Giant killer bugs

Things I am stressed about

1. The last 3 days of this f*ing job
2. Student loan drama
3. Money in general (see item 2)
4. Buying books
5. First day of class
6. Brothers wedding and associated West Nile related drama
7. Not much else really

This is a bit of an improvement. #1 will be gone in a few days, #2 and #4 are getting worked out, #5 is will be over on the 15th then the 22nd, and will then be replaced by finals and homework and however many hundreds of case briefs I have to do, but once I get going I think it'll all be ok. #3 I think I am kind of stuck with for awhile, being a grad student and all. This is just going to be life for the next couple years so I had better get used to it. Or something. And I find it interesting that I am not really stressed about Someone moving away, at least at the moment.

#7 is a funny story. This morning I got in to work to find an email from my mother explaining that the wedding has to be moved because there has been an outbreak of West Nile virus at the site my brother and his fiance had reserved for the wedding. Great. So if they want to have the wedding there still, every single guest has to sign a release of liability stating that they will not sue should they contract West Nile while attending the wedding. Even better. I guess they are looking at alternate sites, which is good, but seeing as the wedding is on September 30th, this is not a good thing and causing some bit of stress for everyone, in addition to the usual impending wedding drama. Doom!

Anyhow, the weekend was quite nice. I am ashamed to admit it, but I didn't get any further from my house than the mailbox (which is about 20 feet from my front door) the whole time, and it was sort of nice. Friday I did a bit of running around and had dinner with Someones mom, E, and that was it for outside activities until Sunday evening when she picked me up so she could drop me at the airport this morning. Mostly I unpacked and sorted things and cleaned. All but 3 boxes have been eliminated, my office is in an almost functional state, my bedroom is still a bit scary but I need a dressing table and small bookshelf before that's going to get much better, and my living room and kitchen are looking quite nice. I'm just glad things are getting settled.

Saturday I found a huge, massive, disgusting spider in my living room. After doing the girl-with-spider hopping dance and squealing while begging the spider to "please just die, will you!", I attempted to squash it with my shoe, which failed miserably, so I tried to call Someone. Who was in New York. What in the hell I thought he would do about this while in New York is beyond me, but I was panicking. He didn't pick up, so I got out the vacuum and eventually managed to suck the spider up. Had it politely died in the vacuum all would have been well, but I did more squealing and hopping when I tried to empty the canister only to find a still-alive giant spider crawling around. Ick. The whole episode was pathetic but probably entertaining in a sit-com style way, and Someone eventually called back and had a grand time making fun of me, though I probably deserved that.

I hate spiders.

Sunday was less exciting, as far as huge disgusting bugs go, and I managed to sit down and spin for the better part of the afternoon. I now have 4 bobbins with little one once samples of nicely plied rare breed fiber on them, waiting for me to wind off into skeins when I get home. Hurray! The wheel survived the move quite nicely. I had to re-hang the wheel and adjust the alignment a bit, but aside from some oil that was all she needed to start humming along as usual. Spinning was quite satisfying. Of course I can;t remember when I was spinning exactly at the moment, but I did one one-ounce sample thing and plied 3 other bobbins of singles that had been sitting around for ages. I was ashamed to discover that I had no clue at all which way I had spun the singles though. My wheel will do either scotch tension or double drive, and I couldn't remember which was I had set up when I did those samples, which made it had to figure out the plying direction. I have no idea why I couldn't tell Z from S twist, but there it is. My spinning fu is in a woefully depleted state at the moment I suppose. The plied yarn seems to have some out ok so I think I figured it out, but I really need to focus on the technical aspect of spinning for awhile I think.

I even got to knit! I'm working on a bead-knit purse for my brothers fiance. With any luck at all I'll actually get the stupid thing done. My progress so far is rather shameful, but I have faith in my ability to get this thing done. It's going to be pretty. And not white. The thread is a sort of salmon color and the beads are a rich champagne. It's an odd combination, but very striking and will go well with her dress. Once I get going on these things they tend to go fast, so hopefully I'll maintain focus and get some work done on it over the next couple of days.