As work and stress pile on (you notice the less frequent blog posts?), my dreams often turn from weird and random to angry and frustrating. I don't keep a dream log, so I don't know definitely that there is a correlation, but I suspect that there is. The more stressed I feel, the angry my dreams. Often it is a dream about school/work in which I'm frustrated with a class and yelling at them, or a dream in which I'm frustrated with my family and yelling at them. My anger dreams involve a lot of frustration and a lot of yelling. I'm surprised I don't wake up hoarse!

When the stresses lessens, my dreams go back to being weird and random. Never too scary or emotional. Sometimes pleasantly nice, but most often the type that you wake up from with a "huh, that was bizarre" type of feeling.

Last night was a rare exception. I can't remember much of the details of the dream, but it was long, very long (possibly multiple dreams that got strung together). It started at a school in the gym, involved a lot of people and some type of problem to be solved, then it moved to travelling on a school bus, but there were treacherous obstacles, team work, people lost, then there was a trek through snowy suburban/rural areas, and finally of all the people involved, one guy and I made it to my parent's house. No one was home, but this guy and I went into the back yard where it was no longer snowy, but sunny and warm. This is the only part I really remember, we were relieved that we made it to safety, but sad about the people we lost along the way. Then I picked up some big paper on a string decoration (I can see it in my mind, but have no way to describe what it looks like). Suddenly, the wind picked up and I was lifted off the ground several feet as the decoration became like a kite. The guy grabbed the end so I wouldn't blow away, but I said to him that that wouldn't happen because this wasn't just the wind, but the spirits of the people we lost telling us that they were ok. (Very weird spiritual thing there.) But the best part of the dream was that as I was floating in the air (which felt awesome) there was this intense feeling of joy and bliss.

It is rare for me to have happy dreams and happy feelings in a dream. When I woke up (and I should have just got out of bed and started the day then because I felt so happy and rejuvenated... instead I went back to sleep for an hour and woke up tired and grumpy), I felt so happy and peaceful, and then sad because I wanted the feeling of bliss and floating again (which is probably why I tried to go back to sleep).

Anyway, I don't really know what the point of sharing all that is, but I wanted to record that dream because it was so nice at the end.

just lots and lots of work work work!

This weekend I attended the EPA conference. Despite some headaches (like my talk being removed from the program!!!!), it was an overall good conference (I gave my talk despite not being official). I listened to some very interesting talks and got some good stuff for class and research. I got to see lots of old friends and hang out and catch up.

Now I've just got to get through this week and then Spring Break (aka get caught up with life and work week!).

The first two of these FOs I couldn't show you because they were birthday gifts for my mom.

Remember the snake scarf? I finished it back in December and have been saving it for a couple of months!

This, I couldn't resist making for mom. I've had the yarn for a couple of years (it is Rowan Kidsilk Haze if you don't recognize its glow). Purple is one of mom's favorite colors. While I had tried making things with this yarn before, it wasn't until I thought about making a sideways scarf with a bit of lacy detail that an idea stuck.

Now mom has these scarfs and told me that she was wearing them proudly!

Just today, I finished another knit that I've been plucking away at for a few weeks. Since finishing Thea, I had two skeins of yarn left over and I noticed that the gorgeous hat on the back cover of "Precious" required two skeins of said yarn, so there you go!

No modelling pics of the hat because I'm sick and haven't showered in two days. I like it (next time would knit it in the round to avoid the seaming) and I love how she hid the decreases in the cable rounds. On the model in the book, the hat has a nice slouchy effect. On me, it looks a bit more conehead. I'm thinking that it might need a bath to relaxing the cables a bit.

What's next to knit? I'm not sure. I've got one pair of socks that's about 70% finished, so I might try to knock that out this week while I'm on spring break.

Yay! Spring break with a cold! Yay! Spring break with literally 150 papers and exams to grade. Wee!!!!

I've single handedly ensured that it will no longer rain.

I purchased a new umbrella. I'll admit that I saw the umbrella in Oprah's magazine and fell in love. Last month Oprah had an awesomely cute pair of polka dot shoes that have been sold out since the moment the company posted them on their website (damn you Oprah!!!!). So I wasn't about to miss out on the polka dot umbrella. (I'm not sure why I'm so obsessed with polka dots, and especially rainbow polka dots recently.)**

It is a fairly large umbrella (I've only ever had small ones) and it is a bubble one! So now that it has arrived, the forecast is all sunshine. And that's just fine with me. Mid-60s and sunny! Yay!!!

**Let's hope Oprah stops featuring polka dot items in her magazine.

Because waiting for the bus is the only free time I have!

Today is no of those bad girl days. You know the ones. When every single outfit is wrong. Doesn't fit right, looks bad, just doesn't make you happy. I really wish I could have just worn jeans and a t shirt to work today, but that would be a bit too casual for teaching and I already wore jeans earlier this week. (I have a self imposed one jeans per teaching day rule.)

So now I'm running late. I don't feel entirely comfortable with my clothing choice. Part of the problem is the in between seasons issue. Not quite cold enough for what I'd been wearing before spring break, and not quite warm enough for very springy clothes. Sigh.

(please excuse typos. Mobile blogging typing is tricky!)