Some pictures and a meme

Beth continues to prod me to blog even though I'm really much too busy spinning, and occasionally dyeing fiber. So here's a quick meme and some pictures before I get back to spinning. I can't stop! It's way too much fun! (To prove to you that I really am completely obsessed with the
spinning, I'll confess that I've barely even logged on to Ravelry lately. I know, it's crazy. But that's how much fun spinning is, I tell you.)

“The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.”

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

May of 1998. That would be towards the end of my free school-year between graduating from college and going to Russia for the first time. I lived in a studio apartment on the north side of Chicago, commuted back down to Hyde Park for the same library job I’d had during my senior year (preservation department – I prepared and processed books that were being preserved on microfilm; it was my first civilized job and the highest paying to that date, at I think $7.50 an hour, if I recall correctly). I was mostly saving money and applying for various fellowships that I wasn’t actually eligible for (because I’d graduated but not yet started grad school). Also applied to Ph.D programs that spring.

My studio apartment was partially subsidized by my parents because my dad needed a place to house a whole lot of digital video equipment he was experimenting with at the time. That summer, the two of us made his first, experimental longish video – a history of my paternal grandmother’s family. I’m still proud of how well it came out, and incredibly glad we did it then, because a lot of the people we interviewed didn’t live much longer.

That August 17, the ruble crashed and the Russian “Financial Crisis” began. I arrived in St. Petersburg on Sept 1. As I recall, there was also a major airline strike and my flight almost got cancelled indefinitely. But I arrived alright – all funding plans fell through because of the crisis – the first of many visa crises ensued – lived on kasha for a while – got a job (first teaching job ever, liked it, to my surprise!) – found out I got into grad school with funding – fell madly in love with the city of St. Petersburg. Returned to a road trip around the western US with one of my best friends from college for the whole summer before grad school. Those were good times. Funny how remote it seems from the other side of the long, dark tunnel known as Grad School.

15 years ago: May, 1993: I was VERY much looking forward to starting college. Couldn’t have been more excited/delighted/ready for it, and that feeling actually lasted right up to graduation, at which point I suddenly felt totally ready to move on. The college years were charmed.

20 years ago: May, 1988: The end of 7th grade. Heading into the nadir of my life: 8th grade. I had thick glasses, braces, and a bad perm. I absolutely despised nearly everyone I knew. School was a soul-destroying joke.

25 years ago: May, 1983: I was eight. I was already a serious Knitter and general crafter.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Well, it’s almost midnight as I write this, but today I dyed 8 oz of BFL, knitted bit, spun a bit, and watched a movie with my dad and his wife. Petted the doggie. Tomorrow I need to get my act together a bit more and take care of some email, start putting together the materials I’ve been gathering for my class in the fall, and start pounding out the lectures. Oh, and I need to pay bills and make a dent in the vast pile of mail waiting for me. Not fun.

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Chocolate
Pirate Booty
Potato chips
Fruit
Toast, with chocolate peanut butter or cinnamon & sugar

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Pay off all of mine, Hubbus’ and my parents’ various loans.


• Buy us a nice pretty house with lilac bushes somewhere in New England, plus a decent apartment in NYC


• Invest enough capital, safely, to be able to live comfortably off the interest for the rest of our lives, plus a travel fund


• Go to SOAR and Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp and Rhinebeck and Maryland S&W and every other major knitting event. Every friggin’ year, dude!


• Establish some sort of self-sustaining educational charity fund – would take quite a bit of work to find out how to do that most effectively, but I’d want to help add to the sort of funding pools that got me through a PhD.

Funnily enough, I don’t think I’d have any desire to quit my job (now that I have one) – I think I’d still want to do it just as badly. But I wouldn’t worry as much about tenure, and I would definitely take some more time off for travel and fun!

5. Places I have lived:

Holland, Michigan
Ottestad, Norway
Chicago, Illinois
St. Petersburg, Russia
New York City
Moscow, Russia
Ivanovo, Russia

6. Peeps I want to know more about:

I never do this – not so much out of any high-minded distaste for bothering people, as I really don’t think there’s much to be bothered by in a link – it’s not as if one is forced to fill out a meme if one doesn’t want to – but mainly because I find it impossible to narrow down who I want to hear from most. I love to read other people’s memes, and I’d love to hear more from any of the bloggers I know. So if you feel like a meme, consider yourself hereby tagged.


Pictures

First: I improved the tension on my built-in Lazy Kate. This works quite well for me:



This is the wool and silk hankies you saw in the last post, plied (it looks like candy - I love it):



The dyed Corriedale:



Then I dyed my BFL with kool-aid and food coloring, in two batches, one last week and one today. Here's last week's batch, from dye to the two bobbins of singles, waiting to be plied.















I have one more picture from today's second batch, which I offer with an apology for all the many flash-illuminated pictures above, also - I've had a lot of trouble getting remotely acceptable lighting conditions, which is part of why I didn't blog earlier. But now that I've actually loaded these up and looked at them on the big screen, I see that the colors are fairly accurate, even though the pictures themselves aren't pretty, so I'll just let it go at that. Because I have more spinning to do!