The Post-Plague and Post-NaNo Post

I survived both the Nasty Cold of Nastiness and National Novel Writing Month!

With a beaming smile, I can proudly say that I cracked 60,000 words on the last day of NaNoWriMo (something that I have NEVER done before), and that I can breath out of both nostrils. Life is good.

I'm also getting better at crocheting. I started a dishcloth in half-double crochet while Sons of Anarchy was on, and while I had to fuss with the foundation chain a little to even it out, it's looking pretty good. (Also, I found out that Kim Coats' character on SoA is an animal lover. Be still my heart. Even though he is, from what I've heard, a "sick !@#$" - insert your own cuss word there, folks, I'm trying to cut down on unnecessary swearing. It's a bit of an awful habit of mine.)

Now I'm wondering if I should dub this cloth my SoA cloth. As I've said, I don't really follow the series - it's very gory, and has a lot of sex in it - but the storyline interests me. (Also - I watched almost all of the third season, probably because I was bored with the books I was reading and the story pulled me in. Since then, I've watched a few episodes casually.)

Something else that's going on with me is a feeling of anxiety mixed with a good night's sleep. It's quite peculiar. I think the anxiety has to do with my extended family piling stress on us, combined with the usual Christmas ill feeling and something else that I'm not really comfortable discussing here. But I slept well last night - I even had a strange dream that made me go, "Huh, that's odd" - which almost contradicts the whole anxiety thing. I mention the sleep because I've been up early for the past few mornings - one time was because I had to set my alarm for 6, and the other two times were cat-related.

Even though I'm in a bad mood today (I burnt my toast and was compared to a bitchy cat - don't ask), I want to have a better day today. Maybe I'll catch up on reading, or gaming. Both of those would make me quite happy.

Why, no, I'm not stressed! ;)

Did you catch the sarcasm in that? lols.

Yes, I'm still stressed out about Christmas. I'm a little on edge about this whole thing. I feel like I'm waiting for something to go horribly wrong.

All I have to do now is wrap Mom's and Katie's presents. I have to find a box for Katie's though.

Four days until Christmas. Oh dear.

Grease and scarf knitting

Mom and Dad were being jerks because of the bass level on the stereo, so I came upstairs and turned on my computer and the little TV. Our satellite TV provider is giving everyone a free preview of AMC until the 31st, and they're playing Grease, so I'm watching that :D

It's making me want to knit my own Pink Ladies' jacket...

So I'm trying to finish up my Ravenclaw scarf to make room for more projects for when the next term on HPKCHC starts. I have the scarf in a drawer on top of my library book (the first Vampire Diaries omnibus - I probably won't finish it for when it's due back) and CDs, and I have a huge project bag in my wardrobe. I can probably lighten the amount of project in my bag if I take my kerchief shawl out and weave the ends in, and if I take out the small zippered bag (which my Ravenclaw scarf might fit into) and my Calorimetry (which needs a button).

I also have the mandrake blanket in a grocery bag, the bobble pillow in a cloth bag, the baby sweater in another cloth bag, and the mobius wrap in my fair trade tote...

Yeah, it's a lot. I know for sure that I want to frog the Thick & Quick vest because it's way too heavy on my shoulders. It's kinda fugly anyway ;) I wouldn't want to wish something that bad on anybody.

I also want to finish my Irish Hiking Scarf...

I might make socks for the Ravelympics. I probably already mentioned that yesterday... lol! And I have a bag that socks could easily fit into - my mom used to use it for making socks before she gave it to me. I just have to clean out the yarn scraps that are in it. Actually, if I have a small project on the go for the first month of the new HPKCHC term, I can use it for that, too.

So, I picked out one of the nougat things that Mom bought and wrapped it for Dan for Christmas. I hope he likes it. I just have to wrap Katie's present and Mom's present, but Mom told me not to wrap hers' until Christmas Eve because she doesn't want to accidentally guess what it is. Knowing Dad, though, he'll probably wait until Christmas Eve to wrap everything for Mom anyway! lol. He's a goof like that.

DUDE. I just had an idea for a Pink Ladies jacket. I could use the mens' jacket pattern from the premiere issue of Knit.1 and just use pink chunky yarn or pink worsted doubled. I have pink worsted, but it's more of a dark-ish rose pink, not a bright, bubblegum pink. Or I can just find a pattern that uses worsted. And then I could embroider the 'Pink Ladies' think on the back. I think embroidering would look better than duplicate stitch. Hmm...

I should reserve those fashion design books from the library that I have on my booklist thing. The library's site has this 'bookbag' thing - well, they don't really call it a 'bookbag' anymore, they just call it the 'list', but it's so that you can keep track of items you want to reserve later. Mine is over 90 items long, lol ;P Anyway, I have a couple of fashion design books on my list, so I might reserve them soonish.

Okay. This is too freaky. Christmas is five days away. That means on Tuesday I'm going to the library. Thursday I'm going with my dad to the bakery to pick up Christmas Day breakfast. And Friday is Christmas Day. Weeeeiirrrrdddd.

The year's going by too fast. It's not fair.