Horrible

I'm the worst sort of person. Here's what I gave my non-knitting sister-in-law for Christmas:

If you wish hard enough they'll become those socks you wanted!

My brother got a card. There was an apology inside for not having finished his tie. There was no yarn because I haven't found some yet (anyone know of a good variegated black/grey sock yarn?). There was no pattern because my printer has decided it's done playing nicely with the ink cartridges. This is the first year that I haven't finished my Christmas knitting on time. Of course I had a lot more to do this year but still...it tastes a little like failure.

In other crazy pants news: Last night when I came home (late) from my parent's house I noticed my downstairs neighbors had a candle burning on their patio. I was a little concerned because it was pretty close to the vinyl siding wall but they had Christmas lights on so I figured that they would come out and blow out the candle in a little bit. I came inside and did some stuff around the apartment and I kept thinking about the candle. I don't want my stuff burning down because some idiot left a Christmas decoration burning on their porch all night. So, I went downstairs to see if they had blown it out (P.S. It was after midnight at this point). They had not. Then I realized I was going to have to take action. So I go and get a cup of water, sneak down to the front of their porch, lean over as far as I can, then chuck the water in the direction of the candle. Success! Candle goes out, no siding was melted, the complex was saved. Now I just have monitor their porch to make sure they don't do it again.

Almost a Scrooge

This year I was almost a Scrooge. I almost didn't decorate for Christmas or put up any sort of tree. A few weeks ago I decorated my porch with lights (through the aid of a glass of wine). Today I put up a Christmas tree. Sort of.

It's 2 feet tall with fiber optic lights. But I did decorate it. If you consider Charlie Brown's pitiful branch to be a tree then mine is ballin'!

I have some little retro Christmas ornaments that were just perfect for decorating my tree with. There's all the holiday classics:

A gingerbread bear addressed to Nancy from Bobbie from Christmas of '87 (whoever those people are, not anyone in my family that's for sure).

The Christmas wishing well (what?).

This psydo Russian chap on a sled with only one arm.

The Noel...um, light post? street sign? water tower? next to the Christmas tree.

The slightly creepy clown/snowman/elf riding a cork rocking horse.

And everybody's favorite: Frosty the Janitor Snowman!
Please note that I also decorated the tree with some festive old school cranberry type garland. It really adds to the nostalgia.

The tree is on top of the t.v. stand/chest. I did find my Peruvian nativity set which I put out beside my Cabbage Patch kids Christmas set.

The Hispanic Jesus and '80s consumerism together at last!

The whole Christmas set up looks like this:

Tree, tree-smelling candle for that authentic "I Just Cut This Baby Down Myself" tree smell, lighter (for lighting candle), dragon shaped incense burner, Peruvian nativity, and Cabbage Patch kids (P.S. If they ever start putting those things in Happy Meals again I'm going to tear it up.).

Merry Christmas everyone! Only 8 more knitting days until Christmas! Oh crap....

Amazement

For the last three days I have done something that will astound and amaze you. Perhaps even to the point of calling me a liar. Yes, what I have done for the last three days is something rarely seen in these parts and rarely even heard of. My friends, I have been relaxing.

Yes, I know. It's hard to believe.

I have been sleeping late. I have not been working for 12+ hours every day. I haven't touched anything remotely graduate school related until this evening (and then I only spent about 3 or 4 hours on it as compared to my usual 6 or 7). No, I have done nothing and it's been amazing.

I will have to go back to the daily grind soon but I felt that this hiatus in chaos must be shared.

I have only done things I enjoy. Like finishing some Christmas presents.

Basic dishcloths.

And indulging in some geeky reading.

Honestly, I can't get enough of magazines like this. I'm a dork and I know it.

I have been taking some time to breathe and get myself right mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It will all be over far too quickly but, in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy myself.

Tough

Sometimes life is tough. Really tough. This week has been one of those weeks for me. On Tuesday I went to the doctor for my ankle which was still swollen and still had a limited range of motion. My general practice physician wasn't especially helpful. She told me it might be this or it might be that and that I might want to stay off it for a few days or ice it three times a day or get better shoes and I could get x-rays if I wanted. I was frustrated when I left so I called the podiatrist whose office was right next door. I got an appointment but not until 3 hours later. And I was on the other side of town from my house and there was morning traffic. I went to Michael's craft store thinking I could at least look for yarn for my brother's Christmas gift and found they didn't open until 9 (it was about 8:15). So instead of shopping I pulled over next to a little median in the parking lot and slept for an hour. Then I checked my email and updated Facebook on my phone and headed back to the doctor's. This time I was able to at least get a little more information. The podiatrist is pretty sure I have tendentious in my ankle and that all the walking last week aggravated it. He took x-rays and it's not broken or fractured so that's good. Then he put me in a walking boot for a week to help keep the ankle stable and hopefully get it to heal faster.

If the swelling and pain aren't better in a week then I may have to get an MRI. After leaving his office I was in a terrible funk. Podiatrists are expensive and I don't have that kind of money right now. Finances have always been a huge issue for me. I let my money woes rule my thought life way too much. When I got home I had to take a real hard look at my bank accounts and I realized that the situation was not good. Then I had to make some tough decisions. I spent this morning applying for more part time jobs. Not something I wanted to do since I already have 20 hours of school work and 20 hours of nannying on my plate right now. But it had to be done. I also have started to contemplate the idea of a roommate. This has really not been pleasant for me to think about. I moved 18 months ago so that I could fit all of my stuff comfortably in one apartment. I needed space to run my business and my charity and I couldn't do that effectively in my one bedroom apartment. I have finally gotten my office to the place I want it to be and now I'm having to think about living and working out of here.

This is my stash wall and in front of that are donations. Yes, all those boxes and bags are donations. And this happens quite frequently.

This is my desk, winding station, and shipping center.

 Dyed yarn storage on the left and more yarn and donations on the right.

My light box and misc. office supplies.

Now try to picture a bed, dresser, and chest of drawers in there as well. Yeah, tight squeeze. I don't want to have to do it but it may come to that. Today I also found out that the internship site I wanted for the spring has a very high chance of not working out. I can videochat with the head of internship department but I just don't know if it's worth wasting any more time over. I've contacted two more possible sites and now I'm waiting to hear back from them. This leaves me with about 4 weeks to find a site, fill out 30 pages of paperwork, and have it submitted to the school. On top of all this I still haven't raised enough money for my trip to Romania at the end of December and my computer sporadically runs slow and gets super glitchy. Forgive me if I seem whiny. I try to make all my decisions based on faith (I say try because I'm only human and sometimes I don't make the right choice) and I really feel like I did the right thing by leaving my full time job but that hasn't made things any easier. On the plus side, Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It seems like at least once a week I meet someone with a connection to Eastern Europe or Russia that has helped me further the work we are doing. I keep getting donations weekly and people are already excited for the knit alongs and crochet alongs we will be doing on Ravelry next year. So I know that being able to spend more time on EEROP was a step in the right direction. It would be really nice if some other things started lining up as well. Needless to say I'm very much looking forward to this weekend and spending some time with my family watching football. It doesn't seem like much but I think it will be a nice distraction from a rather crappy week.