Weekend Update

This weekend I was "out of town" visiting my old college friend Cece. Usually I'll visit for the day but this time we had a sleep over and I came for breakfest on Saturday and left after dessert on Sunday. It was great, and just like old times when I lived with her and her husband when I first moved to the area. The goal of the weekend was to finally get her yarn room in order and relax. Unfortunately (more for her I think), I was a bit more focused on the first task. We had done this once or twice before, but only gotten about 3/4's of the way through, which doesn't quite work. This time, we made it!! Cece posted some pictures on her blog which I've lifted. Of course, as is always the case, we forgot to do the before pictures. But just imagine a room, where one forgets the color of the carpet - bags and boxes and stuff everywhere. We've all been there (maybe not with yarn, and maybe with yarn).

Now the funny part was that Cece was strangely apologetic throughout which was strange and it got me thinking. It all boils down to two key ingredients in keeping organized. First, every place must have a home. If that hasn't been idenitified, you just have things that turn out to be transients, floating from one spot to another. The second, is that unless you don't have a life or you are OCD, you need a designated holding ground. That is, a place to dump. It's fine to keep things that you don't use, and keep projects you've given up on but aren't ready to part with. You just have to have a home for them.

Well, Cece was very patient with me and we worked through everything in the room. The fun/dangerous part for me was seeing more of her stuff (I did end up borrowing a few knitting books that might make me cast on a few too many projects). And she did an awesome job of cateloging the majority of her yarn onto Ravelry (type, brand, colorway, and quantity of each yarn). It was crazy.

And the best part? We did the closet. Everythign is sorted in there. And if you've organized with me, my favorite mantra came true - like with like. We were able to display some of her awards (see the ribbons in the closet) and other stuff that were tucked away out of sight.

Now granted, even though all the needles are separated and sorted by size, and the yarn in the cubbyholes and the books on the shelves, we still will have a follow up visit. I'd like to go through the patterns and get those organized in her great system of binders. And of course, want to spend more time with her books, to make sure they're sorted properly. And of course, I was finding that as we put the yarn away in the cubby's, I had grossly underestimated the quantity of purple, so wouldn't mind readjusting some of the skeins of yarn. But that's really just me and everything is in working order which is good.

In other news, I had forgotten to take a picture of the one knitted Christmas gift this year. Dad is hard to shop for, so I had a great pattern I wanted to try and since it didn't have any sleeves, thought it would be a quick knit. It turned out to be a bit short in the torso, so had to rip it out some in early December, which put me into the time crunch. But I finished in time, before the year was out. It's another Rowan pattern from Rowan Classic Alpaca, size Large. I knit it with some wonderful wool yarn purchased back in my Berkeley days. The pattern is called Cambridge man and dad says he likes it (which is good) and it seems to fit. All though I want to reblock teh bottom so it doesn't poof so much, but that's just me.

Last Night

Boy, when it pours it rains. No blog entries for weeks and then, boom a ton all at once. I'm just worn and have been doing some thinking, so assume this must be why. So two pieces of information to report on.

First, when I got home last night, I was surprised to find I had a good mail day. My mail isn't that exciting and is sometimes non-existent (at least I don't get tons of junk mail). But last night, what was waiting on my steps to my apartment? Three great Netflix movies (the sight of the red envelopes still lifts my spirits). I finally broke down and got Little Miss Sunshine. Too many people said I would love it. But I guess I really should see it. I also got Ma Vie En Rose (netflix thinks I would love the film), and The Aviator (as I had enjoyed the Hoax that is based on Howard).

But in addition, I got: no bills, no junk mail, a hand written note from my local Yoga studio (dad got me, as requested, several sessions there - they seem like a nice little family and I am still hopeful this will be the magic pill and solve all my problems. Ok, I'm realistic, maybe not all, but am hoping my body will start feeling better. Especially now in the winter, I find I can't sneeze or cough as it kills my lower back - it's in pretty bad shape).

And the best part was not one but two personal letters from friends and family. And the kicker, they both sent pictures. Which of course, I share with you now. The first one is from an old college friend, Emilia and is of her beautiful daugher Griet. Isn't that a gorgeous sweater? Thankfully it's still a little big. I had pretty much knit it this summer, but took, oh, I don't know, 5 months to get around to sewing it up and sending it off. I was a bit worried that the opportunity would have been missed, but it was part of her rockin' New Year's Eve attire.

The second is from my cousin's in CT. We had gone camping this summer and Catherine sent some shots from the trip. We had a great time and it was nice to be reminded of the care-free summer days spent swimming and biking and hiking now that winter is on us. Don't Tyler and I look so cool? We were trying to be all laid back - plus were a bit worn out.

So all in all a good mail day. But I didn't get much time to enjoy it as I had to quickly switch gears and, yes, Richard and I ended up parting ways last night. It took awhile to get all the ornaments down. I really had a hard time getting the ones up on the top. The star I couldn't even get down, had to dismantle the tree first to get to it. I hacked away at the branches and tied them up. Maneuvered the tree down the stairs and to the curb. And then cleaning up all the needles. There were tons. And he was doing so well. I guess his time had come after all. I spent an hour cleaning up the porch and stairs and am afraid my apartment is strewn with needles as it was too late to vacuum and the boys keep tracking them all over the place. The living room looks really weird. Imagine a rectangle. At one of the short ends is a bookcase of yarn. On the opposite side is the couch and table in the corner. And in between. Nothingness. A huge expanse of void. Not quite sure what to do, but figure vacuuming comes first.

I miss Richard, and did catch a glimpse of them picking him up this morning. He was a great tree and will be one to be remembered for years to come.

I Think I'm Getting Old

First, I should preface that I know I've aged since starting this sentenance. But it's all relative and it's the scale of things really that one considers. But all of a sudden, this afternoon, I just realized that time has been going by really fast. It's like in the movies where they have the character frozen in time staring at the camera while the world behind is moving in accelerated speeds. Well, I feel like that guy the second the two times are reconnected - all of a sudden tons has changed. And where was I when this all happened?



This feeling began last night. I had a wonderful time meeting up with some old friends for dinner. It was at a place near work which was very busy and loud in the bar but perfect in the dining room area - not too crowded and easy to hear things. I'm finding that I've started picking locations based on the noise level since it seems that I just don't have the patience to deal with not hearing very well nor straining the voice to be heard.



Anyways, it was a nice happy reunion with Maggie and Nima who I had gone to highschool with as well as meeting Nima's wife. We've been pretty much out of touch since highschool which ha been quite awhile. We had a fun time chatting, mainly about politics and changes in the old home town and our lives. It was just what I needed, a nice change of pace and a relaxed evening. We ended up not being able to catch up as much as we had wanted so will hopefully reconnect again soon, but the time just flew. I didn't get home until midnight which meant this morning was a bit rough. The old body just isn't great at the late nights.



Talking, I discovered that Nima's wife who is a teacher has to deal with students and their ipods (did you know in her school they are allowed to listen to them during class?) and cell phones and stuff like that. We were talking about texting and although I did finally discover the wonderful pros of texting, I have a fairly limited texting quota I perform.



I think it was an evening of accumulated things. Here I was with professional, grown-ups, talking about grown-up things. And it was strange because the last time we were together was when we were kids. And comparing notes about how things have changed back home just made it all the stranger. I have to admit we did throw out the phrase "back in our day" a couple of time. But the times really have changed.



Really, the kicker came this afternoon at work. I was eating some M&Ms and I look down and think to myself, I don't recognize these anymore. They were completely different. And I know they had changed, but it hadn't really sunk in, or it snuck up on me, or it was a gradual change, I don't know. But there in my hand were orange and yellow and brown and green and blue and red M&Ms. It was all different - where did the red M&Ms come from and blue?! Who makes blue M&Ms? That's just strange. And really, what happened to the two shades of brown M&Ms? It was just a complete mess, sitting there in my hand. Without change where would we be? But did we really have to change the colors in M&Ms? And why hadn't I noticed? It's going to take some time for me to get used to this. I just hope there aren't any big things I've missed lurking out there around the corner waiting for me to run into.

Is it time to say goodbye?

Quick post here before I head off to a meeting, but wanted to jot down the question I have been wrestling with recently. Whether or not to keep Richard longer? So the paper said that the Christmas tree collection occurs on your regular trash day of the week of 1/7. Well, that's this week. I had planned to denude the tree this past weekend but didn't have the heart and even ended up putting some additional recently found/created decorations on the tree.



Then last night, as I was heading home late in the evening, I turn the corner onto my street and there all up the block were several tossed Christmas trees on the curb. They hadn't been there in the morning, so it got me worried that the collection day wasn't my trash day (thursday) but the next day (tuesday). My initial instict was to quickly bring the tree out that night. But frankly it was about 9:30 pm, I hadn't had dinner yet, and taking the tree out wasn't as simple as taking the garbage out. I still had to take all the decorations off, the lights, double check I got all the decorations off, and then proceed to chop the tree to pieces before bringing it to the curb (don't forget Richard is fairly large and heavy and it took two grown people to bring him in). And then I would have to bind up all the branches and bring them out too, then clean up the fallen needles in the common area of my apartment so that I didn't leave a mess literally at the doorstep of my landlords. And, well, the thought just exhausted me. I just wanted to make a quick dinner, curl up on the couch, watch tv and knit (I'm so close to being done this wonderful caridgan, I can't wait - please let it fit the first time around).



So that's what I did. And as I sat, in the company of Richard I started wondering why I was listening to what other people were telling me to do. Shouldn't it be Richard and I who decided when to end the relationship and part our ways. I value friends and family's opinions but they didn't provide the final verdict, and especially not the local municipality. It was a private matter and should be decided upon in-house. Just because my city set a date for our departure, does that mean I should abide by it. I really like Richard. He's been a great companion, so big and warm and always welcoming me home in the evening with a twinkle in his branches. And he's been good, actually great. Over the holidays, I was worried I would find him keeled over from the boys playing with him (the base isn't that large after all and he is tall and friendly). Or at the least completely dehydrated and on his last legs (again the boys use his water - he's very sharing like that). But no, both times I got back after a week away each time, he was good. Just how I had left him, patiently waiting for my return.



And this weekend, while I was cleaning up my holiday mess and he was standing by happy I was home, I noticed he was still in good health. He should have been on his last legs by now. It was exactly a month ago that I first met him and chopped him down. And was he dropping his needles? Not at all. In fact, even when pulling on the branches not a needle fell off. He's still in the peek of his health. And I've grown accustomed to his company. Frankly, I don't know what I will do with the space in the living room when he leaves - about 2/3's of the room will just be empty. So why rush into that situation? Why can't we spend some more time? Yes, I know it must end one day, in the next month or two (or three), but until then can't we be together. But when it does end, what do I do then. Where do I bring him? How do I bring him anywhere? It would be easiest to part ways this week, but is that the right decision? Am I short changing our situation?



Well, that's the question. The answer I don't know. We have until Thursday (well Wed night really - tomorrow night). I almost hope the pick up was today and I missed it. That would be the easiest.