the good and the bad

thankfully, there is no ugly.

There is, however, another irritating person in my Shakespeare class. The last 10 mintues or so of class, I spent 'angry knitting.' The five other girls who could see what I was doing were shaking with an empathic laughter. I say empathic because one or two of them were seriously eyeballing a golf club someone left in the room. Oddly enough, that person was sitting right beside this new person. Everyone was in a hurry to get out of that room. And not because it was ho and stuffy, which it was. A horrid thought: who will be paired with this new person for group presentations? Not me. I have sharp, pointy sticks.

In better news, I can spin. Somewhat. Think two seperate motions instead of one fluid one paired with uneven yarn and that is me. On the plus side, I bought some roving from BlueGooseGlen earlier this week and it came in today. I swear that I ordered it late Monday and it was in the mailbox today. I found them on Ebay while doing a search for roving within 200 miles of Memphis and their name popped up. Let me tell you, this stuff is gorgeous. And sooooooo soft. From what I have seen just window shopping on Etsy, Blue Goose Glen is priced reasonable. Here are some pictures of the roving. As well as the progress I've made on the Viola Waistcoat/Vest for Mom.

Karma is so going to be after me

I've been busy. See?






In addition to The Twin's cardis, I am on page 8 of my thesis. That means I have 7 more pages for Chapter 1 and 52 pages total left to write. Is that not wonderful? I have also been working and knitting. Lots of studying. And knitting. Long hours on the computer and no blogging. No clue why that is.

This past weekend was a knitting blast. I worked all Saturday at Stash where a rather large bookshelf of Rowan yarn and pattern books fell down. No one was hurt. Yarn is a little dusty but is now safe in boxes. Yesterday, I drove to Jonesboro for a Knit-n-Meet and meet some knitters from Ravelry. I would post a picture, but that would be verifying my existence. My buddy, Purl Fiddlestix showed up as a complete surprise and I have talked her into knitting Icarus. You must see it to understand. Here is one version of it.

This will all come back to get me, do not mistake me. But what will get me the most is that that person, whom will not be named, is not paired with me for Shakespeare presentations. I am with my second string designated smoker from Canada. My friends smoke, I knit, we talk, we put up with each others' addictions. Sadly, the new guy in class had no friend to sign his name. He has been paired with that person as the last group presentation of the semester. I feel slightly guilty for pairing up so early. But I honestly could not take it this semester. Karma will make me pay later.

cables of all kinds

So, I could be writing about how cool Macbeth is, because it is. The performance yesterday, a modern interpretation, was nice; not as good as the one I saw before, but still good. Or I could write about how I am enjoying the last few moments free of little girl giggling (the Twins have their BFF and her little sister coming over).

Instead, I am posting these pictures of Cable's three new hobbies:

1. Watching basketball on TV

2. Playing basketball with people in the TV

3. Knitting

I knew she was a smart cat.

But I must wonder back to other things. Like homework.

ay me, where have I been?

:looks at day planner: Oh, that's right.

Woden's Day was the first day of Shakespeare Tragedies. And for the fourth time, I have that person in class. For three hours. Where did all my good karma go for this to happen? I know he cannot help it, but why must we spend ten minutes talking about theature tickets and another fifteen minutes on why we need a course packet and how much it cost and how often we have to pay for it? I was very happy to have my knitting with me. Every time that person opened his mouth, I just kept knitting away. On small needles (US size 3/3.25 mm) using worsted red yarn. It is very tempting to knit a little voodoo doll, but I simply cannot justify the time/energy/yarn on it. I shall stick to angry knitting.

Yesterday, I wrote a thesis outline. Very rough mind you, but there it is all nicely typed out and saved in three seperate locations. Hey, if people were after you, you would be paranoid too. Or just scared that a part of your thesis might get erased.

I put in a full day of substitute teaching and have to escort the Twins to a birthday party tomorrow afternoon. So, I leave you with pictures of last week.

Top left clockwise (0r Top to Bottom): Mom and StepDad watching a parade, Twins seeing Princesses at Breakfast with Cinderella, Younger Twin watching a show, Elder Twin in front of Cinderella's Castle

we now continue with our regular programing

I am home. That word sounds so good. The vacation was great, do not misunderstand. It was just a day and night too long. And boy am I sleepy.

Thankfully, there was some miscommunication at the local public school today. Matriarch KS wanted me to sub for her in her special needs room but the office asked someone else to do it. Hence, I bowed out and came to Mom's to work on thesis. Right now, I really need to work on my thesis. Obviously I'm not. Brain is still out. And I have next to no clue what wavelength I was on, making it harder to tune back in.

I learned a valuable lesson in all of this: never take knitting on a family vacation with little 6 year old sisters when you leave your pattern books at home. I frogged a mitten twice. Thankfully, I also brought a pair of socks to work on (I am on the foot part so no pattern book was needed). But with all the running around, and holding/watching sisters while standing in line did not leave much knitting time. Still, lesson learned.

hello good-bye

the Twins are now officially 6.

only 2 days before the family vacation.

started reading Shakespeare (or will by this time tomorrow).

everything is a go for the semester.

so, hello good-bye!

the star

today is Epiphany Day. It's the last day of Christmas and is suppose to represent the day the Wise Men saw the Christ child.

I thought I would be reading that Shakespeare play today, but the only piece of Literature I've thought to read is James Joyce's "The Dead," a short story found in his book The Dubliners. I suppose it is not all that strange, considering the low feelings I've had all weekend.

The new preacher wasn't all that bad today. He actually wore a jacket at the pulpit, don't know why he bothered, last week he did not. The sermon was about when Christ threw the merchants out of the temple, and how the church needs to be a house of prayer and praise. My family was closer to the front than we are most of the time, but the preacher did not see (or comment) on my knitting during services. I realized during evening services that I almost wanted him to say something about it. Certainly the former youth minister who preached tonight had some things to say about it without coming out and saying them. I hate that the most about him. He has a hard time accepting different forms of prayer. And most of the time that is what my knitting is, a prayer.

In this light, the Elder Twin's cardigan/jacket is over 20 hours of prayers. Let this keep her warm, show her how much she is loved... I think God understands it. If he did not, I think knitting in general would feel different to me. True, I am beginning to lean on a more Buddhist form of Christianity, starting a year or so back. The core beliefs are so similar...I really like the quietness of the mind and soul quality. Still working on it, yet there is peace. And prayers.

guess what?

tomorrow is 12th Night. And the beginning of a KAL for the Shakespeare group on Ravelry. Speaking of which, for the past 4 days, every time I log in there are over 1000 other logged in as well. How cool is that?

Cable is starting to talk to us. For the longest time, she only yelped if she was hurt (stepped on her). Now, she is mewing just a little bit. Mostly as a thank-you when we feed her but also when she jumps onto something tall, like the sofa. I am just amazed at how far she's come. Yet another strong-willed woman around the house.

other than that, nothing major is going on here. I did the leg work for most of my Spring semester paperwork. Take this piece of paper and give it to someone downstairs. Then go sign this paper. Now go give a pint of blood to finish registration. Ok, so that last bit was an exaggeration. But I expect it will not be for long.

I've been working hard on my thesis. I feel so behind on it. But everyone here says I've done a lot on it. I still need to re-read and take extensive notes on the last 125 pages of The Little Minister. Mom and the Maternal Grandmother told me a few hours ago that I will not be permitted to take my laptop or my thesis related books. I may write things in a notebook if something comes to me, but no active work on it. I think I'll work on it for a few hours tomorrow afternoon. Just in case.

meditation on a thesis

have I told you yet that I have a study? It is really just a corner and some wall space in a room at Mom's house that sorta holds everything we do not have a place for. But it is my study space. Today, I spent some time taking many notes on Barrie's Window in Thrums (WiT) and putting ideas to paper. These slips of paper were then tacked to my bulletin board. I felt very productive. Like this whole thesis thing might actually be possible.

But as I was sitting back, enjoying this feeling it occurred to me that I am not very daring in my studies. For example, the majority of my peers at the UofMem department of English are into minority studies and real ground-breaking topics. One, FML, is defending her thesis on Lacon in Pullman's Dark Material novels (Golden Compass is the first one). Another is looking at the development of hip-hop from 'field songs' (there is a real word for this, but it escapes me at the moment). Then my buddy KMB is looking at Sherman Alexie and AfAm themes of identity. And these are just in the lit portion of the department, not covering the "Textuality" people I know. There isn't even a concrete definition of that field! (I define it as: words/a message and their/its presentation.) My understanding does not even begin to encompass it all. Yet last semester someone in class was working on the Dick and Jane books in a "Textuality" frame rather than a lit one.

My thesis just looks safe and unoriginal. I mean JMBarrie = Dead White Guy. No one in or out of the department has criticized or look down at me for my topic...minus the whole "classic elitist" incident (which I should just let go of). And yes, there are those who are working in the Medieval field. But I keep thinking I am just so blah.

Let's just write this off as stress and anxiety. I'll be over this in a few days. It would go much quicker if my full-bloodied sister was not spending the night for the second night in a row... Happy thoughts. Happy place. Oh, look! pictures of wool taken by me today (I had a bad moment in life, wool does wonders for those moments).

It's a sleeve to a top for me. Knitted today.

This is just the project in my purse. It's an "Odd Stripe Out" Scarf.

back, if only for a moment or two

And then I'm off again.

My life in a quick review:

1. My full-blooded sister is settling into an apartment. Everyone at church is happy to see her. Some are calling me by her name. I want to scream.
2. The new happy pills are wonderful. I feel nothing at all. No 'fog' or anything like that. And more importantly, no random crying.
3. I frogged some knitting stuff. It was a much needed and somewhat constructive form of relief.
   
4. I'm back to knitting. There were some recent days when I just did not feel like it. But now I am working on the Elder Twin's jacket/cardigan again and getting excited about it.
   
5. A seldom used room at Mom's house is being converted into a study space for me. I can work on my thesis from here and not worry about being disturbed or being in someone's way. We even have some big cork-boards up so I can tack and move points around.

But that's about all. Or at least all I want to talk about right now. So I'm off!