spritechan | 12// Loudmouths, errands and giant knitting needles

Today I got up at 5:40... finally! A reasonable time! Showered and got coffee, but still took too long to sit down; Steve and I only had like 15 minutes. After he left, I just... could NOT get myself motivated to leave. I left so unbelievably late that I texted Tealie so she'd know I was coming in, and tell Malik and Vincente I'd be late. As I was walking in, I got a text from her:

Malik, "A couple minutes does not mean 20 minutes!!!!" I walked up soon after and we laughed sooo much about it, and Malik came flying out of the room trying to look extremely indignant, asking if I got Tealie's text. Still laughing, I told him I did, and apologized, and he couldn't help but crack a smile.

First block was a nightmare, they were just being so annoying. Nothing really egregious to note other than Darius, who is this tiny EBD child who I could palm in one hand and crumple him up, but when he gets mad, starts calling us the meanest names he can as if he can have any bearing on us other than annoyance. Today he was asked to leave when he kept shouting "ear rape," and he refused for several minutes, with lots of fuck you's etc. Tealie and I then convened at the front of the room, just sort of quietly venting and developing a backup plan for if they can't show they can cook, but we must have looked so serious that some of the kids got really concerned and they shushed each other into silence, staring at us, which was actually really interesting and amusing. I'm guessing Darius kept muttering to himself as we used the opportunity to talk to them about our newly developed plan (usually it's a lot of "No one cares" and "Shut up"s), because several different kids in his vicinity separately told him to stop, and Darius REALLY should know not to say anything about me in front of Vincente, because he is my biggest defender. They almost came to blows but I was able to direct Darius out of the room while Tealie managed Vincente. While I filled out his write-up and figured out how I wanted to talk to him, he had his head down on the table and called me a "piece of shit" a bunch of times (LOL!!!). I was just annoyed, not even mad, as usual. I'm so TIRED! I just don't want to deal! The end of the year is usually really fun, because we do so many projects and get to hang out with the kids, but this year it's like they're very different. Closed off, not as relaxed. Sucks!

When I was finishing up with a couple of phone calls at work, Haley texted me asking if I wanted to get lunch. I assumed she was doing laundry at my place today because she told me yesterday to leave the door unlocked but never came, but no, she just wanted to fill some time. At the TIME I thought she was already in the area so I agreed, but I had a lot of errands to run today and I wanted to get them all in. Turns out she was just at home and met me at my place after I got my eyebrows and lip waxed. Omg, getting my facce waxed feels sooo good. I love when they brush, trim, and pluck the eyebrow hairs after waxing (I only have them get the stray hairs), and even though I mostly get peach fuzz on my upper lip, I can't stand the feeling of having a mustache so I get that waxed too. So smooooth.

We went to eat at JSelby's, a vegan place in St. Paul. I got the Chili dog, fries, and their carrot cake soyclone, which is like a DairyQueen blizzard. All of it was quite good but I was so full I felt sick after. While we were there we talked a lot about Haley's boyfriend/ex-boyfriend, mostly. She was fine when we were hanging out but she spiraled later when Derek liked an instagram pic of another girl.

Dropped her off at home so she could leave, and then I went to the DMV to order a new license (because... ah... I lost mine........ again). Did you know if you have an expired license and the yellow paper that it makes your old license valid until you receive your new one?? I found that super interesting. I plan to test it out when attempting to buy drinks. Anyway, that took about a half hour of waiting in line, then I stopped at Cub for cat food. I ran into Jason, Steve's old coworker/friend, and we exchanged pleasantries. It's always good to see Jason, but this is at least the second time that I've gone to say goodbye and RIGHT then someone would come talk to him and I've ALWAYS been behind him. Today it was a random old guy at the self-checkout, and I was in his blind spot, and I stood there for such a long time like trying to lean into his line of sight* that I began to feel really awkward about overstaying my welcome, and just turned and made a break for it.

After that I picked up Steve and we went to Menards for a watering can for my hangy plant and some grass stuff. When we got home, Steve decided to mow the lawn and I cleaned out my car. It is SO GOOD to have a clean car again! The sweatshirt pileup was getting out of control, and it sorely needed a vacuuming. I also got to listen to fun music! When Steve was mowing I swear to god I looked to see if any neighbors were around and I didn't see any, so I knid of flashed Steve (just a lot of cleavage) and then I looked again and the damn neighbors across the cul-de-sac were in their driveway. lol.

Our lawn literally overnight exploded with dandelions. Lord.

When I was finished with my car I came inside and picked up a bit, going through some knitting books, needles and knicknacks Steve's mom brought down of his grandma's for me to pick through. When my phone is charged enough I'll add my favorite from today's books. When I was going through her stuff at her house, I think the oldest thing I found was a small knitting catalogue from the 1950's. She did actually have a few useful things for me - some decent needles, a few crochet hooks, and giant knitting needles!!! She had a set of 4 size 35 DPNs for god knows what, and ONE size 50. I need to find another 50 ASAP so I can REALLY make that giant blanket.
I blocked the cowl and my Pi Shawl. I'e never knit a large garment with lace before, and they weren't kidding about how much it grows! I was really pleasantly surprised.