Goodbye 2007!

I graduate in 2008. I'm a little bit excited about this information. Only FIVE MONTHS LEFT.

So last night I watched four movies. Seriously. I sat on the couch from 4:30 until 12:30(am). it was awesome. I watched the X-Men trilogy (I've never seen them before. Thought they were pretty good. Last one sure was weird, though.) and then I watched How To Make An American Quilt. It was excellent. Good movie, good message, etc.

So yesterday I started making a Fetching glove out of the lovely Alpaca/silk and you can see that I've done well. It's so lovely to work with... And it's so delicate. I love it. (took the picture with my phone last night.)

I made ginger snap cookies this morning and they're calling to me. Also, the shower is calling. Perhaps I'll take a shower and then reward myself for being clean with a cookie. :)

A Yarning I will go!

A Yarning I did go!

I went down to the wonderful yarn shop that is (sort of) downtown here and bought some yarn today. I bought some lovely yarn for some mittens (Or gloves, depending on what I feel like) and it's lovely. It's Alpaca silk and it's pretty purple and did I mention that it's lovely? It's so soft! Right above it on the shelf is even more alpaca silk that is called Royal alpaca, which is so wonderful they have to price it $30 more than the skeins that I bought. Apparently once in a blue moon the conditions are just right that the alpaca fur is just that much softer. I stood there petting it for a while just to say that I could touch it. But the stuff that I ended up buying was $10 (nicely priced, in my opinion, for possibly the most wonderful substance in the entire world.) I petted a lot of yarn today. And that made me happy. This particular yarn shop is like a knitters heaven; an oasis of knitterly and wooly goodness. You walk in and just sigh in contentment, because the building it's in is small and cozy and homely, and it's quite simply full to the brim with yarn. Every type of yarn you could ever want from cotton, to wool, to alpaca, to feathery fun, to the strange golden fuzzy stuff, to sock yarn, to soft yarn that is actually labeled "Touch Me" (I did.) and down to the unidentifiable stuff that is just so pretty.

It's one of those places that, no matter how many times you visit, you still feel like it's your first time. It makes me happy.

From my happy place, I went to Michael's craft store to buy (guess what!) more yarn. Except that this time it's for the bamboo hats for my friends (which I'm getting paid for!!!) and for another small splurge, some nice hat yarn that's pretty. (I have the pink/green one that's shown on the side. I figured it was nice for the impending spring.)

In any case, I'm gushing about yarn and I'm going to go read for a bit. I bought Gena Showalter's new book and it came on Christmas Eve, and I'm busy reading it now. So far, it's good. No real opinion yet... only 85 pages into it.

Night, all!

A year?! Already?!

Well guys. It's been a year. A whopping year since I signed up for this blog and a year that has gone by perhaps fast, but at the same time dreadfully slow.

While I was driving to work today, I was thinking about a year ago.

A year ago, I didn't have college applications looming.

A year ago, I didn't have a job.

A year ago, I didn't realize that Real Life was looming.

I could come up with a lot of them, but unfortunately a lot of them aren't very impressive. Just little things, mostly..

In any case, it's been a year.

Today at work was probably the worst Customer day. People get so ugly sometimes that Good-Natured Me doesn't understand. Why is it SO IMPORTANT that you get that $1.42 back? WHY?! There were some very confusing and irritable customers today, and I won't go into detail, but nearly every time this guy John over in Polo Ralph Lauren saved my ass. He isn't quite management, but he isn't a lowly holiday sales associate, either. Somewhere in the middle. But he was nice, he knew how to talk people down, and he almost, apparently, tracked down a certain irritable man to throw him out of the store.

I think I'm in love.

Of course I'm not. But I could have kissed him. I guess that having someone stand up for me was just really touching. I haven't been stood up for since the days that I needed standing up for. Like in Kindergarten, when my friend Brandy stood up to this guy named William, telling him off for calling me Freckle Face.

In any case I was touched at his anger toward those customers. Can't explain the how and why of it, but I am.

Well, FINALLY

Today was my Christmas Part I. Tomorrow is Part II. Hooplah! I got lots of goodies and toys today, got some Christmas Pudding (the kind you set on fire!) and, sadly, no yarn. Not that I'm complaining, but I do love that yarn. I even got a little Lance Armstrong bracelet that says "Be not afraid of greatness" from "santa" (aka Mom) and I even got a penguin that has earmuffs on (that are really speakers) that you plug your ipod into. HOW COOL IS THAT! So tonight I'm over at my Dad's house for dinner and I can snuggle up at night listening to my music WITH MY NEW PENGUIN. I find that hilarious. I also got some silky pjs, some magnificent boots, and, among many other things, a Barnes and Noble and Starbucks gift card. Hooray! I love all of those things.

I even finished at hat today that matches my Diary of a Scarf-scarf and am wearing it proudly because it neither resembles a lamp shade NOR a tea cozy.

So posted below are some pictures that I had taken with my family in August. Enjoy.
(Me, Dad, Pippa, Natalie, Tom (the small one), and Duncan)
Tom and Dunc (Well come on. What do you expect?)
(Ain't I gorgeous?)
(Love this one.)

If I hear one more christmas song...

I might start bashing my head in. Seriously. It wasn't bad for the first hour or so but after that it was a pretty steep decline.

Did I mention that I worked 9 hours today?

My feet HURT.

You know, that's honestly the worst part about working: The sore feet. I'm thinking of wearing slippers and just breaking dress code for the hell of it.

I've tended to notice that the best people who shop come after 7:30. They're the ones with the sense of humor, who laugh when I say "My name is Stefanie, or at least that's what it says on my underwear, and if you look on the bottom of the receipt you can see that I've circled our website..." and yadda yadda. They're the people who, when I say "Do you have an ultimate, wonderful, fabulous Macy's card?" they reply "Why yes, I have one of those ultimate, wonderful, fabulous Macy's cards!" and smile.

I love those people. I smile at them and they smile back. They're the people who are genuinely interested in other people and not just in buying clothes.

I've just wrapped my christmas gifts, seeing as tomorrow is Christmas Part I for my family. Part two comes shortly afterwards. On Christmas day.

(My feet hurt...)

I've wrapped up all of my scarves, so they are out of my way and are no longer tempting me to wear them because they're just sooo cute and go perfect with my outfit!!!

Because they tend to do that.

Anyway, I'm going to go get the makeup off my face and my feet on something soft and squishy. Merry Christmas yall.

Writers block crumbles

Unfortunately, the Writers Block Brick Wall manages to re-erect itself quite efficiently. But it hasn't yet, so I'm celebrating by not writing anything. It seems to work that way a lot doesn't it? But I am thinking of writing. That counts, doesn't it?

In any case, this is what I have written: http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2244814/13/ Visit it. Read it. Review it. Love it.

I haven't much to report. I spent all afternoon working, and then the rest of the time at the house I babysat at all summer. And they fed me (!) and talked to me (!) and let me watch a movie with them (!). Unfortunately, I want to know how the movie ends!!! But I can't go over there tomorrow to do it all again because I'm working. :(

I also need to do christmas shopping. I guess I'll be doing it on christmas eve. Usually I don't leave it this late. But I have it all mapped out. So I'll rise early on Christmas Eve (Hah. Early. I mean, around 10:30 or so.) and then get it done then.

...Oh God, I'm in trouble...

I wonder how many of Those Days I am going to have?

This is another one of Those Days. Not the "damn I'm good" days, but just a day.

This is completely random, but I just realized that my butt is bruised and I can't remember how it got that way...

Okay! Moving on!

Today has been, to say the least, long. I took a final, I gave my teacher recs to my teachers, I saw National Treasure (2) with a friend, and now, at the end of the day, I have a headache. I don't feel 100% is a good way to put it. I don't feel terrible, just maybe 75% of what I should feel like. I guess I'm just emotionally, mentally, and physically drained from, well, everything this week, what with finals and all.

I'm rereading a piece of fanfiction which was so good, this is the fourth time I've read it AND I saved a copy of it onto my hard drive. It's one of those stories that, were it not Fanfiction, would be publishable. The entire story comes to a sum total of 469 pages long in microsoft word. I'm on page 185 (and I love every minute of the story... Yay.)

Do excuse me while I go tell my brother and his friends to turn the music down. He's having a party to celebrate the end of finals, and I will have none of his chaotic mischeif.

Wow, I sound about a million years old.