Life, Knitting and the Pursuit of Roller Coasters

We are in the midst of a huge project at work right now, and I am scheduled with 12-hour days July 1 - the 13th, then I get to carry the pager for a week. Crazy and tired doesn’t even begin to describe it, and I’m only on day 3. So, blog updates will be even more sporadic than usual. I think I basically told my parents to pretend I don’t exist and that I would talk to them again on the other side.

During craziness prep this weekend though, I did finish another pair of socks.

These were extremely fast, toe-up stockinette socks out of Ultramerino on size 3s. I think I knit the pair in about 4 days and used up all but the teeniest scrap of the yarn in both balls. Very cushy and comfy.

I do have a sock in my bag that I’ve been picking at between calls after hours on these long days, and I’m slowly adding stitches to the purple socks from sock madness every night before I go to sleep, so I may have a couple more finished pairs to show off in the next couple weeks… but I have to survive first.

Meanwhile, the Rainbow sock is gallivanting around Europe. 

Maybe just a little jealous. Maybe.

Pattern: Monkey

Yarn: Panda Wool (received in a swap one year ago)

Colorway: Circus

It’s nice to finish a pair for me again, as my last two finished pair have gone to my mom. I love how these came out, they weren’t my first Monkeys and they won’t be my last. The pattern is about as second nature to me as plain stockinette anymore.

Why is it the weeks that are craziest and should spawn a zillion blog posts are the weeks that I’m most quiet? Last week was one of those weeks, and I think I kept the contents to myself because many of the events of the week weren’t all good. It was a rough week for my circle of friends and there wasn’t much I could do or say that would make the pain go away so I opted for silence instead. Within my group of close friends in fewer than 7 days, we suffered the loss of 3 family members. My boyfriend’s grandmother passed away on Saturday the 14th, a close friend lost her dad on father’s day, and another lost his dad later in the week. It was a week of tears and exhaustion, and I wasn’t even in the thick of the mourning. My heart has gone out to these three friends in their time of mourning and that’s all I have to give.

My mom also landed herself back in the hospital for treatment of some open sores that have come and gone in her legs over the last several years and have been getting progressively worse over the last month or so. If the insurance approves the extended 3-week stay that the doctors have advised for her, hopefully the treatment will stick this time and she can stay out of the hospital again for a while. It’s not pretty, and the treatment she’s going through is painful and was horrible to watch on Saturday night when I was visiting. But when they had her legs undressed while performing the treatment, it was obvious that it is ultimately helping despite how much it’s obviously causing her pain in the short term.

But, it wasn’t all illness and death and helplessness in my life last week. I rallied some coworkers to do the heavy lifting and finally bought myself a chest freezer. I made ice cream. I discovered the bliss that is Balsamic Roasted Strawberries. I had a momma turkey and about 8 babies cross in front of my car on the way to get my veggies from the CSA farm. I finally met my uncle’s new wife (they were up visiting from Florida when mom went into the hospital). I knit on some socks. The plants on my patio are going gangbusters and I should be in for a summer of veggie overload. And at the point when I needed it most, I drove through just the right sized raincloud yesterday on my way back home from visiting mom in the hospital, and that raincloud produced a perfect full rainbow.

Today is my birthday. Well, at least for another half hour or so. I’ve had a day full of food and friends and fun and luck.

I spent last weekend with lots of friends at CoasterMania at Cedar Point. We had a blast on Friday for the event despite the heat. Several of us headed to Waldameer Park in Erie, PA for the day on Saturday to give their new coaster several spins (it’s awesome, if you’re even sort of close, support this great little traditional park. The new coaster is definitely a winner!) I’ll be making more trips to visit, hopefully yet this year. And on Sunday, my friend Ed and I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.  The whole weekend was a blast. The RainbowHappySock was there too, and it brought Craig along, so I’m sure once he gets his photos uploaded we’ll have another update here.

Mike told me earlier in the week that he was being a cheapskate and not even sending a card. So instead, I received a bouquet of 18 pink, orange and yellow roses at work this afternoon from him.  They’re lovely even if I had to put them in a Jimmy John’s cup because I don’t have any vases at my desk. They’ll live at work for the remainder of the week to keep the cats out of them, but I think I’ll bring in a proper vase for them tomorrow morning.

I was also sent on a quest today. My mom decided sort of at the last minute before father’s day that she wanted to get my dad a Wii for father’s day. I think she’s had my brother searching for a couple weeks now, and just asked me to start looking last night. Since I was running to a few places after work today anyway, I went on a small search here in town. Birthday magic is a funny thing. I tried Sam’s Club, K-Mart, and Circuit City with no luck. When I got to Jackson Crossing, I knew there were at least 5 or 6 stores that could potentially carry the system, so I parked at one end (Target) and started at the store furthest from where I parked (Sears). Once I got to the department, I asked if they had any in stock, and the guy gave me something of a “I’ll humor you and look” look until we rounded the corner and there in the display was a single Wii box. I snatched it right up and gave mom and my brother each a quick call. The other thing I was on the hunt for was my freezer. I’ve finished pricing them out now, and it’s looking like Sam’s Club and Lowes are the cheapest, Sam’s is about $20 less, I’d just have to convince a coworker to lend me some braun and his truck for part of an evening, otherwise I think I can get Lowes to deliver.

I am still knitting, I started another travel-buddy sock. Another pair of Monkeys. This pair in Panda Wool in the circus colorway. They’re pooling in a kind of strange manner, but they work well for in-park knitting and saw plenty of knitting time last weekend while at the parks.  I have so many other sock patterns I want to play with, but it’s good to fall back on an old standard sometimes too.

It’s a good random day. I’ve been neglecting the blog again and have many little things I want to update.

1) My brother’s gmail account was hacked yesterday. He was able to resolve it, but he wrote a really clear and concise post about what information one needs available and the process he had to go through to reclaim his address. It’s a really good read for anyone who uses gmail.

2) Mikey headed back to Cali on Saturday. We had a great couple of weeks while he was visiting and I miss him tremendously. Just gotta figure out when I’ll drag him back for another trip. Silly work is eating up all my time.

3) We had a great weekend with friends at Holiday World and Beech Bend while he was here. Some of our friends ran into some snags that soured our exclusive ride time a bit at Holiday World, but we still had fun. I didn’t take any photos this year, but I did manage to knit most of a pair of socks that weekend.

4) That pair of socks, I just closed the toe on the second one tonight. They will be going in the mail to my mom soon. Simple stockinette socks out of KnitPicks Felici in the Gelato colorway. They knit up fast and I really like how they came out. Since I finished them tonight, they are also technically my first completed pair for this year’s 52 pair plunge.

5) Socks, socks, socks. I also joined the summer of socks this year. And I’m still knitting up that design in honor of my cousin. And I’ve set a goal for self to finish all the Sock Madness 1 & 2 sock patterns that I haven’t done yet before next spring’s Sock Madness commences. And I’m hoping to submit a design or two for SM3 as well. And wearing a skirt today, I’m really wishing I had a pair of handknit knee socks. Socks, Socks, Socks!

6) My CSA starts next week, my birthday is next week, and I’m headed to Cedar Point and Waldameer Park this weekend for some more coaster time with friends. I will have my camera and a sock or three with me this time, so look for some more photos soon.

7) Another contest won, I guess I’m on a roll lately. Knitsaur requested hand sizes in her comments and drew a name in exchange for that info. I won a skein of Silky Wool.

8 ) While the rest of us were in Indiana and Kentucky, Craig took the RainbowHappySock all over New York and into Quebec. He has a ton of photos, and even wrote up the Quebec part of his trip report in French, but I’m going to be a little lazy and just put together a big mosaic of his photos from this trip. It even witnessed his daughter’s 500th coaster.

This week is kind of crazy and the knitting needles have actually not been picked up since Sunday. I will resume knitting on our road trip tomorrow though, and in the meantime, Tandaina tagged those of us who know her true identity with a meme so, filler content it is until I get back from Holiday World with a finished sock or three.

What were you doing five years ago?

5 years ago today, I was probably riding a coaster. 5 years ago, in general, I was still working and living in the same place, different area of the department work-wise, but still the same place. I wasn’t knitting yet and I was embarking on the first crazy year of several with the coaster hobby.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

1) Work

2) Packing for this weekend

3) Laundry

4) Making sure the kitties are sufficiently fed, watered and littered for our 4-days away.

5) Calling my mom, haven’t talked to her yet this week.

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1) Chocolate

2) Chocolate

3) Diet Soda

4) Ice Cream

5)  Chocolate

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1) Make several family members and close friends financially independent

2) Buy a house

3) Buy my parents a house

4) Quit my job

5) Come up with a completely different life plan

What are five of your bad habits?

1) Nail Biting

2) Caffiene

3) Over sleeping/staying up too late

4) Forgetting sunscreen

5)

What are five places where you have lived?

1) My parents house

2) College campus - dorms

3) College campus - other dorms  (I think I lived in 4 different dorm buildings while in college)

4) Teeny Tiny College apartment

5) Decent sized new 2-bedroom apartment for the last 8 years.

What are five jobs you’ve had?

1) Cemetery Groundskeeper (I pushed a lawnmower for a couple summers)

2) Technical Services Receptionist

3) Temp data entryist for an insurance company

4) Network Technician

5) System Developer

Tags: If you want it, it’s yours.

Craig must have planned his trip this weekend just because he knew I was hurting for blog content. I have been knitting, and ripping, and knitting this week and just don’t have a whole lot to show for it.  Craig took his sock to Holiday World and to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom this weekend (he’s ahead of the curve… the rest of us will be down there next weekend for Holiwood Nights).

Apparently Santa told him that he must be bad due to the size of his stocking.

And at Six Flags the sock met a couple of characters.

Craig, if you can get that sock in the hands of some poor teenager at a Six Flags who’s walking around in a Marvin the Martian costume, I might just make you a couple of those coaster-rider washclothes after all.

My mom has a knack for turning just about any hobby into a money making opportunity, and since her hobby is collecting dolls, we were up at the crack of dawn to setup a couple of tables and sell at a doll show on Saturday morning. It was exhausting, but I was able to finish a sock while sitting there watching all the local doll people mingle.

We wrapped up there and literally went home and all 3 of us crashed at 4pm. It was exhausting. And mom and dad will be doing another show this weekend in Grand Rapids.

Sunday for Mother’s day, we met mom’s aunt for brunch and I gave mom the socks I’d finished at the doll show. I had hoped to have time to make a different pair for her, but I’ll get around to them eventually. My knitting is just kind of being pulled in a zillion directions right now.

The finished socks are the stockinette socks in Trekking that I’ve been picking at for a while. I’ll be starting a couple other stockinette pairs for the summer as I have a few colorways of Knit Picks Felici that I want to play with. The Gelato colorway will be mom’s next pair, and the Coney Island colorway will likely be my park knitting for the summer.

But in the meantime, I’m focussed on the socks for my aunt and hoping to get them wrapped up yet this week so I can give them to her at the celebration of life on Thursday.

I also had a winning day on Friday which was a great end to the week after everything else last week. I was the runner up winner on Christina’s blog contest. Also, in the ultimate spot of enabling, I won fiber on A Verb For Keeping Warm. Camel/Silk blend no less. I think that marks the start of the slippery slope of spinning that I’ve managed to avoid until now. At least I know there’s an amazing spinning shop nearby where I can immerse my self in a new hobby once I’m ready.

Thank you all for the messages of sympathy on the loss of my cousin. She had a rough life  with more than her fair share of medical issues and it was a rough couple of weeks that lead up to her death. In lieu of a memorial service, there will be a celebration of life get together for family and friends towards the end of next week. As part of my grieving process, that creative spark in my head shot off and I’m working on a sock design in her memory. The initial pair from the pattern will go to my aunt as a belated mother’s day gift. And once I have it written up, the proceeds from the pattern sales will be donated to the American Diabetes Association in Chandra’s memory.

I am still moving through life as usual this week though. I’ve decided this year that in addition to my CSA, I’m also going to grow a few extra veggies on the porch. I’m also going to use some of my economic stimulus check to get a chest freezer so I don’t waste as much food when I have the CSA and veggie garden providing.

Since I’m in an apartment, the veggie garden is a few plants in a couple planters. And I picked out plants and supplies this weekend. I need to get some more soil and redistribute the plants a little bit since I only had enough soil to fill 2 of the planters, but it’s a start.

If all survive, I should have tomatoes, squash, eggplants, green and jalapeno peppers, cilantro, thyme and basil on the patio.

My kitties are indoor only cats, but since I was outside planting, I left the door open and they did a little exploring of their own.

What’s funny about that is that generally Gromit is my timid cat. He’ll warm up to people when he’s good and ready and not a second before and while he’s curious, he’ll usually let Lily explore something first before he indulges. Lily is typically far more curious and more social. But Gromit is also my window cat, so he’s more familiar with the outdoors at least in appearance. So, when given the rare opportunity to explore, he was far more comfortable and curious outside than she was. She didn’t leave the patio and jumped inside the door over every little thing.

He kept trying to leave the patio and go explore.

But once he started looking a little too comfortable and repeatedly wandered off the patio, we quickly got inside so there wouldn’t be any disappearing acts. I think if he’d seen a bird or a chipmunk or a squirrel while he was out there, he would have been on it in a heartbeat and I’d have never gotten him back inside.

37 is far too young.

You will be missed.

Chandra Page

1971 - 2008