spritechan | Entries tagged with concert

I just want to start off by commenting that I love the picture in picture feature on the iPad - that I can watch a stream/VOD/whatever while I type or do other things, instead of trying to play something on my phone (which is far more inconvenient).

Today waking up at a reasonable-ish time was so difficult, having went to bed so late the night before. I think the time we woke up was a good compromise. We took our time getting ready, but we needed to be at the mall in time for 1pm, in order to participate in the Squirtle catching. Mall of America opens a bit later on Sunday, so it was not as packed and parking was easy. We were hungry, and the plan had been to eat at Wahlburger (to see what the fuss was about), but they seem to only go off of reservations. Being hungry right NOW, I suggested trying this cute little waffle place. But first I needed to drop off my bridesmaids dress to get altered. I hadn’t so much as touched the dress since it arrived a month and a half ago, for fear of damaging it or getting cat hair on it. I only took it out of the package and hung it up like, last week. Needless to say, I hadn’t tried it on at all.

I still haven’t bought my shoes for the wedding yet, but she had me wear 2.5-inch heels and I asked her to trim it to a half inch off the ground, because I will probably not be wearing super high heels? I legit haven’t thought about it but it sounds like a nightmare to wear tall shoes, even if they’re kind of like wedges. Whatever, I’ll figure it out. The dress looks cute on me, and she’s just trimming the hem several inches and shortening the strap by like 2 inches (I have no shoulders, lol). It cost $80, exactly the amount I thought it would be, and I was happy to bring it to a small alteration shop run by a Hmong woman, than take it to David’s Bridal, which gave me a bad impression about their care and service.

Then! Waffles. I said something like, “Ooh, the such-and-such waffle sounds good!” And like 4 seconds later Steve goes, “Oh man, the [same waffle] sounds tasty” and I was like I LITERALLY JUST SAID THAT XD The waffle in question was a waffle with cream cheese and a fancy jam (there were a few flavors). As I was asking for that one, the guy running the shop started grimacing and I was like “oh no, are you out?” And he was like, “well... I’m waiting for a shipment of the jams, and the only one I have isn’t on the menu and I don’t know if people will like it” when I asked what it was he said it was a mango lime. Steve and I both eagerly said we’d try it and report back. We ordered coffee to sip while he made our waffles, and then took them to the main food court area overlooking the theme park. The jam was indeed very good, with a strong mango flavor and light lime underneath. As we started walking we made sure to pass by him and give him the good news.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing Pokémon Go. It was really fun to walk around the mall with Steve being cute, and halfway through the Squirtle event, Mike showed up out of nowhere (of course) and we invited him along with us for the rest of the time, and to lunch at Wahlburger. Steve put the reservation in my name, and I noticed that the guy wrote “Leia” instead of Leah. This is a fairly common occurrence, and I wouldn’t have minded if my parents had actually decided to call me that. My dad was more of a Star Trek guy so it was unlikely to happen though.

We were seated in the “patio,” which is kind of in the mall hallway, which I like. Get to people watch and enjoy the sunlight (the mall has a glass roof)! As expected, the food was fine. They serve the Impossible burger as well, but they do have a good spiced tomato. The fries, as I feared, are very generic compared to Burger Burger. I’d say I definitely prefer Burger Burger: better service, faster turnaround, and lightyears better fries. It was good to experience once though!

We had to leave the mall by 5 because we needed to drive down to Rochester, which is an hour and a half away. Gin Blossoms was doing a free show in the park? I’ve never been to Rochester, as in my opinion it’s a nothing-city that happens to house one of the best medical clinics in the country (world?) - the Mayo. Steve drove and I knitted and we listened to Name of the Wind. It was a really cute drive!

We got to Rochester at 6:30, found parking in the neighborhood with mild trouble, and were able to secure a spot facing the stage. I considered buying a shirt, but it was cash only, and finding an atm was prohibitive. The first band was... a band. We passed the time playing a logic puzzle on my phone and gossiping about the other people there. Gin Blossoms came on after like an hour, and they were awesome, as usual. There were people who sat behind us who talked loudly and didn’t know the band very well, and it was incredibly difficult for me not to shush them. Otherwise it was such a fun time, and it was the first time Steve saw them live. I feel very grateful to have been able to see them twice, because they’re such an old band. They did just come out with a new album that has some of their old sound and some of their newer sound.

They played most of their best-known hits, and they sounded really good even in the open park with bad sound mixing. We did leave right before the encore, because we wanted to beat the rush, and the sound was still clear all the way to the car. We picked up Taco Bell on the way back and listened to more NotW. It was fantastic. But by the time we got home, we were both so so tired (it was past 11:30). Steve had to package up something for EBay, and so I fed the hungry cats and got the coffee ready, and then we crashed into bed.
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For the last month or more, the only thing I've wanted to do in my free time is knit. I finished my first experimental pair of socks on the way back from Madison. When Steve and I were at Distant Worlds at the Chicago Symphony Center, I was the crazy lady with the yarn. When we were walking to our seats, I was knitting on my socks, and when we sat down I realized I wouldn't be able to work the decreases in the dark, and that meant I needed to start Sean's scarf.

The problem with the yarn for Sean's scarf is that it is not wound into balls yet. This meant that I would need to wind it myself, which often has disastrous results. I did not want to have an inner meltdown due to tangled yarn during my fun concert. So I tried to elect Steve's help:

The look of exasperation on his face as he struggled to get the yarn around his big feet, coupled with the fact that we were in the front row of these balcony seats and people were DEFINITELY staring, had me in uncontrollable giggles. Unfortunately, this method did not work as the yarn refused to pull or rotate the way I wanted. Steve got his repreive from being used as furniture, but he DID have to sit next to me with the yarn hanging around my neck and me rotating it around and around while I wound it into a ball. This unconventional method worked far better than I think it should have, and before long I had a cute little ball of this soft gorgeous yarn.

A simple pattern, yes. I loved the sample wrap at the yarn shop, but can't tell if I hate the plain garter with yarnover decorations...

A woman at my yarn shop talked about how she ALWAYS winds her yarn by hand, so she can get the "feel" of it. That without winding using your hands, you can't get to know the yarn - you can't develop an understanding of its tension, its personality, if it's splitty or smooth, if it's uneven, or if it's content. After winding my own ball without major issues (a first - normally I'm too busy detangling to notice anything but how difficult it's being), I totally understand the desire to experience the yarn in that way... But I still prefer the convenience of a machine winder.

As for the socks, I returned to them the following day after lunch.

In classic Leah fashion, my body is built all wonky, including my calves and feet. I have huge calves, regular human-sized ankles, and smallish feet (I wear a US 6.5 usually). Because of this, when knitting top-down, I have to cast on an abnormally high number of stitches for your average woman, decrease around the ankle so it's not baggy, and decrease even more for my feet themselves so there's not extra material on the bottom of the foot.

I knit the two socks very differently, as I learned things from the first sock and applied them to the second sock. I didn't account for the fact that with less stitches and more stretch, I would need to make the foot longer, technically speaking, on the second sock than the first. Unfortunately, I learned this AFTER I bound off and sewed in all the ends. I was shocked to discover I was a full inch and a quarter short when I tried to slip the sock on my foot.

Also in classic Leah fashion, I had a moment of panic where I thought,
"OH WELL! Guess I'm just NOT having two socks. They're my first pair anyway, who cares?! I don't need to wear them! WHATEVER!!!"

And then in defiance I worked some on Sean's scarf with the beautiful handpainted Mountain Colors Twizzlefoot yarn, a mix of wools, silk and a bit of nylon, which calmed me down enough to realize I was being overdramatic, and even though my toe decreases and end-weaving were perfection, it wouldn't take too long to undo, add rows, and redo again.

In the last leg of the four-hour drive back from Madison I sucked it up and returned to the sock, carefully finding my woven-in yarn, making one gentle cut, and I undid the toe. I inserted my three needles to the row before the decreases, and then I frogged out all the yarn until that point. It was as painless as I knew it would be, and my finishing toe ended just as well as the first. I was able to weave in all the ends and have two functional, finished woolly socks for the first time in my knitting career. Yes, it is long overdue.

You can see the difference between the two socks - the left far looser than the right due to the number of stitches. I decreased much more gently on that sock, whereas on the second sock I decreased aggressively, but not soon enough. I might actually have made the ribbing too loose! I also recently saw patterns where you change needles for the foot, using one size smaller instead of decreasing as much as I did. I'll have to keep trying.

I already can't imagine NOT making millions of socks. My next pair of will be knit toe-up, as increasing seems to be more logical in this type of situation. So will begin my NEW learning and experimentation with socks in the reverse.

A friend on another blog posed the question in my subject line. She described her heart in the way I would think many in the world do: transparent with cracks. She described her love interest as opaque, like polished obsidian. I think my heart is like a ball of yarn. It's made of fibers woven together, criss-crossed experiences and memories folded and wrapped and twisted, with bits that are thicker, bits that are thinner, with frays here and there from getting caught on the various things that may pull it out of place. It's beautiful, and dense, and malleable. It's tough, but has a lot of give.

What's your heart made of?

Current Mood: apathetic

Last week I had all-day trainings on Thursday and Friday. They were super awesome and helpful, and half the people there were from my company, and 75% of those were from my specific location. The first day I was ultra crabby and tired from having been kept up by Grim all night, and I fully intended on being antisocial and spending the lunch hour sleeping in my car. Somehow I ended up with the MHR clique, and then life got better from there. On Friday after the training, I had to drive home from Minneapolis in rush hour, pick up Steve, and drive back in WORSE rush hour (because of the omgsomuch construction), and then wait in line outside to get into the venue because they were running a half hour late. The concert itself was amazing, and Lights is adorable. I fell more in love with her at the concert. She has a very cute stage presence and is clearly there because she enjoys it. The venue was really small and cozy. Afterwards we waited outside in the cold for 45 minutes so we could get an autograph. We were almost at the front of the line to begin with, so the majority of the waiting was just her changing and getting prepped for a billion autographs. She came out in an adorable winter coat (many people were in t-shirts and even I was just in a thin, zip-up hoodie) because it was DEFINITELY cold by 10:45pm in Minnesota. I got a signature on her album, and Steve and I each got to give her a hug! Yay! We're pretty much BFFs now ;)

On Saturday Steve and I went to Nick's sister's for a Halloween party, like we have done since we started dating. I was Catwoman, Faith was Supergirl, Steve, Nick, Scott, and Pat all went as characters from Final Fantas'y tactics. We mostly sat around and talked, and Nick's sister tried to set him up with a girl she worked with who went as a "retro zombie teacher." She came only knowing Megan, and was able to tolerate like 20 people she didn't even know. She was funny and cute, and shares similar interests, and now we all want her in the group regardless of whether Nick dates her. XD Everyone added her to Facebook but we can't Facebook stalk her because she either just got a Facebook, or doesn't put a lot of information to the public (even her pictures are only from Halloween, and she untagged herself in everyone's photos, leaving only ones she took!). Frustrating, but workable, haha.

On Sunday we ran some errands and then went to dinner with my family for Paul's birthday. It was pretty fun.

Yesterday morning after we got out of the shower I noticed Grim standing kinda funny in the corner by the bookshelves. He looked pretty stiff and his tail was shaking like it does when he's straining in the litter box. I pinned him down and felt him all over to see if he'd yelp, and he didn't. Then he walked around a little and made a couple sad meows before laying down, super-stiffly. He did this like 4 different times over the next half hour - he kept laying in positions that he must've thought would trick us into thinking he was comfortable. Like, on his back or side for tummy pets, curling his front paws to be cute, etc. I was not fooled! He was sooo sad and stiff. He was not pleased to get put in the carrier.

The vet said he was blocked but that his bladder wasn't full (aka I'm ridiculously in tune with Grimmy). She said when she went to unblock him that she was shocked at how small his pee hole is. Which is because of the scarring, and was always my worst fear/knowledge. When I clean the litterboxes it has always been very clear which pees were his and which were Nero's. Nero pees grapefruits and Grim pees... like prunes (and Grim used to pee grapefruits). She also said she had thought there was a stone in there because there was so much grit. Poor kitty :( We had a very serious talk about surgery vs putting him down. Actually we had a couple talks about the surgery throughout the day. Lucky for me I didn't have any work appointments yesterday (and I was able to move my Depo appointment to the afternoon) because I spent over 2 hours at the vet and then spent much of the rest of the day crying. I burst into tears at some point while waiting at the vet, started crying reading a magazine at the doctor's office, and pretty much any time I imagined a life without Grim. He's MY AGE in cat years. He is NOT going to die. I cried when I thought about the cost and how I was going to pay for it.

Steve and I talked it over via text all day, and in the end I asked for a personal line of credit from the bank that covers such things as "consolidating debt, tuition expenses, home improvements, and unexpected expenses". I was approved for far more than the surgery will likely cost, and the interest is 11.75% right now vs whatever like 29% on a credit card (or 3). I started to cry when telling the banker about my situation. But I was able to get it under control and she smartly waited until that point to express sympathy or else there would have been for real waterworks and comical inability to understand me. lol.

I spoke with the vet again and she stated that she talked to a surgeon that she trusts very much with the surgery. He works just down the street from the emergency clinic and said he might be able to swing the surgery for almost half the original cost (though I'm not sure how and will find out tomorrow - I am not willing to compromise Grim's pain for cheaper expenses). I am also transferring all of the cats' stuff to that clinic, because I don't trust Banfield and never want to go there again. I scheduled a consult + surgery for tomorrow morning before my appointments, and Steve is working his hardest to get at least a half day so I don't have to do it alone. I could have left Grim at the vet for the next couple of nights for less transportation trauma, but I think he is less traumatized overall by being home. I had to go in the back to get him into his kennel because he wouldn't let any of the techs touch him, and he had the "bad animal" towl over his cage :( I always feel bad because he's so sweet generally. He was VERY hissy and had stuck himself into the corner - for a minute I actually thought he might bite or scratch me, he was so upset. But he didn't and I got him into his carrier with little issue.

He's currently taking antibiotics to prevent infection, buprenorphine for pain (we're good friends with it by this time), and instead of the muscle relaxant he's had in the past, they prescribed him a small dose of an actual tranquilizer usually used to prep for anesthesia, to prevent him from straining and reblocking over the next two nights. I moved all of the cats' items (water, food, litter boxes) to our room. Well, the litter boxes are technically in the hallway but I can see them at all times. I also took away all dry food and give Grim treats after taking his medicine. He has made a permanent residence between the catboxes and the food, and hasn't drank ANY water that I've seen, but at least he is happily eating the wet food. The medicine is an appetite suppressant and can upset kitty tummies so I imagine he just isn't feeling it. He's been high ever since we got home - rubbing on EVERYTHING in his little zone, purring like a maniac if I pet him, wanting lots of pressure-intense pets. He also has spent a lot of time just staring blankly at everything, but not in the listless way as when he was doped up in the past. I would guess he's having some sort of hallucinatory effects, to be honest!

All this has pissed Nero off a great deal, as always. He's only used the litter box once and I haven't seen him eat or drink. Though he often drinks out of the bathtub because there's always water dripping from the faucet. He's mad because Grim smells funny and appears to be "guarding" everything. It's quite amusing to watch. Every so often Grim will get this crazy idea to taunt Nero, so he'll run super-enthusiastically over to him (but not even touch him!), and Nero will freak out and hiss and stumble backwards like a doof and get all offended. But mostly Grim just lays on the ground, perking up if you pet him.

I spent the night just moping in bed, not motivated to do anything but watch Steve play Persona 3 and Tumblr. My dad called me, all concerned because of the most recent Hyperbole and a Half, which I "shared" on Facebook. I explained to him that I HAVE been struggling a lot with depression over the past 2 months especially, but it's nothing new. I just really thought that was an accurate portrayal of what depression feels like. If I didn't have guilt, and the very real knowledge that if I were to allow myself to succumb like Allie and so many other people, life would only get that much harder. I'm a functioning depressive, but that doesn't mean I don't wish with all my heart that I could just lay in bed for weeks or months. I've done it before. But now I am accountable in different ways and it's not really an option right now. So I sulkily continue to sort-of function. But it was adorable that he called and wanted to talk about it. He admitted that he's coming to terms with these types of issues (finally! Around a decade ago he referred to Pam's medication as Quack Pills and scoffed at the idea of counseling), and encouraged me to seek help if I need it. I've been considered medication again, but I don't remember it really helping in the past, and I just don't have time for counseling. It was a pretty good talk, and I swear I like my dad more and more as we age. He's a pleasant man these days.