Crankiness

I'm particularly cranky today, mostly self-induced.

It started last night when I berated myself for not calling a contact regarding a doctor for John sooner than yesterday. I'm frustrated with myself for not just picking up the phone and doing it earlier. It was a simple phone call, the contact seemed to have no problem helping. I was scared to make the call because I wasn't sure if the contact would recall who I was from just a voicemail message, so I had to use my maiden name. I also hate leaving voicemails, as I usually end up sounding like a rambling idiot, even if I do have a script to work with. In my own defense, I did email the contact about 5 weeks ago, only to be told later that he doesn't check his email very often.

We've been having a recurring problem with various kids walking and/or riding bikes across our yard. John caught a couple of them biking across the yard last night, so he yelled out to them to not do it. The neighbor next door responded by saying "sorry, I told them to." This is the same neighbor with whom I already had a conversation asking her to speak to her son about not cutting through our yard. Now all the kid knows is "mom thinks it's ok" so we'll never get them to stop. We also recently had a parent accompany their child to cut through our yard, which teaches the child that it's ok to trespass on our property.

I'm sick and tired of being the central walkway for the neighborhood. I pay my property taxes and that means I get to decide what goes on on my property. Streets and sidewalks are for transportation, my backyard is not. I often feel in life that I am stepped on, ignored, and pushed aside. Having people walk all over my yard feels like another version of walking all over me. They have no respect for me; if they did, they'd ask permission or just not do it. Other than posting signs and possibly gathering evidence to take someone to court, I don't really have any recourse. We can fence our property, but given the size of it, that would cost a lot of money.

What I am particularly concerned about is whether we'll get any pranks tonight, especially after catching those kids last night. I'm not much in the mood to hand out free candy to all of the kids who walk across our yard, so it's put a damper on Halloween for me this year.

I got in to work this morning and lots of people are dressed up for Halloween. I'm annoyed with myself for not putting in the effort to get a costume this year. Every year for the past few I have said, this is the year I'll make the effort and get a costume idea and have it come to fruition. Another example of my inability to follow through on things lately.

I just received a phone call in which the person said, "Hi... I don't need you." It's nice that users can resolve their own issues, but a little disheartening to get that phone call right now.

Slow to knit

I don't normally get headaches, but today my head hurts. The party went well last night, but Chicago rehearsals ran late and no one could come afterward.

Since I restarted my knitting in spring, it's been a slow process. The blanket took a long time and I didn't have anything else on the go at the same time. I'm looking at projects that my friends are doing or have done and I am behind as far as skills go. I hope the combination of knitting club and being around other knitters will help bring my skills up. I guess it's just the usual for me: scared to try new things in case I screw them up. What I need to keep in mind is that screwing up knitting is not something to be afraid of, geesh. I am not sure why I've turned into this person who is wary of trying new things, but I need to work on it.

That being said, I still want to knit a simple blanket for Regan's baby. Maybe I'll try something more complicated on a smaller scale first.

Since I have 10 minutes

I'll slap up a blog.

I haven't been blogging much lately, not out of lack of desire, but lack of time. Since I'm not good at short versions of stories, I haven't felt like I've had enough time to blog. Today I decided to get something posted even if it doesn't cover all that I want it to.

Work has been very busy for me. It's not a blogging topic, so I can't go into detail, but I've been a bit overwhelmed. I did manage to hire some more help starting this week, so I am hoping that will take some of the pressure off. Work seems to be encompassing most of my life these days, or at least it feels that way.

What else am I up to? I finished the baby blanket I was knitting for my new nephew. I wasn't totally pleased with how it turned out, only because of its size. It ended up being too wide, a mistake I made by casting on too many stitches to begin with. Once you make that mistake, you either keep going or start all over again. I didn't realize the magnitude of the mistake until later and ended up making it a lot larger than it needed to be. The good part is that I know for next time, it should be approx 60 sts and 150 rows. That should be a good sized blanket using the same yarn.

I'd like to continue with knitting and increase my skills, so I joined a knitting club at the library. The club is a bit disorganized; they're not quite sure what structure it should take, but I do like having more experienced knitters beside me to help. I got a lot out of the book I have, but nothing is a substitute for hands-on assistance. My next project is a scarf for myself, which I started a couple of years ago but put away because I ended up making it too wide. I ripped it out and started over again on the drive back from Montreal last week.

Speaking of which, John, Dad and I drove to Montreal last weekend to attend my nephew's baptism. It was a 9h drive, through the US. We left Friday and came back on Sunday, so a lot of driving for one day's worth of activities. I was pretty wiped, but glad to see my family. I didn't get the chance to call Lisa while I was there though, which I feel bad about. I need to catch up with my friends who have moved. I've been so busy with things and I need to catch up with them on how they're doing.

I guess my 10 min are up... gotta get back to work. Tonight I need to prepare for pumpkin carving, which is tomorrow. I don't like having it on a weeknight, but since Friday is Halloween and you can't carve a pumpkin a week in advance and expect it to last, Wednesday seemed like the best answer.