I haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I'd mention that I'm sticking with my resolutions this year and knitting a pair of socks each month. Mostly. I got way ahead of myself and finished the 6th pair in May, so I figured I'd work on a cardi I was designing, and then I realized that "hey, it's August and I still haven't finished July's socks!"
So far, I've knitted some blue and purple Shubui Sock Fred & George socks, a pair of generic stockinette boot socks with some Toasty Toes yarn, a pair of lime/pink/orange Crickets, a pair of blue ballet flats, a pair of red & black Crickets, more generic stockinette - this time with some Razzle Dazzle yarn and an afterthought heel, and right now I'm working on some Blackrose socks in one of the Socks that Rock Raven colors, Rook-y.
That'll take me though July, so I'm still behind. I just got some Handmaiden Casbah in a gorgeous turquoise/green colorway, so I think those will be August's socks once I find a pattern. And hopefully I can get caught up enough that I can still finish them and also do some holiday knitting. We'll see. :)
It is hard to believe. Yesterday Ethan (my son who died in infancy) would have been 17...and Joe is fixin' to start his sophomore year. Ben no longer lives at home. And Johnny starts culinary school in a few short weeks. I feel time falling away from me the way massive sheets slide off the arctic shelf and go crashing to the sea.
I went back to brown last winter.....and got the inverted bob...the kate gosselin look. I took this photo on lifeframe last night to update facebook, which is where I mostly spend my time. But now that I write fulltime I realize I need my blog. I have mined so much from it for my book. So I am back.
I'm in love with this sewing desk.
I am feeling really crabby this week....been boozing too much and not getting enough sleep and scraping plates at the Scottish Rite...and having to tell the boys over and over I have no money for whatever it is they are mewling for. I started an essay on them this morning entitled "My Children Were Given A Lifetime Supply of Little Bastard Kits At Birth."
So last night, someone made the mistake of saying that something I said was "silly talk." Mind you,he didn't say I was silly, but something in the things he had been saying to me prior to that were irritating me. I was hungover, cranky, my hair was vibrating and I had just before crawling into bed next to this person noticed his dirty drawers on the bathroom floor..where they can always be found. So after he made the mistake of thinking outloud instead of just waiting quietly til the beast was lulled into an uneasy snore...I laid there a bit mulling a comeback.
"Just for the record," I said, winding up. "I am a lot of things. You can call me a drunk, a bitch, a bad driver, a spendthrift, and a poor loser. But one thing I am not is silly. Just for the record."
"Are you mad at me?" he said surprised.
"Oh no," I said. "Just clearing that up."
Did any of you groovy Voxtars catch the return of The Bitter Linguist?
She's back with her inimitable rants. Cover your children's' ears. Keep your husband's off the computer. No one is safe.
(She will probably kill me for the shout out. But do I care?! Hell no!).
A couple of weekends ago two of my girlfriends asked me to go see a Swedish vampire movie. Of course I went, but only because it was them and we have a way of having memorable outings.
The movie was stark, lyrical and beautiful...tho at the beginning there is a scene of such quiet and raw horror that Kelly (who was sitting to my left) started expressing disbelief that we had gotten ourselves into such a wierd creepfest. "Susan picked it," she said and we laughed out of unease, ready to never let her forget.
Within a short time tho, the two main characters, Oskar and Eli (pronounced E-lee), had us mesmerized. The cinematography was wonderful as was the story and acting by these two kids.
Afterwards we went to Zaffiro's (serving Milwaukee with same recipe for the best thin crust pizza since 1954) and couldn't stop talking about the movie and how moved we were by it. Go see it if it comes to a university or art house theater near you. It is really just an extraordinary love story that happens to have a vampire in it.
Unemployment is really not so bad.
I have settled in to sleeping late, drinking coffee every morning with the dogs, working out and writing fulltime. I do talk to them and myself sometimes, or holler at the TV, but overall I have never been a huge fan of people, so I really spend very little time staring into the Abyss of Aloneness pining for company.
The guilt over not contributing has pretty much evaporated and I find that at heart I really am a slob with very little ambition in the traditional sense.
I have written about 7,000 words on book number one and a bit on the other. I try and spend at least 6 hours a day writing, which if you think about it, is the most productive I have actually been in years -- years where I had gainful employment and took up space and time at a desk. And by gainful, I mean I showed up and pretended not to be totally surfing the internets all day and plotting how to sneak out to Walgreens or Star Bucks for a coupla hours.
Today I am getting a pedicure at the vietnamese place I have been going for many moons. They know your name and if they like you are complete smart asses in broken english. All of the women in the family have gone back to vietnam for an extended visit, so one of the guys may have to work on my hooves. I will never hear the end of it.
I want to make myself about 20 of the McCall's M5843 dress so I can live in them all summer. I've got all that great fabric with cupcakes and skulls and polka dots which are just begging to become cute skirts and sundresses.
I've mentioned before how much I love the Allsorts blog for inspiration, and that she's where I got the photo that I've been using as my color swatch for my living and dining rooms:
There are more pictures in her post. Her craft room is as big as my living and dining rooms put together, but so colorful and fun. I'm totally in love.
