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✻ I've decided to start playing my harmonica again. Haven't picked up the thing in ages, because it's hard to play it here; it's hard to find somewhere where people won't hear me and tell me to cut out that racket. But... the weather is getting warmer. And if I do it in the garage, then maybe. It's only now that I actually considered this. Or maybe I thought about it a while back, but never acted on it. I should. Not sure what I'll do for tabs, though. My mobile isn't exactly easy to read from. Could always print them off, though, I guess. Really, what I really want is to get good enough to memorize a few songs and play them smoothly enough that it doesn't sound terrible. (Might as well start small, right?) UGH I'm so damn rusty, though. This is gonna' be painful.

✻ I have about a million and one knitting-related complaints right now, but the main one currently is: it is practically impossible to get knitting supplies in this town, and it makes me so cranky. At least, it's impossible to get the stuff that I like. Bamboo/wooden needles? Nah. And even in aluminum, they never have the size that I need. And let's not get started on yarn... grrrr. Needless to say, I might need to switch my latest projects to either circs or straights instead of DPNs (I just need longer needles, and either would do, I think) and the... result was ordering online even when I really prefer not to. Especially because (predictably) I ended up buying some yarn, sight-unseen and untouched. It's some self-striping fingering weight stuff and - it was on sale, okay, and there are some projects I want to try with it, don't look at me like that!

✻ Due to the fact that Friday is a stat holiday, I'm working slightly different hours than originally scheduled. On the one hand, it's nice that I'm getting a slightly reduced-week. On the other... ugh, I'm not looking forward to playing catch-up. Hopefully that won't happen. Man, this month is just flying by, what on earth is going on?! (...I say that every month, don't I?)

Oh man. Getting coffee as a surprise in the mail is the best thing ever. Thank you again, Ardis. <3 Now, let's just hope my parents don't drink all of it before I get a taste. That's what happened the last time I had special coffee. :|

The last week has been so busy! Work has been frustrating as hell - I feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off. The store is crazy-busy due to people coming in to buy things for last-minute Christmas parties. If only they'd plan ahead.

Of course, when I'm working so much, that would be the time I get so much inspiration to write! It makes perfect sense! Argh, I have a million stories running through my brain right now, but I'm not going to have a moment's rest or any time to think until about January 01, I expect. Woe is me. ... Though I actually did manage to get about half a page written on one of my Swe/Fin stories the other day, so all isn't lost.

I've been working on the revamp of the Baltic Index off-and-on, whenever I get a tiny bit of time. It's going slowly. Mostly I'm indexing the latest Part + unfilled requests (beginning with Est, as he has the fewest). Then I'll move on to the fills and filled requests. The new Baltic Index is here, and as y'can see, it looks pretty much the same as my Nordic Index.

Anyway. I finished reading World War Z. I... enjoyed it. Mostly. Though I did find it disturbing. I still haven't been able to quite put my finger on what I find so utterly terrifying about contagion, zombies, and end-of-the-world scenarios, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. I'll probably read one of the Moomins books next as a palate cleanser. When Diplopod sent me that box of books, I probably could have read them all in succession, but I'm rather glad that I decided to (mostly) keep them reserve to follow whenever I read something disturbing. Come to think of it, I still haven't finished watching the series, either... I've kind of slowed down with it because I have more difficulty paying attention to the raw episodes, on account of it being harder to figure out what's going on.

... I think that's it for now. There are a few things that I had considered discussing, but after thinking about it, writing about those problems won't make me feel any better, so there we are.

[eta] OH. ALSO. I was playing the harmonica this evening, and I finally managed to do a recording of The Highwaymen's "Rover" without making any mistakes! Yes. I'm so proud of myself.

Christmas cards, addresses, etc. Information here. Don't make me go tracking you hosers down, y'all.

Today I finished reading Let The Right One In. A friend mentioned the film, and I was somewhat interested but figured I should probably read the novel first. Well, after this I'll be reading The Great Mortality, a history book about the Black Death. It just came in the mail today, and I was rather happy to find it in the postbox when I came home from work. It's one of those subjects that I always found kind of interesting but never really had time to learn much about. There are far too many of those things, unfortunately.

Day off tomorrow. Crossing my fingers in hopes that mum will leave the house, so that I can play my harmonica. Or that it will be warm out so that I'll be able to go outside and play. It's frustrating that it has to be this way; I want to practice so badly. But that's how it is.

I've felt kind of frustrated recently. I have a million ideas for fic, but I don't really have time to write anything. Well, technically I do, but I've been taking the little time I usually use for writing - lunch break and the bus ride to and from work - and using it to make christmas presents instead. I'm knitting some things for some people. And it takes me a while because I don't have time and everything needs to be done in time to be mailed out and there really isn't any time left for writing and -- yeah. Well, I guess I can write after all that is done. But it's still frustrating.

What's also frustrating is being so tired at the end of every day. I just -- I wish I had the same energy that I used to have. It bothers me that now that I actually want to do things, learn things, studying things, I don't have the energy to do it. I'm too tired after work to do anything except knit and doze. Oh well, no point in complaining about it, I suppose.

In other news, Halloween was uneventful. Only about ten kids came to our house. It was weird because it was a really nice night - I might, there wasn't even any snow or anything. Back when I was a kid, everyone went out, hit up every damn house, usually in groups of three or four at a time. I just don't get it.