Adventure 51 - Navigating the Interwebs

Yes, I know how to navigate the Internet. I meant in terms of the dating scene.

As mentioned in the post eons ago, I made my way onto OkCupid and met some people. The first guy, who had originally intended to date me, decided he didn't have the time he felt he needed to dedicate to me, and the friends with benefits thing got old, so that's out. The other guy I've become good friends with, but I attempted to make a move on him and made a complete ass out of myself, so that's on the back burner if anything amounts from it at all. My ex even tried to be nice and say that I'll find the right person eventually.

In the meantime, I had changed my settings on OKC to look for penpals because I like talking to people, and I have two friends in particular that I talk to on a far too regular basis; one is in Australia, the other in New Zealand. I've stayed up far too late and have almost been late to far too many classes, but the two of them are just fantastic. And it turns out they both have an interest in me.

Long story short, I did find the right person. Two of them, nonetheless. They're just on the other fucking side of the planet.

-__-

Adventure 50 - Coming Back

I totally fell off the bandwagon with posting this summer. I shouldn't blame two jobs, but... yeah, I'm going to blame two jobs. Not only did that take up most of my time for posting, it also prevented me from doing much worth posting.

Now that I'm at school and classes have started, I still probably won't have time -_-

It was nice to see everyone again, though, even though everyone was all "Oh my god your hair grew back!" Because, you know, no one else's hair grows.

Plus one of my friends made cupcakes for my birthday extended, and because the three of us can't eat 24 cupcakes reasonably, we delivered them around the building and made a lot of people happy. I think the people in the building are more friendly this year. Then again, that could've been the cupcakes. The freshmen also have better taste in music, because I've found two Dropkick Murphys fans in my building, including one who went to the same concert I went to in March.

I also ended up meeting up with two guys I met on OKCupid. My ex was sick of me pissing and moaning about never being able to find anyone, so he had me make a profile, and I've talked to some cool people. I got together with one (who I might end up dating, I'm not sure yet) on Monday, and one yesterday. Both meetings were... interesting, but not necessarily in the "oh god oh god we're all going to die" way. Just one included a few bottles of San Pellegrino exploding, and the other... well, I plead the Fifth on that one.

I'll try to get back on posting regularly, but no guarantees.

Adventure 49 - Catching Up

I probably should; after all, I haven't posted in over a month.

In that month, I started two jobs, so I've been doing computer work by day and trying not to get nacho cheese all over myself by night. Neither are particularly pretty (and working the occasional double sucks), but I need to pay for college somehow.

I've also been in two different hospitals far more times than I would really like to. My dad's been battling some major health problems and I've been visiting as much as I can (every day when he was in the local one, weekly now that he's in the state hospital and I have to work).

And I'm sorta kinda taken :3

Adventure 48 - Science

It's a verb. And it's pretty awesome. But people don't know a lot about it. Too many people have been plagued with the mindset that science is boring or unreachable, most likely because they have had science teachers that don't teach it properly to foster the proper fascination. There's a big disconnect between all the cool things going on in science and the people who desperately need to know about it. Because, let's face it, celebrity news isn't important.

This is why I want to go into science journalism, to bridge that gap between the scientists and the public. HuffPost Science has a pretty good start, and I want to continue that.

And here's another hellaciously long picture, but I really like it. For whatever reason, clicking actually makes it smaller, so here's the original if you can't read this copy.

Adventure 47 - Coming to Terms

It's been almost 3 months since I was ... let's say, "let go," because that sounds a lot nicer than "dumped" ... and I've maintained some contact with my ex during that time. Nothing major, because whenever I tried to ask questions to determine where I went wrong, I would get yelled at. Baby steps.

My first full weekend back, I had bought a card for his sister, who graduated from college, so I went over the house to drop it off. I wasn't expecting to stay, just long enough to say hi. Instead, I stayed for an hour and a half BSing with him and his parents, like nothing had ever happened. It was certainly nice, but it was bizarre. (I even got a hug. It was the world's most awkward hug, but dammit, a hug is a hug.)

Today, as a proper science person, he had his telescope out at a local beach to try and catch some of the Venus transit (sadly, it was too cloudy to see the sun). He posted a general "anyone interested is welcome to join" on Facebook, so I asked and he said sure, reminding me that the other one would be there too. This was expected, though I knew she was only there because of him and not the science, but I was a good ex and decided to face the facts once and for all.

Baaaaad idea. Even though it has been almost three months, it's still awkward to see your ex and hang out and not be able to do BF/GF things. It's even more awkward when you're there with him and his other (and now only) girlfriend. Man, third wheeling sucks. And it's super awkward when the other one approaches you, tells you your mutual friend told her that you don't like her (which should've been obvious considering what happened) and that despite that, she wants to be friends again.

I consider myself to be a (mostly) nice person. I forgave my ex for what he did. I'm still friends with him. And I haven't socked his current for more or less making him can me. So it was really difficult to try to explain why I didn't like her without offending her. The reason why I haven't lashed out like I've kinda been wanting to is because I don't want to lose what little bit I have of connection with him, plus I'd like to stay friends with our mutual friend as well.

However, I don't think I'm ready just yet to give her a second chance. Over the course of our acquaintanceship, I've found her varying levels of obnoxious and have dealt with it accordingly. Our friendship was tanking before the polyamory bullshit started (though it was partly because she was flirting with my ex). In addition, a pretty significant part of why I don't like her is because she always gets her way, and pretending like nothing ever happened would be feeding that.

So basically I'm stuck between looking like an asshole by holding my own and contributing to her wants by being nice.

I want to go back to school...

Adventure 46 - Keeping Busy

Complications with the application and government clearance and all sorts of fun things have prevented me from starting my internship just yet, so I've been trying to find ways to keep myself entertained. Which is how I wound up knitting for four and a half hours when we lost power Saturday afternoon.

My stepdad's mom had taught me how to knit a few years ago, and I had a potholder-sized scarf knitted before I forgot how to finish it from lack of practice. Luckily, one of my college friends picked up knitting because of a girl she saw in her super-boring honors class who was also knitting. She retaught me how to knit, directed me to a few sites that helped her start, and I pretty much taught myself the rest.

I'm not exactly a classy knitter like she is. She started with the fancy, local-grown yarn and cute little wooden needles she bought at a store back at school. I started with the Walmart special yarn and ginormous needles. My splurge was a ball of Red Heart Soft yarn that was *le gasp!* two bucks more, or something stupid like that.

At any rate, I finished a scarf today. It's almost the length of my arm span, so I'm guessing just shy of 5 feet. I did a 3 knit, 3 purl pattern on 30 stitches, and I used red and black yarn (i.e. two strands), so it's a pretty thick and toasty scarf. Not something I wanted to be trying on in today's 75-degree weather, but it'll serve me well back at school (if it bothers to snow again...).

I had to hang it on my doorknob to get a good length picture.

Up-close shot of the stitching...

...and the stitching stretched out to show the ribbing.

So yeah, I could probably be doing better things with my time before I lose it to a full-time job (I reeeeeally need the money), but it's fun in the mean-time.

Next project: a modified fishtail. I say "modified" because this is the original pattern, and I didn't think I was going to have enough yarn in this batch to make 20 stitches across, so I did it with 15 instead. Pictures of that will come when I'm done (so whenever I run out of this yarn).

Adventure 45 - Back Home

I've been home for almost a week and I'm still not completely unpacked just yet. The important stuff is.

I still have a bit before I start my internship (and before you get excited, it has nothing to do with journalism, but I'm getting paid 12 bucks an hour full-time to be the office bitch and I really need the money), but in the mean time, I am extremely bored. I spent a good portion of the other night looking up knitting patterns. I made shortbread flowers for a friend who is in a show I'm seeing tomorrow night. I'm making dinner tonight. I might be going to the high school later for the softball senior night, and I went to their game on Monday (they won, which was the first time they had beaten that team in 7 years, and I got hugs from everyone, so it was a win-win).

I know I'll be kicking myself later for saying this, but I'm so bored!