The trip of a lifetime...

So I suppose you'd like to know what I did on my trip other than reconnected with the love of my life huh?

Well, we certainly did some amazing things. He took me to Rocky Mountain National park. That's where the picture of us was taken. By the way, his name is Gabe. I figured I should just get that out of the way because it makes the telling of this so much easier! I would have knit on my way out there but the scenery was just too gorgeous. I couldn't take my eyes off it for a second. Here are some of my favorite pictures from there:This next one was awesome because of the way the sun was hitting the clouds from behind. The picture just doesn't capture how truly beautiful it was.
He also took me to the Denver Zoo. It was amazing. It was huge compared to the one I work in. You could tell they take great care of their animals and they do everything they can to keep them happy and entertained. One of their gorillas had a baby and I tried so hard to get a good picture of it, but my camera battery died just as I was getting one.

This is one of my better pictures of Nemo! I actually took quite a few pictures but none of them turned out very well.

We did many other things like hang out with his friends, go out to eat dinner and hiked a bit on some trails about 10 miles from his apartment. Unfortunately the hiking was a bit trecherous because he didn't tell me to bring my boot so I was hiking in shoes with no traction...that was interesting.

He cooked for me several times which was excellent. He is an amazing cook. Not to mention he's vegetarian too! He made probably the best tofu stirfry I've ever had. I'm drooling just thinking about it!

Now all of those things were exciting, but nothing compared to where we went on my last full day there. He took me to the yarn shop in Boulder. It was called Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins. I have never seen such an awe inspiring shop in my life. Not only did they have the largest selection of my kind of yarn (my kind of yarn being the more classic, non-novelty type) but they also had spinning wheels, roving, weaving looms and spools of thread everywhere. It was amazing. And what's more amazing is Gabe actually had a good time too. He was very tempted by the looms (He used to weave and spin back in high school because his mother owned sheep and he and his sisters would help his mom with the Sheep to Shawl contest at the fair almost every year) To say the least, it was great.

I ended up buying some more sock yarn (because I obviously don't have enough) and another set of needles. Right before leaving for my trip my brother was fooling around and he ended up breaking one of my bamboo sock needles. I could work with just the four that were left, but I much prefer having five.

So there's your brief overview of my trip. It was fantastic, I wish I were still there. It definitely makes being back here much harder!

I just want to leave you with a picture (sorry for the quality, I don't have a scanner so it's a picture of a picture) of Gabe and I back in high school. This was taken at the Junior Prom in 1997. *SIGH*

I left my heart in Colorado

I hadn't said anything about this earlier, mainly because even I wasn't sure what was happening. Now I know and now I can tell you, however, it may need a little bit of back story.

When I was in high school, I dated a guy for nearly two years. Considering how young and immature most people are in high school, two years is a really long time. Not only did we date for such a long time, we were in love. There's just no other words for it. Just about the time when I was going off to college (he still had one year of high school left) we broke up. It's been so long now that I don't remember the actual details as to why but it positively broke my heart. I spent most of my freshman year in college depressed, but eventually it got easier and the days between thinking about him got more numerous. I thought I had gotten over him and in many ways I had, but he was always in the back of my mind.

At this point, I don't really remember how it happened but probably a year or two after we broke up he called me, or I called him, I don't really remember, but ever since then we've talked maybe twice a year. Around Christmas he'd always come home to see his family and I'd be home visiting my family so we'd get together for dinner and just catch up on how the last year has been for each of us.

Every time we'd get together it threatened to stir up old feelings for me, but knowing that it just wasn't an option (either I was with someone that year or he was, or it just wasn't the right time) I'd pretty much squash those feelings the minute I felt them. That is, until this year...

This Christmas we got together like we always do, but something was different. That invisible line we never use to cross had disappeared and it was just us. And then he kissed me. Apparently he had felt the same way I had been feeling, but we didn't really talk about it. We both just sort of knew.

We made plans for me to come out and visit him in Colorado. It was probably the best trip I've ever had. Not only did the scenery take my breath away, but he did too. We finally talked about everything we'd been thinking about and everything we'd been feeling and now I can tell you with confidence that I left my heart with him in Colorado and I took his home with me.

It's nearly here!

I feel like all I've been doing is apologizing for how busy I've been. But it's true. I'm busy. So busy, in fact, I'm almost to the point of breaking down. Thank all that is holy this coming Friday I will be on a plane to Colorado for 5 glorious school/work free days. Of course, I have 5 quizzes and a test before that sweet day, not to mention three more nights of work.

You may have guessed that I haven't been able to do much knitting. I haven't been able to do any knitting and I'm thinking I won't until I'm sitting on the plane. Then I can knit. Zero interruptions, just knitting.

Nothing much else to report other than we took Ludo to the vet last week and besides some ear mites, he's as healthy as can be. I have to say I've never seen a cat so relaxed in the car. On the way out there he was only mildly nervous, but on the way back...

Yeah, he was totally asleep.

Never in my life have I met such a laid back cat.

There probably won't be any more updates before Colorado, so I'll be catching you up when I get back!

Good luck!

I just wanted to add a quick post to all of the knitting athletes out there who are gearing up for tonight's opening ceremony. I won't be participating this time around. I have far too much on my plate at the moment which is why I haven't posted in so long. Just know that I'm still around, very busy, but around none the less. Again, good luck to everyone! I can't wait to see how everyone does!

Ludo.

Well, I promised you a story about a cat...

Everyone, I'd like you to meet Ludo.

Last week my roommates and I decided we couldn't live without a cat. We went to the SPCA on Thursday, but didn't end up taking this bundle of love home until Saturday. I have to tell ya, it nearly broke my heart to go there and see all those animals, the majority of which were incredibly sweet and deserving of a loving home.

Lucky for Ludo we showed up. He's two years old (approx.) and found as a stray by a woman who, just the week before, adopted a cat from the SPCA. I'm thoroughly convinced that he was raised in a home and someone either threw him out or he ran away. What leads me to believe this is I have never seen a cat so well adjusted to being in a totally new home and who loves people as much as he does. And when I say he loves people, I mean he LOVES people. He doesn't care who you are, if you pet him, you're his new best friend.

I'm quite sure he has Maine Coon in him judging by his big mane, big body, long whiskers and ear tufts. Not to mention he has such a laid back personality. He's just a big lover and I'm so happy we have him.

We named him Ludo after that big furry monster in Labyrinth. You remember that 80's movie with David Bowe. I used to watch that movie all the time when I was a kid. One of my roommates had never seen it and last week we ended up watching it. Well, the name Ludo stuck out and it seems to be a great name for our new cat.

Here's another great picture of him. You can really see his mane in this one, and his beautiful green eyes. As you can see, he's totally made himself at home. No hiding under a bed for him. He's only been here for two days and if you didn't know any better you'd think that he's lived here his entire life.

In fact, he's sleeping on my bed as I write this. *Sigh* I love having a cat around. Any stress I had is non-existent at this point. I've just now realized the keys to a stress-free life:

Knitting & Cats.

Can we say busy?

Yes, I've been busy. And really, the word 'busy' wouldn't really even begin to describe it. I've had four quizzes this week. Not just those dinky little 'I-really-don't-need-to-study-for-this-quiz' kind of quiz, but full blown mini-tests. Next week is looking to be about the same. I already have three quizzes lined up for next week, we'll see if a fourth one gets thrown in there.

Also, I've been working. Great for the checkbook, not so great for my 'free' time. I say 'free' time, but what I really mean is time I should be studying. My usual day consists of me going to class until noon or 1, then a couple hours later I have to head off to work. One might consider that time in between as down time, but not me. It's the time I get to study for the quiz I have the next day. This is mainly because when I get home from work I'm so tired the only thing I can even contemplate doing is changing into my pj's, possibly knitting a row or two, and going to bed.

Throw in a little volunteering and you see why my week has been one of the busiest I think I've ever had. The days are flying by in no time flat. Before I know it I'll be in Colorado! By the way, I only have to wait two more weeks until I get on that plane and go. Considering how quickly these past two weeks have gone, I'll be there before I know it.

Despite being insanely busy I have been knitting. I'm still working on the socks that won't be named, though I came across a bit of a snag after I turned the heel. Turns out what I thought was loose enough, really, really wasn't. It's the same problem I had the first time. Rather than take it out, I decided to try a little experiment. First I tried it on one needle size bigger, which only produced a sock so huge a troll could fit its foot into it. Then I tried it on the same size I'd used on the first one, but consciously thought with every stitch "LOOSEN UP!" That seemed to do the trick.
Here's a side by side image. Both are knit on size 1 needles. The one on the right is the tight one and the one on the left is just right. You can see how differently the stripe pattern turned out on both of them. I think on the first one I was so concerned with getting the stripe pattern to look good, that I wasn't really paying any attention to the fact that my foot would have to shrink a couple sizes to fit into it.

All's well now though and I think I may actually have this first (read: third attempt, but first of the pair) sock finished by the end of the weekend. Don't quote me on that though!

We took a trip out to my friend's parent's house a couple nights ago. Their dog just had puppies a month ago. Ummm, can you say cute? They were flopping all over the place. It was too adorable. There were nine puppies total. it seemed that everywhere you looked there were little white fluffballs. As much as I wanted to take one home, I knew that the apartment is not only too small for this type of dog (they get pretty huge judging by the size of their parents) but neither me nor my roommates have the time to take care of a puppy.

A cat, however.... well, you're just going to have to wait for that story...