My Weekend

I am very excited....I had a meeting with my boss on Friday, and he wants me to take the lead in writing all of the grants and some business development for our department. This is a great opportunity for me, and if it works out, then I will just scratch my moving to China plans.

Plus, I demo-ed my sock machine on Saturday to a wonderful and excited crowd, and even had three people ask if I would knit socks for them! And one of them was a lady with only 1 leg, so she said she only needed one sock! Unfortunately, I had to turn them all down because I am so busy...... The other neat thing is that I was asked by the San Diego machine knitting guild to demo my sock machine during their monthly meeting......I said yes, of course......

I was so nervous to do the demo, because I am basically a newbie to sock knitting, but Helen at Newtons said I would be fine, so I showed up. The women for the first session were so excited, because apparently they all have sock machines but don't know how to use them. I gave them my caveat: I only started knitting in November and I don't know how to use the ribber yet (which was fine, since I forgot to bring it anyway), but I would take them through the process of knitting a mock rib hemtop sock. I was dripping sweat, but the women were so encouraging. They knew I was new and they just wanted to see someone actually using a sock machine. Thank goodness there were two wonderful and experienced sock machine knitters there, and they helped answer questions and helped me when I had problems.

Anyway, I showed them how to set-up and how to pick up dropped stitches (there were a lot of opportunities for that!), how to shortrow the heel and toe, etc. I showed them all the different parts of the machines and my tools. I also told them how lucky I was that the woman I bought my machine from was so generous and included everything I needed to start knitting, from extra needles to the buckle and weights to the stitch picker upper to the mesh bag that most women use to start knitting (I prefer the set-up bonnet now) to a video that showed me how to set up my machine to lots of different instructions and patterns for knitting a sock. The only thing I have bought for my machine was the yarn carrier thingee, but not because anything was wrong with the one that I received with my machine. I bought the new one a few weeks ago because I saw it on Laurie's (the lady I bought my machine from) machine and it has a slot on the top which allows one to take the yarn out. I really like it. Anyway, I also got to hear disaster stories about CSMs bought on the web, and how some machines didn't come with this or that....it made me realize how lucky I am! Thanks, Laurie!!!!! Laurie and I have become friends and still keep in touch, and now she's become a flatbed machine knitter, too!

Anyway, the women were so great...they were oohing and aaahing over my pathetic demo and basically, they made me feel great, despite the many dropped stitches and holes in the sock...they said they just wanted to see how a sock was made and didn't care about all my mistakes........What an ego booster!

And finally, last night my closest friends took me out to dinner for my birthday and it was fiasco. I picked a Filipino restaurant and took the liberty of choosing the food, since I was early and I know Filipino food. Well, how was I to know that Liz is allergic to seafood, Robin doesn't eat pork, Marny is a vegetarian, and Janet doesn't eat garlic or onions? I ordered this HUGE platter of meat (which my sister in law recommended) that had tons of pork, chicken and beef marinated in a garlic sauce, lumpia (egg rolls) which was made of pork and shrimp, pancit (the noodles) with the seafood and pork taken out, but which was cooked with a lot of garlic, and garlic-fried rice. We ordered catfish for Marny but she didn't like it, Janet made a big scene about there not being any salad (lettuce is not one of the Filipino food crops, although there was a mango/tomato/onion/salted egg salad) and all the grilled fish being cooked with tons of garlic, but finally she found a garlic-free grilled tilapia she liked....the whole dinner was a disaster......but Robin and Liz liked the food, and I got to take home tons of meat, fried rice, and noodles.......

All about my first first date in 6 years

My last first date was with Robert, who passed away almost two years ago. This is an excerpt from a note I wrote to a friend who wanted to know how my date went.

It was with my son's ex-boss from an internship he had last summer. We met in October and he's been calling and emailing me ever since, on and off, but the number and intensity of his calls have increased over the last few weeks (I got 10 emails from him yesterday alone at one of my accounts, so just double that for my two active work and personal accounts and that is 20!) . I finally agreed to meet him today for lunch and I just thank God it was in the middle of the day at a very busy restaurant and I drove my own car.

I had called all my girlfriends and we compiled a list of questions I wanted to ask him because he had somehow avoided talking about his personal life, but 20 minutes into the date, I decided I didn't like him enough to care to know the answers. I was bored to death the first hour (he told me all about the different ways we can use household vinegar to clean the house and fruit, and destroy bacteria on our bodies). But here's a clue to his personal life: he over-ordered the food (it was dimsum), and told me it was all for me to take home. When I demurred, he insisted. When I insisted right back that there was only one of me at home and I was still living off of the leftovers from last week when I took my dad to dinner twice, he said, well, it's kind of awkward because I am living with a roommate temporarily (believe me, he DOES NOT look like the roommate type!) because I am in the process of getting a divorce. I let that concept roll around in my head for a bit and decided to let it pass, because after all, I really had no intention of ever seeing him again. In other words, the creep is MARRIED!!!!

When he finally went to pay the check, he must have taken a viagra or something because when he came back, I could tell he was incredibly turned on. He wanted me to pull my chair closer to him. I declined. He wanted to hold my hand. I asked why, and after he asked again, I stuck my hand out in a give me five fashion (as opposed to putting my hand in his like a sweet little thing). He rubbed the palm of my hand for a bit, then when I asked him he was going to read my palm, he stopped.

Then he started complimenting my shoes and saying my shoes were sexy (which they are!) and I had good taste in shoes. Whatever! All of a sudden, he extended his legs under the table and started rubbing his legs against mine. I must have jumped about 5 feet up in the air. I said what are you DOING? I do not even know what he said or how else I responded, I was so shocked. He sat back and said, oh Joy, you are so shy and you are making me so shy, too! (WTF??? Him? Shy?) Then he looked at me again and said in what he must have thought was a sexy voice: (think sexy growl): let's get out of here....let's go for a walk....I was so afraid he was going to drag me to a hotel and rape me!

I straightened up in my chair and in my best little girl's voice I said, I really have to study today. I have a paper due on Wednesday (I don't, but WHATEVER!) and have to download articles (my best friend Robin thought that was the weakest excuse ever!, on the level of I have to wash my hair). He looked at my sincere looking face and said, okay, let me walk you to your car. So we walked, and he let me walk a little ahead of him and I knew he was checking out my big fat butt and my short fat legs and then he started trying again to talk me into going for a walk with him. I started getting nervous because I saw that with the way my car was parked against a wall, he could block off any escape for me and essentially, do whatever he wanted. We got to my car and instead of walking towards my car door, I turned and stuck my hand out and said thank you for the lunch, I had a great time. I leaned in to do one of those cheek to cheek kisses, and we did, then he grabbed my neck and pulled me even closer and tried to kiss me on the lips. YUUUUUCK, I stuck my hand in front of his face and said in a very firm voice: NO! (just like those date rape psa ads...just say no!). I turned my cheek and let him kiss my other cheek. I got in my car and prayed that I wouldn't see him again. However, when I turned out of the parking lot, he was waiting on the street. He motioned for me to stop, so I did and he leaned into my window and said, when you email something to me, be careful, because it is a public server and everyone can read what comes in. AS IF!!!!!!! Oh my God, the man was delusional! So I said okay, will do, bye. And drove like a bat out of hell.

So I drove all the way to the Valley to give the mountain of food he made me take home with me to my nephew because I did not want any memories of this horrible afternoon. While driving there, I was telling my best friend Robin about the lunch, and he called me. I said, Robin, he's on the other line! What do I do???? She said, answer him, find out what he wants, and call me right back!!!!! I took the call and he said that I made him so shy (OH. MY. GOD. The man does not have a shy cell in his fucking body!) that he forgot to give me two presents he had bought for me, and he wanted to get together so he could give it to me personally. I said oh, no you don't have to......he insisted, so to get off the phone, I said all right. Now, if I EVER, and I mean EVER, say I am going to meet this guy again, I want you to tie me to a tree and sit on me until the feeling passes or the people from UCLA's NPI come and get me and put me in for a 72 hour lockup. PROMISE ME THIS!!!!!

There is so much more...but these are the highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be). I can't stop thinking about what happened and after I post this am going to take a nice hot shower and scrub down. I feel filthy, although nothing physical happened. I also feel incredibly grossed out. He was just soooo disrespectful!