Sunday, November 23, 2008

November: The Cruelest Month?

The past few weeks have flown by with nary a comment from me. It's not that I've been busy, exactly, but absorbed with hating fall. This entails spending as much time as possible indoors, sniffling and trailing tissues (allergies), lying in bed watching awful romantic comedies on DVD, knitting purple things (mittens at the moment), and agonizing over what to buy my impossible-to-buy-for family members for Christmas. And no, unfortunately, none of them really want hand-knits.

I have not been writing. I have not been writing here, I have not been writing in my journals, I have not been writing essays or short stories or even the novel that I have percolating in the back of my brain (which, every time I try to put something on paper, refuses to cooperate and sounds like something my six-year old niece wrote). I have been knitting, and there would be pictures if I could remember to buy batteries for my camera. That's the other problem I have with fall, my brain stops working. It's like I get seasonal adult ADD; I can't pay attention to anything for more than a few minutes.

But there is one finished pair of socks and a finished scarf to kind of/sort of match the hat I made last winter. There is also one pair of socks that is 1 and 1/2 done (meaning, one sock is finished and the other is half done), and another that is 1/2 done (meaning, half of one sock). I also bought yarn yesterday to make myself some mittens, which will kind of/sort of match the hat and scarf...but not really. I really wanted to make mittens out of my leftover yarn from the hat/scarf, as it is alpaca and Lord knows my fondness for alpaca, but a) there wasn't quiiiiiite enough left; b) I can't find the yarn anywhere online, making me think it's been discontinued (or someone is hoarding it in her closet...); c) the yarn was too thick for the pattern I had, and no matter what I did I couldn't get gauge (my first attempt at mittens taught me that, unlike scarves and to some extent hats, gauge with mittens really, really matters).

In the midst of all of this knitting, I dragged out the scale and discovered I've gained 20 pounds since leaving NYC. It's the sort of thing where I have to laugh, because I really want to cry. I am so SICK of gaining weight, and then fighting to lose it. Ugh. This is clearly my Cross to Bear. *sigh* The worst part is, I have a physical in three weeks, so the lecture I was anticipating will be that much worse if I can't peel off some weight between now and then. If I could only figure out how to knit while walking on the treadmill...

Friday, November 7, 2008

Week to Week End

This started out a FABULOUS week, and I sat up until 1 am listening to Obama's speech. What an absolute TREAT to now have a President who sounds....presidential.

And then things took a turn. Miss Earline, a woman who worked for me years ago, passed away suddenly. Earline was a right piece of work...we always used to say there was a story there with her, but she wasn't giving it up. And honestly one of the best-hearted people - I remember how she loved to hear stories about my nieces and nephew as well as my crazy grandmother (who had a fair amount in common with Earline, truth be told).

And then a dear friend had the rug ripped out from underneath him, and I so desperately want to make it all better...is that being a good friend or is that my Little Miss Fix-It compulsion surfacing? Either way, it is a cruel reminder that Life Is Not Fair and we should all get do-overs.

And now it is Friday, and I am so tired I can barely stand up. I will consider this weekend successful if I clean the bathroom, finish knitting a sock, and watch the episodes of Weeds that turned up in my mailbox via Netflix. I would also like to get the cat to stop LICKING THE VACUUM CLEANER (I swear, this cat....) but I'm not holding my breath.

Addendum: Just discovered that Netflix sent the complete third season of RESCUE ME, not the third season of Weeds. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!