My Thoughts Frolic Together in a Field of Ideas in My Brain on Their Own Accord & Have No Regard For What They Put Me Through On A Daily Basis

When I'm alone with my thoughts for too long, they tend to spiral out of control.  I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who are similar to me, but sometimes, I even scare myself.  I'll be sitting at work and just snort or giggle at some random thought, and I'll catch Kay giving me a look like she's curious, but she doesn't know if she's that curious.  Most of the time, I try to trace the crazy line of thinking backwards so I can share, but then it usually loses its... luster... and isn't as funny anymore.  I guess I've kind of illustrated my weird way of thinking in this blog, because sometimes I'll go off on a tangent and digress, but, at least when it's on paper, it's not as random and piece-meal as my brain usually makes it.

(Take for example, the above paragraph ... I took a sentence and ran with it with no censor and I'll bet I've lost my audience already... heck, I would've given up myself a long time ago if it were possible.)

But anyways, I'll focus this blog into something a little bit more ... worthwhile. 

I've taken pictures of the four scarves I made for my family and friends. 

This was Holly's scarf:

Papa Hunt's scarf:



(Are we noticing a pattern form?)

Mom's scarf:

And Suzy's scarf:

I'm proud of them :) Again, if anybody wants a pattern, just let me know and I'll be glad to relay it to ya!

I'm not sure what else I've got for this blog ... no other crocheted items .. I've slacked a little since I was under a time crunch before Christmas.  One of my Christmas presents was an Amazon gift card, so I've been able to go and buy the rest of the books in some of the series I read, so I've kinda been catching back up on those... of course I have to re-read the first book before I can read the rest of them, so it'll take me a bit longer.  Amazon won that battle...

My fiancee saw a present that Kay made her boyfriend (a Tetris blanket made out of 160 crocheted Granny squares) and so he's been hounding me to make him a blanket... but I have no idea what I'll make.  Kay said I should maybe make a Yankees one .. so I've kind of toyed with that idea.  I'm sure I can find a pattern, but I might try to make one from my own brain .. but that doesn't always work out ... But I did get a gift card to a craft store, so I've been fighting the urge to run into the store and jump into the yarn aisle and frolic and drool and touch all of the yarn and actually be able to afford to buy some!  Usually, Kay or I make up some excuse (usually a pretty weak one) to go and we both make a beeline for the yarn and just spend time touching and oohing and aahing saying stuff like, "Ooh, I love this yarn!" and "Ooh, feel this one!"  We'd spend hours if we could...

One day, she and I were in the yarn aisle talking about colors and whatnot when these two little old ladies came in and were doing the same exact thing ... she looked up at me and whispered, "That's us..." and we cracked up and she ran away and left me standing there trying not to be too conspicuous.  We weren't laughing at them, we were laughing at the fact that they were literally an older version of us .. standing there debating with each other on how many skeins of yarn they should buy and what color.. which was EXACTLY what she and I had been doing for like twenty minutes.

My wedding looms closer.. so that's always a project I'm involved in.  I've always wanted to be married in October, so after I became engaged, I was able to look up the football schedule for my college football team so I can plan my wedding for the bye weekend which usually falls in October.  I set it for 10/20/12.  Well, today, I just received word that they CHANGED the schedule for next year and the bye weekend is actually the weekend before.  How dare they!! So, I looked it up myself, and alas, they did.  But, the game for that weekend is an away game, so I don't think I'll have to change the date.  It wouldn't be such a big deal if I hadn't already scheduled the church & the reception location.  I would be absolutely heartbroken if half of my family didn't show up for my wedding (or left early) because of that game.  I've been reassured that they wouldn't do that to me, but I know them very well.. and they are die hard fans and so am I... but I was promised they'd be there and wouldn't flake out on me.  You'd think that me being their only sister/daughter would be enough.. but no... we live in the South, where football reigns over all.

I believe most of the major details have been planned already .. church is booked, reception location is handled, dress and veil are bought, bridesmaids dresses and shoes have been picked, cake has been ordered... I need to get a couple of items for myself, shoes, corset, jewelry, the doohickey I wear on my thigh... can't remember the name at the moment.  We need to find a photographer and I believe that may be all.  We have to get catering and alcohol from the reception site, so I guess I need to finalize the menu, but it's not like I have to decide on a caterer.  I need to pick out flowers and see how I want to decorate ... I know I want low wide-mouth glass bowls with blue rocks and water and floating water lilies for the center pieces of each of the tables.  I'm going to have my hair side swept and with a big white lily tucked above my hair.  I think it'll be really pretty.  I'm trying to be money-wise, so I'm not planning anything SUPER elaborate.  My fiancee and I are booking our cruise for our honeymoon at the beginning of the year with our tax return money.  Ooh, and we need to find a house to rent for his relatives to stay in while they come down since they are from the North.  I do believe that's it.. I hope I'm not forgetting anything. 

I may have had a slight..mini...breakdown a little bit ago because of all of the pressure coming onto me from all different sides regarding the wedding.  I realized I was trying to make everybody else happy and I wasn't focusing on myself.  I mean ... this is MY wedding... It'll be my day to shine .. so I feel like I need to focus a bit more on my happiness.  Well, it's late and I can hear my bed calling my name... so I'll bid you all a good night!

Christmas Presents & A Rant

I finally braved the crowds yesterday with one of my really good friends to go Christmas shopping.  All in all, it wasn't TOTALLY bad .. I mean, I did have to throw a stick into the path of an old lady with a wheelie-walker (I can promise you, that did not happen.)  My friend Kay and I were both still in our scrubs from work and were walking around the mall trying to figure out what in the heck we could get our significant others and we were looking at the Christmas ornament kiosk and I was drooling over a few really adorable ones that I'm planning on buying when I start popping out kidlets (but who am I kidding, I probably wouldn't pay the $15 then either).  Anywho, we were beginning to walk away, and this woman said in a rather loud, not-so-subtle voice, "I have a question for somebody who may or may not be a nurse that is currently walking away." and my subconscious heard it and my feet stopped walking and I spun around and was like, "Was that directed at me?" and she just smiled and nodded.  So, her question was what was the term that described the process of cutting somebody to bleed them back in the early 1800s or whenever.  And I thought it was leeching off the top of my head, but she said that wasn't it.  My mind was kind of boggled and a small part of me was wondering why in the heck was somebody who was supposed to be cheery, working at an ornament kiosk a week before Christmas was doing thinking about bleeding somebody.  So, me, not being able to let anything go that I think I may know the answer to, I racked my brain until I got a headache.  So, I called my all-knowing dad, who really should go on Jeopardy and asked him.  He said he had no idea what the term could be other than bloodletting (which wasn't the term she was looking for), but he did have this interesting morsel of information: that type of thing occurred at the barber shop and that's why they have the red & white striped barber pole.  The ornament lady was happy (but apparently not happy enough to offer me a discount on her lovely product.) so Kay and I wondered away.  Then, my fingers got itchy so I googled it and searched while we walked and came up with the term "disambiguation" which I was happy with so the next time we walked back by her I just let that little word slip out and she was happy because that was the word she was trying to think of, but alas, no discount then either.  I have no idea why my blogger audience (again, I'm pretty sure there's nobody...) would like to know this, but I found it to be kinda fun.

Then, a little while later Kay and I spotted one of our clients walking down the mall towards us and neither one of us really felt the urge to say hi, so we averted our eyes and pretended to think this really hideous children's outfit was adorable, then she bypassed us so we kept walking.  I started to mutter under my breath that I really wasn't interested in that outfit, I was just trying to make it not as obvious that I was trying to avoid her eyesight, but apparently the woman spun around and started speed walking behind us and was practically riding my butt, which Kay saw and tried to stop me from talking.  She succeeded and we ducked into the Gap and hid from her for a few minutes.  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind running into clients outside of work, but I think she may be slightly ... socially... inept, and I knew she would rope me into this huge discussion about fleas or something when all I really wanted to do was Christmas shop and not think about my job.  And I feel like I'm pretty recognizeable since I greet people and help them with their dogs, and throw in the fact that I was still in my scrubs AND I was with Kay .. whooo... three strikes and you're out! 

Believe it or not, this blog post was not to detail my shopping outing, but it was to post more pictures of finished products.  I did make three scarves, all of which are already wrapped, so I'll take a picture of them when the recipients unwrap them, but I did finish this really cool baby blanket to make up for the garbage one I made for my nephew before.

The colors are an off-white, lighter blue (which was called seafoam... but I think green when I hear that) and a darker blue.  I'm really happy with the result.  I also made a giraffe for one of my best friend's daughter, Ally.

His head is so daggone big, his neck doesn't support it.  And I need to give him eyes and a mouth, but you get the point.  I think if I were to remake it, I would crochet around toilet paper rolls when I make his neck so it's sturdier.

I'm pretty proud of the scarves I made, they are pretty nice.  I made my mom, Suzy, & Holly one (because you totally wanted to know that and because you know who I'm talking about.)

I have one more person left that I need to buy for, and I'm fairly certain I'm going to make him a scarf too.  One of my brother's wants me to make him a bear, wearing a hat with a big G on it so he can "give it to his first born." .... I think I have time ... because he doesn't currently have a girlfriend.  I was thinking about making my dad a scarf or something, but he wouldn't wear it ... I even asked him.  I thought it would hurt his feelings since I've made almost every other person something, but he's weird ... a good ole country boy who'd rather freeze than wear a super cool scarf his only daughter made him... hmph. 

I did make my fiance a beanie with earflaps and tassels:

He insisted on getting the earflaps and tassels.  I was content leaving them off, but what can I do? I love him.

I feel like I've accomplished more ... ooh, well, I did kinda sorta get trapped in another book series (curse you, Amazon!)  At least the other four books are only $2.99 a piece, (at least I hope so, I've only gotten two of the four I need to buy). 

I couldn't say I'm totally looking forward to Christmas and New Years, because I have to work both eves from 8-1.  I hate that.  And one of my bridesmaids is throwing my fiance and I an engagement party at my parent's house on New Year's Eve, so I get to get off work, then hurry up and drive for four hours, make myself pretty, and stay up past midnight and celebrate with my friends and family, all without a nap.  Sheesh.  I wish I could nap on the way down there, but, ya know, I kinda like being the one who drives...  Then, I have to wake up, hungover probably, the next morning and drive allll the way back up here because my boss didn't deem it necessary to give us Monday off.  Nah ... that'd mean he'd have to pay me for not working and why on Earth would he do that?! 

Sorry about that rant. 

My fiance and I decided to share one present with each other tonight, because he and I are both the most impatient people in the world.  I let him open the phone case I got him, (simply because I know he really needs it and with our luck, he'd drop his brand new phone on Christmas Eve and shatter it or something awful.) and he gave me the soundtrack to Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 (because, as I've previously stated, I'm a Twi-Hard :) and I'm not ashamed to admit it.) which I am currently listening to. 

On a side note, I was on Amazon and noticed that there is a book called, "The Trouble with Twilight."  Curiosity got the best of me and I clicked on it to read a description and it proceeds to say that Twilight and other similar books are an attempt to brainwash our young adults about occultism and mysticism and whatnot.  GIVE. ME. A. BREAK.  It's a B-O-O-K.  It's amazing how something as simple and harmless as a book can elicit this response from some, dare I say, fanatics?  I mean, ignoring Twilight, look at Harry Potter.  I, personally, was affected by some nut-ball (sorry if I offend anybody) that convinced my 12 year old nephew that Harry Potter was the evil workings of the devil, and my brother, his father, was actually the devil that was trying to use his evil (Harry Potter) to lure him to hell.  This little kid was a Harry Potter FANATIC!  He had all of the toys, board games, movies, video games, bed sheets, everything, because HE asked for them.  So, of course, my little impressionable nephew was scared out of his wits and promptly decided that he was going to never see his father again so he could be sure he gets into heaven.  I haven't seen that boy since.  He is now 20 years old, and still refuses to even speak to his father or any of his family other than his mother and her fellow...(how can I put this delicately...) like-minded individuals?  (Whoo.. that seriously took some major brain power & censorship to come up with.)  Why can't people just let books be books, games be games, and to each his own?  If you don't like it, don't read/watch/listen to it! There are some people that I've heard on the radio that are actually protesting a radio show.... is that really all you have to do with your time?  ... sit outside of a radio station and picket them?  If you don't like what they are talking about... TURN YOUR RADIO TO A DIFFERENT STATION FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY! 

One thing I've learned in dealing with animals and listening and observing people, is that a lot, probably close to the majority of people, suck a lot of dirty toes.  Some people can't be happy unless they are making somebody else's life miserable, or trying to ruin somebody's living, or trying to break up a family, or making a big stink out of something that isn't hurting a single living soul. 

Wow.. sorry this blog kinda ended in a rant... definitely didn't have that intention when I started, but one thing leads to another.. and well... this is the way my mind works.  If I am close enough friends with somebody and we hang out enough, they learn to follow the breadcrumbs my mind leaves and can follow what I'm thinking.  They are the select and chosen few.  I can literally count them on one hand. And three of them... no .. two of them have known me my whole life.

Season's Greeting all! ... and to all a good night!

First Batch

First off, let me apologize to ALL of my readers (and by "ALL"... I mean all zero of you.... because I have no followers because I haven't told my family or friends about the blog and because I either haven't popped up on the "Next Blog" tag or I'm just not appealing, but no worries) that I have been MIA for the past .... while.  I have been pretty busy and I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to squish blogging onto my daily list of junk I end up doing.

But anyways :)

I wanted to post pictures of my completed crocheting projects to date.  I will skip my very first creation, because let's face it .. it's the worst thing imaginable.  It was a baby blanket for a newborn nephew... but I haven't decided if I'm going to burn it or actually give it to him.  It's got a 50:50 chance...  The second thing I created was a bunny for the little girl that will be my Flower Girl in my wedding.  She's flat-out adorable, and pretty much the only little girl I can spoil with girlie stuffed animals. 

I also made her a cat, but it ended up being a pretty stupid pattern, but I'll post a picture anyways (just to toot my own horn).

Yep, that's right ... it's a leg-less, rounded ears cat...

This Thanksgiving is also another one of my nephew's birthdays, and his uncle is a big NERD, so he has gotten the poor, impressionable child absolutely HOOKED on Godzilla and King Kong and Ghostbusters and a plethora of other things.  But, anyways, whenever AJ sees a dinosaur, he calls it Godzilla, hence, I made him a stegasaurous hat and also a stuffed dinosaur.

If it were socially acceptable .. I'd TOTALLY wear the beanie...

I have two dogs (have I mentioned that already?).  Logan is a black and tan dachshund/chihuahua mix and Delilah is a corgi.  In addition to the stockings I made for myself and my fiance, I made each of them their own as well.  They are identical stockings, just Delilah's is red with a green pawprint and Logan's is green with a red pawprint.

This is my fiance's stocking:

And this is mine:

Yes, it's supposed to be a Christmas tree, even though it kinda looks like a bell... It literally kicked my butt and it was late when I made it, so I was beyond caring at that point.

If anybody wants the patterns, I can post them for you if you let me know which ones you want.  I haven't become... adventurous enough to come up with my own pattern (even though technically, I made myself a hat by winging it ... and it's not too terrible if I may say so myself :) )

In addition to being a crocheting fiend, I've ... not accomplished a whole lot else.  There may be a book here and there that I've read on my Kindle, but nothing noteworthy.  The Amazon people definitely were sneaky when they thought of the Top 100 Free list.  9 times out of 10, the free book that is totally readable and interesting is the first book in a series of books.  The catch (and the sneaky part) is that even though the first book was free, the remaining books in the series aren't.  Granted, they aren't arm-and-a-leg expensive, but if I fell for that trick every time, I'd be one broke girl...  There was one (or two) series that I actually really truly enjoyed enough to buy the other books in the series.  One thing that annoys me about series are that unless they have been published and the series is complete, I have to actually WAIT for the next book.  Let's just say I'm not the most patient person in the world...  With the series that I fell for, I ended up finding the author's blog so I follow her to be able to know when the next book comes out and to get updated.  It's handy. :)

Let's see... ooh! I did accomplish one thing this past week.  I re-read Breaking Dawn (yep, I'm a Twi-hard) and saw the midnight premiere on Thursday night.  It was a-mazing, but I'll spare all of you who I'm sure have already had people talk your ears off about it.  But, on a related note, I haven't gotten enough sleep since then.  I was only able to sleep for three hours Thursday night because I had to work on Friday, then I had to entertain my family that came to town for a football game, so I didn't get to sleep until late last night, then I had to wake up this morning and go to work again.  To be honest, I probably could have crashed when I got home from work, but I ended up going to a friend's house with my fiance to watch the game and almost falling asleep on their couch.  Came home.  And I STILL haven't gone to sleep.  I think I'm trapped in one the of those too-tired-to-sleep zones.  Which, I hope I'm able to break out of tonight, because I can't function next week at work with little sleep since it's going to be MADHOUSE (it seems like every evil cat in this state comes in right before Thanksgiving just to get my blood pressure up.  I don't know if you've ever experienced it, but one day, have a really big, really pissed off cat SCREAM at you, and your adrenaline with be pumping furiously for the remainder of the day.  Good luck sleeping after that...).  Then, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and that's a whole 'nother thing that will rob me of sleep.  (Not because I dread it or anything sad like that.  I just end up having to spend time with every single person I know in my hometown and I won't have a chance to put my feet up and relax on my vacation.)

Now that I don't feel guilty about not having blogged recently, I think I'll peruse the Top 100 Free list on Amazon... and I'll see what kind of traps I can fall into now. :)

Have a good night all, (one day, I'm sure I'll actually have somebody that will be reading this) & if I don't make it back before Turkey-day, Happy Thanksgiving :)

One of these days...

I titled this blog, "One of these days..." because it seems like I'm constantly starting or learning some new thing and then I make all of these plans which inevitably end up on the backburner or put on the top shelf in that corner cabinet that nobody every goes into.... but I digress... it's called "One of these days..." because I feel like I'm consistently saying, "One of these days I'm going to (fill-in-the-blank)."

Anyways.  I'll use this blog to keep track of various in-progress projects and whatever it is that floats my boat (that day at least) that I'm attempting to accomplish.  I'll provide links to crochet patterns used (if necessary) and hopefully post some pictures of completed projects or something similiar. 

For example, one of these days, I'm going to finish writing this novel that I started in, oh, I think it was 2009?  I took about a year hiatus from it because it seemed like I was always in this awful or depressed mood when I had time enough to write in it, and I definitely didn't want to be in that state of mind because I don't want my main character to go on a killing spree or something like that.  Her name is Anne.  I'm going to try to refrain from posting any actual knowledge or ideas I've come up with regarding this book, purely for selfish reasons.  I've had a few close friends read what I've got and they think it's good, but the little nagging paranoid voice in the back of my mind is constantly yelling, "WHAT IF THEY ARE JUST BEING NICE?!"  I'm sure all of you potential and/or published writers can attest to that very same voice in your mind, albeit yours might not be as loud or obnoxious as mine.  I've been debating on naming it, but I can't decide if it's an Alberta or a Bertha.  I kinda like them both... and here I am, digressing again...

Another "one of these days" of mine is one of these days, I'm going to go back to school and get another degree.  I have one (that I'm currently paying the student loans off on), but the thing is, I don't want to do anything with it.  Bachelor's of Science in Poultry Science... Yep... Chickens and turkeys and such.  Sure, the little day old hatchlings are adorable, but once you've spent two years roaming around a broiler chicken house with all of the litter dust and feathers and fending off aggressive chickens, you're pretty much scarred for life.  I wouldn't eat chicken for awhile.... but now that I think about it, nowadays I would rather eat chicken than let's say, pork chops.  I graduated back in 2010.  If I ever go back, which I do really want to do, I'll do an on-line program to get my Associate's in Applied Science in Veterinary Technology so I can take the stupid test so I can become licensed.  But, that's a whole 'nother blog.

(But for those of you interested in the abridged version, read on!)

I've been working as a veterinary technician for going on five years now, and I can't take the test to become licensed until I get the degree.  Which I think is completely bogus.  I mean, I already have one degree in the health sciences field, so why can't I just take the test?!  They used to have the rule that if you have five years of experience, that would work as a substitute, which is what I decided I was going to bank on, but alas, about a year or two ago, they took that little fall-back away.... turds...

Anyways.  One of these days, I'm going to get married!  Ooh, did I mention that?  Yep.  This girl right here has been engaged all of 69 days, and I already have the majority of the wedding planned.  No, it's not because I've been dreaming of my wedding since I was a little kid (I was a tomboy!), it's just because I'm a compulsive planner.  I plan everything.  Or...I make plans to make a plan to do something... and sometimes that thing is not always accomplished.  (Hey, I'm not a robot!)

Well, I think I'll call it a night.  I've listed a couple of things on my list of "One of these days.."  Stay tuned for potentially more!  One of these days, I might be back for more blogging!

(And by "might", I mean I totally will, I was just trying to be clever, but it's kinda late and I've had a long day and my brain isn't firing on all cylinders so please forgive.)