go ahead and ask her

hayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !!!!! last night i worked on a work project at home, like a dork, and crocheted ! that's like, mostly it ! i had to look up like 50302943 people in our system to make mailing labels for them and i got about half of it out of the way since it's so time-consuming. the actual work isn't time-consuming but our system is so slow that it takes like 5 minutes per person to look them up which is like four hours in internet time.


i can't take credit for this clever graphic

i made it my goal to finish two more granny squares while i cleared our DVR of the simpsons and futurama, but i kept getting distracted and it took longer than i thought. i think it would take like 45 minutes or so to do a granny square if i actually focused but it took me like 900 hours because i kept putting it down. anyway, here's the two new ones:



and here's all four together in case you are too lazy to look at the last entry !



what else? i'm also re-reading the fellowship of the ring, which i haven't read since i was 10-14 (when i read it many, many, many times). i lovedddddddddd these books when i was a kid and, re-reading them, i really regret seeing the movies. i wasn't too crazy about them when they came out, but like, i had everything pictured so vividly in my mind- what everyone looked like, what every place looked like, what every race looked like, etc. and now when i'm reading i just picture this:







i'm especially heartbroken about gollum because the movie gollum is really stupid and gross and i hate him. gandalf and saruman are okay though cause... 1) christopher lee is cool and 2) what else is a wizard going to look like? anyway, it is coloring my re-reading in a way that is bumming me out, because like... i'm an adult, i shouldn't have to think about elijah wood if i don't want to, and it also sucks to lose important magical stuff from your childhood.

i unfortunately have to cut this short because i have a meeting in 20 minutes that i have to prepare for. hayyyy.

p.s. my mom gets here after work tomorrow ! which means i'd better clean my room tonight and maybe drop my laundry off to be washed?

braveheart of the rodeo

did i mention that pizza acts like a fucking freak when you give her catnip? she never reacted much to toys and scratching posts with catnip, so i never bothered to buy any for her to eat. i got a tub on wednesday and fed her a few pinches and she stayed stock still doing owl ears for a minute and then jumped onto christina's craft table and started obsessively licking some wool roving. like, wouldn't let me push her away from it and her muscles were totally locked so i couldn't even push her head away !


some other cat eating some other catnip

last night, i raided and taught myself to crochet. we had a lot of downtime because we were wiping on valithria:



since we were missing a few key dps and healers. we do have some new recruits, but i don't think anyone briefed them on the no talking like a neanderthal policy so i'm sure i'll be able to report some awesome rape jokes to you guys soon. anyway, in my downtime, i watched knit witch videos on youtube and taught myself three crochet stitches.


from the bottom: single crochet, double crochet, half double crochet

i still need to work on tension and stuff but i think i've pretty much got it down. it probably took like a half hour? as you guys probably know, the #1 most annoying thing you can say to a knitter/crocheter (besides "make me something lololol") is "i wish i could do that" because... no one's brain comes with that stuff already inside it- we learned how to do it. and there is nothing stopping you from learning besides laziness, so why bother to comment? anyway, as a reaction to that i've become super unrealistically confident about my abilities and just decided i was going to learn to crochet, and i'm doing it.

big ups to christina for checking my work, though.

i was going to make a list of stuff i need to do this weekend (clean my room, PUT MY SHELF TOGETHER, grocery shop, make a chewbacca) but instead i'm going to do this one:

list of things you shouldn't say to fat people who are losing weight:
- "you look great !" - there is a judgment in this, and that judgment is "when you are more fat, you do not look great". this is a total motherfucking mindfuck, so don't say it. even if you just want to say it because they look happier/"healthier"/whatever, don't say it. if you have to compliment them, why not be a normal person and not compliment their body?
- "i'm glad you're finally doing something about your weight" - again, there is a judgment here, and that judgment is, "i have been waiting for you to do something about your weight". no fat person wants to hear that someone close to them is thinking about their body or weight and waiting for them to lose weight.
- "what's your secret?" - there is no secret to weight loss. you lose weight if you eat well and exercise, which most people find boring. what you also may not realize is that their "secret" is all of the struggle and mental turmoil and weird feelings that come along with trying to change the way you eat and exercise and live and LOOK, and dealing with other peoples' reactions to those changes as your value increases to other people as your weight decreases, and you probably don't want to hear that because that isn't fun for you.
- "aren't you on a diet? can you eat that?" - the fat person is keenly aware what they "can" eat. they don't need your help (and guess what- there is ALSO a judgment in there !)

these are just guidelines for people you're close to, by the way. if an acquaintance or someone you don't know very well is losing a lot of weight, do not say shit to them ever. in 2007 i lost 75 lbs and had to deal with the comments above from people i was close to (imagine the mindfuck of embarrassment and shame that happens from hearing people you NEVER would have guessed judged you based on your weight say stuff like that ! and imagine how you feel when you gain it back, like i did), but i also had to deal with coworkers saying that they could see that my BACK was skinnier and coworkers saying that my boobs were getting smaller and all kinds of shit !

sorry, this is on my mind lately as i work on eating disorder stuff. it sucks that to work on that, my appearance will have to change and i'll have to go crazy again from people commenting on it. whatever, here's a turtle:



have a good weekend !

your love is a river running soul deep

i had the best time with jeanne yesterday ! she asked me to hang out because it was so nice out ! while i waited for her, i went to mariposa co-op and bought some fake chicken broth and a dark chocolate bar with whole cherries.



then we walked to clark park and petted a billion dogs (well, two. but we saw some other dogs ! including a neapolitan mastiff right next to a chihuahua, an australian shepherd mutt, some pitbulls, a fox terrier). thennnn we stopped at a pet supply store on baltimore and went in because they had a kitten for adoption in the window from a local shelter. i bought pizza some catnip just so we could pet the kitten !





she was super cute and suuuuper tiny and super chirpy and talkative. we're trying to get everyone we know to adopt her. she was reaching through the bars and batting our noses and hands !!

after cat petting, we walked down to vientiane, a thai/laosian restaurant. i really love vientiane but i basically always forget it's there. i had the tofu lad na (which is tofu, wide rice noodles, and this like... amazing thinly sliced broccoli) and it was awesome



by the way, is anything more unappetizing than camera phone pictures of peoples' food? i've never seen one that looked less than disgusting. i don't know why i take them.

we went back to my house after that and hung out with christina, and (sort of) true to my word, i practiced crocheting. i did a bunch of rows of single crochet to work on my tension (though i used this sort of weird thick/thin tweed yarn which made it impossible to tell how i was doing !) and feel confident enough to start youtubing double and half double crochet. christina has also graciously offered to show me if i can't get it since she taught crocheting forever.

once jeanne left, christina and i watched the terminator



and i have to say- you know the scene where the terminator is killing all the sarah connors he can find, and one sarah connor just made an awesome looking sandwich and he kills her before she can eat it? that bummed me out, so i ordered a sandwich even though i'd gone out to dinner 5 hours earlier. i got a little bit of indigestion but i basically never want to miss a sandwich opportunity before i get terminated.

i'm going to go forage for breakfast food. i'm getting good texts from mouse today because he's super high on allergy medicine.

oh, yeah, i got accepted for penn's summer session ! that isn't a huge deal because uh, all employees really have to do is 1) have graduated high school and 2) give them $35 (and believe me, i understand that both things are a huge hardship for most people, so i'm not saying that like LOL ITZ EAZY !!!!), but i'm excited to register for a class on monday !