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So I finished the hat that I was working on!! The brim is of some yarn I got at the store in Whitefish Bay since I did not think that I had enough of the yarn that I dyed myself, which was the rest of the hat. I think it turned out pretty well. There are some mistakes since I got some of the stitches mixed up, but it is not very noticeable. The buttons I got at an antique shop in Cedarburg during the Strawberry Festival. Now I am working on some socks for me. The yarn has some glitter in it so that is pretty exciting!

I finished reading The Queen's Fool and then I also read Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, who also wrote Fight Club. Choke is about this guy who pretends to choke on food at restaurants so that someone can save him and send him money so that he can pay for his mother who is dying in a hospital. He works at one of those old time places where you have to pretend that you are really a person from the 1700's and some of the people he works with are pretty hardcore about their job. Now I am reading The Virgin's Lover, by Philippa Gregory. It is about Queen Elizabeth starting from when she first takes the throne.

My two summer classes are going well. Jazz is pretty fun because we get to listen to music and we have guest artists come and play for us. My Native American History class is okay. There is a midterm tomorrow so we will see how that goes.

Here are pictures of the completed hat!!!

So I finished The Devil in the White City a few days ago and have started The Queen's Fool, by Philippa Gregory, who wrote The Other Boleyn Girl. She has a whole series about the different Queens that were around when Henry VIII was king and the one I am reading now is about King Edward when he is young and about to die since he was sick and then Queen Mary. I am not very far, but the point of view is from a young girl from Spain who is a Jew and since they were killing all the Jews at the time they moved to England and said they were part of the English Church. She has what they call in the book, the "Spirit", and can see things of the future so she is made to be Edward's fool and to dress as a boy. Then once Edward dies, she is the Queen's fool. So far it is pretty interesting. I really like this series that Gregory has.

The scarf I have been working on for my boyfriend's birthday is almost four feet long!! It is made of five balls of white yarn and then three each of the green and they blue. Right now I just started the fourth ball of the white yarn so I guess you could say that I am 3/5 of the way done. I started a hat, the pattern I got from a friend of my grandma's. It has a lot of stitches that I have never done before, but I am figuring it out and it isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I am using some purple-ish yarn that I dyed myself in Brit Knits, but I was not sure if I had enough so I got a different purple color for the brim that matches up really well with one of the purples in the yarn that I dyed. I will post pictures once I am done.

I start my summer classes on the 22nd  which is Monday. I will be taking History of American Indians after 1877 and The History of Jazz. The jazz one I am pretty excited about, though I would much rather take The History of Rock since i am a big fan of Rock and Roll especially the stuff from the 80's and 90's. The classes last until July 17th so that is not too bad at all. I have also been in contact with Albion and I have to go back for a semester because there are two classes that they will not let me take at a different school. I have filled out all of the paper work and now am waiting to make sure that it is approved and that I will be able to take those two classes. I am in the middle of talking to Residential Life to find a place to live on campus since my parents do not want me to be living off campus by myself.

I am trying to get a knitting class of some sort to happen at the University Club! I thought of it last night and am going to talk to the lady that plans events later today. I was thinking that we could have a yarn store come in and make kits that would contain needles, a pattern and yarn. There would be three different patterns, one for beginners, intermediate and then advanced. The yarn for the patterns will all be different so people can have the colors they like and everyone won't have the exact same thing when they are done. The people from the store can teach the beginners how to knit and since the intermediate and advanced knitters will be there also, they can help out if need be. The store can also bring their products for people to buy that is not part of the kit. We can start in the morning and have a break for a lunch buffet and then continue or leave. It can be bi-weekly so that if someone is having difficulty with their pattern they can bring it in and get help or you can show off what you had made. Then you can either work on what you worked on before or get a new kit with a new pattern. People can bring their children or grandchildren and I think it would be a fun club or event for people to go to over the summer. Hopefully it will work. We will see.

Some hobbies that I enjoy participating in are reading and knitting.

I just finished reading the graphic novel, V for Vendetta and now am reading, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. This book is about the world fair being built in Chicago in the 1890's in Jackson Park. While the world fair was being built there was a murderer living a few blocks away. These two stories go back and forth but stay in the same time line until later, I have not gotten there yet, the murder and the world fair are somehow joined together. The book has it's information from letters, diaries and documents from what actually happened at that time so it is not made up. So far it is a really cool and interesting book and I really like it!

Along with reading, I really enjoy knitting. Right now I am working on a scarf for my boyfriend's birthday, he already knows he is getting it. It is done in fair ilse which I knew how to do before, but I was not very good at it so I went with Brit Knits (the Albion College knitting club) to a class where I was taught the correct way to do it. So far it is looking pretty good and I only have two goof ups which are not too easy to see. I am trying to not have more than one project going at a time, which is very difficult to do, but after this I am going to make a hat out of some yarn that I dyed myself! I am very excited to start working on that. Here is a picture of the scarf so far.

My name is Amanda Rae and I just graduated from Albion College in Albion, Michigan with a communications major and an art minor. This journal will be about my life after graduation with an emphasis on my adjustment to the "real world" and my job search.

Ideally, I would like to be a project manager for an advertising company, especially in the fashion business. Since this will be my first real job I am prepared to not get exactly that. Instead, something in the advertising genre would be nice since that is where I would like to work in. Chicago is where I wish to be located since it is close to home, but not too close. Also, it is where there are a lot of opportunities for what I would like to do.  Being a project manager would mean that I would not only be able to be part of the creative side of advertising, but I would be able to have a part in several different aspects of advertising as well.

I had interviewed for an internship at an art appraisal company in NY called Gurr Johns, and I found out today that I did not get the internship. So, now I am searching for a job. I will be taking two classes to complete the ethnicity course that Albion College required, so I will be looking up different jobs, sending out resumes, and doing interviews while I complete these classes. So hopefully, by the middle of July, when my classes are finished, I will have a job!