Monday, May 24, 2010

Home Again

Yes, the two-week intersession semester is over and I am home again for the two weeks that they shut down campus between intersession and summer I. While I hate the long (7 hours!!!) drive, it's nice to be home with the family. Though I still don't feel like I fit in sometimes.

Mom is recently divorced, which actually makes everyone happy, because he was nothing but a big fat ball of stress. Seriously. She's a totally different, more relaxed, fun, happy person now that the jerk is gone. But he stole one of our dogs!!!!! Supposedly Snickers was following him into the road and "the only way he could save her was to take her". This is of course total crap because neither of our dogs have ever, EVER followed the cars to the road. I'm half tempted to just go and steal her back.

The dog we still have had puppies a month or so ago and they are adorable! There are about eight of them, and they're so precious. They'll come up to you and lick and nibble your toes if you don't have shoes on and they sleep piled on top of each other!

I finished one of the socks I was making myself! It's very exciting. It was a pattern designed for size 8, and I'm a size 6-7, so the leg part is a little big, but I started shaping the toe a tiny bit too early so the bottom of it is a bit short. But all in all I LOVE my sock!

Being home should be pretty fun, and I'm sure to be doing a lot of babysitting, both of my little sister, and my sweet adorable niece! She's so cute, and loves the puppies! She'll run up to the door, look at me and go "Puppies!" It's too cute!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Summer Continuations

Well, the first week of intersession is over. One week left. Then home for two weeks. Thus far the suckiest part of this whole setup is that I have to get up at 7 every morning to get ready for class, but the class isn't that bad. In fact it's rather enjoyable. And I think I sort of prefer doing an entire semester's work in two weeks. Honestly. I don't lose track of assignments as easily, the test information is still fairly fresh in my head, and all in all it isn't so horrid.

Photography is a really fun class, and it's teaching me about photoshop, which is helping me in my internship!

Speaking of which, I'm loving it. It isn't nearly as scary as my brain made it out to be. I'm doing all graphic stuff while I'm there, and they gave me some things to do while I'm home for the two weeks they kick me off campus between intersession and summer I, and summer I and summer II. I'm really enjoying the graphic work I do, and I think I'm not half bad at it.

In the knitting department I'm working on this Basic Dress Sock out of Premier Yarns Coral in the purple. The picture doesn't really do it justice.

Along with that I'm making myself a Weasley sweater! This one actually. But wait!, you say. It's summer! Well yes, but I need to practice intarsia, and what better on something I actually really want? The letter on the front (I can't decide if I should use my first initial, K, or go with an H or something...) will be my first stab at intarsia. Here's hoping I don't utterly fail!

That's the summer thus far. Still no rest for the weary!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Summertime and the livin' is.....nevermind

Finals are over, grades are posted, and all my stuff is packed up ready to move. Into another dorm.

Yes, I am taking classes this summer and rather than get an apartment and get a full-time job to pay for it I am living in the dorms. And don't think it's because I'm lazy. No friends, alongside my 8:00-12:00 class everyday (yes, that's AM...sad) I have a 240 hour internship I must complete by the time the fall semester rolls around. So while I would love to be in my own apartment cooking my own food every night, I am instead forced to pack up everything out of my apartment-style dorm with a kitchen and move into one of the regular dorms.

This entire setup is completely stupid. Next fall I will be living back in the exact same room I just packed up and emptied, and I can't leave any of my stuff there, or stay there for the summer semester. So I had to pack all of my stuff (which I of course have WAY too much of) and lug it over to the new dorm for three months just to move it RIGHT BACK WHERE IT WAS TO BEGIN WITH!!!! So irritating.

However, for the next two weeks I am taking photography and am very excited about it! I'm learning the ins and outs of photoshop (which I conveniently have on my computer. CS3 ftw) and I have a few awesome assignments that should actually be pretty awesome. After that I have Spanish for a month. Not excited about. I NEVER wanted to take Spanish. Ever. Just...on principle. I know I know it'll help and be useful and all that junk, but I don't live in a Spanish speaking country. Period.

Okay, now that my semi-political rant is over, on to better things. I wish they had offered Hebrew or German or even French (such a pretty language) over the summer. But sadly, no. If I can manage it I may drop and take it my very last semester. What really sucks is that I took four years of Latin (yes, Latin. Roma est in Italia.) and next fall they are offering Latin 101 here, but I can't take it. The only use I have for it (or any language I take) is to earn the final three hours of Global Literacy that I need to graduate, and Latin doesn't qualify for global literacy. Every other language my school offers qualifies, and Latin qualifies for any language requirements, but not for Global Lit. Go figure.

On a lighter note, I'm knitting me a big ol' scrappy blanket thing. Well, I guess it's not so much scrappy, but that I'm using up random single skeins or leftovers from big skeins, etc. It's got great big stripes of different thick happy yarns and I'm very excited about it! Especially since it's the first blanket I've ever done. Usually I cast on, knit a few rows and get bored and frog it. I'm still knitting socks, and now that I have a good camera that actually belongs to me I'll be able to post pictures more often.

Even cooler: I SANG FOR GEORGE W. BUSH!!! Despite anyone's political preferences (I happen to like him, but not the point), singing for and listening to a former president is pretty freaking awesome. I, along with both choirs, and the band and orchestra performed before he got there and did two big numbers altogether as one group when he came one stage!!! Then we all stayed on stage with him (no leaving. at all. secret service and such) and heard him speak! It was the coolest thing ever. Sometimes college rocks.

I think that'll be all for today. I'll try and post pictures of stuff I've been working on, and maybe some of the assignments in photography. The first one is "Hands." Any hands. However you can think of. I'm thinking knitting. But maybe not. We'll see.

Happy knitting!