Another Year Come and Gone

Wow, so it's 2010 already.  I can't believe it.  Another year of my life come and gone.  I must say, though, it was good while it lasted.  There were a lot of big changes in my life, but it was all for the better, I think.  Here are just some major things that happened during 2009 . . .

1. AP Comparative Government came to an end, which can be considered a good and a bad thing.  Good for our relative sanity (wait . . . were we ever sane to begin with . . .?) Unfortunately, this also brought about the end of the amazing Russia group.  We had so many inside jokes from the back of that classroom . . .
2. AP English Class--the best class ever. Period.  We had some crazy fun times in that class . . .
3. I got my first job- Dairy Queen for the win! Yep, that's right people, be jealous.
4. Prom- yeah, yeah, you can say that prom is overrated, but it was really fun.
5. Graduation- it rained the whole week before, but it was sunny and perfect graduation day.  Of course, I missed the cap-throwing because I couldn't get the thing off my head (darn bobby pins) and the tassel off fast enough, but whatever.  I made it through high school with honors and a green cord that I got to wear with my cap and gown.
6. The constant stream of grad parties- yep, I saw everyone at least once every weekend for the next couple of weeks.  Good times, good times . . .
7. Senior Week- since my friends and I were way too disorganized too cool to go to the beach or something of that nature for our senior week, we had a "staycation" of sorts where we camped out at a different person's house every night and did awesome things like a murder mystery party, mall scavenger hunt, and bowling.  Best senior week ever, I must say.
8. College!- it's been good and bad; there's been drama, tears, way too much stress to even think about . . . but it was good.  This fall, I learned that I can make it on my own.  It's such a different eperience compared to high school.  I've met a lot of awesome people, and . . . a few really weird ones.

So, those were the highlights of my 2009.  And, yes, I'm aware that I'm posting this way after new year's day, but I had to think about the things I should put in the list.  Moving on, just a few new year's resolutions that I want to push myself with this year.

1. I want to be healthier-as in eating right, exercising, etc.
2. I want to focus on my art and writing more.  I feel like the only art that I've done recently has been for a class assignment in one form or another.  I want to do it for me this year.

I don't think they're huge in the whole realm of things, but they're things that I need to work on.  I let myself waste a lot of time (mostly on facebook, unfortunately) and hopefully working on those two resolutions will cut down on that. 

I wish everyone a belated happy new year's!

Obsession

So I said in my last post that I need to start branching out and exploring more with my knitting.  Lately, I've been in the mood for knitting either a shawl or a scarf of some sort.  I've spent the last couple of days alternately scouring the web for the right pattern and obsessively crocheting afghan squares . . . plase don't ask me where the crocheting kick came from, I found a few of these squares while cleaning my room, and I've barely been able to stop.  That's them right there... chilling with my laptop...

But I digress, I've been scouring the internet for the perfect pattern, I've tried a few patterns with several different skeins of yarn, but nothing has been right.  I sat there staring at the computer screen, watching rows upon rows of patterns coming up and I decided that, well, the only way to get exactly what I want is to design it myself.  Bring in example A:

This is the beginning of my first try hanging out with Eragon here.  It probably won't last much longer.  I think I need to change my approach . . . I've decided that I want something somewhere between a shawl and a scarf--a sharf, if you will--something that's long and relatively narrow, but that has more substance than a scarf.  Something that I can pin with a shawl pin off wear like a scarf.  Or both.  I feel like I'm on my way to that ideal.  I think I need an overall pattern on it, though--either lacy or cable-y.  I'm not sure which.  We'll se how it goes.

You know, having this much free time is very conducive to creativity.  Even though I still haven't accomplished a whole lot, I've accomplished more now than I have over the course of last semester.  Maybe it has something to do with the lack of sketchbook assignments hanging over my head.  I don't know.  It just might . . .