It's Summertime!..Right?

Time for a weather-related rant! (If you want to skip by that, there is knitting at the end...)Yep. It's the good ole' summertime....every-freakin-where else except here! What are we having here? They're calling it "JUNuary." Heh. Very funny. It's been a balmy high of about 53 degrees and raining here all week. And I don't mean a light, warm summer rain either! We're talkin, get-the-hat-and-mittens-back-out cold, damp and rainy! Sigh.

Usually, once I put those flip-flops on for the first time in the summer months, my feet don't see closed shoes until they're so cold in the fall that there is threat of toe frostbite. I had started my official flip-flop season a couple of weeks ago when we had a couple of freak warm days in a row. Well, I finally had to give up and return to shoes and socks this past week or risk sloshing around in puddles with my bared feet.

The Official Seasonal Donning of The Flip-Flops (and sandals) is my small way of living in denial and pretending we have a real summer around here. Yes, sometimes I wear them with a jacket, and have even considered knitting Tabi socks to wear with them so as not to have any interruptions in my summery flow. To interrupt the official flip-flop-wearing season is a backwards move that must never be made, at the risk of encouraging the bad weather juju and summer skipping over us all together this year! The Horror!

Yes, I know I'll be complaining when we get those two weeks of 90+ degree weather in late August that calls itself our summer....but it's JUNE, dammit, and I.want.some.SUN! Not asking for much---just something at least pushing up over 60-65 would be nice about now. Again, sigh.

Okay, rant over for now. I was just sayin' is all...So let's look at some knitting, shall we? I only have one FO to show, but I have a couple of WIP's to throw in as well.

Here's a scarf I made from one of the one-skein patterns from the 2008 LYS Tour, with some modifications that made it a 1-1/2 skein pattern, a little longer and a little wider. My fluffiness does not like to be constricted by a skimpy or teeny scarf. Only makes me look more fluffy, IMO. It's sort of an elongated triangular shape, so it's pretty versatile and can be worn in several different ways: As a small wrap or scarf with the center in back...

(I know, lovely model...)...or centered in the front with the ends left hanging...

...or tied in some fashionable way that I haven't figured out yet...

Sorry for the crappy pictures. I tried and tried but could not seem to capture the color correctly, or hold the camera still, apparently. Here's a blurry picture of the yarn, but is the closest to the actual color, Dark Denim...

I'm not much for most of the novelty yarns these days, but this one has little bits of ribbons hand-tied into it (now, who can resist teh ribbonz), and it's purchase helps a village in South Africa to be self-sufficient. Besides, I really love the dark denim color and I need something to dress up my T-shirts (and flip-flops...grrrr) in the summer, cuz' you all know I roll real glamorous like that!

On the WIP front, I absolutely had to cast on for the ubiquitous and fun Noro Striped Scarf, made famous by the fabulous Jared at brooklyntweed. This is one I'll be working on for a while, as it's great to take along when knitting with other people, since I seem to be incapable of knitting and chatting at the same time without major knitting disaster. I figure it should be ready just in time for next winter.

Here's a final WIP to show ya that I'm loving working on as well, and also one that I can knit without any major screw-ups while knitting with a group...

It's a big, cushy, feather-and-fan-type wrap made out of Mountain Colors Merino Ribbon. The colors so much remind me of those found in a variety of hydrangeas that I love, so I have named it the Hydrangea Wrap. I usually don't feel the love for the ribbon yarns, but this one is soft and easy to work with, and pictures can't do justice to this colorway, which is called Lady Slipper.

Ahhhh. The cool colors of hydrangeas...and of summer. Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Bye-Bye NBRO.....and More Contest Winners!

Today is a happy, happy day for me, and perhaps a happy day for a couple of other people, too, depending on how they feel about being a winner in my recent little contest!

Before I announce two more contest winners, I must announce the big news that makes this such a happy day for me......I quit my job at the Nurse Boiler Room Operation!! I understand that some people may view the loss of my income as a bad thing and I'm not crazy about that part either. But there are just some jobs that aren't worth the paycheck at any price, and this was one of them.

I love being a nurse and helping others, and I love the feeling that I may be contributing to the greater good in the world in some small way, by hopefully being a nurturer and health educator to people at the times they may need those things, or providing any other comfort or support I can as a nurse. Yes, I'm one of those touchy, feely-type nurses who leans more toward being your Supportive Nurse-Mom rather than toward Super-Wonder-Nurse or Nurse Ratchet! (I'm sure we've all met up with one or two of those....).

With that being said, this job did not allow me me to be the type of the nurse I like to be. I enthusiastically took a job that was supposed to be about providing education and support to people with chronic health conditions over the phone. However sadly, what it turned out to be was all about the bottom line, satisfying contracts, how many calls per hour, how long on each call, what tasks were accomplished on each call, etc. And the worst of it was being connected to a timed dialer, timing every call and wrap time, and that pops up computer-dialed calls to the nurses, usually with the person on the other end already irritated because they've said "hello" three times with no response before we got the call, and already think we are a telemarketer.

What they also didn't tell us is that the people we were calling did not exactly sign up for this service, but rather were nominated by insurance coding that identified them as having one of the qualified conditions. Yes, all of the great little details you find out only after having started the job and your training....

Suffice it to say that what I would estimate to be about 80% of my call recipients were NOT happy to hear from me! Over the course of the past four months, I have been yelled at, called names, insulted, derided, chastised, interrogated and hung up on a daily basis more times than I care to count. Even worse than that were those who "cooperated" with the call with dripping sarcasm, or were outright hateful and evil. I must add that everyone was told that involvement was totally voluntary and they could opt out, which practically none of them could do without including at least three of the above bad behaviors! I've learned ugly things about people that I never wanted to know...

It got to the point that when every call popped up, I responded with my usual cheery and friendly greeting, only to hold my breath to wait for the likely onslaught that I was about to face. Imagine my surprise and relief when, very occasionally, that one person who really needed some help was happy to talk to me! Unfortunately, those lovely people. with whom I adored conversing and sharing and discussing their challenges to try to find solutions, were so few and far between, I can practically remember every sweet one of them....

Nurses are anything but quitters. I tried mightily, mastered the job as it was given with all of the restrictions within only a couple of months, and became skilled at finding ways to interject my personality and some fun into every call I could. I have never left a job after such a short time, and I was bound and determined to make this one do-able.

It was a good fight, but add to all of the above management and policy problems, inconsistencies and broken tools, and I just couldn't do it any more. I sadly gave my two-weeks notice and left all of the great nurse colleagues and friends that I had made while there, and my last day was yesterday. I am not the only one---the place is bleeding nurses out the door, despite the decent pay. However, I really had to fight the feeling of being a quitter or a failure to give my leave after such a short time. But a couple of weeks ago, after talking to my 5-million-and-first total and complete, rude, sadistic, ignorant, moronic pinhead on the phone, I logged off the dialer and wrote my notice right then and there. I had been sitting on the fence and that person was the last straw!

All I can say is how happy and relieved I feel now to have escaped, and how exhausted I am! I now realize that this job was sucking the soul out of me, and if I stayed I was destined to have to develop a skin so thick that I would become one of the types of nurses I really detest. I could not allow that to happen. I haven't been a nurse for long enough to become a sad and jaded burn-out who goes through the motions and has nothing genuine left to give!

Yes, my idealistic nurse soul is now free of it's chains (and it's paycheck), to wander the greater Puget Sound area in search of another place where it can contribute to the greater good and be of help to someone....

Meanwhile, my lazy body is going to watch from the couch while knitting, at least for a month or two! A knitting-time-starved nurse deserves a little break, doesn't she? Yippee! I'm free! Besides, who wants to job-hunt over the holidays, anyway?

On to more Contest Winners!!-----

After waiting for a response from the original winner of the "guess how many balls in the basket" part of the contest, Mary Ann, I have received no contact from her. Sorry, Mary Ann, but the win must now go to the person with the next-closest guess.....Sue S. Sue's guess was 82, just two off from the original winning guess.

The final winner is for my favorite post. This one took a while, as there were so many great comments, pattern links and fun greetings! I finally decided that the prize should go to The Knitorious Mrs. B! She wrote me a lovely and humorous little poem for my birthday, as well as providing a link to a free copy of the Ballband Dishcloth pattern (who doesn't like a ballband.....and a free pattern?). I also found out after looking at her blog, that she is a nurse, too! That didn't have anything to do with the contest win , but I do love to see a fellow knitting, blogging nurse!

Congratulations, Sue S. and Knitorious Mrs. B!! Be sure to send me your snail mail addresses, so I can send your prizes!

BTW, probably won't be sending any prizes out until the end of this month. Getting ready to go out of town next week, and tons of laundry and errands are calling......

This and that.....random catching-up

Finally, a chance to actually make a post to my blog! I think this has been the longest I have ever gone without being able to post, and I've really missed it! I never thought when I started this blog that it would be something I would "miss" if I couldn't do it, but I have.

With such a long time having passed since my last post, I guess this will have to be a post of some randomness and rambling, as one tends to do when trying to make a long story short (something I'm not very good at, but I'll give it a go...). It's just that there are so many random bits, I can't begin to even try to tie them together cohesively. So this will have to be a post of this and that and the other thing, all stuck together so I can quit storing it for later in my poor, tired brain.

Even on my best days, I can somewhat be the queen of the non-sequitor and non-sensical segway. But now that the last of my brain has been squeezed into a dried apricot by my current schedule of 14-hour days, a string of non-sequitors might make more sense to read. Oh well....if it gets confusing, you can skip down to the actual knitting content near the end...

"Graduated" from training at my new place of wage-slavery. Yes, there was an actual lame graduation with presentation of a certificate in front of the rest of the current slaves. We were told at about 4pm the day before that each class had to present something---skit, speech, song, whatever---to the attendees. Say What? My 5 fellow trainees and I looked at each other in horror. This couldn't be good. Suffice it to say that out of desperation for something to do at the last minute, I made the mistake of joking that I play the ukelele.....

Just a message to the wise: If you are ever desperate for lame ideas for a needed performance, don't ever let jokingly slip to 5 desperate nurses that you play ANY type of musical instrument, as you will then be forced to play said instrument in front of about 150 co-workers you barely know. You know, just to cement your new professional reputation amongst the colleagues. Not only that, you will then be forced to write a lame SONG to sing along with the bad ukulele playing!

Let's just say that there was an ugly scene at graduation of me playing the ukulele and all of us singing a song I wrote to the tune of "Tiny Bubbles" (a la Don Ho----sorry Don, don't roll over in your grave too hard...). There is a tradition of "Aloha Fridays" at my new place of employment, so it did fit in with a theme, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, especially since I added in lyrics about the training making us need a cocktail----mention of cocktails seems to please crowds of nurses, for some strange reason.

And oh, yes, this performance was complete with lei's and bubbles being blown by our trainer and fake cocktails with little umbrellas in pink plastic martini cups for all. Good times! But let's not forget that all of those other rat-bastard fellow trainees got away with a little bad singing, while I had to play a musical instrument (badly) in front of over 100 people!!! Let's just say I really took one for the team on this one, and those bi-atches (and I call them that in the most loving way) owe me BIG TIME!

And in a totally random change of subject......Have any of you ever entered contests on anyone's blog and won? Did they actually send you a prize? I only ask because I have won only once, which I mentioned gleefully on this blog a few months ago. And what did I receive as a prize?....Nothing, nada, zip!

Edited 7/25/07 - I am happy and relieved that the contest blogger mentioned above just sent me an email explaining the circumstances. Said she sent a package in May (which I didn't receive), and then wrote an email later, which she inadvertently saved rather than sending it. Thanks for emailing....I feel much better now that I know what happened (and that it wasn't intentional or due to a bad life turn...).

Official Knitting Content:

While the past 6 weeks have been like a never-ending freeway roadtrip with extended daily breaks of brain-draining confusion at work and occasional 4-hour peeks at my own bed, I have actually managed to knit a few rows here and there. Not much, mind you, and not enough to be particularly satisfying, but at least I got to touch some yarn and knitting needles, which made me feel a like I remember how to knit. Humor me here, I'm trying to feel better about pictures of very little progress....

Some progress on my Mermaid Wrap....

While taking the pictures, I really started to notice how the yarn is patterning in little "boxes" of color. Not sure I'm crazy about that, but I still love the colors anyway. However, I think I still would have preferred this pattern in it's original semi-solid color.

Here's a picture of very little progress on my Tofutsies socks---two cuffs. Believe me, I've tried to let these see the light of day once in a while, but working on size zero needles after 9pm has not exactly been within my abilities this past few weeks...

The MD Moss Grid Hand Towel has fared a little better. It's about 3/4 done at this point, and beginning to feel like a bit of a boring slog, but I'm hoping I can actually finish it soon!

And finally, in a last-ditch effort to feel like I could actually have an FO, I decided to make this cute little cup cozy out of Fixation yarn. We have these plastic cups at work that sweat like crazy when filled with ice water, and I saw this pattern for a Java Jacket that Chris wrote up and thought it was kinda cute! Besides, I needed something to work on that I could knit with no time available and minus a brain....

I have to say I wasn't sure about the actual usefulness of this cup cozy in the beginning, but after road-testing it for a few days, I can say it actually works really well! No drippy water cup on my desk all week! I liked it so much that I'm making another one in a different color to carry around in my purse for those drippy iced latte cups in as well! And better yet, it only took me (the world's slowest knitter) about 2 hours to knit up!

Instant satisfaction and a cute pink FO---just what I needed!

(Pay no attention to those poor, ignored, unseamed and unfelted, clogs in the background...)

What's NOT in my wallet

****Fair Warning****

This is a post solely composed of ranting that has nothing whatsoever to do with knitting...I don't usually include my personal financial dealings on my blog, but these guys really frosted my cupcake today!

You know that credit card commercial that says "What's in your wallet?" Well, funny commercials---really CRAPPY company with unbelievably horrible customer service!! I can say this with confidence, having just spent the better part of an hour on hold, and the better part of another hour arguing with a not one, but two total morons about why they should not be charging me a late fee and finance charges for a late payment that they received electronically four full days before it was due. That means they received the cash from my account on that day, and then did not credit until one day after the due date!

Yes, I'm ranting! Cr*pital One then goes on to give the most horrible, robotic and moronic customer service available, sufficient to tick me off until my head almost exploded. They were willing to reverse the service charge of $29 and the interest, but I still had to pay the minimum due of $20 on an account that had a zero balance except for what they were charging me in fees! BUT, even though they were reversing the fees, again making my balance zero, I still have to pay, and then carry a credit on my account, since the fee reversals won't post until the next statement date. Unbelievable. Is it just me, or is that just a little twisted?

The 2nd person on the phone then also went on to warn me that even though he could reverse the actual fees, he couldn't reverse the fact that my payment was late, and my account would be subject to increase in APR to 5 billion percent if it happened again.....DUDE! It was your company's mistake....not mine! And you can't reverse the fact that my payment was late due to YOUR error? Geez!

At that point, when I attempted to point out the silliness of having to make a payment on a late fee that was being reversed, and then having to carry a credit of money I shouldn't have to send to begin with due to their error, the robotic guy on the other end of the phone said he would be happy to close my account.

DONE! That was the first thing he said that made sense in the whole conversation! At this point, I was overjoyed to choose that option and relieve myself of even the tiniest outside possibility that I will EVER have to call them again to try to resolve an issue. Although, I do understand the logic that they would rather keep all of those good customers who never pay on time and never pay off their balance. (What ever happened to having good credit and paying bills on time being a good thing...?)

Oh, and that $20 that I have to pay them to hold hostage until they process the credit of fees charged me for their mistake....they will send it back in the form of a check 30 days after my account is closed. I'm so glad that I get my ransom money back in the form of a check I have to go cash.

Aaaack!

If you have an account with them, pray you never have an issue to dispute with them---you will be bald from hair-pulling by the end of the conversation. That is, if you haven't gone into a coma waiting for them to actually put a live person on the phone. If you don't have an account with them---do yourself a favor and find another credit card to use----your sanity and your bank account will thank you.

Another instance of most excellent customer service, carried to it's pathetic extreme. Now I know where they get all of those Huns for their commercials---plucked fresh from the ranks of their customer service trainees!

Bite me, Cr*pital One.