What the Hell is Wrong With Me?

Can someone please explain to my why I thought it was a good idea to stay up the other night and watch The Exorcist at half past midnight? I mean really. Who was I kidding? I was frantically knitting with my feet tucked up under me--got to avoid the bony hand that might pop out from under the couch--absolutely terrified.

There are some horror movies that I can handle and some that I can't. Although I've read the book The Shining a million times, I have never once made it through the whole movie in one sitting. It just scares the bejeezus out of me. (Note: The Shining is a great book to read if you have just moved. It is about people who have also just moved into a new place and are much worse off than you are. For heavens sake--all you have are boxes to unpack.)

I saw a movie called Let's Scare Jessica to Death when I was in about fourth grade and, to this day, mumblemumble years later, I have not gotten over it. Every one of my adult fears is based on that flick. About 10 years ago I found a copy on VHS and thought that I would rewatch it and find it amusing--the same way I did with Trilogy of Terror. Hmmm, not so much. It took me two weeks to get through the damn thing and it still scares the living crap out of me. So much for my "now that you've grown up you may have matured a little bit" theory.

Now on the other hand, I could watch Trilogy of Terror over and over again. It is truly hilarious. How wrong can you go with Karen Black. I really can't believe the Academy has overlooked her for so long.

And then there are those 1950s horror movies. My sister and I used to watch Horror Hotel every time it was on tv. Every Sunday we would get the tv guide out of the paper and see if it was on. It was about a girl named Nan Barlow who accidentally ends up in the middle of a Salem witch coven. Fabulous! There's lots of following-the-sound-of-that-odd-chanting-by-
candlelight-in-my-nightgown going on and a great ending. I mean really, how wrong can you go?

October Was An Odd Month

So my consulting gig ended. Oye! Now I'm looking for a new job. I must say, the timing couldn't be worse but, I'll plug away until I find something good. I have discovered that I really don't like consulting. I've found that I really like to see results and, as a consultant, you can't really do much more than advise people. You don't get to dig into the meat of things and I much prefer that.

That said, I've gotten lots of knitting done!

I FINALLY finished these socks.


I have absolutely no excuse for them taking so long except for the fact that I made a ton of other things on the in-between. There were at least four pairs of wrist warmers, two pairs of mittens and three baby sweaters. Not to mention the start of a blanket and the beginnings of two other pairs of socks.

One of the baby sweaters and both pairs of mittens were for boy's in-vitro niece/nephew and his extra-vitro niece and nephew. However, he kicked me to the curb like so much of yesterday's trash so I have to mail the mittens to his sister tomorrow. I already gave her the sweater last week (when it seemed like we were happy--boy was I wrong) and the mittens were already done when he dumped me so I washed them today and will send them off tomorrow. Cleaning up the loose ends is the suckiest part of all this crap. I'll post photos of the mittens along with a link to the pattern (because it is fabulous) once they are dry.

In the "could it get any worse" category, I went out the other night and decided that it would be healthy for me to flirt a little. But, I got stuck with Fergus--the bi-sexual Irish immigrant who was into tranny three ways and women with big boobs (not that there's anything wrong with that). I suggested to him that perhaps he didn't want to open with that information but couldn't get rid of the lunatic.

Oh yeah, dating is going to be fun! I'm really looking forward to it.

They're Fixing Something

About four years ago I was in the car with my niece--who was about 11 at the time--on my way to have one of those wonderful grown up/kid at work days. We passed a construction site and she asked me what they were fixing. I answered her "They're fixing something." About five minutes later she started laughing and, when I asked her why, she pointed out that not only had I given her a total non-answer but she had accepted it because it sounded good.

So this big old bail out--they're fixing something!

I keep hearing about the bail out but have yet to hear what it actually means. What do they want to approve? What are they voting against? I don't know if I think the bail out plan is a good idea or a bad idea because no one is talking about what it actually means.

I did hear our President on the news today saying that we--as tax payers--would buy the failing assets, wait for the market to correct and then resell the assets. Hello! Aren't these failing (and in many cases artificial) assets the problem. It seems to me like he is saying "We'll take your house of cards, protect it from the wind, and then when the wind stops give you back your house of cards." For crying out loud--it's still a house of cards.

On the other hand, for my Jewish friends, it is the beginning of a new year. I'm going to embrace that as well and wish you all a happy, happy new year and a healthy and wonderful next 12 months.

A Good Day For Ripping Back

I decided that I didn't like my Spring Forward socks. It's not that I don't like the pattern. I do. I love it. And I love the yarn. But together--they're just not working for me. So I'm ripping back and coming up with a new plan for both.

It seems like a good metaphor for life these days. Ripping back and exploring and trying to figure out what went wrong. As in knitting, sometimes, you rip back to a spot where you can fix it. Other times you just rip the whole thing out and try something new with it. Other times, you don't even bother ripping back. You just toss the whole thing in the trash because you hate it all. Between my fractured relationship and my consulting gig ending--I have to say I'm appreciating the zen of ripping out knitting and trying to figure out how to do that in the rest of my life.

So here are the poor little socks before I pull them off the needles.


I think I may just go for plain socks and enjoy the colors in this yarn. Or maybe not. We'll see where all the ripping takes me.

On the other hand, I did finish baby Dylan's sweater and sent it off to him. Again with the favorite baby sweater but I just love making it. It just works out perfect every time!


Yes those are adorable little Peter Rabbit buttons on it. I don't know why the picture came out so blue. I swear it is white (and my bedspread is white!). When you were a kid, did you have summer and winter bedspreads? We always did and I never quite understood it because we didn't sleep under the bedspread so the winter one wasn't going to keep us any warmer. And we had plenty of heat in the Y.O. so it just didn't make sense to me. But I digress.

In other knitting news, we started a little knitting group at the Hastings Farmers Market. We meet at 10 on the grass next to the knife sharpener. It was only two of us last week but it was the first week and I think we'll grow. Of course I have to be late tomorrow because I have to go to the dentist (who is a huge Met's fun so I am sure quite happy right now) so I'll get there as soon as I can. Gotta love a dentist with Saturday morning hours!

A Day for Checking In

Jinkies this has been a crazy few days. Life in the Y.O is okay (not great today--just okay) but I just wanted to do a quick check in.

• I've been up to my eyes trying to get the Annual Report done at work and it has not been an easy task--especially since my boss decided to rewrite the whole damn thing Saturday morning. But we're almost done. Just need to finish proofreading and it can go off to the printer on time.
• On the vanity page of the magazine of my life, I finally got a haircut! It took forever but it looks really nice. Now we just have to finish fixing the color and I'll be good to go.
• On the Boy front, I am still heartbroken. Although my Fatal Attraction feelings have passed (they really didn't last long), I am still terribly sad. It's awful to have someone lie to you over and over and then refuse to talk to you about it. I think I've finally slowed down on my crying but I can't be sure of that yet.
• Does anyone have some good ideas for birthday presents for 10-year-old triplets (2 girls and a boy). I have no ideas. They may just get cash. Or underwear.
• I'll post some finished knitting tomorrow (I finished Dylan's sweater) and some photos of the beautiful treats I bought myself at the sale at Katonah Yarn. Got some sweet stuff.

Even though it's lousy out, I may head down to the Y.O. waterfront tonight and treat myself nice. I could use a little pampering.

P.S. If you haven't seen the move Once, run out and rent it right away. It's wonderful. Although the song about the lies sent me over the edge. But I survived.

Finally--something made me laugh!

Okay so I had a totally crappy week. Won't bore you with the details because they are all things that all of us have gone through. Nothing original here--keep on moving folks.

But tonight--that all changed. In a moment of complete and total patheticness (Hi--my name is Pathetica and I'm emotionally handicapped. Hi Pathetica!) I You Tubed the Def Leppard song Love Bites.

And I couldn't stop laughing. The halos of hair. The drama. The 80s. Oh good God, if I knew that this was all it would take to make me feel better, I would have done it a week ago.

So, for your viewing pleasure, I give you:

Love Bites

Click it. Live it. Love it.

P.S. You might have to right click it to open it but it's worth it for the split screen and the earring in the opening sequence.

Don't get bitchy on Match.com

Does anyone else think it is "not okay" that some guy asked for a picture because he wanted to know--and this is a direct quote--"what he was talking to." WHAT! For crissakes--I'm not a what, I'm a who. I checked out match.com because I had a crappy crappy crappy week and my relationship is ending and I come to find that this is what is out there--a guy who refers to me as a what instead of a who.

Am I over reacting?