The Shelly Fan Club

First, this anecdote.

This is how we roll at my house:
Last night the husband came into the bedroom, looked at me and asked, "What are you eating?"
"Frosting."
"Why are you eating frosting?"
"I'm sublimating my need for sex."
"You want to have sex?"
"Not anymore, I'm kind of sick from all the frosting."

My real post is about how everyone should be just like Shelly.
I love Shelly.
She came in this morning to talk about how much she loves public radio and how everyone should contribute. Normally we then take the 20-minute interview, pull out the one or two halfway intelligent things the person said and make a 30-second testimonial out of it. Shelly was fabulous. I could slap some music under it, edit myself out and roll with it! She's articulate and funny and interesting.
And she is a serious public radio listener.
And she owns a yarn shop.
And she underwrites.

If we weren't both married and it weren't illegal in this state I would so marry her and cook for her and run around all day trying to think up ways to make her happy.

And I mean that in the least stalker-ish way possible.

I showed her where my work yarn stash lives and I showed her my picture of Ira Glass and me... and we scheduled some time for her to come in during the pledge drive and say charming and intelligent things effortlessly on the air.

Sigh.

In (other) knitting news... I'm on the heel of the second monkey sock, waiting for the monkey stuff I ordered to get here so I can mail it. I'll be mailing my Dishcloth Exchange package next Friday. I have put the Queen of Cups sock to the side until I finish the second monkey... and I should probably decide on how much holiday knitting I'm going to attempt!

Maybe everyone on my list would like some nice wristbands. Matching ones.

Curses

The Pledge Drive Curse
Remember how I said I made it through that sinus infection? Well I did, but apparently on the other end of that infection was a cold. It's the pledge drive curse. Every six months we have this really stressful 8 days at work and every six months I get a bad cold/flu the week or so before the drive that makes it impossible for me to get anything done.

The 80's Movie Montage Curse
Also? If your husband wants a snack after midnight and it involves any food that comes in a package that includes any combination of the words "olé," "spicy coating" or "hot," JUST SAY NO!! I, of course, said "Wow, those are good. Are there any more?"
I'm not smart. I also should not be exposed to bright light or water.
Then I had a dream about Andrew McCarthy. He's dreamy. (I've also heard that he's gay - not that there's anything wrong with that, other than the fact that it ruins the "someday he'll show up at my door and declare his love for me and only me" fantasy I've had since I was thirteen).
The good news is that I seriously doubt that anything that is wrong with me is contagious.
The bad news is that I feel a lot like Bill Paxton's character at the end of Weird Science.
Only without the cigar. Yuck.

The Second Sock Curse
I cast on that stupid monkey five times. Yup. Five. Then I finally made it through the (oh so tricky k1tbl, p1) ribbing and then had to rip back the sock part three times before I finally got that right. Seriously. I spent most of the evening knitting last night and I have about an inch and a half of sock.
Apparently if you let yourself fall victim to the second sock syndrome, even for a week (or three) the second sock gets pissed.

The Educational Irony Curse
I am firmly at the halfway point in my social work degree and I am realizing that the thing that really is interesting to me is the chemical makeup and reactions of the brain. That really isn't so much a social worker thing as a psychiatrist thing. The irony? When I was in 7th grade I wanted to be a psychiatrist.
That lasted until I got a D in chemistry as a sophomore. Then I wanted to be a psychologist. That lasted until I woke up one morning early in my last year of high school when I decided that what I really wanted to do was teach. That lasted until the third week of college English when we had to exchange papers with our group and critique each other's papers and I realized that you really could graduate from high school and get into college without the ability to put two sentences together.
Now? I want to take classes about psychopharmachology and the chemistry and anatomy of the brain. These classes exist. For graduate students in biology and chemistry.

Anniversary greetings

It's our anniversary today. Three years of wedded... reality. Nothing at all blissful about reality is there?
I looked through my posts from this time last year - we were closing on the house and the husband's dad was getting worse and worse. I was settling into my stressful routines at Hospice and school and work. I remember feeling like I was so tired and stressed out that there was no way that things could get more tiring or stressful. Silly me.
I don't know that things are more tiring and stressful than last year... but it's certainly not less.

So here's where we are: we are no longer talking about divorce. Is is still an option? Maybe. I think that is ultimately true of every married couple regardless of what they may think. You never know when someone you think you know better than you know yourself is going to flip you on your ass. But we're working on it.

He has a doctor's appointment on Thursday to talk about anti-anxiety medicine.
I will continue to work on thinking of him as a husband rather than as a case study or a client.
He is more actively looking for a job.
I am trying to become more organized and less cluttered.
He is drinking less.
I am working on my spending habits - which includes making a real effort to eat at (or from) home significantly more. (More on that later...)
We are parenting together - and in conjunction with the ex and the idiot stepmother - more effectively.
We are working on making our relationship more "people who love each other" and less "people who happen to live in the same house but rarely interact."
Sometimes in marriage I think that's a pretty lofty goal!!

I'm Alive!!

I survived the worst sinus infection I have had in a looooong time. Seriously. I was pleased to discover that it was not strep throat. Really surprised considering how bad my throat felt, but pleased. My doctor advised me to talk as little as possible because my throat was so raw.
Right. I'll just sign my air shift. That will probably work. Non-verbal cues are really effective on the radio.

I stayed in bed all weekend, with the exception of a few hours on Saturday when I went to the grocery store and bought the ingredients for real macaroni and cheese and then I made it and then I went back to bed with a big ol' bowl of it. Yum-o.
I'm still not 100% but I am feeling much more human today.

I (accidentally, I swear) left my monkey socks at work this weekend so was therefore FORCED to cast on for the Queen of Cups socks. In Knitpicks Risatta. Let me just say that the only thing I don't like about this yarn is that it doesn't come in pink or purple. It's squishy and stretchy and there is no splitting. None. It's twisty. Oh... that's the only other thing I don't like about this yarn - it's not at Twist and I have to order it online rather than supporting my LYS.

So poor Bean!! She also has a sinus infection and the Dr. said that we needed to look at her tonsils again in a month. Apparently every time she goes in her tonsils are swollen and it's better to remove them as a child than in adulthood. She said, "I'm going to stop going places because every time I have an appointment someone wants me to have surgery!" She's actually pretty good-natured about it and I think that while she is afraid of surgery in general she's not overly upset about all of this.

I love that kid.

Start thinking up some good meal-in-a-blender recipes for me... we're looking at a very liquid Christmas. And I don't mean that in the financially liquid or the alcohol-ly liquid way.

Well, maybe a little alcohol. You know, for mommy's nerves.

Second Sock Syndrome

My poor Monkey socks. Sock.
It's been a week since I finished the first one.
I cast on for the second one last night and then dropped a stitch in the second round and stuffed it back in my knitting bag. I can't want to start. It's not that I don't love the pattern. I totally do. It's not that I don't love the yarn... it's Panda Cotton for crying out loud. In purples and blues. My favorites!!

Instead of starting it now I'm blogging and not ten minutes ago I was on Knitty printing out the pattern for Queen of Cups. (I know, right?!? I have Knitpicks Risatta in a pretty dark green. It's squishy and soft and... a-hem). Hi.

So I will cast on for these Monkeys and I will send them off on time. (I will).

Maybe this funk has something to do with the fact that I finished my Clapotis last night. I LOVE it. But that is the second thing in less than a month that I finished (other than socks). I am usually more of a starter than a finisher... so I'm sort of at a loss. Lara has inspired me to become more of a finisher so (for my next trick...) I'm going to start knitting on Bean's log-cabin blanket again. It will be a nice bit of mindlessness when my Queen of Cups socks get to be too difficult. Monkey. I meant when my Monkey socks get too, um, difficult. Or something.

Too Much?

I got my replacement Lantern Moon Sock Stix today! They sent 2 teeny little needles in a big box with lots of paper. They apparently wanted to make sure there was no breakage on the way. I still haven't decided if I'm going to try to use them again and risk another break or if I'm going to just resign myself to metal dpn's forever.

Oh. Except for the new Knitpicks wooden pretty ones I accidentally ordered. Hee hee.

So it's just after 3:30 and I'm off the air and all of my work is done... I'm thinking about sneaking out the back to go knit at Twist. It's SnB night... and also the KIP group is going to Cabaret Old Town for a show. So I'll be leaving Twist an hour early to go to that. SnB usually runs from 6-8, but if I leave right now I'll get there by 4. That's three hours at Twist before I have to leave for the show. Is that too much?!?
I'm almost finished with the Clapotis and I will have enough yarn left (I think) for some footie socks to match. Neat-o! I also have my second Monkey sock to knit and I was thinking about knitting a Mr. Dangly. (Stop that, it's a stuffed monkey. Stop That!!)
Surely nobody would miss me... it's not like I'd be doing anything here except surfing on the Internet anyway...

Doomed to Repeat History...

I'm sitting in bed watching Top Chef eating tangerine Altoids. I put one in my mouth and it's sooooo sour that I chew it and it's more sour. Then a few minutes later I put another one in my mouth and it's sooooo sour that I chew it....
Sigh.
So Bean has been grounded since her birthday because she is having some, um, memory issues with her homework. She either forgets it entirely or she does it and then forgets to hand it in. It's not that I have never had this happen to me. It's not like her dad was any better! But she is WAY too smart to get bad grades because she can't remember her homework. I got a call earlier this week from school - she forget her homework again. I don't know what's left. We had a parental pow wow and we're adjusting the punishment... and she also has to write down every single assignment she has all day and then she has to bring that list home with her along with the books for everything she hasn't finished. I hope this will help her get organized. I showed her the lists I make at work and I showed her my planner that lists really stupid "no duh" stuff that I'm not going to forget... most of the time. Stuff like my air shift and class schedule. Stuff like what to take with me to the S-n-B at Twist. Notations to make appointments a few weeks before I actually need them. A weekly countdown to important assignments and projects.
She's feeling a little resentful - I think she likes our laissez-faire parenting style much better. I know I do. I hate having to be all, you know, in charge and stuff. I wold much rather be able to trust her to get her shit together on her own.
So we're all grumpy.
Until today.
Today she had an orthodontist appointment. They pulled two teeth and did an x-ray. She apparently needs an oral surgeon. Her wisdom teeth are already there and causing significant problems. She also has about 8 baby teeth (all back teeth) that are not loose but are hindering the adult teeth that are so ready to emerge. I know that as far as surgeries go this is pretty minor and I know that there are lots of people who are going through far worse problems with their kids, but she is nervous and I wish she didn't have to do it.

I also warned her not to listen to her dad. His wisdom tooth horror story needs not to be told.

The only scary thing about my wisdom tooth surgery was that while I was recovering from the initial anesthetic I hallucinated that my boyfriend was a giant hedgehog. I knew it was him, but he looked like a hedgehog. I was terrified that he would try to kiss me.

Our consultation with the oral surgeon is about a month away so I have a little time... I think I'm going to try to finish her log cabin blanket before she has to go in. That way she can recover under it.