I've been tagged!

Memeefly tagged me. Oooh, oooh, now I can play too! I'm it, I'm it! Okay, let's see, the rule is that I have to come up with 6 weird things about myself. Yeah. Um, only 6 huh? I think the much more difficult list to come up with would be to find 6 normal things about me. Ready for the crazy? And awwaaay we go!

1) I have this in my living room:


A friend of the (not tobacco) smoking type was sitting on my couch one evening. I turned my timers on to show him something and his eyes bulged and he was like "you have lights!" Yes, yes I do. And before any of you start calling the authorities (or suddenly deciding that I would make a really good best friend), those are only 40 watt flourescents, and I heard around the way (cough) that much more intensive light is needed for, um, some other plants. Like Vanda orchids, yeah, like them.

I'm a member of the Northern Illinois Gesneriad Society. A Streptocarpus 'Bethan' that I showed one best in class and special honors. When I go to the meetings, often I am the youngest by 25 or so years. Yep. Here's a closeup:


2) I also have this in my living room:


This is Enif the Bunny. Bunnies are the world's cutest animals, and I don't care what anyone says. I'm not saying they're the absolute best pets, but they are definitely the cutest. You think cute and sweet and what do you think? Balloons, rainbows, and bunnies. I had another but Toki passed away toward the end of last year. Whyyyy!

3) I also have these in my living room:


Yeah. I can't really think of any justification for this, so I'm going to just leave it.

4) I skipped 3 grades, 10th-12th. Early Entrance Program, at Cal State LA. The truly amazing thing about this is, I'm not all that smart. Test taking is a skill that can be learned, and it will get you all the way through college! Now grad school, that's another matter.

5) I have this thing about holes. Holes with stuff in them. Like goop stuff and creamy stuff. I know what you all are thinking. And you know, I think you might be right. All I know is, seeing a honeycomb with wax in parts of it, creeps me out. The idea of pores filled with dirt and goop, ahhhh! I got a forwarded email once, you know, the ones that tell you of the terrible things that will happen to you in foreign places (I'll give you the link, but I'm warning you, it's creepy), and I lost it. That image was in my head for weeks. And now it's back. Thanks again for bringing that image back, Memeefly, thanks a whole lot.

6) I speak, to a certain degree, some Korean. Do you see that pic of me in the upper right corner? Do I look Korean to you? Hmm, as a matter of fact, that pic was taken in Korea. Now, I want all of you out there in blogland to raise your little hands and count on your little fingers how many black girls you know who speak Korean. Go ahead, I'll let you count me as the first. Here we go, 한명, 두명, yeah right, like you even got to two.

Not wanting to forget the Korean I worked so hard to learn, I decided to sit in on the weekly Korean language table at my university this quarter. It's for students of Korean to practice their Korean conversation. Who was in that group last week? 3 Korean American guys whose speaking is fluent (even if they use 틀리다 instead of 다르다. why does that drive me crazy?), 2 1/2 white 1/2 Korean youngins, the Korean teacher, and me. It's weird people, it's real weird. Combine this with my small Zulu knowledge, and you get double weird.

Okay, so there we go. I wondered who I would tag if I ever got tagged. I think everyone on every blog I read has already been tagged. Over the course of the next few days, I'll find some untagged people. In the meantime, I'm tagging you, Angel.

Christmas break knitting

I visited family for 3 weeks in southern CA where I couldn't take and download digital pictures. So this is what I made while I was gone. I made a hat out of Lopi. I like this hat, and the pattern is my own, but simple enough. I actually wrote down the pattern, but left it on my mother's computer, so I'll get her to forward it to me.


Also made some socks in Cascade Fixation. These socks knit up really fast, but I hate this color. I couldn't tell from the ball that it would be like 75% lime green. It's just gross. The crazy thing is, this was the most subtle color combination I could get in this yarn in the store I bought it in, an overpriced place in on Hawthorne in southern CA. They don't have price tags on any of the yarn or the bins, you have to look it up in a master list each time you're interested in some yarn. I hate that! But figuring I knew about how much Cascade Fixation costed because I had priced it at so many other stores, I didn't check the list. I was shocked to find they charged $7.25/ball, even for the solids! Won't be at that store again. Plus, I have ladders, which makes this the first pair of socks I've made with ladders. I'm sure it's because I heard not to knit this yarn too tightly or you would take all the stretch out of it. But I guess I forgot to at least knit the first and last stitches on each needle tightly, and I got ladders.


And is it just me, or do handknit socks make your feet and ankles look fatter? I think they do. Combine my fattened ankles with the blinding hideousness of that color, and this pair kinda left me cold. Good thing is I only needed 44 stitches on size 2s.

Finally, I made a booga bag with 3 skeins of Patons Soy Wool Stripes. Everyone warned me that it shrank fast, so I was on the lookout. I took it out in about 3 minutes and it wasn't as felted as I wanted, put it in for another 3 minutes and it was tiny. What can I fit in here? And once again, I'm not in love with my own color choice. I wish I had gone for the Natural Navy. This one is in Natural Earth, I think.





Anyway, I'm glad to be back home. Going to my parents house for so long always leaves me feeling 10 years old. And I have to borrow their cars since it's L.A. area and you can't do anything without a car. "Mommy, can I borrow the keys to your car?" I had a drink in front of my mother and stepfather for the first time, and I had to have a one hour discussion on alcohol. People, in case you don't know, I'm 28 years old. Good to be back in my own space.