Look what I did!

This week is kind of sucking, but the weekend was fantastic. First, on Friday we watched Once. Jen had recommended it a couple times and it sounded like our kind of movie. It certainly was. The music was beautiful and I've been listening to it nonstop this week.

On Saturday, I had the excellent fortune to meet up with two awesome, friendly, talented flickrfriends. We had a full day Saturday and half day Sunday--highlights included exploring the Met, knitting away the afternoon in an Irish pub, and jumping like maniacs in Central Park.

I was initially a bit worried and insecure--that they'd pity-invited me, that they'd out photograph me with their gorgeous DSLRs, that they wouldn't like me, etc etc. But they appeared to enjoy my company as much as I enjoyed theirs, which was a little surprising but relieving. :)

So yeah, Minty taught me to knit this weekend! Technically, in eighth grade yearbook the advisor taught some of us to either crochet or knit, and we played with that for a couple weeks, and then a couple years ago I received several learn-to-knit kits and tried to learn from the books. I gave up pretty soon though, so I was eager to learn again for real, from an actual person.

I've been feeling like I'm lacking lately, namely hobbies and creativity. That may sound silly, since I'm so obsessive with the camera, but really, I just dink around with my pretendly-fancy camera. I haven't had any great ideas lately, I haven't made much of an effort to find good ideas, I've felt dwarfed by the ridiculous talent on flickr. I have so much free time and I do nothing with it.

So, several things: one, I have promised myself to take a photography class. I think I'm going to register for one at my local CUNY college because it's the only one I've found under $300. It starts in mid-February, and I hope to learn some more about the basics of photography and get some professional feedback.

Two, the knitting thing! Saturday, we stopped at Purl, a knitting store in SoHo, where I bought three skeins of charcoal yarn, with the aim of making them into a scarf that will go with my red coat. Then at Fiddlesticks, Minty patiently taught me to cast on and begin knitting (just the knit stitch though, one thing at a time!) and Maggie encouraged me when I felt clumsy and silly.

It's been a couple days now, and I'm definitely getting better. It's going smoother and faster, and the scarf is now officially oblong! I'm finding it very soothing and hypnotic to just sit and knit. Last night I sat on my bed and half-watched some old tv while knitting, and today during one of my preps I knitted. My rows are uneven because I don't know yet how to regulate the pressure and tightness of the stitches, but I love fingering the texture of the knitted part. I made something! With my own hands!

I hope to have a finished scarf by oh, December, if I'm lucky. :)

Naturally, the blog should be another creative challenge/outlet, but like I said, I've been feeling so uninspired and rather untalented. This past year I realized how juvenile and unpolished this blog is. I'm sure I could work on that....but I've been doing this silly thing for, hm, seven years now? Not much hope, I think. Bleh.

Oh wait, I was thinking about something else....oh yeah, exercise! For at least the last six months I've been trying to get myself back on a regular routine with that. The first two weeks of 2008, I'm proud to say, I've worked out a lot! Three times last week plus all the walking and jumping over the weekend. Monday night I had a great bodyflow workout. I wanted to do some more strenuous work, but my Stupid Toe is re-rearing its Stupid head. (The Stupid Knee is doing pretty well, though!) After a doctor visit this afternoon I should be better. I really do like feeling active and in shape and muscular. In December, I'd thought about joining a gym for cheap after the new year, but I have tapes and DVDs and a fitness channel; I can't reconcile spending money on something I can do for free. So we'll see how it goes. Wish me and my squeaky bones luck and fitness!