Such a busy time!

Alright everyone, it's been quite a busy little time for me.
Well, busy and yet not.

Lets go in order shall we?

Sunday night:
Had dream I was laid off. This was not me panicking. This was me happy, and deciding how best my day was going to proceed. I had decided in the dream that I was going to walk to the library every day, which is up quite a good sized hill. This urge to walk it every day, meant that I was skinny (less jiggly) by the time 1)I moved to England next year, and 2) the wedding.
It was a good dream.

Monday morning:
Come into work to find that 5 people had been laid off.
Go have a chat with the bossman.
He tells me that 3-4 more people needed to be laid off by the end of this week (err last week by the time I'm writing this)
Casually discuss with bossman that I've got contingency plans in place if I were to be laid off. Saw his eyes light up at that. Assured him that I was not volunteering to be laid off.
Go home, double check my contingency plans just to make sure.
Have some important discussions with family.

Tuesday morning:
Have discussion with bossman again about the whole layoff situation. Can't go into details, but I just level with him more about my personal situation.

Wednesday:
Day off of work. Spent the day cleaning. Seriously cleaned my bedroom.

Thursday:
Work a 10 hour day with no lunch.
Was informed by bossman that I was in fact being laid off. Don't worry, this is a good thing. I've got it all planned out, I've got contingencies, and I'm also leaving the country in 33 weeks. It just means that Pan (my kittah) will have to wait 6 months (That is of course if the vet tells me that he's healthy enough for the process).
Drove home with a sense of calm. Which is odd after a 10 hour shift with no lunch. Wasn't cranky. Didn't want to cry.

Friday:
Good day at work. Another 10 hour day. Pack my desk up. Drop off my badge at the end of the day. Said goodbye to my favorite security guard.

I'm one of the few people who got to know ahead of time that I was getting laid off. Mostly, it was because I had given so much to my job, and been such a loyal worker for so many years. Not to mention all the s*** I had put up with.

It was a good Friday the 13th in my opinion.

Saturday:
YAY. It's my birthday.
4:30am attempt to email from my phone- doesn't work. Drag my butt out of bed and turn on the laptop. Quickly email Guy to call me.
5am he finally calls, when I'm supposed to be getting out of bed and getting dressed. So I talk to him for a moment.
6am we leave the house. Drove up to the Boulder Tea House (with a stop at Walmart first to pick up a few needed items for the house as it's snowing and things like toilet paper are things you do not want to run out of in a snow storm)
I order a pot of my Russian Caravan. Nom. Love that tea. If anyone is ever curious what you can get me... Russian Caravan from the Boulder Tea house (yes, they are online) is a good bet. Lapsang Souchang is also another one. (There are a few that peaked my interest after I had ordered, but I wasn't going to try it on that day. Mayhaps next month)

Katte and Mimi show up shortly thereafter. It was supposed to be a huge surprise that Mimi was in town. It was great to see her. I did know she was in town, which I"m glad I knew... if only because it allowed me to make my bedroom livable while she is here.

Mark, Darla, and Aidan joined us.

We had a grand old time, and breakfast was quite nummy. And I have the coolest friend. Crystal (of the Vampire Halloween Swap rescue package fame), sent me the coolest birthday pressie. A necklace of Wicked. I loved it.

Mother of Mine then dragged all of us to a yarn shop in Boulder. Which... to be honest... I wasn't impressed with. I mean, it was alright... but... meh. I knew exactly who one of her suppliers was, as she didn't even bother changing the name.

Then we scooted down to Denver so that Mum could be entered into the Wicked Lottery.
Mum gave up her ticket to Mimi so that she could join us for the show.
Unfortunately Mom didn't win one of the spare seats. (You show up 2 hours before the show, and you get the chance to win a seat to purchase.)

We walked over to the Tattered Cover, and looked at books etc.
Then Mimi and I had to head over to the theater again.

Don't worry, Mum had her own adventure with friends so it all worked out. And next year Mum and I will go see Wicked in London, so it will be fine.

The show...

The show was FANTABULOUS!
The girl playing Elphie was just... amazing. Honestly.
The girl playing Glinda.... was a bit nasaly. Which bugged me to be honest. But she was still good.
The boy playing Fiyero was good. Much better than the previous performance I've seen. (Though towards the end he played it... lets just say "a little less than straight". Which frankly I prefer to the previous Fiyero who played it "ghetto prince")

Everyone else was quite good.
Went and picked my Mum up at another LYS (which was not the original plan, but as I said.. she had her own adventure)
Drove home in the snow storm. (Started snowing in the middle of the performance)
Stopped at Petsmart for kitty food.
Stopped at Whole Foods for the dinner fixings. Homemade pizza with Chocolate Chip Angel food cake with homemade ganache for dessert.

Quite a splendid day all in all.

Sunday:
Was spent in jammies and a Firefly marathon, as Mimi had never seen it.

Which brings us to today:
This morning, I went to look at my phone to get out of bed, and dropped my cellphone on my face, busting my lip. Joy.
I was highly afraid it would set the tone for the day, but in fact it didn't.
Started the unemployment process.

It was amusing, I didn’t get the phone call over the weekend, so I panicked, and I called my employers (not the bossmen, but the people who actually handle the contracts) as I had a few questions in regards to the form I had to fill out for the unemployment benefits…and I got a hold of her before she checked her email. And the convo went like this:
Me: Hi, I was laid off on Friday, but as I didn’t get the phone call, I was just checking in to make sure everything is copacetic.
Her:My computer is still booting up, it’s rather slow.
we chat about other things
Her:Just got the email from (Bossman). And it says ”I’m emailing you to inform you that I had to lay off Erin G*****. Please call her in the morning to inform her of this.” So, Erin… I have to tell you (trying not to giggle as it was amusing) you’ve been laid off.
Me: Phew. And yes my desk is already cleared out, and my badge was already turned into (bossman).

The reason for the amusement of the convo was 1)I’ve been aware that I was being laid off since pretty much last Tuesday. (Can’t talk about the details of how or why I knew. But lets just say the entire decision was not only bossmans) 2)It was now Monday morning, and I was laid off on Friday. 3)I was the calling her instead of the other way around.
But yup, she confirmed that I was now in laid off status, and that I am in the “Rehireable” status, and that all I needed to do was send her an updated resume. (which counts towards my UI weekly requirement.)
So I was able to finish applying for UI this morning, already made 2 out of 5 of my requirements for the week.

After that we decided to head to Garden of the Gods as the snow was finally starting to melt and the Sun was out.
Stopped at Colorado Mills to look at fabric. I finally found my wedding fabric. Of course, I've got taste. So it shall be highly expensive. Must see if I can find it online. But... I've decided on White Crushed Silk. As I will be able to dye it after the wedding, and thus my wedding dress will no longer look like a wedding dress, but instead a fabulous silk dress.

Then we get to Garden of the Gods, even stopped at the Nature Center. Which was neat.
Went through the hike on the path, it was quite a beautiful day.

Apparently they were filming The Biggest Loser in the park there. And I managed to slip on the one bit of ice right in front of about 10 of the contestants. But I spectacularly caught myself and didn't actually fall. They applauded.

Came home, been watching Inspector Lynley. Just been enjoying the rest of the day.

I can now officially do the ”I’m Free at last” dance (Which I was doing a lot this morning while I was taking the hike through Garden of the Gods)

The weight is already off my shoulders. :-)

Tomorrow I have to drive Mimi to the airport in Denver.

Don't worry, there shall be lots of photos of the Garden of the Gods, and the Birthday enjoyment, uploaded here and onto my FB.

Have gotten lots knitted.
Current book: House of Many Ways by Diana Wynn Jones

Bugs and Hisses everyone!

Ramblings and Poor Customer service: Part 2

Alright. I've been meaning to post this for a few days now. But at this point, I couldn't care really, as I still stand by my first impression of the company.

I did finally get my answer.

It took 2 more emails after the ones you have already seen in the previous post.

Apparently he completely didn't realize (in the 4 emails, where I mentioned it) that I was in the US. What a freaking moron.

So I finally got the prices, and the answer.
No, I do not need to have a wholesale license, only a wholesale amount to be purchased on the first purchase.
As the wholesale amount is a tad high for my budget while living in the US, I will not venture down that avenue at this time.

Now, as far as the British company whom the Idiot over at Crystal Palace Yarns kept foisting me to...
Well, their response was short and basically said "yes you need a license but we will not talk to you about anything until you are here in the UK and are official." (paraphrasing, but that captured the tone and the gist of the email.)

Mother of Mine is being helpful in speaking with the LYS (Local Yarn Shop for those who aren't in the know) about getting the yarn from them as they do business with the main company in question and "understand completely what I'm trying to accomplish."
This could be quite beneficial actually, because if I do get my non wool yarn from them, and they like my colorways.. we might be able to come to some arrangement about them having them in their shop. - Ha no pressure on me to make some freaking awesome colors. It will of course make me have to change some of the names a bit more, as I don't think I could get away with some of the Pop Culture TV references... *shrugs* Who knows. As long as I don't get sued, I don't much care. (Already have started coming up with Alternate names for the Disney inspired colorways- eeep! did I give away a little secret there? *shifty eyes* No.. never... *whistles innocently* )

But all of this is dependent on talking with "Mom" over at the shop. (Mother of Mine had discussed it with the Daughter of the shop.)

I admit that I'm starting to get rather nervous about my ability to create what I see in my head. It's a very artistic process, and does very much have the potential to just turn out horribly. There are also so many different methods that my head is spinning. I think I have decided as of right now, I'm gonna go with the first way I had decided I was going to dye the yarn.

Meaning, my method will be mostly "immersion" dyeing, and not the sprinkle kettle method.

And for further clarification, that means I'll be making a dye bath of the color, and then putting my yarn in. Not putting my yarn in and sprinkling the color on the yarn. I'm not adventurous yet enough to do that method, also I want to see how this dye is going to work. not to many dyers have used this dye (at least not that I have found), so it is a bit of foreign territory for me.

One of the reason I'm getting nervous, is that my new pot and next set of dye shall be arriving either today or tomorrow.
I will most likely wait until the weekend to dye though, as I will have the house to myself (well, I would have done it on the weekend no matter if Mother of Mine was home or not) and because I have a feeling I'll just be exhausted this week.

I still need to cake off the last bit of yarn.
I still need to cut my niddy noddy down - i'm not happy with how "long" my skeins were, so I need to shorten the length of the center bar. (they wouldn't fit on my swift... which means that will be inconvient for anyone else, and might result in tangled mess- like mine did.)
I still need to then skein my cakes (using the niddy noddy)

Also, Thursday I'll be driving to Denver to 1) Drop Mother of Mine off in Boulder, and 2) Go see Jacqueline Carey for a book signing. Woohoo. So yeah.. not able to dye that night.

Then I'll be able to start dyeing.

Time for me get back to work.

Bugs and Hisses