The state budget has been passed!! Hopefully, the hiring freeze will get lifted soon, so I can officially start...one more hurdle to go, eh??

This budget thing has been on my mind for weeks now...I haven't been able to really concentrate. Hence, the sock...
It was finished, washed and blocked. I even weaved in all the ends so well..soooo weeeelllll....till I cut the ends where I joined the yarn mid-round, and poof!! A hole appeared!! So, I'm back to where the hold started...really, would you like to receive this sock?? I think it's really soft, and not overly done. A sock you could wear. Would you wear this sock?? I totally blame the budget impasse...TOTALLY.

So, I've put the sock away for now. I tried to knit on Madeline yesterday. Outside. In the sun. In 90 degree weather. I endured one round before heading back into the AC!! So, while watching the legislators vote to pass the budget, I started the Lace Corset..here's a picture....

I'm on row 5 now, and I swear, the pattern seems easy enough, but all those damn charts! And the revisions...I have to keep up, but can you really keep up with lace when watching debates about cigarette taxes and k-12 education?? Not I. I guess if you're not from Minnesota, this is of no interest, and before I applied for this job, I wasn't interested either, but now I'm addicted!! PBS airs the debates and voting LIVE...much better than SNL to this job/money depraved gal any day....

Aside from being obsessed with state government, I feel awful about the bombings in London. Seems like every knitter in blogland had something to say, and, well...I didn't. It was just awful what happened, and maybe it's best that I didn't say anything because really, what can you say?? I'm usually speechless when things like this happen...even now...speechless...

But something I can talk about, is the incident with the boy that was killed over his iPod (the link is to the New York Times, so you'll have to subscribe, but I read the NY Times, and if you don't, well, here's your chance..)

I was just thinking how these iPod things are all over my college campus...once bought for being a Mac, and unique...now anyone w/a student account can buy one and sport their signature white ear buds, so everyone will know......they have an iPod.

Ughhh....

It's sad that this once beautiful, college-looking-unique-different coffee-shop-on-every-block, is now ridden with Starbucks, Krispe Kremes and iPods...the campus bookstore looks like a cross between Barnes and Noble and Abercrombie and Bitch. I like Starbucks. I like Barnes and Noble. But the iPod was the last straw. So now...a kid is killed over his iPod. What has the world come too??? I just don't get it...it's not right. That kid died to keep his iPod. A damn iPod. He was killed over an iPod.....I just don't understand. How did we reach this point???

Comments

[Jennifer]

I don't get all the hate and violence and senselessness either. A former student of mine was murdered outside his brother's house last summer over an old basketball dispute from a couple years before. My student was three weeks from going to college on a football scholarship. How senseless and horrible is that?

[Stacie]

Someone was actually killed for a freakin' IPod!? This world gets sicker and sicker :(

[Shelly]

I watched all the budget talks too--I work at a school--have to guage the level of disgruntledness (is that a word???) we will all be working under, right? ;-)

And the letter from the Star Trib (about job security)? I agree, WTF? Personally, my job security changes YEAR TO YEAR working for a school--and it is not based on job performance. I can bust my rump every day and be the MVP of the office only to watch it all disappear for reasons that I have no control of, other than to VOTE. How is that secure??

I-Pods and other MP3 players, along with cell phones, are the top items stolen in our school (a high school). Ultimately, I wish kids would leave this stuff at home--it is so much safer. My teenager can't even take a car ride to the grocery store without feeling like she needs music (MP3 player) for the 4-block drive...I think tolerance (or enjoyment!) of silence comes with maturity!

[Erik]

Don't go hating the iPod...

[Shelly]

I don't hate I-Pods, just the dumb stuff that happens involving I-pods, like "man/woman/kid/person with I-Pod cranked doesn't hear approaching train/car/theives/parent and is killed in a heinous/grisly accident/crime/disciplinary incident..."--that kind of thing...

[Renada]

Shelly, I think Erik was directing that at me...he knows that deep down inside, I do like iPods....

....Not iPod-directly related, but when drivers wear their ear/headphones while driving!! Ughh!! You're not supposed to do that!!

[Tammy Wright]

I think your sock is beautiful! Nice job. :)