Saturday, July 30, 2011

Last Minute Knitting

Two weeks, 3 days. I've been avidly working on what I intend to be an 8-foot scarf (really, I want to make mitts to go with it, so I may make those and knit the scarf until I run out of yarn.) I'm forcing myself to put it aside though, so I can make fingerless mittens for my boyfriend and my grandmother before I go. The scarf is on bamboo needles and is easy to compact, so it'll make for good flight knitting when I go anyways. As I said though, I'm also packing and doing various last-minute things, so will be sporadic for the next few weeks, probably until after the week-long orientation I have once I get there. So brief missives for now.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

3 weeks

In three weeks from today (in a purely technical sense, as I think given the time change it'll be three weeks and a day in that sense) I'll be in Korea. This is really kind of sneaking up on me. And given the way things change in an instant, I'm not just packing up what I'm taking with me like I thought. See, one of my roommates is in the process of a divorce, and given custody and whatnot, is probably going to be moving into the space that DB and I now occupy once I leave. Luckily, given that I have lived here since I first returned from Korea 2.5 years ago, I only really have what I brought back from Korea and what I've accumulated since then. With the exception of the computer and etc. that I'm typing this on, that's really mostly books and yarn. Those are either easy to box up, or coming with me. So this is what it looks like now. My life is being reduced to three distinct piles--packing boxes for the garage, luggage for Korea, and trash bags to either donate or throw away. Also a disturbing level of chaos. If I get the inclination, I'll take a few shots of the yarn I'm bringing with me, with explanations of intended projects. Seoul has amazing public transportation, so I'll have lots of time for sitting and knitting. Now if I can just convince myself to start packing.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Wedding Pictures (Picture heavy)

The wedding was on Saturday, finally, and went off pretty much perfectly. There are a lot of things I wish I had gotten pictures of, especially my DB and the other best man (yes, two best men) giving their toast. They did a bit of a comedy routine before getting to the nicer emotional stuff, and it went off perfectly and, according to the maid of honor, almost made the groom cry. That's what happens when you ask two writers to be your best men.

So I wanted mostly to put up some of the favorites of the pictures I took. Also, the shawl. Now, to explain, it was about 97 degrees Fahrenheit and humid, which it is never humid in Colorado. (On a side-note, DB had his hair straightened before the ceremony--you cannot tell in these pictures. That humid.) If I had taken any pictures of the audience just before the ceremony, everyone was in the back three rows for the shade. So no shawl came out, until towards the end of the night when I specifically asked for a few pictures. They're mediocre pictures because I really didn't want to bogart the bride for very long. Here goes (Click pictures to go to Flickr):


A certain best man and me (isn't he handsome?)


The beautiful couple towards the beginning of the ceremony


The couple at the end of the ceremony with one of the flower girls


The two best men and maid of honor walking back (This is probably my favorite non-Bride picture. I love how happy the three of them look, especially our friend on the left.)


The bride's rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Sorry for picture quality--I think you can still see how much fun she's having.)


And finally, THE Shawl!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

5 Things You Don't Know About Me

I've been reading through Juniper Moon Farm's back-blogs for a few weeks now, and one of the things that Susan does is every once in awhile she'll list five things about herself. This shows up in many other blogs as the list of 100 things. So I may occasionally list a few weird things about me. Or I may just do it this once.

1) My knees look like they did when I was eight (except twice as wide, which is not a statement about my size now, but how tiny of a kid I was. Gangly.) I have been bumping into tables more than usual recently, and the fact that I wear shorts all the time makes that fact visible.

2) On a similar note, I have two birthmarks on my left leg--one on my inner thigh and the other on the inner calf. When I was a kid, I thought that they were permanent marks left over from bruises, and that eventually my legs would be this mess of slightly-darker spots.

3) I don't think I've ever tried a peach. While there are extremely common foods that I detest (like corn), I just avoid peaches. I'm not sure why. I also don't eat oranges, but that one at least has a story behind it.

4) Looking at my book/yarn-stash shelf, I think I'll be bringing more yarn than books with me to SK. This includes what I need for my thesis.

5) I haven't touched anything to do with my thesis in a week, and it has been glorious(ly boring). I'm probably going to try to get back to it post-wedding, even though I'll have little to do coming up to the wedding.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Potential Departure Date

Two brief updatey things.

1) Knitting HURTS. I don't know if I've been sleeping strangely or what, but from about the middle of my back, through my left shoulder down to the elbow hurts. It's a dull pain most of the time, but knitting for the last couple days has mostly been just doing a row to see if it still hurts too much. This started the day after DB was talking to me about knitting being a compulsion, to which I said "I can quit anytime I want!" Just because I can doesn't mean I want to.

2) I got an e-mail from the Seoul office about orientation and when I'll be heading out to South Korea. Departure date: August 16th. Maybe 15th. I need to get to Seoul on the 17th, and with the time change and a very long flight, it may mean two days allotted for travel. So that means just barely over a month to pack, get everything paperworky filed and whatnot, and spend time with friends and DB. It suddenly all seems intimidatingly close.

Picture is from my previous orientation with the same office. I'll probably (almost definitely) be in the same building. These were for a different orientation or....something after ours ended though, so only showed up the day we left. I like how pixelated they are.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

July? When did that happen?

Well, it took me about two weeks to get my camera back. And now I'm just....apathetic about taking pictures of things. Maybe tomorrow. I need to block the shrug I made (but probably didn't mention on here) before the wedding in a week. So this is just a quick apology and explanation on the off-chance someone's out there.

It's summer. It's summer when all I'm doing is waiting for fall. I have to struggle to get thesis work done because my schedule is so unstructured that I can't convince myself to get started working. And I'm broke, so I can't just go to ye olde local coffee shoppe to get work done there. I've been knitting, but much of that has been messing up, restarting, and re-restarting, so it's not very exciting. So here's the deal: I'll update very sporadically for the next month. I'm sure I'll post some about the wedding (especially pictures of THE Shawl in action), and what's going on with that. If nothing else, I will get pictures of DB in a tuxedo. But other than that, there's just not much going on. But when it's closer to the move, and of course after the move itself, then hopefully I'll have more to say.

Oh, just fyi, I did send off my lit. review and proposal. So until my advisor gets back to me about everything, I get to actually act like it's summer and I don't have schoolwork. For a few days.