Somebody please tell me… January 18, 2005 ~ 4:57 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedWhat’s the statute of limitations on wishing people happy new year? Because it’s already January 18, and in the meeting I just got out of, I was actually wished Happy New Year. Are we still going to be doing this in July if I run into somebody I haven’t seen yet?
Why doesn’t my cat understand that if he wakes me up by making hacking noises, he’s going to get booted off the bed? There is a time and a place for puking. For cats, that time and place aren’t on my bed while I’m sleeping. Or on my bed anytime. Half the damn apartment has tile floors, puke there. However, there was a really cool Crouching Tiger moment when I tossed him out of bed and he flew through the air in slo-mo, still retching. Don’t worry, I apologized before I left. Yes, I actually apologized to my cat. Shut up.
Why the woman at the next desk thinks that if she answers one out of every ten calls, that she is pulling her load. Just because you like to bullshit with students and are on the phone with them for a half hour doesn’t mean you’re doing the same amount of work with us. It means that you and I need to have our fifth talk of the New Year about how to answer a question and get off the phone quickly. Happy New Year, dumbass.
Crafty Julie January 17, 2005 ~ 9:40 pm
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My Christmas present from the Youngest - a handmade ceramic baby hippo.
I know I’ve been talking a lot about knitting lately, and that’s probably boring as hell to some of you. So now I’m going to try to explain my fixation with it. Bear with me.
I think my middle school was one of the last bastions of sexism in public education. Really, I do. All through 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, the girls went to home ec for seven weeks and the boys went to shop. Then we would switch for two weeks. Two weeks. Not a lot can be done in two weeks. While the boys had made baseball card lamps in shop, we girls were taught how to make a picture frame. To frame the cross-stitch we had made during our seven weeks of home ec. Tell me that’s not sexist. Like “Little girl, the only reason you’re allowed in the wood shop is to reinforce that a woman’s place is in the home. Now get a husband so he can make you a lamp.”
I generally viewed home ec as a waste of time. In the cooking portion of the class, we leaned how to make little vienna sausages with american cheese wrapped in Pillsbury rolls. Yeah, that was gonna come in handy. And then every year we had a sewing portion of the class. One year we made little stuffed footballs in the school colors. Another year we made an outfit. I blame my black stretchy shorts and zebra print shirt (long since lost, thank Goddess) on the fact that it was 1989.
But one year, the year of the infamous picture frame, our home ec teacher taught us cross stitch, as I mentioned above. Useless needlepoint, I guess, and as such the most sexist thing we learned, but I liked it. I loved designing something and watching the picture come out on the aida cloth. After we got out of class, I begged my mom to buy me kits, embroidery floss, and more aida cloth, and I cross stitched my brains out. It was a hobby that stayed with me, through college when I was stressing over a senior thesis, through grad school when I learned that an undergrad thesis teaches us nothing about stress, to now, when a half-finished design is sitting on my dining room table, waiting for me to pick it up again. It’s relaxing for me. It’s beautiful. It’s so great to look at a completed project and think, holy shit, I made all these neat little rows. I did this. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of skill at drawing, it’s as close as I can come to actually producing art.
It’s also a connection to the past. I was intrigued with colonial America when I was a kid, and majored in colonial American history as an undergrad. Cross stitch was something I had in common with the women of that era. They made samplers, I made samplers. It was a link across hundreds of years, a craft that hadn’t been lost, in part because of me - I was still practicing it, keeping it alive.
Unfortunately, cross stitch is a bitch to do on the subway. Dim lighting, small holes, the rocking of the car, and the person sitting next to you, glaring at you because you’re wielding a needle near them - all of that makes cross stitch into something best suited for home. Until a month ago, I was limited to gameboy playing and reading during my commute. Then I found the Klutz guide to knitting, and suddenly was introduced to something else I love. Except it’s better than cross stitch! Instead of following a little color coded pattern that tells me where to stitch, I have a lot more control over how something will turn out. I can design the pattern and the colors, like I did with Rick’s scarf. I determine how big the stitches are going to be, how tight or loose the knit is going to turn out. It just feels like I’m so much more involved in the finished product. And it’s relaxing. As the Oldest said last night, after knitting for a few hours, “I feel like I just took a really long nap - my brain is so relaxed!” And I still have that connection to the women who came before me - centuries and centuries of them - as well as to the large number of women I’ve seen knitting or crocheting on the subway with me, and to Rick’s kids, since I taught them how to knit. I love that unending cycle. Finally, there’s the miracle of all miracles, that with my own two hands I can turn a piece of string into something to wear, or anything really. How freaking cool is that? Hey, maybe home ec wasn’t as lame as I figured - I got an appreciation for all these handicrafts out of it.
So expect more pictures and stories of the knitting. Because it’s damn cool. At least I think so. And now I think I’m gonna go make some vienna sausages with american cheese wrapped in a Pillsbury roll.
Dude, this episode sucks! January 17, 2005 ~ 1:21 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closed
Rick and I, pulling a Dooce by taking our picture in front of a mirror. And wearing The Scarf.
I’m watching X-Files on my day off, and it’s the damn cockroach episode. If you’ve ever seen this episode, where cockroaches burrow under people’s skin, you’ll understand why I’ve screamed twice in the last 5 minutes. The last time, I screamed “Dude, this episode sucks!”, thus the title. I don’t think I will ever be able to look at a cockroach again without screaming. This is not good for a New York City dweller. I’m going to be scratching for the rest of the day. And yet, I can’t change the channel. Fucking X-Files.
I can’t concentrate on a blog post right now. Too many cockroach thoughts.
Oh, but Jesse got out earlier. I went looking around the apartment for him and just figured he was hiding when my upstairs neighbors knocked on my door. “You missing a cat?” I guess I am. Little fucker was on the stairs to the second floor apartment. Stoopid cat.
Now back to the cucarachas. Rick - sorry, honey, that I couldn’t come up with a better post for this picture.
Work rant January 14, 2005 ~ 3:52 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedI was going to put a nice picture of Rick and me up at the top of today’s post, but I don’t have anything great to write about and I don’t want to waste the picture on a crap post. So you have to wait till Monday - besides, it’s the only thing I can do to compete with those Kansas City trip bloggers!
Started off the morning with a two hour staff meeting about registration, which did not go well this semester. I worked part of it, and it was a madhouse. Someone overscheduled the number of freshmen coming in to be registered, and nobody really taught them how to make a schedule, so I ended up counseling them at the computer as I was enrolling them in courses. This is so not my job, and I didn’t feel comfortable doing it, but I did anyway. I didn’t really have a choice. The long and short of it is that we’re going to have to register a bunch of kids the first week of classes, and all supervisors had better be ready to drop everything we’re doing the last week of January and the first week of February to work overtime. Without pay, since we’re on salary. You’d better believe I’m getting comp time out of this, though.
I had to point out to the Big Boss that I wouldn’t be able to do anyone’s job but my own during the day the last week of January. I’m graduating the February grads, and all of their records need proofed between now and then. And that week is when the list of candidates is due for approval. Guess who does the list? It then has to be proofed and adjusted. By me, again. And this time out, we’re using a new program that we’ve experimented with on previous lists to generate the list. The program is a pain in the ass, truly horrendous to make corrections in, and is really fucking impossible for my aging auditors to read. But Big Boss doesn’t care because the professors like it. I reminded her of all this, and the fact that one of my staff (the one who proofs the audits I’ve done) is out for jury duty, making more work for us, and she said “Oh. Well, I guess you have to take care of that first.” If you want anyone to graduate, I do, woman. *sigh*
Even though I talked myself out of most of re-registration, I have a problem with the fact that we’re expected to cover it. We weren’t the ones that scheduled so many students that there was a five hour wait for all of them to see a computer operator and get registered. We weren’t the ones that couldn’t show these students how to make a schedule. We weren’t the ones who didn’t put down the computer codes for the exact courses that the students wanted so that the operators basically had to start from scratch with each student. We weren’t the ones who told the students who weren’t seen on Monday and Tuesday to come back the first day of classes rather than Wednesday, Thursday, or today, as was scheduled. And yet we have to pick up the mess that other people made. I have a real problem with this. I don’t work or play well with others who can’t take responsibility for their own actions. We’re all adults, why is this such a hard concept to grasp???
Maybe I just need to go home, drink a beer, watch some Food Network and knit for a while before getting a good night’s sleep. That sounds pretty damn good right about now. Happy weekend to all of you, especially the weekend warriors going to KC. I hope you all have a blast - next time I’ll be with you!!
Bunny Ears January 12, 2005 ~ 9:35 pm
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The back of (ahem) someone’s head after he cut his own hair. The tail makes me laugh.
The cell phone can actually be turned on now! The buttons don’t all work yet, but they worked well enough for me to send the picture of mom’s cat out, so that’s saved. I put it back in the furnace room to dry out a little more. Takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’, I guess.
My monitor at work clocked out at about 3:00 this afternoon, right as I was putting the finishing touches on a blog entry. I called ITS for a replacement, but their guy still hadn’t come at 5:00, so I shut the computer off and Blogger ate that post. I’ve recreated it as well as I can remember. Here’s the re-write, inspired by Lois’s tale of cheating in 3rd grade math.
I was 2 when I started nursery school. I guess I was precocious and my baby-sitter wanted something to keep me entertained. I turned 3 at then end of September, but I was still a year younger than the other kids. My mother thinks that explains this story, but I prefer to think of it as an early indication of deviant behavior.
One day the nursery school teachers decided that they had tied too many toddler shoes and that we were going to be independent tykes and tie our own from there on out. We were seated at long tables with cardboard shoe outlines that had laces through them. The teachers demonstrated shoe tying (the one loop around method rather than the bunny ears one, as I recall), and then expected us to tie the shoe outlines before us.
I tried hard, but no matter what I did my fingers could not make those laces into a bow. I looked to my left. Kid over there had tied his shoe. I looked to my right. Kid there had tied her shoe. In fact, as I looked up and down the table, everyone had tied their shoe. Except me. I looked down at the mess of laces and weird knots that my fumbling attempts had made. I looked back up and saw a teacher coming down the table, examining everyone’s handiwork. “Good job!” she said to one kid. “Excellent!” to another. I looked back at my shoe. No way it was going to get a “good job”. She would take one look at it and say “Why can’t you do this? Everyone else can.” I was stupid. Totally stressed, I panicked. What could I do? I couldn’t tie that shoe no matter how hard I tried, and she was getting closer.
In desperation, I nudged the girl next to me. “Hey, can you tie this?” I whispered. She did, easily, and set it back in front of me. The teacher finally reached me, looked at my shoe, and pronounced it “Great!” with a smile. My first experience with panic, stress, and cheating, all at the age of 3. Maybe I was precocious.
I guess it explains why I still tie my shoes with the bunny-ear method at age 27, doesn’t it?
Someday I’ll look back on this and laugh January 11, 2005 ~ 10:57 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedWanna hear a funny story? Remember how I told you Friday night my cell phone and my parka got a margarita bath due to a clumsy busgirl? Remember how I said I was going to have to wash said parka? Well, tonight I did that. I thought I had emptied all the pockets before I put it in the washer. But when I went looking for my cell phone while waiting for the wash cycle to finish, I couldn’t find it.
Because it was in the parka. In the washer. The front load washer that can’t be opened mid-cycle. So I had to wait a long time to get my cell phone out of it. And I had a long time to think about exactly how much of an idiot I was.
I called T-Mobile tonight and they’re going to send me another handset. It’s a free replacement if the phone’s malfunction falls under warranty. Which it won’t if they find water damage. If I’ve voided the warranty, intentionally or unintentionally, it’s going to cost me $70 for the replacement.
The phone is in my furnace room right now, hopefully drying out.
Someday I’m going to look back on this and laaaaugh. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
Tagged January 11, 2005 ~ 11:48 am
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedBecause Regan made me, a stoopid survey:
3 names you go by:
1. Julie
2. Julz
3. Jul
3 screen names you have:
1. julz91
2. DefLep91
3. (n/a)
3 things you like about yourself:
1. Humor
2. Loyalty
3. Red hair
3 things you hate/dislike about yourself:
1. Ass
2. Failure to prioritize
3. “I work well under stress” mentality. I don’t, I just like to procrastinate.
3 parts of your heritage:
1. Irish
2. German
3. Yellow Dog Democrat
3 things that scare you:
1. Heights
2. Creepy crawlies
3. Being broke
3 of your everyday essentials:
1. MetroCard
2. cellphone
3. Rick
3 things you’re wearing right now:
1. Jeans
2. Kid’s Timberlands (they fit, and they were cheaper)
3. Pentacle necklace
3 of your favourite bands/artists:
1. Def Leppard
2. Queen
3. U2
3 of your favourite songs at present:
1. “Vertigo” by U2
2. “Killer Queen” by Queen
3. “Waterloo Sunset” the Def Leppard version
3 new things you want to try in the next 12 months:
1. Meeting more bloggers
2. Getting a new job
3. Moving to a bigger (above ground) apartment
3 things you want in a relationship (love is a given):
1. Honesty
2. Humor
3. Intelligence
2 truths and a lie:(no particular order to keep ya guessing)
1. I’ve been on national TV
2. I was an extra in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie
3. I hated my name when I was a kid
3 physical things about a love interest that appeal:
1. Tall
2. Blue eyes
3. Blonde hair
3 things you just can’t do:
1. Like and support Dubya
2. Keg stand
3. Tell you where, exactly, at a given moment. I don’t know what street I’m on. I can tell you landmarks, not street numbers. I think this drives Rick nuts.
3 of your favourite hobbies: (blogging isn’t a hobby, it’s an addiction)
1. Knitting
2. Reading
3. Cross-stitching
3 things you want to do really badly right now:
1. Pee
2. Leave work
3. Knit (seriously, my hands are itching to!)
3 careers you’re considering:
1. Editor
2. Web Design
3. Full-time dramaturg
3 places you want to go on vacation:
1. England
2. Ireland
3. Australia
3 kids names (either boy or girl):
1. Ian Angus
2. Carmine (it’s a joke, people!)
3. Richard Lee (and that’s to scare the shit out of Rick)
3 things you want to do before you die:
1. Travel extensively
2. Have enough money to retire comfortably. Early.
3. Write a novel.
3 people who have to take this quiz now:
1. Traci
2. Lori
3. Seven
Why I love the Oldest January 10, 2005 ~ 11:06 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedBecause she just sent me an email with the following in it:
“guess what???? this weekend is a three day weekend, becauseof Martin Luther King Day!!!!! So I’ll have extra time for knitting!”
Not only did she remind me that the College is closed on Monday, so I don’t have to work that day either, but she’s excited about knitting and hanging out this weekend. I love that kid.
How’d they come up with that? January 10, 2005 ~ 8:11 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedFound this on Rhonda’s blog…I never thought of myself as a pundit. Damn. I’m deep.
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You Are a Pundit Blogger! |
Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. |
Ah-so! January 10, 2005 ~ 11:13 am
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closed
Rick and the scarf - what he calls the “beefcake” photo
So that’s the scarf. And not to take away from the hot guy above, but here are close-ups of the scarf:
I think I looked at it like three times the night I gave it to Rick and thought: “Damn, that’s a nice scarf.” I probably said it out loud, too. That happens to me sometimes - I’ll be thinking something and it just pops up. But in this case, I was right. Damn, that’s a nice scarf. Simple wide-ribbing pattern, and the variegated coloring came from doubling up the yarn (in this case, I knitted a strand of blue and a strand of grey together as one). Glad Jordana and I picked that blue, it really does bring out his eyes, which I love (both the eyes and the fact that the scarf brings them out).
Okay, enough about the scarf. We saw Meet the Fockers Friday night (thanks for the movie gift certificates, Mom!) and loved it. Rick hadn’t seen Meet the Parents, so he missed out on a couple of the jokes, but he got a big kick out of it, too. Especially Little Jack’s first word: “Ah-so!” (Say it. “Asshole!”) We had a great dinner at our favorite Mexican place pre-movie, and I got part of a kiwi margarita spilled on me by the busgirl. Now my coat smells like alcohol, and not in a good way. Worse than that, the margarita got into the pocket that my two-week old cell was in and baptized it. After several good cleanings, it’s back to normal - for a while, I thought the stickiness would be around forever. For all of you with cell phones, I recommend Body Glove covers. They’re rubber and will absorb shock if you drop the phone, and also repel margaritas!
In between rehearsals this weekend, I also got to hang out with the Oldest and the Youngest. I’ve been teaching the Youngest how to knit, and she’s basically got it, although we still have talks about “You can’t watch the TV and knit at the same time. Pick one.” and “No, it’s not okay to have a hole in the middle of it. What if you were making that for someone? Would you want a hole in a present?” The Oldest has decided that she wants to learn how to knit, too, so we took a trip to a yarn store near City Hall, picked out some chunky yarn and bigger needles (much easier for young knitters to knit with than the size 6’s and baby weight yarn we had on hand), and knitting lessons will commence next weekend when Rick has them again. He’s going to have them the next four weekends (I think the Ex is out of the country), so there will be plenty of time to do scarves and move beyond that if they want to. And it’s fun to have our own little knitting circle.
Now back to work. The kind I’m actually getting paid to do. But damn, that scarf is nice.
