welcome 2004...

It's almost here and quite frankly, I'm more than ready to let go of 2003. It was a rough year with lots of personal tests along the way.

There are some new/renewed things I want to try in 2004 (part of my "exploring" for the new year):

pinhole camera photography (Quaker Oats, here I come!)

get back to my B/W 35mm photography; I started getting sort of good at it and got lazy...

oil pastels (mainly of animals--I'm obsessed with animal portraits)

get back to writing poetry (it's where I came from)

get back to playing my piano (I can't figure out what has happened there)

resume fiddle lessons (so much fun!)

maybe a little oil painting for fun (exercising different muscles)

triangular weaving (my mom built three looms for me!!!!)

I think one of the most wonderful things I have found out about blogging is that I have found so much inspiration in other artists and crafters. I mean, some of you guys are just INCREDIBLE! Painters,collage artists, writers, photographers, sculptors, silversmiths, fiber artists, you name it! There's even a group of you knitters whom I personally identify as "Scary Knitters"--you people frighten me you are so prolific and skilled. Don't you ever sleep?

All of you guys are such a source of inspiration. Thank you for sharing your work and your wonderful gifts. Sometimes I feel alone in my aspirations, but having this e-connection to other similar folks has really given me a feeling of relatedness I needed, however virtual it might be. It's so nice to go to a blog and feel like "hey, we should live closer!"

Here's to 2004...I hope it's a fantastic and exciting year for you all! EXPLORE!!

Creation is a better means of self-expression than possession;
it is through creating, not possessing, that life is revealed.
--Vida D. Scudder (social activist and educator)

spinning and such...

Finally, some photos. Here is the hand-dyed angora/silk/wool I spun up and Navajo-plied. I started a little neck scarf (one end is pulled through the hole) last night. I hope I'll finish it tonight.

Next batch (from L to R): 2 ply Shetland, commercially dyed blue wool sample, single ply merino cross I processed myself from raw fleece; Navaho-plied mohair, wool and silk from roving I got at SAFF. At the front is a little mystery sample skein.

And more lovely wool/mohair roving from SAFF I spun into two-ply. To the right, some merino I spun into thick singles--gonna dye it soon.

And of course the gratuitous picture of our youngest kitty, Grayson. He's sleeping on an afghan I knitted--between Daddy's ankles, who is watching the tube.

really?

From The Guardian:

A psychiatrist who evaluated Germany's self-confessed cannibal told the murder trial yesterday that Armin Meiwes was completely sane but had "emotional problems".

No shit.

monday...

I thought today was Monday, but I just realized today is Tuesday. How about that?

Last night I took pictures of all the yarn I spun and plied over November and December, as well as progress on a tiny pull-through handspun angora scarf I started last night. (I could only afford a tiny bit of the beautiful hand-dyed roving from a vendor at SAFF so there wasn't much yarn to play with after it was all spun up. I navaho-plied it and lo and behold, the plying technique does indeed preserve the color sequence just like the spinning gods said it would. I could have done a better job on spinning it, but it turned out okay...first time I've spun angora...much easier to mess up than with wool. I think I might try tonight to dye some of the skeins I've spun. Ooooooh, fun! I'm stuck doing laundry all night tonight anyway.

So, why aren't you seeing any of those pictures? That would be because I forgot to bring my USB card reader with me. Yup...brought everything with me except for that handy little tool. You'll have to wait until evening. I know you are balling your eyes out.

I'm off to eat crackers for lunch and knit a few rows on my angora scarf. What an exciting life I have.

moving right along...

Ah, crap. Back at work. But that's okay--it's a short week (again, woo-hoo!).

So, to recap this stellar year of 2003:

I gained the 30 pounds back that I lost.

We went totally broke.

I started selling my artwork in earnest.

I learned to spin and got a wheel.

I bought way too many knitting books and had no time to knit.

I spun more yarn than I know what to do with.

I destashed my commercial yarn by at least one-third on Ebay.

I made my first non-A (B+) in grad school.

I got to enjoy two one-week classes with Jean Hicks and Akira Blount.

I found out that Akira's first name used to be Betty.

I found out that my dad has learned to show some love and sympathy.

I learned that there is yet more serious work to do in my marriage but feel confident we are going to make it for the first time.

I realized that I need a bigger support network.

Daddy's kitty, Peanut, passed away from a cancerous tumor.

I didn't get my hair cut even once in 2003.

I quit coloring my hair.

I colored my mom's hair for the first time in her life. We both hated it.

I got a drum carder (oh-la-la!).

I got my first pair of Brittany birch knitting needles. Now I wish all my needles were Brittanys.

I made my husband swear he wouldn't back out on a hobby farm when we can afford it.

I learned how to Navajo ply and make silk fusion.

I actually printed business cards for my artwork.

My dogs continued to get fatter, as both my husband and I did.

I gave up on one of my old friends.

I made new friends.

and it was good...

I had a great Christmas. I felt connected to my family...shopping was kept to a minimum and I got some gifts from hubby that were really meaningful to me--one of which was a prayer box necklace. I am going to put into it my one and only resolution for 2004: "Explore."

Now, on to the pictoral:
Rasta Santa (played by my brother with my mother by his side) came to see us and gave us all prettily wrapped reindeer droppings...you should hear his Jamaican accent--my brother is so terribly white...


whilst Princess Sadie munched upon delicious Christmas rope monkey...


darling Pickles enjoyed treats of exotic biscuit...


and the kitties were enthralled with jungle toys of plush and feather...




all in all, we were exhausted from the excitement and fellowship Christmas brought to us in abundance. Atticus was the first to nap...


After Christmas, we gave my mother a surprise birthday party. It was her 70th! Happy Birthday Ma! You are awesome!

merry Christmas!!

I love Christmas. I really do. And to completely copy Lizzie's idea:

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
-Dr. Seuss

I miss Dr. Seuss.

So, when I got home, the inevitable happened. I took the first niece's hat out of the running. I wasn't happy with it. The purple wool I made it with turned out to be a disappointment and wouldn't firm up the way I wanted it to. So I ditched it and laid out wool for TWO new hats--that had to be done in one night. These were "hats-on-a-ball" so I needed a partner to cover the wool with pantyhose (I'll explain this all someday with pictures so you can see what the process is). But hubby didn't get home until 8 p.m. Yikes! I was getting really nervous, especially since these hats were going to be the girls' main Christmas presents from us. But, as luck would have it, they both turned out really great and I actually got to bed at a decent hour. I used superfine Merino wool which felts really fast and smooth. I think I turned these two out at absolutely record time. No matter how bad I feel, felting almost always makes me feel better. It's great upper-body exercise and so satisfying to me. Now, the challenge is to get them DRY before tomorrow morning!!! Merino really hangs onto moisture. I guess the hairdryers will have to come out tonight.

Speaking of tonight....my family is coming over for a little potluck Christmas fun. My family is very laid back so I don't have to scrub the house with a toothbrush like some people feel obligated to do. It should be fun and the cats will be thrilled to have eight more hands in the house to pet them!

Then later tonight, hubby and I will exchange stockings and give the pups and kitties their presents. I will be sure to take pictures.

Tomorrow, we trek over to spend Christmas morning with hubby's family and the nieces. It should be fun and I will be excited to see the girls in their hats. They are really well-off financially and sometimes I really worry about them becoming spoiled. They get so many presents that they get TIRED of opening them. That's too much. They get everything they want all the time. Oh well, I don't have kids, so I guess I shouldn't talk, but I just worry that they will not understand the difference between things and love. I think that's why I like to MAKE something for them because it's not a store-bought luxury.

Hubby and I will exchange our few gifts somewhere in there...we haven't decided where we fit in the schedule just yet.

And I am so thankful for all the wonderful blessings I have enjoyed this year and continue to enjoy.

Whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope yours is filled with love and generosity of spirit!

OH, I ALMOST FORGOT: TODAY IS MY BROTHER'S BIRTHDAY---HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO'!!!!! LOVE YA!

whine.com

That's what I should call my blog at this point. And I'm about to do it again today. After taking my first dose of mega-biotics, I woke up with the most tremendous headache I have ever had in my life. I was getting sick to my stomach, could only open my eyes to slits and stare straight ahead. Like Joe Schmoe says "What is going on?!!!" Anyway, I had to take some headache medicine (that made about 25 pills fighting over my body) and lay back down for a while. Maybe I should rename the blog "pill-popper.com."

The bladder infection symptoms have been greatly lessened. And THAT IS A GOOD THING. I peed a beautiful emerald green this morning. I was hoping it would be blue. I really am not fond of emerald green. Oh well. I don't expect peeing to be an artistic endeavor. I've been sent to the urologist again for January. Going to see the urologist rates pretty high on the humiliation scale. Pretty soon I won't even care if I'm walking naked down the street.

Last night I mustered up the energy to crank out one the niece's hats. One more to go before Christmas, which is uh, soon. I'm a little disappointed in what I made last night, but I'm not sure I feel up to redoing it. The silk separated a little from the wool and though no one other than a fellow felter would even take note of such a thing, it bothers me. The more I think about it, the more it bothers me. I guess I'll wait until it's drier before I panic.

Friends M and B bought my dinner last night before I embarked on the hatmaking. Thanks! They both ordered hats for one another, but neither knew. It made for some careful conversations on my end. I couldn't let one know the other had talked to me. I almost felt (ha, no pun intended) bad taking money from both of them. It was kind of funny I guess. They've already exchanged gifts before heading out of town to see family and love their hats. I made a question mark hat with a navy background for B and the whipstitched toque (one of my favorites) got resized and went to M. Thanks guys! Hope you enjoy them.

Afterthought--Sheesh, and then tomorrow my family is coming over. Gotta cook. Christmas Eve is also my brother's birthday--gotta get a card. Then Saturday there's my mother's surprise birthday party for which I need to go get decorations and make her hat. These antibiotics better start hoofing it--I gotta lot to do!

choose your poison...

Back from the doc with a script for mega-antibiotics and a pill that makes my pee turn blue. Yee-haw. Surprise, I have a bladder infection. Duh.

aw shit.

Crap. The doc's nurse pratitioner called back and said I have to come in today. Expletive!!! Expletive!!! Expletive!!! Expletive!!! Expletive!!! Expletive!!! I know why I'm peeing blood. I've had these gawd-awful things three million times. I've already been to the urologist, the uro-gynecologist (who gives me the creeps) and everyone else in the world. Bleh. Now I have to pee in a cup. Again. Bah! Bah! Maybe I can just install a line from my toilet to the doctor's office so they can examine everything I excrete. Here's your daily pee and poo, Dr. C (primary care), Nurse P. H (the nurse practitioner at Dr. C's office, Dr. L (gynecologist), Dr. F (urologist) and Dr. D (uro-gynecologist--the one who creeps me out). Hey, maybe *I* am the reason for the high cost of healthcare!

Makes sense to me.

uggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Well, now I know why have a been so sluggish and feeling really hot over the past couple of days (needing no coat in 25 degree weather just ain't normal). I have a terrible bladder infection, of which the symptoms decided to appear at full blast last night. Oooooooooooh. Miserable. Just taking a piss brings uncontrollable tears to my eyes. I called the doc first thing to try and get some antibiotics to get it under control. I have interstitial cystitis, a chronic inflammation of the bladder, so it's really easy for me to get these little bastards. Usually I can get it under control with over-the-counter meds, but not this one. This one has laughed at the little orange pills and continued to make me miserable. Bah!

The situation with the loved one is under control, thanks to good old fashioned communication. I had to say some things that were horribly uncomfortable, but getting it all out on the table helped a lot.

I got another hat order 90 percent done over the weekend, which is a good thing. I am going to try and finish it up over lunch.

Must...drink...water...

wtf?????

Roto-Rooter stock jumps on purchase of rest of Vitas Healthcare
This is one of those times when it's perfectly acceptable to just turn your head to the side and say "huh?"

deactivate cloaking device...

I am usually really excited when Christmas comes. I love the lights, the food, the fun, the gifts, the ringing of the Salvation Army bells... this year just seems more depressing, stressed and unhappy. Being suddenly broke beyond belief will do that to you. And I have unresolved issues with a loved one that is causing me great misery. In fact, it is probably more the reason for my feelings of general misanthropy. I don't like being angry and sad. I've been that way too much in my life already.

So, I guess I have to do something about the problem--direct my anger toward the appropriate target instead of swallowing it and having a constant tension headache or spewing at the general public. Sigh. I want things to be better now. I'm tired of keeping my chin up, playing like everything's great. I could whine out a War and Peace, but I'm not going to.

I know when I don't feel like felting, knitting or spinning, drawing, sewing, or eating, the juices are really out of balance...and today the juices are sour.

Maybe I'll actually take a picture of the mountain of yarn I have spun over the last month or so. Sadie is keeping me company right now--maybe she can talk some sense into me with those forlorn big beagle eyes of hers.

plain scary...

Hampton Ghost? Quite frankly, I hope not...I finally talked myself out of believing in such things.
UPDATE: A-Ha!!!! BARRY AT THE INN HAS DISCOVERED THE TRUE IDENTITY OF THE GHOST! AMAZING WORK, BARRY!

just when you thought...

It puts the Michael Jackson trial into perspective and worsens my already haughty mood.
U.S. Intelligence Learn of Possible Threats to New York and Other Cities.

BTW, I think poor Michael is sadly disturbed but not a molester...but only two people know for sure...just like the Kobe trial...only he and the gal knows for sure who did what.

I have Christmas-itis...

In other words, I am quite good for nothing. I am doing a bang-up job at procrastinating, though. In fact, I think I might deserve a black belt in the field. I have a lot of stuff to do. Occasionally I admire the length of my to-do list and then go back to the grueling work of procrastinating. Then I might drift off momentarily into a daydream only to be drawn back to the to-do list, except this time I've thought of something to add to it.

"There, that's six weeks of work due in the next 48 hours." Then, once again, I become impressed by my pretend productivity and promptly drift off into a sugar-laden-Christmas-cookie-induced stupor. Maybe it's the 300,000 grams of saturated fat coursing through my veins that is slowing me down. It makes sense that synaptic transmission would suffer when the viscosity of your body fluids becomes similar to Crisco. Slow, but deliciously crispy on the edges. I'm probably flammable. And feeling quite baked.

I must depart to stare at my list.

and then a chuckle...

Traverse to Barry's Inn. I knew it all along...

how neat is THAT?!

From the mailbox, sent by my good friend LeeAnn:

"Every now and again there comes down the pike a graphic so good the fresh concept blows you away. This is one such. The University of Poland science students have finally finished their digital clock they have been working on for 4 years. Obviously they have far too much time on their hands.

Go to this site to see the results: Cool Clock. Wait for it to load. This is a real clock."

whew...

The semester's grades are in. I was really worried about this semester because I really had to cram a lot, hurry through papers and even missed a quiz altogether. I was so pleasantly surprised when I got an A and a B+!!! My graduate 4.0 is ruined, but that's a ridiculous goal to have anyway. I can live with a 3.94 average. Ahhhhhh, sometimes it is worth it to bust your ass. I am so happy that all those late nights and frantic efforts to get caught up paid off. What a load off.

I just realized I have five hats to do. Mmm. Better get busy. Two due this week. Two as gifts next week. And one more for my mother's 70th birthday on the 27th. She wants a black hat with orange swirls in it--to signify her allegiance to the Lady Vols, of course. She called me crying the other night because they had won in overtime. Sheesh, you gotta love a fan like that. Usually she's at the games, but she's had a terrible sinus infection and was relegated to watching the last game or two at home. She said she had gritted her teeth so hard during the game that she didn't know if she could eat. Oy Vey! What a nut! I just love her.

post-Saddam monday...

I'm glad Saddam was captured. I think it is a momentary relief. Finally, one thing can be crossed off the list--finished...unlike many other things.

Did I felt anything this weekend? No. I couldn't quit spinning. I have spun a small mountain of yarn over the last couple of weeks. I don't even have anything in mind to knit with it...just spinning. It's relaxing. I need relaxation.

Usually by this time our Christmas tree is dwarfed by a gazillion presents under the tree and the stockings are stuffed round. This year there's not one present yet and the stockings are empty. Bummer. But, in a way, it's been good for us to be stripped of our material comforts. When we get unhappy, we don't go shopping to entertain ourselves, we talk. We used to be far too indulgent. Now we are forced to recognize what's really important: love, communication, family, friends and health. Things will get better and there will be a few presents under the tree soon, but nothing like the extravaganza of years past. But just like Whoville, Christmas will come to our home anyway, full of joy and thankfulness.

it's going to be that kind of Christmas...

My husband sent me the nicest Christmas card. Sound required. For sure.

who is this woman and what does she want?

I haven't felt like myself all week, alternately feeling physically rotten and emotionally rotten. I guess times are just hard for us right now. Money is nil this year and Christmas has been scaled WAY back. In one way it's nice to not have to shop so much for everyone, but in another way, it's kind of sad.

My company decided to take out the taxes due on my tuition reimbursement spread over the two checks before Christmas. Gee, thanks. That was $400 I wasn't going to use anyway. Now, I don't have to worry about shopping at all...I just have to worry about being able to pay the freakin' bills. I started to just crawl under the covers at 7:30 last night and whimper strange nonsense, but I decided to make myself get up and do some wooly things. I carded part of a merino cross fleece I had washed a few weeks ago and started spinning it. I can't quit spinning long enough to knit something. I think I'm going to overdye this yarn I'm spinning--maybe olives, browns and bronze. It would make a nice heathered yarn as it's kind of a beigey-grey color (moorit? can't remember the proper name).

I need to do some serious felting this weekend so I'll feel better. I have lots of new ideas to try.

no nativity scene in DC this year...

The Supreme Court has ruled that there cannot be a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. this Christmas. This isn't for any religious reason. They simply have not been able to find three wise men and a virgin in the nation's capitol. There was no problem however, finding enough asses to fill the stable.

Ha.

I am getting old. I watched part of the VH1 awards (or some awards show) and the whole rap thing just escapes me. I don't identify it as music. Maybe performance art, but not music. And I don't understand the "I am cool because I can't string a sentence together" type of persona. Is it cool to be uneducated and stupid? And I can't figure out why Pink insists on sharing her crack (of her ass, that is). I don't mind, but I live in fear that her pants will be strewn about her ankles with the next writhing move she makes. Shania Twain did a nice job singing, but she scares me. I don't usually comment on people's clothes, but apparently someone from the short bus is her stylist. She would have looked bad in the 80's.

In other news, I had one of those very lengthy nightmares last night. It was the kind of nightmare that would make Stephen King look like a children's book writer. Heads got chopped off. Brains were stolen and reinserted in other heads. Giant spiders crawled around and sprouted attacking tentacles. I think I have some heavy duty psychic conflict brewing in there. I was impressed with the storyline and art direction though. I'm giving myself an Oscar for best horror flick of 2003. Seriously, although I hate nightmares, I feel more alive and connected today than I have in the past couple of days. I think I was just emotionally constipated and my nightmare was well...the release. Hey, you have to look at the bright side.

The black hat I was working on is finished and ready to be delivered, although it is still a tad bit damp. I wish I had taken a picture of it. Crap.

Have a great day everyone.

not one of THOSE days again...

Yeah. I'm trying terribly hard to NOT whine. Oh, to hell with it. I'm just yackety-blah. I can't understand why I am so tired. Maybe I am still fighting off a bug of some sort. Or still recovering from the marathon of studying. I hate it when you are inbetween something you are not aware of and something else you are not aware of. In other words, if I'm getting something I'd like to go ahead and come down with it or just feel good again, but the fact is I feel bad and I'm not sure why. Karma, you can bite me! No wait, I didn't mean that.

Anyway, I DID finally get up enough energy late last night get a custom order hat done. Black. Just black. Looks nice. Still have a little work to do on the brim. She wants something a little flatter than the roll...so I'll work on that tonight.

C'mon energy, where are you? I melting here.

p.s. But on one very bright note, the new KNITTY is online. And it is tres delicious! Especially KYOTO. but I would make the sleeves longer (the too-long look, me likey). I might have to try some of my handspun for a nature-girl type of version. What? I have time to KNIT!???? Well, in MY mind I do. But not for long.

peeking around the corner...

to say "hi." I really didn't feel well today and missed work (not good). I'm feeling like I am running on empty. Maybe tomorrow I will be myself again--much to the chagrin of the general population! ;-)

it's the end of the world...

I mean really. When you are the first in a Google search for "supplier of urine collection hats," it's time to pack it in and take the secret-agent-last-resort-poison-pill. Gah, what a crappy Monday.

Remo is cool...

I have always loved raccoons. They're smart, crafty, smart-alecky and cute as buttons. I read all about Remo this past weekend. He is a raccoon that couldn't be returned to the wild, so now he's a pet. Boy, wouldn't I love to have a pet raccoon!!!! Of course, I would immediately be single again--seems as though having a raccoon is like having a very naughty 2 year-old who never grows up. I guess I'll just have to read about Remo instead.

lazy, good-fer-nothin'....

I was SO lazy yesterday. I got up, made french toast (or Fronch Toast for Cusack fans) for hubby and I and went back to sleep until...3 p.m. Then I spun wool on the spinning wheel for the rest of my waking hours. I am shocked that I could fall back asleep before midnight. Well, I wanted a restful weekend after the semester was over, and by golly, I got it.

I have a lot to do today. I don't seem to be moving terribly fast though. This could be a problem. I still feel sleepy from yesterday. I keep daydreaming about a small hobby farm someday with a sheep or goat named Strudel. I always thought I'd gravitate toward a big city, but I just love animals and nature too much.

Which reminds me of poop.

Which reminds me of Baxter. Our big white deaf cat was doing his usual "pay-attention-to-me-or-else" stomping across our upper chests while we tried to read the paper in bed when I heard "Uuuuuuuuughhhhh!" Baxter had paused on my hubby's chest with his butt square in his face; however, kitty made it extra interesting for him. He had a big dingleberry dangling from his tushy. And it was about the size of half my pinky finger. "Uuuuuuggghhhhh! YOU have to get it off!" my husband said. So I got some toilet paper and extracted the poo that was stuck in kitty's hair. Hubby said he had quite a funny expression on his face when I pulled it off. Despite his lack of finesse when it comes to the potty, Baxter's puking has dramatically decreased since we put him on Science Diet Sensitive Stomach. The damn stuff costs an arm and a leg, but maybe the savings in toilet paper will offset the expense.

Gah. Back to work. Bleh.

bam!

That was the quickest tree decorating ever.

We decorated our tree tonight. We even sprang for some wine, and I made dinner, and pretend-homemade cookies later. We ate. And it was good.

But, that reminds me of the really interesting tree we got when I was in my late teens. It seemed like such an ordinary tree. It was green and it had branches. It smelled nice and had a good shape. It went into the tree stand just fine. As is customary, we let it sit there overnight to let the branches find their happy places with plans to decorate the next night.

The next night, after staying in the nice warm house for 24 hours, we found out the tree had already been decorated.

Oh, yes.

What we hadn't noticed when we set up the tree were hundreds of little cocoons and nests.

Oh, yes. This is going exactly where you think it is.

When it was time to decorate, the tree was full of hundreds and hundreds of newly "hatched" preying manti. *willies* And they were EVERYWHERE. And it's really funny because I vividly remember freaking out and yelling for my mom, but I don't remember a thing afterward. I have somehow forgotten the aftermath. Perhaps I ate them.

Not.

I am sure my poor mother had to take care of the whole thing while I pranced around screaming "Oh my Gawd! Oh my Gawd! Oh my Gawd! Oh my Gawd!" and "Ewwwwwwwww!" All I have to say is thank God she grew up on a farm. And I ain't kiddin' about that.

shouldn't things taste better?

The tastebud from Three Mile Island has appeared again. Every once in a while, I have a rogue tastebud that's simply not content to be one of the little guys. It happens about every three months or so--some smart-aleck tastebud gets the big idea of becoming a glorified tongue zit.

I drive down the road sticking my tongue out in the rearview mirror trying to identify the bud of dissention with no luck, despite the fact that it feels like a giant pencil eraser that's been eroded by caustic stomach juices. Nevermind that.

Truth be known, it's sore because I won't quit playing with it. I keep rolling my tongue around it, pinching it and sucking on it (get your mind out of the gutter). Or it could be there's an angry uprising of the adjacent little tastebuds because they are jealous of the obvious individuality of the one who risen above them all. Or even more likely, the skinny buds are making fun of the big bud. That, my friends, is discrimination.

So, I think if I am going to be plagued by a giant asteroid of a tastebud things should be tasting a whole lot better. But they don't. I keep trying though.

not a pretty sight...

Read before opening the picture linked below. This is a rather graphic picture of an overdose, not for shock value, but in hopes that you parents who read the blog will have a frank discussion with your kids about knowing their limits and when to just walk away.

When you view this picture, remember: this didn't have to happen.

ahhhhhhhh.....

I'm ahhhhhh-h-h-h-h-ing over exams being over with. The psychopathology exam was even harder than I thought it would be and I probably studied at least seven hours for it. It was one of those multiple choice exams where there's a MOST right answer, a certainly plausible answer, one obviously wrong answer and another answer that sounds like it could be it, but you're not sure if it's wrong or if you just skimmed a part of the text and missed it. Oh, and then there was "all of the above" or "none of the above." It was all I could do to not just stick my pen straight into my dried out eyeballs. The other exam turned out to be easier than I thought--which was a really nice surprise.

We had our last group intervention meeting last night and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone. We talked about what we would take away from the group and what we would leave behind. I was especially glad that I got to give feedback to a particular person with whom I was having a hard time connecting. I'm sappy as hell, so it was really touching for me. We had pizza, gabbed a bit more, said our "happy holidays" and departed. I can tell terminations will not be easy for me as a therapist. But I will NOT miss being in class until 10 p.m. on Tuesday nights.

Tonight's agenda is knitting, spinning, husband hugs, kitty and puppy hugs and a movie!!!!

c'est fine!

It is done. Exams are over. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....................*zzz-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z*
Thanks for all the good lucky charms!!!