Too busy to knit?

Okay, So I've been busy doing other things and haven't had a huge urge to knit away in garter rib to finish the Asana top. I did however start to crochet a very, very soft, light yellow animal-like form for a friend's soon-to-be baby. It started off as a bear until I realized that there was no way my friend would expect anything that traditional out of me anyhow, and so it will be a weird, round deally with little stump feet and pointy arms and some sort of a head (I haven't gotten that far yet). I think it will be cute and a looking a little like Pom Pom (character-www.homestarrunner.com)

In other news...

I just returned from a wonderful weekend of dancing and fun in Montreal. I was actually so prolific with my photo-taking that I've already filled my flickr account for the month. Photos can be seen here. My own personal theme for the weekend's photoshoot was "Grrr" and I made a host of unsuspecting friends play along. It's my favorite collection of pictures ever, and I'm thinking of doing a few more similar photo series. There are more pictures that I took in Montreal, but they'll probably wait until the beginning of next month to be posted.

One of my favorites things about travelling to Lindy Exchanges (see here for definition) is meeting people. Some whom I have met through forums and other online pages, and some with whom I am housed, and others who I meet during the course of the weekend. This weekend I met a bunch of people who I had conversed with on the Canadian lindyhopper's board (where I post regularly)--including not only some of the Canadians who post there, but some of the Australians as well, and I met a LOT of americans who were attending the exchange, and I was housed with a group of diverse people including an attendee from Korea, and one from Paris.

I don't often get to use my French (despite all of the classes I took up through my junior year of college), so it was really kind of interesting for me to pick up after all these years and try to force out my thoughts in the little vocabulary I can still reach in my brain. I could listen to people speaking and understand about 1/4 of what they said (more if they spoke slowly TO me, and I wasn't just listening in) and the majority of the time I could say 80% of what I wanted to in some manner before running across words that I just couldn't remember or never knew. What I found really exciting was that when I asked Sylvain (our Parisian roomie) about my accent, and whether I sounded American when I spoke French he told me he thought I had no real accent at all! I don't completely believe him, but it was Such a compliment!!! ...He also tried to convince me that I should move to Paris, that I could easily find a job there, and that I could "Practice your French all day, and I will introduce you to French men, so you can practice your French all night." :) LOL
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My crochet work did accompany me to Montreal, though it almost got left on the plane....okay, it DID get left on the plane, but a guy from across the aisle caught up with me on the walkway and got it back to me. The only work I got done with it was a small amount in O'Hare before leaving, and then it was neglected for the rest of the trip.
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The other thing I've been up to lately is looking for a new job. The longer I stay at this one, the more aware I am of how MUCH I need to leave it. I don't enjoy it as much as I used to, even though I'm at the top of my game and selling as much as ever. I also have growing problems with my boss, and find some of the things he does incredibly hypocritical and unethical. He controls scheduling and I've been working with an employee who not only creates more work for me, but will actually close the store and leave for hours at a time. If this is what the company is willing to put up with, I don't want to be a part of it. Plus they say you should leave while still at the highest point in your current company, and I don't think I'll be able to move up right now, and am getting frustrated enough to want to move DOWN and not be management any more. Hopefully the right opportunity will come along soon, and I'll recognize it when it does.
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