Thursday, December 11, 2008

Post 180-The Inevitable

It was just a matter of time that a couple of things would eventually happen....

1. There's a 50/50 chance that if you are the govenor in the state of Illinois or heck even a politician here in Chicago, then you're a crook and will get caught. Obviously we won the odds with Barack, but nature strives for balance and we lost with Blagojevich.
2. Hell made not have frozen over but according to my sister in Houston it does snow.
3. Temp jobs end (that's what temp means right?).
and.....
4. I will get a bad case of lazyitis and prefer to mess around and try out new banner looks and fuck up my sidebar design of my blog.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Post 179-Obsession

When I discover shiny new play things I tend to get obsessed with them. Last year when researching a job and trying to find the e-mail address of the HR person at this particular institution I came across Linkedin.com, but didn't know anything about it and never thought about it again, until last week. During the seminars I was lucky enough to go to at work, the professional resume spiffer mentioned the website again and I thought I would take a look, and now I'm hooked. Seriously ya'll, I think I check my Linkedin.com account as often as Ravelry right now. The website is like the bastard child of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" and Myspace. I love the idea that I can see who knows the people I know and what they do, plus it might be nice to get the inside on jobs right? One of the girls at work got an e-mail from a friend telling her about a job posting she heard about at a particular company. Now I've heard of this company, they're located two miles from my house and I used to work with their customer service people when I worked at the coffee place. It also turns out that the one legit person interested in my tag watch I've been trying to unload on craigslist works there, but better yet I know someone who knows someone at the company. Will this help me in the job search, maybe, but it was also s nice surprise to find a college friend is working at Harpo too, kewl.
The other obsession, Buddha's Hand. I had to go to the store of Evil Wholesomeness, aka Whole Foods to pick up some oatmeal and coffee. I love myself some quick cooking oats from the bulk bin and I just had to have real coffee this weekend. So I was in the produce department looking for lemons when I found this freakish thing that belonged on the shelf on a prop department more so than the grocery store. Buddha's Hand is this crazy citrus fruit thing that is a very pretty yellow color with lots of long finger like appendages.



It's use is really unclear but the scent, mesmerizing. I in general detest lemon scented anything unless it's made with real lemon or expensive hand creme, Lemon Joy literally makes me want to vomit and don't talk to me about Lemon Coke. The perfume from this fruit was floral and citrus, soft and exotic, I'm in love. Unfortunately love is expensive at 7.99 a pound and the smallest weighed in at 1.5 pounds. My god I want this fruit, its supposed to last several weeks, but-I-just-can't-do-it. I looked online but no one makes a perfume with this smell, I would buy a gallon if it existed.
So the stockings are coming along, sort of. There's no deadline but I do know the customer has started decorating her home in Christmas Cheer, so I need to speed it up, too bad I'm almost finished knitting the background of sock #2 only to realize that she want's 2 green and only 1 red, fuck!

Friday, December 05, 2008

Post 178-Highs, Lows and a Little Cold

The lows showed their ugly heads again and I while I was depressed for a moment I'm good now. The temp job I was working at is ending a little earlier than planned, but not really unexpected, the company is moving and I will be moving on. I made a big personal decision that I didn't want to but I can now rest a little more and not stress out to the point and sleeplessness. Wow, that's deep and cryptic eh?
So the highs...the company I was temping was generous enough to hire a employment professional to help them dust off, spiff and and go over resumes, interviews and all the fun in between. Lucky me to be included in these workshops, I learned a lot, will have a great resume and learned about Linkedin.com. I love this website, it's like Ravelry meets Facebook but for working professionals and it's interesting to see who knows who you know. The best thing of all is that it is turning out to be another resource for job postings. So if you happen to know me and I sent you an invite, please recommend me or at least join, the more the merrier.
Now the cold. It is really cold, so cold in fact that I pull out my wool knit, fleece lined earflap hat with matching gloves from Target, also known as, the fucking cold hat set. Add the Sporto snow boots that I used to hate and now am happy to have, wrap me up in a rich red cashmere scarf and call me warm. After work I joined Rachael and Linda at the magnificent ice rink that we have in Millenium Park right downtown in Chicago. I didn't go skating (those without insurance should stay off the ice), Linda can't, but Racheal got a couple of rounds in. When they came out to clean the ice we set off for a pub and were joined by Shannon for some vittles and hot cider with a splash of whiskey. It was a long day and we ended up at the German Kristkindle Market to do some window shopping and drink Gluwein (hot spiced red wine). See, long day and I'm pooped.
I have a lot to do this weekend, got to work on those Christmas stockings, help John the neighbor bring out his massive collection of vintage holiday decorations from the fourth floor attic (he's paying me), assist Rachael in selling the textbooks from her previous life to fund her new life (also paying me) and then end the day with a movie maybe?
Oh and to top it off, the new Mason Dixon book is finally in at the LYS for me to pick up with my store credit and start making loads of more x-mas gifts!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Post 177-Silent City

Damn you Mother Nature, I want my autumn back. I never got to take those long dog walks with the falling leaves around me and a hand knitted scarf gently tied around my neck, I miss it. Winter came last night and laid a blanket of quite snow on us.

Thanksgiving became a nice a mostly peaceful weekend for me. I spent the holiday the way I wanted and not the way some of my family wanted me to, against my will and with them (it's along story). I made pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and a bread boule and then my neighbors John and John brought over a turkey, potatoes and green beans. The house was clean, linens ironed, candles lite and very nice. I did very well with my diet and didn't freak out with holiday food that much. The rest of the weekend was spent laying on the couch watching only movies and no TV while knitting away. I started and finished the Foliage hat for my cousin Patricia and was able to do that with stash diving yarn, Manos to boot!
Currently the Tangled Yoke has been delegated to bus commuting knitting and I'm working on a trio of Christmas Stockings for a customer of a LYS.