Suddenly...July Overextended

So July started out as another month of summer.  Beautiful not-terribly-hot weather (but it's coming....)

I finished up one test knit and saw a test knit for a lovely shawl.  I knew I had yarn that would work, so I said SURE!  It's 280 rows...plus picking up and knitting the edge.  Easy 4 row repeat pattern.  Not due until the end of the month.  Easy peasy.

Only I keep slipping stitches by accident off the end of the needle.  The first time--no life line, and I lost 40+ rows of work.  Now I have a life line, and I've probably lost 80 rows I've knit on top of those 40.  I feel like I'm taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back!

Then Random House in their Blogging for Books program gave me an offer I couldn't refuse.  The entire set of Taylor Steven's mystery novels.  For free.  As long as I can read the latest book The Catch and review it by July 25th.  Sure, I can do that...only I prefer to read my books in order, so if I don't start at the first one, I am breaking my rules.  But I don't think I can read them all and do the shawl by the end of the month.

Add to this the job search, the lack of money, the fear of having to move, my friend going through hell as her son has brain surgery and she's in Florida (and I'm not) and a crushing depression I can feel creeping in and all of the sudden the stress level of the easy going July is brutal.