So that's an A...

So, I'm insane, and decided to check and see if any of my grades for the semester had been posted yet.

I got an A in my seminar class, for the crazy privacy paper I was working on. Which is a good thing, I was getting a little worried about that towards the end. If I managed to avoid any C's or B-'s my GPA will be in much better shape.

Why am I not excited about this?

On the knitting front, the socks are almost done. Thank god. I hate knitting socks. I have no idea what possessed me to knit socks. As a gift. So not only am I knitting socks, which is bad enough by itself, but I am giving them to someone who may or may not like them, and may or may not appreciate them. We shall see I suppose. I hope he likes them. That would be nice. I've not quite 4 inches of cuff left (knitting from the toe up) and they are done. Hurray!

I'm having a hard time deciding how many of my UFO's I should pack. I have the back of a really pretty brown sweater almost done, so that's coming with me. Hopefully I can get that done before the semester starts. And maybe knock off one or two other smallish UFOs I have lying around. I think my resolution for the new year needs to be to finish all the UFOs. We'll see how long that lasts! I've made some good progress though, these socks are a UFO, the lace collar for my Dickens's dress has been sitting on needles for years, and with luck I should be able to knock a few other things out before going nuts so I have hope. It would be nice to know exactly how many needles I have though, which I can't seem to figure out with all the smallish projects I have laying all over the place.

Now I must get back to the socks so I can pack tomorrow...

The dress...is done?!

I did this one in record time. All I have left to do is the hem. I've even sewn in all the hooks and eyes. Go me!

Finally, dress progress!

I have been so lazy today it's amazing I got anything done at all. But, I did manage to cut and fit the muslin for my Dickens dress bodice. Hurray! If you read my earlier post about this, there's 9 inches of ease (WTF?!) in the bust of this dress. So, I cut out a size 8 front and a size 12 back, and low and behold, it fit! Quite well actually. The darts needed a little fiddling, but that's always the case, especially if you are wearing a corset and your boobs don't sit in a perfectly straight line under your chin. There's a little ripping in the shoulders, but I think once I have it done out of the right fabric and have the neck trimmed down, it'll be fine and nice and smooth. I certainly can't get it to be much better on my own.

So a part from the freakish amount of ease in the bust, this is a pretty easy to deal with pattern. The pieces all fit together well, the instructions make sense, and it fits nicely. The trick is to look at the finished measurements on the pattern. For me, it worked out to pick the front with the right bust measurement and the back with the right waist measurement. The other pieces are all very straight forward, so it should all go together nice and quick. Hurray!

The plan for the rest of the day is to loaf around, knit the socks, watch some girlie movies, and maybe cut out the dress pieces if I can get up enough energy to vacuum the floor first. I can't believe how tired I am. Getting through exams took the last little bits of energy I had. Thanksgiving feels like it was a hundred years ago.

Anyway, I'll post pictures when I have something worthwhile to show off. In the mean time, if anyone has suggestions about a hoop or petticoat that I can fit into a suitcase along with a weeks worth of cloths, Christmas gifts, and the dress, do let me know. Can you get inflatable hoops? A small petticoat should smoosh into my bag ok...we'll see how the ones I have with me work. I think the one that would be best under the dress is at my parents house back in CA for some reason which surely made sense to me at the time...

Half way there!

Well, as of noon I am officially half way done with law school. My exams are all done, paper is turned in (whether it's done or not is really not relevant at this point), and I'm still upright. For the moment anyway.

I feel like I've got nothing left, I'm tapped out. As long as I can hold it together for another few hours, just enough to get through this interview this afternoon, and maybe aikido tonight, I'll be fine. Then I can finish falling apart.

Really, I'll be doing good if I can figure out which suit to wear this afternoon. gah. This should not be this hard. Will I look less worn and haggard in the black, the brown, or the plum?

Not dead yet!

(bonus points if you get the reference...)

Two exams down, one paper turned in (whether it's done or not is another question entierely), and one exam to go. Thursday by noon this should all be over, for another semester anyway. I was so tired after my exam yesterday (1st Amendment, it sucked) I thought I was gonna die. It was a major victory to get food in me at all.

I did knit some. I finished a silly potato chip scarf I'd started over the weekend out of desperate need to get my mind off the studying for a little bit, and have been working away on a pair of socks which will be a gift for someone. Hopefully I will get them done, I'm terrible about finishing socks, but I have hope. Both are started. I had been doing 2 socks on 2 circs, from the toe up, and got done with the toe before I got totally fed up with the whole 2 sock concept, and equally fed up with the 2 circs concept. So now I'm doing one sock on one circ, and it's working much better in my exam addled state. Really though, the whole 2 circ concept has never worked for me. I get all tangled up in the extra set of needles and crazy cables all over the place, and it's just annoying. I guess it works for some people, presumably who are more coordinate than I am, I just find it highly annoying. Give me a set of DPNs any day over that mess.

Must get back to the evidence...if I just make sense of hearsay I should be in good shape.

Torture!

I have an evidence outline to finish and 115 first amendment cases to memorize and my spinning wheel is sitting in the corner, calling to me like a Siren. So unfair. The wheel and the lovely wool I have stashed all over the living room and the cold just make me want to sit down and spin. But I know if I give in for even a moment, I'll lose the whole day in the whirr of the wheel and the feel of the fibers in my hands.

sigh.

five more days...

One down!

I survived the first exam! Two tests left and one paper to wrap up and I'm officially half way done with law school. woot. 7 days from now, it'll be all over and I can enjoy my break.

I have till Monday to learn 1st Amendment law, and till Thursday to learn all about evidence and technically can turn this paper in next Friday but I really want to get it done and out of the way tomorrow if at all possible. I'm just sick of working on it. My prof wants to submit it for publication. Which is great, but really, I can tweak it around and do more clean up edit work over break for that. I just want it done for the class so I can not worry about it.

And now...I must rest. Aikido tonight was pretty intense. I did something awful to the big toe on my right foot last week, and we had a pretty serious workout, so I'm a little beat up and my toe is all swollen and hot. I don't think it's broken anyway, but it really hurt today. Stupid toe. My falls are getting better though, and even the bad ones don't really hurt, so that's good.

Just think....7 days and I can knit and sew and do whatever I want for weeks and weeks! Hurray! I can't wait to really get going on my dress for Dickens. And maybe finish the sweater I've been knitting for the whole semester. Yay for that!

Yay me!

I got promoted in aikido last night! Yay!

This has been a good week. Between doing well in Kendo, getting my trophy, my spotted dick, and now this, exams really don't seem that bad.

Now back to my review session. I heart electronic discovery.

(and look ma it's my 300th post!)

Just what I needed!

Just what I needed
This weekend has been exactly what I needed to start the exam period with. After some minor disappointment on Friday, it all worked out beautifully. I got lots of work done, hung out with a couple of girlfriends from the dojo at school, ended up racing down to VB to see the LYM and had a lovely, lovely evening with him. I spent most of today at his place studying. God willing the meat of my paper is done and it's just a matter of fiddling with things and plugging a few holes, then fixing the citations, and I am finished. A day tops. I got a very nice phone call from C back in CA, she's taken it upon herself to see that I get those pep-talks I need so much, which I am eternally greatful for. I can't wait to see her and everyone else over break!

Then I went to kendo. The workout was kind of miserable actually, we ended up doing some capture the flag thing all over the high school, which I was not that excited about, but after class our head instructor presented some awards which had messed up at the big clinic a few weeks back. And she called *my* name. Me. Heidi. For a rather big-deal sort of award with Sensei, who has seen me a total of 3 times, hand-picked *me* to get. Only two of these went to anyone in kendo. Wow. I'm still too tired to fully appreciate this, but...yeah. Sensei scares the living daylights out of me, and yet he noticed me, and thinks I am doing well, and that means more than any exam grade ever good.

Now I'm back at the LYM's, studying 1st Amendment law, waiting for him to get home from a family dinner, and so looking forward to showing him this trophy.