My love/hate relationship with summer

I love my job as a teacher, and I spend the second semester counting down (along with the students) to how many days there are until summer break. I love sitting outside and reading, knitting, catching up with random TV shows that I didn't know that I wanted to watch and constantly trolling facebook and plurk in the summer. I also like to try to find someone to go out to lunch with me daily which is harder than you might think.

I love it for like two weeks.

Then, I get unmotivated and bored.

Yes, I still read, knit, and catch up on things, but my motivation starts to dwindle little by little.

At the beginning of the summer I put up a giant calendar of all the things I wanted to get done and a timeline of how I wanted to finish them. Pretty much the reading and knitting is getting done. The rest of it fell the the wayside after week one.

This is the table of knitting to work on. I'm usually a one or two project person. This is insane and freaks me out.

Last week, I woke up the the idea that if I put my plans on the internet I would feel like I *had* to do them. (Knowing it is on the internet is enough for me- no one even has to read it.) So, this is my new plan. I'm going to start a crazy, hodge-podge blog with knitting stuff, book reviews, and whatever else I feel like writing or talking about. I'm sort of hoping that writing every day will give me ideas for the "zombie-teacher" novel that I want to write. Currently, the novel consists of 6 pages of exposition. That I wrote in April. Of course I wrote it in April because I was so busy I couldn't see straight. Now that I have all the time in the world? Nothing.

The Help- by Kathryn Stockett

I read this about a month ago and I liked it. The story is about African American women during the times where everyone in the south had hired help. One white woman digs into their stories and realizes her own dreams. It was interesting and felt like it could be historically accurate, but something about it keeps me from calling it fantastic. Honestly, I think I'm a little taken aback by the fact that the author of the book is white and is trying to imagine what these women went through. I suppose an African American woman that would have written this would have had to do the same research. That might not make sense, but in my head it totally does. I will, however; be seeing the movie because it stars Emma Stone and I may have a tiny girl crush on her. I want to be friends with her and go out for lunch and cocktails. She seems super fun.

there was never even a wagon to fall off

91 hours down- 9909 to go

Tour de erin was a good idea- in my head. It didn't even start to pan out though. I'm not even mad that it didn't pan out either. I wish I was closer to done on all my projects, but what can you do? If you aren't working on them they don't grow.

There are a lot of things I meant to get done this summer that I haven't. As summer draws to a close (I only have three weeks until I have to go back to work) I'm realizing that I need to get some stuff done. So, I think I'm going to have to cut out the taking of four hour naps and like do stuff. Today, I want to rearrange the cabinets in the kitchen, take down the heinous wallpaper off two kitchen walls, and an assortment of school/cross country paperwork. I'm only telling you this so that I then feel like I have to work on the stuff.

I'm already tired.

Tour de Fleece, ha ha ha

71 hours down- 9929 to go

I had plans to do tour de fleece, but day one (and two, and three) I didn't knit at all. So, that's kind of blown. Instead, I have a new plan.

Tour de erin:
-Knit on each of three projects (fish blanket, snuggie, cabled baby sweater (to be replaced with sock yarn blanket) each day from July 7-July 31.

- read SOME Jane Austen each day.

So, go me!

a whole bowl of pathetic

71 hours down- 9929 to go

For some reason today I was a bowl of pathetic. It was beautiful outside and there were things to be done, but instead I sat inside all day watching TV, listening to podcasts and knitting.

I also watched the saddest movie ever. Remember Me. I have a habit of watching movies without knowing what they are about, but this one took me by surprise even after reading the Netflix jacket. If you have an extra two hours and you love crying by all means watch it. Robert Pattinson is super hot in it and I really like Emily de Ravin, but the story still completely stunned me.

I cast on for the Lion Brand baby sweater today and with most baby things it is progressing quickly.

I think another reason that I really like knitting is because I have trouble just sitting and watching TV because I feel like I should be doing something more productive, but somehow I can sit and do nothing other than knit all day and still feel bad. Something to ponder.

Almost ready for "tour de fleece"

63 hours down- 9937 to go

I've been knitting a lot in the past few days. Just going back and forth between the snuggie and the fish blanket. You can't really see the progress since they are both huge projects, but I know that the time is making additions.

Later today I'm going to cast this on instead of the baby surprise jacket. I've made the lion brand sweater before and it is just too cute to pass up.

I feel like I'm 13 again...

60 hours down- 9940 to go

Eclipse comes out tonight and I'm really excited about it. Initially, I read Twilight because the high school girls (that I teach) begged me too. They told me it was so good. Then, for Christmas my high school aged cousins bought it for me. Then, I had surgery and I couldn't do much so I finally read it. I don't understand why I put it off so long, because I knew it wouldn't be a time consuming read. I think sometimes I have to shun the popular. (I swore never to read Harry Potter, but in college I had to read The Sorcerer's Stone for a young adult literature class and fell. in. love. Also, I think Harry Potter is far superior to the Twilight Saga, but they both fell into the "I don't want to read it because it is popular" theme.)

I don't think that the Twilight Saga is by any means great literature, but they are captivating and well-written books as far as I am concerned. As for the movies, well, I can't read a series and not see the coordinating movies, and what is more fun than lining up at midnight with all the fanatics?

Oh, and Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson are hot. I tried to touch Cedric Diggory's costume when I went to see the Harry Potter exhibit in Chicago (it was at the museum of science and industry-- but I think it is traveling) until my husband jokingly pushed me toward it and a guard gave us both the death stare. I know that Mr. Lautner is just barely 18, but anyone that works that hard on their body deserves a look and praise. Mr. Pattinson is a tad more age appropriate, and his mystery (both on and off screen) makes him a little hotter. I'm still sorry Voldermort killed his character during The Goblet of Fire though.

A rant and a plan

58.5 hours down- 9941.5 to go

First, a rant- feel free to skip :) -
* In February we started the process to refinance our house. We've only owned the house for four years, but the rates are so good and our payment would drop so much we were excited to do it. We thought we'd use the extra money (from the skipped month of mortgage) to pay for the Spring Break trip to Florida that we didn't really have the money to go on. It wasn't done by April when we needed the money. It is now the end of June and tomorrow they are coming to appraise our house again before they can sure up the loan. There have been some speedbumps in the process: the original guy we worked with got fired, we have an 80/20 loan and our current lender wouldn't sign off on the 80 if we didn't also move the 20, and I think that many of the people who work at this lending agency might be morons. I mean really almost 5 months is about 4 months longer than I've seen anyone wait to refinance.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I feel better.

On to more exciting things!

I've made a "tour de Fleece" plan. I'm not a spinner so I'm going with the Knitmore Girls' idea of handcycling. I'm such a poor judge of what a good goal is in terms of finishing things so I've come up with my own plan. Every day during "tour de Fleece" I'm going to work on EACH of these projects-- the fish blanket, the snuggie, and the to-be-cast-on baby surprise jacket each day. Hopefully, throughout the tour I'll finish something and in that case my third project will be replaced with the sock yarn blanket squares. I'm not going to join any "tour de Fleece" groups because my plan is so random, but I think I'll try to document each day via this blog. I also would like to kick off my Jane Austen summer during the tour as well. I really want to read all of her work, but I put it off continually. So, I think I might add that to my tour goals!