Third finished object of the year! Yeah, yeah, I skipped one. But that project had a hasty finish: it had to catch a plane to Arizona with my Mom to be gifted to the recipient.

I present to you my long mittens (not sure if this negates their loveliness, but I guess these were inspired by a pair Bella wore in a Twilight movie, something that I could care less about; I just really liked the look of them). Originally I intended these to go with my new coat. After finishing the first, I decided I needed gray for my new coat. So these will go along with other miscellaneous coats. Casting on gray tomorrow hopefully. Eventually I will be making hats and scarves for red and gray as well.

I'm currently nursing another random obsession. This time with antique keys.

Strangely, I've always considered my preferred aesthetic to be modern. I think this mostly holds true with furniture: though singular antique pieces do catch my fancy, I'll never have a fussy room or house full of them. I imagine some day I'll own antique tables and benches, but they'll be mixed in with my ikea furniture.

Anyway, keys. Bought this shirt. Searching etsy vintage brings up temptations like this. But what would I do with them? I could probably add a small one to my locket chain, that would be lovely. But what else?

Two things tonight, completely unrelated.

First, it has been lovely in Chicago, but ladies - put on some pants. I saw one girl in the shortest dress in the world with bare legs and another with some tights that needed a skirt (at the very least). Tights + a normal shirt is NOT an outfit. Seriously, this is looking to be a ridiculously naked spring in these parts.

***

Best. Scam. Email. Ever.

Subject: READ AND STAY BLESSED

Body: I am Mrs Maria Johnson, a dying woman with cancer who has decided to will her fortune to you for personal and charitable goals.Contact my lawyer Barr. Walter Harman via email: ([email address was here, removed] ) to secure the funds. I pray you act sincerely.
Maria Johnson.


Short, sweet, to the point, winning over idiots and religious zealots everywhere. New tactic I haven't seen. And that email address I removed? Was a gmail account. Pretty solid try there Mrs. Maria Johnson.

I was nervous when I first moved in to my apartment. There are two exits - a door to a back alley and a door to the main entrance hallway. These doors are downstairs while my bedroom is up. In order to overcome my fear of someone breaking in and raping me in my sleep I installed a really classy alarm system: I hung two sleigh bells on each door. They smack the door whenever it opens or closes. This is noisy. Being a light sleeper, I figured this would be all the alarm I would ever need. That was five years ago. Last Friday night I realized that those sleigh bells that were making me less afraid? Useless. Because apparently when I'm truly asleep I sleep like the dead. I give you exhibits a-c:

1. Loml shows up at my apartment after his show at 2am. He brings with him a very large, heavy piece of plastic which holds his gear from said show. I do not realize he is there until he is next to the bed, shining his iphone like a flashlight to find his way around. Which means he opened the belled door, deposited his gear, closed and locked the door, climbed the creaky stairs and traversed the creaky floor to get to my bed without me waking.
   
2. He then tells me about two other occasions. The first: we hang out at my apartment, he somehow gets all the way home without his wallet. He then comes back and searches for it. He found it under the love seat. I slept right through it all.
3. The second: he's staying over. He gets up in the middle of the night, ends up going downstairs and having a snack. Comes back up to bed. All without my knowledge.
   

Sleep like the dead. Yes, I definitely still have issues falling asleep. But staying asleep? I guess not so much.

I think this is a possible future robot tattoo.

I love it. Passionate love.

Letters.

Dear CTA,

I understand you are well over budget and needed to cut service. I am not complaining about that. However, I think it is time to implement train tracker. If the trains are coming less often, it is JUST as painful to stand outside in a cta station as it is to stand in a bus stop. Thanks.

Love,
Katie

***

Dear virus,

Infecting my computer on the same day i finally get given work...that's just cruel. I have now spent two days battling with a slow computer and slower virus scans. And you still exist! Tomorrow, you will be removed. As will everything else on my computer. And thus I waste a third day.

No love,
Katie

So I promised a post about roles - though I'm not having the best of luck today with creating things, whether that be work related or valentine related I'm courting failure. Sadly, that even includes my workout where I felt like I might die or fall over from weakness. But I shall quickly summarize:

You all (and I am very tempted to place you all in quotations) tended to lean toward your role as a very specific child of another role. For example, you can't be a sister without having a sibling. Makes complete sense and since I didn't qualify the question, was not at all unexpected.

I was thinking of roles in a larger sense, as in, what role do I play to everyone I know, not just specific groups. And I think rather than relationship definition (friend, daughter, girlfriend) I was thinking more personal adjective. Yes, I am all of those things: a friend, a daughter, a girlfriend, but what kind of role do I play IN those roles? Too meta for you?

The answer I came up with is, I am the listener.

I'm curious (as I usually am since I seem to find the inner workings of your brain fascinating) how you would answer this:

What is your role?

I will not qualify that question in any way. I'm serious about wanting to hear your answers, so leave a comment here, email me, chat with me...whatever you wish. I'll write a post later this week or early next with my own take on it.

Quick nerdy knitter post; I've got my first FO of 2010! FO = finished object for non-knitters. And I made it in January, huzzah! Meet the farmer's market bag that took almost a year and may never be used (though it hangs nicer than I expected...so maybe, just maybe):

If you've been around this blog for a while, you know how highly I value snail mail. I love real letters, handwritten, creeping through the USPS, even to those living less than half an hour away. I think there's something amazing about handwriting. Today two things made me think of my love for a solid piece of real mail, so I thought I'd share:

1. This valentine's card round up. While most of them are interesting and some of them appeal to me, that first one? Swoon. Folded, sealed with wax? Be still my heart. What a lovely idea. And, at some point, I'm going to have such a large collection of letterpress cards (I have a special weakness for simple letterpress ala this mini delight) that I'm going to have to start giving cards to loml, family and friends whenever i see them. I love paper.
2. An article in Reader's Digest about someone who collects love letters. Apparently the old RD doesn't put it's articles online in a timely fashion or I'd link it here. Where is the blog of love letters found? Does that exist? Love letters are quirky and fun and amazing - it's almost the same kind of fun, reading them, as PostSecret. Except love letters are almost universally happy.

I've said before that letter writing is a dying art - I hate that - so I'll continue to put my two letters a week in the mail and pretend that it's not. And maybe I'll flirt with the idea of writing love notes. maybe.

It is absolutely counterproductive to stop at America's Dog on the way home from the gym. But it sure is delicious. And I figure it will put a positive spin on my "return to the gym" day. And a painful spin on tomorrow's gym trip.

And wow that gym was packed. I ended up on a machine that was right up against the balcony. And I'll just say, I am not woman enough to work out on a machine where I look down to the floor below. I had to concentrate, hard, to not feel like I was going to fall. I mean, technically, I was running in the direction of the "cliff" (alright, not running, ellipticalling). I will never do that again.

Over my winter break (my work closes down for a week and a half to save money on electricity), I took some time to reorganize my bookshelf. The shelves contain:

1. Books
2. Books
3. Knitting and stamping supplies
4. Old school work (Do I continue to keep it? For now, i did. But why?)
5. Miscellaneous crafting supplies

I look over there happily now. But since then, I've been craving some way to use all the stuff. An outlet. I started my 2010 semantics project and am mostly annoyed by it. I need to figure out how to modify or kill that project. I love words so much that I thought that would be enough to make me enjoy it. But mostly I'm just blah. Hate it.

Lately I've been thinking that i need some kind of journal swapping project. Like color books of yore. Only not so themed and not with multiple people. Anyone interested in doing something of that sort with me? No idea what exactly...

Dear pants,

Why you gotta be so tight?

Love,
Katie

***

I know everyone in the world hates the resolution filled January gym, but dear me, it's time to get rid of the winter spare tire. I was telling DC today that my ass looks great in my pants because my muffin top is pulling them so tight. I'm not going to the gym early this week, I'm thinking about starting Wednesday - maybe there will be less of my kind crowding the ellipticals.

2009, in retrospect, was a year of change for me. This year:

• My job changed. And in a lot of ways my feelings about work and my workplace changed. The change should have been such that it felt like I quit my last job and started anew. It hasn't materialized like that...but there is a piece of me that hopes 2010 brings that change.
  
• I wasn't blogging at the beginning of the year, and here I am again.
• Sometime at the end of 2008, I started to fall off of all of my hobbies. In the last year I have finished a sad total of 3 knitting projects: all three of which should have been super quick knits (socks, a hat and fingerless gloves). I had a layer of apathy sitting heavily on top of me. I think that's gone now - I reorganized my knitting/crafting area and I feel like that burden is lifted. I have 3 projects going at the moment, 2 more ready to go and 3 in the planning stages. I'm also hoping to start a different sort of project tomorrow using one of my christmas presents, a journal. The idea isn't fully formed but it basically just involves words, not writing, more like semantics. I heart semantics. Anyway, we'll see how short lived that is. But, 2009 was the year of hobby death. Hopefully in these very last moments it also contains a spark of renewal.
• And obviously my personal life changed this year. loml is around now. That change was kind of hilariously rocky at the beginning. I think that's another lesson to myself: how I'm not so graceful - I wanted that change and yet didn't handle it all that well for quite some time.

So what do I hope for in 2010? Basically what I mentioned above: work to become what I hope it to be, writing to continue, hobbies to continue as they are from the past few weeks and to pick up speed and I'd like loml to stick around. I'd like 2010 to be a year for settling into the change of 2009.

Happy New Year all! What do you hope for in 2010?

Happy Holidays!

It's been a really nice season so far - I've already had a few lovely mini celebrations (all involving food, of course) and we have lots of snow here. It doesn't really feel like actual Christmas celebrations start tomorrow, and at the same time it feels like it's Christmastime. Full of Jingles and cheer. And I'm about to wrap all my presents, which is one of my favorites - I love this part.

Tomorrow is the extended family celebration, which I look forward to every year. loml and I are doing everything separately this year, which is a bit sad...and at the same time, doesn't really change my feelings about the next two days. I really enjoy being with the family and all the laughs and food...love this time of year. Heart.

I hope everyone out there has a lovely holiday and a happy new year.