A rather short update...

Well, it's now mid-August, only two weeks until September, and Ana and I are still apartment hunting. We've found lots of potential places, but it's highly competitive to get an apartment starting September 1st. We're crossing our fingers for an awesome apartment in Ballard that would be incredibly convenient for both of us. An update on this later will hopefully get posted.

In my bigger news of the day, I finally got a new phone! My poor old phone that I had had for over 2 years suddenly got the white screen of death (so if you've tried to text me in the last two days, sorry, I didn't get it), and I was pretty much cell phone-less. I ran down to the AT&T store downtown today and found out that to get the 3G iPhone would only cost me $5 more than what I was already paying monthly, so here I am with a brand spanking new iPhone! I've never owned a smartphone before, so all of the fun new things like email and applications are quite the new experience for me. I'm really excited to use my "Onebusaway" app for riding the bus in the morning.

Other than that, there's not a whole lot to say...still working full time and enjoying my weekends where I can actually get stuff done (since they're on Tuesday and Wednesday rather than Saturday and Sunday). James did take me out last night. We had sushi and went to a movie (The Help) after wandering around UVillage for a while. I love him so much, and I definitely feel so blessed to have such a keeper!

Love to you all!

~Allie

Life at its finest

Nearly six weeks until school begins yet again, and three until I (hopefully) move into my apartment with Ana. I think I'm going to keep working for another 5-ish weeks so I can maximize the amount of money I can make before working only 10 hours a week again in the school year.

Oh yeah, did I mention I got a job? I bus tables at an awesome little cafe by Pike Place. The best part, besides the fact that I have said job, is that I'm getting to work full time, make minimum wage hourly, plus tips! I think this week I've already worked 27 or so hours, and I'm still on for a full day tomorrow, so about 35 hours this week? Thank you, God, for supporting me and helping me save lots of money!

I found a knitting project for commuting every day, also, as lace doesn't travel very well (and you have to be able to look at your pattern while knitting lace anyway). It's called the Beekeeper's Quilt, and it's the cutest thing ever! Basically, I knit tons and TONS of hexagons that are only a few inches wide, then whenever I'm done (in a few years :D), I attach them all together and have a beautiful, colorful quilt! I have about 30 "hexi-puffs" and have been very fo

rtunate to have many wonderful people who have given me yarn so that my blanket has been incredibly inexpensive thus far! Here are some of the puffs I've knitted (though I've knitted a lot more of course!). They take about 30-40 minutes for each one, which makes them perfect for riding the bus downtown, watching tv, etc. Eventually I'm sure I'll get really sick of knitting them, but until that happens, I'm hoping to keep blazing forward!

My goal is a full or queen sized quilt, which I've estimated will need about 800 puffs (see why I said it would be a few years?). When Ana and I move into our apartment, I'm hoping to convince her that we need a pretty (large) glass cylinder or something for a centerpiece so I can store my puffs for everyone to see! They're so pretty, why would I want to hide them?

Also, an update in the horn aspect of my life, I finally bought new mutes, as mine wasn't up to snuff. I got a new straight mute to replace mine, and also invested in a practice mute, so that even when I can't access the practice rooms, I can still get practicing done. Both mutes are made by Ion Balu, an awesome mute-maker. (Mute maker? I think he probably has a better title than that :P) I'm expecting to get them on Tuesday, which will be perfect since it's my day off! I'll hopefully post pictures whenever they come :)

There's not much more to be said for now, except that I'm excited that I'm over halfway done with summer. I can't wait to see you, SPU friends!

~Allie