AtomicKnits

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Goodbye 2009!

I know it's a little late for a goodbye post for this year but here it is!  2009 was a pretty good year.  This was definitely a year of change.  I moved across the country from Pennsylvania to Eugene, Oregon, which was a great change.  I love Eugene so far, and I'm really happy to be living here.  I also switched jobs (again) to a new job which I also really like.  I'm happy with all of the change that 2009 brought, but I am looking forward to the steadiness of 2010.  I don't have any big plans ahead for this year, and I don't really want to make any. I want to settle in more in Eugene and enjoy my time here. I plan to stay at my job for at least a few years and see what that brings. This year I have worked a lot on trying to live in the moment and be accepting and grateful for what I have, and I think it's helped be to be a lot happier.  I feel lucky to be where I am and I really want to enjoy my time here.

As for my knitting resolutions and other goals for this year...yeah, they kind of went out the window, and that's ok. I may not make any resolutions for this year and just see what happens with just doing things and making things as I please. I'm still going back and forth about that.  I'm sure I'll be geared up to make more goals for 2011!

This year I knit 28 things (counting weaving).  I didn't really push myself that far with my projects, but my spinning did get considerably better and more consistent, and I learned to weave on a loom, which is a really cool skill to have.

Here's to 2010!

The Big Move - Preface: You're doing what now, and going where?

It's decided.  Justin and I are moving OUT of West Chester, PA and straight to Eugene, OR.  Justin has been wanting to move back out west for some time now, and our two trips out there for the river trip, and last Thanksgiving sealed the deal for me.  I used to be really scared of moving so far away from my family, but I think I am ready, and this is definitely something I want to do.  We are lucky to live during a time when we can just get on a plane and be anywhere in the world in less than 24 hours.  I will miss my family a lot, but I'm hoping they will travel to see me as well as me going home occasionally to visit.

I'm glad I moved to West Chester to be with Justin, but it didn't take me long to realize that this is not the place for me for a variety of reasons. I'm so happy that we made this decision to move to Eugene together.  My cousin Emily and Justin's brother Arthur (Emily and Arthur are married) live there, and we are excited to be able to hang out with them! Ideally, we will be driving out of West Chester on August 22nd.  I plan to document this adventure as much as I can and share it here.

Goodbye 2008!

2008 was an awesome year!  I got to do a LOT of awesome things and see a lot of awesome places.  I won't ever forget all of the trips I've taken this year!  I made two trips to Oregon, one trip to Tennessee, and I even got to hang out at the Jersey Shore with Santina!  I saw my friend Megan get married and spent time with all of my best friends during Weekend at Beth's and Fakesgiving.  I also got to spend a lot of time with my family during holidays and breaks and my Mom even made a visit down here.

I also moved to Pennsylvania this year, and it was a good decision.  I like living in the same place as Justin and I'm looking forward to our adventures ahead!

I also did a ton of knitting this year.  I finished 34 knitting projects!  I had two extra spots in my photo mosaic and included two of my spinning projects.  I also went to my first Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival and even got a chance to meet the Yarn Harlot.

Pretty damn good, huh?!

Of course there were times when I've cried and thought everything was terrible, but everything was mostly good!  2008 WAS AWESOME.  At the end of 2007, I was really looking forward to this year, and I did make it a good one.  I'm even more excited for 2009.  I'm going to make next year even better!

11. Visit the West Coast 5 Times - Thanksgiving in Manzanita, Oregon

I just got back from an awesome Thanksgiving vacation on the Oregon Coast.  Justin's Dad rented a house on the beach in Manzanita, Oregon to surprise their mom for her birthday and the Thanksgiving holiday.  The whole family was there including Emily (my cousin) and Justin's siblings Arthur & Karen, and their parents, John & Nancy.  Emily is married to Arthur (it's not as weird as it sounds).  I HAD SUCH A GOOD TIME.  This post will be picture heavy, because I got a lot of good ones, and we did a lot of things.

The day after we arrived, we had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner cooked by Arthur & Justin.

The next day was pretty rainy and gray, so we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook, Oregon.  It was REALLY COOL.  We took the self guided tour and had lunch, and, of course, bought a fair amount of cheese.

They had an observation area where you could watch the cheese being made and packaged down the assembly line.  It was like real life Mr. Rogers.  This visit made me want to visit more factories.

The next day was my favorite day, and it was pretty perfect.  In the morning, Emily and I went down to the beach and practiced yoga.  I really liked doing yoga with Emily.  We took pictures of each other being awesome, so now we have plently of Facebook fodder.

During the middle of the day we went for a 5 mile hike at Cape Falcon.  It was pretty easy and very muddy, but really beautiful.

This is a picture of me and Emily at the "top" of Cape Falcon.

After dinner we went to the beach and enjoyed one of the prettiest sunsets ever.  I am really pleased with all of the pictures I took during this sunset!  An awesome end to an awesome day.

The next day we ventured out to Newport and stopped to see the Cape Meares Lighthouse along the way.  We ate lunch at the Rogue Brewery before visiting the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

The aquarium was really cool.  It was raining and cold, so there were hardly any people there.  We got wet, but we got prime veiwing for the seals and sea lion feeding.  They also have a sea otter exhibit and the sea otters are SO CUTE.  There was one right next to the glass who was bathing himself and man, SO CUTE.  I bought a t-shirt with a sea otter on it.

The indoor exhibits were also really cool.  They even had touch pools where you could pet little sharks, stingrays, starfish, sea urchins, and anemones.  I did all of those things!

We spent our final day in Cannon Beach seeing the Haystack (that huge rock behind us) and shopping and the souvenir shops.  We did find a few yarn shops, and I did buy some stuff!  I also found a few Christmas gifts, which was great too.

I did get some knitting done, and I will post about that in the next few days.  I had so much fun on this trip. Oregon is such an awesome place and I can't wait to go back!   You can see the rest of my pictures here!

61. Go to 20 yoga classes. - Complete!

During the past few months, I have gotten back in the habit of going to yoga regularly a few times per week.  It's been SO GREAT!  I feel like I finally understand why it really is so awesome.  The mental benefits I feel are of more value to me than the physical ones, even though they are very connected.  I am getting back in shape, too, and that is an awesome bonus.  The thought of missing is class is a really unpleasant one now, but I am so happy that I'm making my practice such a priority.  I'm so glad I made this goal, and I plan on keeping up with it!

My weekend with Tim & Beth

This past weekend I went down to the Washington DC area to visit Tim & Beth.  It was really fun!  I got to see their new place, go into DC for one day, watch the entire Spaced series, and eat some good food.

On Saturday, we took the Metro into DC and went to the Air & Space museum.  I hadn't been since I was a little kid, and it was neat to see all of the space stuff. It really looks like all it takes to get into space is tin foil and duct tape.

After the museum we went over to the capitol building to walk up the stairs and go inside and do that whole thing.  We were really disappointed, because we could only get this far.  Apparently, they have closed the capitol building to they can build the stage for the 2009 inauguration.  Do they really have to build a whole new stage for that?  They are just going to take it down right after!  Talk about an instance when they should use a scalpel or a hatchet, a money hatchet!!

I had a really good time with Tim & Beth this weekend.  I'm glad Fakesgiving is coming up soon!

45. See the 7 wonders of PA - 5 down in one shot!

My Mom and Eric came to visit me this past weekend, and one of the things they wanted to do was go into Philadelphia and see the sights.  I made a small list of things for us to do while we were there and a lot of them coincided with my goal to see the 7 wonders of Pennsylvania!

First up was the Liberty Bell.  I had seen this one before, but that was before I made this list.  Shortly after this picture was taken, someone reached out a touched the bell and got yelled at by the guard.  I felt bad for the guy since it silenced the whole crowd and there wasn't really a clear sign.

Next was Independence Hall.  This is where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was signed and all of that stuff.  We were lucky, because we were just hanging out outside of the Hall when a ranger came by and gave us free tickets for the next tour.  The tour was really cool and I'm definitely glad we got to see this!

Next, we walked over to Washington Square to check out the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The flame was cool.

Next, we drove over to the other side of the city to see Robert Indiana's famous Love sculpture.  It was a lot smaller in person than I realized!

Finally, we took a walk on the Ben Franklin Parkway and made our way to the Philadelphia Musuem of Art.  We stopped to look at the really cool Rodin exhibit on the way and then did the obligatory climb up the stairs.  These are the stairs that Rocky ran up in that famous scene.  There were a lot of people running up the stairs and posing a la Rocky, and that was fun to watch.  Since the museum is free on Sundays, we went inside and looked at one of the wings.  This place is HUGE, but it is AWESOME and I can't wait to go back and look at more!

I had a really fun time with my mom this weekend, and I was pretty sad when I said goodbye this time.  I'm glad I planned to go to Plattsburgh for a whole week in November, and I will see her and the rest of my family again soon!

I'm in the mood to knit socks

This never happens.  I am never in the mood to knit socks.  Last week I kind of dove into trying to write my own pattern, and completed the first iteration.  I will still work on the pattern, and I want to share it with you in a little while.  I don't know why, but after I was done fiddling with my first prototype, I really wanted to knit some socks.  So, I cast on these socks called Hugs 'n Kisses, the February 2008 pattern from the Tofutsies Sock Club in the corresponding yarn.  You can't really tell by the picture, but the cables make little X's and O's. Get it? Charming!

I went away last weekend to the Baltimore area to attend Megan & Adam's wedding (congrats you guys!).  One of the cool things we did was take a little trip to the Baltimore National Aquarium on Saturday before the festivities.  It was really cool!  Below are some pictures I took from the aquarium.  A Moment of Zen, if you will.

Weekend at Beth's 2008

Another Labor Day came and went and Weekend at Beth's 2008 came and went too.  Every year, my friend Beth's family invites our group of college friends to go to their country house, Casa Saffron in Blue Ridge Summit, PA.  I was really excited that I got to go this year after missing it last year for my cousin Emily's wedding.  I loved seeing all of my friends again as well as Beth's family and meeting some new people too.  There were many beers drank...

...there were many games played (Balloon Cup pictured above), and there were many priceless arguments.  I am hoping that this tradition lives on for more years to come.  I didn't take very many pictures this weekend (probably for the best), but I put all of them here.