Someday I want to have a real blog. A knit blog. Where I post pretty pictures of my yarn and my completed projects, and my not so completed projects, and my struggles and triumphs. Right now, I'm a bit of a blog fangirl, spending many free (and not so free) moments at work reading them. But someday, I tell you, I will have one to. I will post about the many projects that I've never put on here, socks, shirts, hats. When this momentous day comes, I will let you all know, so I will have at least one person who comments on my knits (hi, katesti).

This dream of mine will probably have to wait until my sad, poor, volunteer days are over, and I can actually afford yarn, and internet access.

Also, willy? This means I need you to have a photoshoot with your recently aquired socks, so when I get cool and get a knit blog, they can make their grand internet appearance. thanks pal.

hello friends. work and life have gotten crazy, leading to no updating. but i have a question for you. if a certain connecticutian (my favorite way to say person from connecticut) comes visiting to the great city of minneapolis, where and what should i do with him/take him to see in an effort to convince him to move here in the near future? He needs to be WOWED.

My brainstorming has come up with:

Minnesota History Center (being the history geeks that we are)/St. Paul sightseeing
Minnehaha Falls
Chain O'Lakes
Da U (in an effort to convince him that it should be his #1 grad school choice as opposed to #4)
Riverfront

More ideas would be delightful. Also, if anyone is desperately bored or has lots of time on their hands, feel free to put together a nice three-day itinerary, complete with dining options.

thanks!

The federal government is SERIOUSLY annoying. I have been trying to apply for deferment on my loans for many months now, and contnue to be turned down based on the alleged fact that I make TOO MUCH MONEY. Seems that they are overly confused by a paycheck that says its for 2 weeks whens its really for a month, even when they have 3 phone conversations with me, a letter from my employer, and a letter from the director of my volunteer program. Now, they claim, all they need is a letter from me. Because apparently, my employer and volunteer program are not enough, they need a lousy little letter saying "Hi, I'm Laura, I only get paid once a month. Thanks federal government" to truly believe me. Meanwhile, many many hundreds of dollars of interest have been piling up because while they screw with me, they can only put me in forbearance and not deferment. Additionally, they made me waste nearly all of my 40 min Tuesday break time that could have better been spent updating my Amazon.com wishlist for my upcoming birthday, or another such worthwhile pursuit. GRR.

In other news, I have 26 full weeks left in LVC where I need to make meals. Therefore, excluding the weeks I plan to make my standard lasagna, grandpa's spaghetti, pizza, tacos, and fried rice, I need 20 easy, cheap, vegetarian meal ideas that I will like (the last request being particularly difficult). I put this out to you few readers. HELP ME. Send all relevant recipe ideas as the mood strikes you.

While you are sending me recipes, please also feel free to send me pictures of potential hairstyles that would look smashing on me. I'm in dire need of a haircut, but need help with haircut ideas. Thanks eversomuch.

I'm eating graham crackers and drinking apple juice. This is what happens when you are a starving volunteer, and you scam food off of elementary school children.

Edited to add one more thing: What, my friends, is a girlfriend's responsibility on Valentine's Day? It struck me today that Mike and I were never in the same country for one, and now I have one in a week. Apparently Will has something planned, which he won't tell me, but what am I supposed to do? Advice, please, I've got nothing.

T-minus a few hours til ROLLER-SKATING MANIA. The children are very excited. "Are you going skating Ms. Stilwell?? Are you going to skate?? Are you? Are you?" They're going craaaaaaaaaazy. Some of the middle schoolers are going home first to change outfits. Teenagers are ridiculous. I was never that nuts. I was in the middle of yelling at an 8th grade boy today, and he started to yell back, and then his voice went SQUEAK! CRACK! "But Ms. STILwell! (squeak in capitals). It took every fiber of my being not to burst out laughing. They act so grown up and they have so much stinking attitude that its easy to forget they are only 13, and its nice to have a voice crack now and then to put everything in perspective.

I'm excited for the weekend, even though I only went to work 3 days this week. The silly Superbowl is on Sunday, with NO Pats, and I can't decide whether to root for Chicago or not. I don't like Bears fans, and Rex Grossman is GROSS, man (hehehe that joke never gets old). But Peyton Manning is annoying too. But Tony Dungy! He was a Gopher! But I do live in Chicago. Better to just not root for anyone, and focus on whats really important. PRINCE. The hometown hero doing the halftime show. Hopefully I will be watching the game with people who know to show Prince proper respect.

Oops, I just remembered something I have to finish before school is over in a half hour!

Here I am, back in action after the "colpo", as nurses and doctors in the know call it. It was painful, but not as painful as last time. They did a biopsy on 2 spots, but no ECC like last time (WebMd ECC if you're curious). I have to go back in 2 weeks to discuss the results "face-to-face". Why thats necessary, I have no idea. After the appointment, I was in bed for several hours with a heating pad before dragging myself out of bed for the UConn game. Though it was the last thing I wanted to do at that moment, it was fun, after the 1.5 hour long commute out there, even though UConn lost. I had a portable heating pad from my roommate Laura that helped out a lot. We didn't get back until midnight, and I basically passed out when we got home. I'm back at work today, rocking my Twins shirt, as it is "Favorite Sports Team Day" here at Holy Family. Tomorrow is the Roller-Skating party, which I am most likely attending, since who wants to pass up a chance to roller-skate with ghetto kids? Not I, even though its going to cost $10 (I'm a volunteer! Thats appalling!)

Our first Netflix movies have arrived, but we watched Titanic yesterday during my convalescence (I'm usually a pretty decent speller, but thats totally not right, and I'm too lazy to look it up), and then we went to the bball game, so no Netflix has been watched. Its not so convenient to not live with the person you get Netflix with. Sigh. But new Grey's Anatomy tonight! Last week was ridiculous. I disapproved totally of the ending, so maybe they will redeem themselves tonight.

I wrote my first two behavior referrals today, which resulted in the 2 girls getting suspended. They didn't get suspended for what I wrote them up for, but because after a certain # of referrals, you automatically get suspended. I have mixed feelings about this, because I hate suspensions, but maybe this time it will help. I'm glad I wrote them up, they deserved it, and I don't do nearly enough writing up. Then again, maybe not, since they have both been suspended before. A few weeks ago, someone got expelled, which was drama. Hopefully this doesn't get that far.

I'm bored right now, but I don't want to do any work. I just want to go home and relax. I can't even think of anything fun on the internet to do to waste time. 2 hours til I can bust outta here.

Want to hear a ridiculous story?? I had another abnormal pap, and have to get another colposcopy. Crappy.

So, I was supposed to have my Dr's appointment yesterday. I go in, wait around, get called in, weighed, etc., make it all the way to the exam room, when the nurse comes in and says "The doctor just called, and she has two women in labor at the hospital. She can't do your appointment right now, but you can call back later today and see if she is done. We are here until 6." I go home, wait around, and the Drs office calls at about 3. "Now there are 3 women in labor," they say, "So the doctor wants us to reschedule you for Wednesday morning."

Needless to say, I'm seriously irritated about this. I totally had a breakdown yesterday because I just want to get the excruciating pain over with, and I am going crazy waiting to find out what, if anything, is really wrong. Also, I now have to miss TWO days of school this week. LAME. And its Spirit Week!! (side note: today is pajama day, and the kids are so freaking adorable!! I forgot how cute little kid pajamas are.)

Also, Will has tickets for us to go the the U-Conn v. DePaul basketball game tomorrow night. He even bought himself a U-Conn jersey and me a U-Conn sweatshirt for the occasion. Lets hope I am able to walk/get out of bed/make it to the arena which for some unknown reason is located outside of the city.

Life is supremely annoying.

In other news, the party was fun, pictures will be on Facebook hopefully soon. Will and I signed up for Netflix, which I am ridiculously excited about. Our first movie(s) should hopefully be coming on Wednesday. We also saw "The Painted Veil" yesterday, which was pretty lame. "The Good German" has disappeared from all theaters around us, which makes us bitter.

Exclusive to Willy: Less vs. fewer is the main grammar mistake I make. My head cannot wrap itself around it. My dad often yells about it. I apologize profusely.

Karma got me for going on last week about how much free time I had. This week has been extremely busy. Monday was "Mobile Dentist" day, when 3 dentists came and cleaned, and put flouride and sealants on some of the students' teeth. I coordinated the whole set-up, and in effect spent all Monday at the dentist. It was pretty fun, since I didn't have to go through it. The kids had fun and it is great that they can get that done for free.

Tuesday I had to teach 2nd grade for the majority of the day, which I have been dreading doing, because they are known as the worst class in the school. They were surprisingly good though, and the day went by quickly.

Today was Honor Roll chapel, so I spent the second half of yesterday rushing to make all the certificates. Honor Roll chapel was fun, lots of screaming and cheering, and its nice to see parents come and support their kids.

Unfortunately, a few hours ago, my disc, on which all my work is stored, died. This disc has been the LVC volunteers since Meg Anderson 3 years ago. Needless to say, it has important stuff on it, which is now all gone. Its as bad as a hard drive crash. I've been trying to tell my principal about it, and do the other work I have to do in the office (report card filing), but there is a meeting with the principal and pastors giong on in the office, so I have to twiddle my thumbs and wait.

This weekend my house is having a big party, with LVCers coming from the Twin Cities and Milwaukee. Hopefully it will be a fun time, I really enjoy the St.Paul LVC house. It means, of course, that I have to stay on the West Side for the weekend, which is kind of annoying but I suppose its for a good reason. My girl roommates hope that we can make it through all this togetherness without killing Dave. In addition to party planning every night this week, we also have Snack-N-Yak tonight, an incredibly annoying part of LVC. Snack-N-Yak is when 2 Local Support Committee members either come to our house or we go to their's, and we have group discussions about community, and such. One of our people is SO OBNOXIOUS, words cannot fully express how bad she is. So its either Lisa (annoying one) or Dave talking for at least 2 hours. We girls don't look forward to these evenings. However, we are supposed to have one every month, and we haven't had one since October, so we were due.

Suffolk got a new email system, which I was playing around with earlier, and boy, does reading old emails take me back! I was reading circa 2003-2004, when I was leaving for Spain. Also, when Ingrid got married! Hey Ingrid (who is most likely not reading this because she has probably given up hope that I will ever update), I can't believe you got married in Dec 2003! That was forEVER ago! Crazyness.

Time to go do after-school for an hour, then go home and try to read. I'm big into reading again these days (boyfriend studying for the GRE's will do that to you), and my current reads are "A History of Women in the West: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints", which I've had for a year or so, and decided to finish, and "Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel", continuing my Mitford obsession. I got that book on sale from $25.95 to $6.99 this weekend! It was awesome.

Lets all hope that I can knit during Snack-N-Yak. Willy's socks have been sadly neglected lately. The stupid P-A-T-S pats pats pats lost on Sunday, and I was too broken hearted to knit. At least Tom Brady is still smoking hot.

That is all.

I had a slightly depressing moment in school yesterday. The kindergarten had an assignment to write what they would do if they had $100. Because they are in kindergarten, they tell their answer to me, I write it out for them, they copy the letters down. I did this for 4 kids in after-school. Each one of them, when asked what they would buy if they had $100 said simply, "Food." When pressed for more ideas, one said "Grocery stuff," and others listed specific types of food. When really pressed, they came up with a dog and a phone.

If you had been asked that question in kindergarten, would you have said food?


Its Friday, so I'm off to my other home in about an hour. Plans for the weekend include hopefully seeing a movie (The Good German, perhaps), trying to work on Willy's socks, and the BIG GAME on Sunday. P-A-T-S Pats Pats Pats!

I know. Some of you just fell out of your chairs when you saw that i updated. Its ok, I will give you a minute to get up.







Back? Good.

My job (see previous post) just got dramatically easier, and I find myself with free time. My plan is to start updating LJ more, but we'll see how that goes.

I used to be running around non-stop, from classroom to classroom, from the lunchroom to detention duty, and worst of all, 6 hours of the week (doesn't sound like much, but it felt like 600 hours) was spent "assisting" the incredibly incompetent art teacher. However, the combination of lack of money and general art-teacher-suckiness led to the art teacher being let go. And voila, instead of no breaks on Tuesdays and Thursdays, i now have TWO 40 minute breaks a week!! To put this in perspective, the k-4 teachers only get one 40 min break a week, plus one 20 min lunch period a week to themselves, and the middle school teachers don't get much more. Two 40 minutes, plus 20 minute lunches to myself, are the equivalent of a corner office with a view in this school. Additionally, detentions have slowed down for the moment (new quarter means clean slate for students), so i have even more time.

Since, as we all know, i'm a Planner with a capital P, i have been using this time to decide what to do next year. i still don't want to teach full-time next year (not ready for my life to be 100% taken over yet), but i've found these Educational Support Positions that Chicago Public Schools has, which sound very much like what I'm doing now, except I can be in a high school and I would actually get paid. Unfortunately, i probably wouldn't get paid very much, so i'm trying to decide what the lowest I'm willing to go is. Decisions, decisions.

I started a countdown til move-out day (aka end of LVC, aka AUGUST 10) today, and as of today (minus spring break, and national holidays, on which i tend to live at will's guilt-free), I have 199 days to go. I have not taken out weekends, when i usually live at will's, because i still have twinges of guilt that i am not at "home". I'm sure my roommates would be highly offended to know about my countdown, but, with the exception of dave, for whom i practically count down the minutes until i don't have to see him ever again, the countdown is not personally against my roommates. i love my girl roommates. i don't love living "in community", in the ghetto, in my tiny room with all vegetarian meals, and doing dishes and cleaning a house that i didn't dirty. i knew coming into LVC that i wouldn't like that part of it, and i don't.

despite that, reading my LJ from my last semester of school reminded me that my life ain't so bad right now. i do enjoy my job most of the time, and if i really can't stand LVC, i can just hop a bus/train/hitch a ride to the swanky part of town, and live in my other house with someone i love dearly. no more stupid education classes, no ridiculously long days of teaching and school, and no more silent roommate.

off to go do some work!

I have had lots to update for awhile, but no time. Some of you may know that my sister decided that she would have major medical issues right at the most stressful time in my life. thanks kate!! so with that, and the usual nonsense of teaching, work, and class, i've almost collapsed. but lo, tomorrow i go home for a few days and then i've only got a week of teaching yet. wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

i also got a job through LVC with Holy Family Lutheran School in Chicago. I have accepted it for now, but still haven't fully decided what I'm going to do next year.

Since I have no actual free time, I have been knitting when I should have been doing other things. As proof of my fantastic procrastination skills, here's what I've been working on.

Cabled Wristwarmers



.

As yet, I've only completed one. Its a little too big for my child-size wrist, but thats not surprising. Its hard to concentrate on wristwarmers when its almost springtime! Here is a close-up of cables in progress, showing the yarn better.





Next big project is my lace scarf. Knitting lace is generally regarded as hard. I agree. Its also hard to show an in-progess picture, because lace has to be finished, blocked, and pinned to dry before it looks like what it is supposed to. But I'll show you the progress anyway, because who knows when it will be all blocked and done





Here is a close up of the leaf pattern.

My new obsession is socks. They've always scared the heck out of me because you have to use many needles. However, I decided there were too many cute sock patterns out there for me to not learn to knit socks. So I started a preliminary sock, just to learn the structure (turning the heel, etc.).
Here is my progress as of many, many days ago. I have mastered double pointed needles, which makes me proud.

Mike came over this weekend, and he watched the red sox while I continued knitting my sock. It was a fabulous time. Here is a very unflattering picture of the wild bearded bushman he has become since we broke up.

Yesterday I decided to buy yarn and needles for my first real pair of socks. It was quite an experience, as I asked questions for the first time in my yarn store, and ended up sitting at a table with these two fabulous young employees discussing needle sizes, k2tog tbl, and Koigu. Koigu, I'll have you know, is the ultimate in sock yarn. I, yarn snob that I am, of course had to buy some. I took some lovely pictures of it this afternoon, but I forgot to upload them before I left to go to work. Ridiculous! They will have to make an appearance in a Koigu post all of their own. However, I direct you to Scout's blog to get a taste of Koigu. Do it.

Ok, I think I'm done know. IM GOING HOME TOMORROW. and, as an added bonus, my sister isn't dead.