Working has, this week at least, taken over my blogging time. I haven't been able to keep up with the ones I read, nevermind the one I try to write in at least every couple of days. But the holiday season, for me and my employment, is over. My store is back in order, and looking pretty good I must say, and I can finally quit working 30-hour weeks in addition to being a house-wife. A homemaker. You know, those women that are purported to stay home and do nothing all day but magically the house stays neat and the dishes are done and laundry is kept up with and food is cooked? Yeah, that's me. 'Cept it doesn't all get done magically.

Anyway, I -have- been knitting. My first Red Scarf is nearly complete. I keep waffling about if I'm going to just use up the skein I'm using now, or stop the scarf as it is and send it. It's plenty long, but I think I don't want the extra yarn hanging around. I dunno. I also finished the back of my sweater, and started the front. And I'm knitting on my mystery shawl as well .. I've nearly finished a second pattern repeat, which I say is impressive since one repeat is 32-freaking-rows. I do intend on knitting some hats soon, but first things first, the scarves have to be mailed in two weeks. Then I can start the hats.

I do have to say thank you to Kristi for her post about how to use a nostepinne. I bought Jason one for Christmas, mainly because he likes the word, but neither he nor I know how to use one. Now we can try it out on one of his own handspun hanks of pretty yarn!

Here's an amusement for me while I wait for Burning Crusade to hurry up and release already. (I got to see the collectors edition as merch staff checked in todays shipment. One of them -will- be mine .. just as soon as Tuesday gets here. *sigh*)

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Eminence the Very Viscountess Tania the Waspish of Frome Valley Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

The day before the Day Before Christmas

I've gotta say, first of all, I'm loving the knew new Blogger. I was able to easily add link lists, and have been playing around with it in other ways, and I didn't even have to lose my rings this time. Fan-fucking-tastic! I'm not yet finished I don't think, but I'm close. I'd like to see a three column template available though .. I do better with threes.

Work has, for the most part, slowed down. I've got to work tomorrow, Christmas Eve, but it'll be in the morning, and then it'll be over, and it's money, dontchaknow. Besides, I've got to pick something up for Johnny, and Miss Neely asked me to buy something for her to give to her sort-of ex-husband. She is, of course, paying me back, but since I work there and all, why don't I just make her not have to leave the house. *growl* Ahh, friends, how I love them.

I've almost finished the Booga bag for Brandon's momma. Just have to knit and felt the strap, but the body is done. It's all ratty looking though, so I need to take a sweater stone to it or something .. it's got pills everywhere cos it got out of the pillowcase in the water, and I'm a bit miffed at that. Other than that though, it's looking good, and should have enough size to it for her, once I get a good strap on it. The plan is, to fill the bag with tissue paper and have it look like a gift bag .. maybe she won't realize it's part of the present!

It's cloudy and dreary today, and were it colder I might think it looked like snow. But since I can probably walk out in shorts it's so mild, I don't think we'll get so lucky. Nope, no white christmas for us down here. But that's okay.




Well, I've -got- to get going. I have a 6' I-cord to knit, and pictures to print at CVS, and other such fun things. At least that's the -only- thing I have to go out for today. Everything else is -done-. My tree is drowning in gifts this year, and not everything is there. Jason apparently has gifts hiding in the back bedroom, unwrapped. If I weren't such a good wife, I'd already know what they are. Damn me! I'll return and post pictures of the tree once everything I can wrap is wrapped .. that way I can start loading them in the car, since we head to Brandon's tomorrow after I work and we run out to bring a gift to Mardell, the woman I went to the church concert with momma with.

Speaking of moms, my mom sent Jason and I gift cards to Best Buy, so I can buy my PS2 and he can get his stereo to be able to use the XM I bought for his birthday. She also sent us little spoon lapel pins, because she sometimes doesn't have enough spoons. You can go here to learn more about the 'spoon theory'. Mom has given us a couple of spoons to hold in reserve for her, just in case, and it's making me cry right now just to think about it. Please, read the article at least, and think about someone you know with a chronic illness, and just imagine for one day what it's like to live life with a limited amount of spoons.

*flop*

Yes. It's 5am. Yes, I'm wide-f*ing-awake at 5am. No, I don't have any earthly idea why. Nor do I have a clue why I had to log in to stupid Blogger this morning, when I've had myself logged in for-freaking-ever. Stupid Blogger.

I hate that I haven't had a lot of knitting to report on. While the yarn arrived for my friends Candle Flame shawl, I haven't had time to go to the LYS to turn my hanks of deliciously yummy-soft Grape Hyacinth KnitPicks Shimmer into useable balls, so I can't get started on that yet. And the next few days are absolutely awful in the getting-anything-done-other-than-work department. Tomorrow I have to go to Monroe (an hour away) to help with a reset .. this -after- learning that they want me to lose 1 shelf in each of my -5- brand centers ... which I don't have enough room for in the first place in my tiny store. Said reset is supposed to last .. 5 hours or so. Whee. Then I have to go to my own store and work another 1.5 hours. Oh wait, lets add that up. 2 hours of driving. 6.5 hours working. Yes folks, I have to work 8.5-f*ing hours on Sunday. Go me. *flop*

Oh, yeah. And lets not forget that I then have to work 3.5 hours Monday .. which wouldn't be bad had I not worked 8.5-f*ing-hours the day before, most of which doing heavy labor. And then on Tuesday, I have two 4-hour calls, one in Pineville which is 30 minutes away.. So that's 9 hours of work. Oh yes. And the following Sunday I have yet -another- reflow to work. In Gastonia. And I still need to deal with my store having inventory that day. And need to find out if I can avoid having the stupid changes done to my brand centers. Because I can't even do that until after their inventory .. if I can even do it then. I've -got- to talk to Donna.

Need I remind you that this is a part-time job.

Let it not be said I am complaining about the paycheck this will result it. I'm not complaining about that. But my body is already wore-out from resetting my own store .. like, done-wore-out. My calves have been sore and clenchy for the last week-and-a-half. (Yes, clenchy is now a word, spellchecker. It means they feel like someone has their hands clenched over them tightly. Fun.) And -nothing- I do has managed to ease that soreness. I walk 2 hours a night, almost every night. I eat well. I take vitamins. I drink lots and lots of water. And I -still- hurt. And it's making me very irritable.

I am however consoling myself in the thought that I just had a $250 paycheck, and this next one should be in the $450 range. My car payment is $380, which means I have about $300 already to put towards our Asheville trip for SAFF. And another check after that one, which I can't even begin to calculate the hours for, so I'm not trying. Of course, I will be working -double- calls the whole week prior to that week, so we'll see how I'm doing -after- that. I need to find out how she wants me to be absorbing the drive time for all this shit.

I'm awake and hungry, and dammit, I just realized I planned a wonderful breakfast home tomorrow with my husband and Brandon, only to remember I won't fucking be here. Oh no, I'll be gone all fucking day. I've got to stop taking these extra hours. I think I'm going to mail Donna and see if I can get out of working the Gastonia reset. I have no time to see Jason this week at all, with all the extra hours I'm taking, and I don't want to start next week that way too.

She lives!

I'm playing a bit of catchup today. I've been busy busy busy, and not wanting to really look at a computer much beyond what had to be done to get things settled for my classes. Now that things have settled down, and I've got myself in a better rhythm with work and class and house, I can find some time to sit, breathe, knit and blog again.

So. School is a bit stressful .. because I'm missing the labs for my astronomy class and the damned bookstore is 3 hours away, and WON'T PICK UP THE GODDAMN PHONE!!! So I can't call and say 'Hey, please send me those, here's my money' .. because they won't answer the freaking phone!!! Grrrr! Other than that though, school's fine. I'm settling into a routine, though I have this bad habit of getting ahead, so I'm trying to force myself to slow down.

That's something my boss at Mosaic complains about too. She's terrified that I'm going to finish college in 4 months and go and get a real job. Silly woman. I love Donna though. She's the best. And raves about me, apparently. I love her. She's a riot, so I think it's going to work out to be a great job. I honestly think I take it way more seriously than some do, having been to another store recently to cover, and finding it trashed. Lord, did that drive me crazy. But I got my first paycheck, so I feel like I'm actually working now. And next paycheck should be even better, as I have extra hours and such from last week. So I'm looking at first getting a few books I've been coveting for a while. The Mason Dixon one for sure .. and maybe one or two more.

I've a few knitting things going on, but no pictures yet. I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL, and had a blast with the mid-month cloth, so much that I want to make a bunch of them. I'm frogging the blanket square I had tried to make and am going to redo it as a log-cabin. Because I dislike plain garter stitch though, I'm thinking of working it in seed stitch. We'll see how that looks. I also need to finish some things for the friend that's having a baby any day now. Like, she's 3 days over-due. And boy, is she getting anxious about it. I want to make her another towel, I think, and maybe some more washcloths. And beyond that, maybe some burp-cloths and bibs, once I have the Mason Dixon book, and a kimono or three, since I've heard they're cute as can be.

Wow. I was -way- behind in reading blogs. I'm caught up mostly now though. Phew. Time to try the damn bookstore -again-, and then read some of the god-awful-boring book for Western Civ. *groans* Book test on it the 15th. And we -both- need to finish reading it before then. Yuck.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Not a lot of knitting progress to report on, though I've been steadily working a little along on my Promenade bag.

After getting home much late Saturday night and sleeping much late on Sunday (why, because we could of course!), we still managed to go walking not once but twice with Momma and Diddy, for a total of, I'd say, 3 miles. If not exactly, close to it. And we discovered a new park that Brandon and I might do well walking at, cos it's flatter than Cherry Park. It surrounds a bunch of baseball and softball fields, so it kinda has to be flat, y'know?

Monday honey had to work, and I spent the day puttering around the house. I'd let him take the car because I was sore and exhausted from the walks the day before, but about halfway through the day I was stir crazy, wanting to get out of the house. I made soup .. minestrone, yum! .. and got some cleaning done, but I was so happy when he got home. It rained too, which was nice. We've been needing the rain. It rained Sunday too, so that'll certainly help the grass that's about brittle it's so dry.

Tuesday was his day off, and we enjoyed a rather lazy day, but did go walking with momma. Through all of this, I've been waiting to hear from Donna, my boss at Mosaic, so I could get started with my training. They'd been waiting for a couple of courthouses to return my background check. Well, Tuesday she called her manager and they pushed everything through. While we were on our walk she called me, and I made plans to call her to get started with the training. Not that I hadn't already explored the website and knew what I needed to do, but I wanted to let her get me started. And besides, the training was supposed to be 5 hours, so I didn't want to do it that day, when I was doing a ton of running around and stuff.

Yesterday I called her in the morning, and started my training online at around 9:30. By 11:30, I called her to ask if she wanted me to do the Exact training also. She wants to cross train me for that program too, so I can handle both sections of the store I presume. She was surprised and impressed that I was already done .. but didn't want me to do the music program yet. She thought it would be too much to take in all at once. Which I don't necessarily agree with, as I already proved my retention by taking the training in less than -half- the time given. But .. eh.

So Monday and Wednesday I will be training in the store with her trainer, I think 5 hours a day is what it'll be. Might be less though, and I hope it is. That's a long time to be on my feet when I'm not used to it. And then Friday, I'm on my own. It's been a long time coming, this job, but I think it's going to work out to be a wonderful thing. Jason likes to say I'll have Donna's job in a few years .. and who knows?

In addition to the new job though, we're also beginning classes this semester at Piedmont Technical College. We're both, I believe, going for our Associates in Arts, in preparation for our Bachelors degrees. I might decide to go for a business degree, but I haven't decided just yet. Either way, I could easily transfer in, but I'm thinking that starting with the Associates in Arts might give me a broader (more broad?) base of coursework to carry with me. Classes start on August 23rd, so I'm hoping that we get finished soon. Jason's got to take the COMPASS test to place in Math, and I'm waiting on my transcripts to be looked over. Waiting impatiently, I might add.

Jason's aunt Kathy passed away yesterday. She had suffered for a few years with Parkinson's Disease, and a rather aggressive form of it too. She was healthy, vivacious and alive at our wedding 5 years ago (OH GOD! Our 5 year anniversary is in a WEEK!) and when we last went to see her in May or June, she could barely speak, and it felt to me like she was a living person trapped in a cocoon, desperate to break free. Well, Wednesday around noon, she finally slipped out of the cocoon that had trapped her, and may now live free of the disease that had attacked her so violently. I'm happy for her. I cannot imagine she had any quality of life as she had been living. But her family .. she has three grown children all around Jason's age or younger .. is fractured as it is, with one having joined a cult .. no, really. A cult. And another a pothead, and the other just cracked. They're all lashing out at their aunts and uncles now, and it's very sad to see. I hope for some peace to come to them. I know it cannot be easy to lose their mother so young, but they had to realize Kathy was suffering.

*sigh*

Anyway, I'm waiting to hear from Carmencita, who's coming in to Rock Hill today to talk to a mortgage company, and is planning to come over afterward. I've not seen her in forever, so it'll be nice to have her around. I've also got to go to Wal*Mart tonight before I pick Jason up, but that's not until 9pm, so I'll have plenty of time. It's so hot right now anyway, I'm kinda glad I have something to keep me busy until it gets later and the sun won't be nearly as strong. It's awful here still, and I cannot wait for Autumn.

Today: Scattered thunderstorms. High near 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Tonight: Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy early. Scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 91F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Tomorrow night: Scattered thunderstorms. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.

Saturday: Showers, maybe a rumble of thunder. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the mid 60s.
Sunday: A few clouds. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s.

Monday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s.
Tuesday: Plenty of sun. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the low 70s.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the low 70s.

Good News - Not Knitting

As you probably know, I have been jobless since February of 2005. At the time, I was very happy about it, but lately .. in the last six months of so, I've been getting anxious. I know that until Jason gets through another year or so in the car business, money might be iffy at times .. because it's the car business, and it's often shitty like that. So I've been trying to find something part time, that'll pay for my car and maybe give me a little spending money ..

.. but nothing has been going well. Even the grocery store I applied at didn't want me, and it had been getting very disheartening. It's hard being told you're not even good enough to work at a grocery store for Lady's sake. So when Jason sent a posting to me last week .. wait .. 4 days ago actually ... I wasn't very hopeful, but I sent in my resume anyway. Yesterday, I got a phone call from one of the company's recruiters, saying that I had the qualifications and he wanted to have the District Manager call me. So I waited for her to call .. and when she finally did I was very happy. We arranged an interview for today, and the usual anticipation and nerves began.

I was late .. only a couple minutes but still late .. for the interview, but luckily it was understandable, as I was driving in an unfamiliar area, and she didn't seem troubled by it. The interview went well, I thought. I was personable, charming, and not too needy. And to be honest, the job is something I actually enjoy, merchandising, so I appeared interested .. because I am. So we filled out the paperwork (I-9's and W-2's and such) she'd need to get done and she gave me the form for the drug test I'll have to take, and told me she'd be mulling things over on the way home, and that I'd know by tonight.

So then, I drove home and began the arduous wait for 'the phone call'. I tried not fretting about it, but I hate getting my heart set on a job only to not get it. It's hard for me. 5pm came around and I started getting anxious. But I knew she had a bit of a drive, and I tried to not think about it. I finished my Booga bag I knitted, and started working on Brandon's Booga. Jason's dad called to find out how the interview went at 6:15 pm, and then three minutes later, the district manager called .. offering me the job!!!!

Yes, that's correct, I got the job. It's permanent part time, 12-15 hours a week, working Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, no more than 4 hours a day in the local Best Buy store, handling their DVD department. My title is Merchandising Specialist. basically, I make sure the DVD department and any other displays in the store are arranged according to plan, and that stock is kept on the floor as it should be, and keep track of the ordering and such. I have to have a weekly conference call to discuss the weeks focus and challenges, and a weekly review of the plan on the company website and a quiz on said site. And I get paid for my mileage if I end up covering another store other than my own. I already know that coming up in September I'll have two projects coming up that will be more than the usual hours, which will be nice for money too.

It will be nice to have something to do. Nice to have something going on in my life other than .. well .. lounging around the house. It's no more than 4 hours on any given day, which means I can easily keep the house still .. and with Jason's change in schedule, it'll be nice because I am flexible in the time I need to go in.

So tonight I filled out the online paperwork I needed to get done, and now I wait for them to get me my employee number, and then I can go take my pee test, and then I wait some more, but only for them to send me my shirt, and my little inventory gadget, and my nametag and such. Then I get some online training, and then 2 days of in-store training, and then I'm on my own!