L'opera, mi amore!

Totally whining, because I lay down to take a nap before my shift and couldn't sleep. Of course, NOW I'm tired. Less than an hour to go.

Overall I had a good day, which is easy to forget at quarter to three in the morning. Last day of my least favorite class, during which she asked us for feedback and the class (very politely) ripped her to pieces. My complaint (I had to pick one!) was that it didn't feel like a senior-level literature class. THEN we got to fill out the evaluations, which I'd been looking forward to doing since... oh, two weeks into the semester. Ended up having a long, bitchy conversation with a classmate about how unsatisfied we both were with the class. This was the worst-taught class since the science class taught by the botanist who only came out of his shell when he was talking about his work studying fungus in Antarctica. No, really. The class material he presented on overheads (REALLY), and basically read them verbatim. Plus he stuttered.

It was also the last day of my favorite class, which is sad, except that we're having a party at our professor's house during our final period next week, so that will be AWESOME.

Aside from my internship stuff, which I'll be doing until the end of December, I have ONE paper left to write for my undergraduate career. It's due Friday.

I'm excited to be graduating, but totally bummed sitting in class listening to people talking about what they're taking next semester, and I will be taking... gainful employment.

Have I mentioned how much I loathe writing cover letters? Oh, so much. To the depths of my tortured soul. The very depths, I say. Anybody want to write one for me?

Did some more research for that paper, since the professor said she wanted more recent sources, so I have a bunch of .pdf files to read.

I'm supposed to be going to a Nordic Soul Matrix class tomorrow night, but I might just go home and do research and get my paper started. Ten pages by Friday noon. Stabbing self in face in 3...2...yeah.

Worked another inch or so on Ribbed Sock #2 in class. My When Knitting Attacks today, as the Knitmore Girls call it, was discovering that the needles had fallen out of the Ribbed Sock and having to rip back a couple of rows to get them put back in correctly. Minor, but frustrating, but I was able to make some good progress after that.

The Rainbow Crone scarf (the ribbon scarf for either finch's mom or the Rainbow Maiden) is knitting up delightfully quickly, which is awesome, because it's fragile enough that I can't just throw it in my bag. (Also I need to carry a bag that's less abusive to my knitting, according to the Ribbed Sock.)

Two more rows done on the Argyle State scarf tonight - I've finished the second pattern repeat and started the third - and I must've gotten at least a dozen compliments on it while I was helping patrons. Also the recipient kept - well - fanboying all over it, which was totally adorable.

Twenty minutes left in my shift; let's see if I can get another row done on this thing.

Rather than trying to kill myself writing a novel on top of a full schedule of work, classes, and an internship, I decided to attempt posting every day during November. I actually did this! Well, more or less. I didn't manage to post every single day, but this is the 36th post for November 2010. I talked about knitting a lot, wrote some fic, ranted about stuff, and really had a lot of fun. It feels like a good habit to have, so I'm going to try and stick with it through December and into the new year.

Random knitting updates: I have a full pattern repeat completed on the Argyle State University scarf, and I'm a lot more comfortable with working the pattern, so it's going faster. Work on the Beer Gloves continues apace; I'm about to start in on the fingers. I was in class when I hit that point, and I didn't want to break out the book, so I cast on and worked about half an inch on Ribbed Sock #2. I don't remember if I mentioned this, but I bound off the Seafoam Shawl (again). I picked up this gorgeous silver yarn (Loops and Threads Dewdrops in the Onyx colorway) - it has sequins. I know, right? She wants fringe, and I'm also going to do a crochet edging along the top to make it a little bigger. A friend of ours had a baby, so I also had a minor crochet interruption to make a baby hat. It's going to look like a One Up mushroom when it's done (three spots to go); I'll post pictures.

I didn't get anything done over the weekend, which means I'm going to have to write a six-page paper and put together a ten-minute presentation between now and 1:30 Thursday. THIS WOULD BE EASIER IF I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE MY MIND WAS STUFFED WITH WOOL ROVING. And me without a spinning wheel. Not that I'd know how to use it if you handed it to me, but you know, the principle of the probably very incoherent thing. Anybody want to write a paper on Navajo storytelling styles or do a presentation on captivity narratives for me?

Yeah, me neither.

Also, this thing where I wake up ridiculously early on Tuesday morning is getting old. So not very excited about going to work in an hour.

At least I hope not, because I certainly don't have one. Except that I'm going to talk about knitting, because what else do I talk about ever.

Working on the Beer Gloves, and having some problems with the sizing, so I went poking around until I found someone else who had already resized them and I'm starting the second cuff with her adjustments in mind. If I like how it turns out, I'll rip out the first cuff and redo it; if I don't, I'll figure something else out. Knitting! It is a giant game of trying to figure it out as I go. I'm not thrilled with the way the pattern is written, and I'm thinking about writing it out in the way that I wish it were written. But I am lazy, so I might just make notes directly in the book. We shall see. If nothing else, the chart for the palm is driving me insane and I'm not sure I like how it looks finished (based on pictures I've seen), so I may get rid of that section anyway, or alter it a little. (crankyoldman, are you in love with the textured palm?)

Did some thrifting today, but didn't really find anything cool. Took a stack of books and miscellaneous stuff down to Bookman's and picked up the first and third book in Holly Black's faerie trilogy; I really liked the second, Tithe. Normally I don't read out of order but apparently the first one is mostly unrelated? (At least nepenthe told me so. If this is not true I blame her. XD)

We also went to two different yarn stores looking for the yarn for my boss's scarf; The Fiber Factory had Cascade 220 in a gold that I liked (California Poppy), but they only had one skein of burgundy, so we went up to Tempe Yarn & Fiber. They ALSO only had one skein of burgundy! So I ended up getting that skein and then trekking back to TFF to pick up the other. They're different dye lots, but Fred at TYF assured me that Cascade's dye lots were very consistent, and they look the same to me. So it's all good. I also picked up a darning egg, so I can darn finch's favorite socks, so he will no longer be heartbroken.

Afterwards, we went to a very nice coffee shop for some quality NaNo write-in time for finch and some quality homework-and-yarn-balling time for me. This week on Women and Crime: more reasons for me to hate the justice system! This time, it's inadequate health care, and how mandatory drug sentencing hurts children. I'm normally not into the Think of the Children!!! arguments, but when you have a non-violent first-time offender serving fifteen years for smuggling drugs for somebody else, and she has a toddler when she goes to jail? The person who's going to be suffering the most will be that totally innocent child, who cannot possibly understand why her mommy won't be coming home again.

As I certainly can't do anything about the inadequacies of the justice system tonight, I'm going back to knitting. The Beer Gloves, I can help.