* All the magenta colored squares are done for the "Color-Bar Blanket." This is going faster than I remembered so either I've got faster at crocheting or else I just got overwhelmed with it before. I find I can complete a square in between 10 and 15 minutes. (No, I am trying hard not to tally up how many I have left and how much time that will be....and of course there's the matter of sewing them together, which will take a while to do neatly)
* Got the proofs for my Prairie Conference Proceedings paper today, so this one is nearly done. (Looking them over is going to be one of this morning's tasks). I do still take a little satisfaction from this having gone from "I'm not sure I have enough for a poster" to being asked to write it up for publication (granted, because the editor was my advisor, and also he complained of a dearth of acceptable papers, but still). I feel better about this paper than I do about the other one (the cedar stuff) that is somewhere floating around between "in preparation" and "in press."
* I do need to finish up the first side of Augusta tonight and cast on for a second side, as I give an exam tomorrow. (No, making afghan squares is not a good invigilating project; I have to look at them while I work on them and I need to keep an eye on the students)
* It was fairly satisfying this morning to take all the stuff I had printed out for making Science Olympiad exams and dump it in the recycling. Here's hoping that next year there are NO events that seem tailor-made for me to run them, and I can beg off for a year. (Though given my broad training - botany, ecology, soils, basic stats, invasive species, even some geography - that's not as likely as, say, the herpetologist being able to beg off. Then again, our ACTUAL botanist has never done one, so if they have a botany section next year? I say it's his turn).
(It's a pity they don't have a knitting or crochet competition; that might actually be FUN to run. Then again, this is straight STEM and doesn't include arts and crafts....)
I will say I was not the only one upset about the loosey-gooseyness of how things were run. The herpetologist - a deeply unflappable man (unlike me) noted he was in "a panic" when he came in after being told there would be "no more than 10" teams and was handed a sheet listing 23. (Not all of them showed up but for gosh sakes, you COULD ask teams to confirm they are coming a day or two in advance, and cross out the schools not attending?) He was someone doing an exam with "stations" (identifying stuff) and re-calibrating for more than 10 teams would have been a WAY bigger deal than my "I have to make another 10 copies of my written exam" was.
I also found out there was no expectation that the last-event scores be in for the awards ceremony. Um, maybe they could have TOLD us that so we didn't stress about it? And also maybe not have locked the entire building where we were supposed to drop stuff off? (Though apparently that last bit is on the heads of our facilities people, who are infamous for wanting to get done and home as fast as possible, even if it means inconveniencing someone else. And if it had come to it, if I had not been able to summon the custodian? We probably would have been calling CAMPUS POLICE to get in.)
* I brought my current simple sock in today with plans to do some research-reading and knit on it while I read: I do think I focus better when I do that so I'm going to. Maybe I even need to consider starting Flax or some other kind of all-stockinette-sweater so I have a knit-and-read project.
* I get paid today. (I hope. One never knows given the state of state's finances). My plan sometime tomorrow is to run to the bank and get cash (maybe even tap the savings account for that, as I have a few other expenses looming, like the tag-sticker fee for my car. So far I have heard no funeral plans and am wondering if it may take a while - unlike, for example, Mr. Flanagan's, where he knew death was coming and even had some say on what was going to be done at his. Maybe they do a memorial service later on? Though given that one of Steve's brothers lives in the UK, I am guessing it will be sooner rather than later so he can avoid a second trip.
Hard things are still hard. Yesterday afternoon I was a little teary. Partly just because of EVERYTHING. Partly because when I was in the wal-mart, there was a small child throwing a very large and loud tantrum, and given the mood I was in (and that I was bordering, at that point, on a headache), I wasn't as tolerant of it as that kid in the Target some weeks back.
I had been planning on getting a few things from the pharmacy end of the store (and maybe looking a bit in the toy section, for fun) but I wound up just bailing after getting the minimal things I needed because I couldn't deal with the noise. (I wonder if groceries realize that - that because they design them to be echoey and loud, it gets louder when someone is screaming, and there is a certain percentage of the population who just can't deal, and who will get out of there faster, with spending less money. At least there wasn't a line at the checkout or I MIGHT have abandoned my cart and scrammed and just hoped the Pruett's had most of what I needed....)
I also got teary in the Pruett's, just thinking about things, and also how I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to fix for dinner and it became a THING (as such things do with me: I would be good on the search for the Holy Grail because when I get my teeth in a quest, I can't give it up, I become "ride or die" for it) and I was NOT going to surrender to eating some crappy (sorry) frozen dinner on my FREAKING BIRTHDAY. So I finally decided on the chicken, which was probably a good choice in the end. And cake became an issue. I stood looking at the stuff in the (closed and unmanned) bakery case (they did have cheescake slices and whole cakes as grab-and-go things). I wound up with a cinnamon roll, but was apprehensive: it's my experience that very often, grocery-store-bakery cinnamon rolls are Not Awesome and are disappointing. Luck was with me this time: it was pretty good. Not as good as what my mom makes, but then again, few commercial breads are.
And yeah. One thing I need to do is to stop letting things become THINGS like that, where I go all 'ride or die' and it becomes a Quest instead of just a "eh meh, maybe not today" kind of thing.
But I know part of it was a combo platter of:
1. Being sad over Steve's death and also the loss his even-closer-than-me friends were experiencing
2. tree pollen bugging me
3. too much rain getting to me
4. just being over tired and under-relaxed, given the weekend
5. feeling like my "one afternoon off" was evaporating as I perambulated the aisles of the groceries
6. it was my birthday dangit and I wasn't happy.
7. It's been more humid and I am realizing humidity = hives and I am not happy when I have hives because my histamine is high and also I kind of low-level hurt and itch
At any rate: I am hoping I still get Saturday free and that everything is in order in Whitesboro so I can go and shop for yarn and fabric and probably swing by the Ulta and the bookstore on my way back, and also get to the natural-foods shop and the Kroger. I mean, grocery shopping now is BETTER that we have Pruett's but there are still things they don't have (either items or particular brands) that the Kroger's does.
And I do just need a day of a little bit of indulgence, where I have money in my pocket and don't worry excessively but "you have SABLE at home, and you never take time to knit or sew it up" and just be out and enjoy. And I need a lunch out somewhere.
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