The Plague!

So...I had some friends over last Friday. One left because he had a fever, another woke up the next morning feeling ill. Now two of the remaining three are sick...I am one of these unfortunate two.
So far, I don't have a fever, but I'm exhausted and achy with a chest cold, so we'll see how it develops tomorrow.
Peace.
Thing to be grateful for today: Sweaters (It was COLD!)

Crap...

I had this whole lovely post in my head to the effect of, "Look at me! I've got everything under control! I have a ton of blanket knitting done, and I even took awesome pictures of it outside! See??"






And I had planned on writing that post and being very optimistic and excited and talking about how awesome and creative this project is...but then my whole night went to shit, because somehow a PDF file brought up all of my underlying stress and I lost it...so instead, I'm giving you pictures, and going to bed.

Thing to be grateful for today: Understanding and patient individuals.

Just Pretend They're There

I cannot find my camera. In case you hadn't guessed, that is REALLY UPSETTING!!!
See, I have been working on the blanket all day (It doesn't look like the beginning's of a blue scarf anymore), and I wanted so badly to show you all! However, when I went to look for my camera, no luck. I seriously searched top to bottom, everywhere it could be...I just realized that that wasn't totally true. Guess what? The camera was in the one feasible place I hadn't looked. Guess what else? I tried to take a picture, and the battery is DEAD! Crap. Now I've spent the past twenty minutes trying to figure out how to charge a Godforsaken camera battery! Of course, now I have to wait for it to charge.
Well, as long as I'm waiting, I feel like I need to apologize for the super lame posts these past couple of days. Between technological failures, overbearing schoolwork, and all of my other obligations, the blog has suffered. I've just ended one of the hardest classes I've ever taken, so hopefully things will improve now.
Here's the knitting update (I need to get back to talking philosophy, knitting is getting boring): I knit maybe three rows of the cardigan today...yeah...I had so much to do that I really needed to focus on that I didn't want to distract myself from by the need to count decrease rows in my head, so instead I opted to work on the blanket all day, and I gotta say, the blanket is looking pretty badass.
I'm using a really fun blanket patter. I call it "Let's Just Wing It and See What We Get, Shall We?" Yeah...I'm basically knitting, picking up stitches, knitting some more, making executive decisions about what colors go where and how long/wide the pieces are. It's pretty fun. The blanket it is sort of slowly constructing itself in my mind like a puzzle, piece by piece.
I'm still considering a violet edging around the entire thing. What do you guys think?



The colors are less bright and intense in real life, just letting you know. Does winging it seem like a good idea to all of you? That's one corner right there.

Thing to be grateful for: Sleepovers

Apology

Sorry this post is a little late, everyone. I was completely swamped yesterday and forgot until I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep (at which point I really did not see myself getting up).
Good news! I have the whole back of the sweater and have started the right shoulder!
That's all I have time for today, but here's a piece of music from my new favorite composer, Shostakovitch. This is his the second movement of his String Quartet No. 8.
Thing to be grateful for today: Shostakovitch.

Home Stretch

That's right people, we're in the home stretch. Right now is the time that counts. I officially have the neck, right shoulder, and button band to knit by Saturday morning if I want to block and seam before midnight on February 1st, and if that happens it will be a MIRACLE! Here's what we're looking at right now:

• 2 Sleeves
• One complete body
• One shoulder
• Most of a back

I would have provided a picture, but our camera is not readily available (read: I searched a bit, didn't find it, and decided that I needn't to get to homework pronto!), so, you'll just have to pretend.
The next few days are critical. Wish me luck.

Thing to be grateful for today: My laptop!

From My Journal

So, I had no computer at all yesterday (my mom and I's laptop was virus ridden, and my step-dad's computer does not have a working mouse), so I wrote this post in my journal last night, and I'm now giving it to you.

I finished a sleeve today, and have only the top of the second sleeve and the right should and the neck left to knit before I have to pick up the dreaded number of stitches and knit the button bands. I'm having my doubts about whether I can totally finish (blocking and all) by Monday at midnight, but I'm still trying.
As you might have guessed, not having a computer yesterday put a monkey wrench into my homework (read: I feel totally screwed, but I'll make it), so I'm a teensy bit worried about it right now.
Here's the final knitting line-up for February (I'm like a club now...tee-hee...line-ups):

Pre-New York:

• Maybe Cardigan finishing...hopefully not though
• Mama's Shawl
• 2 Swatches for the knitting Olympics hat
• 1 project to raise money for Haiti

I'll probably bring the project for Haiti (maybe one of my little bags) to this German speaking competition in San Antonio I have to go to soon, because I'll have a lot of knitting time there and that will be a convenient traveling project.

New York:

• Knitting Olympics hat
• Knitathon squares (These are being used to make scarves for the homeless)
  
• Socks (the ones I didn't finish)
• 1 Haiti project

Post New York:

• Haiti projects
• Knitting Olympics Hat
• Knitathon squares

Dudes...that's a lot of knitting. Now, I need to go write today's post.
Ta.

Thing to be grateful for today: My awesome purple Papermate pen! (I have a lot of these pens actually)

I'm Tired, Have Mercy

So, I'm exhausted, and still have homework (I rode my bike 12 miles today and didn't get home until 8:45). Here's the plan: I'm thinking that, while I'm gone, I'll write a blog post every day in a journal, take lots of pictures, and post them when I can. That way, I'll still be fullfilling the original purpose of the blog, which is to be a daily writing exercise, just to get me into the habit. That means, there might not be a post up every day, but I'll be writing them for when the time comes that I can put my entries up online. Sound good? How does everyone like that?
So, I'm sorry to cut this so short, but really, I'm barely holding my head up. Ta.
Thing to be grateful for today: Sleep.

OK...Final Descision This Time...Really...

All right, so for real this time, I know what I'm making for the Knitting Olympics this year. It's super practical, and going to be AMAZING!!!! It's challenging, takes skills that I'm not very good at yet in great quantities, which will force me into BECOMING good, and it's going to be something I will probably wear every chance I get.
It is a hat, but not just ANY hat! It is a hat knit out of THESE skeins of yarn.



(Yes, I took a picture of yarn on top of a stereo...so sue me).

The plan is simple (unless you aren't a knitter, and then this explanation is going to make very little sense to you). The plan is, to knit the hat in a 1x1 fair isle pattern with these two yarns (or for the knitting impaired, I'm knitting the hat so that every other stitch is knit with the blue yarn and the other stitches are with the brown/purple/gold). I'll have some kind of ribbing at the bottom, probably 2x2 (2 knits, 2 purls, all the way). However, the problem is that I can't decide if it should be knit on an odd number of stitches, which would cause the yarn colors to alternate every row as well (So, the color would change in vertical and horizontal lines, thus making a checkerboard pattern), or I could knit it on an even number of stitches (The hat would have vertical lines of color). The thing is, an odd number would mean that one rib would be off by one (not a terribly dreadful problem really, or at least it's one I can ignore).
What do you guys think? Should the colors be checkerboarded or should they be in vertical stripes?

Today, I encountered a problem with the cardigan. I realized that the sleeve holes were WAY TOO FREAKING HUGE for the sleeves I had knit. I took the entire project to Ye Olde Yarn Shoppe, and they promptly told me what my problem was. It was NOT in fact that the sleeve holes were too big, but rather that the sleeves were not finished. I had apparently mistaken an entire set of instructions labeled "Top Shaping" that came just after the instructions for the sleeve as the instructions for shaping the top of the sweater and not the top of the sleeves. Apparently, once I rip out my cast off edge on the first sleeve, I can knit it up again correctly. YAY!
Second sleeve update; I am not done with the second sleeve, but it is coming along fast. I'd say I still have about a foot or perhaps a small bit less to go.

Thing to be grateful for today: My dear friend Jesse, who is moving away next Friday. I love her dearly.

The Ghost of Knits Past

So, I've decided on a project for the knitting olympics, this hat. I tried to knit it last winter, and did in fact succeed, however, instead of being my size, it was infant sized, because working with two colors is a tricky business. Therefore, this year I will succeed!
Now, here's the catch. I will be traveling for the first six days of the olympics. I'm doing a college visit up in the Godless North (Massachusetts) that week, but first I'll be in New York to see my favorite musical of all time, Next to Normal (If you don't know Next to Normal, you should). Those of you that talk to me regularly are probably going, "What?? Since when are you going up north next month?" The answer is, since this morning. Every single decision was made then. It wasn't even a possibilty that we would go up next month until this morning, so that's why none of you knew.
Anyway, this presents a bit of a problem. That's six days where I will have uncertain internet access. I'm not sure what the plan is yet, but in order to keep my one post a day thing running, I must do something! Any suggestions? I'm thinking a) Get a guest writer b) Write six posts before I leave and send them to someone I can trust to post one each day. Thoughts?
Anywho, I've haven't knit at all today (bad Gardiner!), and God knows I'm going to need that cardigan while I'm in New York. Think I could manage a pair of mittens before I get there? Those would be REALLY useful. Perhaps THAT is what the Patons Yarn was meant for? A pair of striped mittens? How does that sound?

That's all for today.
Thing to be grateful for today: My mother's insane skills.

Ideas

So, I'm still focused on the sweater (I'm almost halfway through the second sleeve), but I have all of these ideas for other projects to work on once it's over in my head, and between trying the three major things I have going on, all of which need to be done in February, I think February is going to end up being more of a knitting month than January.
The first thing I need to be knitting in February is my mother's shawl, which was supposed to be her Christmas gift, but ended up being her birthday gift (don't worry, she still got a Christmas gift). Her birthday is the twentieth of February. I'm over halfway through with it, but I've still got a ways to go. It's beautiful, though it may end up being an afghan if it ends up being very LARGE (which it very well might). I would put up a picture of the shawl, but my mom hasn't seen it yet, and I'd like to keep it that way (she of course already knows that it is a shawl).
The second thing I want to be working on is assorted little projects that I'm planning on selling to raise money for Haiti. I'm thinking hats, little bags, and maybe a couple of scarves. This last piece actually ties into my third goal for the month, the knitting olympics. Now, I know some of you are going "huh? Those crazy knitters!" Well, let me tell you, the knitting olympics are pretty awesome! The basic idea is that you choose a project that will challenge you, but that you can knit from the time of the beginning ceremony of the olympics to the time of the ending ceremony. This year, I'm thinking I will knit a lace scarf.
My logic behind the lace is simple: I can knit it in the time given (hopefully), it will be a challenge, because my experience with lace is minimal, I can sell it for Haiti more easily because we are in Texas and the winter is ending here, so people won't be looking for warm handknits neccessarily.
So, that's the plan. In february, I am knitting little projects to raise money for Haiti that I can carry around with me when I'm knitting on the go, my mother's shawl, which will be an at home project because it is rather large and woolen, and finally the lace scarf, which while it is still for Haiti, is in a category of it's own because it is for the knitting olympics as well.
What do you guys think? Can I pull it off? Any suggestions for little projects? I'm thinking about this scarf. If you don't have a Ravelry account, that won't work, sorry.

Thing to be grateful for today: The Tower.

What I'm Knitting Now

So guys, I have scary news. To meet my goal of being finished with the cardigan by the stroke of midnight on February the first, I must have finished the second sleeve, the back and left shoulder, have picked up the stitches along the sides and created a button band, blocked the piece, sewn it together, and attached the buttons by a week from Sunday. That is ten days. Here's what it looks like.



(Does that back look a little...wide...to you? It fits me loosely when I've wrapped it around me, but I'm scared that once it's been blocked it will be HUGE!)
Now, I calculate that it will take a total of four days to block/seam the thing (blocking can take a while), plus I'll probably need the only spare mattress in our house on Friday the 29th, which means I can't block it there (I suppose I could block it somewhere else, but I can't imagine where at this point in time). I could, if absolutely necessary, make it two days , so I would pin it for blocking Saturday morning when the mattress can be reclaimed, put in under a fan, and take it off Sunday and seam that whole day. What do you guys think? Is that a plausible finishing up plan?
On to the next problem. Where do I get eleven awesome matching, wooden buttons of a biggish size? Anyone? Ask your family, your friends, yourselves! I have NO idea!
Even assuming that I can get all of my finishing up in two days, that still only leaves me eight knitting days left. The cardigan body is under house arrest because it is much too big to be toted around for knitting now, so the second sleeve is my out of house knitting. Here's where the problem lies. I got over three inches of sleeve done out of the house today. I know, you're thinking, "That sounds pretty good. How's that a problem, Gardiner?" Here's how! This means I only need five major out of house knitting days, right? I have seven, I'll probably have the sleeve cast off on Sunday, because it's my major out of house knitting day(It still doesn't sound like a problem, does it?). Well, that leaves me five more out of house days. With no really good, cardigan-related out of house project, and with the deadline looming so close, it looks like I'll be forced to bring the entire body with me to school every day next week to finish...which kind of sucks. In a perfect world, I will have finished the shoulder and already picked up the side seams by Monday, but that won't happen, which means that I will be doing lots of fiddly bits to and from school...this sucks. Any tips from my knitter readers on how to transport large, fiddly projects to and fro?

Anyway, I DO actually have other projects on the needles right now. Remember the blanket and sock? They've been getting neglected this month. As has this little morsel I started in December.



Now, the coloring is a little off, because this glove is actually a bit lighter (though I wish it was this dark because then I might wear it). So far, this glove has no owner (that is not an invitation to ask for it, I might have an owner in mind).

So, that's what I have on the needles right now. To put things in perspective I thought I might show you guys something.
I have a lot of yarn.



See that smaller, opaque bag? That's the bag of yarn that I have a plan for...that other bag? It's yarn that a) I once had a plan for, but forgot/gave up on b) was given to me and does not yet have a plan, or c) I bought because it was pretty/soft/cool even though I had no real plan for it. That's quite a large amount of yarn I don't know what to do with...

On a final and totally unrelated note, my mother is absolutely hysterical.



This car has been sitting in front of our house for a couple of weeks now, unmoved. It has been slightly blocking our driveway, so yesterday my mother decided to take action by making this sign.



(Here's a close up so you can read the smaller writing at the bottom.)



She then placed said sign on the car, though no sooner had she done so than it's owner shows up to tell her that its battery has died, and he will push it out of the way for us. Though her sign worked, my mom was rather disappointed that most of the world did not get to behold its glory. She then insisted on going outside for a photoshoot with her sign, so that I might blog the occasion.



Thing to be grateful for today: Learning that I've been doing the tree pose in yoga wrong for seven years.

Eight

So, I'm giving you a list of eight things that happened since my last post:

1. I tried to find more Patons SWS wool/soy blend so I could make a scarf. I did not succeed.
2. I went to the orthodontist, and all they did was take a mold of my teeth.
3. I started my German Rosetta Stone program. I now know more German than I did yesterday.
4. Despite screaming to the heavens that I would not draw "The Tower" card when I got home, I drew "The Tower". I'm trying to remain positive.
5. I had odd dreams (these included sunglasses, hospital visits, and study sessions).
6. I took a day off of school to do homework, rest up, and find my lost center.
7. This was javascript:void(0)taken well by all as far as I can tell.
8. I slept in.

Other than that, let's see...I'm feeling so much better having taken a small break from the world today, and now I think I'm going to bed. Good night all.

Thing to be grateful for today: Understanding teachers.

Pumping Iron

It's time for some good 'ol fashioned peer editing guys.
Now, most of you know that I write a lot of poetry, and that I love poetry (maybe even as much as knitting...please, hold your gasps of horror and shock). I say "as much as" and not "more" because they are two totally incomparable arts. I like to think of knitting as being more under the category of playing music, which sounds totally kooky, but I have an explanation. When you, say, play a Bach piece, you are pouring yourself into the piece, but it is still laid out there for you to do, as it has been written, with perhaps a few modifications depending on your personality type. Knitting is just like that. You knit what the pattern tells you (unless you're one of those really inventive knitters who comes up with their own patterns, personally I like to tweak age-old motifs to fit my needs), and the knitting will of course reflect your feelings and experiences during the project, if for no other reason than that your stitches will get tighter or looser depending on how you feel, though I like to think that knitting is affected on a deeper level than that by what we experience when we're working (more on that on another day).
Writing, is like musical composition. It is taking your emotions and experiences, and creating something totally new and unique out of your own head using all manner of symbols and sounds. This is why writing and knitting are incomparable, and why I love them both. One provides the calm, security in knowing that one stitch looks one way and the other looks the other, and when you do weird things with them they make clothes, and the other provides the ability to expand and throw yourself inward and outward into some magical pool of words and feelings.
What's sad about this is that, though I've talked a lot about knitting, I've talked very little about writing. This is partly due to the fact that I haven't written a poem in almost a month, which is a rare and depressing thing for me, so right now I'm trying to get back into the groove of things. I thought that I'd do this by putting up a couple of my poems, and asking you guys to critique them, so I can get those poetic muscles moving again.
These are from my submission to a competition last fall:

Glass Hearts

In the spyglass I see

An image distorted and cracked,

And I know the cracks were made by me

With a single selfish act.

Our hearts are fragile things,

Composed of hopes, love, and fear,

Held together by glue and knotted strings,

That we offer to those we want kept near.

In the looking glass I see

A self that understands you

Grinning out triumphantly,

Because now, I’ve been selfish too.

I’ve taken someone’s heart,

Tender and trusting,

And I’ve taken it apart;

Abandoned it for my desiring.

Is the mirror fogged or clearing?

Is the image my soul revealed, or has your breath,

Upon my lonely fearing

Led to my kindness’s death?

Having once forgiven you,

Myself, I can now forgive

For breaking his heart too,

Because after you, my heart still lived.

The End All, Lose All

A young man, stumbling,

(Blind.

Broken.

Heartless)

Towards the end all,

Lose all.

The shade of suburbia

Lies

Shattered at his feet.

Burning oil drums line the pavement.

(So many lost boys

Holding candles of hellfire,

The wax dripping

Down their burnt digits.)

The light catches his eyes,

And you’ve seen them before:

When bombs are dropped

On innocent souls in the night;

When sweaty burgers are shoved

Down gullets into swollen bellies;

In the faces of chemotherapy skeletons

Lying prone on hospital beds;

In your own face

(Creeping closer).

He falls to the dusty concrete,

Shallow cheek pressed to the ground.

Next to him is a fallen barrel,

Its oil spread into a sticky pool.

He lifts himself up on quaking arms,

Stares deep at his own reflection in the pool,

And with a self-satisfied grin,

Collapses,

Not to breathe again.

So, tell me what you think guys, leave comments, all that jazz.
Night.
Thing to be grateful for today: Peer editing

Grounding...FAILED

So, I had planned to write a post on getting grounded tonight. Basically, the idea was that being grounded is important, and lately I've been searching desperately for that grounding center that I've apparently lost somewhere along the way in the last months. I even got myself nice and grounded for writing by returning to my musical roots (I'm listening to Joanna Newsom, if you don't know her, you should try her. If you don't like her, I understand, I used to hate her).
Anyway, I found out a couple of minutes ago that I have an essay due tomorrow. Ok..."found out" is not the right phrase, "was reminded" is better. Either way, I have lost any sense of groundedness (again) and am currently FREAKING OUT! I had to write something tonight, because if I didn't I would not forgive myself for failing my goal of writing on here every day, but today, because History of Music is a truly trying and difficult class, this post is basically an "OHMYGODILOVEYOUGUYSBUTCAN'TWRITEAREALPOST" post (If you read all of that coherently the first time, I'm impressed). So, now I really must go write about music (which I'm not that good at anyway). Toodles.

Thing to be grateful for today: V-V, one of my best friends in the world, who is the one that reminded me about this essay five minutes ago.

Sleeves 'N Things

So, because the body of the cardigan got way too big to be conveniently portable, it has become an "in-house" project. Therefore, because I still insist on finishing the project by my deadline of January 31st, I began the sleeve.



I've been working on it in my spare moments these past few days, and today I was planning on getting quite a lot of it done, because I was going to be out of the house for several hours, however, I foolishly just grabbed the project without considering the fact hat I the ball it was attached to had basically no yarn left, so I knit for about half an hour and then I was done...yarnless, and hours of prime knitting time gone. I was none too pleased. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Now, on to future knitting. I was given a ton of yarn for my birthday this year, but these are my two personal favorite skeins:



The colors are a little off (sorry about the distance, it was the only way to get the colors to work at all).
Anyway, these are two beautiful skeins of "Patons SWS". They're 70% wool, 30% soy, and they're beautiful! They are so soft, and have a lovely halo. Now, the question is, what do I knit them into? Thoughts knitters? Or non-knitters? Everyone should give a suggestion, even if you don't normally comment!

Anyway, yesterday, I swore to clean my room, and here are the results:



Much better, no? That thing that appears to be a pile o' crap on the right side is my bag of yarn. That is a cat on my floor; his name is Steve.



Isn't that nice? I think so.

Now, the desk was not so much fixed:

And that, my friends, is tomorrow's task.

Thing to be grateful for today: Pillow-top mattresses.

Apocalyptic Space

So, my room has become a disaster area...truly, walking through it is DANGEROUS. It wasn't one of those things that happened all of a sudden; it's been a gradual descent into a horrible state of MESS!
Exhibit A:



Isn't that AWFUL??? It pains me, it really does, so tomorrow, I am CLEANING! This room will be totally immaculate by midnight! (Also, if you're wondering why I have two mattresses in my room, it's because I had some friends spend the night last weekend, and we dragged the mattress from the room next to mine which is currently unused into my room so we could all sleep together. That mattress is a lot nicer than mine, so I've been sleeping on the that one ever since.)

Exhibit B:



The bed I used to sleep on has been taken over by assorted objects (I see a bathrobe, a peppermint bark tin, an empty box of truffles, a hat, a camera case, a set of Glee episodes on DVD [If you don't watch Glee, then shame on you!], and the body of the cardigan).

Exhibit C:



THIS IS NOT A FLOOR!!!

Exhibit D:



This was once a work space, but now it has become an...I don't know what...

OK, so here's the deal. I need your help guys. If I don't post a picture of a CLEAN room tomorrow...yell at me. A lot!

Thing to be grateful for today: Homemade ice cream.

Stop! Supper Time!

So, today I tried to cook again. This experience was...poorly timed. Basically, the plan was to make garlic bread, pasta with a basic red sauce with sauteed garlic, mushrooms, and spinach in it, and have ice cream for dessert. I only failed a little (My picture taking was not as extensive with this meal as it was with the cake and I apologize).
My first mistake was putting the pasta into the water before it had started t0 boil. I was quickly informed that this was not a good idea, and so, like the badass I am, I reached into the pot and grabbed the pasta right out of the water.



The pasta, post-badass grabbing.

Now, this was only the beginning of our problems. It was not long after that I realized that, though I had successfully mixed the ice cream, I had not frozen the part of the ice cream machine that I was going to put the mix (not mix like powder, mix like all the ingredients mixed together, just for clarity) into so it would become ice cream...if you don't freeze this piece, no ice cream. There wasn't time to freeze it before dinner, so no ice cream was had.

The problems continued after that. By the end of the night, I had discovered that it takes about thirty minutes to cook garlic bread, and not the five or ten that I had supposed, so dinner was served in courses rather than all at once. I also learned that winging it is not the best idea with food...your ego will inevitably be deflated.



This is the sauce before I mixed everything up. Overall, the meal was actually really delicious thanks to the combined efforts of others to help me towards a successful completion. I'm going to try and get better at this cooking thing.

Thing to be grateful for today: Hildegard von Bingen (look her up, she's awesome).

Inaudible Clocks

So, today was another yoga day, and something pretty amazing happened. Even though I was filled with stress about school (among other things, but mostly school), somewhere along the way, I completely lost that and fell into a very zen space. Now, for those of you that know me pretty well, you might have noticed that I have a nervous habit of checking the time. Today during yoga class, even though I was so stressed, I completely forgot to think about what time it was until the very end, which is pretty awesome for me.
Of course, the moment I did think about what time it was, I suddenly became all too aware of the ticking of the clock in the back of the room, and I lost my zen space for a minute. I found it during the last breathing exercises though, which was good, because tonight, I needed that zen space.
Now that I have achieved that zen space though, I need to get to work on these things that are stressing me out (i.e. a presentation on Hildegard Von Bingen and an essay comparing Christianity and Taoism). I know that the posts have been short and devoid of pictures the last couple of days, and I'm sorry, but I promise that tomorrow's post will be long and full of fun pictures of italian food!

Thing to be grateful for today: Teachers who listen.

Playwriting

So, yesterday I mentioned a play that I'm writing. I guess I owe it to you guys to let you know what that's about.
My school has a thing called "senior projects", which are (obviously), large projects each student takes on in their senior year. What makes these projects so awesome though is that the students are allowed to do essentially anything they like, as long as they can prove that it's a learning process.
Now, ever since I watched the seniors present their projects in my freshman year, I've been thinking about what I want to do, but it wasn't until last fall that it came to me; I should write a play. So that's what I've been doing over the last few months (even though I'm a junior), I've been working on the concept of the play and getting it down on paper (or word document).
Now, since I started writing this play in November, you'd think that I'd be pretty far, but I've only written a handful of scenes, what with school and all of the other things I listed yesterday (that's why I'm giving myself until June 1st).
My plan is to have the first draft done by June 1st, so I can give it to a couple of teachers at my school at the end of the year to look at for me, then start rehearsals in September. I'll probably put the show on in February of next year, maybe January. I already have a tentative cast in my head (I'm in all likelihood only pulling from current students at my school, just because that makes everything easier, though I do have a few people who aren't at my school that I'd like to be in it if I could make it work). With a cast of six, it hasn't been too difficult to come up with an idea of who I want to play which character, though I'm still debating about the two major male roles (I know the two people I want to play them, but I don't know which guy I want to play which character).
The play is about a group of teenagers who, over the course of the play, and with the help of their mutual therapist, discover that they are a single person with multiple-personality disorder. As the pressure under this well-kept secret builds, an old personality returns from the "grave" in an attempt to drive the others out of their shared head.
What do you guys think? Have I got a concept? So far it seems that I do.

Thing to be grateful for today: Microsoft Word.

On the Go

Today I bring you...the blanket:



Or rather, what will become the blanket.
That's 18 skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky (Colors: 6 "Kiwi, 6 "Brown Bear", 6 "Ocean Waves"). I'm making it into a big ol' blanket just for me! I bought the yarn on the second, but I only just cast it on today (with my knitpicks set...it RULES, by the way).
This is what I have so far:



It isn't much, but it's there.
Now, the blanket is knit in plain garter, but I wanted to ask everyone who knits and reads (there are what, two of you?) if you think I should knit the colors in rectangles and sew them together, or pick up the stitches and connect all of the colored rectangles together. Now, the rectangles aren't going to line up in a nice, orderly fashion, they're going to be a log cabin pattern. Something like this, but you know, since I'm the type of knitter that likes to sort of make things as he sees fit, it won't be that pattern, just one like it.
Now, the benefits of doing it in one piece are thus: I think it looks better and I'll be able to learn to get a lot better at picking up stitches. The cons are that I'll be knitting it in one big piece, so at one point, it's going to get really ungainly (I plan on making it 6 1/2' X 5'), and there will be more tricky bits. So, what are your thoughts? (For anyone who's wondering, the cardigan is coming more slowly now, and there isn't much progress to report.)

Lately I've been really busy with all kinds of things (Yoga, school, therapy, playwriting, blogging, knitting, German [for when I go to Germany this summer, more on that later], cycling [which is training for the AIDS ride, more on that later too], and my social life, and I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting). This isn't a problem though, I love being busy. I really do. It gives me purpose, and that is an awesome thing! I just wonder if I take on too much. Either way, I've got what I have, and I'm finishing it (remember those spinning plates? Yeah, I have a lot of them in the air right now).

Spinning Wheels

Today, I did something that I have said I would do for a long time: I rode my bike with a group of friends from my school to a Whole Foods downtown (That's about 13 miles, 4 of which were offroad). They do this every week. I've never been so aware of my nether regions than those four miles of offroad...it was pretty painful. Though, my wonderful friend, Bethany let me use her bike (which was super nice and had a lovely, squishy seat) during the particularly tricky bits.
The trip was actually really glorious (though my butt is still pretty sensitive). We road down a few major streets, but mostly kept to backroads. There was an awesome little park that we rode through, that had a sweet, little trail and a bridge. It was really great timing too, because the park's beauty in comparison to the concrete streets made me forget about my aching bottom.
I wish I had pictures of the ride (maybe I'll take some next week), but it really was quite glorious. I plan to go every week now, because I had a huge amount of fun! This is going to be a pretty short post because I have only gotten ten hours of sleep over the past two days, so I'm basically going to leave it at that.
But first, knitters...I got my Knitpicks interchangables set today...life is complete!

Thing to be grateful for today: Squishy bike seats.

Kitchen Wars

Yesterday, my mother and I engaged in our annual battle over the kitchen as we prepared for my birthday party. My task: Make the cake. Her's: Make everything else (My mother can't bake, and I really enjoy it).
The battlefield:



My weapons (This year's cake was too be a superfudge cake with cream cheese frosting):



Blood was shed. Nails were broken:



My mother and I had several disputes about what was good baking and what wasn't (she did get me to agree that using a toaster to soften butter was not a very intelligent idea).
Here's an action shot of me splitting an egg:



Now, those of you who did not witness my cake last year, you will not understand why this battle is important. I do not have photographic documentation of last year's cake, but if I were to try and assign three words to describe it they would be: Gray, molten, and blobby. These words do not a good cake make, so this year I was bound and determined to prove my skills as a baker. Now, everything seemed to be going peachy keen (I got the layers baked beautifully, despite slight burning around the edges of two):



I even turned them out well:



And the icing looked delicious!



But then...DISASTER!
In my confidence I became careless, and placed the second layer of the cake on top of the first without any icing placed between them! Realizing my mistake, I made an attempt to rectify it by removing the second layer:


(Yes, I love you all enough to put a picture of myself in a bathrobe on the blog)

But alas, these efforts were for naught, as the layer began to brake apart...I was not pleased:



This was not my proudest moment.

Upon realizing the hopelessness of it all, I simply iced the cake, leaving the space between the first two layers uniced.



It was DELICIOUS! Victory was mine, and joy was had by all (except for the people who didn't get cake because the slices were too large, which was NOT my fault because I did NOT cut the thing!).

I got so many gifts, but I think that my friend Bethany got me what was by far the cleverest gift, and the one you will all appreciate the most:




Thing to be grateful for today: My yarn fund jar, and all of the wonderful gifts I received, but most of all, all of the lovely people who came to wish me a happy birthday.