Meme's

So I was tagged for an 8 Random things meme, but honestly, i think that all of my randomness has been discussed in previous posts, memes, or blog challenges. So instead of the random meme, I'm choosing to do the Halloweenie Meme, also on Amanda's blog. If you want to be tagged for this, consider yourself tagged. And why not? Halloween is such fun (:{

1. Do you believe in ghosts?
Most of the time, yes.

2. Have you ever seen a ghost?
Not exactly, though I've often caught glimpses of things that could not be explained.

3. Have you ever experienced something that is best described by the word "paranormal"?
I cant think of any specific instances right now but I have had "weird feelings" where you just Know something is amiss.

4. Do you watch any ghost or haunting themed shows?
I used to watch X-Files religiously when it was on. Its still my favourite show (minus the last season). Occasionally I'll catch a ghost show on the History channel or A&E or something like that. I Love scary movies and ghost stories though. As a kid my favourite books were the Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz (I received the set a couple yrs ago as a gift wheee!), and as a teen I devoured books by Stephen King, John Saul, Dean Koontz, etc.

5. If so, do you sometimes sleep with the lights on or wake up your partner because the show scared you a whole lot and you cant sleep and you dont want to be awake alone?
Well, I think this question is awfully presumptuous. I dont have a partner. Sadly, I sleep alone. Thanks for rubbing it in. Anyway..... I dont like lights when I sleep. In fact if its not pitch black or close to it I put something over my eyes. I've def stayed up late on the internet "calming down" after a scary movie though.

6. Have you ever been to a haunted place? Did you experience anything spooky?
I've been to several "haunted houses" (the real kind, not the carnival kind), and as a teen used to go with friends to "haunted graveyards" (Resurrection Cemetery, Bachelors Grove, IL). Never experienced anything spooky.
My high school however, thats a whole diff story. I was on student council and every year we put on a Haunted High. It was usually the weekend before Halloween b/c we always had that Monday off for a teacher's institute. So every yr we would take over the South Bldg (the oldest portion of the school) on the friday night and spend the whole night setting up, leave for a 4 hour nap sat, then be back for business sat and sun night. All day sun night on to mon morning was cleanup time. Over the yrs "spooky" things happened to many people. For instance, hearing childrens voices where there was no one. Leaving an empty room after it had been tarped and going right back in it mins later and having the tarp all be ripped down (theres a big difference in the way a tarp looks when it just falls as opposed to being forcefully ripped). Also, my first yr, I asked why we only used 3/4 of the south bldg (its a square) and was told "we're not allowed to use that section" I later found out that the janitors refused to clean that section after midnight. why? that section apparently had a "mad" male spirit who liked to throw desks and chalk, rearrange furniture, and dump out flower pots. not even the janitor's dog would go in that section. During my sr yr a bunch of the seniors got to talking to the old-timer janitors and we told them about the children's voices (I had never heard them, but many had). They said they knew those voices well. the kids (a boy and a girl) liked to play in the glass staircase and in the courtyard. they were nice and completely un-like the angry male spirit. the janitors believe that they are the spirits of the kids who died in the fire of the farm house located behind the school grounds. our school acquired the land from the farmers family in the 1960's after the fire.
Everyone who has spent a good amount of time late at night at that school has had similar experiences. There were instances where I Felt odd, but I personally never heard or saw anything.
My mom's friend's son was also saved from a nasty fall down the stairs by a ghost, but thats a long story as well. We'll keep that for another day.

7. How much do you love Halloween?
SO MUCH!!!! Its my favourite holiday!!

mayday!

So, Ive never had a problem using hair dyes from the grocery store and doing it myself. It's always turned out great. I've been dying my hair every winter for over 5 years.
Today was different.
I look hideous.
I'm so embarrassed. I look like a hooker from moulin rouge
I think i may actually have to go to cvs tomorrow and buy black b/c that's the only thing i can think of that will cover this up.
):{

It was supposed to be "Egyptian Plum" or, purple black. Instead I get crazy cheap horrible trashy fire engine red with a hint of purple. around my scalp at my hairline on my forehead my hair is lighter and finer and it is some awful orange-red-pink-fake color i never knew existed. arrrghhhh.

Rhinebeck! Re-cap

Well I've been super busy with the med school apps but this weekend I took a (much needed) mental break and went to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY (Hudson River Valley area). It was soo much fun!!
Friday night Amanda came up from DC and her, Catherine's friend Danielle, and I all spent the night at Catherine's. BEFORE the crack of dawn (5:30 am to be exact) Alexis met us and we began our journey down to Rhinebeck!


Here is a picture of the fog rolling over the Berkshires right after the sun came up. It was a beautiful drive!














Yay Rhinebeck! All the buildings were 4H barns. I thought they were cute.













Of course there were animals at the Festival!
















And here are Catherine and Daniele doing what knitters love to do: fondle yarn! How could we not when the sign instructed us to?

















Here is a neat sky picture of the motel. I actually ended up over at the Super 8 with Amanda and Alexis, but originally I was at this one with Catherine, Daniele, and Ariel.











Here is the view from the Skytop Motel: Gorgeous!!














Catherine and Daniele goofing around.













Pretty!















More pretty!












Neato view from the ride home from Rhinebeck.











And of course my goodie take home!
There is a hand woven basket for my mom for Christmas (dont tell her!)
Some pretty leaves that followed me home and yarny goodness.
Clockwise:
At the top is a promo skein from Dani of Sunshine Yarns in the color Plume.
Then some gorgeous marino/tencel Sea Pearl from briar rose fibers. The other four skeins are all Acero (wool/silk/viscose) from Brooks Farm Yarns.



Here is a close-up of my favourites. The sea pearl from Briar Rose was my very first "must have" of the day. Its a variegated black, purple, green, and turquise. The other two are must haves from Brooks Farm. One is variegated green and the other is a midnight colorway (purple, black, royal and navy blue). Love!!







Last but not least some buttons and pendants. The pendants came from the gem festival that was also happeneing on the fair grounds.
















And the beautiful hand made ceramic buttons I found at the Briar Rose tent.










After the crazyness all day sat we needed a nap before we headed over to the Ravelry party. Goodtimes! Met a bunch of people- and of course only remember half the names - if that. But oh what a day!
On the way home from Rhinebeck! we stopped in Lenox, MA to check out Colorful Stitches. Lenox and Lee MA are beautiful and quaint little New England towns. I didnt buy any yarn at Colorful Stitches b/c I was just totally yarn'ed out (I know - how is that possible?).
Sigh. I'm so tired now but sooo happy!
Sorry for the lack of fantastical pictures, I was just too busy having fun!!

touch me up

Stop it right now and get that dirty thought out of your mind!

I'm talking about my tattoo here.

So, what have I been doing besides writing med school application essays? And secret knitting? Why, I went and got my tribal moth tattoo touched up.
This time it went much better than the original fill in. Andrew was excited to see me; apparently I looked so bad after the fill in he was afraid I'd never come back for the touch up. I felt like having an Alicia Silverstone moment: As If! He also asked around to see how he could make it easier on me (isnt that sweet?) and said that this time he'd have me laying down instead of sitting up. I have selective memory (otherwise I would never go back and get more pain) and so I couldn't say right away whether it was easier but he could tell it was better for me. And in the end I could tell too. He decided to do a complete second coat rather than spot touch-ups since then it would look more even (like I said - perfectionist) and I was fine with that since I'd already paid for the tattoo, all the touch-ups are free (bonus of going to an awesome studio is that the artists guarantee their work - it may cost more up front, but in the end you save). When we were done he took some pictures - I'm going to be semi-famous! Well, ok, I'll be in his book. And maybe if I'm lucky on the studio's website.

So here I am laying down and looking not so bad.

Then he made me sit up to do the finishing touches on my shoulders. And all sorts of funny faces came out.


Both Andreas and Andrew had a good laugh at my faces.

















I'm glad its over, but of course I'm already planning my next one! Too bad I'm super poor from application fees..... Ah well. It can wait. I have this one to tide me over for a while (:{

Mr. Coronavirus

So while back I won a contest on Catherine's blog and my prize was a sock monkey and a crochet fan bookmark. She let me pick out the socks for my monkey by taking a picture of all her socks and then i picked one. I ended up picking one that looked like it was blue socks with polka dots on it, but when I actually saw the monkey in person there was a pleasant surprise. The "polka dots" look like coronaviruses!! Wheee! I was super excited about that so that's what I named him.





Observe here the circle with the little peg-like things on the outside.




















There are two more.
















Here is a textbook illustration of a coronavirus and a scanning electron microscope picture of actual coronavirus particles. See the similarity!??
Pretty sweet huh









And here are the pictures of the full size Mr. Coronavirus and the little crochet fan bookmark. The book mark is very pretty! I would also like to point out that this is the first stuffed animal I have received since I was roughly 10 years old. So when I got home I excitedly showed him to my roommates. Yay fun! Thanks Catherine!!

FO: Luna Moth Shawl

ok folks, here it finally is the finished shawl!
It was a wonderful pattern and it only took me a month. Super easy too. The pattern is very intuitive after awhile so its not too difficult for first-timers. The yarn is great as well, wearing it is super nice (though it is a little slippery on bare skin).
I tried for probably 30 minutes to get a good picture of the whole thing, but its just too big! So you'll have to make do with some detail pictures instead.

Here is a picture of me at the wedding from the back.



This is the front, me and my brother's girlfriend Olivia.

















Look, its so big it spans my full size bed!




Pretty details!


I must say, for my first giant lace project it came out very nice. Though the blocking was a beast. I hate blocking. Let us just not go into that......
The rest of the yarny and patterny details are up on Ravelry (username Grateblue2 just in case). (and if you are a knitter and havent heard, join Ravelry!) (details not repeated here b/c I'm a lazy bastard)

this day

I promise to post pictures of the finished shawl soon, but for today I wanted to post this instead.


I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that today is the 6th anniversary of the attacks on the WTC in NYC and the Pentagon. Lets forget the politics of today and remember that many people perished. And pause, and be thankful that we are still alive and have the luxury to forget this horrible tragedy the other 364 days of the year.



On another sad note, Alex, the famous African grey parrot of Irene Pepperberg died last week (but it was just announced in the news today). This one parrot changed the perspective of the science of the mind over the last 30 years. Incredible. Cheers to you mate.

Also, Ebola has resurfaced again in DR Congo, so if you can, try to not travel there for awhile.

Weds Blog Challenge: Remembering

Well hello again! I've been on vacation in Illinois and Indiana, but I'm back now. I have lots of catching up to do, I know. The Luna Moth Shawl is done, and 2 other wip's are almost done. I'll post picts soon, I promise. Since I was on vaca I missed last week's blog challenge, but I thought it was a good one so I'm going to use it for this week.

The question is: What do you want to be remembered for?
Here's Amanda's answer for reference (:{

I think this is a toughie, and I agree w/ Amanda, a little morbid. But a good challenge, nonetheless.
My fear here is that I'll be remembered the way my family chooses to see me and not how I am as an adult here in Boston. Every time I go home I am painfully reminded of how they refuse to accept me as I am now, a happy, balanced, grounded adult ( I'm not just saying this b/c I think its true, I've been told this by many co-workers and my pre-med adviser who's known me for 7 yrs); instead my family chooses to see me as the way I was as a teenager, moody, quick tempered, book-smart but common sense dumb, a bad driver, in my own little dream world, etc. This is also why they refuse to call me by my birth name, Cassandra, and insist on calling me by their nick-name, Cassie. And also why it pains me so to hear people calling me Cassie, it reminds me of that person that I left behind in Orland Park 7 years ago. So my hope is that if I die, all of my Boston friends and colleagues will make sure that they remember me as the person they know me as, not as the person my family will insist I am. Please? (Also, while we are on the subject, I want to be cremated and my ashes thrown in the ocean. Or some other environmentally sustainable disposal)

Anyhow, on to the question.
Well, I would like to be remembered for being goofy, quirky, quick to laugh, a book/science nerd but also social and fun to have around. A person who sticks to her guns on the important stuff (like values), opinionated and not afraid to argue but also not afraid to grow and change positions with new information. A loyal friend. A lover of all good food, good wine, and good beer. A staunch environmentalist who deeply cares for our planet and its creatures. An artist and a knitter. A little bit of a dirty and demented mind, but not in a scary way. Willing to try just about anything once and game for adventure.
Fell free to completely quote that paragraph in my obituary (:{
I think that is about it??