It's back!!!!

My obsession for knitting has returned full force. I suppose going to a stitch and bitch can do that to a person! It was a lot of fun, and, as always, I felt completely welcome among fellow knitters.

The obsession has returned so much that I was able to finish the back of the tank:

Not only that, but yesterday I did nothing but work on the front until I had to go to work. I've made some pretty serious progress there too!

I'm so excited for how this is turning out. I can't wait to finish it so I can try it on!

I was telling Gabe I could have been finished at least two of these tanks if it wasn't for my other obsession with cross stitch. My obsession there is not over though. Just on hold. I didn't want to show pictures of what I'm working on until it actually started to look like what it's going to be.

I'll let everyone guess (though you probably don't even need to guess) and next time I'll tell you the story behind it and why I'm making it!

A non-fibery post.... sorry!

Last Thursday I started working again. This is partially the reason why I haven't blogged in awhile. Anyway, I started work and Thursday night I had to learn a new computer system an hour before I was going to be on the floor waiting on people.... That was a little scary going into it, but it turned out to be just fine. No problems, I even made a decent amount of money. However, having been out of work for about three weeks, my feet were not used to standing that long and my energy level was pretty low by the time I got home.

But I can tell you, these things pick up the energy level real quick when they're waiting for you when you walk in the door...

Gabe bought me flowers for my first day back at work. Is he not the sweetest? Slap me and tell me I'm an idiot if I ever think about letting him go! Flowers were the last things I was expecting when I got home. And not only were flowers waiting for me, but so was dinner! It wasn't a fancy dinner or anything, but the fact that I didn't have to go and make anything after working some long hours was definitely appreciated!

So I've pretty much been working this whole time since Thursday, except yesterday started my four day "weekend" (you gotta love that about being a waitress, short(ish) shifts, long weekends and plenty of money!). Gabe asked me if I wanted to go climbing again, so we went. This time was definitely interesting. Before I tell you the story, here's a picture, lest you disbelieve that I actually climbed up the side of a mountain!

We went to this one spot that had several climbs to it. The easier climbs were being used by some other people, so Gabe and his roommate, Chris, started on a harder climb. Once Gabe got the rope up to the top and came back down they had me try it. I could tell, sitting down at the bottom, that this climb was too hard for me. I've really only done a few climbs, my last one being the one where I fell, so I was a little wary of trying this one. Gabe and Chris assured me I could do it.

Their faith in my abilities was much stronger than my own. The first 7 or 8 feet I actually needed Gabe to pull me up on the rope, it was impossible for me. Then I managed to get up about 20 feet or so, with about 10 breaks so I could rest. I maybe got up a little farther before there was this slight overhang and I just knew I couldn't do it. The guys were trying to encourage me at the bottom, but I just knew and I was totally scared. I made them lower me down where I started crying. Isnt' that awful? It was such a strange mixture of emotions. I was crying because I was scared, I was crying because I felt like I couldn't do it, that I just wasn't cut out for it, I was crying because I felt like I had let Gabe down for some reason and I was probably crying because I was relieved that I wasn't up there anymore.

Gabe and I talked about it a little bit. I'm the type of person who needs to gradually ease into something like this. I really need to start on the easier climbs and not be challenged right away. Here I don't even know what my abilities are because I haven't climbed nearly enough to know and I'm being tested on climbs that are hard even for intermmediate climbers. It just wasn't really all that conducive to me liking climbing.

After I had calmed down a bit, the easier climb opened up and Gabe put the rope up at the top. He told me I could do it only if I wanted to and only as high as I wanted to go. That picture is from the easier climb and you know what? I actually had fun. The whole time I was whistling a tune in my head and it seemed like much more of a climb that I would enjoy. I need more like that before I can move on to the harder things. I just don't feel like challenging myself yet when I don't even know what I can and can't do.

Sorry there's no fibery-related subjects in this post, but there will be soon enough... and by fibery, mean cotton DMC floss and some cross stitch.... sigh... I'm a little hooked...

Obsession doesn't begin to describe it.

These past couple of weeks I have been, for lack of a better word, obsessed with cross stitch. I don't even know what started it. On a whim, I picked up a kit from the craft store while I was buying yarn... I don't even know what made me think to get it, but I did, and now I'm totally obsessed.

I haven't started working yet (don't get me started on how nervous that makes me in the money department... incidentally, today is my first day back and it's really only for filling out paperwork and starting on some extra training I need) so while Gabe is at work I've had to entertain myself. Usually knitting does the trick for me, but not this time. You see, with knitting, I need something else to occupy my mind while I do it and this usually involves movies or TV. Well, we don't have cable here (which I'm actually quite happy about, I can't stand commercials and it's been really nice to not have to see any!) and for some reason, I haven't felt like putting on any movies. That left me with my cross stitch.

I made be dim witted for saying this, but it totally occupies me. I just love seeing how each of the colors fits together and plays off one another to create an image. I was endlessly entertained by that.

Yesterday morning I finished all the actual cross stitches and all that was left was the detailing. I didn't think I'd like the detailing as much as I liked the stitching, but you know what? I loved it! So much so that I finished it by yesterday afternoon.
The minute I finished it I was itching to start another one. I haven't felt this way about any craft in a long time. Don't get me wrong, I still love my knitting, in fact, I worked on that tank after I finished this because my hands really needed to be doing something. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be shortening the length on that and making it less of a tunic and more of a regular old tank top, but anyway...

I was thinking I'd give this little cross stitch away for Christmas. I washed it and blocked it and all it needs now is to be stretched onto some cardboard, matted, then framed.

I'm thinking, I'm going to be heading down to the craft store before work to see what else I can find.... oh... it's evil...

A post with some substance.

Finally I get to update you on what's been happening these past few days...ok, more than a few days... Well, the minute I picked Gabe up from the airport he and I were running around like crazy people. There were a million things to do and only three days to do them in. First of all, we had to visit with his mom, then we had to drive about an hour to visit with one of his sisters, then drive two and a half hours to get to my apartment, then drive another two and a half hours to get to where my old roommate's wedding was taking place, then drive back to my apartment, then pack up the car, then drive the two and a half hours again to visit his dad. Oh, and did I mention that somewhere in all of that I had to take my car into the shop to not only get the oil changed for the road trip, but also get an inspection and, on top of that, the AC stopped working so I had to get that fixed too...you just gotta love the timing. Like I said, I had three days to do all of this... It was, to say the least, hectic.

The wedding was fabulous. I had so much fun catching up with all my friends from college. Not to mention it was nice to finally introduce them to Gabe. Here are a couple of pictures from that.

Here's one of the bride and I. She was gorgeous, as all brides are. It was definitely a fabulous dress and I wish I'd taken a picture of the back of it because the details were just amazing.

I knew right away that the wedding was going to be fun because the bride walked in to disney music playing where Goofey would intermittently laugh throughout it. Not to mention, the several whistles bordering on cat calls that were thrown her way as she was walking in... yeah, it was going to be that kind of wedding.

This is one of my roommates and I. I can tell you, I probably have about a million pictures just like this one of the four of us at various parties, graduation, in the dorm, at other weddings, etc. It's pretty much our standard pose!

And of course, there's the obligatory picture of Gabe and I. It took some major effort on my part, but I finally convinced him to dance with me. He's not much of a dancer, so he really needed some encouragement! It's a good thing I got him to finally dance when I did because it ended up being the last song of the evening!

After the wedding there was still so much left to do before we could finally take off for Colorado. I swear it was the most hectic thing trying to do so much in so short a time, but really, it didn't matter, because Gabe was finally there and that made just about everything alright.

By the way, somewhere in there, I did end up giving Gabe his sweater. He loves it. The only problem is there are a few things I need to tweak on it. The neck is a bit snug so I need to redo that. Also, the arms a little short and a little to tight for how he likes them, so I'm going to fix those too. So it turns out that it's a good thing I didn't wait to give it to him because then I wouldn't be able to fix it.

So, let me tell you about the drive.... It was long. Other than that, nothing to spectacular or eventful happened. I didn't take any pictures because, let's face it, Kansas has a whole lot of nothing to it. Not to mention, we didn't really want to stop for anything. We managed to make it here in about 26 hours. We did stop at a rest stop and slept for a few hours but actual driving time was 26. I don't think I've ever been more happy to get out of a car in my life.

So what have I been doing since I got here? Well, I've been trying to get back to work but it seems to be taking more time that I thought it would. Gabe has taken me hiking and rock climbing already. Rock climbing is....unique. I'm not too bad at it, but I still don't know a lot of technique and that's kind of frustrating. During one of the climbs I actually fell. It wasn't more than a few feet before the rope caught me, but I banged into the side of the rock pretty good. I have bruises all over my legs and muscles I didn't even know existed hurt, but to be honest, I've never felt better. I was so proud of myself that I actually got back up there after falling. Part of me wanted to say, screw it, I'm done, that's enough of a scare for me, but I didn't and that was a really nice thing.

Here's a couple of pictures from one of the places we climbed.

This is one of Gabe. He makes it look so darn easy. And from the bottom, it really doesn't look so hard and it really doesn't look so high. I can tell you, from the bottom, everything is deceiving. That large looking rock that Gabe's standing on with his right foot is actually not as large, or as easy to stand on as it looks. When I got up to that spot I was having major difficulties.

What I find funny about rock climbing is it's really easy to psych yourself out. You stand in one spot too long trying to decide the best way to tackle the next couple of moves and you may find yourself convincing yourself you can't do it. But when you finally do, it definitely makes you feel great.

This is one of the crazier sections Gabe tried.
He's been doing this for a long time, so sheer rock faces with just a few cracks to climb up apparently seem like fun to him. For me... not so much.

I have no idea when we're going again just because it seems like this weekend is already going to be a little bit full. A couple of Gabe's friends who used to live here will be in town and he mentioned something about wanting to take me to the zoo. I suppose we'll see.

As for knitting. If you can believe it, I haven't been doing all that much. I did start that lace panel tank top out of the Spring IK. I haven't gotten very far, but I'm happy with the results at this point. This picture makes the purple look a lot lighter than it actually is.

So what do you think? Is this post long enough? I'd say it is so I'm going stop there. But now that I'm back to having internet, I'll definitely be posting more of my adventures here in CO.

I'M HERE!!!!

And I'm alive. Sorry I haven't posted but Gabe's new apartment didn't get internet until this morning! I still won't be able to post pictures until the wireless router is up and running so be patient with me.

As for now, all I can say is that I love it here and I'll probably never want to leave.

Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures tonight or tomorrow, until then I'll be trying to catch up on my bloglines...... all 315 of them....