Joyous weekend
So, yes. It has been a frankly exciting week, and I'm having to reread my last couple of entries just to see how much of what's been going on I've already discussed. Crappy weekend, going back to work tired, having a late-night job interview, taking my birthday off work, yes, yes.
Thursday morning I showed up at work, gloomy at having to show back up and get back to the doleful routine. And then I received a call just a few minutes before I was about ready to go on break, so I went to the breakroom and returned the call. Turned out to be from someone in HR in the home office for the pathology lab I'd interviewed at, wanting to basically go over my job history and form her own impressions to go along with those of the people who'd dealt with me in person. I happily answered her questions (despite having people start wandering into the break room, to overhear what was definitely starting to sound like a telephone interview from my end of the conversation) and at the end of the call was told that -- assuming my background check, references, etc. checked out -- they'd very likely be making me a job offer.
I went back to my desk in a mood of suppressed optimism, which enabled me to keep my composure when my supervisor came by to express the hope that I'd recovered from my "illness" and inform me that by being absent I'd missed the announcement about mandatory overtime in the coming week -- temps like myself included. An extra five hours to be picked up however we cared to schedule it (up to and including during a 7am-noon window on Saturday morning). Ah ha hah. I accepted the news with outward calm, while beginning to debate with myself the risks inherent in quitting my current job before getting a firm job offer from the pathology lab. I watched my phone anxiously for the rest of the day, hoping for the return call that would remove all uncertainty, but it never came.
So I was moping at having to come into work Friday -- I mean, I'd kind of figured I might as well do so even if I'd gotten the job offer on Thursday, just to finish out the week and partially compensate for the way I was bound and determined to bail on the mandatory overtime, notice period be damned. (Especially since I was only to have a week before starting training at the new job -- I'd been told during the call Thursday morning that November 5th would be the starting date.) But I couldn't help feeling it would have been awesome if I'd gotten the call Thursday afternoon in time to give the news to my supervisor and maybe be able to not even have to show up Friday. (Oh, and just to add to my turmoil, the supervisor was out on Friday. Again. So I wouldn't even be able to give her the news in person, let alone get my final time card ironed out before leaving for the last time.) And I was getting really antsy at the prospect of not getting a call that day, either, and having to choose between showing up at work again Monday -- or else breaking off the temp assignment on the basis of an implied job offer rather than an actual one.
So those were the thoughts I was having -- how good a chance did I really have of being offered the job? (No lies on my resume, no problems with my background check, so I wasn't especially worried that they'd turn up something that would change their minds.) What would be the worst-case scenario if I quit in advance and then the job offer fell through? Still with the severance checks coming in, I'd be fine until mid-December before having to dip into savings, and that was a decent window of time for jobhunting -- especially with no full-time job taking up my time and sapping my energy. How horrible would it be to actually put in another week at that bloody job, mandatory overtime or not? How long would it take the HR lady to get back to me with an answer?
When I got a call from a number that wasn't in my Contacts, I hightailed it to the break room to answer it -- didn't even exit the batch I was on to keep my workrate calculation from getting fucked up by a document being left open for five minutes or whatever. Turned out not to be from the pathology lab. Turned out to be from the recruiter's office that had gotten me the horrific job I was trying to escape, asking me how things were going. I couldn't bring myself to tell them, "Fine, just fine," when I was hoping and planning to be able to call back later in the day and explain that I was leaving to pursue other opportunities. So, I explained to the recruiter's office that I'd received another job offer I was going to take -- and that I was really intending it to be my last day at the current job. (Lied and claimed I was starting training today, rather than get into the whole thing about how that job made me want to just clock out for lunch one day and walk out without saying a word to anyone and never come back ever.) I also asked about the paycheck for my final timecard (which is evidently to be handled via e-mail) and brought up that my supervisor was out for the day and I had no idea who I should tell that I wasn't coming in on Monday (or ever). The person I was on the phone with relayed the news to my own recruiter and came back with the answer that my recruiter would e-mail her for me. Note that, my recruiter having been on another call, I got off the phone without ever having to speak to her in person or discuss my decision any further.
So. I had just quit my job -- cold, without advance notice -- and didn't actually have a new job to replace it yet. Definitely some butterflies in the stomach competing with the sense of freedom as I returned to my desk. (No one else at the office knew yet, barring those who had been in the break room to overhear my end of the conversation with the recruiter or Thurday's conversation with the diagnostic lab's HR, and maybe two or three of those people even had a clue who I was, so I was only marginally worried that word might reach someone in a supervisory position before I made my getaway at the end of the day.) Maybe half an hour later my phone rang again, and I bolted for the break room again -- still not bothering to exit the document I was on.
This time it was from the HR lady, and indeed she was offering me the job, which I formally accepted. I was delighted enough by the relief of escaping the current job and actually having something to leave for -- the news that they'd assessed my education and experience and qualifications and were offering me a salary comparable to what I'd been making when I lost my last job (especially with the 15% shift differential they add on to the base pay because I'll be working late night and wee hours) was just kind of the icing on the cake. Spent a good long time on the call because there was a last little formality involved -- setting up a drug test -- and it had to be done within 48 hours or the offer was rescinded -- oh, and they wanted it done in a company facility, which BTW wasn't open on Saturdays and stopped taking drug tests at 4pm. I noted that I was there till 3:30pm, the HR lady found the closest location (which was indeed fairly close), I mused about leaving a smidgen early that day to be sure of making it, she said she'd call ahead to make sure they'd hang around a little bit longer and take me even if I was running late, and then after I'd finally gotten off the phone and back to my desk (having used enough time on the call to account for my entire break) she called me back and left a voice mail repeating that she'd called ahead to the location we'd selected and I didn't have to kill myself rushing to get there by 4pm.
I would have bailed at 3:15 -- indeed, the woman next to me left at that time -- but I was trying to finish up the last batch I was on, so it was something like 4:22 when I finally got off the computer and bolted. (I'd already taken a minute to quietly gather up the few things I'd brought to my cubicle that I wasn't carrying home every night -- a box of pushpins and a calendar -- which was another clue for any of my coworkers that might have been paying any attention to what I was doing.) I dashed off to the lab, signed in, pulled up the PDF I'd been e-mailed with the order, and was told that my appointment time couldn't be honored because I didn't have an actual confirmation number and I'd have to wait my turn and they'd try to get to me. So I had time to call my eye doctor, move the appointment I'd set up from November 17th (the first available Saturday morning appointment, since I couldn't get out there during normal business hours with the old job) to today -- that is, Monday afternoon -- at 12:15. At some point between telling me to wait and calling me back, someone had figured out that I was the person the HR lady from the home office had called about and that I was being given a drug test to see if I was fit to become a coworker (though admittedly at a different location), so I had a very nice little chat with the woman who was collecting my specimen.
Got out of there a bit past 4pm in a frankly awesome mood and went out to splurge on wine and chocolate. Absolutely thrilling to A) be free of the horrible temp job, B) have an exciting new job, and C) have a full week off to do things like catch up on sleep and clear the DVR -- and also to try to adjust my sleep schedule to a noon bedtime. (Having a noonish appointment today was a headache along those lines, but thankfully it was at least really early in the week.) Tried to mow the lawn for Mom, but couldn't get the damned mower started -- seems to be a spark plug issue, and since that's a Mom problem to solve looks like I can get away till Thursday or Friday before trying again. Hit the gym, managed to shower before falling asleep, slept through the late morning and early afternoon, and didn't have enough time to deal with the rabbit cage before leaving for Dad's (though at least I managed to get my laundry done). We were waiting for Dad to get home from work and Lauren got us started watching the Munsters remake TV movie while we were waiting, so we stayed to finish that even after he arrived. (That was surprisingly good, and I wish it had been picked up. That would have been a series worth seeing -- significantly darker than the original TV series, and I wouldn't have thought Jerry O'Connell would make a good Herman Munster if I hadn't seen it. I would have agreed with casting Eddie Izzard as Grandpa, though -- especially if warned in advanced that they were going for Gary Oldman Dracula rather than Bela Lugosi Dracula.)
Dinner with both parents and my sister for the first time since I was in high school (they separated about a month after I'd been sent off to the university) was fun, though we got there so late the restaurant staff was clearly trying to wind things up for the night and clear everyone out. I about passed out afterwards, dozing on Dad's couch before Mom drove us home, in the car on the drive, and in the love seat as soon as we got back. Mom was annoyingly trying to hustle me off to bed, not having really taken on board that I'm trying to shift my schedule to a noon bedtime and that 1 or 2am is far too early to be trying to send me to bed when all I really needed was a short nap to process the seafood and alcohol. She dumped my clean clothes from the dryer on top of me -- leaving me trying to stay awake enough to shoo the cats away when they wanted to lie on me -- and left the lights on when she went to bed instead of just shutting them off and leaving me to doze where I was, as I would have preferred. Around 4am I got up and did something or other before going properly to bed.
Sunday I did Saturday things -- cleaning the rabbit cage, going to Grandma's with Mom -- though I tried to go to Stitch n Bitch for the first time in at least a year or two. I had the time to deal with weekend things a day or two late -- and once I've gotten around to a noon-7pm sleep schedule, 2:30pm-5:30pm is going to be drastically inconvenient for me to ever try showing up for. I Was running late enough with the rabbit cage that I arrived an hour later than I'd planned, and either no one else had showed up, or else they'd already cleared out. So I got a sandwich and fruit cup to go, and came on home to eat, and was in time to go to Grandma's with Mom. (I'd contemplated how I won't be able to do that on my future schedule, either, concluded that I'd need to visit her in the week on the way home from work, and realized I'd be coming into Mesquite each weekday looking for a meal right around her lunchtime. So I called my aunt to volunteer to handle Grandma's lunch two days a week, once I've gotten settled into my schedule.) Got home, knitted in front of the TV with Mom, and didn't ever get around to doing computer stuff, because I also needed to make my grocery run and because I felt I should get into bed around 4am since I had that noon appointment to make it to. (Inconvenient timing when going to bed later is what I'm trying to do with this week -- but happily at least it was early in the week, before I've had much chance to creep my internal chronometer around.)
And then I got a phone call late Monday morning -- thankfully only about forty minutes before my alarm was set to go off (and actually somewhat well-timed, since I'd underestimated the amount of time I'd need to get vertical and dressed and breakfasted and out the door). It was my recruiter, and I refrained from answering it, listening to the voice mail instead. My recently-escaped temp job wants a little bit of follow-up, to find out why exactly I bailed on them, and I'll send the recruiter an e-mail with my response, but I was kind of focused on not sending it at an hour that would call suspicion on my claim of starting the new job already, so I missed my window earlier this evening. Maybe I'll still be up and around at 11am -- planning to hit the gym after I get off the computer, after all... (Also I was hoping to give myself a Halloween manicure, but it's a bit late for that, and tomorrow today I was wanting to get my pumpkin carved... At least I took my glasses prescription to Pearle Vision and picked out my new frames (going to be at least one week's wait, maybe two, but I paid in advance so that's taken care of), and picked up Marvin's Metacam refill, too. Need an oil change before I start the new job, but that can wait till after Halloween.)
Hopefully there'll be plenty of knitting time in and around cleaning up and decorating the portions of the living room that will be visible to trick-or-treaters, and getting my own door-opening costume lined up. (I had been wanting to fix my witch hat, because I've ignored it for an entire year and this is the one time I could come up with any kind of a "deadline" to motivate me to deal with it, but I've about talked myself into digging out my pirate gear instead. Mom got me thinking about, talking about being a pirate herself before deciding to be lazy and just go as a hippie.) The yarn I ordered in a frenzy of excitement at having deep pockets has arrived, and there are so many socks I want to cast on for...
This shade ("Strawberry Cream") is a perfect match for the top I was wearing the day it arrived in the mail with the rest of my Loopy Ewe order. I'd put this skein at the top of the queue because of that, aside from the thing where at the new job I won't need to wear business casual and the pink-and-grey outfit isn't going to be getting worn every week anymore. (Well, unless I make a point of not wearing T-shirts every day -- of hauling out sweaters some days in this occasionally-chilly weather -- which may well happen.)
Doesn't match any particular outfit, just a gorgeous colorway.
Another gorgeous colorway, though for a while there I was wearing things like a purple or pink undershirt beneath a maroon sweater, that this would go reasonably well with. Or the pink (or purple) and grey, for that matter. Might knit this up sooner rather than later.
Mountain Colors Bearfoot in "Harmony Sweetgrass" -- beautiful greens. I have quite a few pairs of green socks (and not that many green tops, actually), but it's a lovely colorway, and Bearfoot is always fun to work with.
The other skein of Bearfoot I got, "Thunderstorm." A bit darker than I was hoping from the photo, but not too bad a shade. Would go well with greys or dark shirts.
A more recent arrival -- Nerd Girl Yarns Shimma in "Stargate," which is possible looks even better in person. Yes, it has silver sparkle to it.
And this is Nerd Girl Yarns Oh Snap in "TARDIS Blue," which looked so damned good sharing a package with the "Stargate" that I was strongly tempted to find a project that used the pair of them together. Only I don't like mixing different yarn types, and these two are very different bases -- not just because of the silver sparkle, but because the "TARDIS Blue" is Blue-Faced Leicester and the "Stargate" is Merino. Also, the Oh Snap skein is very nearly long enough for a pair of kneesocks all by itself, so in a certain sense it would be a waste to use it on a dual-color project (unless it were for a shawl or some such that would use up most or all of the skein).
And then I remembered the skein of madelinetosh in Baltic that I got at the beginning of September. Very close to the aqua that's the main shade in "Stargate," and I'd tagged a number of sock patterns on my Ravelry queue as "baltic" that would work just as well for "Stargate." On browsing through other shades of madelinetosh I came across "Fathom," which is indeed TARDIS blue in person (judging by the knitters who've used it to make TARDIS-themed projects), so I might well order a skein of that to pair with the "Baltic." Because I'd been thinking about ordering a second skein to go with the "Baltic" anyway -- though admittedly because I wanted kneesocks and couldn't get that out of a single skein, and the German stockings I'd made with tosh sock in "Glazed Pecan" were so lovely and comfortable (in fact, I'm sitting here wearing them right now, and I love them).
Anyway. The upshot being that I have quite a bit of lovely new sockyarn, and since I'm no longer going to be wearing business casual four days a week for the foreseeable future, the wardrobe needs I was contemplating (for pink and for grey kneesocks) are suddenly up in the air, and I can pick whatever the hell strikes my mood for my next pair of socks.
Happily I still have a need for red socks, since I was mainly thinking about T-shirts anyway when I decided to make these. One of my goals for this week is to finish up the second one, possibly early enough to let me get the next pair of socks cast on for. Though frankly just picking out the yarn and pattern for the next pair and getting the yarn and needles and pattern ready to go would be good enough.
Very close to done with these, too -- Saturday night I had Mom try it on again and on examining the amount of calf I had yet to cover concluded that I probably need to switch to the ribbing by the 10th purple stripe up the leg. The other day I realized I had only another couple of purple stripes left in the remaining ball of yarn for this half of the sock -- but it wasn't till I took this photo that I stopped to recount the purple stripes. Looks like the yarn will run out just about when I'd need to switch to the navy blue anyway. The other knitting goal for this week is to A) finish up this first sock and B) get the toe, foot and heel done on the second. And then I can creep up the leg through November and December, a row or two at a time in my breaks at work and whenever I find myself without enough attention to spare for fiddly knitting. (Though come December, I suspect this should get moved up in priority. Frankly it might be a good idea for me to at least make a point of getting through an entire color cycle of the striping pattern each week, or something like that -- make sure I don't have too much catching up to do near Xmas itself.)
And, right. Think that's about it for this entry, and I might as well get this posted so I can go on to another task on the "to do" list...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with
comments made.
Thursday morning I showed up at work, gloomy at having to show back up and get back to the doleful routine. And then I received a call just a few minutes before I was about ready to go on break, so I went to the breakroom and returned the call. Turned out to be from someone in HR in the home office for the pathology lab I'd interviewed at, wanting to basically go over my job history and form her own impressions to go along with those of the people who'd dealt with me in person. I happily answered her questions (despite having people start wandering into the break room, to overhear what was definitely starting to sound like a telephone interview from my end of the conversation) and at the end of the call was told that -- assuming my background check, references, etc. checked out -- they'd very likely be making me a job offer.
I went back to my desk in a mood of suppressed optimism, which enabled me to keep my composure when my supervisor came by to express the hope that I'd recovered from my "illness" and inform me that by being absent I'd missed the announcement about mandatory overtime in the coming week -- temps like myself included. An extra five hours to be picked up however we cared to schedule it (up to and including during a 7am-noon window on Saturday morning). Ah ha hah. I accepted the news with outward calm, while beginning to debate with myself the risks inherent in quitting my current job before getting a firm job offer from the pathology lab. I watched my phone anxiously for the rest of the day, hoping for the return call that would remove all uncertainty, but it never came.
So I was moping at having to come into work Friday -- I mean, I'd kind of figured I might as well do so even if I'd gotten the job offer on Thursday, just to finish out the week and partially compensate for the way I was bound and determined to bail on the mandatory overtime, notice period be damned. (Especially since I was only to have a week before starting training at the new job -- I'd been told during the call Thursday morning that November 5th would be the starting date.) But I couldn't help feeling it would have been awesome if I'd gotten the call Thursday afternoon in time to give the news to my supervisor and maybe be able to not even have to show up Friday. (Oh, and just to add to my turmoil, the supervisor was out on Friday. Again. So I wouldn't even be able to give her the news in person, let alone get my final time card ironed out before leaving for the last time.) And I was getting really antsy at the prospect of not getting a call that day, either, and having to choose between showing up at work again Monday -- or else breaking off the temp assignment on the basis of an implied job offer rather than an actual one.
So those were the thoughts I was having -- how good a chance did I really have of being offered the job? (No lies on my resume, no problems with my background check, so I wasn't especially worried that they'd turn up something that would change their minds.) What would be the worst-case scenario if I quit in advance and then the job offer fell through? Still with the severance checks coming in, I'd be fine until mid-December before having to dip into savings, and that was a decent window of time for jobhunting -- especially with no full-time job taking up my time and sapping my energy. How horrible would it be to actually put in another week at that bloody job, mandatory overtime or not? How long would it take the HR lady to get back to me with an answer?
When I got a call from a number that wasn't in my Contacts, I hightailed it to the break room to answer it -- didn't even exit the batch I was on to keep my workrate calculation from getting fucked up by a document being left open for five minutes or whatever. Turned out not to be from the pathology lab. Turned out to be from the recruiter's office that had gotten me the horrific job I was trying to escape, asking me how things were going. I couldn't bring myself to tell them, "Fine, just fine," when I was hoping and planning to be able to call back later in the day and explain that I was leaving to pursue other opportunities. So, I explained to the recruiter's office that I'd received another job offer I was going to take -- and that I was really intending it to be my last day at the current job. (Lied and claimed I was starting training today, rather than get into the whole thing about how that job made me want to just clock out for lunch one day and walk out without saying a word to anyone and never come back ever.) I also asked about the paycheck for my final timecard (which is evidently to be handled via e-mail) and brought up that my supervisor was out for the day and I had no idea who I should tell that I wasn't coming in on Monday (or ever). The person I was on the phone with relayed the news to my own recruiter and came back with the answer that my recruiter would e-mail her for me. Note that, my recruiter having been on another call, I got off the phone without ever having to speak to her in person or discuss my decision any further.
So. I had just quit my job -- cold, without advance notice -- and didn't actually have a new job to replace it yet. Definitely some butterflies in the stomach competing with the sense of freedom as I returned to my desk. (No one else at the office knew yet, barring those who had been in the break room to overhear my end of the conversation with the recruiter or Thurday's conversation with the diagnostic lab's HR, and maybe two or three of those people even had a clue who I was, so I was only marginally worried that word might reach someone in a supervisory position before I made my getaway at the end of the day.) Maybe half an hour later my phone rang again, and I bolted for the break room again -- still not bothering to exit the document I was on.
This time it was from the HR lady, and indeed she was offering me the job, which I formally accepted. I was delighted enough by the relief of escaping the current job and actually having something to leave for -- the news that they'd assessed my education and experience and qualifications and were offering me a salary comparable to what I'd been making when I lost my last job (especially with the 15% shift differential they add on to the base pay because I'll be working late night and wee hours) was just kind of the icing on the cake. Spent a good long time on the call because there was a last little formality involved -- setting up a drug test -- and it had to be done within 48 hours or the offer was rescinded -- oh, and they wanted it done in a company facility, which BTW wasn't open on Saturdays and stopped taking drug tests at 4pm. I noted that I was there till 3:30pm, the HR lady found the closest location (which was indeed fairly close), I mused about leaving a smidgen early that day to be sure of making it, she said she'd call ahead to make sure they'd hang around a little bit longer and take me even if I was running late, and then after I'd finally gotten off the phone and back to my desk (having used enough time on the call to account for my entire break) she called me back and left a voice mail repeating that she'd called ahead to the location we'd selected and I didn't have to kill myself rushing to get there by 4pm.
I would have bailed at 3:15 -- indeed, the woman next to me left at that time -- but I was trying to finish up the last batch I was on, so it was something like 4:22 when I finally got off the computer and bolted. (I'd already taken a minute to quietly gather up the few things I'd brought to my cubicle that I wasn't carrying home every night -- a box of pushpins and a calendar -- which was another clue for any of my coworkers that might have been paying any attention to what I was doing.) I dashed off to the lab, signed in, pulled up the PDF I'd been e-mailed with the order, and was told that my appointment time couldn't be honored because I didn't have an actual confirmation number and I'd have to wait my turn and they'd try to get to me. So I had time to call my eye doctor, move the appointment I'd set up from November 17th (the first available Saturday morning appointment, since I couldn't get out there during normal business hours with the old job) to today -- that is, Monday afternoon -- at 12:15. At some point between telling me to wait and calling me back, someone had figured out that I was the person the HR lady from the home office had called about and that I was being given a drug test to see if I was fit to become a coworker (though admittedly at a different location), so I had a very nice little chat with the woman who was collecting my specimen.
Got out of there a bit past 4pm in a frankly awesome mood and went out to splurge on wine and chocolate. Absolutely thrilling to A) be free of the horrible temp job, B) have an exciting new job, and C) have a full week off to do things like catch up on sleep and clear the DVR -- and also to try to adjust my sleep schedule to a noon bedtime. (Having a noonish appointment today was a headache along those lines, but thankfully it was at least really early in the week.) Tried to mow the lawn for Mom, but couldn't get the damned mower started -- seems to be a spark plug issue, and since that's a Mom problem to solve looks like I can get away till Thursday or Friday before trying again. Hit the gym, managed to shower before falling asleep, slept through the late morning and early afternoon, and didn't have enough time to deal with the rabbit cage before leaving for Dad's (though at least I managed to get my laundry done). We were waiting for Dad to get home from work and Lauren got us started watching the Munsters remake TV movie while we were waiting, so we stayed to finish that even after he arrived. (That was surprisingly good, and I wish it had been picked up. That would have been a series worth seeing -- significantly darker than the original TV series, and I wouldn't have thought Jerry O'Connell would make a good Herman Munster if I hadn't seen it. I would have agreed with casting Eddie Izzard as Grandpa, though -- especially if warned in advanced that they were going for Gary Oldman Dracula rather than Bela Lugosi Dracula.)
Dinner with both parents and my sister for the first time since I was in high school (they separated about a month after I'd been sent off to the university) was fun, though we got there so late the restaurant staff was clearly trying to wind things up for the night and clear everyone out. I about passed out afterwards, dozing on Dad's couch before Mom drove us home, in the car on the drive, and in the love seat as soon as we got back. Mom was annoyingly trying to hustle me off to bed, not having really taken on board that I'm trying to shift my schedule to a noon bedtime and that 1 or 2am is far too early to be trying to send me to bed when all I really needed was a short nap to process the seafood and alcohol. She dumped my clean clothes from the dryer on top of me -- leaving me trying to stay awake enough to shoo the cats away when they wanted to lie on me -- and left the lights on when she went to bed instead of just shutting them off and leaving me to doze where I was, as I would have preferred. Around 4am I got up and did something or other before going properly to bed.
Sunday I did Saturday things -- cleaning the rabbit cage, going to Grandma's with Mom -- though I tried to go to Stitch n Bitch for the first time in at least a year or two. I had the time to deal with weekend things a day or two late -- and once I've gotten around to a noon-7pm sleep schedule, 2:30pm-5:30pm is going to be drastically inconvenient for me to ever try showing up for. I Was running late enough with the rabbit cage that I arrived an hour later than I'd planned, and either no one else had showed up, or else they'd already cleared out. So I got a sandwich and fruit cup to go, and came on home to eat, and was in time to go to Grandma's with Mom. (I'd contemplated how I won't be able to do that on my future schedule, either, concluded that I'd need to visit her in the week on the way home from work, and realized I'd be coming into Mesquite each weekday looking for a meal right around her lunchtime. So I called my aunt to volunteer to handle Grandma's lunch two days a week, once I've gotten settled into my schedule.) Got home, knitted in front of the TV with Mom, and didn't ever get around to doing computer stuff, because I also needed to make my grocery run and because I felt I should get into bed around 4am since I had that noon appointment to make it to. (Inconvenient timing when going to bed later is what I'm trying to do with this week -- but happily at least it was early in the week, before I've had much chance to creep my internal chronometer around.)
And then I got a phone call late Monday morning -- thankfully only about forty minutes before my alarm was set to go off (and actually somewhat well-timed, since I'd underestimated the amount of time I'd need to get vertical and dressed and breakfasted and out the door). It was my recruiter, and I refrained from answering it, listening to the voice mail instead. My recently-escaped temp job wants a little bit of follow-up, to find out why exactly I bailed on them, and I'll send the recruiter an e-mail with my response, but I was kind of focused on not sending it at an hour that would call suspicion on my claim of starting the new job already, so I missed my window earlier this evening. Maybe I'll still be up and around at 11am -- planning to hit the gym after I get off the computer, after all... (Also I was hoping to give myself a Halloween manicure, but it's a bit late for that, and tomorrow today I was wanting to get my pumpkin carved... At least I took my glasses prescription to Pearle Vision and picked out my new frames (going to be at least one week's wait, maybe two, but I paid in advance so that's taken care of), and picked up Marvin's Metacam refill, too. Need an oil change before I start the new job, but that can wait till after Halloween.)
Hopefully there'll be plenty of knitting time in and around cleaning up and decorating the portions of the living room that will be visible to trick-or-treaters, and getting my own door-opening costume lined up. (I had been wanting to fix my witch hat, because I've ignored it for an entire year and this is the one time I could come up with any kind of a "deadline" to motivate me to deal with it, but I've about talked myself into digging out my pirate gear instead. Mom got me thinking about, talking about being a pirate herself before deciding to be lazy and just go as a hippie.) The yarn I ordered in a frenzy of excitement at having deep pockets has arrived, and there are so many socks I want to cast on for...
This shade ("Strawberry Cream") is a perfect match for the top I was wearing the day it arrived in the mail with the rest of my Loopy Ewe order. I'd put this skein at the top of the queue because of that, aside from the thing where at the new job I won't need to wear business casual and the pink-and-grey outfit isn't going to be getting worn every week anymore. (Well, unless I make a point of not wearing T-shirts every day -- of hauling out sweaters some days in this occasionally-chilly weather -- which may well happen.)
Doesn't match any particular outfit, just a gorgeous colorway.
Another gorgeous colorway, though for a while there I was wearing things like a purple or pink undershirt beneath a maroon sweater, that this would go reasonably well with. Or the pink (or purple) and grey, for that matter. Might knit this up sooner rather than later.
Mountain Colors Bearfoot in "Harmony Sweetgrass" -- beautiful greens. I have quite a few pairs of green socks (and not that many green tops, actually), but it's a lovely colorway, and Bearfoot is always fun to work with.
The other skein of Bearfoot I got, "Thunderstorm." A bit darker than I was hoping from the photo, but not too bad a shade. Would go well with greys or dark shirts.
A more recent arrival -- Nerd Girl Yarns Shimma in "Stargate," which is possible looks even better in person. Yes, it has silver sparkle to it.
And this is Nerd Girl Yarns Oh Snap in "TARDIS Blue," which looked so damned good sharing a package with the "Stargate" that I was strongly tempted to find a project that used the pair of them together. Only I don't like mixing different yarn types, and these two are very different bases -- not just because of the silver sparkle, but because the "TARDIS Blue" is Blue-Faced Leicester and the "Stargate" is Merino. Also, the Oh Snap skein is very nearly long enough for a pair of kneesocks all by itself, so in a certain sense it would be a waste to use it on a dual-color project (unless it were for a shawl or some such that would use up most or all of the skein).
And then I remembered the skein of madelinetosh in Baltic that I got at the beginning of September. Very close to the aqua that's the main shade in "Stargate," and I'd tagged a number of sock patterns on my Ravelry queue as "baltic" that would work just as well for "Stargate." On browsing through other shades of madelinetosh I came across "Fathom," which is indeed TARDIS blue in person (judging by the knitters who've used it to make TARDIS-themed projects), so I might well order a skein of that to pair with the "Baltic." Because I'd been thinking about ordering a second skein to go with the "Baltic" anyway -- though admittedly because I wanted kneesocks and couldn't get that out of a single skein, and the German stockings I'd made with tosh sock in "Glazed Pecan" were so lovely and comfortable (in fact, I'm sitting here wearing them right now, and I love them).
Anyway. The upshot being that I have quite a bit of lovely new sockyarn, and since I'm no longer going to be wearing business casual four days a week for the foreseeable future, the wardrobe needs I was contemplating (for pink and for grey kneesocks) are suddenly up in the air, and I can pick whatever the hell strikes my mood for my next pair of socks.
Happily I still have a need for red socks, since I was mainly thinking about T-shirts anyway when I decided to make these. One of my goals for this week is to finish up the second one, possibly early enough to let me get the next pair of socks cast on for. Though frankly just picking out the yarn and pattern for the next pair and getting the yarn and needles and pattern ready to go would be good enough.
Very close to done with these, too -- Saturday night I had Mom try it on again and on examining the amount of calf I had yet to cover concluded that I probably need to switch to the ribbing by the 10th purple stripe up the leg. The other day I realized I had only another couple of purple stripes left in the remaining ball of yarn for this half of the sock -- but it wasn't till I took this photo that I stopped to recount the purple stripes. Looks like the yarn will run out just about when I'd need to switch to the navy blue anyway. The other knitting goal for this week is to A) finish up this first sock and B) get the toe, foot and heel done on the second. And then I can creep up the leg through November and December, a row or two at a time in my breaks at work and whenever I find myself without enough attention to spare for fiddly knitting. (Though come December, I suspect this should get moved up in priority. Frankly it might be a good idea for me to at least make a point of getting through an entire color cycle of the striping pattern each week, or something like that -- make sure I don't have too much catching up to do near Xmas itself.)
And, right. Think that's about it for this entry, and I might as well get this posted so I can go on to another task on the "to do" list...
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