Application Total: Seven. Mom doesn't think I'm getting them fast enough, so she's taking me out today to find more places to apply. Not how I want to spend my night. I mean, if she wants me to get more applications, I'll get some more (although I have no idea how many she wants me to get until it's enough), but Christ, I don't want her to come with me. Please, just let me do it on my own. If she's thinks I'm digging my own grave by not applying to every store in Columbus, then dammit, let me dig my own grave and learn the lesson myself. The last thing I want to do right now is patrol stores looking for a job with my mom in tow. Someone help me, please.
On the upside, I totally ruled in Monopoly last night. That's right--Jon, Rachel, Geimer, Junior, Kalan and I got through an entire game of Monopoly. And I owned. Everyone. Bwahaha! Man, I haven't played that game in over a decade. It's a lot more fun than I remember; maybe that's because I won. But yeah, last night was fun. We went over to Geimer's and spent forever trying to figure out what to do until we settled on getting pizza and playing Monopoly. I don't know how long we played it, but I know it was a looong time. I knew I would miss the season finale of House, so I called home and asked Kristen if she could record it for me. She did exactly what I expected--she forgot. She managed to get the last half of it, but what's the point of watching the last half when you haven't seen the first? I just read the recaplet for it on Television Without Pity and man, am I bummed I missed it. Sounds messed up. I'll probably watch what got recorded tonight.
I haven't been knitting much over the past few days. I'm almost done with the back of that plaid sweater, and the tube top is completely knitted and blocked. The problem with the tube top is that it is really big somehow. I'm not sure how it happened; I checked my gauge with a swatch, did all the calculations for the measurements, and it's still huge. Hopefully when I sew the elastic in the top it won't look too bad. The price of knitting--running the risk of wasting all those hours by a yarn freakout or miscalculation.
Grandmother sent me some money today, which was incredibly sweet of her. I sent her a thank-you e-mail as soon as I got it. I'll probably deposit it tomorrow; as soon as I get Kacie's measurements, I can more than likely order that yarn for her sweater soon. I need to mail Lauren hers as well.
Speaking of Lauren and mail, when she left for Athens on Sunday, she ended up taking both her phone and mine by accident. She mailed it off to me on Monday, and I got it back today. Now people can actually reach me again. Lauren got a job up there already, so I'm incredibly happy for her. Now she can actually stay in Athens all summer! I tell you, being in Athens for the summer is sounding more and more appealing. If only I could kidnap Kalan and take him with me!
So, I've submitted a few applications for a summer job. Now all I can really do is look around for other jobs just in case and wait to see if anyone wants me. I'm really hoping that A.C. Moore will call me back because I want to work at a craft store; I know a lot about their merchandise and I think I would be a good help. Hopefully I'll get a job soon and I'll be able to start saving up some money.
Life in the house has been like it's always been. There has been some Mom-and-Kristen drama, and I'm not surprised in the least. They've been clashing a lot, and it can get pretty intense. I hope Kristen will learn someday to work with Mom and let her know what she's doing and stop drinking until she at least gets to college and blah blah. Their tiffs have been stressing me out, and I try to not be around when they happen, but the last one happened when I was trapped in the car, so I couldn't get away. I hate drama so much. Cooperation and communication are amazing things.
Speaking of drama: the Getting Lauren to Athens fiasco is over as far as I know. Mom's letting Lauren go up to Athens to look for a job, and if she can get one, then I believe Mom will let her stay there. Yay for Lauren! I hope Mom doesn't change her mind. I tell you, this whole thing was so much more trouble than it should have been. Breaking away from the nest is pretty damn hard around here. Mom's been breathing down my neck about my joblessness (still), but I've got the applications out there, so it's just a matter of time.
I went walking around our neighborhood the other day, and I must say it's very cute. A lot smaller than I expected, but it's very peaceful. It's populated mostly (if not completely) by cute little one-story houses with fairly large, well-groomed lawns. People here are serious about their lawn upkeep. There are no huge sloping hills in the neighborhood, just gently rolling, almost completely flat roads. Perfect for recreational bikeriding. Man, I miss my bike. If I make enough money over the summer, I was thinking about buying one.
During my walk, I took the opportunity to listen to Camille's most recent album "Le Fil." Very good album. I like how each song is connected by a string (hence the name of the album) of a single tone throughout the entire CD; it's always there in the background. I love how it's simple and complex at the same time. Camille uses very little actual instruments and relies mostly on her own voice for harmonies, imitating instruments herself, and even some beatboxing. It's definitely very different, but I love it. Some of my favorite songs include "Ta Douleur" (whose video depicts Camille getting attacked by a long thread of yarn knitting a tube dress around her), "Assise" (love the harmonization), "Pale Septembre," and "Au Port" (which I saw her perform on Taratata). Camille is an extremely fascinating artist.
I cast on a new sweater for myself the other day. It's the Plaid Turtleneck from the men's issue of Knit 1. I changed the main color of the sweater because I thought Chestnut Heather was a little too red; I replaced it with brown. I got most of the yarn on sale, so the entire sweater cost me about 12 bucks. This'll (hopefully) be my last yarn project purchase for the summer, save the sweater I'm making Kacie for the Sweater Swap. That yarn's gonna cost me over $80, so needless to say I won't be buying much else after that. It should be a damn good sweater when I'm done with it.
Je t'ai croisée
Un samedi soir
Et j'ai jeté sur ta silhouette
Une poignée d'épices colorées
Mon but était clair
T'envoûter
Tout en restant
Libre-moi et libre-toi
Car le roi de l'amour
N'a plus besoin d'esclaves
Adieu, adieu la nuit
Adieu tristesse, adieu les larmes
Je ne suis plus celui
Que tu as connu, plus le même
Ô bel enfant
Qui a tant pleuré
Adieu tout est fini
Adieu les larmes, adieu la nuit
Et le soleil de minuit a brillé pour nous
Jusqu'à l'arrivée du jour
Alors nous nous sommes séparés
Comme déjà saturés des délices du futur
Et j'ai marché seul
Guidé par ton ombre
J'ai traversé la ville déserte
Encore étincelante
Du voyage des rêveurs
Je t'ai croisé un samedi soir
Et déjà j'aimais l'odeur de ton rire
Et le soleil de minuit a brillé pour nous
Jusqu'à l'arrivée du jour
