Spinster

I’m off to Turkey for two weeks and I probably won’t be posting while I’m gone. Which means that you can expect lots of good pictures and stories when I return!

I’d like to remind everyone that tomorrow is my 25th birthday and those of you who have my email address must wish me happy birthday or I’m gonna be pissed and I won’t invite you to my deck/shisha parties when I get back (I’m going to get a hookah in Turkey). I’m pretty sure you don’t want to miss them, so you should probably email.

Anyway, peace out, kids.

Things I have left to do before Turkey:

1. Bikini wax. More so that I don’t gross myself out than so that I can seduce Turkish men, but if it happens it happens.

2. Return the plug adaptor that I bought today and get a voltage converter/plug adaptor. Annoying. Why did I even assume that the guy at the store knew what he was talking about?

3. Figure out what the hell has been biting me at night. Yup, that’s right. Night bites.

4. Worry, just a little bit more, about what happens if: my parents miss their connecting flight; people in Turkey hate me because I don’t speak Turkish; my parents embarrass me immensely; I fail Research Methods and my trip to Turkey is my one last chance at happiness before I have to move back home forever.

5. Change money.

6. Do laundry.

7. Pack.

I could post a picture of my Hot Lava progress, but since it’s just more sleeve, I think I’ll show some images of my neighborhood. Well, my neighborhood flowers, anyway. People in the Annex seem to put a lot of energy and effort into their gardens and the effort is really worth it, as you can see. Everywhere you look there are splashes of color!

In other news, I have decided to get a cat. I have put this off for many years because I never know where I’m going to be next, but I’m freakin’ sick of it. I’m practically 25 (on Saturday–happy birfday to me!) and I’m tired of putting the cool things off cause I don’t know what my next move is going to be. So I’m going to get a cat (I have one in mind and I’m going to try to get to the Toronto Humane Society tomorrow to visit him, even though I’m going out of town on Friday–his name will be Ezekiel Photon and I’ll call him Zeke for short) and when I return from Turkey I’m going to get an Ontario driver’s license (licence to you Canadians). I don’t live in Miami anymore, I’m not 18 anymore, and it’s time I allowed my life to just do what it’s going to do. That makes no sense. I guess I mean that maybe I feel like I always live with one foot in the city that I live in and one foot in Miami. My “permanent” residence is there, I’ve never had anything but a Florida driver’s license, despite having only lived there for one year since I turned 18, and I’ve always felt like I could go back home if I needed to. But I HATE Miami. I mean, if my parents didn’t live there I would see no reason to ever return, so maybe it’s time that I start actually moving my life out of there. Like, putting down roots here if I want, and not referring to Miami as “home,” since it’s really not and hasn’t been for a long, long time. Ugh. It felt good to get that out. Now I’m off for my incredibly mature and responsible dinner of grilled cheese sammy and beer.

…I decided to start knitting the Hot Lava cardigan in Manos del Uruguay 110 Stellar. It’s knit in the round from cuff to cuff, using the magic loop technique (love). Here’s the beginning of the first sleeve and a close-up of the yarn:


I had the requisite 4 skeins from a project I never completed. Actually, I think I have like 8 skeins but they’re not all Stellar. I’ve been looking for something to do with this yarn for a long time. I was going to make felted slippers but I like the cardigan a lot more.

Over the weekend, I turned the heel of my sock!

I am seriously in love with the magic loop. For this sock, I don’t have to pick up stupid heel flap stitches or graft the toe, both of which I find annoying. However, I can see how knitting socks from the toe up wouldn’t work all the time, like if you wanted to use a stitch pattern or something, so I’m not completely renouncing dpn-style sock knitting. Still though, magic loop rocks!

My “garden” is growing pretty well. Here’s a shot of my luscious basil, looking happy and healthy. It smells like basil now!

Sadly, though, I think my plants may have sunburn. I left my beans out all day today and when I got home from work they had whitish leaves, and I noticed that a couple of my other plants look similar. So, no long hours in the sun tomorrow!

I went for a walk in my neighborhood last night after dinner and realized yet again how beautiful it is. There are big trees lining the streets and they’re starting to grow leaves. Everything is that brilliant, spring-y shade of green, and lots of people have bulb flowers blooming in their front yards. There are so many tulips and daffodils and lots of things I can’t name. The magnolias are blooming! The big tree by our deck is starting to bloom, too, and there’s nothing lovelier than a tree in bloom, so I’ll leave you with one last picture while I go for an evening stroll: