Words, words, words...

Suffice to say, the audition trip was interesting and it was nice to get to know the two guys I went with better (800+ miles of driving will do that), but I would rather have been home. Still, I did get to meet up with some old friends, which was nice. We also caught the last approximately two minutes of the Super Bowl at a sports bar full of Giants fans, which was fun. The TeddieCat also apparently found a new girlfriend while I was away. Although he's ran and hid from every other cat sitter I've had, he likes Chrissy. She's the only person I've ever heard use the terms "snuggly" and "lovebug" to describe my cat. Weird animal.

I didn't get much knitting done, in fact, I ended up frogging the toe of the second Wendelin sock after I realized that I'd somehow ended up with several stitches on the wrong needle and had been happily increasing about five stitches from where I should have been. I did get several more repeats done on the Drop Stitch Scarf, even though it's kind of gotten into that weird twilight zone of scarves where you can do five million pattern repeats and the scarf only grows about half an inch. I'm going to try to at least finish the first sleeve of the sweater this weekend and hopefully get a decent start on the second one as well.

Class stuff behind the cut. Man, I miss three days of class and I get "Oh good, are you back for a while now?" Most people don't even come to class two days in a week. I miss three days and it's assumed that I've abandoned the school. Luckily, Ma'am was kind enough to work with me on my new form after tkd Wednesday night. I need it. I always say that when I start learning a new form, and actually this one isn't too bad. Nothing too tricksy or difficult in it. I just don't have the memorization down yet. I will have to work on it over the weekend so I can start working on cleaning it next week.

I have gotten a lot of comments and cracks lately about how many classes I take, or how tough or aggressive I am/must be. I get it from lots of people online and irl, and even the instructors. I'm not trying to be tough or aggressive or show off. I just enjoy being there, I want to learn as much as I can, and I know that in a few weeks, just when my training is going to intensify for black belt, I'll only be able to come once a week. At this point in my life, I'm physically capable of handling the classload. So what's the big deal? And what's the point of training if you're going to half-ass it while you're there? I think Sir kind of gets my frustration. Whenever he hears those comments, he catches my eye, smiles and shakes his head. Of course, he and his wife both make their living doing all of these classes and more every day, so I'm sure they've gotten those comments most of their training lives, too. I was rather grateful when Ma'am said that if Sir really thought Weapons class would help me, he would tell me to get my butt out there, though, since I'm really not interested in weapons much (ssahng naghts are the weapon of choice this unit, ugh!) and technically don't have to deal with them until after I get my black belt.

Tonight's FIGHT class was interesting. We've had a bunch of new people join class lately, but tonight we had a guy who is teaching English in Taiwan join us as he was passing through town. Afterwards, he took a picture of the dojahng and the class to show his students when he goes back to Taiwan. Ma'am and Mrs. S stayed for a while and talked to a new girl who seemed to be interested in the class. They warned her that many girls don't like FIGHT because it gets too rough and it's mostly guys, but that I came whenever I could, and the only reasons the two of them weren't doing it were injury (Ma'am's knee is still messed up) and Baby S. The regular guys know how and when to dial it back if they need to. F clipped me with an uppercut elbow to the chin tonight, and he is a big guy, about my height and probably twice my width and I'm sure has a good hundred pounds on me (trying to move him is like trying to move a brick wall). It honestly did not hurt at all, although he was absolutely horrified that he hit a girl. It earned both of us a good five minutes of teasing from the rest of the guys and from the peanut gallery. I don't know if that helped make up the girl's mind one way or the other, but we had fun =) The guys take care of me, but also respect that I'm there to learn to take care of myself. Oh, and I learned two things tonight: P, an older guy who's been doing FIGHT for quite a while, takes no prisoners during knife sparring - he goes straight for the throat and I'd be dead about fifty times if we used real knives - and S, the tall guy who's been coming for about two months now, has a degree in archaeology. How random is that?

A little bit of work, kickboxing, sparring, and pizza tomorrow, then Othello opens Saturday night! I've seen bits and pieces of it this week as they continue into dress rehearsals, but it will be interesting to see the whole thing put together. I think it will be over three hours long with intermission, though! (Is it weird that I can watch Othello break Desdemona's neck and think, "I know they're doing it that way for stage combat/safety reasons, but you'd never break someone's neck like that!"? I think it might be, a little.)

And, Mr. R during a round kick/side kick drill at the very end of tkd class Wednesday (we were supposed to be alternating mid-range round kicks with low side kicks):
"Aw, ma'am, the workout comes from changing the height of the kicks!"
"Um, at this point, I'm not really sure I need more of a workout."
"Sure you do. You're addicted, admit it."
"Addicted, maybe. Not sadistic." (Which, I realized later is the wrong word, should have said masochistic, but the assonance and trying to concentrate on the drill got to me. Although I'm not sadistic either.)
[To my partner]"Don't believe her!"

Feelin Like An Idiot

I leave on this audition tour tomorrow late morning. A normal, sane, sensible person would be all packed and have her apartment clean so that the person checking on her kitty will not be horrified to walk into the room. I'm definitely not normal, my sanity has been questioned several times, but I'm usually fairly sensible. Two out of three ain't bad. I was planning on doing that tonight, once I got home from class. Tonight was an unexpected triple class, though, plus staying a little longer talking with Sir and Mr. R, and I'm freakin' tired. So now I'm pondering if I want to do it all tonight like I should or crash now and get up early. Or maybe I'll clean tonight and pack in the morning. Something like that.

On the plus side, I'm on the last third of the first Boatneck Bluebell sleeve. I'm not going to take it, though. I'm going to take the second Wendelin sock, Tumbling Blocks, and the Drop Stitch scarf. I'll try to get progress pics up soon. I'm going to need something to do while I'm gone - the hotel has wifi, and a gym, pool, and spa, but even I can only work out so much...

The Road to Black Belt behind the cut.

So I talked to Mrs. S, Mr. R, and Sir tonight about what I'll be doing the next several testing cycles. The only recommended belt the adults do is first dan recommended, so I have three belts left. I'll do Choong Jung 2 (which I started learning tonight) for my red belt, In Wha 2 (the blue belt form that I skipped) for my first dan recommended, then do Choong Jung 2 again and a random color belt form for first dan decided. Apparently, the random form is usually either Songham 1, 2, or 3, but Mr. R warned me that since I'm in instructor class and by that point in time we'll have gone through all the color belt forms in class, it could be anything from Songham 1 clear through Choong Jung 1 (the brown belt form I just tested on). And I may or may not get warned in advance which one it will be. Of course, all sparring, breaking, and conditioning tests also apply. My next break will be a reverse side kick, which is awesome, not sure what the recommended belt break will be, and then Sir wants me to do a round kick and reverse side kick combo for my black belt breaks. Honestly, it doesn't sound like its going to be too bad. Just a LOT of poomsae work and memorization and cleaning and re-memorization and re-cleaning! For this weekend while I'm gone, I'm supposed to work on hook kicks (regular, reverse, and spin), memorizing what I learned tonight of Choong Jung 2, and working on some of the color belt forms and one-steps.
The most encouraging and most nerve-wracking comment I got tonight was from Mr. R. "Just remember, your black belt is [Sir]'s before it's yours, and he has it already. Oh yeah, it's here, embroidered with your name and everything already. He's just waiting for you to earn it."

Three Classes = Three Beers, right?

Testing and tkd stuff behind the cut. No pics, though, sadly. Camera battery died on me.

The FIGHT guys and I have taken to hanging out for a while after class, and on Thursday, Sir was teasing me about my schedule for the next day. I told him I was thinking about ducking out of kickboxing to make sure I would be good for sparring, but it would depend on how hard he worked me during testing. He replied with "Hmm, good point. Skip kickboxing!" which was not exactly the most comforting thing I've ever heard.

Yesterday was indeed testing, then kickboxing, then sparring, all back-to-back. (Mrs. S threatened to have me test after sparring, which would have been insane!) It was HARD. I tested with one other kid, and Sir worked us. Form demonstration, full contact sparring against each other, board break (got it on my second try, sigh), self-defense, no contact sparring against Sir, then four conditioning drills. I offered to be a cheerleader for kickboxing class after that, but Mrs. S would have none of it. (She's asked me to teach again next month when she goes to Vegas to test during Spring Nationals.) Sparring was insane; the kids were all hopped up about testing the next day and not really paying a lot of attention, and I was actually starting to get tired by that point for some strange reason. My ankle was pretty weak by the end of the day. Sir did brag about me a little, though - one of the new kickboxing ladies was teasing me about doing sparring on the same day, and he told her all the other classes I do when I can. I thought she was gonna fall over.

Afterwards, I helped Sir, Mrs. S, Ma'am, Mr. M, and Mr. R set up the dojahng for Saturday's testing (Baby S tried to help, too), and then we crashed at Klondike's for a while. While *I* think a salad, peanuts, three slices of pizza and a couple glasses of beer is more than enough, Sir and Mr. M threatened to attach a calorie meter on me to see how many calories I burn on a regular day with classes, and kept putting extra slices of pizza on my plate and refilling my beer glass (hence the post title). Mrs. S took Baby S home early, but the rest of us closed out the place.

The rest of the classes tested this morning. Although we had auditions today, I promised some of the kids I've gotten to know that I would try to come over on my lunch break to watch them. I didn't get to see any of the testing, but I did get to see them get their new belts, rescue Sasha (a lady from kickboxing class) from babysitting duty so she could go give her kids who were testing a hug (she had been watching Baby S during most of the testing, and he decided that the organic shake Aunt Katie was drinking for lunch was YUMMY!), and help clean up. I also got a lot of teasing because apparently I "look like a girl!" with non-sweaty makeup and non-workout clothes on. Smart alecks.

I do, however, have pics of a finished body on the Boatneck Bluebell!
I've got the next two days off work, plus Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and it would really be awesome to wear it during the SoCal audition tour I've gotten dragged into next week (Thursday through Tuesday). I love auditions, I really do, but the audition tour is NOT part of my job, I'm not getting paid any extra for it, and it's forcing me to miss four days of class AND a Super Bowl party. But they've decided that having an SM go out with them helps things stay organized (shocking), and it's Chrissy's tech weekend, so I'm the only experienced one left. I even offered to tech Othello for Chrissy, because she actually wants to go on the tour and hates tech, but they won't let us. But anyway, having a new sweater might help make it easier. So far, the only change I'd make is to do more rows between the bust and the waist ribbing to make the bodice just a little longer.

I'm going to have to talk to Sir about what to work on while I'm gone, though. In fact, I need to talk to him about what the rest of the road to black belt in general is going to look like. All I really know is that there are probably four more belts (red recommended - this one may or may not be required, red decided, first dan/degree recommended - a 1/2 red, 1/2 black belt, and first dan/degree decided - the actual black belt), but I've heard various conflicting things about time spans and requirements so I want to get that figured out so I have a clear mental path. I am thinking maybe this time next year I will get it!

Another FO!

Okay, so not exactly earth-shattering, but these finally got finished!

(playing with the timing feature on my camera. It didn't work out so well.)
(Forgive the sweatshirt. It's my "I'm hanging out at home/wear when I'm sick/need to just curl up in" sweatshirt. I stole it fair and square, and yes, it will be old enough to drive in June!) The second pic shows the colors better, but it's not a very good pic of the gloves. Anyway, they're Broad Street Mittens (sans the mitten flaps, I just don't like them) in STR Mediumweight, Seal Rock colorway. Anyway, I had these almost finished until my KP needle broke. I got a replacement this past Monday when I met up with Sam at knitting and got my part of the KnitPicks order. I finally got around to finishing them today. I have more than half of the skein leftover, so I might make a matching tam to wear in Solvang for the summer.

I've also been working more on this:

the start of the Boatneck Bluebell sweater. I took the pic around halftime of the first game today and worked on it for the rest of the games (until I got so excited by the end of the Giants/Packers game that I had to put knitting down for fear of accidentally stabbing myself). I'm almost halfway through the 27 rows of 2x2 rib now. It's going pretty well, if I do say so myself. I may go stark raving mad from the ribbing, though.

Other than that, my nose still hurts, but at least the Super Bowl will not be an eyesore. It's hard to complain about watching a game pitting Eli Manning vs. Tom Brady. (But Eli Manning is still cuter, Mom! Even if Tom Brady did cut his hair!)

Lessons Learned

Kickboxing went great. I got there pretty early and hung out with Mr. R for a while before class. My legs were too tired from last night to work on my jump kick, though. We only had about five ladies for class tonight, which is kind of a small group, but it was fun.

Sparring was good, too, except for Miss F doing a decent attempt at breaking my nose with a round kick. Luckily, she just caught my upper lip/lower nose instead of smashing the whole thing. Of course, it started bleeding, though, which got all the kids' attention. My immediate thought, sadly, was "I have an excuse to get out of class now," as the initial blow did a pretty good job of dropping me to my knees. My second thought was, "These kids are not going to see me quit because of a bloody nose. I have to get back out there." Most of them have seen me in kickboxing and just saw me teach kickboxing. They see me in sparring every week and some of them are scared of sparring. They're not going to learn from me that a bloody nose is something to be scared of. They are going to see that you can take a hit, clean yourself up, and go back to the fight. Even if I never teach another class of any kind, I am not going to teach anyone fear.

I am not too proud, however, to put ice on it and take some pain relievers when I get home ;) It's not broken, but it does hurt!

Success and Failure

Thank you everyone for your kind words on the afghan! (Mom, it's NOT for you! He needs the decor more than you do - you'll just have to visit him AND the afghan! =) ) Now I have to figure out what to do with the leftover yarn from it.

The rest of the knitting is kind of in various states. Most of my projects are mindless, and I'm so close on some of my projects. The fingerless gloves are almost done - I just need to pick up the stitches and knit the thumb. Ten rounds left, and yet it sits in its bag. I've been working more on MS3, the Drop Stitch Scarf, and another Chunky Diagonal Afghan that I started over the summer. I finished the raglan increases for my size for the Boatneck Bluebell sweater, but I don't think the yoke is long enough. I might have to do a few more. It's on scrap yarn right now from trying it on.

I once again failed to break my board with the jump side kick tonight. Argh! It's mostly a mental block. I KNOW it's a mental block. But it's still a problem. I'm going to go in early tomorrow and see if I can sweettalk Mr. R into helping me with it before I teach (gulp!) kickboxing. Despite my apparently woeful board breaking ability, Sir had me start working with double bahng mahng ees last night in instructor training. It was obviously review for the rest of the class, but the first time I'd done any weaponwork for a tkd class. ("Um, Sir, I've never done these." "I know. You're starting now." He says it's in case someone has to take a class on short notice, which makes sense, but doesn't make me feel any more comfortable.) I like the bahng mahng ees, a lot more than I thought I would. We just did basic warmups and drills with them, though. I'm not looking forward to the ssahng jeol bahngs, though.

Morgan, Zach's brother, taught FIGHT tonight, and it was a lot of fun. We did knife sparring, a knife defense, and a gun defense. Quote of the night (after me disarming Shane - a newer guy): "Dude, she won. You're dead." It's always fun to be the only girl ;)

First FO of 2008

Rambling Rows is done! Well, it would have been done on my lazy Sunday, except I got this far:
and ran out of yarn. At 9:12p, twelve minutes after the local Michaels closed. Can we say, "Grrr!"? So I had to wait until yesterday to get the yarn and finish the knitting, then last night I finished weaving in the ends and washed it. I'm still not guaranteeing that I got all the cat hair off of it - Teddie is still madly in love with the thing - but it turned out a heck of a lot better than I thought it would.

Pattern specs:
Name: Ramblng Rows Afghan
Designer: Carol Anderson of Cottage Creations (can't find a direct link)
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick 10 skeins Fisherman, 6 skeins each of Navy, Claret, and Pine, and 5 skeins of Butterscotch.
Needles: US 17 (KnitPicks Options)
Finished size: I have no idea what the actual final measurements are - my tape measure is currently in the office from helping tape out a floor - but that's a queen-sized bed it's draped on in the finished photo, so I'm going to go with size Pretty Darn Big.
Notes: I did the baby blanket size stitch counts with the Thick & Quick and large needles, and it turned out smashingly huge. Perfect for a 6'5" guy (we're all petite flowers in my family - it's those delicate Scandinavian genes, you know). Picking up the stitches along the knitted edges was easy as pie, but picking up stitches along the cast-on edges didn't always work out so well and puckered sometimes. I tried a couple different COs when I started, and had the same problem with all of them. I'm not quite sure how to deal with it. I also decided not to put a border on it; I don't think it needs one.

Anyway, that's going to the post office tomorrow. Other than that, not a lot going so far this week, thank goodness. I did actually get to go to knitting Monday morning. If the world ends soon, it's because Kim and I actually were able to come to the same knitting morning! It was so nice to see everyone again! Work is back down to just regular office stuff and meetings, with possibly an audition tour in a few weeks, until Godspell starts rehearsal in March. We're still trying to figure out intern assignments, but that's really our only major conundrum right now.

I rolled my ankle again on that $%^@ jump side kick board break. Mrs. S and Ma'am taught class last night, and Mrs. S wouldn't let me try the break again, even though my ankle didn't hurt. She told me it wasn't worth it, and made me do the break with just a regular #3 side kick, which I can do in my sleep. The bruise on my palm heel from holding the boards for everyone else hurts more (bad enough that I couldn't do the medicine ball pushups in FIGHT tonight, which sucked). What hurts the most, actually, is that once again, I couldn't do the board break correctly. I did it Just Fine last week with Sir and Mr. R. This is SO frustrating! I didn't get a chance to talk to Sir about it tonight but I'm definitely going to try to talk to him tomorrow. I'm already going in early to talk to Mrs. S about kickboxing, since she's asked me to cover class on Friday for her.

So tomorrow is all meetings, paperwork, learning to teach, and most likely a lot of jump side kick drills. And I wouldn't want it any other way =)

Nothing Like Hitting the Ground Running...

This week in review:

Monday
Last blissful day of vacation. Finally succeed in completely cleaning the apartment and getting everything organized and put away. Two classes. Work on Rambling Rows, MS3, and the Dropped Lace Stitch Scarf kit that I finally broke down and cast on over the weekend. I'm simply in love with Mountain Colors Twizzle right now - it's sooo wonderful to work with!

Tuesday
PCPA starts back up. 8:15a meeting with Chrissy to decide how on earth we're going to handle the day. 9:00a company meeting and meet new interns. 10:00a-4:30p student auditions. 6:00p-11:00p callbacks. No class. No knitting.

Wednesday
11:00a-9:00p more callbacks. 9:00p-11:00p casting meeting. Find out I'm supposed to go to Long Beach with a recruiting tour on Saturday. No class (and it was supposed to be a triple day for me =( ). No knitting.

Thursday
Get up early for a 10:00a meeting that gets cancelled just as I get ready to walk out the door. 12:00p help Chrissy teach her ASMs how to set up a rehearsal room in time for Othello's first rehearsal. Attend design presentations. General office work, meetings, and more teaching of non-Othello interns. Two classes, get teased by Mr. R for having such a light week, and curse Zach to hell and back during Haganah for making us do three sets of thirty medicine ball tricep dips. (Yes, that would be NINETY dips. And I don't even want to count how many pushups I did that night between tkd and FIGHT. Despite this torture, he and Mr. R did a great job covering for Sir, who was out of town for a FIGHT conference in Florida. And in all fairness, Zach did give me the choice between the 12-lb ball and the 10-lb ball and it was my stubbornness that had me going for the heavier one.), then back to PCPA to help Chrissy's ASMs finish taping out their second rehearsal room until 11:30p or so. Get asked to come to Outreach rehearsal in the morning again. No knitting.

Friday
Get up early again for a 9:00a Outreach rehearsal. Wake up to discover my eyes are puffy, nose is stopped up, sinuses just plain hurt, and the only allergy meds I have left in my medicine cabinet will knock me out within about thirty minutes of taking them. Allergies suck. This is going to be a perfect day. 9:00a-12:00p Outreach rehearsal (very interesting). 1:00p-5:30p more office work, meetings, prepping for the recruiting tour, and more teaching of interns. Two classes: kickboxing and sparring back to back. Curse Zach again for the Thursday night tricep dips during our kickboxing dips and curse Mrs. S for a really nasty squat/side kick drill at the end of sparring class. (I swear, my shoulders and legs have not burned like that in a LONG time!) Am dragging by the end but revive a bit over pizza and beer with Ma'am, Mrs. S and baby, Knitting TKD Grandma, her grandson, and Ma'am's son. (Ma'am's son, who did FIGHT with me, shipped out last night for the Coast Guard. Please keep her son and her daughter, who is in the Navy, in your thoughts and prayers, please! And send peaceful thoughts Ma'am's way, as well!) Small crowd, and yet we still managed to be one of the last groups in the place. Get home, pack for recruiting tour and crash around 10:00p. (Which tells you how worn out I was, between work, allergies, and class!) No knitting.

Saturday
Wake up at 3:30a (3:30a is usually a "I REALLY should start thinking about going to bed" time for me!) to get ready for recruiting tour. Meet the other three tech faculty members (oh, btw, I'm now faculty for some reason) at CBC at 5:00a and leave for Long Beach. Get to Long Beach around 9:00a and start to have some inkling about how small the theater world really is. I've only been working professionally for five years now, yet I knew, at least by reputation if not by actually having worked with, a decent number of other recruiters/employers/representatives there, and...they knew me! I was asked to sit on a question-and-answer panel with people like the president of the regional USITT chapter, the dean of CalArts, a Disney representative, and a couple noteworthy designers. In other words, people who have been doing their stuff and teaching their stuff for years and have made their marks in the field. Immediately after the panel session, we went into interviews and portfolio reviews. It was a little intimidating, actually, but apparently I didn't embarrass PCPA too much. I felt a little bit like a fraud, though. I mean, these students are asking me questions and taking notes of my answers like I actually know what I'm talking about and my advice and opinions are actually valuable to them! I wanted to shout "I'm only twenty six! I never went to grad school! I'm still learning!" several times that day. What if one of them actually listened to me?? It was a bit surreal. We got done a lot earlier than we had expected, though, so instead of spending the night in Long Beach, we decided to head home and blew the hotel money on a fantastic dinner at the Brewery instead. (And yes, Mom, we will have to go there next time you guys come out!) Got home around 7:30p, crashed on the couch, and woke up around 10:30p - just in time to go to bed. No knitting, despite the fact that I did bring the start of the second Wendelin sock to work on during the drive. I just couldn't get to my bag while in the van!

Sunday
Finally, finally get to sleep in, and of course, wake up at 8:00a instead. Lazing around in pjs and watching the Colts/Chargers game (ETA: watched, past tense, the Chargers just won) until I have to get dressed to run some office errands and go to snag one of the rehearsal rooms to do some form work. I have one more rectangle and one more large square to do on the afghan, and I'd love to get that done tonight. I'm reconsidering putting a border on it - once it's spread out, it looks pretty good without one. Still having to take allergy meds, so lacework may not be the best option right now. Possibly more sleeping, too, mostly because of the meds, so I'm not looking to be particularly productive today. Thank goodness!

Cotton...Wool...Kitty?

I actually did get all my yarn sorted and stored yesterday. I bought three of those under-the-bed-style storage containers, and put worsted weight acrylics in one, bulky weight acrylics in another, and then dk/sport/worsted weight cottons and wools in the third. I didn't get a chance to cover them before I had to leave for class, and when I got home, this is what I found:

I didn't realize I had to store kitty fiber in there, too! And note that he even shoved some of the yarns almost out of the container to make room! The lazy bum didn't even bother to get up when I got home, although he did open one sleepy eye and yawn in my general direction. I guess he was so comfy, nestled in those wools, that he couldn't deign to acknowledge me more than that. The only real problem with the storage system, other than kicking cats out of it, is that I actually got them to fit under the futon in my living room. This way, all my yarn would be together in the same room, and be handy but still fairly discrete. A brilliant idea, until I realized that this futon (and I REALLY need a new one, or better yet, a sofa or a pair of comfy chairs) is so broken and bent that the containers don't fit underneath it. I guess they'll have to go under my bed for the time being. The containers that the dk-bulky weights outgrew now house my sock yarns and WIP bags.
(The sock yarn container is under the WIP container.) The laceweights are still in the top drawer of my Rubbermaid stackable, with cross-stitch stuff in the middle and all my needles in the bottom. We'll see how long this actually keeps things organized.

And I finally got the pic to Kiz, so I feel safe in posting it here now. I do present, The Most Awesome T-Shirt:

And off topic, but exactly one year ago today, I went to my first taekwondo class. I could go on for a while about all the physical, mental, and emotional benefits I've gotten from it, but to spare you the boredom and at the risk of sounding like an old Nike commercial, all I'll say is that working up the nerve to Just Do It was one of the best things I've ever done. Thank you so much to all of my instructors and classmates for teaching, encouraging, and supporting me through the year, and thank you to you all for your support and encouragement as well!

Mr. R teased me the other night, "Sometimes you come in all dolled up [when I come straight from work and have to change at the studio], and you look out of place. But at the end of the night, you're one of us!"

Productive Unproductivity

Sooo...

There were supposed to be lots of pretty pictures of new yarn, new shirts (I promised Kiz a pic of the shirt he got me for Christmas), properly stored and put away yarn, and maybe, possibly, a FO (all I have left on the Broad Street mittens is the thumb on the second one!). But a combination of KR, Ravelry, getting caught up on all of y'alls' blogs, paying bills (and realizing I'm broke ALREADY, stupid travelling), running errands, trying to clean the place up at least a little, and class tonight, that didn't happen. Pretend there are pretty pics up! Hopefully, there will be tomorrow!

That is, assuming I can walk or move tomorrow, since I did, um, three classes tonight after having almost two weeks off. I totally forgot that instructor class was tonight since it was the first night of classes for the week. Kickboxing, tkd, and instructor class. Oy! Now, this is actually what I am planning to normally do on Monday nights, but I really wasn't mentally prepared for it quite yet. Luckily, I just got drilled on Songham 1, 2, & 3 forms, and there was a black belt who also just recently started, so we could work together for a little bit. Tomorrow is tkd and FIGHT, Friday is kickboxing and sparring (with lots of pizza and some beer afterwards!). I do have some kind of cool bruises on the back of my hands from the backfist/knifehand/spinning backfist combinations we did in tkd tonight, though.

Now for some sleeping, since, as Mr. R was teasing me, Round Three just about did me in tonight!

2007 in Review...

So, other than getting completely and totally pissed off at Expedia for all the vast amounts of help they were for this trip - I ended up in a grand total of eight airports and five airlines between getting there and getting back, didn't come in on time at the end of either trip and didn't even get into the right AIRPORT getting there, had to go to an EXTRA airport on the way back (after spending the night in ANOTHER airport), had problems getting every single one of my boarding passes printed on the way home, my luggage ended up on a different flight getting home, and the customer service lady had the NERVE to say "Well, they're obviously not looking hard enough" when I called at one point because Bloomington had no record that I was supposed to be on their flight! (I'm a little cranky about the whole shebang right now, can you tell?) - it was really great to see everyone, but it's good to finally be home again. Teddie seems to agree, although he's barely been off my lap or my shoulder since I've been home.

Well, what DID I do in 2007?

-I worked up the guts to try something I've always wanted to try and now can't imagine life without my dojahng. January 4th is my one-year anniversary. I never dreamed that it would become an ever-expanding part of my life. (And btw, Dad and I got to talking - and maybe sparring just a little - about Haganah, and he said it looked and sounded really similar to stuff they had learned in police academy. It's kind of nice to know that it isn't just PR!)

-I had a bunch of knitting firsts. I went to my first-ever knitting class and conference. It's really nice to know that a.) you people online ARE real and b.) there really ARE people out there as interested as I am in knitting to spend the money (in some cases, a lot MORE money!) to attend things like Stitches and knitting camps and whatnot. I did my first online knitting swap and loved it! I did my first pieced sweater and my first socks for someone else. I'm working on my first beaded project (the pic I'm obviously referring to is at the bottom of the post, it's the best one I have so far of it), and I helped teach someone to knit. The grand total for FOs this year: 11. Five pairs of socks, two sweaters, two pairs of mittens, a scarf, and a baby blanket. Still working on the afghan, the fingerless gloves, the Wendelin socks, and the Boatneck Bluebell sweater, although I'm having the sudden odd urge to work on the MS3 tonight.

-I've started seriously reading a couple new authors: Michelle Sagara of The Elantra Chronicles (more commonly called the Cast In... series - at least two more coming out, yay! There'd better be, because I'm DYING to know what an Erenne actually IS, and the Kaylin/Nightshade/Severn relationship is beyond complicated!), and Jim Butcher of The Dresden Files and The Codex Alera series. I've also gotten my patience rewarded with the third installment of Kristen Britain's The Green Rider series (High King's Tomb came out in November), and (of course) the end of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

What am I going to do in 2008?

Honestly, heaven only knows, but I'd like to: get my living room cleaned, rearranged, and possibly get a new futon for it; design and knit a sweater; continue learning and working at the dojahng (obviously) and get better at sparring - specifically using more spinning and jumping kicks; finish my current UFOs; get to more of the LYSs; meet new people in general; and figure up a real budget that works and stick to it.

Happy New Year, everyone, and may the experiences of the past create a brighter future!

Twas the night after Christmas...

and all through the house, the cats refused to move off the electric blankets. Not very poetic, but true, sadly. You want the most comfortable seat in the house, you gotta move the cat. And here, there are three of them

I got some knitting stuff for Christmas! I got Modern Knits, a Berocco pattern booklet, a kit for a drop stitch scarf by Mountain Colors (the yarn is Twizzle, a very yummy silk/wool blend), and a skein of Claudia Handpainted 100% silk laceweight in the ever so pretty Ocean Depth colorway! Kelly likes his afghan, but it is still being worked on, so I think he's a little afraid of it right now. Mom took me to a LYS in a nearby town, and it carries all sorts of interesting things. Not a lot of any one yarn, but a nice variety of yarns. (Even my beloved Bearfoot, but I think I have all the colorways I've been dying for at this point and need to knit them up before continuing to add to the stash...) I'm thinking of making a Juno with the silk. I may have to get a Harmony needle to work with it, though.

I finally got home around 7:30p on Christmas Eve, so our schedule was a bit different this year, but it's all good. No classes are available in the area while I'm here (all the ATA studios are closed this week, apparently), but I've been able to get to the YMCA and work on my forms and go running a little bit. Sadly, my beloved mp3 player did not survive Thanksgiving travel (we're not sure what happened to it, but it was probably lost on a plane somewhere), so I found out the hard way that it's hard for me to stay focused on things when there's neither music nor instructor around! I'm going to try to find a new one tomorrow, but as far as I can tell, Sony has discontinued that model, and I LOVED it! We shall have to see!

Off now to work on the afghan some more and watch The X-Files, since my brother was kind enough to get me the series on DVD!

The show is over!...

...and I'm supposed to be on an airplane right about now. Unfortunately, the pilot called in sick and the flight got cancelled, so now I have to drive back up to SLO in about three hours to try all over again. The good things are that the new itinerary is actually more direct than the original, with less opportunities for the luggage to get lost, and I get to fly first class from LA to Chicago. The bad things are that my parents now have to drive three hours each way to pick me up in Chicago (no way of getting anywhere closer before Wednesday, apparently), and I have to be back at the airport at 4:30a, which means I have to leave again in about three hours. No sleep for me tonight! Mrph.

On the other hand, I have a new penguin! Although I don't actively collect penguins, I have a little Beanie Baby one named Arnold and a larger, prop-shop-made one named Pablo that have lived either at my desk or at my station during shows since The Man Who Came To Dinner. During this run, the two of them actually lived on top of the wireless mic decks backstage by my stage right podium. Yesterday over dinner, a third, much larger penguin appeared:

complete with scarf and hat. He's very soft, and the kids have decided to name him Tux. Tux Kringle (to throw in some holiday spirit). I have no idea where he came from, or who he's from! I've asked my Secret Santa (who spoiled me totally), the actors who normally hung around my station during shows, the rest of the stage managers, and the production manager (who has been known to play with our stuffed animals but will deny it!). No one will spill the beans or take credit! Apparently it IS possible to keep a secret somehow in this company! I'd really love to know who it is from, but in case said person ever reads this blog - Thank You! I love him!!

The Week In A Nutshell

1. The afghan is definitely not going to be finished on time, although I do keep plugging away at it. My new goal is to have it done before I leave Illinios.

2. I do, somehow, have the first Wendelin Sock done, and even got a comment from the designer via Ravelry. She likes my colorway.

3. Three more shows left. Three. Three...three...then the end...just three more...is it done yet?

4. I actually got to see another show tonight! One of the SM interns and one of the set design interns worked on (directed and LD'd, respectively) a staged reading up in SLO and I managed to sweettalk the evening off to go see it. Christina from Monday knitting and her family were there, too! Although it was absolutely freezing, the show was really good, and us PCPAers went out for drinks afterward. Was crowded and cold, but fun. I do love SLO. Definitely need to do that again sometime! (And I must admit to having a burst of pride for "my" intern!)

5. Had my first instructor class Wednesday night (Sir wasn't there for Monday class). He and Ma'am (although Ma'am really wasn't supposed to be on the mat at all, since her knee is still messed up) had me start going back through Songham 1 and 2 (the white and orange belt forms) and the Songham 1 one-steps. This time through was really just to get the memory of the forms and one-steps back into my body; he said we'll start to go through them step by step and piece by piece until each technique is absolutely correct and teachable. Then we go to the next form and start over. Sir left me alone for a bit so he could work with Mr. R and C on some higher forms, but he noticed Ma'am working with me, even though she wasn't supposed to. In the end, though, Sir said that I had done her proud, so that was a nice compliment. It was a little intimidating for some reason. Even though I know better, I've always gone into classes of any kind thinking I should already know everything, and want to do everything perfectly. I actually have to get reminded every so often that people go to classes to LEARN. Classes exist BECAUSE people don't know everything and to teach them. Even to teach teachers. (ETA: My mom would like to point out that I've been this way since coming home from kindergarten crying because I didn't know everything yet. They started trying to explain this concept to me THEN, and I still obviously have trouble with it!) But now I'm in a stretch of thirteen days between classes, due to travelling and holidays, and I have one new form, two old forms, and two old one-steps to work on! And no, I wouldn't want it any other way.

6. I got The Most Awesome T-Shirt for Christmas from my (non-knitting and non-theatrical) friend Kizayaen. He found it online, immediately thought of me, and would not let anyone else get it for me. It's perfect. I will try to get a pic up (and of the afghan and sock) tomorrow night.

Christmas Meme

Stolen from Amy because I'm bored and a bit tired of knitting today. The afghan is not going to get done in time, but it should have enough done that I can at least present it to him and say "this is what you're going to be getting in the next few days." I'm going to buy the rest for everyone else. Anyway:

Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I LOVE wrapping presents!

Real or artificial tree? I have an artificial tree, but I didn't put it up this year. No time!

When do you put up the tree? I try to get it up after Thanksgiving, but between work, knitting, class, and being sick, I just haven't had the time or energy.

When do you take it down? Well, I guess I don't have to this year! Usually after New Year's Day, though.

Do you like eggnog? Yes, but not with rum in it, surprisingly. Or maybe I just need to try it with better rum!

Favorite gift received as a child? My Kirsten doll and all the accessories my entire extended family bought/made for her. We're truly talking heirloom stuff here.

Do you have a nativity scene? No

Hardest person to buy for? Dad

Easiest person to buy for? Mom

Worst Christmas present you ever got? Can't really think of a truly terrible Christmas present, although I'm human and was a child, and worse, a teenager at one point, so I'm sure there were some inappropriate reactions at some point or other. A fire extinguisher for my car from a well-meaning relative was a bit of a surprise, I must admit.

Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Some things are just better in hard copy.

Favorite Christmas movie? How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the animated one narrated by Boris Karlof)

When do you start shopping for Christmas? When I first see something that I think would make a good Christmas present for someone?

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, but I was supposed to

Favorite thing to eat on Christmas? Hmm...we have some pretty yummy meals around Christmas time. I can't think of any one thing in particular as my favorite.

Clear lights or colored on the tree? Multicolored. Monochromatic anything is boring.

Favorite Christmas song? Oh dear. Again, so many. "What Child Is This?" "Do You Hear What I Hear?", "O, Holy Night" and of course, "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer". I also just really love the Boston Pops' Holiday Pops! album and love all of those songs.

Travel at Christmas or stay home? Um, I travel to go home for Christmas right now, I guess, so all of the above? I've always considered Christmas a time for family, so I suppose wherever my family is, that's home and where I'll be.

Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? Yes. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comit, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph, and Olive.

Angel or star on top of tree? Star. Never liked angels on top of trees much.

Open presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both, the number on Christmas Eve depending on if the weather and schedule cooperate enough to have Christmas Eve with Mom's side of the family or chooses to keep everyone in. If so, we'll open all the presents from that side of the family on Christmas Eve and Santa's presents on Christmas Day. If not, we'll just open everything on Christmas morning.

Most annoying thing this time of year? People, but then, they're generally annoying as a species. Actually, no, hyper-merchandizing commercials that demean the true celebration of the holidays by trying to convince people it's all about stuff and not people and relationships are the most annoying thing.

Do you decorate your tree in any theme or color? Yes. We call it the "Memories" theme. It consists of every ornament we've bought or made since my parents got married, and a few from even before that. My ornaments are mice. My brother's are puppies and raccoons.

What do you leave for Santa? Cookies and milk. Although last year Santa drafted me into helping him finish wrapping presents, and I believe there was some champagne or butterscotch schnapps with hot chocolate involved.

Setbacks and Baby Steps Forward

Knitting: Backstage project is going well, if boring. The afghan is way behind, and may or may not be finished in time.

Class: Sore as hell from Haganah knife sparring tonight, and only went to tkd and Haganah this week. The cold is still lingering and I just didn't have the energy or breath to do the kickboxing as well. Tonight was the first double (tkd and Haganah) I've done all week. Classes have been small this week, so lots of form work since we have the room. I also got a chance to talk with Sir for a while after class last night. We talked about tournaments (there really aren't any around here that are worth going to without participating in, and I don't necessarily want to compete, just watch one to see what it's like. Spring Nationals is in Vegas in February, though, which would be cool to see.), some things that he and Mrs. S would like to see happen (or happen again) at the school, training over the holidays (he gave me permission to attend a dojahng in Illinios while I'm there over the holidays, I just have to get permission from that instructor first), and eventually teaching. He gave me permission to join the instructors' class on Monday nights! Of course, I won't actually be teaching for a long, long time, but it's cool to start reviewing and learning the material. He said that normally he wouldn't let someone of my rank, but I've proven to be a consistently strong learner, and he thinks that I will be able to handle continuing to learn new material along with going back and reviewing old stuff. Mrs. S talked to me about it very briefly tonight, and she seemed pleased about it, too. I'm excited!

And there's another baby to knit for! Okay, I've known for a while, but I recently saw this particular friend for the first time in several months and it's a little obvious now. I really really want the Carnival Baby Blanket Kit from KnitPicks, but it's going to have to wait until after the holidays.

Speaking of which, I need to get back to knitting on the afghan.

Look! Knitting!

It does happen occasionally. I was finally able to track down two skeins of the right yarn in the right color to continue working on Rambling Rows:

It's looking quite nice, if I do say so myself.

I get this far on the Boatneck Bluebell:

and suddenly have a brilliant idea for another Christmas present, so there has been more backstage knitting. I don't want to spoil it by posting a pic about it yet, so y'all will have to wait. And in other backstage knitting news:

Tim finished his scarf on Saturday! He's so proud of it and wears it backstage quite a bit. It's very cute. He was going to go today and get more yarn to make a scarf for his mama. Muha!

Class stuff behind the cut.
I was finally able to make it to class tonight. Only taekwondo, though, as I'm still having some coughing fits and still can't breathe out of my nose very reliably. Have I mentioned how much I hate colds? It felt really good being there, though. It was a small class tonight, which was kind of nice. I'm almost all the way through my form now, but I'm still having trouble with that board break. It took me several tries to go through the easiest board. I'm trying to remember that A.) I'm a blue belt. I'm not going to do everything perfectly, and I'm still learning the basics. This IS actually considered a basic kick, and I need to learn to do it properly. B.) this is really the first time I've had a multi-step break. My breaks up to now have been pretty stationary; at most only a step through for momentum. This one requires not only the scary jump side kick, but a couple steps into it to get momentum going. So it's a timing thing and a technique thing. I remember watching the black belts doing their board breaks when I started and thinking they looked so complicated and was a little relieved mine were so simple. When did MY stuff become the complicated stuff? And this is only the very beginning!

Ma'am was back in uniform tonight, which was good, but her knee is still pretty messed up, I guess. She did a pretty good job of harassing me as usual, though, and told my self-defense partner to quit being so nice to me. Can't wait for January, when I can go to sparring again! Mrs. S told me last week that they're going to add another kickboxing class right before sparring on Fridays in January. That will be...fun. Kickboxing, then sparring right after each other?! Like she said, we're going to need that pizza and beer afterwards!

Not much else going on right now. Only 16 more performances left! And I might get one more evening off - one of our interns is directing a staged reading up in SLO on the 21st and I'd really like to go see it. I'd try to sneak in a sparring class that night, too, but the dojahng is closed that weekend.

And Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix comes out on DVD tomorrow!!

Freedom

You know, I just realized...I only said I was going to make two projects for Christmas. One is finished already. One is stalled due to circumstances beyond my control. Any other Christmas projects are entirely on my own, and I am under no obligation to actually *DO* them.

Do you know what this means? It means...I'm FREE!

I'm starting my Boatneck Bluebell tonight!

Speaking of...(kinda long)

There is nothing more irritating than a cold. Seriously. You're not sick enough to get the benefits of being sick - staying home, being babied at bit, etc. - but you're not healthy enough to get the benefits of feeling good, either. Bah! (Of course, I've still done kickboxing, taekwondo, and Haganah so far this week. And I have the bruise from cracking knees with Sir, my fault, to prove it! Really gotta angle those knee strikes - they don't do a lot of good if they hurt you in the process!)

The good thing is that I've had both Monday and Tuesday mostly off and have been sleeping quite a bit. I did have to go into the office earlier this afternoon to get some paperwork stuff done, and realized I'd totally forgotten to do something over the weekend that screwed the costume shop up big time. So they are not happy with me. My fault. Can't change the past, will make sure the future is better.


Speaking of the past, here's the good stuff:

These are the sweaters that Mom showed me over Thanksgiving. I have no idea how old they are at this point, but all they need is a good washing and they'd be wearable. Unfortunately, I have no idea what they are made of. When I go home for Christmas, I'll give them a good dunk in Eucalan or Wool-Lite or whatever Mom has on hand. The one on top is an Aran in the round; as far as I can tell there aren't any seams. This is a closer look at the detail on the neck of it:

The second Aran was pieced, and the cables are only on the front and sleeves. The intarsia one is my favorite, and least replicate-able of them for me, as my intarsia skills are pretty much non-existant. I'm thinking of doing the top Aran - I know I have most of those cables in one of my stitch books, and in the round is always appealing. It would be a cozy winter project, I think. I really want to get the Bluebell Boatneck sweater done and able to wear to work, though, too, so we'll see.

Speaking of current knitting, I have an FO and an almost-FO! Neither of which, unfortunately, are Christmas projects. My second multidirectional diagonal scarf:
Which normally looks like this:
as I can't seem to keep the darn cat off of it. Even if I cover it up with a towel or blanket, he'll lay on it. Stupid cat. You'd think lots of sharp pins would be enough to keep him away, but no. He'll even pull the pins out with his teeth if they're invading his comfortable space, which is not fun to discover when barefoot. Put this right in front of the Wool-Ease Thick & Quick I'm using for the afghan, which he has also pulled and played with across creation and back, and he's in kitty heaven. Grr! (BTW, if anyone in the immediate vicinity has any Wool-Ease T&Q in the Butterscotch colorway, please let me know. Of course, I ran out right in the middle of a square and there are no more skeins of this colorway ANYWHERE in town right now. Probably not until Friday or Saturday, anyway. So I am STUCK on the ONE thing I want to get done for Christmas! Grr!)

Anyway, this one is made from just over three skeins of Patons SWS in the Natural Denim colorway. I started it over the summer and finished it this past week during the shows. Apparently, this is the coolest backstage project ever, as my first one was also knit backstage during the Creation debacle and the guys there also thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread. It's easy. It's triangles. It stripes on its own. It's brain surgery, apparently.

Speaking of simple knitting, we've brought another over to the dark side! One of the guys on my deck crew kept watching me work on the gloves or socks or whatever, and every once in a while he'd mention that he'd like to knit himself some socks. So finally, I handed my current sock in progress (unfortunately for him, a pinkish sock weight yarn on US 0 needles, poor guy) and said, "Here, work on this for me, then." I showed him how to make the stitches, and after a few false starts, he did pretty well, even on the teeny needles. The next day, I brought him some T&Q I'd started a simple, garter stitch, striped scarf with, and some US 15 needles. He knit all during both shows that day! "Hey, this is like crack! But cheaper!" I'm wondering how long it will be when I see him tomorrow and if he's run out of yarn yet. We also have a YP we've coerced into knitting, and have quite the knitting/crocheting circle going now during preshow. The YP is a lefty, though, so he knits differently than I do, and it's hard to help him sometimes.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for my replacement needle for the Broad Street Mittens, but I got bored and sort of fixed the needle myself. Enough to be mostly useable, anyway. I have one glove completely done, and the second glove is done except for the thumb and weaving in ends.

I like how they've turned out so far, and I think it's actually a great pattern for the yarn (STR mediumweight, Seal Rock colorway), although (you'll probably only hear me say this once, so mark this) the varigation is kind of blah. I love varigated yarns, and I love all the colors in this one, and it looks very pretty wound up, but the pooling is bothering me a little. Not enough to frog or not wear or anything drastic like that, just a little. I'll do the mitten cap for them later. I want to use them backstage now, as my hands get cold back there!

Speaking of broken needles, I'm sorry to say that Vader has eaten his last needles. Mom called yesterday and said that he had run off and they found him the next day. He had been hit by a car. Poor pup. At least he had a good life and was loved when he was at my parents'. While he wasn't the most well-behaved dog I've ever met - he'd never been properly trained, after all - he just wanted to be loved. RIP
Oh, and I really enjoyed Tin Man on the SciFi channel this week. It's The Wizard of OZ like you've never seen it before, and while the steadfast lovers of the original will probably despise it, frankly, this story makes much more sense to me. It's much more human and believable. My type of fantasy!

Reasons why today...

...was flawed:
1. Student matinee this morning. 8:30a crew call for the second day in a row. 'Nuff said.

2. Ma'am did come to sparring tonight - on crutches. She got her knee kicked out from under her last night at FIGHT. It wasn't by me, but still, I hate seeing my friends hurt. And it meant she couldn't spar and we seriously needed adults tonight! (I still owe Mr. M a beer since he failed to grace us with his presence tonight.)

3. I ran out of the color I need to finish the afghan square I'm working on right now. And I ran out of yarn working on the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf backstage this morning and forgot to bring the extra skein.

...was awesome:
1. Sparring tonight was hysterical. There were two adults not counting Sir, and about seven kids of varying ranks. Some of the kids came to about my knees, if that, and Sir was ungeared, so tonight was all about the control. Their parents thought it was hysterical, these tiny kids against 5'10", all leg, unknown to them, me. It was pretty funny, even I have to admit. Sir, Ch (the other adult there tonight), and I would look at each other and just laugh.

2. Klondike's afterward was fun. I've not laughed that hard in a long, long time. (A long story involving the mental image of Mr. C, who is a big guy, in footsie pajamas with his black belt around his waist.) Tonight it was me, Ma'am, Sir and Mrs. S (and Baby S, of course), Ma'am's son who comes to Haganah sometimes, and a few others. No ranks, no job responsibilities, just, pizza, beer, and friends. I kind of feel like maybe I'm starting to build more of a life, just maybe, and that is a Very Good Thing. And I'm not a beer drinker at all, but a tall cold one after a very sweaty class really hits the spot!

3. My replacement needle from KnitPicks is on its way! Yay! Hopefully, I will be able to finish the Broad Street Mittens soon and start another pair of mittens!!

4. Knitting Grandmother at tkd was at Klondikes tonight with her grandson and finished the cutest little beaded coin purse. She's done a larger version in Cotton Classic, with very pretty beadwork as well. She gets her beads at Kandra's (from Monday morning knitting) and swears she'll drag me (kicking and screaming, I'm sure, did someone twist my arm there?) to Yarns At The Adobe up in SLO. She doesn't think she's been to Yarnology (another Monday morning knitting connection) yet, so we very reluctantly agreed to accompany each other on a yarn crawl soon. Okay, so most of the reluctance was more of a "Let's go now, wait, we can't, they're probably already closed for the night" thing than anything else. The sacrifices we make for our art! Seriously!

5. Almost done with the leg on the first Wendelin sock. I haven't noticed any significant changes in gauge from switching to the (non-chewed) metal needles, so I'm hoping they'll continue to work out. The multidirectional diagonal scarf is almost done. Probably one, maybe two more triangles and then the end!

Five awesomes (pretty awesome awesomes, too!) and only three flaws (relatively minor, honestly). I'd say that's a pretty good day!

And yes, I have the bruises to prove I've been in class every night this week! =)

Back home and kickin'

I did survive the trip home for Thanksgiving. It was great to see everyone and my brother's new house! The travelling wasn't too bad for the most part - there was some weather in Chicago that delayed our takeoff in LA on the way there, but that was about it. Now if I could just find my mp3 player again - how do I always lose those things???? It's a curse, I tell you!

It was gorgeous the first day I was there - 60 degrees and sunny - then Mother Nature decided to remind everyone that it was November in the Midwest and the very next day hit us with rain, sleet, and a tiny bit of snow. It was 26 when I left on Friday. Only in the Midwest. You don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change. (Of course, it's exactly that changing that gives them the coolest thunderstorms ever, which I *do* miss, so I guess it's pick your poison.) After about thirty seconds in that temperature, I was ready to be back in California. The warm sunshine on the tarmac at LAX was one of the best feelings ever!

Friday was a VERY long day - getting up at 2:00a PST to get to the airport, travelling for eight hours, then landing and going straight to the theater to do Act Two of the matinee and all of the evening performance. Chrissy did cut me loose from doing the rest of the matinee, but at that point it wasn't enough time to get any sleep before the evening show anyway, so it didn't make a whole lot of difference. It was a big weekend in general, so I totally slept in on Monday. (I know, some of you will ask, "How can you tell if you slept in? You don't get up until 10:00a anyway!" to which I reply "I normally sleep eight hours a night, just a different eight hours than most people. If I sleep more than that, I've slept in, just like you. So there! =P") I really wanted to get up for knitting, and actually got on the road around 11:30a before realizing that by the time I got there people would be starting to leave. Sigh. Maybe next week, if I'm not in LA.

Speaking of knitting, Mom had some interesting stuff while I was at home. She went through and dug up some of the handmade sweaters her great-aunt and grandmother had made for her! Beautiful stuff! As Mom says, they'd had a lot of practice by that point - they used to knit sweaters, hats, and mittens for all fourteen grandchildren for Christmas and they'd start in October if they wanted to start early! Two really beautiful Arans and an intarsia snowflake pattern - I'll get pics up soon. I might try to copy one of the Arans. I think I could pretty easily replicate at least one of the patterns already. Mom also has one more Fair Isle (she thinks) sweater that she couldn't find that was her favorite and got, er, shrunk, in the wash after she and Dad got married. I'd have to see it to decide if I could replicate it or not, but I'm actually pretty certain I could figure it out. How cool is that? Not only are these gorgeous sweaters handmade by my family, but I've learned enough that I might be able to do them, too!

Some knitting was actually accomplished on the trip, too - I started a new sock about two weeks ago now, out of some STR lightweight I'd picked up in some destash or other on KR. It is one of their semi-solids in a colorway called 24 Carat, which is a really pretty combination of golds, but I had a hard time finding a pattern for it that I liked. I really wanted to do a Pomotamus with it, but I settled, instead, on Wendelin the Weird Socks, which are not weird at all, and work very very well with the yarn. I'll try to get a pic up soon. Even Chrissy and Aleah have admired it. Anyway, I turned the heel on the first one before I left and was looking forward to finishing the leg and maybe starting the second one whilst travelling. An excellent plan, to be sure, until one takes into account the one-and-a-half-year-old Lab mix my parents rescued over the summer. I left the sock on the couch on Thursday while we went to my grandparents', and when we came home, we discovered that, to his credit, he did not harm the yarn nor the cable, and all of the stitches had been carefully slid back onto the cable so they weren't dropped, but my beautiful new Harmony needle tips were in chewed pieces all over the living room floor! Beware the lure of the Harmony needles, it apparently works on canines as well! Sigh. Luckily, I do have a nickel-plated KP circ of the same size here at home, so work is not paused (pawsed? get it? *groan*) on that like it is on the broken-needled Broad Street gloves. I'm going to have to put in an order this week after payday, I think.

The afghan is progressing slowly but surely. I'm on square 20 right now and am planning on working on that tonight after I get some dinner and a shower. I've done four classes so far this week - two tkd, one kickboxing and one Haganah. I didn't get lunch today, and I can't eat right before kickboxing, so I skipped that class in favor of getting food and going to just tkd instead. I'm planning on doing tkd and Haganah tomorrow. Okay, so even if I hadn't been planning on doing Haganah tomorrow, if I'd shown up at tkd, Sir and Ma'am would have badgered me into staying anyway. I'm saving them the trouble. And then sparring on Friday!!! Can't wait!! Mr. M was hassling me today about going for pizza and beer afterwards, and I owe him one anyway. (It really should be illegal to let pizza smell waft through the parking lot after class. It's so not fair!) I was actually expecting to be pretty sore today after the long break away and then doing so much, but I actually feel really really good. My only problem now is that we started our new board breaks today. Mine is a jump side kick. I rolled my ankle on a jump side kick in a one-step a couple months ago, and am still scared of them. I know it's completely a psychological thing. Other jump kicks don't scare me. (Although Mr. R did find my blanch at the jump crescent kick that's in my form rather amusing.) Ma'am and Mr. M suggested wearing a light brace or even just wrapping the ankle to make myself think it's stronger. I did break the board tonight, but I know the motion wasn't right. I hope we work on these a lot, because I'm going to need it! The new form, Choon Jung Il-Jahng, is really interesting. It's the first time I've had to do any tension techniques, and there are a LOT of hand techniques in this one! It's actually the brown belt form; I don't know why Sir's having me skip In Wah Ee-Jahng, the blue belt form, since I've gone in order with everything else. Oh well. I really need to start going back through all my forms and relearning them again. I'm now the highest color belt that regularly comes to class, so I get asked for help a little more often. Just gotta make room in the brain for all the information!

Surprise!

I actually won a blog contest!! And I can't wait to get my hands on the yarn! I never win this kind of thing, I'm so stoked! (Okay, so it was a random drawing, so I really had nothing to do with it, but still!)

In other news, is it sad when an eleven-hour, double-show day feels like a "light" day? Wednesday was morning office work, afternoon matinee, kickboxing, evening understudy rehearsal. 14 hours. Thursday was morning matinee, afternoon office work/meetings, evening understudy run. 15 hours. Friday was morning Outreach performance (was asked to go out with them to keep an eye on a certain situation that rears its ugly head occasionally), afternoon office work/meetings, tkd test, evening performance. 15 hours. My mom called around 4:00p on Friday and told me I almost sounded drunk, even though she knew I wouldn't have been drinking at that time - I was so tired I was slurring my words on the phone! Saturday and Sunday were much better, after I'd actually gotten some real sleep. The show has been going pretty well, though, and I haven't gotten slammed into any other walls so far. (Thanks, Matt!) It's so nice to have four days off, though!!

So, I tested for my blue belt Friday and it was probably the worst I've ever done anything there. One should NOT do a physical test when one has only had about twelve hours of sleep over the previous three nights. Sir said my form was solid (complete and total muscle memory, as I really have no recollection of it), but I totally forgot the end of the sparring segment (a jump crescent kick, which I actually kind of like, for a crescent kick), did incorporate sliding and repeat kicks but didn't use any spinning kicks in sparring (no contact sparring is SO much harder than regular sparring), took two kicks to break my board, and when Mrs. S came at me for one of the self-defenses I just stared at her, had absolutely no idea what to do, and apparently defaulted to a Haganah technique instead. I was either partnered with Mrs. S (for sparring and one self-defense) or the other kid who was there, one of the Karate Kids and an orange belt, so he was scared to death of me. So not only am I totally blanking on what moves I should be doing, but I have to remember to really control them because of having a little kid for a partner. (The kids, btw, do not learn takedowns as a general rule for ending self-defense, they are usually taught to break the hold, get some distance, and run. So he was pretty surprised when he hit the mat after a brief telepathic conversation between Sir and I! Poor kid.) The real kicker, and probably the only reason I actually got the belt, was that I had been TEACHING both the self-defenses AND the sparring segment to the rest of my form block earlier that week. So I obviously know them well enough that Sir felt I was capable of helping other people with them, but I just did not have the brain power that day. Mrs. S asked me afterwards if I was okay, which was a little embarrassing, but at least I know they pay attention and care.

Now to finish cleaning and packing because I'm going home for Thanksgiving! It sounds like I'm getting good Chinese food and crashing at my brother's place tomorrow night (he's a night owl like me, my parents are not, and my flight gets in relatively late for them), getting one of my favorite meals ever at my parents' on Tuesday, possibly hanging out with the girls on Wednesday, and then stuffing myself with turkey, pie, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday! Can't wait!

Survival!

The theater gods have blessed us again, and after ten days of tech chaos, we do indeed have The Sound of Music successfully open and apparently people seem to like it. 41 performances to go, not that we're counting or anything. It's only the eleventh show my name's been attached to this year, in various capacities. Now I just have to survive this run and then I have no shows until March! John's going to do a big show in Pomona the weekend before rehearsals start for Godspell, both of which I cannot wait for! It's so fun to actually be excited about a show again! I'm going to be doing both Godspell and Hot Mikado this summer, which will be a nice challenge after last summer's boredom. Chrissy is doing Ragtime, which is Just Fine with me, as I don't like the big huge musicals that much.

Ironically, now that the show is open, I have more free time. I was able to make both kickboxing and tkd Monday night, and was able to make it to FIGHT tonight for the first time in ages. Mr. M nailed me with a backfist to the face on Monday night in tkd, so Sir and Ma'am spent some time tonight teasing me about that and threatening to give me a matching bruise on the other side. (It actually isn't that bruised - I was lucky and he caught my cheekbone rather than nose, eye, or lip, and I think he pulled his punch when he realized it wasn't on target - there's just a tiny spot that only hurts if you poke it, like Ma'am was.) I am sporting some new bruises, though, and it feels GREAT! It felt So Good to go to FIGHT tonight, although I got beat up by Sir quite a bit. We had a new girl in class tonight, and since I hadn't been there for a while, the two of us got paired up to work the defenses. Sir still has his cast on, and once I saw the drills I remembered them, so a lot of the time was spent with him demonstrating one thing or another on me, usually several times. And D punches like a girl and looks like a stereotypical valley girl, but she has some strength to her, which was unexpected, but nice to see. So between them, I ended up on the mat more times than usual. FIGHT is much rougher than tkd, which is why I like it, I think. It's a little looser, more practical, and quite honestly, it's fun to be "one of the guys" and get to roughhouse. I'm going to try to make it to kickboxing tomorrow if dinner break is long enough, and I'm testing for my blue belt on Friday. (I'm really curious to see how that will work, actually, since usually Sir is the only one there for private tests and he can't hold my board or safely spar me with his cast on. I guess we'll see.) The whole week of Thanksgiving I'll be at home, but after that I should be able to settle back into a rhythm with class. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to that!

But anyway, you're here for the knitting. Rambling Rows has gotten some advancement since it was last seen, but not a whole lot.

I like the yellow when it's right next to the other colors

But in the big picture, it really stands out and I'm not quite sure I like it. I don't like my other options either, though, so I'm not sure what to do. And Backstage Project #1 can start to be revealed now, as this is not going to be a gift:


I have the first glove mostly done, as you can see, just the ends need to be woven in, and I was in the middle of the thumb gusset on the second one when my beloved KP fixed circ broke. The needle just came off the cable! Sigh. I've contacted their customer service and am hoping it will be replaced soon, as I don't have any other needles in that size. (I have five pairs of US 8 circs, for some unknown reason, but only one pair of US 3, of course!) So that's on hold for a couple days. Now I have to figure out what the next Backstage Project is going to be. I think I know. At least, I do until I change my mind again.

I have to get some sleep now. I've had a pretty physical couple days (check behind the cut to see why, if you're curious), and while it's great that Cute Intern was so pleased with this morning's show (long story) that he wanted to call me and tell me about it, I really hope he doesn't call at 9:30a again tomorrow morning! If he does, he's totally bringing me coffee for the next week! (I might make him bring me coffee tomorrow anyway, what else are cute interns for? ;) )

An Owl A Day...(pic heavy)

Nothing brightens a really chilly, grey, please-either-rain-or-let-the-sun-come-out, not-really-sick-but-don't-feel-good-either, type day like a package! And this one from Minerva Scamander of Ravenclaw, my HSS2 pal, was a doozy! No idea how her owl managed to carry it down the coast, but I'm glad it did!

Everything was so nicely packed and wrapped that I felt bad opening it:

That, of course, didn't last long, and all that pretty tissue paper turned into:

Quite the magic spell, eh?!

She sent me some Blood Pops, Jelly Slugs, and Lady Grey tea, which I've never tried, but sounds perfect for tonight after class!

She also demonstrated the Ravenclaw trait of planning and thinking ahead, and sent along the leftover sock yarn! I don't really need it, but the idea was pretty smart! It's from Shelby B's Etsy shop, in the Fawkes colorway! (Shelby only has a few colorways up right now, I guess, she has lots more Hogwarts-inspired colorways that are pretty darn cool and I'm sure if you contact her, she can give you more info!)

Then there were the knitting goodies:


US 1 Clover Bamboo dpns, the pattern for the socks she made, and some totally cute stitch markers! I couldn't get a better pic of them for some reason, but they are scarlet and gold beads with lions' heads on the ends! How fun is that?!

She sent me a House t-shirt:

And a gorgeous scarlet and gold wrap that will be perfect for this cooler weather!

But, this IS a sock swap, and is really all about the socks! She made me some Simply Ginny Socks, some adorable anklets with a pretty little cable down the center that I can't get to show up in a picture for anything. Oh well, here's these anyway:



They came wrapped up in their own sock label with the lyrics to the Hogwarts School Song printed on it!

How lucky am I and how cool is my pal?! Thank you, thank you, thank you! This was an awesome experience for me, and I cannot wait for third term!

On an unrelated note, I think I'm going to skip kickboxing tonight and just do tkd class. I'm so freaking tired and sniffly that I'm really not certain I could physically do both classes, and the tkd is more important to me.