Lost

So I got an email this weekend from Karen over at Yarn is my Metier. What the heck does metier mean, btw? Dictionary.com says: an activity for which one is particularly suited; forte. Wow, that didn't make it onto my GRE word list... Gotta learn something every once in a while. Anyway, she's just made up a very lovely sleeveless mock turtleneck top that she's in the process of writing up into a pattern and is looking for test knitters. I had to turn her down though I felt honored being asked to test knit... that's definitely a first, so thanks for thinking of me Karen! Anyway, my guilt is kicking in, so I just thought I'd point people in her direction in case she still needs volunteers.

So the reason why I turned her down is because I have a bit of a project list that's due by Christmas. Here's my project role call through the end of the year:

1. Finish Hoodie Boogie Rock v1.0 for my grandmother
2. Modify Hoodie Boogie Rock to get v2.0 for my grandfather - no cables, probably just a seed stitch or garter stitch border and big chest stripe
3. Modify Petrol for my other grandfather to get a different gauge because for some reason 20/4=4 to me and I ended up buying a light worsted yarn when the pattern asks for heavy worsted
4. Finish designing an intarsia in the round hat for our friend DL. It's gonna be in GGH Samoa in dark pink (#99) with a chocolate brown (#95) skull and cross bones design on the front and DL RAWKS duplicate stitched onto the inside hem. This is DL and yes he's single, and no he doesn't usually look like someone's taken a smudge tool over his face... just respecting his privacy:
5. Have to finish unbiased 1 and make unbiased 2 for my future SILs.
6. Take a few valium because I'm starting to feel a panick attack come on already as there are fewer than 60 days left to complete this!

Speaking of La Cabeza Grande, here's a progress pic on Hoodie Boogie Rock v1.0. The hood isn't really that large, it's just a poorly photographed perspective issue. I still have to weave in ends and do the armhole and pocket edgings, but the main part of the knitting is done I'd say. Surprisingly, no major spaz attacks on this one, though I'm not entirely convinced it'll fit my grandma. It's zippered, so she can wear it open and I'm taking measurements this year to do better next year!

I did learn something on this project though. There's a good reason why hooded garments still have neckline shaping and pick up stitches around the shaping:

Those massive holes? Yeah, I think that's why. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that when weaving in ends it won't look nearly as funky and my grandmother will love my effort anyway.

But I saw that Wendy was doing a hooded vest as well over at Knit and Tonic and was having problems with her hood. This next shot is for Wendy:

No, I didn't just let out a big one, I'm just camera shy, and thank goodness for the hood because it's definitely a bad hair day. Anyway, I think that the hood came out ok, despite the little bit of a nipple or something at my crown. The trick to avoiding the sand people look is something I found in Vogue Knitting Fall 2005 issue: matched decreases at the middle back of the hood. I graduated my decreases since the back of my head isn't a continuous slope.

I just wish that I had seen one of the comments on Wendy's post above before I started all of this. There's apparently a free pattern that's not much different from what I came up with and I wouldn't have had to bastardize 3 patterns to get there. Oh well. I guess mix and match knitting can be rewarding.

Oh and the title of the post? Well, that's because of my weekend. I went for a walk on Saturday at Joshua Tree. It started out leisurely enough, but then we apparently made a wrong turn and ended up bushwhacking for the next five hours. After 12 miles, we finally found the car again and I lost my appetite from not eating all day and, according to my heart rate monitor, burning 2900 calories. I also lost the desire to hike in the desert again where the guidebook instructs you to follow the wash for a mile or so and shortly thereafter find the unmarked hard to follow trail until you reach what used to be a burn area. If that's the best description they could come up with, we should have known better! Anyway, here's the view of Fan Canyon, and the only picture we managed to take during 7.5 hours of hiking.

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was DF and my two year anniversary (what’s the correct way of phrasing this possessive?). We met on a Thursday at the climbing gym in LA where we now climb together fairly regularly, and if it weren’t for a smarmy older guy hitting on me at the time, I probably never would have gotten up the guts to ask DF to ask me out. Thanks Tad!

So in a way of celebrating without really planning it that way, we actually got dressed as something other than dirtbag climbing bums and had a nice dinner. The most amusing thing about the place we went to was the “calorie free fortune cookie” they give you after your meal:
I’m pretty sure that’s one person I never would have imagined showing up on a fortune cookie.

Also on hand for anniversary dinner: the soon-to-be-former-Mr. Jessica Simpson apparently on the prowl for another dumb starlet. Yes, he was kind enough to NOT sing us an anniversary song.

In other ramblings, I will try to get around to showing how to pick up and purl for pocket linings and probably even for attaching patch pockets anywhere on stockinette stitch. Also, I’ve made reasonable progress on Hoodie Boogie Rock, and haven’t even frogged once! Granted, I haven’t gotten to the hard part of attaching a hood yet, so that’s not saying much. I’m putting in lifelines now for every major shaping section so when, no really I’m going to be optimistic here, IF I end up frogging, it’ll be a bit easier.
Sarah at SNB asked if I had managed to knit ALL THAT since last week. Yes, but it’s bulky yarn! That was the first time I had ever heard anyone imply that I made quick progress on anything, so I actually blushed. So that got me to thinking about an exercise I did last weekend. I actually timed myself knitting. So maybe it’s a bit high since the number of stitches per row is abundant (150), but here’s my SPM over stockinette stitch: 35. Actually, it’s more like 40 for knitting and 33 for purling. So am I obsessive, or has anyone else done this too?

Oh yeah, and since a really bad case of WEBSitis seems to be going around, I'll fess up. I just put in an order for 31 balls of yarn!!!! Gulp. At least DF approved the purchase and I won't have to find nonexistent room underneath the bed to hide my addiction. On the plus side, each of these balls of yarn is earmarked for a project, and I have even earmarked the remainder of the Silky Wool for something else. I won't get to this until well after Christmas (2006) but I'm already coveting this sweater. Now be honest, is it as ugly as DF claims it is? Have I stepped into the realm of You Knit What??

I'm a DF

So apparently I'm not able to look up dates on a calendar. Stitches West is still February 16-19, but the organizers aren't DFs and didn't in fact schedule an event mid-week like some might lead you to believe. It's more like Thursday-Sunday. Given the new and improved information, anyone interested?

Classes I'm curious about: Keeping Trim (Lily Chin), fully Fashioned and fabulous (Melissa Leapman), darting the issue (Lily Chin), the perfect sleeve (I wonder why), and joy of finishing (Chris Bylsma).

Unfortunately that would put me in 18 hours of classes for a whopping $340. Even if I cut back on classes, there's still room and transport, so this could be a REALLY expensive event. BUT I WANT TO GO!

Anyone up for carpooling up and/or sharing a room? It would be a LONG drive so I'm not sure if driving would even be a good idea, but I'd definitely be in for crashing with one or two or three people (wow this feels like college) to cut rooming costs. I promise I don't kick.

Ram Wools

Okay, I don't usually post yarn p*rn, and this clearly isn't because you can't see the yarn that clearly. But anyway, I just had to laugh when I opened up my order from Ram Wools. I could NOT believe that they actually wrapped my yarn in a ZIPPERED plastic bag and then put it in a box. I guess I didn't have to worry about the box getting soaked and ruining my 6 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool (think Cascade 220 but hand dyed so it's subtly variegated... for $4.10) and Koigu KPPPM in a lovely fall foliage pallette (for $8!). Now if only I didn't have all those pesky Christmas presents to make I could start on Blackberry and socks to play along with the Socktoberfest. Sigh.

So now what?

Well, I guess now that I’m done with the OCD, I should move on to something more productive. After my mother told me that my grandmother probably wouldn’t wear a shawl and talking over what she probably would wear, we decided on a hooded zip front vest with pockets. No sleeves because with my sleeve track record, she may not even get it next Christmas.

So now that leaves me with the problem of locating such a pattern. I was pretty lucky… there are patterns for a zip up vest with pockets and a cabled vest on knitty, and to get the hood on, I’m consulting a pattern from Vogue Knitting Fall 2005 that Jillian was nice enough to lend to me last time we went yarn store crawling. Hence, the Hoodie Boogie Rock Vest you see on the sidebar.

Not sure if this counts as an original design so much as a hybrid of about 3. But it’s fun nonetheless and not too taxing just yet. So far, I’ve just got the pocket fronts and about a couple of inches from the bottom band.
Here’s a close up of the cables, which I did without a cable needle and I didn’t even stress one iota of a second about dropping those stitches that were precariously hanging out in mid-air. Thanks to Jillian again for showing me this technique.
But the cool thing so far is the pockets! I’ve never done this before, but you work back and forth for the section that’s going to be the pocket front, and then pick up stitches on the back of that piece to knit behind it. If the pockets were to be square, I’m sure you could probably do this with a double-knitting technique so you don’t have to do the pockets separately from the body, but eh, it works just fine this way. I discovered that if you pick up stitches on the purl side and want to purl with them, this is done differently than picking up and knitting. Since it’s the back of the piece, I don’t care so much, but now I’m dying to know how to pick up and purl. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Hopeful

Pattern by Jenna Adorno: http://www.thisgirlknits.com/tgbb.html
Materials: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (65% wool, 35% silk, 175m). <3 skeins in color #13, light blue. Size US5 Denise. US5 DPN.
Gauge: 20 sts and 32 rounds = 4x4”
Finished Size: bust 29"- waist 23.5"- length 20"(yes, that's a lot of negative ease!)

Started: September 18, 2005
Frogged: September 22, 2005
Finished: October 19, 2005

Notes:
Cast on 12 fewer stitches than bust measurement and incorporated eyelet row of K2tog, YO for picot hem after 0.5". Started waist shaping 2" after eyelet row and worked shaping gradually over next 6.5". Worked neck shaping on front with the back to eliminate side seams then worked back, left front, and right front separately but simultaneously. Worked neckline with short row shaping at shoulder seams. Worked sleeves by picking up 3 stitches for every 5 rows and completing short row shaping 2 stitches earlier on either side of armhole than pattern calls for. Decreased evenly by 2 more stitches than pattern calls for before bind off.

Discussion:
Well, I do believe that this one has been discussed to death, so I'm not going to get into it. I absolutely love the design and would do it all again. Hmm, sounds like childbirth. There are definitely signs of it being "homemade", but overall, I'm pretty happy with the results.

Next time, I would probably lengthen the top a bit and go ahead and do the banded bottom since whipstitching the hem up was a royal pain. The bottom flares a bit as my gauge seems to have expanded on bottom only as the bust and hip measurements are equal after blocking despite the 12 fewer stitches at the hip. Ah the magic of selective gauge expansion. I just don't get it. Anyway, I would probably also shrink down the circumference to avoid the slight flaring (is that what bottom ribbing is for?!?!) which while barely noticeable, doesn't seem to match the fit of the rest of the top. Don't give me any ideas about cutting off the bottom and reknitting it to fit better...

Thanks Jenna for the brilliantly understated but flattering design, and I wish you all the best with your fundraising efforts.

Previous posts about this project:
Excited on 8/18/2005
Weekend knitting on 9/19/2005
Silky Wool on 9/21/2005
Just once on 9/22/2005
Back in the Saddle on 9/23/2005
I'm not a Spaz! on 9/28/2005
She-Ra on 10/4/2005
Opinion Poll on 10/5/2005
Shout Out on 10/11/2005
It's not the OCD on 10/19/2005

It's not the OCD

So it’s amazing what you can learn from a session of SNB. As a corollary to #30 on my 100 things list, I have never used any other recreational substances either. Like I said, square. Anyway, at last week's SNB there was a long story involving Faith’s neighbor that ended with, no joke:

*knock, knock knock*
Occupant: What do you want?
Police: It’s the police. We need to talk.
Occupant: Go away!

Pause

*knock, knock knock*
Occupant: Who’s there?
Police: Police sir, please open up.

Another pause

*knock, knock knock*
Occupant: WHAAT!!?!?
Police: Land Shark!

Hmmm, so it seems that said neighbor was displaying suspicious behavior involving broken plate glass windows. But the conversation naturally turned to other signs of recreational drug use that made me somewhat suspicious of myself. One of the side effects mentioned was super-productivity in a non-productive way. What's that mean? Well, it's like taking apart your Jeep bolt for bolt and neatly organizing all of the bolts by size in boxes in your garage. OR knitting and re-knitting the same sleeve 10 times. It's not the OCD, really, it's the crystal meth that DF has been secretly pumping me up with in my sleep!

But the exercise in frustration has FINALLY ended (I hear a collective sigh of relief from the audience). I bound off the latest incarnation of sleeve v4.2 last night at SNB and modelled it for the ladies. I still haven't turned the picot hem up, so the picure is forthcoming.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering what rock I've been hiding under for the past WEEK, DF and I went to a wedding in Sarasota, FL. It was at 10:00 AM on FRIDAY. My head's still not screwed on correctly from the red eye flight we took out there and the 3 days in a row of 4 hours of sleep. Amazingly, no knitting the entire trip, but I did finally finish HP5. No, not Half Blood Prince, it was Order of the Phoenix. Yes I know, most 12 yo children finished that one 2 years ago, but I'm not like most 12 year olds. Not sure if that's a good thing when comparing reading speeds...

Also, I got an email from KnittingUniverse announcing the registration opening up today for Stitches West Feb 16-19. Is anyone going to this event? I've heard so many people talking about it on their blogs and mentioning the classes that they offer, I'm curious, but it falls on a Wednesday to Saturday. If it weren't for the vacation I'm hoarding to take a 3 week honeymoon in New Zealand (!), I'd be all over going to Stitches West. Hmm... what to do?

Shout out

Ah-hah! No pictures today, so that means I can use Word to write my post, and Blogger CAN’T EAT IT. HA! Take that.

Why no pictures? Well, honestly, it’s because I have absolutely nothing to show. I’ve been stuck in this knitting Groundhog’s Day for almost two weeks. I think I’ve finished the sleeves on Hopeful, and then my OCD kicks in and the sleeve gets frogged and reknit. I think I’ve knit about 5 sleeves now. So instead of torturing you with yet more pictures of the same thing, or at least mostly the same, I’m just going to wait until the end. Thanks everyone for your comments on tourniquet sleeve vs. flaring sleeve.

Unbiased is almost done. It’s in the process of being pieced together and then the straps need to go on. Note that I didn’t say that I was in the process of piecing it together. Turns out I have a conveniently located finishing service at my disposal. And I don’t mean Jennifer Knits. The DF! Thanks DF for seaming the bag…

On to the meat of what I have been thinking about saying for a while. Like a lot of you, I really enjoy blogging. I don’t think I mention other people’s blogs near enough though I read them almost every day. Well, except on weekends. Mondays are therefore scary days when I wonder how I’m going to read 50 posts over lunch. I digress. So I wanted to take a small detour and out my bloglines list here. I really like clicking on the links to other blogs that people show on their sidebars to see what other people are talking about. Unfortunately, I think I might have a bit of a commitment phobia to actually show these as permalinks on my sidebar. Yes, need more therapy.

Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to all of the people whom I read regularly, whether they know it or not. In order of appearance on my bloglines account:
Kim at A Knitted Frenzy
Laura at Affiknitty
Keohinani at Aloha and Oreos
Lizzi at Amimono
Chris at Bits of Knits
Alison at the Blue Blog
Laurie at CrazyAuntPurl
Carrie at Every Word’s a Purl
Stephanie at Glampyre Knits
Kathy at Grumperina goes to local yarn shops and Home Depot
Jessimuhka at Jessimuhka Knits
Theresa at The Keyboard Biologist Knits
Wendy at Knit and Tonic
Chrissy at Knittin’ Mom
Winnie at Knitting Escapism
Lucia at the Knitting Fiend
Christine at Knitting for Boozehags
Caitlyn at Knot without my Knitting
Marnie at Marnie Talks
Julia at Mind of Winter
Karen at Musings of a Mostly Self-Taught Knitter
Nona at Nonaknits
Jess at Penelope’s got Nothing on me
Jillian at Sknitty
Kym at Stix and the City
Wendy at Wendyknits
Stephanie at Yarn Harlot
Karen at Yarn is my Metier

Whew! I know that a lot of these are on everyone’s must read list or appear in various knitting magazines, so these are actually on the bottom of my list to check when there are too many posts to sift through. For all the others you don’t recognize, go by there and check them out.

So who do you check in with on a regular basis?

Opinion Poll

OMG, I hate Blogger! Blogger ate my post AGAIN. Is it time yet to start paying for my blog habit?

Anyway, thanks to everyone who commented on my post yesterday about my one-armed Hopeful. It’s nice to hear praise even if I’m not completely happy with it and continuously banging my head against the wall trying to make everything just so. I’m a perfectionist, I can’t help it. I just hope that being a perfectionist at least yields things done well. I do wonder if this Type A thing I’ve got going on is bad for me. The October 3 Newsweek has a little article on Type D personalities and how it increases your risk for heart disease. Type D, in case you’re wndering as I was, is a person who worries all the time and is socially inhibited. Hello?? Over here!!! Type D is a follow on to the definitions of Type A (perfectionist), Type B (laid back), and the little known Type C (outwardly pleasant, but avoids confrontation by bottling up emotions). Wait, all those are me. I guess you can’t really put people in a box.

Digress much?

So I did make the second sleeve and I did it a bit larger this time. I picked up 2 stitches for every 3 rows, and as luck would have it, I managed to come up with a stitch count that matched one of the sizes in the pattern. Which is good because if I had to recalculate… whoo boy! So, what do y’all think? Does the second sleeve look good as is?
I realized that I could at least get rid of the tourniquet effect on the original smaller sleeve edge if the second sleeve looks wonky. I’d omit the final round of evenly spaced decreases since I can’t figure out what these decrease do anyway then bind off on larger needles. However, I don’t think this approach would fix the overall snugness. It certainly won’t fix the armpit creep either. I realized the pit creep is pulling the body up so that the waist shaping doesn’t fall along my natural waist anymore. The mismatch would nag at me after all of the time I spent calculating. So unless the second sleeve looks like hell, I think I’ll rip the first.

Of course, I didn’t knit the larger sleeve just once. That just wouldn't be me. I followed the directions exactly as written for the number of sleeve stitches I had, but the picture at the left showed the final result of that effort. The sleeve edge flaring just plain annoyed me, so I ripped back to just after the short row shaping and threw in some more decreases there. I think that took away some of the flaring, as seen in the first picture. I’m contemplating a few more decreases to get rid of more flaring, but…

Quick, distract me before I frog some more!

She-Ra...

She may not be the master of the universe, but she does kick ass as far as I can remember. Seeing however as she never wore sleeves, she probably didn't run into the problem I'm currently having as a result of weekends spent doing this:

What problem might that be? Well, apparently my BIG HONKING DELTS (BHDs) don't fit into regular sleeves. Much to my surprise, I followed the directions exactly as Jenna had written them to add the set in sleeve onto a sleeveless sweater. I had a lot of fun with the short rows and not having to seam and everything until I went to try it on. The sleeves are quite abbreviated, so I had to tug and pull and stretch those suckers to get them over my upper arms. And my arms barely fit through there. Unfortunately, picking up one stitch for every two rows, while standard, apparenty doesn't accomodate my BHDs. Note to self, bind off with a larger needle next time. Oh yeah, and pick up more stitches.

The other thing I noticed was that it seemed that the seams for this style of sleeve don't appear to be that secure. It looks like the sleeve pulls away from the body a bit and looks just plain weird. I'm not sure if that will go away with a larger sleeve or what, but I'm sure hoping.

I'm betting that most people who read this are probably saying to themselves, anal much? First the wonky hip thing, then the neckline issue, and now this. Does she like to knit things up just to rip them out again? Well, I admit it. I do have serious anal retentive tendencies. I just like to think I hold myself to a high standard. There's nothing wrong with that. Really.

Oh wait, I just realized that I never mentioned the neckline issue because I was on blog strike towards the end of last week out of sheer depression due to this project. So I showed the body being done and mentioned that it was blocking, but that's the last of it since now. Well, I spazzed a bit between then and now. I started off doing the neckline as instructed using a K2Tog decrease to attach the ribbed neckband to the picked up stitches around the neckline shaping. I got halfway done and decided that I didn't like the right slanting decrease there because the left leg of the picked up stitches shows prominently. I had read that someone else substituted SSK here and tried it. Wow, the picked up stitch is hidden entirely underneath the neckband stitch. I like that better. RIP! I started over and again got halfway around the neckband and inspected my work. Eww, the last stitch on the neckband is slanting to the left (duh!) and so now the ribbing looks all broken there and just plain funky.

I took it to the WeHo SNB for a second opinion. I met Jillian for the first time (it's weird meeting people you already "know"!) and she also thought it looked a bit weird. Mostly because it was just loose, but I didn't think I could salvage it and still be happy with the end product. Thankfully, Jillian gave me the little push I needed to rip it out for the second time. Anyway, I was too depressed to deal with the neckline for a third time that night, but I did finally get to it this weekend. Now, I am actually happy with the fit and can finally show it without the IBTs making an appearance.


No, the sleeve is not staying on as is, or at least I don't think it is. I'm going to try it with more stitches on the other side just to make sure that I don't go overboard, then I'll rip this side out. Aha! Planning things out for once. Imagine that.

So what did I do at SNB if I didn't have the heart to work on Hopeful? Well, I did cast on for Unbiased finally. Man oh man, is recycled silk a pain to knit with. So much fuzzy stuff to navigate, but the end product is just gorgeous! One caveat, if you ever buy a ball of recycled silk and you have a chance to choose from many, make sure you inspect the thickness and try and find the ones that are fairly consistent throughout. The picture shows the panel where I changed balls right in the middle and while you can't tell from the picture, if you pick it up, it feels like I changed gauge or something when I changed balls. It's actually because the second ball is seriously thin in places and makes the fabric feel wimpy. Just a warning.

I finished one ball over the weekend and started a second ball. The entire second panel is getting frogged, but the third panel looks like it'll be fine. I'm keeping the two on the left. Vastly different colors in these two panels, huh? I hope that looks okay...

One hundred things

Because all the cool kids are doing it and because I don’t have any knitting content to show you…  100 things in no particular order.

1. I used to go around saying “Hi, my name is Jennifer.  My nickname is Jen.  But you can call me Jen-Jen!”


2. I had a panic attack in 3 feet of water wearing arm floaties and swallowed a lot of water when I was 5.


3. I had a panic attack in 42 feet of water wearing a waist floaty and clinging to a foam noodle when I was 30.


4. I guess I can’t swim.


5. I have a mutant short middle toe on my left foot.


6. I have a not-so-Cindy Crawfordesque mole just to the left of my nose.


7. My best time for a 5k race was ~37 min.


8. I was not walking.  I was running at top speed.


9. I took piano lessons for 12 years.


10. I enjoyed about 7 years of it.


11. I can’t remember how to play anything now.


12. I played flute in the marching band in middle school.


13. We did not march.


14. I took voice lessons and joined the choral group in college.


15. I sing horribly off key.


16. I went postal on my stuffed elephant Cindy for telling lies when I was 5.


17. I was later told that Cindy the elephant was a Republican commemorative toy.


18. I took my first plane ride when I was 8.


19. My parents did not accompany me.


20. I screamed bloody murder for the entire length of the runway during landing.


21. The sound of the wind rushing over the wings made me think the engines were on fire.


22. The pilot had to apologize for the, uh, rough landing.


23. I learned to ski when I was 22.


24. I now prefer hard snow to powder.


25. I tried jeet kun do for a year, but it never took.


26. I’ve been rock climbing for 4 years.


27. I never went to summer camp.


28. I never had an alcoholic drink before I turned 21.


29. I can’t really describe what being drunk feels like.


30. I have never smoked anything.


31. I am square.


32. The first car I drove had a whopping 48 hp.


33. It was diesel.


34. It mulched leaves when you turned on the fan for the air conditioner or heater.


35. The speedometer only worked once you got over 25 mph.


36. I had to manually turn the turn signal on and off to get it to blink.


37. Strong flavors and smells make me sneeze.


38. Peppermint is the worst.


39. Followed closely by alcohol.


40. I have to tell people I’m allergic to alcohol to avoid being looked at funny when I don’t drink at a bar.


41. Bartenders look at me cockeyed when I order my favorite drink: cranberry juice and Red Bull.  No, I don’t want the vodka thank you.


42. I have the amazing ability to sleep anywhere anytime.


43. Conversely, I can’t stay awake in cars.  Even when driving.


44. I blame it on getting motion sick easily.


45. I’ve felt queasy on a ferry before.


46. I’m an Aries.


47. I was born in the year of the Rabbit.


48. I spent many summers hanging out at a liquor store during my elementary school days.


49. My grandparents owned and ran that liquor store.


50. I can’t speak a word of Chinese.


51. I can’t speak to my grandmother or my great-grandmother.


52. Up until last year, I had a full set of grandparents and one great grandmother.


53. I told my grandfather that he was hopelessly lost when I was 2.


54. He didn’t know it yet, but I was right.


55. I used to call my friend Joe to drive over and pick me up from my house when I wanted to hang out with him in high school.


56. Joe lived a block away.


57. I majored in chemistry in college.


58. I can’t remember how to balance a chemical equation anymore.


59. I practically failed biochemistry, thermodynamics, physics, and vector calculus.


60. English was my worst subject throughout school.


61. I was my school’s spelling bee champ in the 5th grade.


62. I dislike reading.


63. I still have nightmares about not having read the book and having to take a test on it.


64. My record for longest time to read a book from start to finish was 4 years.


65. The book was And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts.


66. I played in my friend’s church bell choir.


67. But, I never attended church.


68. I thought my brother was lying to me when he told me the Challenger exploded.


69. I was annoyed that they interrupted the Rockets finals game to show OJ’s low speed chase.


70. I never saw a minute of the OJ case on TV.


71. I couldn’t even recognize a picture of Nicole Brown Simpson in 1996.


72. I’ve never had a cat or a dog.


73. I had a couple of hamsters for a while.


74. Then it turned into a dozen hamsters.


75. I was horrified when I found out that it was because of the mamma hamster that it went back to only a couple of hamsters.


76. I am a loud talker.


77. I’ve lived in only 4 states.


78. I’ve visited 40 of 50 states.


79. I’ve only been to Canada, Mexico, UK, Austria, Germany and a few Caribbean islands.


80. The first concert I attended was a dual headlining Tiffany and New Kids on the Block concert.


81. The last concert I attended was a Royksopp/Basement Jaxx event at the Hollywood Bowl.


82. Ryan and I met almost two years ago.


83. We credit the Santa Ana winds causing unusually bad wildfires that year and a creepy older guy hitting on me for getting us together.


84. My great-grandmother gets confused when people refer to Ryan because she expects to see my brother Bryan.


85. She also gets confused when people refer to my future SIL Jennifer because she expects to see me.


86. I am the #9 (out of 30) grandchild on my father’s side and #2 (of 2) on my mother’s side.


87. My grandfather tells all his grandchildren “This one’s my favorite.”


88. I still believe that I am.


89. I never learned how to put on makeup.


90. I wear jeans and flip flops almost 7 days a week.


91. It takes me an hour to chop up vegetables for dinner.


92. My longest time to prepare dinner was 3 hours.


93. It was a beef and vegetable stir fry.


94. The longest my hair has ever been is to the end of my shoulder blades.


95. The shortest it’s ever been is 1 inch all over.


96. I looked like a pre-pubescent boy.


97. Or a communist.


98. I am right handed.


99. I am left brained.


100. I am done!

This was really hard to do!  I must not be all that interesting…