Oh dear lord.

I am going to write eight blogs a day if I have to in order to shove that catastrophic picture offa page one. Yeek.

Picture meme from Emily H. M.

Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don’t fix your hair...just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture.


Post-gym, late-night yikesness.

People LIKE my cookies. And my knitting.

I was having lunch today with Libby, and it came up that I knit. (Actually, it came up that I fell asleep Thursday night whilst knitting and watching Futurama. And that I said something about it at work Friday and got funny looks from a couple of my pharmacists. And then I said, "I'm never getting married, am I?")

"So what's up with the knitting?" Libby said.

"Well, I knit, you know," I told her. "Because I like to."

My mother taught me to knit a looong time ago, then re-taught me when I was about 19 or 20, and there's pretty much been no stopping me since. It makes me feel zenny. Creating fabric from string. I also like it because I don't think a lot of women my age do it, though a lady who runs a yarn shop near me told me not too long ago "it's making a comeback!" and I have no reason to doubt her. She's the expert! I imagine she can conjure up items with ease out of her brain that I would struggle to run up from a pattern.

I get such interesting reactions when I knit (or even mention knitting) in public, and even in private. The neutral "what's up the knitting?" of Libby, the "awwwww, you're knitting!" of my bestie and former roommate, Amanda, and the uninterpretable "I can't believe you made that" of some guy I used to work with.

So yeah. I knit. It rules. You can do it while you watch Futurama, or the news, or "Hot Fuzz," or while you listen to music, or books on tape, or while engaging in a stimulating conversation.

My work-cookies went over well at work. I made a lot of them, but of course, not enough. It doesn't matter how polite and dainty and restrained people are in their day to day...free food makes everyone hungrier. Next time, I make double. No question. Good to know those oatmeal craisin jobbers are still popular.

And ALWAYS, ALWAYS let the butter warm up to room temperature. If you don't, you only do a disservice to yourself.

Christine's secret naked journal--an addendum. And cookies.

I've decided this blog need nudity, so here comes some: I just got home from the gym, so I am about to go take a shower, for which I plan to not wear clothes. It's a brand new concept. WOO! NUDITY!

Also, on the topic of sorting my life out (like Shaun): if Peter Serafinowicz was in my non-blog journal, there would probably be more sex, or at the very least nudity, since Pete, even though he is a zombie, is naked for the better part of the movie. But I still don't think I want to have anything to do with zombies. In fact, a long time ago, I wrote a blog about how uncool zombies are, particularly the naked ones! In fact, let's just forget I brought up the zed-word at all. In fact, let's move on to a new topic.

I'm going back to work tomorrow, and I am PREPARED, with my lunch ready to go, and TWO KINDS OF COOKIES for my new/old coworkers. They never even knew I was a hella baker. Well, soon they will. They get chocolate chip and oatmeal craisin cookies. I get yogurt, an apple, Kashi TLC crackers and Shredded Wheat with strawberries. Who's clearly getting the better deal here? That's right: the people getting the free cookies. They're good. I checked.

In closing, fall has begun to fall, but I am not closing my bedroom window. It is just not that cold, and the equinox has not yet arrived. Even that might not be enough to convince me. Do your worst, nature! I have copious blankies!

Christine's secret public journal.

Aside from my blog, I've been writing in a journal again. When I do that, I'm not trying to be clever or anything, because I don't feel like I have to impress anyone. Because really, who's going to see it? Me. And, like, I guess if someone stole it from me, they would see it, at which point they would quickly be sorry, because it would be DULL. There wouldn't be a lot of naked parts or anything (probably) and there wouldn't be any opium dens or famous people or meetings of fight club or even bar brawls. There would be stuff like: knitting, and me going to the gym and talking to my mom, or Al, or Amanda. Or me going and having lunch with W.L., or talking on Twitter with Emily, or going to Barnes and Noble, or analyzing humor with Bruce or eating hummus sandwiches with sprouts on whole wheat pita bread, and talking about how Al Gore is so smart and trying to sort my life out like Shaun, only without zombies or Peter Serafinowicz. (Too bad. Although he was eventually a zombie as well. Also too bad.)

I really like my new journal, which I write in with pencil, an old habit of mine that I've resurrected. I think it'll be pretty much perfect once I put one of my Apple logo stickers in it somewhere. A couple of my entries have been the lyrics of songs, which got me to thinking. I wish there was a way to have a journal--the same compact, portable form--where you could not only write stuff, but add tunes and pics as you saw fit, and have it all wrapped up in a neat little package.

You know what? They have that. It's called a laptop, smart kid. You're sitting in it. Duh.

Sometimes I feel good and am relatively sure I'm with it and will be okay. Other times, however...life grabs me by the hair, kicks me and makes me feel like Kelso from "That 70s Show."

I think it's perfectly clear we've got the wrong Palin...

I was reading Avi's brilliant "Pirates of Penzance" blog the other day, enjoying the "modern major general" parody in the extreme, laughing like a psychotic robot, etc. So I went back to reread it today--just now in fact--and as I was skimming the intro, I got to the word "Palin" and I immediately thought "Michael."

And THEN I thought, "WOW! This song WOULD be great if Michael Palin sang it! With a chorus of...well, anyone, really! I LOVE Michael Palin! I LOVE Monty Python! I really need to watch "Life of Brian" again! I should buy that "Holy Grail" DVD with the two extra minutes of material or whatever! I wonder if I can get the "Holy Grail" video game for Mac! I...oh wait a minute."

And then it dawned on me.

Wrong Palin.

There's another Palin.

Ooooog.

Oh, Michael Palin.

Save me.

And my banjo.

And Fry.

And yourself, I guess.

Just so we are all up to speed here

I moved again. This time, back to Syracuse, which means I will be going back to work for Kinney. And yes, it also means that school has been put on hold. For those interested, I am still enrolled at RW, I just got a deferment until January. And as far as school goes right now, that's about all I know.

Other things I know include the following:

I am not entirely happy, but I am not abysmally unhappy either.

I love my friends, as Jodi would say, like WOAH.

I love my family and I am incredibly grateful for them.

I am also grateful for the people in my life who can make me smile regardless of time and place. I think you guys know who you are. I've probably cried in front of you.

I know that there's a mess of stuff I don't know.

I know that there are a lot of things that strike me as REALLY REALLY REALLY important, and I know that I'm not sure which of them is for me to chase as a career or a calling.

I know that burning bridges is dumb, and I will avoid doing it. Ever. EV. AR.

Really.