A Knitted Frenzy

I miss having a guy friend.

I had one once.  And technically I still do but our friendship is not the same since he got married in 2004.  There are things we used to talk about in the middle of the night on the phone that just wouldn't be right to talk about now.  There was a closeness we had that I don't feel would be right to carry on.  Because if I were his wife, that kind of thing would make me nervous.

We practically grew up together.  Since grade 8.  When we both pegged our jeans and wore bright turquoise shirts.  Then he moved away but we still kept in touch.  And then I moved to where he moved and he was the only person I knew in the city (besides my mother's relatives.) 

Then the thing that we've only talked about once happened and we didn't speak for four years.  But then he got sick and we became friends again, like nothing ever changed.

I miss the kind of friendship we had.  It wasn't illicit or dirty.  But he knew me and sometimes I told him things I never would tell my girlfriends.  And sometimes I'd ask him questions just to get a guy's opinion.  He is still to this day the only guy I've ever known that hasn't lied to me.  Ever.  And he's the only guy I ever trusted implicitly.  Ever.

But life goes on.

So how do I, a twenty-something year old woman, develop a friendship with a guy, man, that doesn't start off with a love interest?  How does that happen?  Does that happen?  Is it possible to be friends with the opposite sex without sex involved?

I know I've met all the wrong types of guys.  I've met The Liar, The Cheater, The Emotionally Unavailable and The Chef's Special (a combination of all three). I've met Mr. Clingy, Mr. Money and Mr. Tom Cruise (believe me, there are more of his type out there).

I'm tired of all those guys.  I'm tired of being let down and drug around.  I'm tired of not recognizing and labeling the emotional unavailability/cheating/lying too late, when he's also physically unavailable. 

Where are the ones I can be friends with first?  Or just friends with period?  Where are the guys that are done with hidden agendas and want more from a relationship than just sex and food?  (Is there such a thing?  More to a relationship than just sex and food in a guy's eyes?)

Since I have nothing knitterly to report, I'll post this:

I finally caught him with my camera phone tapping away at a box lid.  He does this every single day.  To every single box I might have lying around (I have a few - so sue me).  Do I know why he does this?  Of course not.  He's a cat.  He doesn't talk.  He seems to like it.  I think he's slightly OCD.  Seriously.  Tapping box lids is a daily routine for him.  Like checking my door locks twice before I go to bed or checking the backside of my sock heel flaps after every single stitch - it's comforting.

So he taps. 

Visitor in the Office!

Look who's here visiting me today!  It's Lad, 1/2 brother to my Sam.  :)  Dogs in the office make me smile.  All he wants is a belly rub and a wrist to pull around.  How simple is that?

It's Catching!

**Disclaimer: Because I don't own one of those fancy photo software programs that can smudge faces and make everyone anonymous, I did some serious cropping of these photos to protect the innocent.

My BF J has passed the torch on to the next generation!  I'm so excited for her.  :)  What you see here is the beginning of a scarf her cousin J made for his girlfriend!  He is now the proud owner of knitting needles:

Cousin L was also knitting with J and J this past weekend.  Her very own dead muppet scarf:






It's catching!  It's catching!  Hoards of boys and girls are casting on for the very 1st time, one at a time.  It just makes me smile with each one that learns.  Listen to me, you'd think I was some wise woman sitting here... I'm not.  Just incredibly thrilled to pass on the craft to others that pass it on in turn. 

Over The River & Through The Woods, To Grandmother's House We Go

Went to visit with Grandma this weekend.  I don't have an SUV so my dogs have to cuddle in the backseat of my car.  They make do.

Lack of Foresight

Take a peek at what time it is.  Yep, 4:30 a.m.  Wanna know what that means?  That means I had the lack of foresight yesterday (and this is where my friend J will say "I told her!") and almost experienced a full-blown migraine.

I want you all to do a little exercise with me.  Take your left or right temple, either or, it doesn't matter.  Now, with most of the pressure of a vice on said temple, squeeze as tightly as possible without cracking your skull.  Okay, now add the heat of a bonfire to that point of pressure and let both the pain and heat radiate from that temple.  If you can really truly imagine all that, you'll know what my head felt like 7 hours ago.

It's only been two and a half years since my first one.  I don't know what brought them on.  I do know that the drop in barometric pressure (i.e. rainstorms, thunderstorms, etc.) is a major player, as are any sinus issues, which I've been having this week.  Which should have been a huge clue for me except that sometimes I have a hard time accepting the fact that I get migraines because of the weather.  Especially after 25 years or so of not being diagnosed with migraines, only moderate to severe headaches.

Usually if I feel a twinge of a head ache, an Aleve and Zyrtec cocktail will do the trick (found that one out during one of my experiments).  But yesterday, for some reason, "migraine" never entered my brain until I was standing in the middle of a store aisle with my mother and said "uh oh, I hope this isn't a migraine coming on."

Now why would I think that it's a migraine and not a normal head ache?  Because I just don't seem to get normal head ache's any more.  Any pain in the region of my head seems to be a minor or major migraine.  Like I said before, an Aleve/Zyrtec cocktail will usually do the trick with minor migraines.  Major ones, that's another story.

It was already 8:45 p.m. by the time I got home last night.  I popped a preciously expensive 100mg Imitrex, shot a glass of milk and headed straight for bed.  This might turn into a doozy.  Imitrex normally takes about 30 minutes to hit my system.  Unfortunately, my mom and I didn't finish dinner till 7 p.m. or so, somewhat delaying the process. 

I do a lot of praying during those 30 minutes.  "Please go away, please stop throbbing, please have let the Imitrex go down."  During the last big migraine, prayer didn't do diddly and I met the porcelain gods.  That is one of my least favorite things to do.

When the medicine kicks in, it's like a wave of warm water just flows over me and I relax.  I can sleep at that point.  There will be no throwing up and only a dull ache in the morning.  My doctor recommends taking another Imitrex about 4 hours after the first one, or when I wake up.  But the pain in my head at that point doesn't merit another $3 pill (I only get 9 per prescription to begin with - must conserve!)  It's really a big sigh of relief for me when the meds actually do what they're supposed to do - I don't want to be greedy with those little triangles of mercy.

Now it's 4:30 in the morning and what to do?  I've started laundry.  It's raining and dark so I can't start on getting the dirty egg off my house that I thought was already gone but decided to show back up.  I know I can knit and watch bad tv.  I might just do that.

Crammed in Like Sardines

I have so many pictures to post!

First, knitting with BF J.  We both decided we needed to make a drop stitch scarf like the one I taught BF B to make.

J chose black and I chose red in Lion Brand chunky.  Very fast yarn this stuff.  Simple pattern: knit three rows of garter, *K1 YO the next row, drop YOs, knit three rows of garter, repeat from *.  Easy peasie.



Where there is yarn, there are cats.  Velvet thinks she sneaky sliding into J's lap.  Velvet knows better than to slide into my lap or roll into my cross-leggedness on the couch.  It's hard to knit with a cat chewing on the end of your needle.


And Charlie's not quite as sly.  He's more of a show off really.  He knows his weight is a hindrence in tossing him over the couch.  It's much easier on the back to push him off.  And yet he still comes back for more.


Finished!  I don't have pics of J's yet.  She's bringing it over so I can ooo and ahh over it.  Hers (from what I saw) turned out so pretty.  And now all three of us have matching scarves.

Is that enough for you to stay here in California, J???  Ok, didn't think so.  But I gave it a shot.  :)



Next up we have the world's slowest progress on a test pattern.  I have now gone back to the original yarn, figured out my gauge issues and now have about a foot of the sweater front complete.  Karen claims that this pattern is a "quick knit" but ah ha!  I have figured out how to make it take 4 months to complete.

Not really knitting related but I had a request to post a new pic of Knitasha.  She's migrated to the back deck. 






And of course the obligatory dog picture.... Sam's licking himself for some unknown reason... like he's not wet enough from the torrential downpours.



Charlie's using mind control on Jessie... hypnotizing her into believing that he really is a nice cat and she's been hallucinating all the times he jumped her in the hall and made her skid into the bathroom door.  I think the mind control is working.

Go Team Go!

Because I'm a joiner, I joined:

Stephanie put up the challenge and I'm going for it.  I committed to making three pairs of votive holders because a) I've never knit with wire before nor b) beads. 

I also like this button that I found here:

Very appropriate.  Though I would like to see a Team Zin or Team Comfort Foods.  I don't know how to create buttons so I'll just keep my whining limited to my blog.

I'm home sick today.  So that's all for now.  Unless I take anymore of those drugs that hype me up so much I start cleaning the floors with a toothbrush, then I'll be cleaning the floors with a toothbrush, not posting anymore for today.

Prayers and Thoughts

My cousin has been recalled to the Army.  We haven't been in touch in a number of years but I do think good thoughts for him.

He enlisted, oh five or six years ago? I don't recall exactly.  He was discharged, even though he had a few years left on his 8-year contract.  His training, if I remember correctly, was in the mechanics field.

So, he's been recalled because of the time left on his contract.  He will leave his wife and stepbabies very soon to go pass his physical and then go on to helicopter training.  After that, he's off to Iraq.

He's actually quite excited about it.  This is a 2nd chance at military life for him.  The opportunity to make it a career is there and I think he might go for it after his 18-month stint.

I worry though.  Helipcopters in Iraq.  It's not that I don't have faith in his abilities.  I have less faith in the enemy being human.  I am proud of our soldiers serving our country, protecting us.  I suppose the flip side of that pride is fear for their safety and empathy for their loved ones.

I'm generally not a political person.  I don't rant on and on about the government or anything like that.  I will, however, rant about my family and the possibilities that lie ahead for my cousin.  His wife has as much chance of becoming a widow as he does coming back home alive. 

I don't know what else to say though.  I've only just found out about this and "excited" is not my first emotion.  Pride for our country and support for our troops are first and foremost.  But being grateful for their enthusiasm to protect the US doesn't cancel out the worry I have in my heart.

So Behind

I am so behind on my postings!

I have pics up the wazoo to post:

*Knitting with BF J not last weekend but the weekend before!
*New project pics and updates on projects in progress
*Random furbaby pics
*Old family & friends pics (but since I have to get these scanned in 1st, I don't feel too bad about this.)

Stay tuned!