Black Purl is another online knitting magazine, and new to me. It has cell phone cozies, tank tops, and plain rectangular shawls just like all the others, but the models are African-American. So if that would make a difference to you, why not check it out? I read some of the articles and did not find anything new there either, but you may not have as many knitting books as I do. In any case, when you are looking for something on a screen to read while you knit (so as not to have to keep a book open), you are bound to rejoice at any newish online knitting magazine.
This news, and the fact that I’ve done another couple of inches on the second sleeve for Jasmine, is all the knitting content I have for you today.
#2 daughter’s transition from college to career has been easy so far — she has been working like a dog, of course, but she is looking at four more days of classes and a couple more days of RA-ship, and then her college experience will be over. Just last week , we were saying that when she was through with school, she would already have a job, a car, an apartment, a roommate, a work wardrobe, and a guy who might become her boyfriend. We thought things were going pretty well.
If this were a novel, of course, this would not do. Her 12- and 15-hour work days and lack of a kitchen would have provided a little drama in the beginning, but now it would be time for the plot to thicken. It would be time for her to have some troubles. She would probably have to end up in a strange city, helplessly searching for a job and a place to live, desperately lonely, running out of money… You can’t have a novel, or even a TV show, where someone works hard and everything goes right for her.
So, the nonfictional nature of her life notwithstanding, she now has some troubles. Her roomie decided not to move in until mid-month, and not to pay her rent, either. I think this is because she is a student, and has not lived in a grown-up place and therefore doesn’t realize that you can’t actually have a room without paying for it, even if you aren’t there.
Her idea is that #2 daughter should sleep on someone’s couch for a few weeks until she is ready to move in. And that #2 daughter should negotiate this with their prospective landlord.
Again, I am thinking that she doesn’t realize what an unreasonable request this is. #2 daughter has a job, unlike the roommate, and has to be able to be dressed and rested and so on to go to work. Throwing herself on the mercy of her friends and crashing on their couches is not the ideal. She doesn’t have time to negotiate with the landlord. Nor is it likely that the landlord will agree to leave the apartment vacant and unpaid for for weeks on end just to accomodate this girl.
This episode also makes me wonder about this roommate. She is a nice girl, and I had been happy that #2 daughter was going to have her for a roommate. Will she think, though, that she can go home for Christmas and not pay rent for that month? Will #2 daughter be homeless every summer when school lets out, or — perhaps worse — stuck with an apartment that needs a second occupant, so she will have to look for a summer sublet every year?
Maybe a studio apartment is the answer. If so, then she will have to squeeze house-hunting into her finals-week schedule, as well as work. And deal with the drama of telling her friend that she won’t room with her.
Also, the car which she has paid for has not yet arrived. #2 daughter needs a car to get to work. Her town, like ours, has no public transportation. Right now she is carpooling, but that is often like crashing on someone’s couch — not an ideal arrangement, not a permanent one, and not one you can count on.
Banana nut bread is on the menu for breakfast here, but there really is no way for me to get any to #2 daughter to cheer her up.
The Kid was 19 when she started flatting – while still at university. This is now her 3rd year dealing with flatmates who don’t always pull their weight and landlords who are not always helpful. A couple of years ago I had to accompany her while she dealt with the fallout of being the only flatmate in residence when the landlord came around to collect the final rent. Together the 3 of us got it sorted but the whole affair left me with the idea that there are a lot of young adults (not The Kid and not your #2 daughter by the way 🙂 ) who have no idea at all about how to take responsibility for their life in the real world. Flatting never appealed to me in my teens – I got on ok with my parents (usually), there were no restrictions or rules I had to follow so I stayed at home and was paying board to my mother at 17. (The Kid was boarding with me when she was the same age). Also living with 4 or 5 others of the same age as me would have driven me nuts because my peers spent those years drinking and smoking and popping all sorts of interesting substances – none of which I did so my tolerance levels of what I considered to be stupidity would have plummetted and would have put a severe strain on my friendships.
RYC: “Trowel makup? Bleached blondes? Aren’t you stereotyping just a little?”
Haha, I wish I were. I probably should have said Texas instead of lumping the whole South in there, but yes, in Texas bleached blondes, leather-tanned skin and trowel makeup is a very, very common fixture! Sorry to throw your part of the South in there, I did assume these characteristics extended beyond the Sabine & Red Rivers! 🙂
Uh, can we get an Amen for Sister Sighkey?
‘Bout ready to jump ship m’self. Sitting here eating a disgusting dinner of ham and cheese rolls while waiting for my committee members to resurface and trying to write a speech on the role of violence in the French and Russian revolutions.
Did I mention that my dinner is disgusting?
RYC: Oops sorry, didn’t mean to. Guess I’ve got used to the situation because The Kid hit it earlier than is usual – she started varsity at 16 going on 17 and found the whole switch from structure to relative freedom difficult to deal with (to say nothing of her aunt, her mother having washed her hands on the situation because she didn’t want The Kid to leave school) The Kid was boarding at 16/17 (we fought nearly every day for about the first couple of months working out each other’s boundaries and ended up even better friends after that than we were when she was still at school). I got her into a Hall of Residence when she was 17/18 (which ended up a total disaster. The Hall she was in was very badly supervised.) She moved into her first flat at 18/19 with 5 other kids, very stressful year. She moved into her second flat at 19/20 with about 4 other kids, flunked out of varsity because she was also working 20 to 30 hours a week as a cook in a pub so did not do the necessary work to pass her papers (I had stopped giving her advice at this stage – she just has to learn these things by herself) and this year moved into another flat with one other flatmate. She worked fulltime (50-60 hour week with double shifts) for the first half of this year, decided her brain needed exercise so enrolled for the Bachelor of Info Tech this semester at the local Polytech and dropped down to part-time work, and has just found out that the pub at which she is working has been sold and she will be without even a part-time job in 2 months (the prospect of which does not seem to bother her. She thinks she might be able to get part-time work in one of the computer/video game shops in town) I asked her not so long ago if she has any regrets, anything she would do differently if she had a second chance. She told me no. Despite the tough times – and there were some really tough times, in which her mother, stepfather and I felt sick knowing that there was nothing we could do to make it all better – she likes who she is. She has this air of confidence in herself that is extremely rare at 21 – most people think her older than she actually is and she is the sort of person that you know you can count on in any sort of emergency. That confidence comes with fighting the battles and surviving them. It probably also comes with knowing that whenever things get really bad her family is there to help pick up the pieces. Truly, from what I’ve seen of #2 daughter she’ll manage fine although probably with fewer of the dramas that The Kid went through ‘cos The Kid has a knack of finding herself in dramatic situations – much as her mother did (NOT her aunt. Her aunt always preferred the quiet, non-dramatic life. Two drama-queens in the family is enough)
hope your daughter gets cheered up…
It sounds like it’s time for a new roommate, or studio apartment, to me. 🙁