I am so tired…maybe

I’m three weeks into my internship. Where the heck did time go? I am tired and frustrated by this experience, but I’m not as tired as I like to think and am really enjoying it. How’s that for contradictions?

I’m tired because I get up at 5am so I can get in a short 20 minute workout, eat, get myself together, get the child together, and sometimes drop her off at day care before I leave. (No, I don’t leave her at home on the other days. The Husband drops her off). All that to get to my rotation at 7:30. I spend most of the day on my feet, running around like a mad woman and not eating. Yeah, I lost 3 pounds in the first 2 weeks because I couldn’t figure out when to eat during the day. That’s getting better, thankfully. I come home, make and eat dinner, get the child to bed, do homework for about 30 minutes, watch 5 minutes of TV with the Husband, and then go to bed between 8:30-9:00.

It sucks.

I have to go to bed early so I can get up early, but then I don’t seem to get homework done. Thankfully, I had the brilliant idea to keep getting up at 5am on the weekends. This means I don’t have a screwy schedule and I get used to these hours AND I have 2-3 hours on the weekends guaranteed to get work done. That and my in-laws have taken the child a bit. Although, right now I feel overwhelmed. As soon as I get something done and feel accomplished, I turn around and have 5 more things due. *sigh*

Oh my goodness, my life is dull. BUT I just have to get through 10 months and all the schedules will be different. In theory. Oh please, don’t have a rotation where I have to get up at 3am.

In the meantime, I haven’t gotten much non-school things done, but this is okay. I did knit a few items over the summer and I used up 4 skeins! I went from 70 to 66 and have more stash-busting ideas! Is it bad that all my projects right now are chosen for their stash-busting properties? I don’t think so, because I do like the projects I have selected on top of stash busting. Of course, there may be a yarn festival coming up soon which could potentially mean more yarn. No, I will be strong.

What else? I’m currently making oatmeal bars, muffins, and egg things to act as quick, on-the-go breakfast items to streamline my mornings. That, or I’m procrastinating by baking. Still, I do need to do it, which is what I’m telling the Husband. Don’t tell him it’s really procrastinating.

Ants!

I still haven’t found that shawl pattern, but hopefully, the woman who showed it at knit club will be there for Augusts meeting. Or I can just adapt a pattern, which I may do.

The Husband and I had a date night this weekend. Yay! They can be hard to come by with a kid, but fortunately, we have grandma and grandpa nearby so we get them more often than most. Date nights are very important once you have kids to preserve your sanity and remember why you married that crazy person across the table, but our previous date nights/date days have been less than stellar. Usually, we just watch a movie at home or clean and maybe go out to dinner. Thrilling, no?

This time we decided to do things we can’t normally do with the child. Like go eat Vietnamese. I LOVE Vietnamese. OP, not so much–she once fell in love with pho but refuses to believe me. She does seem to like Thai, but only if she’s eating the appetizers or miso soup. Otherwise, how dare we bring her to such a restaurant. Damn picky eater.

After dinner we saw Ant Man, which I think my Avengers-loving daughter would enjoy, but she decided that it is too scary and refuses to see it. Her loss because it was unexpectedly GOOD. Except for the ants. When I was a sweet 4-year-old, my preschool took all the little kids outside for their class photo. They lay out a blanket and sat us all on top. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize that part of the blanket, the part I was on, was on an ant hill. I still remember screaming in the bathroom with my pants off, while the teacher got rid of all the ants. I believe the pants were awesome 1970s striped, bell-bottoms. Since then, I have a problem with ants. I don’t run away screaming, but once I see an ant, I get extremely itchy if I see them until I take a shower. Not hives itchy, but “oh my god there is an ant on my leg! Now it’s on my back! Now it’s back on my leg! My head, it’s on my head!” itchy. I did not expect that reaction when watching Ant Man. The people around me must have thought I was crazy or had fleas with all the itching. Of course, now that I’m talking about it there’s an ant on my knee. No, now it’s on my neck. Argh! My head! I’m done. I need to think of something else…

FO: Norwegian Star Scarf

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Cascade 220 Sport
Needles: US 5

It took almost a year, but I did it. I finished the scarf and I’m very happy with it. Originally, when the Husband and I designed the pattern, we originally planned on fringe. Then, we made it a smidge long so I did a single crochet on the end. I like that better because I hate making fringe and I never was thrilled with the idea of it.

The scarf definitely would have gone faster if not for the sheer boredom inherent in scarves. Is it just me or do you also want to burn your scarf about halfway through making it no matter how intricate the pattern, too?

The Husband says he loves it. However, because I knit him a scarf we will have a warm winter.

Ugh. Stupid Thanksgiving Post

Well now I’m annoyed. I had a great post that I accidentally lost all on the wonderful things I’m thankful for on Thanksgiving. Maybe the universe is telling me not to get all mushy? Or maybe I just need to remember to save drafts.

I’m going to keep this version short and sweet. I’m thankful for the two people in the other room watching Titan A.E. together so I can go shower, clean, and write this post. Or, as OP calls it “Ghosties movie, Mamma!” She hasn’t seen the movie before so we’ll see how it goes, but OP saw the back of the case and took one look at the electrical aliens and that was all she wrote. I’m thankful for the Husband. He does so much around the house even through training and races and puts up with my insanity and occasional nagging. Hey, I have to put up with his insanity and occasional nagging so it’s at least mutual. I’m thankful for the girl who brightened up the darkest day. OP is funny, smart, and a blast to have in my life and I’m so proud to say that she’s my kid.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And you thought I was crazy before…(Soapbox edition)

The Husband recently completed his first Ironman! Of course, I braved the heat to watch him do amazingly well throughout the day.

Minutes after the Ironman and he's not falling over!

We all have a visual of what someone competing in an Ironman looks like, right? He or she is either cut with rather impressive (not necessarily big) muscles or just a skinny runner type (like the Husband). That’s not always the case. I was amazed by people competing who looked like normal, albeit pudgy, people. One gentleman I met was a second-time competitor at this Ironman and had at least four more lined up for the year. If you didn’t know he was a finisher, you would think that he might have a heart attack going up the stairs too vigorously.

The following week, the Husband did a short race. I know, I know. Why, if he just spent a little over 13 hours swimming, biking, and running 140.6 miles, would he do a 5k within a week? Wouldn’t he just want to take a couple weeks off to rest? Well, in fact he did take the week off by only doing the 5k and not the 15k on Sunday. As we watched the 9k racers cross the line, I saw someone who was overweight cross the finish line. Let me rephrase that. I watched someone, who society feels is lazy and can’t sit up from eating fried chicken, french fries, and chocolate in front of the TV without getting winded, cross the finish line (not last) after running 9 miles and looking quite good after.

Now, I could tell you that this is an excellent reason why you should never judge a book by its cover. I could tell you that it’s not about size, it’s about health and that so long as you are exercising the size doesn’t matter. I could tell you that stereotypes are stupid and you should try your best not to buy into them. I’m not going to tell you any of that because you are smart enough to realize that on your own. What I am going to tell you is that it was inspiring. All these people you would stereotypically consider to be unfit were doing things that most people in this country would never ever do, no matter how fit. All I’ve ever done is a 5k and a tiny sprint tri and I had rationalized not doing any more because I have bad knees. I felt very wimpy.

Don’t get me wrong. I have had bad knees ever since 6th grade where the joints were apparently overtaxed during a massive growth spurt. At least, that’s what my parents said the doctor said. Ever since then, my knees just never quite were as good as they should be. In high school I tore a ligament in my knee and surgery seemed to make a lot of it worse. But, are my knees really that bad or are they an excuse to get out of doing more? Am I just intrinsically lazy and have an excellent excuse built into my joints? I decided to test it out and challenge myself to a 10k race (that’s 6 miles). Originally, I was going to do the 10k next year, but we found one in November that not only is in my town but goes around my neighborhood. It can’t get any perfect than that, and I’m going to aim for it.

If I can’t do it, then I can’t. At least I’ll know that I made the attempt. Do I see myself doing more? I honestly don’t know. Yesterday I would have said that this was it, but now I’m thinking, if I can do 6 miles, why not 9 or 13? Or even *gasp* 26.2? Yeah, maybe not a marathon. It just sounds boring. I do blame the Husband though.