Life has certainly had its ups and downs lately. My ipod has been returned to me, finally fixed. I've loaded most of the music that was on there before I originally sent it in for repairs. It has allowed me to organize my music more efficiently.
The people who work in reception must really be sick of me since I often stop by their desk to check for packages. They don't notify us of them in a timely fashion, so I look at their log when I am in the neighborhood. I'm expecting a few packages--my bag for my trip and a cute Paul Frank watch that I bought on eBay. My roommate and I wonder, is Paul Frank related to Lisa Frank?
I am still working on my blue hooded sweater. I've finished everything but the hood. I thought when I finished the second sleeve that it was almost done. Ha. The hood is nearly as large as the body of the sweater. Insert whatever joke you'd like about my big melon here. I hope to finish the sweater this weekend.
My roommate and I watched Oprah this afternoon. Bill Clinton was her guest, and quite charming. Ash and I are talking about getting his audio book. I'm not usually into audio books, since I feel that I can read faster. However, Clinton's reading was wonderful and ponderous.
Today, I realized an unexpected benefit of my upcoming trip. I probably won't be subjected to political ads for a month. We've got a pretty steady stream of campaign commercials here in New Mexico.
A new Trader Joe's opened a couple of blocks away from my apartment, to great fanfare, this week. Ashley and I went over there to check the place out. TJ's was packed with flaky granola-eaters with an absolute oblivion to aisle traffic. I bought a cheap bottle of sangria to enjoy on yet another rainy evening (ah, monsoon season), which is actually decent. I also bought some cheap Brie. An inspection of the receipt revealed the cheese to be of Canadian origin. Maybe if I drink enough sangria, I won't care.

I'm Really into the Following Things Now:
*Party Shuffle in itunes. Genius! It just makes my music collection sound better and better, and makes up for the shitty radio stations out here.
*Rachael Yamagata and Nick Drake. Watch out for patchouli and vanilla candles next.
*Newer Wave. Like the New Wave, but now. If you don't get it, check out any of the following groups: The Sounds, Sahara Hotnights, The Hives, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Franz Ferdinand, etc. They're not the Clash, but they're pretty hot.
*A Chai Latte on a rainy morning. I bought some Chai concentrate to wean myself off trips to Starbucks.
*The foreign film section at Hastings. Lately, I've seen Woman is Woman, Morvern Callar, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Dreamers, Time Regained (well, I watched half of it), All About My Mother, and Barbarian Invasions. I'm a sucker for a subtitle, I guess.
*Paul Frank. That monkey is just so damned cute.

Quelle Chierie*
I got my ipod back. It had new scratches on it. It's going back to the repair center again. What a drag. I was planning to spend the weekend reloading it, possibly in a better, more organized fashion. So, I'll be without it for about another week, it seems.
I was thinking how great it would be to have my ipod as I walked the two and a half miles back to my apartment from the mall. I was wearing flip flops. That was not originally the plan. I dutifully called the local bus company to check the schedule for today and was given incorrect information. I tried calling the info line after waiting fifteen minutes at the stop. No answer. As I was engaged in that activity, the bus(with an incorrect route sign)drove right past me. So I got some unexpected exercise today.
I rented a couple of DVDs while I was out: The Company and Une Femme est Une Femme. The Company, a Robert Altman film featuring The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, was surprisingly dull, despite a couple of breathtaking dance sequences. Nothing ever really happened, so the ending was anticlimactic. Une Femme est Une Femme was charming, as many French films are. The sound was atrocious, but I believe that was a conscious choice on the part of the filmmaker. One of the more delightful pieces produced by the New Wave.
I bought the soundtrack to Morvern Callar today. That is what is typically called a quiet film, about a woman whose boyfriend commits suicide and leaves her a mix tape. It has a very good use of sound and music, so I had to find the soundtrack. There's a Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood song on it that is laugh out loud funny. I first thought that it was clever DJ work, intersplicing two unrelated songs, but closer inspection of the liner notes reveals that it was originally cut that way. Lee Hazlewood's sections are very gruff and a little rockabilly, which is quite the contrast with Miss Sinatra's floral verses.
I realized yesterday that I have no idea what the person I've chatted with for the past three months on the back deck is named. I'm such a shit. The point at which it would be acceptable to ask is long past.
Progress on the latest sweater is beginning to stall. I truly loathe knitting sleeves. They move so slowly and just keep getting wider. That is, until you have to decrease all those increases back out. Still, I think a good set-in sleeve is worth it, given the alternatives (dropped shoulders or a sweater vest, ugh). I'm going to power-knit tomorrow, as I'd like to wrap this up and move onto my next project. I've kind of finished my paper sweater. Miraculously, it's the same shade as a thin tank I already owned, so they can be discreetly worn together. I haven't made the hood for it yet, but I kind of enjoy it hoodless.

Current Events Roundup:
*George Bush finally admits the Republicans' true agenda in textbook example of Freudian slip. He claims this slip-up is due to his difficulties with the English language. Thin excuse, given that it is his mother tongue. Also, does he speak any other languages in which he might be more proficient?
*The mormon man believed to have killed his pregnant wife in Utah looks eerily like one of the stage managers at work. Weird.
*Rick James is dead. I hope that this will not diminish my enjoyment of Rick James related material on The Chappelle Show.
*I'm listening to David Bowie's Greatest Hits album. That's hardly newsworthy, but it makes me happy.

One of my friends is leaving tomorrow. This is sad, even though I will probably see him again. He lives only two hours away from me back in IL. He may or may not be able to cart some of my belongings back to the great midwest for me.

*It's not exactly high school French. Email me if you can't guess the meaning.

Life is Short. Opera is Long.
I can't really complain, because I am not assigned to the show currently in tech. So, I have a bit of time to catch up on my knitting. I don't normally have a lot of time for it as my days consist of sleep, work, sleep. Occasionally, there's alcohol in there as well, but that isn't exactly a performance enhancing drug for knitters. So, I spent all of yesterday finishing my caramel striped raglan sweater. It is very cute, even though it hasn't been blocked. I am so glad to be finished with all those stripes and decreases!
I've already started another sweater, about which I am optimistic. The new project has no stripes, therefore, should go much quicker. I am making a hooded sweater with moss stitch detail in Manos Stria cotton yarn. It is as soft as a cloud, with a funky, almost boucle texture. Those women's collective yarns always get me, but this one is actually fabulous. The moss stitch doesn't read as well as it might have in some other fiber, like the wool called for in the pattern, but it has an interesting texture. The yarn is a nice cornflower or sky blue, with many natural variations in color. It's good to be back to my normal palette, haha.
I seem to be out of my Newer Wave phase. That's not to say that I don't like it anymore, but I've been listening to a lot of mellow music instead lately. Maybe I'll make a mellow playlist on my ipod... So, the following artists have been in heavy rotation lately: Rachael Yamagata, Nick Drake, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Rufus Wainwright, and Dido. I also really enjoy the Johnny Cash album that I bought a couple of weeks ago, even though my coworkers complained that it got "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" stuck in their head. That's a very valid complaint, I agree, since that isn't exactly my favorite S&G song. I'd be hard pressed to name one, though I can tell you I love the following albums: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme and Live in Central Park. It's funny how musical taste can be cyclical, and so hard to predict. How did I ever decide which albums to bring along this summer? Last year, I took all of them. Last year, I also took my car. I miss the car more, but sometimes I get an itch to listen to the original cast recording of Company, which I haven't spun in years.
I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on Sunday. It was well constructed, with good use of juxtaposition and music. It made me laugh and cry and want to shout obscenities at the screen. Still, I wonder how history will view that film. It's not exactly The Sorrow and the Pity, but who knows how that film will affect the election. Most of the people who were in the theatre where I saw it were clearly already democrats (although it's hard to say about the two inexplicable preteen boys). Later, I rented several art films. How predictable.
I was already a little angry about politics in this country as I cannot watch my scrambly television without being subjected to a barrage of campaign ads. The Bush commercials are so, so evil. Like the one that basically attacks John Kerry for supporting a woman's right to choose and her right to privacy. As I told my mother a few years ago, beware of any government that seeks to control women's bodies. That's where it always begins. It is so clear to me that the Republicans don't give a shit about women, as illustrated by their much touted Laci Peterson law. First, that law won't protect any woman from harm, as their ads claim, only provide greater potential punishment. Why not strengthen existing laws against domestic violence and violence against women? Why not actually enforce them before writing legislation to protect "unborn children", a phrase that makes me gag every time I come across it? Well, it's hard to tout that sort of thing in campaign ads, isn't it?
I'm going to get back to my knitting now.

Taking the Good with the Bad

Good: I've finally finished the back of the striped mercerized cotton sweater that's been sitting on my coffee table for ages!
Bad: Hours and hours of weaving in ends. Somehow, I always forget that part when I decide to undertake a striped project. Lots and lots of weaving. Weaving and seaming are my least favorite activities in the construction of a knitted garment.

Bad: I have to send my ipod in for service.
Good: The shipping box to send it to the repair center arrived from Apple the day after I requested it. They don't mess around at Apple.
More Bad: One of my coworkers threw the box in the trash and I had to spend twenty minutes on the phone with Apple repair this afternoon in order to have another one sent. I don't really understand how the box appeared to be trash to the coworkers, as it had very nice fitted foam inside and many important looking codes on the exterior.
Also, I discovered today that Apple is rolling out a new generation of ipods with a longer battery life and lower sticker price. If only I had waited!!

Good: I finally joined Hostelling International.
Bad: Because of the exchange rate, I still cannot afford to stay at the Georgian hostel near Covent Garden. It'd be lovely, but I'd like to eat while I'm there.

Bad: My roommate and I went to see Anchorman over the weekend. The screening was horrible! It looked as though they had dragged the print of the film across the floor of the projection booth before the show. The sound had a terrible low repetitive hum, very similar to the sound of the sprockets on the projector. Except more annoying. They had to stop the film twice (or was it three times?).
Good: I complained afterwards and got my money back. I saw it for free!

My ipod is sick. That makes me sad, since I've had it less than a month. The battery isn't holding a charge, which is apparently a well-known problem with ipods. I knew that going into this adventure, but was optimistic that I wouldn't have any problems. There was about a week of denial before I sent in a service request at the Apple website. They claim a one week turnaround once the ipod reaches them. Hope that's true, because I don't want to be deprived of my expensive toy for long. I just bought it a blue jacket.
Other news: I've started knitting a new pair of socks. The pink fairisle socks are done, finally, after a long period of neglect. My current sock project is a basic ribbed design made out of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn in the Green Mountain Madness colorway. I work on it during downtime in the shows, of which I have a lot. My prodigious sock making is funny considering that I rarely wear socks. Nevertheless, socks are a nice portable project. I haven't had much time to work on my striped cotton sweater, to my disappointment. The sweater is stalled on the needles until I have more free time or less interest in sleep.
I've recently become interested in Phildar designs. Phildar is a French yarn company that also has pret a porter at their stores in France. As far as I can tell from their website, they don't have a store near to where I will be traveling in September. And, I won't be able to get the lovely english-language translations that my Canadian sources supply. Ah, well. I purchased a kit to make a wraparound cardigan (kind of DVF influenced) out of a lovely, shaded cotton blend yarn. It's waiting until I finish the striped cotton sweater. I'd also like to make a few other projects from Tendences de Printemps, but I'd like to keep my options open for a while.
I am curious about Rowan's new line, which tries hard to capture the hip, young design kids/knitters market, R2. The book (or magazine, hard to tell) retails for $20 in this country, but only costs five pounds in the UK. I'll wait.
You can check out these projects and more at the following links:
www.knitrowan.com and www.knitntyme.com

Here's to the Ladies Who Brunch
and to anyone who understands that reference....
My roommate and I haven't seen a lot of each other lately, since our work schedules are very different at the moments. This morning, we donned non-work clothes and headed to a posh hotel downtown for brunch. It was unspeakably lovely. Since we'd slept in, we could legally order alcohol from the bar and did. It was the strongest mimosa I've ever had, which is not a complaint. Ashley and I chatted about work easily and our plans for the end of the season. I think that I will miss her when we are done here. We've vowed to make a weekly brunch outing for the rest of the summer. That will guarantee that we see each other at least one a week.

We're still having a lot of problems with equipment failure/breakage at work. It's really ridiculous at this level. Nonetheless, we soldier on as amps switch into protect mode in the middle of a performance, clear com channels decide to stop working, and last minute requests are issued. All par for the course.

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
I bought a pair of brown mary janes this week. It's been a while since I've worn shoes with buckles on a regular basis. In fact, I cannot remember such a time. The shoes are cute as a button, but there was one aspect that I had not anticipated. Small, sturdy buckles are very hard to operate when one is drunk or exhausted. There are four total between my new Docs. Still, I am quite happy with my purchase.

A Few Thoughts:
*When did doing laundry become a luxury?
*What was Apple thinking when they designed the exterior of the ipod? They're gorgeous to look at, but the design is pretty impractical.
*I'm looking for Johnny Cash cds. If you've got some in your collection, drop me a line. I'd like recommendations.
*Family reunions: yea or nay?