It's Friday night and all is well.

What a fast week! So much has been happening recently; it doesn't feel like Friday yet. Fortunately most of the goings on have been positive.

First of all, upon receiving the rejection email from Amy at Knitty, I embarked upon two new projects. In a ridiculous attempt to practice colorwork, I made a jar cover with a peace symbol, using yarn from Liz. Then, using a couple of ideas from Storm Moon Knits, I embarked upon some Dark Mark Illusion Armwarmers (pattern forthcoming). I had to scale the chart down quite a bit, from 40 sts by 55 rows, to about a eighth of the size. I'm hoping it turns out well, but I have a version of the chart that's about an quarter of the original size that I might turn into a fair isle/intarsia version. Regardless of how it turns out, it made an otherwise frustrating 2 1/2 hour OSCA Board meeting much more enjoyable.

However, I'm not working on the projects I should be working on (for my friend Andy, who's graduating in a month, and Danielle, for Christmas). I'll start them soon. For reals.

Thursday I met with my politics professor to talk about my paper. I'm researching Ingushetiya, a small region that borders, and frequently gets lumped in with, Chechnya. Basically, I didn't have a huge amount of direction in my research or argument, but every meeting I have ever had with this professor has been incredibly helpful, and this was no exception. Which is good, because December 7th is frighteningly not so far off.

However, I did receive some bad news on Wednesday. As it turns out, Tuesday morning, a woman who I knew from First Church of Oberlin UCC, who invited myself and several other students to her house for Thanksgiving last year, passed away. She had had a battle with cancer earlier in her life, and it came back this January. From what little I knew her, she was an amazingly kind and generous person. And an incredibly good cook (last year was possibly, from a food critic's point of view, the best Thanksgiving dinner I've ever had - and my family in Minnesota can cook well). Luckily, they're waiting to hold the memorial service until the weekend after our Thanksgiving break, so I'll be able to attend.

On a lighter note, the forecast for the weekend looks good. I think some combination of Linden, Anna, Danielle, Liz and I are going to hang out, possibly watch Save the Last Dance, most likely make some cookies, and maybe even write a song or two! What productive aspirations for a Friday night! We'll see how it all turns out.