Moving

I decided to move over to wordpress. Hopefully all will go well and you can all find me at http://stringthing1987.wordpress.com

New Computer

The boy has built me a new desktop and I'm loving it so far. Its miles faster and better than my laptop and I'm enjoying playing the Sim 3 without lagging and I'm getting used to typing on a normal keyboard as well.

Sometimes it has a rough start

This semester is only one day into the year and somehow I've had the roughest start I've ever had.

Becuase of the GF diet I moved to the on-campus apartments that have a full sized fridge and oven. And because I found out kinda last minute they shoved me into a handicap apartment. So I moved into a dorm with a half-size kitchen and half the cabinets because the bathroom is huge. Also I've got a pretty nasty cold.

Saturday I got a late start but mom and I got to the dorm to move my stuff in around 2. My roommate and her parents were already here and the dorm had evidently been lived in during the summer, but not cleaned or checked when the last person moved out. So they got housekeeping in and I got there just as they were leaving. The dorm is smaller than expected (because of the handicap size bathroom and really really run down. There are holes in the kitchen linoleum which I keep tripping on (they are supposed to fix that) and for the first 24 hours we had no hot water (guess how I found that out) My bed had also been set up upside down, which caused great discomfort before the source of the problem was discoverd and fixed by my fabulous boyfriend. The first night was miserable though. I slept curled up on the top half of the bed. Sunday was more settling in and going to buy books (and pay too much) and getting things the room needed (trash cans evidently went missing with last occupant) That night my new roommate went out and came back quite drunk and I had to deal with the guy she brought home (not rude, but kind of a jerk) evidently he didn't stay the night but he was there when I finally fell asleep.

Today was the first day of classes and I woke up at like 9:30 even though my one and only class for the day is at 2. I got some more unpacking done and washed the dishes and even worked on my thesis for a while before class. The class itself lasted for about 15 minutes and then I talked with people I hadn't seen since May and then got a friend to drive me to my dr appointment so I could get this cold/sinus infection cleared up. When I'm sick my brain totally checks out and I had no business driving even the 5 miles to the clinic. The rest of the day has been mostly taken up by resting and meeting my boyfriend's new roommates, who both seem pretty cool.

Anyway, boring blog, but i feel like posting is a reasonable distraction.

Moving again

Today I have been packing the cars so I can move back to school. I am looking forward to going back, but at the same time I have a feeling this semester, my final one, will be very different than semesters I have had in the past. New dorm, new roommate (who I have doubts about based on communications from her so far) many of the friends I had at school left or graduated at the end of last semester and so it may be a whole new experience.

I was knitting on the scarf pictured above almost exclusively until yesterday, when I cast on a sock and a shopping bag so I could have some knitting which requires less concentration. The scarf is from Estonian Lace today, and I'm knitting it in Malabrigo lace. I think if the only yarn in the world was made by malabrigo I might be happy with it. This stuff is amazingly soft, easy to work with and so very pretty. Everyone who sees this project loves it, even manly men who normally ignore knitting.

How do you mourn a food group?

I had this post entirely written out in my head late last night, but my computer was shut down, all the lights were off and I simply went to sleep. Because of this, I have ideas which were probably worded 100x better last night.

As I have gone back on a gluten free diet I find myself mourning the loss of an entire food group (or at least most of one.) I can eat a good meal without even eating any gluten replacements, I can eat a better one with some purchased or homemade treats that take away that need for bread. What I can't do is feel normal, especially when I am not home. I travel a lot, I don't go more than 2 hours away in general, but I'm gone much of the time. This makes food difficult. Instead of a joy its a struggle, that often leads to either an empty belly due to lack of food, non-filling foods or pain because somewhere someone made a mistake, probably me since I hate to make the wait staff answer questions or do special orders. Everything is a little harder and a little bit less normal.

I don't miss being sick, but I do miss light bread, or sandwhiches, doughnuts picked up when we are in the grocery store, italian food, pizza.... so many things. So how do you mourn a food group? It can't be like mourning a death, where you long for the loss to be returned and that is okay, because food will always be there, I will always have to look at it and watch people eat it and I will know I can't have it.

I think you have to mourn food like an ex boyfriend. When its still there you want it, you know its bad for you, but you still enjoy a wonderful pasta dinner, or extra cheesy bread. When its gone you miss it, but you remind yourself about how much better life is without this loser, or this evil gluten. I'm in the stage where their is grief and anger about the whole situation. I know that not eating gluten makes me feel better, I know it makes changes so drastic I went from walking with a cane because my joints hurt so bad to going without it. I also have doubt, the doctors put that doubt in my mind when I was so sure, and even though I know my body so much better than they do they keep the doubt going.

Images from the Google images Life magazine photo archive

Much happenings

Many things have been going on in my life (as always.)

I have been diagnosed as not-a-celiac, but my doctor does acknowledge that not eating gluten makes me healthy, and by no means could I be considered a healthy person before. My joints hurt so badly I walked with a cane on bad days. I had IBS symptoms nearly every day. Just one flight of stairs made me out of breath and my heart would pound until it hurt. Anxiety attacks, depression and chronic fatigue completed the picture and we end up with a not-so hot mess. When I stopped eating gluten I felt heathy, and whole. I have no words for how drastic the changes were. I no longer felt old, broken and sick.

I have been offline for the most part too, as my laptop was broken. So I had time to finish some projects. I finished a scarf that I was weaving. The warp is from artsygal and the weft is her same base yarn only undyed. I borrowed a table loom to weave on, and this actually went very quickly.

After the scarf was done I finished a gift for an adopted nephew of mine. I hope he enjoys his nellyphant, he enjoys chewing on knitted things.

I also finished my purse socks. In all its been very productive.

Few words

I seem to have become a blog reader, not a blog writer, nor a blog commenter.

My life has been busy, and many interesting things have occured but somehow even when I am bored the desire to write about them here is sapped.

I survived Pioneer life week for another year. The weather was cool with some rain, but we always have rain. I would so much prefer cool and rain to hot, humid and rain. The boy came out and visited, he said it was a little intimidating walking into a camp full of people who not only have known me all my life, but are also armed. Like a family reunion with knives.

Since getting back I have borrowed a table loom and have been enjoying playing with that. I

need to take pictures of the actual woven cloth soon, but here are pictures of the warped loom.

So I’ve been researching grad schools again (mainly to procrastinate.)

My top 3 right now are
University of South Carolina
College of William and Mary
University of Maryland, College Park

The list is in order from cheapest to most expensive. All three seem to be good programs. I have things I like about all three and so far I have not found something I dislike about the first one, although its only been on the radar for two days. W&M has a fantastic location, but it’s expensive to live there and they don’t fund their master’s students. I have visited and I enjoyed the atmosphere but the city it is in is insane to drive and live in.

UMCP is in a suburb of DC… this is all wrong to me. I am a country girl and hate driving in town even in my own small town. However I love that the archaeology program is internship based instead of thesis based.

USC is in a smaller city, and in the South, which I like. Its about 2000 bucks cheaper per semester and the rent is a manageable level in the area. I think I may really like the idea of this school. Its not prestigious or all that fancy, but neither am I.

I guess I'm just putting it out there so if anybody has any input or knows more about the archaeology programs, the area near the schools or any other handy info I would appreciate it.

This week

I have done quite a bit of knitting, mostly due to WIP Wrestling Madness over on ravelry. Before then I managed to finish a pair of socks, but I did not get them photographed until it cooled off a bit around here. I won't even put on thick wool socks long enough to take a picture if its over 90F here.

Once WWM started I finish my wisp scarf, its possibly a little shorter than planned, but long enough to be a cute acessory once it gets cool enough to let mohair touch me.

I spent the weekend of the 4th with my boy and his family. We made things go splody.

Something to report

This picture is an older one, but I finished this pair of socks today. I have not taken finished pictures or put on the pair, mostly because I cannot even think of putting on heavy wool socks in this heat.

I have been staying days with my great grandma, listening to her tell stories (over and over), fixing her meals and generally just being there to be sure she is safe and well. I have been doing a lot of spinning this week. In the last 3 days I have spun a full pound of wool, and today I was feeling bad when I was getting my things together because I had not plied and wound my yarn to clear up bobbins. I realized then that I had spun nearly continuously from 10 AM until about 4:30 PM with a lunch break and a few breaks to stretch. I had spun over 8oz of yarn and if I didn't feel like plying up all of that yarn and putting it into skeins it was okay.

I really haven't felt very well today. I think this is due to me eating quite a bit of dairy, in spite of a lifetime sensitivity to milkfat. It is also possible that some of the leftovers I ate at grandma's could have had gluten cooties but it is hard to say what caused it. I was well enough to bake my weekly loaf of bread though, once dad had cleaned up his mess in the kitchen. Sadly my new mixer was not delivered to the house to help me. UPS claims they delivered it so I will have to see if they put it at my neighbor's (trailer is unoccupied due to renovation and the former and future occupant is a dealer...) so I may have to wait much longer and get a reimbursement from UPS. I hate how it seems that only USPS is capable of a simple delivery, yet not all companies give you that option.