Unemployment, delayed anniversary celebrations, and Ravelympics

Okay, first let me say that tonight I'm going out with my husband (a week late) to finally do something for our anniversary. We're likely going to watch Wolf Man, and continue our long-running tradition of watching a horror/suspense/thriller movie for our anniversary, lol. Very romantic. This means that I'll be missing the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, which Aaron could care less about, but I enjoy.

Second, I spent almost four hours last night swatching for my Ravelympics sweater. What I discovered is that I needed to go down a needle size...twice...and that Ultra Alpaca will not show the cables to their greatest advantage. Why would I bother to knit a sweater covered in cables if they'll hardly show? Why did I wind every single skein? I can't return them now. Thankfully, I have six skeins of Cascade 220 in off-white that will work better for this sweater. The cables will pop beautifully, and the color is more traditional as far as Aran sweaters go. On the other hand, the sweater is off-white. Dante is a 12-year old boy. Off. White. So in about a week, the sleeves will be soiled beyond repair and this yarn is not machine washable. I thought about knitting a plain raglan sweater for him with the gray/green Ultra Alpaca (which wouldn't show dirt if you dropped it in the dirt), but he likes this pattern. I weighed the options, and asked Aaron's opinion. To my surprise, he told me to knit the Aram sweater with my off-white yarn, and trust Dante "not to get it dirty"... So I guess I'll be over-dying it blue or black after it gets stained up.

Lastly, I've been trying to reach the Rhode Island dept of Unemployment for the better part of a week now. I tried to report in (per usual) and was told that I had to call and speak to someone in the call center first. That was Monday. The last time that I had to speak to the call center it took three days to reach them. That was months ago. It's worse now. They were closed Wednesday and Thursday, so even though it's been three actual days of calling, today is the worst day so far. Please believe me when I tell you that this is not an exaggeration...I have called them over 450 times today and only got through once, only to be told that "due to high call volume, we cannot take your call at this time", but not before I was made to listed to all the prompts and jump through all the hoops. I know exactly how many times, because my cell phone tells me how many times I've called a number. Tomorrow the center will be closed. Sunday I should be reporting my unemployment for a second time since being told that I have to talk to someone. I will definitely have to talk to someone now...because if you fail to report for a week, you can't until after you talk to someone. So now I'm stuck in this limbo for reasons unknown to me and I'm just ticked off about it. I know that more people are on unemployment in this state than ever before, but calling and hanging up, and calling back, for days upon days (only to be placed on hold for 90+ minutes once I finally get into the que) is just UNACCEPTABLE, especially when I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing and I'm just arbitrarily told to speak to someone before they'll pay me. I have a small savings put aside (but it's meant to pay for my car insurance for 6 months). I'll be paid by the shop tomorrow, and I'll be paying bills with that. I guess we'll be okay for a little bit, hopefully for as long as it takes me to get through.

Oh, and here's a long overdue photo of my mom's socks that I finished last month. They're waiting for another pair to be finished, and then to be mailed out.