Two and a half more weeks...

You might wonder what's been going on with me and well... I wonder the same thing. When I think about last week all it seems to be filled with is working, studying and bird watching. The bird watching is because I have to have 14 hours worth of bird observations in by the end of the semester and I only have two and a half more weeks left to do it.

Two and half more weeks... It feels so good to say that I only have two and half more weeks left of school. Of course this brings the realization that I only have two and half more weeks to get all my assignments finished. This includes a research paper that I haven't even thought about starting. My problem is finding the time. For me, I have to sit down with a nice chunk of time with no other obligations before I can start a paper and all I seem to have is a couple hours here and there. Usually once classes end I have a couple of hours until I have to go to work... Definitely not conducive to getting a research paper written.

I haven't even had any time to knit very much on Gabe's sweater. For those of you who asked, the pattern is called Castaway and it's in Rowan magazine number 30. It's always been my experience when knitting for men the more basic the sweater, the better. Most guys aren't interested in bells and whistles. Classic is best.

So I've been swamped up to my eyeballs with school work, I've been waitressing non-stop it seems, and I've had no time to knit... what the heck keeps me going? It's the conversations with Gabe on the phone, planning what we're going to do when we finally get to be together over the summer. He plans to take me rock climbing. We had a thorough discussion as to my safety (I'm not an adrenaline junkie, so the safer the better).

He wants to take me up to the flatirons (I think that's what he called them) so that I can watch the eagles and hawks fly up on the thermals. I have to say, since taking this ornithology class, I'm much more interested in bird watching than I used to be. And it's really kind of nice to hear he's willing to fuel that interest.

Pretty much the thought of seeing him everyday is really keeping me going. It makes the school work and the work work not seem so bad at all....

I am a project tramp.

It's true. There was that purple sweater that I started. It lost it's flare quickly to a pair of green socks. Those green socks did entertain me for a short while. Not long enough for me to finish them. Such is the way of being a tramp because when something like this:

arrives on your doorstep you're pretty much obligated to cheat on the projects you have going for something new and exciting.

To be honest, most of it is mom's. She wanted me to order it for her. Not only that, but she wanted me to knit most of it for her. Most of it is yarn for some cool fairisle socks. But some of it is for me and that, my friends, is what I cheated on my green socks for.

This 100% baby alpaca, simply irresistible yarn is going to one day be a sweater for Gabe. He picked the pattern and he even picked the yarn. He's actually very excited about it. So he knows he's getting a sweater, but he doesn't know when. Christmas is so far away, but this yarn is so hard to resist. I had to start it.

Did I mention we had a field trip on Monday to Montreal? Well, let me tell you, that definitely gave me some excellent time to sit and knit (and cheat on my green socks). I'm already about 10 inches into the body and it's on size 6's.

This picture actually makes it look a lot lighter than it actually is, but let me tell you it's gorgeous and it feels great. He's going to love it.

As for the field trip, we went to the Biodome in Montreal. It was actually very cool. It had four different ecosystems and you had to walk through each of them. It was definitely a bit of a shock to walk through a tropical rainforest and then go through a temperate forest in early spring!

Here's a slideshow of the trip. I got the idea from Grace . She had an awesome slideshow and I thought that would be a really cool idea rather than upload a whole ton of pictures! By the way, you can make your own slideshow at Imageshack.

Edited to add: Having a bit of trouble with the slideshow, if you want to view it, you can go here.

Don't Cry for me Argentina....

Don't ask me about the title. It was just the first thing that popped into my head when I thought about the events of yesterday, events that I think everyone of you would be interested in hearing about.

I received a letter in the mail. A letter from the Denver Zoo. Here it was, my ticket (or lack there of) to Colorado for the summer. This is what I'd been waiting for....

Well folks, I didn't get it. And I suprised myself because as I read the rejection letter I didn't get upset. I learned awhile ago not to let my happiness ride on circumstances that are outside of my control. This doesn't mean, however, that I just sit idly by when there are choices I can make and circumstance I do have control over.

So why, you might ask, was yesterday one of the most exciting days of my life? Well, I made some choices and changed some circumstances. I talked to my boss and he agreed to have me transferred to the restaurant in Colorado for the summer! Things really couldn't have worked out better!

I called Gabe as soon as I got home from work and we already have the whole thing planned! My roommate from college is getting married in June. I can't miss the wedding so he's going to fly out for it, then we're going to drive across the country in my car! What an adventure that's going to be!

I'm so excited! I know I'll be nervous having to start work at a totally new place with totally new people, but to be with Gabe for the summer, it's going to be worth it.

Three and a half weeks left of school, then it's just a matter of a couple more weeks till I will be in Colorado!

Title? Who needs a title?

My spirits have been feeling better and better. I did a little yoga, I spent some time outside... I just needed a little time to readjust. I got to see him 24/7 for six days straight. Go from that to barely even having the time to talk to him on the phone (we both went back to extremely busy lives) and you can see why I was a little down in the dumps.

Never fear though! Spring is here. The sun is shining, the weather's warming up and the pigeons have made it their duty in life to wake me up every morning with their mating calls. Have you ever heard a pigeon making it's mating calls? For lack of a better description, it sounds as if they're constipated.
Ludo, my cat, is enthralled by this. He's made it his mission to do whatever he can to get to those pigeons. He has found every suitable place in the apartment to sit by a window and watch them. And when he gets tired (because you know it's hard work trying to claw through glass to get to the birds) he just curls right up and goes to sleep... right on my sweaters of course!


So, I got to knit those couple of inches I wanted to and now I can show you this:

Let me tell you, it was a pain in my butt to try to photograph this. First I tried putting it on, but every angle I could shot it at didn't show the pattern well. So I had to settle on the flat shot.

I've actually already turned the heel and am working on the leg portion. But now that I only have 4 weeks left in the semester (4 weeks, can you believe it???) I'm down to the wire on some school projects and haven't had a huge amount of time to knit. Well, 4 weeks isn't a long time so once school is finished I'll be knitting up a storm!

What's a girl to do when she's feeling down?

Play with baby chicks of course!

We hatched these little guys in ornithology lab (ornithology is the study of birds.) They are so darn adorable I can hardly get over it.

They're definitely good for raising the spirits. Especially a spirit that's bogged down by the stresses of school, work and an aching heart!

Knitting news will be on it's way. Just give me a few more days to add a couple more inches!

So damn bittersweet

We had such a wonderful time and the majority of it was spent hanging out. Just being together was enough. But of course, as these things go, my mood gradually went from euphoric at the beginning of the week to somewhat depressed last night when I knew he'd be leaving this morning.

Some of the highlights of this week were little things like taking a walk together when the weather was gorgeous. It must have been 70 degrees outside and it was sunny. I loved it. We also spent a lot of time at his mom's house visiting with her and she let me spin some greased wool on her Louet. I've never tried spinning in the grease before and I have to say it was awesome. I've never spun anything so fine and your hands just feel so healthy with all the lanolin (unless, of course, you're allergic to lanolin.) By the way, she asked me if I wanted to do the Sheep to Shawl competition with her and her daughters this upcoming fall! If I can get the time off, I will definitely be there!

Also, spending time playing cards with my mom who was laid up after having knee surgery was really great. She actually had the surgery the day Gabe arrived and she's already up and walking around!

My favorite times with him, though, were all the times we'd just sit around and cuddle. I know it sounds sentimental and sappy, but it's true. We'd just lay there for hours, talking, cuddling, just being together.

I wish this post could be a bit more upbeat, but I'm so heartsick right now. I still haven't heard anything about the internship yet and to be honest, I really want to spend the summer out there. Gabe really wants me to look into transferring within the company/restaurant I work for to one out in Colorado if the internship doesn't work out. After this last visit I'd do just about anything to be out there for the summer. He said he'd even drive me to and from work if that's what it takes!

I'll keep you updated. Until then I have a crap load of homework and projects to do. Looks like that monster finally caught up with me so if I don't post for awhile, you know why! I'll leave you with some goofy pictures of Gabe and me.