Last Week Thursday

I am a bit behind on what I wanted to post. I wanted to remember the good night I had last Thursday. My coworker, Noah, had cued me in to the free Thursday night at the Museum of Fine Arts, specifically the special exhibition: Americans in Paris, 1860-1900. (FYI, I would have had to spend $39 to see this).



I ended up going with another coworker, Colleen and her fiance Mark. It was interesting viewing the collection with them. She was a bit more rushed going through, he was a bit more slower, contemplative viewing the exhibit and I was in the middle. This Sargent was one of Mark's favorites as it reminded him of his time visiting the gardens at dusk when he was last in Paris.



For me, I had fun remembering where I had seen some of the collection (they were paintings gathered from all over: Tate, Paris, National Gallery...). It was another hot night, but it put me in a pleasant frame of view (that's not quite the right saying, but hopefully you get the gist) and I thought I should really take advantage of the city sites more often (than I remembered the prohibitive cost). Still it was a good night and have made a resolution to visit the art museums more often.

Interesting Mail Day

The weather finally turned last night, but I was not feeling well this morning so took the first part of the day off and came into work after lunch. The T has been busier being the alternative mode of transportation these days and I ended up stuck for a half hour at Central station - not pleasant, but at least the air was going and so it wasn't too uncomfortable.



The upside was that I got my mail for the day - a letter from Jenny Telling an old friend I used to babysit for when I was younger. She had me to babysit when needed, but my regular gig was coming aftershool every Thursday to watch the kids. I started in middle school when it was just Sally but after 6 years it was up to three kids with Ned and Rob added to the mix. I go to college, they move to Vermont. We still stay in touch a bit. I stop by their place before heading off to California and Sally teaches me how to knit (she learned in her Waldorf school). I move out west and they move over seas and we loose touch. Fast forward almost 10 years and I hear that Ned (the middle kid, the one on the right who looks alot like my brother in this picture) is graduating highschool! They were frozen in my mind as kids - young kids - now it looks like they are all taller than me!



Second piece of mail is an email from a guy, Danny, that a friend set me up with. We are working out when to meet up and he included a picture. At first I was relieved, he seemed nice and was kind of cute. But now I kind of wonder about his photoshop skills and whose kids are those! It's a bit strange after you look at it for awhile. He seems really nice though and has parental approval in the form that Joanne's mom knows him.



The dilema is that my friend/coworker Collen is having a bachelorette party saturday, Jenny just invited me out to an island off of Martha's Vineyard this weekend (Sally and Rob will be visiting then), and Danny suggested getting together saturday night. Plus, I'm going to go out to the Cape next weekend (welfleet) to celebrate the opening of a building I have been working on and could visit Jenny then (but not Sally). I'm still trying to figure out if I could fit all three into the same weekend!

Missing Sleeve

This weekend was busy with my cousin Catherine, Tyler (her 5 year old) and Barry (her husband) being in town for several days. Saturday we went in to the city to visit Faneuil Hall area (when I first moved here it took me a month to realize people weren't saying Nathaniel) . It was a hot and muggy day and there wasn't much to do other than walk around a bit and watch several street performances.



The first act was a group I had seen before up in Salem, MA - the acrobatic family. They weren't as full of energy as before, but imagine it was due to the sun zapping their energy. They were funny and well polished and it was interesting to see them twice that day. The second act was this guy who did similar acrobatic and juggeling things, but wasn't as well practiced which was fine until he was up on a ladder balancing, trying to pull off his finale - wasn't sure if he would actually make it - it's not like there are any mats or safety harnasses. He survived though and all was well. The last act we saw was a group of dancers - a combination of acrobatics and break dancing. At one point they had Tyler participate from the audiance and he was tickeled pink.



This weather has not been good, but am glad I got the futon as I am using my back room the most as there is an AC unit in there and because it is such a small room, it cools down much quicker than the living room which has the high ceilings. Plus no real direct sunlight comes in so it is cooler in that back room. With the futon I can enjoy watching movies and still keep knitting in this humidity. I made good progress, (having finally, completely memorized the cable pattern, no need for the instructions), and am almost done a sleeve. I was looking and looking for the first sleeve I knitted to compare lengths and make sure they match up before I start shaping the top and I can't find it. I started questioning my sanity, thinking back whether I had actually knit a sleeve already or if I had imagined it. But I must have, I have been knitting this sweater for so long, it can't be that I still have a whole 'nother sleeve to knit. I'm supposed to be almost done! So it's been bugging me for several days now.



This morning I am checking my regular blogs I read, ending up with mine and reread my last entry. Besides realizing that I have been misusing a lot of words (i.e. 'core' instead of 'chore', 'there' instead of 'their' - and who knows how many misspelled words there are, since I never did master spelling), I am able to put the sleeve question to rest. I mention starting the first sleeve and this is last Wednesday, and with having company since Thursday, I know I haven't knit two sleeves in that time. So, sadly, it seems I still have one more sleeve to go. I am so ready to finish this sweater. I keep noticing some of my outfits I am wearing while knitting and think how nice the sweater would go. I need to rally and try to finish the last sleeve this week - although I think it might take me two weeks, as the subway and bus have been more crowded of late due to the big dig tunnels being closed due to the collapse and death last week. But want to finish this sweater up by the end of the month as I, along with the TA department, might be working at my boss's who also lives in Arlington, which means I get to ride a bike to work along the Minute Man bikeway. It should be a nice ride, especially in the early morning before it gets too hot. Only it means no more knitting during commuting!

Pounce

So, I forgot to mention my new thing for images (since I can't get my act together and upload photos taken - honestly, it just takes the first time and than I will fall into a pattern - so she thinks): SIGNS. You got to love the plethora of strange, unusual or in this case, contridictory signs there are out in the wide world. I have to admit that I found this on a personal post on craigslist (that is a scary place - the personals - the other sections are great - got a futon and an apartment from craigslist).



I have been good and even though my latest sweater is taking forever - the common knit and knit and no progress phenomina is kicking in, I haven't started any new knitting projects. Although I do have several ear marked and all lined up to jump into when I finish off the existing ones. The other day I thought I saw a ghost (or something in that venue) as I was reading my friend's blog and there my sweater was - all done and finished (but yet the first sleeve, half done is sitting in my bag, how can this be). I swear it looks almost identical. The same cables, the same pearl seed stitch along the button strip, the same rolled collar, the same color even. Once you see MY finished project (whenever that day might be) you will think it's eerie. One difference is that my version of the sweater is for me, hers for a baby.



And on a final "good thing in my busy life" note, even though it is chaos at work (too many people in one space - one room), there is a chore group of us that are hooked on a "new to me" card game called Pounce. It's like playing Speed or Spit (if you are familiar with those fast moving card games) combined with Solataire (similar structure), but with multiple decks and the more players there are the more chaos. I am addicted, but luckily so are three other people. So sometimes one of us can't play at lunch or during a break because of some deadline, but there is guaranteed that three of us will come through and play. I love it and it reminds me of my time in Wales during my study abroad. There were three of us (me, cec and joanne) who just would play Hearts endlessly and than we have other people we knew who would join us (as it is meant to be played with four really, especially if you are trying to shoot the moon - hee, hee). It was a great time to just chill but another aspect is you really get to know how each person plays, their style and then their is that added component to the game. Hopefully it will last, although at the end of the month we will all be separated (our office lease is up and our new office construction is completed yet, so we be splitting up the staff based on what makes sense of who goes where), so I guess we won't be able to play, but is only on hiatus until we move into our new space and are reunited once again!