Day 8: Oh, its great!

Rainy and yucky here in Rochester. But's nothing to say of the shit storm that apparently happened in Wisconsin. What happened Wisconsin? I leave you alone by yourself and look what you did! Look at Arizona's example. Democrats win control of the House in Wisconsin but when it come to letting 2 people who love each sign some legal document that says they can get certain tax benefits you get all in a huff. Today I am sorry to say, I am not happy and proud to be from Wisconsin.

More later...

Day Seven

Hey this blogging every day thing is going pretty well.
Today was quite uneventful. It was just busy and full of work. That is what is to be expected on day 2 of week 10. All this counting of days - it's day 7 of NaBloPoMo, its week 10 day 2. Makes me dizzy.
So in mundane news in Mary's life: got a decent grade on my last Data Anal exam. Yesss. Ummm. All I really did today was a lot of school work. Nothing funny or noteworthy happened. I got my final photo project just about finished. I'm sorry. Its that absentminded lethargy that happens during week 10. Your brain is really only focused on school. But soon! I will have a copy of No One Cares What You Had for Lunch of my very own. And I will have 100 possible blog post to choose from.

A thought for the road...I am listening to Nirvana's Unplugged in New York album. It is strange to hear Kurt Cobains voice and think about his death. Back in my teen angst days, he was a figure I clung desperately to. His words sustained me in a way and reassured me that I wasn't the only person who felt the way I did. (As I am sure he did for many people.) Here I am several years later, listening to the music of a man dead for 10 years and I am casually writing about him on my blog. Listening to his songs makes me think about how far I've come. I can't remember feeling that much in despair. I'm glad I'm so far from it and I'm proud of myself. I think Cobain's music helped me out of it and listening and looking back, I am happy where I'm at.

Day 6 Yo!

First things first: big birthday shout outs go to Miss Sworva Jean, who turns 21 today! Damn girl! I can't wait to come home and take you to Chester's!!!

Yes...home. I was talkin' to Miss Sworva all through class this morning on my computer using the internets and talking to her made me all excited to go home. It has taken me a while to appreciate the trappings of home. When I started college, I was so excited to get the hell out of Wisconsin and the Midwest and have this big adventure. Going home was such a downer. But now its different. There is no one who equals my Mom or Dad or my Sworva or even my kitty. Going home means that your mom takes care of you and you don't have to do laundry or worry about cooking for yourself because your mom missed you and she just wants to do stuff for you. My Mom is so excited for me to come home. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out first thing and I think she wants one of her babies back to nurse. She keeps talking about making me pudding and such. And then there is Sworva! And we can craft and drink the seasonal Leininkugels and catch up. I can't wait.

Week 10 is coming along. It seems everything will fine once I can get past Wednesday. Wednesday seems to be the day when alllll the profs decided to make things due. To torture poor Mary. But Wednesday. Take a deep breath. Let it out. I can do this. I can make it to Wednesday. I just remembered. After Wednesday I still have to get my final film done for AV Production and study like crazy for data analysis. Don't celebrate too soon. Deep breaths. Soon this craziness will all be over.

Day 5 of NaBloPoMo

Wee! 5 days in a row! I'm doing it, doing it, yeah! I was looking at the stats for this blog and I'm nearing 350 posts. Wowie zowie! I think I started this thing back in sophomore year of high school. It is now junior year of college. Looooooooong time.
Erin is watching Family Guy and I can hear snatches of it every now and then. It is quite silly to only hear fragments. So today was another day of doing nothing. Well. Not so much. I worked on the word part of my final photo project. The assignment is to write technical articles about some photographic process or another. So I chose to write about fluorescence: how to do it, what it is, etc, etc. I have most of the words down, now I just need to finnish taking the pictures. I can't believe the quarter is almost done - just week 10 and finals left. I can't wait to go home. Well, I guess going home will be ok. I'm getting the wisdom teeth out which will be...interesting. My Pops keeps telling me it is going to be oh so horrible and my Moms says not to listen to him, he just had a bad experience. I don't really know what to think of the whole process. I'm ok with pain. I've had teeth drilled and the only midly unpleasant part was when they nvocain shot went in. Other than that it was fine. So I think sipping on smoothies and eating cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving will be ok. I'll live. It'll involve a lot of couch time. So maybe I won't be too hopped up on painkillers to get some knitting done. I hope.
I slept for a while this afternoon. I think I am fighting a virus or sinus infection of some sorts. I think its better to sleep on the weekends than to be sleeping a lot this coming week. I need my energy, yo! Its week 10! Wake up Mary.
Perhaps it is time to put my nose back to the grindstone and see what else I can squeeze outta my brain on fluorescence.

Where did the afternoon go? I was innocently reading and then all of a sudden I was asleep and now it's 5:30. I guess I was tired. Eh, its the end of the quarter.
So NaBloPoMo is going pretty well. It's kinda exciting reading posts every day from everyone in the entire world ever. Posting every day means even posting on the weekend. That's cool.
Sorry. I'm still pretty fuzzy and bewildered from sleep. I'll have something better to write about tomorrow.

Day 3

Maybe I should post earlier in the day? Hmmm
So this whole post a day thing is going pretty well. I kinda like it. Erin and I just made a Jack Apple Pecan Spice cake. What is this? you ask. Well. It is a spice cake with apples, Jack Daniels (yes! whiskey!), pecans and other assorted goodies. It is in the oven as we speak. Well, as I write this. The cake batter requires two tablespoons of whiskey while the glaze requires three. Um, which can you taste the whiskey more in? This cake has the feel of the perfect cake for fall. Warm and moist with apples and...whiskey.
I was late for work today. Oopsie. Dan spent the night and he kept pressing the snooze button on my alarm. Then decided to tell me it was 7:27. Thanks dude. I threw on clothes and raced out the door. I made it there by 7:40. Damn I walked fast. I hate being late. But I think I posted sometime back about that? Not sure.
Another thing I hate is checking out and returning equipment to the photo cage. We are doing group projects in AV production and my group is conducting a lot of interviews as part of our film. The people we chose to interview all have different schedules and of course that leads to filming on different days. So that also means checking out equipment on different days too and then returning it. So I was returning the video camera and tripod. The cager who was checking me in was real snotty. Oh! My favorite! First he bitched at me because I put the tripod in its case the wrong way...um I didn't know there was a right way? Then as he was checking in each indivdual part of the camera kit proceeded to again give me shit about how the cords were arrange. They needed to be neatly coiled. Again, I had no idea. I've checked out a stupid camera tons of times before and returned it the way I found it and no one has said anything about how the cords were coiled. Then he made me coil them. Well fuck that. Cagers piss me off. I know its busy up there and you are responsible for expensive camera equipment but don't take it out on me. My job isn't the easiest too, ok? I'm actually responsible for people's classwork and if I fuck up I'm in bigger trouble then you. Shooooooove it.
On to nice topics.
Um
I guess I don't have any. I'll let you know how the cake was.

Awww Yeah Day 2

Elle's Finished Hat
Originally uploaded by tohellwithme.

This is Elle. This is Elle wearing her new hat, hand-knit by Me! Last November Elle asked me to knit her a hat in a specific style and even bought yarn for me. Well I tried real hard. But for some reason (much like seed stitch) increases bewildered me. So the hat sat in a plastic bag in my stash box. I finally felt confident enough to pick the hat back up again and knit the whole thing up in less than a week. I really love the color - I think it really suits Elle, besides the fact that it's called "roasted coffee bean" and Elle is a coffee freak. So my habit of knitting hats lives on.
Sorry. That last bit was kind of disjointed and weird. I'm trying to listen to the This American Life podcast. It's really good by the way.
So its day 2. Yup. My data anal exam went pretty well I think. Is it weird that I kind of like data analysis? It's the only math I've ever done that really makes sense and that I can see myself using in my life. There is something really satisfying about crunching numbers and going through the steps and coming up with something coherent and cohesive rather than x=2.5 or whatever. It's numbers that actually have meaning and it forces me to think a lot about the processes I'm going through. I can see why its in the curriculum in our major.
It's Thirsty Thursday. Yay. Who cares if you have to work at 7:30AM? I don't. Wee.

First Post of NaBloPoMo

Happy NaBloPoMo month! Ummm so I know its 10:58 on day one but better late then never right? Remember a few posts back when I was complaining about how Data Analysis was taking over my life? Yeah well I have an exam tomorrow morning. I like to obsessively study before the exams I take. For the classes that matter to me, anyway. We are allowed a 5x7 notecard and my writing on my card is teeny tiny. You need a microscope to read it. The joints in my hand hurt from writing so small and knitting up a storm when I wasn't writing big enough for an ant to read. I am gonna be so glad when that exam is over tomorrow but my hand is gonna hurt a lot. I'm left handed and I've always held my writing utensil of choice kinda funny. I guess my elementary school teachers couldn't deal with it because they put me in "pencil grip therapy." I had to meet with this lady once a week or so and we would do all sorts of exercises to get me to get used to writing the "correct way." The therapy sort of took but I found I couldn't make my writing as neat when I griped my pencil the correct way. So nowadays, I switch back and forth. Only problem is, the "wrong" way makes my hand cramp a lot faster then it used to.
I was going to post about another knitting project I had finished but my bed is calling me. I'm not really a night person. If I get going on something, then I can be up till 1 or 2 working on it but really I prefer to go to bed at a decent time and wake up early. So while I'm between the sheets around 11, I'm really asleep around more like 12 or 1. I stay up and read or watch downloaded TV shows on the computer. Lately I have been staying up to knit, which is dangerous, but I find late night is the only time I have to knit. It would be just like me to stay up all night knitting.
So tomorrow I will be better at posting earlier. I'll let you know how the exam goes. And Miss Sarah McK? Don't get discouraged about blogging! It is fun to write for yourself even if no one reads it. That's why I've been doing it. Because I can type faster than I can write in a journal. My hand can't keep up with my thoughts. So keep on, keepin' on. You're doing great!

PS - How crazy was Lost tonight? I was worried the show turning into suckiness but tonight was an episode that went back to the way it was season 1 and 2. Damn.

See you tomorrow!

I'm doing it! Yes Miss Sarah McK, roommate extraordinaire and I had a little talk about blog posting and we both came to the conclusion that NaBloPoMo should be participated in. So Sarah's link is over in the sidebar as is a funky button linking you to the NaBloPoMo homepage. Yes!

Finished Project!

Big Bad Baby Blanket
Originally uploaded by tohellwithme.

Hey how ya doing? I'm cool. Yeah I know its been. A while. I like how I talk to my blog like more than a handful of people actually read it. I've been busy with school and such. Ruby is over now, so I think my life will not be so crazy. But it is also week 9. Let the crazy commence. But! I am posting this to tell you about a finished knitting project that I've much neglected to write about. Above is the Big Bad Baby Blanket from Stitch n' Bitch. It was knit with Knitpicks Shine in Grass and Holiday. (2 strands held together.) I love the effect the solid color and the variegated have together. I ordered the yarn in January when cousin Maggie announced to the family that she was pregnant. We Mihajlovs were excited, we love babies. I decided that since it was January and the baby wasn't due till June maybe I could get a little something knitted for the kid. I decided upon the blanket. But alas, school got in the way. For some reason also seed stitch utterly bewildered me and I put down the blanket in frustration for many months. Well, that baby was born and the blanket still wasn't done. My mom came to visit in July and helped me get the seed stitch under control. The blanket was back on track. I knit it up in about 3 weeks. Then it was blocked and sent off. This was also my first project that I blocked. It was scary. But in the end, everything turned out real nice. I got a card in the mail last week from Maggie thanking me for the blanket. I didn't realize before how good it feels it knit for another. Especially family. She sent pictures too. That kid has gotten big and cute. He is definately (he's a boy by the way) a Mihajlov. I see traces of our family's signature features in his face with a mix of his Pops too. But of course I see the Mihajlov.
So I've got a few other projects to blog about but that is enough for one day. I was thinking about signing up for NaBloPoMo as I think it would be an interesting challenge. Can I do it? Do I have time? Would I fail miserably? I have one day to decide. Might be an interesting writing excersise.

Math Is Evil

In this post, Mary talks about how evil math is.

I apologize blog for neglecting you. You see I'm taking this class. It's called Data Analysis. Maybe you've heard of it? I didn't take it by choice, it is required. Required! The problem is, it has taken over my life. When I am not in other classes, I am in Data Analysis. When I am not doing homework for other classes, I am doing Data Analysis homework. I am up till late late doing homework for this evilness. When I am not thinking normal thoughts, I am thinking about Data Analysis. Each week I am consumed, swallowed whole almost, by the gaping beast that is Data Analysis (homework). The weekends? Are used for catching up on Data Analysis text note taking-ness! And don't even get me started on prepping for an exam in that class. I have been obsessed with studying for the past 2 days. The only reason I am even writing this post is because I am telling the little voice in my head that screams "Don't you have something to do for Data Analysis?" to shut up SHUT UP. I have a test tomorrow. I am gonna kick that test's ass yo. And then? I'll get maybe a day or two off, and then its back to Data Analysis again. Ugh.

I can't believe how busy I've been. I find every spare hour I have is scheduled in to do something. It is a bit daunting. But I like being busy. I hate being idle. School, work, rugby, sleeping. Everything must be scheduled. I barely have time to stop and notice that the trees are changing and the air is crisp and hey is it October already?

This weekend is Parent's Weekend. I am really looking forward to seeing my Mom and Dad. This year for the rugby game, I will actually be in for more than 10 minutes. (Unlike last fall but that is a long story for another time.) Everytime I think about the game, I get excited little butterflies in my tummy. Because we think we can win against our arch-nemesis, Buff State. Because we have been practicing hard all week. Because our field is a shit show (to say the least) and we've been practicing on it all week and its a home game so we are used to it's mushy consistency and they won't be. Because we all want our parents to see us kick some serious ass.

Love you all. Miss you Sworva Jean. People ask me about my bracelet and when I explain about who Evelyn is, I miss you all the more.

Rochester, Knitting, and Other Things

I deleted the last post. I don't want to whine on this blog anymore about how sad and melancholy I am. I am trying to overcome depression and I will not let myself get so low that I find it necessary to type it out and lay it down for other people to read about. Its annoying. I am gonna be stronger from now on.

Today was a good day. You know when kind of notice the change from summer to fall, a couple of weeks after school starts when the weather changes ever so slightly? Suddenly its crisper and the mornings are cold and the afternoons get darker faster. Today was one of those days. It was beautiful. I've always tried to decide what my favorite time of year is. I thought definately it was summer for awhile because of hot weather and ice and swimming in lakes and no school. Then I was all about winter because of sweaters and hot chocolate and snow. But I think this time of year is my favorite. Its transition time and the air feels so ripe with possibilities. But I am fickle and often feel like every time of year is my favorite. I don't think I should have to choose.

But to get to the point. Today Rochester suprised me. I'm sorta limited in my explorations of Rochester - I have no car, the bus system is unreliable and I'm stuck at RIT. Henrietta is very different from the rest of the area. It's a place where people come to work, not live. But Katie took me to her neighborhood where she had found a yarn store. It was tiny with lime painted walls and shelves brimming with yarn. Everything I touched was so soft. A giant, fluffy white dog took up most of the tiny store. The owner was so nice and she chatted with us. I was really excited to find this place as Rochester seems to have a dirth of good yarn shops. There is one down on E. Henrietta Road but it is mostly full of novelty yarn. A nice selection of Lamb's Pride though. There's another one downtown in Midtown Plaza. That one is great but it is all the way downtown and Midtown Plaza is a bit creepy. I think I will definately come back when I am looking for something special. Down the street Katie and I visited the gay coffee shop. We bought delicious smoothies - berry blast for Katie and blueberry pomegrante for me. We both felt giddy with the discovery of the yarn shop and the coffee place. Rochester is full of suprises.

So I finished the baby blanket I made for cousin Maggie's new baby boy. It turned out beautifully. As soon as I finish this I am going to block it and hopefully send it out next week. I really hope she likes it. It's enourmous and so soft. I picked out cotton yarn because he is a California baby and wool would just not do. I hope another of the cousins gets preggers soon so I can knit another one.
I am also working on yet another hat for a friend. I also got some nifty yarn to make dishcloths with. Knitting is lifting my spirits.

Um so go watch this. It will make you giggle.

Adventures in America's Dairy Land Part 2 of 2

I recieved a dispatch from home today. The rotted meat stentch will not go away. My mother reported that putting boxes of baking soda in the freezer only made it worse. (What?????) Any suggestions?

Ok, part 2. Part 2 is not nearly as exciting as part 1 but I still find it shocking. Last Thursday Northern/Western Wisconsin was hit by a huge string of severe thunderstorms. These storms were pretty nasty, bad enough for the storm sirens to go off. Of course being typical Wisconsinites, we ignored the sirens. Anway, no severe thunderstorm is not without its share of damage. Usually downed tree limbs, power outages, etc, etc. Our house has been lucky the last few years. We've managed to escape with very little damage to our vegetation. And we our house is situated in such a way that it is backed up into some lovely woods. So one would expect tree limbs everywhere after a storm - not so. In our front yard along the curb, we have 3 trees planted. My father planted them when we first moved in about 10 years ago. They were but mere saplings at that time but have grown into might trees since. The middle tree of the 3 has been suseptible to danger though. In the past few years its been damaged by lighting, making it weak. Sadly, the middle tree did not survive this storm. Lighting attacked it again, hitting it right at the base where the roots meet the soil. Where does so mighty a tree have to fall? Why, right into the narrow cul-de-sac street of course! The tree stretch almost to the other side, practically blocking the road. Mother came home after the storm had passed from a reading teacher function of some sort and announced that the tree was down. There was general rushing outside to view it even in the dark and gnashing of teeth. (Well I gnashed my teeth.) Needless to say, I am saddened by the loss of our tree. The 3 trees at the edge of the yard were like a beacon of comfort or arms craddling our house. It made the vast front yard seem less expansive and homey. Now there are 2 and they are much too far apart for my taste. The City was called in the morning to come pick up the downed tree. I didn't get a chance to photograph before it met its end. I stupidly took a shower thinking the City would not be so prompt in its pick up. My mother watch the tree, and said that it fought valiantly against the wood chipper the City vehicle had brought along to make transport easier.

Fare thee well tree, I shall miss you.

Adventures in America's Dairy Land Part 1 of 2

My visit home was refreshing and relaxing. I got some of my issues solved and allowed my mom to dote on me. Wisconsin was surprisingly enjoyable this time around. However no trip home is without the requisite "adventure." Ok so not really an adventure per se, but more like "weird shit happening to Mary while she happens to be visiting home."

So we have a big ol' deep freezer. It lives in the laundry room. Inside my mother stored a ham, a turkey, various meat products and other frozen sundries. Somehow, someway the freezer was turned off on Tuesday last. No one knows how it happened. The whole family didn't notice its idle state untill Wednesday when a suspicious, rancid smell permeated the entire house. I was minding my own business in the den, trying to watch Gilmore Girls when I smelled it. I thought something in the garbage had gone bad. Soon I was summoned to the laundry room by dearestr Mumsie. There the smell was especially heinous. There, I finally figured out what could possibly produce a stentch such as that: spoiled meat. I have personally never experienced the distinct smell that is spoiled meat and I'm not proud to say that now I know and can identify such a scent. Mother and I removed all the defrosted items from the freezer and sealed them in garbage bags. Everything was placed back inside the freezer to await the arrivial of my father. What to do? There was melted freezer ice mixed with meat water. It couldn't be bailed out easily. Would Dad have the magic solution? Alas, no he didn't. We ended up proping the freezer up on one end with a pile of books. And guess who got to bail out the nasty water? I did! I thought I might die with my head stuck down in nose-offending depths. But I survived and lived to tell the tale. Sadly, it doesn't end there. The next day, the stench had not faded any. I was forced yet again to plunge into the icy depths of the freezer, this time armed with a lemony-cleaner to try and fight the stentch. The cleaner mixed with the meat smell was so strong that I choked and felt the back of my throat burning. But again, I cheated death. The lemon stuff didn't help too much. We finally ended up leaving the freezer door open and avoiding the laundry room. So the moral of the story is: don't unplug your deep freezer. Duh.

And tomorrow: the story of the tree.

So I'm home for the week bitches. Yeah I know. You are really excited.

So the story of Pablo. I've always wanted a hamster. My parents wouldn't let me have one when I was a youngster. So I made one out of clay and put it in a small cardboard box I had cut the sides out of to make "windows." I covered the windows with clear plastic wrap so you could see inside. I even make cedar shavings out of constuction paper. I loved that hamster. Till I squished him. So then Pablo came along. My cousin Cindy (who I worked for this summer) had a friend who had just gotten a puppy and could no longer give the family's hamster the attention he deserved. So she was looking to find him a good home. I jumped at the chance to adopt him. So I did, duh. I was thinking of naming him something like Taco or Burrito and then getting him a friend and naming it Taco or Burrito too. So they would be Taco and Burrito. But I met Pablo and realized that 2 hamsters wouldn't work. I don't know why so don't ask. The little girls in the family I adopted him from had named him Pablo and I liked that name. I thought it suited him. So I kept it. As far as namesake? Let's say Pablo Picaso. And so I loved him and we are happy together. Except for that time he was a bad hamster!! I was letting him run around the apartment in his ball when I noticed he hadn't rolled into the living room in a while...a long while. Suspicious, I went looking for him. Maybe he got stuck somewhere? NOOOOOOO. I was walking toward my bedroom, Pablo scrambled out from underneath one of the armchairs in the living room. He was free of his ball! He ran into my room and under my bed. Uh oh. This was a problem. How was I going to get the little bastard out? How did he get out? Eventually, Pablo decided to stop being a bad hamster and he came out. Back into his cage he went. Bad boy! I still don't know how he got the top off his ball and got out. That's why duct tape is important when you own a hamster.

I'm home for many reasons. I've been having headaches/migraines for about a year now and they are starting to become more frequent and bothersome. I was going to see a doc in Rochester, but my mom the worrier wanted me to come home. So I did. Hopefully, I can get some answers. Its nice and totally weird to be home. I haven't been in EC since March and I hadn't seen my Dad or bro since May. So its nice. But I also can't wait for school to start again when I get back to the ROC. I've missed it so. Did you know that summer is really boring? Well it is.

Introducing...




Pablo!! The most amazing hamster in the world!!!



I love him so.

Hey am I dead? Nope not in the slightest. I have just not been doing anything interesting. Oh yes. But! You can look at my pretty pictures. Uh huh. I really need school to start. For reals.

I don't care what you say, Motley Crue's Too Fast for Love was an amazing album. Yeah that's right. I'm not embarassed to admit it either. I spent much time in my car driving fast over hills in the boonies to that album. Don't you judge me.

Um Crawdaddy much? Booyah.
Reminds me of that time at Camp Manitou that we went Crayfishin' for Hobby Hour and we used Lester Lace with a paper clip bent into a hook on the end for a "fishing pole" and a piece of hotdog for bait. That is the only way to catch Crawdaddies. The Wisconsin Way. When we didn't end up catching anything (and I had no idea why) we made up song instead. Because we had promised the rest of the camp crayfish for dinner and we failed. But it is a happy memory.

Well shoot, its been almost a gull dern month since I posted something in this here blog. Damn. I've had computer issues. My harddrive decided to have a stroke. Everytime I tried to turn on my computer it emitted a high pitched scream. Oh poor computer what did I do to you? So off la compy went to Apple where they fixed her up in a jiffy. She came back fresh as a daisy. And wouldn't you know it, Smartie (that's me) hadn't thought to back up her music or digital snapshoties a head of time so she lost all that stuff. Sweet. But my computer no longer screams.

Summer time in the ROC is quite fine. It is hot and sticky. It rains. But luckily it is not flooded here. Although one day it did rain and all these Crawdaddies appeared in the parking lot, snapping at the pedestrians like they owned the place. Um, weird. And the muskrat/swamp monster had a baby apparently. Cuz there is a smaller version of it running around. However I do miss my dearest Sworva. Oh my love. I wish I knew how to quit you.

I am turning 21 on Monday next. The fact that this momentous occasion is a mere week away is quite daunting. Everyone in college awaits this age with much excitement and then proceeds to celebrate it with zeal and gusto. Which is exactly what I wil be doing. Some days, I still feel 17. I don't feel as if I am I should be as old as I am. I am halfway done with college and almost legal. Who am I?

A happy 4th to you all whilst I ponder this question....