this thread called "This is How I Knit" on Ravelry. It's about one woman deciding that she wants to see how other people knit, and asking them to upload videos onto websites showing them just knitting for a few seconds. I watched a bunch of the videos, and it's fascinating. I mean, we're all doing the same thing, but everyone has a different method of how to knit. A different way of holding the yarn makes the entire process seem so different.

So I decided to make my video too. It wasn't that difficult... the hardest part was figuring out how to balance the camera somewhere. I tried sticking it in my boobs, but that just resulted in me losing the camera into my boobs. So I ended up balancing the camera on my knee and knitting around it at an awkward angle.

So there you have it: This is how I knit.

Tagged! Joy Rush

So one of the best people in the world tagged everyone on her blog to create a list of "Joy Rush"es. Things that make you happy. So here is my list!

1. When Topher rolls over on his belly and just looks at you as if he's saying, "You know you want to."

2. When its so perfect outside you just want to curl up in the hammock and exist.

3. The happy-squirmy feeling when you finish a good book.

4. Having 'death stare' contests with Duncan until we both smile.

5. Cuddling with mom in the morning before I go to school.

6. Curtain calls during performances.

7. Playing piano just for the heck of it.

8. Knitting. Anything.

9. When I spend time with Pippa just chatting.

10. When I know I've made someone genuinely laugh.

Grand Knitting Update

Here is one gigantic This Is What I've Been Knitting/Dying post.

These are the socks I knitted during tech rehearsals/performances of the play. Claudia Handpainted Short Sport, the flavor "Bearded Iris".

This is my clapotis. She's grown a bit. All I have left are the decreases.

Here is some yarn I have dyed. They are all Lorna's Laces Shepherd sport.

I haven't really named this one, but it reminds me of the wildflowers here.
This one is Esmerelda.
I don't know what to call this, but I made this one last weekend. I'm particularly proud of this one.

I'm thinking of starting to take requests... Any requests, anyone?

VROOOOM

So a while ago I bought eight skeins of beautiful alpaca yarn with every intention of knitting the Harlot poncho with it. (Ponchos, while a little bit iffy in fashion, are so comfortable! And the alpaca will be super warm.) And I got all excited and knitted my swatch and got all happy, cast on, and realized that I had the wrong length circular needle. It might have been okay if it had been that the length was too short, because I can work with that. No... It was too long. By five inches. So after some teenage knitter angst (Teenage angst is bad enough. Knitter angst can be worse given the right kind of fiber) I bit the bullet and decided last night to buy some Addi Turbo needles in the right size (AND length) that I needed. When I say bite the bullet, I mean that these babies cost me $15.95. I'd heard good things about Addis and that they were supposed to knit faster than normal needles. So what the hell, I'll try it.

Dude. (Barb, I think I might have just channeled you.)

These things are light, they don't grip the yarn, and the yarn practically flies around the loop. It might just be that because I'd heard they are speedy that I think they are speedy, but they are fantastic. I am in love with these needles.

I heard that there's one knitting podcast (can't remember which one) that, every time the woman says "Addi Turbo" there is a VROOOM sound effect.

I sure hope they help my poncho vroom...

A little bit sad

Today I have been saying goodbye to a few things, and one person.

I wrote a massive "ledditor" (What I dubbed the Letter from the Editor, which I cannot, despite being an editor of a newspaper for two years, seem to say correctly.) of goodbye to my baby, the newspaper, and to each and every one of the newspaper staff. I wrote a little blurb about each person, and somehow it ended up being 2 whole pages in Word... which translates to about 4/5 of a page in Pagemaker, the program I use to make the newspaper. I cried a little while writing it, but everything is good. I'm not quite done, but I'll have it done by tomorrow.

And I said goodbye to my piano teacher of eleven years during my last piano lesson. Ever. She's taught me so much more than just piano. She taught me the love of all music, patience, discipline, and perhaps a little bit of math. (There are quarter notes, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, and sixty-fourth notes too. I shall never forget those fractions or that particular series of notes. She's taught me how to be generous, be classy in performing, how to not bow like a chicken, and how to cover for mistakes when performing... Which I have greatly needed a few times. The lessons that she has taught me are numerous and valuable, and I'll take them with me for my life, and hopefully pass them on to someone.

I'll miss you, Kay. I promise I won't stop playing and I'll always think of you fondly when I do. Thank you for all that you have given me and thank you for your friendship while I have grown from a girl of seven to a young woman of eighteen. I've needed it.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day, mom.

Thanks for, you know, giving birth to me. I really appreciate it. I wish the process had been a little more pleasant for you (Except afterwards when you held me for the first time. And when I sneezed. I imagine that must have been exceedingly pleasant), but I imagine you must have forgotten that part, seeing as how you did it again with Duncan.

You gave me life. I've had a few years of experience in the matter of Life (You've had a few more than I have. Only 11 more years, of course, being that you're still 29 and all.) and I've determined that it's not easy caring for children (exhibit a: Babysitting) but it's rewarding. (exhibit b: Babysitting money. Naw, I'm just kidding.) Couldn't have done it without ya.

I wish you the best on your special day.

...And I would like to point out here that my Moroccan Beef and my Hastily Cobbled Together (But Delightful) dessert were much better than Duncan's crepes that you had for breakfast. Therefore: You should love me more.

Huh... Well that was dumb

I worked tonight for five and a half hours. Not that long, compared to some of my other shifts, but long, and late, enough to be tired after about three hours. Not to mention that at 9, everything tends to die at Macy's. No, I'm not exaggerating. At 8:59, about 75% of the people leave and go home... Which leaves me standing at my register, practically pleading people to buy things and give me something to do.

Well, in any case, tonight was tiring and bored, and right on cue, everyone left to go home. So while I was being tired and dragging my feet around in my ugly (but comfortable) shoes, I remembered the magic potion I carried in my purse:

Ooooh...

I do love coffee...

....I can't fall asleep now. (Tee hee)

I Hate One Day Sales.

Just so you know, there's a One Day Sale at Macy's this weekend.

(#$*%!!!!!)

...I hate One Day Sales. They're fabulous for buying at all, but being on the selling end is a little more painful.

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10 Times You Shouldn't Knit (But have thought about trying...Not that these have anything at all to do with me... ahem...)

1. While showering
2. While driving
3. While taking any sort of standardized test
4. While on stage
5. While walking across the stage to graduate
6. While "doing homework"
7. While performing brain surgery
8. While playing piano
9. While dancing
10. While sleeping.

I'm still hoping that I can achieve number 10...

I apologize for being stingy.

I've had oodles of things happening to me over the last few days. However, most of them suck up time like a black hole would suck... well, matter. I've had projects, performances, and work to take up my time and damnit if I have a night off.


Which tonight is.


It's really weird. I keep looking around my room feeling lost and saying, "Well, now what?" It's called something like Post-Show Letdown. And I'm in the throes of it. But it's not only Post-Show letdown getting me down, it's really more of a Pre-Post-High School Letdown. I've only got a little more time left with my friends, and while I'm really excited, I don't want to leave them. I guess everyone has gone through this, it's not just me, but to me it is just me. It's the first time I've ever experienced such a thing, and it's all so new to me.

I've been meaning to blog about other things... Things like how I got two awards at my last piano recital (One of which was the 'Outstanding Student award' :) ) and I won the St. Michael's Young Writer award at our school awards ceremony last week. I got a big book of seven Jane Austen novels at that.

Another thing that I would like to write about (and show you) are the socks I just finished for myself this afternoon. They're beautiful... However, Blogger is being annoying and won't let me upload ANYTHING... so you all will just have to wait.

Well, I have some being lost that needs to be done.

Friends

I really like having friends.

I really like having friends to just hang out with. Not go crazy around...but just hang out with. I used to have a whole group of friends like that, about two years ago... but then I kind of ostracized myself and that was that. (Reasons for that are complicated and many... That's for a whole other post, though!)

My friends Brandlyn and Alec just left my house. We just sat on my bed and looked at old photos on my computer. Having friends just be with you, just existing, is really cool. I've missed that... a lot.

I'm glad I have it again.

I feel pretty...

These are some of my Senior photos... Do enjoy!