I went to the bike shop during my lunch hour today, thinking I would just talk to the custom bike guy about getting a bike built for me. Little did I know that I was about to fall in love. No, not with the bike shop guy. I fell in love with the most beautiful bright pink bicycle that anyone has ever seen. I'm going to get them to put some new wheels on it and probably some fenders, but one way or another that baby is coming home with me!
I'm a little terrified because I really haven't ridden a bike since I was a kid and that was only on my suburban neighborhood streets. I have no idea how to actually ride in traffic. Luckily the neighborhood I live in now isn't really a high-traffic area and there is a park with an asphalt path nearby so I have a few low-stress places to get started.
The bike as-is price was only $250 so I can use some of my budget for the new wheels and fenders and still have plenty left over for other necessities (like a helmet, a lock, a pretty basket with daisies on it ;). I'll post pictures when I finally get it home.
In other news, T and I are going to the JRR Tolkien birthday celebration at the Kennedy School tomorrow. They're showing all of the Lord of the Rings movies (oh yes, the extended cuts) back to back! My eyes may actually fall out of my head by the end of the day, but it should be fun anyway. There will be beer :)
Have a happy weekend everybody!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Dear Crochet, I love you. xo, Carrie
Okay, so I taught myself to crochet and it was super-easy, most likely owing to the fact that my poor mother has taught me about twenty times before and it never quite caught on. So this time it was pretty easy to just pick it up.
I went to Freddie's on Friday night and bought a crochet hook and some cheap practice yarn (and some incense and a frozen pizza...Freddie's has everything a girl could want!), then I got my hands on this book that my mom had given me sometime during the last attempt and got to crochetin'. I started by doing a square of the basic stitches, then I picked a block from the book that didn't look too complicated and made that with my cheap (but lovely) practice yarn. I finished the block the next evening, then dug through my tiny yarn stash and found some lovely cotton in complementary colors so I made another of the same block, this time changing colors when the pattern said to. It turned out pretty well, but I don't really know what I'm going to do with two mismatched blocks. Maybe I'll just keep making blocks in whatever yarn I have and at the end I'll sew them all together into the ugliest afghan ever. Woo.
Before Tater destroyed my yarn stash, I had been working on a scarf using this great fuzzy chenille-y yarn in some awesome 70's colors (pumpkin, chocolate brown, avocado and cream). Anyway, she killed what was left of my skeins but I had the half-finished scarf still, so last night I unraveled it and repurposed the yarn to make this cute little bag.
I went to Freddie's on Friday night and bought a crochet hook and some cheap practice yarn (and some incense and a frozen pizza...Freddie's has everything a girl could want!), then I got my hands on this book that my mom had given me sometime during the last attempt and got to crochetin'. I started by doing a square of the basic stitches, then I picked a block from the book that didn't look too complicated and made that with my cheap (but lovely) practice yarn. I finished the block the next evening, then dug through my tiny yarn stash and found some lovely cotton in complementary colors so I made another of the same block, this time changing colors when the pattern said to. It turned out pretty well, but I don't really know what I'm going to do with two mismatched blocks. Maybe I'll just keep making blocks in whatever yarn I have and at the end I'll sew them all together into the ugliest afghan ever. Woo.
Before Tater destroyed my yarn stash, I had been working on a scarf using this great fuzzy chenille-y yarn in some awesome 70's colors (pumpkin, chocolate brown, avocado and cream). Anyway, she killed what was left of my skeins but I had the half-finished scarf still, so last night I unraveled it and repurposed the yarn to make this cute little bag.
T liked it so much she took it off my hands, but I think I will have to get some more of that yarn and maybe make one for myself. Mom was right...crochet is super-fast. Hurray for instant gratification! :)
Friday, January 11, 2008
History
In case you were wondering, I didn't go to the class on Wednesday, but I emailed the guy and he said I could catch up next class. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to go, which is awesome because I've been thinking about doing this for a long time and it's just never been the right time.
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about who I am and all of the things that have occurred and decisions I've made that have gotten me to this particular moment, which is weird for me because I usually don't think all that much about my past. My life is pretty much about moving forward, making progress, accomplishing something new, reaching for the next goal. It's actually kind of a dissatisfying way to live, because I'm never satisfied with what I've already accomplished. Anyway, for whatever reason my mind has been floating around in the past lately.
It's interesting to apply 30 year old logic to something that happened to me when I was a kid and hasn't been re-evaluated since then. I find that a lot of things that I was upset about tend not to bother me so much now that I can understand why they happened, though some things bother me more than they did, like the series of obscene phone calls I got when I was about ten years old. At the time, I just thought it was creepy and weird but now it totally freaks me out to think that some pervy grown man knew my name and phone number and called me repeatedly. Or when on the last day of fifth grade, my teacher took me aside and told me to go home and lose weight over the summer. When that happened I was ashamed and embarrassed to be singled out, but when I think about it now it first makes me angry for little roly-poly fifth grade Carrie and then it makes me feel sorry for my teacher, who clearly was dealing with some body issues of her own.
Anyway, all of these things add up to make me who I am today, I guess, which makes me wish I could remember more of them. It's annoying that my brain chose to use precious storage space for the lyrics to Ice Ice Baby instead of remembering the first time I rode a bike or some other iconic moment. Makes me think maybe I should be writing down what I remember now, lest it get overwritten by some insignificant song on the radio and I end up unable to recall anything about where I came from.
I realized the other day that since I'm the only one living in my house, I can play the piano as much as I want without bugging anyone. So that's my big plan for tonight...I'm going to go home and play the piano and maybe teach myself to crochet. Then maybe I'll read a book and go to bed early. Yeah baby! Do thirty-year-olds know how to party or what?!
xo,
C
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about who I am and all of the things that have occurred and decisions I've made that have gotten me to this particular moment, which is weird for me because I usually don't think all that much about my past. My life is pretty much about moving forward, making progress, accomplishing something new, reaching for the next goal. It's actually kind of a dissatisfying way to live, because I'm never satisfied with what I've already accomplished. Anyway, for whatever reason my mind has been floating around in the past lately.
It's interesting to apply 30 year old logic to something that happened to me when I was a kid and hasn't been re-evaluated since then. I find that a lot of things that I was upset about tend not to bother me so much now that I can understand why they happened, though some things bother me more than they did, like the series of obscene phone calls I got when I was about ten years old. At the time, I just thought it was creepy and weird but now it totally freaks me out to think that some pervy grown man knew my name and phone number and called me repeatedly. Or when on the last day of fifth grade, my teacher took me aside and told me to go home and lose weight over the summer. When that happened I was ashamed and embarrassed to be singled out, but when I think about it now it first makes me angry for little roly-poly fifth grade Carrie and then it makes me feel sorry for my teacher, who clearly was dealing with some body issues of her own.
Anyway, all of these things add up to make me who I am today, I guess, which makes me wish I could remember more of them. It's annoying that my brain chose to use precious storage space for the lyrics to Ice Ice Baby instead of remembering the first time I rode a bike or some other iconic moment. Makes me think maybe I should be writing down what I remember now, lest it get overwritten by some insignificant song on the radio and I end up unable to recall anything about where I came from.
I realized the other day that since I'm the only one living in my house, I can play the piano as much as I want without bugging anyone. So that's my big plan for tonight...I'm going to go home and play the piano and maybe teach myself to crochet. Then maybe I'll read a book and go to bed early. Yeah baby! Do thirty-year-olds know how to party or what?!
xo,
C
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