Crocheting is Fun! I Know Fun!

Wooooo! I'm back from Scotland and officially done with school. So maybe that is old news. I'd like to say that it is my career that has kept me from blogging or other things but I think it is the fact that I was just NOT meant to be a career blogger.

Despite having a great internship/job in the theatre, I fall on hard times financially as paying theatre gigs seem to be hard to come by. PAYING gigs in general are hard to come by. But you don't need to tell the OWS protestors that. Rather than fret away my time crying over rejected applications, I've taken up a much more interesting hobby: crocheting.

I will admit that in the past when trying craft activities to do with yarn, most attempts were a bust (latch hook, cross stitch, friendship bracelet making, knitting...to which I had 4 different teachers!) But apparently with one less hook and YouTube, I can take over the crochet world!!!
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I don't even know if I've interested you enough that you've continued reading this far. Heaven knows that even with a Masters degree I would still get a C in Freshman English 101. If you have stuck through my ramblings and poor grammar I will introduce you to the good stuff.

Since beginning to crochet just over two months ago I have been a crocheting machine. With each new project I take on I usually like to learn a new stitch. With my attention span, I need constant stimulation and learning new patterns along with new stitches is just the way to do it. The internet is a great place to do that. I troll blogs and free pattern sites (i.e.: allfreecrochet.com) and when I come to a pattern I want to make but don't know how to make the stitch, I look to the YouTube instructors. (mikeysmail, artofcrochet by Theresa and some lady with an Australian accent, to name a few, are my favorites.)

Just this week I've made quite a few different things. My lovely model, Belle (Snoopy's sister) models them. She's so adorable in her Pink Lamby New Born Baby Hat.

I generally follow the pattern given although I vary sometimes from the yarn they use or the crochet hook size. I like to try a lot of different patterns to get the feel for different stitches, weights, yarns, etc and I especially love making baby items because I know a certain someone who is having a baby and I think baby clothes are just THE CUTEST. Belle rocks lamby hat too.

This week I happened to really love the blog "Pardon My Chaos" and the patterns she made. They are both trendy and adorable and I love looking at patterns and knowing exactly who to make certain things for. This particular one was actually made for an adult but I wanted to make it into a baby hat so I shortened the amount of stitches. This one is a Simply Slouchy Beanie Baby Hat. Again, isn't Belle the cutest?

I think Pookie was jealous he wasn't getting in on the action. It's not my fault his ears are too big!!! It makes him look gangsta!

That's it! I hope you enjoyed this. Feel free to send me any patterns or blogs you enjoy. I'm always on the look out.

xoxo

In JENeral: For Your Information

In JENeral: For Your Information: "I don't want to be a victim of your inattention; I seek regard, not your preoccupation. I don't want to be your idea of perfection; I, too,..."

In the past four months I've moved to Glasgow to continue my educational journey. I am working toward my MLitt in Dramaturgy and Playwriting. For those of you who do not know what Dramaturgy is, don't worry, I'm not entirely sure either!

I am not good at keeping blogs, diaries, journals, etc although I always begin with the best intentions. Anyway, I just finished my first semester and am starting on my second semester of school. I really enjoy it here and the educational system is on a different level than that of the United States (I feel.) Anyway...I thought I might catch myself up here...perhaps post my latest play. I wrote a 20 minute play for my playwriting final which was a task in and of itself. 20 minutes is a difficult length to write because one has to think of the subject matter one can fit with in the context of 20 minutes. I made lots and lots of revisions and my final outcome was nothing of what I had originally intended.

I am proud of myself.

New Beginnings

Since a week before my birthday, positive energy has been following me. The change in age has brought on a sort of spiritual feng shui and ever since I have been saying, "23 is going to be my year. " What I mean by this is 23 is going to be the year that I face my fears and try new things. I will step outside my comfort zone and meet new people. I will not let anxiety rule my life. I will date, laugh, love and be the person I was meant to be. When I get hurt, I will not let that hurt consume me. The old saying going, "we must learn from our mistakes" and I can honestly say that that can't be any truer.

In the past, I've sat on hurt and let it fester in my heart and soul until it becomes a giant pile of nothing good. I have decided to wipe my slate clean. I have forgiven myself of my past regrets and the people I've wronged. I do this because they probably don't even remember anyway. When I set myself a goal, I will not stop until that goal is complete. I will finish a book. I am going to start by making myself a list of 5 things that I want accomplish in the next week, the next month and the next five months. I won't make these tasks impossible but rather start out with something attainable. I hope that with the support of my family and friends that I can do this.

This week:

1. Clean my room.
2. Finish reading "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."
3. Make a new friend.
4. Plant a flower.
5. Get a new blog follower to help me with my journey.

This month:

1. Go Sky diving. (Yes really!)
2. Go on an adventure.
3. Eat something I've never tried before. (Any suggestions?)
4. Learn to play a song on my guitar.
5. Paint a picture.

Deciding what to do is the easy part. (Although it was pretty difficult for me.) Actually doing it is the hard part. But I will.

This is me now. (and my brother and our puppies Rascal and Maisy)


Let's see what I look like a week from now...or even a month from now.

Writing Naked

"Oh Shit! I'm sitting here in my room without my shirt on and the door is WIDE OPEN," she screams in her head as she realizes that she is exposed to the world.

I often have times when writing where the inspiration does not flow freely like the water of the Niagara River so to give myself a boost, I bought The Writer's Block. When you're in a writing slump, flip to a random page in the writer's block and it will give you something such as a spark word, scenario or story about a famous writer that will help you get your creative juices flowing again. What a love most about it is not the content inside (which is very good if you're wondering) but the fact that it IS actually shaped like a block. A little block that can get you out of a bind. BBB (Big Block Bind...or something.)

I flip open the block and the page says, "Write Naked." SURE! I say. It's hot as blazes in my room and I need any excuse to hang out in the nude in my room. So here I am sitting here naked and I realize: THE DOOR IS WIDE OPEN!!!! Damn! It's a good thing it's after midnight and everyone's asleep.

MICE!

"THE MOUSE"

These mice or this mouse lives inside my wall. I hear them sometimes at night and more recently, I've heard them come into my closet. There is a hole in my closet where a board should be and that's how they make their way in there. While I was cleaning out my closet, I found food in a pair of boots I rarely wear anymore. GROSS! I know! It freaks me out to think of them in there and to know there in there and inside my walls. I know all God's creatures need a home but not in my shoes.



I heard it/them tonight and again, FREAKED OUT! Not that mice aren't cute but I really don't want to see this one. Who knows what it looks like but I am positive it's not as cute as Despereaux! So I set a mouse trap in my closet. Two things: 1. I kind of feel like it's inhumane to kill a mouse. I have all this guilt. Like when my parents tricked me into eating venison and moose. I kept apologizing to Bambi and Bullwinkle every time I saw them. "I'M SORRY!" And 2. I don't want to hear the snap of the trap and the squeal of the poor defenseless mice. That and I don't want to clean it up. "KILL IT MOMMY!" That's what I have to say. Like when Spiders would crawl down the wall at night above my bed. Then Mommy would come in with a tissue and get the sucker! YEAH!

I remember when we were little we had chores (as I'm sure most kids do) and my brother was in charge of the kitchen. He had to remove all the shit from the counters and clean behind everything but he was NOTORIOUS for not doing that. One day my mom goes to inspect the corners behind the canisters and guess what she found? YEP! A mouse. But not just a dead mouse. This mouse must've been dead a long time because all the hair had fallen off and all that was left was the bones. Needless to say, mom did inspections more often.

I sit here anticipating the sound of the mouse reentering my closet and HOPE that if the killing of one mouse doesn't scare the rest away, the exterminator will come and take the rest away.

And as I was posting this, I heard the trap. It wasn't as loud as older traps which is nice...as nice as mouse death can be. I did run downstairs and wake my mom up and she cleaned it up. He was small with BIG beady eyes. Poor guy. But now I know what I'm up against next time it happens!

EDIT: And at 3:30 in the morning there was another mouse. My mom was not too happy about cleaning that one up.

A 9 year olds memory

I love reading biographies. I just finished reading Patti Smith's autobiography "Just Kids" and it was fantastic. Even more fantastic is how she remembered all those details of her life. Could it be that she didn't do drugs? I don't do drugs and I still can't remember what happened yesterday. I've been trying to think of particular things that happened in my childhood that I could include in my memior but nothing comes to mind so maybe I will embellish somethings when push comes to shove. By then every memory will be so outlandish you'd think it was from a J.R.R. Tolkien novel.

"And it was on my 5th birthday that my great great great Uncle Billy Bob presented me with the ring of destiny and told me I had to go on a quest of 5,000 miles. Only then would there be world peace and people would stop eloping with goats."



There are certain things that I remember as a child that later on my mom told me are way off. For instance, when I was one years old, my mother brother and I got into a major car accident on the highway. Everytime I pictured it, I remembered us driving through the woods, a man stepping out with a gun and shooting us. When I told my mom about this, she told me that we were hit by a drunk driver. (That whole thing is a story for a different day.) I don't know where I came up with this. Perhaps I remember seeing the trees on the side of the road and the EMTs? Maybe it was a dream I had afterward. It's funny what we remember and you have to wonder how much is true in biographies when people write about their childhood.

I remember something particular that happened the summer before I went into the fifth grade. My brother, who was eleven at the time, and I had decided to ride our bicycles to my grandmother's house. She had moved to Middletown from Nanuet not long before and so now she was in riding distance from our house. We had a vague idea of how to get there, having been there so many times by car. We must've been more than half way there and neither of us remembered the rest of the route so he opted to stop for directions. (Something he never did EVER again after that.) We were coming over the top of a small hill and he was ahead of me. That's where I blacked out. The next thing I knew I was being rushed into the house of a strange woman. Her son was in the living room watching television and she was yelling to him "get towels, GET TOWELS." Meanwhile blood is gushing out of my mouth. Someone must have called my mom because she was there not too long after in our blue Chevy Astro Van and I was being escorted to the hospital. I remember the doctors scraping gravel out of my mouth and sewing me up with stitches. I had to get over 20 stitches on the inside of my lip and above my top lip where my booger catcher was.



I screamed and cried for my step dad and it's strange but I remember thinking, "He works in a hospital so he can help me" even though he worked security there and wasn't a doctor. But after they numbed my mouth and it didn't hurt anymore, I cracked jokes with the male nurse and tried to ease the situation. I, even to this day can't stand bad times and am always trying to lighten the mood. Later on my brother said that as I was coming down the hill, I ran right into his handlebars and flipped over them, skidding my mouth along the gravel. Luckily I lost no teeth but had fish lips for a week. I ate pudding and mash potatoes for a week and lost my thumb sucking habit. I felt like a rock star that I got 20 stitches and a busted lip. Hey, for a nine year old that's HUGE!