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A Warning.

If you ever have a 3-hour fasting glucose tolerance test and you feel all “woo woo” as you’re driving home because your blood sugar is crashing, do NOT be an idiot and run around the house doing other stuff for at least 30 minutes before you bother to eat. When you suddenly realize you’re on the verge of falling over, you will regret it.

Walk in the door. Put down your keys. Eat. Immediately. Protein would be a good choice.

My kitchen now looks like a war zone as I dug through the pantry and fridge pulling out anything that I thought might bring me back up. I knew there was some leftover, unopened Halloween candy in there somewhere. Thanks to a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup or two and a ham and turkey sandwich, I feel so much better now. Now I’m going to have a bowl of soup and all should be right again. I hope.

I still have the woo woo feeling though. Man, I hate that.

Knittastic!

What Should I Knit?

I just discovered the Yarn Harlot’s Olympic knitting challenge. Hmmm… I’m game. I’ll do it. But what should I knit?

I have to consider this carefully, because I will have to study during the Olympics. I will be TiVo’ing a lot of figure skating though – I can’t miss that. No way.

By the way, 10+ years later and Nancy Kerrigan still gives me the creeps. Is it just me?

So, what should I knit? It must be something in the stash already though. I’ll go through it and give it some consideration and the put my ideas out here for feedback. It is too bad I already cast on for the Lady Eleanor, because that would be the perfect thing to try to knit in 16 days. Hm.

Educate Me Knittastic!

Whew.

I am really glad that the semester has started. I’m enjoying all of my classes so far. I had a moment of panic yesterday at the beginning of my Chem II class, as she talked about how it will be harder than Chem I was – I started to wonder what on earth I was doing. Who am I kidding, thinking I’m smart enough to do this? I’ve got a ton of science classes ahead of me, am I really that smart?

Then she started the lecture, and I was the only person answering the questions she was asking. I’m sure other people knew the material – for example, my lab partner from last semester. I’m sure she knew it. (She is taking the class with me, which is great because she rocks and we work well together.) But I was the one answering the stuff. And I was one of only two students selected to take the class as an Honors class. Because I am smart. I can do this. I may be 18+ years older than a lot of them, but you know what? That is ok. I’m smart, and that is what matters.

(I had to write all that so when I have that same panic attack feeling again I can remind myself that I can do it.)

But let me let you in on a secret. This stuff is EXHAUSTING. The first week is especially hard, after having a five week break. I’m so tired, I just want to curl up and go to sleep for a day or two! But I have a chapter to read in my photography book, a chapter to read in my Chemistry book, and a chapter to read in my Biology book. (And hopefully I can finally get my copy of my Trig book.) Thank goodness I have the whole weekend to do it! Tonight, I’m taking a bit of a knitting break!

The photograph at the top of this post is the Lady Eleanor shawl (stole?) from the Scarf Style book. It is being knit in Noro Silk Garden color #39, and I had to use size 6 needles to get the gauge that I liked. Not too holey, not too tight. I was afraid it would be too narrow, so I added an extra block to the first tier to make it a little wider. I need to hurry and finish this, all of my classrooms are freezing cold! First I must finish Jenn’s long overdue baby blanket – the end is in sight! I have also started on my Jaywalker socks, but they are my tote-along project for right now. It is handy to have something small that I can knit during the short 10-15 minute breaks I sometimes get between classes.

BlahBlahBabble

Give Some Blood, Share the Love…

Post author By Christine
Post date Wednesday, January 18, 2006
6 Comments on Give Some Blood, Share the Love…

This past year has been full of requests for giving. So many people around the globe need help, from the tsunami a year ago, to hurricane victims, to volcano victims, you name it.

This time, it is much, much closer to home for me. You can easily help, and it doesn’t cost you a thing. Seriously. Keep on reading for the details…

First, the background story. Back in 1985, I moved to Houston. That fall, I became friends with a girl at my high school – we will call her J. because we’re keeping her name off the internet, ok? J. and I became best friends, and I simply adored her. Not only did I adore her, I adored her whole family. I loved spending time at her house, maybe because I’m an only child and there are 7 kids in her family. Quite a change from my quiet house. Probably even more for the zany, crazy antics of J. and her whole family. Shortly before my senior year, J.’s family moved to San Antonio, and I was quite sad. We still saw each other though – my parents even let me fly to San Antonio to see her, my first plane trip all by myself! (It was only a $50 flight and I didn’t have a car, so it was the best way to get there.) She dated friends of mine, I met people through her, it was a good life. The last time I visited her in San Antonio, I got to meet her older sister, who took us to Austin and 6th Street. (I hate beer, so I didn’t drink there – but it was still fun to check it out!) Her older sisters had already graduated by the time we met in 1985, so I didn’t know them really, but I remember thinking at the time that she was such a cool person. Not surprising, all things considered.

When I married my ex-husband, J. drove in a horrible rainstorm from Austin to College Station to get to my wedding. I was so happy to see her, I still remember running across the room. You should see the grin on my face in those photographs. That was back in the early 90s. I moved to Germany shortly after that, and we lost touch. I talked to her once, around 1997 or so, but she moved, I moved … you get the picture. Back then, e-mail wasn’t the option that it is today.

Flash forward to December. I’m reading Deb’s blog. She posts about coming from a huge family. 7 kids. She talks about them being Catholic. She mentions having one older sister and two younger ones. Most importantly, how her family is so full of love. I’m thinking how amusing it is, how it reminds me so much of J.’s family. Then I start thinking some more. Then I scroll to find a photo of Deb with hair … one that made me think that she looked like someone I knew before when I saw it … only to realize she IS somone I know. Or rather someone I once knew – J.’s older sister, the one who took us to Austin for that fun-filled night on 6th street. It was late when I figured it all out, and I would have been screaming if I hadn’t been the only person awake in the house. I was so stunned when it all clicked, I got no sleep that night. I was just giddy.

I’ve since confirmed it with Deb, and we’ve talked. I haven’t had a chance to talk to J. yet – I have to admit some fear in doing so. I’m just strange like that. I’ll get over it.

Now here is where YOU come in. If you caught the sentence there about looking for a photo of Deb with hair, you might have realized that Deb is fighting a huge battle right now. In November, she was diagnosed with Leukemia. Very suddenly, out of nowhere, had been sick for awhile and couldn’t shake it, only to discover the truth. I started a post about her back then, back before I discovered the J. connection, to ask people to PLEASE donate blood. It seemed so lost in the shuffle of my medical woes, which felt so trivial at the time compared to hers, that I never took it out of draft mode. So now that my own dust has settled, I wanted to take a moment to ask you to help her out.

Give blood.

It doesn’t cost you a dime, and it will truly help her. You can donate in her name, and she will receive credits for the units you donate. If you live in Houston, you can donate through the blood bank. But living in Houston isn’t a requirement (I will confirm that with the blood bank tomorrow), you can donate no matter WHERE you live. HELP fight the dracula blood. Help save her life, or someone else’s, with your blood.

You can also help by being tested to be a bone marrow donor. I will find her posts about this subject this weekend, but there is a great need for you to do this. Being a donor is not the intensive process that it used to be, and really – if you could save a life, why wouldn’t you?

Another thing she could use right now is you to lift her up with prayers, positive thoughts, healing vibes, whatever is your thing. Her brother is a donor match for her, so she will be having a transplant in the not too distant future. Chemo has been hard on her. Loneliness is a battle too, between being in the hospital and just being away from her daughter and her family. (Kids are around so many cooties and her immune system is so compromised from the chemo, she can’t spend much time with her and so her daughter is living with her sister right now.) The Internet is her lifeline to the world, and she NEEDS you.

I regret that I personally can’t donate blood – living in Germany in the early 90s for over 6 months disqualifies me. I’m not going to let that stop me though – I want to get as many people as I can to donate blood for HER.

I am constantly amazed by her strength and courage. I am inspired by her every time I read her site or talk to her on the phone. She is incredible. Her daily assignments are so amazing – they always hit home for me, it seems like right when I need to be reminded the most to do something, she talks about it. (That is why there is a photograph of fruit up there – click on it to read the story behind it over on Flickr.) Really, I could go on and on. But you should just go see for yourself.

If you can help, please contact me via e-mail – christine at this domain.com – and I will send you the information this weekend (I need a little time to get it all together) that you need to donate in her name. You can also contact her directly through her site.

Appreciate your life. Be tested to be a bone marrow donor. Give blood. Help save her life.

Educate Me Knittastic!

I Made It!

Whew! I survived the first day. After being out of school for 5 weeks, it was rough to start off with a 6.5 hour day (not counting drive time), especially after not getting much sleep last night. I’m so exhausted tonight, and I already have homework waiting for me! Fortunately, my class doesn’t start until 11 tomorrow, so I am going to take advantage of the morning time – when I am not so loopy! – and get my reading done then.

So here are the first impressions:
– Photography I – I liked the teacher right away. I got a very good vibe off of himand that is always a good sign. I was not the oldest person in the class, matter of fact there were several people close to my age, and at least one that is definitely older than I am. It is definitely an entry level class, more than I originally expected it to be. I know I will learn some new techniques here and there, and the opportunity to get back into the darkroom after 19 years is a very good thing. Many of the things on the syllabus are things that I already know. I had to stiffle a laugh when I saw that our first “photograph” will be a photogram. I did two science fair papers in the early 80s on photograms – I wonder if I can just turn some of those in? (Just kidding!)

We are only required to shoot 8 rolls of film. That is roughly 200 photos. Hello? I can shoot 200 photos in a day. I’m going to have to pace myself. Also, when I took photography in high school we got a list of either 10-15 pictures to take, or a “project” to take, and turned in portfolios of 20 images every 6 weeks or so – 60 images a semester. In my current class, we will only be turning in 20 photographs. I expected it to be more.

The important thing for me though is that the class is going to be FUN. I can tell that already. I will get to stretch my creative legs, and get a grade for it. This is very important when your other classes are science and math classes. I will push myself to get outside of my photography box, challenge myself to work on taking photographs of things I wouldn’t normally photograph.

Plus it meets my art requirement, and Photography I is going to be a lot more interesting for me than art appreciation. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate art, but I would rather take pictures.

My other class today was Biology II. It helps that it is in the afternoon, that my teacher speaks English clearly, that we have good outlines and – most importantly – she doesn’t drone. It doesn’t help that Biology still puts me to sleep. King Phillip blah blah blah – we are Homo sapiens, cool. Do I have to memorize all this other stuff? From what I have seen so far, this will be a lot better than last semester, and I believe I can get another A this time around. And as an added bonus, we get to dissect stuff!

(Is it amusing that I have a lot more to say about my photography class than I do about Biology?)

I also logged into the eCampus tonight for my distance learning Trig class. I was so out of it I decided I should read it in the morning when things will start to sink in. I have to write my introduction for the message board and figure out when a good time for me to participate in our online chats will be. Tough call, since part of why I opted to take it online is so that I could do it whenever. I can’t go too far until I get the textbook; I need to call the bookstore in the morning and see if they have it in stock now.

The switch for me this semester is that I am going to have projects in every class. Papers of some sort for each class – even Trig. On top of that, I’m taking the Honors option for my Chemistry class, so that involves research time and writing a 15 minute speech. I’m just glad I know about all of them up front and have all the due dates now – I’ll take the time between now and Friday to get the all on the calendar.

In knitting news, I caught up with all of my “Knitcast” podcasts while I drove to school this morning and while eating lunch. I need to set up a few more podcasts to download that she mentioned in the latest episode of the Knitcast show. Also, since it was the first day of class our Photography teacher let us out early, and I got a little knitting done before I went to meet with my Chemistry teacher. I discovered last night that my Jawoll socks that I was working on (just basic stockinette stitch) were strange and bulky/loose around the ankle, so I pulled the needles right out of them and cast on my Trekking XXL 108 (purples and blues) for the Jaywalker socks. I was going to go with a Cherry Tree Hill yarn, but I was so inspired when I saw them done in Trekking XXL that I had to go for it. I joined the Jaywalker Knitalong the other day, so now I’m all set. Ready to knit.

For those of you viewing my site in IE, I made a change to the code and the sidebar should not disappear anymore down to the bottom of the page. If it is still doing it, please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks!