Friday, March 27, 2009

How a bad week ends well

Yesterday, I spent time talking to recruiters. I won’t be silly enough to call it time well spent, but it was the kind of thing I’m going to be doing a lot of in the coming days, until I figure out some way to get my half of the income really flowing.

Today, though…ah, today.

First, I spent some time going through my personal library looking for Ideas. Found some good ones, and started the process of doodling out what might work for a tertiary income stream – basically, taking things I enjoy and making a little cash on them. I had some amusing ideas, which made the morning go really fast.

Then I met with my Gran for lunch. We fought over the check. She won. AGAIN.

Oh sure, you’re all saying, “C’mon, Tama, she’s what…102 by now? You couldn’t outwit her? Couldn’t manage to snatch the check right from under her rheumy eyes, whip it away from her arthritic hands, outrun her when she threatened to break your neck for it?

Listen, seriously, for your own safety: Don’t tangle with her. She says she wants the check, give her the check. Broken wrists are expensive, and furthermore she can slap a wallet out of your hand so hard you will need a spacesuit to retrieve it. FEAR HER!

Anyway, we overstayed our welcome at the restaurant, then regrouped at Starbucks where we hooted and hollered and drew irritated glances from extremely out of sorts Yuppies (who are these two Not Us People? They don’t even have laptops with them, GASP!) (furthermore, we dissed the Twitter, oh yes we did) (I’m sorry, but I just don’t see Twitter being a thing for me…what am I going to say? “Going into bathroom now.” “In bathroom now.” “Oh my god, I really need to clean this place.” “Leaving bathroom. Nothing to report.”).

I love that woman so much. She’s ornery, devoutly Catholic, passionate about family and so in love with my mother, and her grandkids, and her great grandkids…well.

Grandma’s unwavering belief that you are the smartest, cutest, most able, absolute hands-down most brilliant little bundle of adorable that ever was goes a long way toward restoring your faith in yourself.

Then I came home and made these.

Variegated

This is me, doing variegated sock yarn. Which I said I wasn’t going to do because I am done with variegated sock yarn, but hey, that was what, five minutes ago? And besides, I wanted to play. So…there they are.

I like this one because it got kind of…sprinkly. The white just seemed too white, so I took a spoon and flecked the white with color. And it turned out pretty darned cool!

variegated

Yes. That is a watering can behind them. I catch the water in it every morning while I’m waiting for the snow melt from Antarctica to become warm water for washing my face – then I use that on my houseplants and rose bushes in the back yard. I do things like that because Hello, I am from California where we have drought, drought and more drought.

Another thing that helped this week end well was the realization that something on my counter was extremely stupid…and extremely easy to fix.

Bad choices

One of these is hair gel. The other is face scrub.

At 5:00 in the morning? Yeah. More than once, mistakes were made. And then suddenly it dawned on me: Heyyyyyyyyy, ya know…maybe I shouldn’t keep those two more similar than not at five a.m. tubes in the same container on my counter!

And that was the last time I put sand in my hair and super-hold gel on my face. (Unfortunately, this means my chin hairs refuse to lie down neatly, so I’m back to plucking. Or would be, if I could see the little @*&^@ers…which I can’t, because I need new glasses. Let’s take one problem at a time, shall we…?)

The other thing on the counter is the finally-dry pair of Loksins. Let me put a picture up…no, too dark…still too dark…let’s try ACK! Memo to me: pedicure, STAT! How about…wait…here we go…

Classy!
Classy! (Oh hush. At least I didn’t put on my pajamas first. Or parade around in only the socks, because people…that might have broken my poor little camera.)

This week had a lot of sitting around being anxious time (next week has a CAT scan for my husband! Oh joy!!), which naturally means…socks. I’ve been wanting to actually make these forever, so…here they are!

This pattern was a pleasure to knit. Fussy enough to stay interesting, not so fussy I was in tears – and I was pretty teary all week, so it wouldn’t have taken much to push me into outright hysteria. They are comfortable to wear, light and loose, but holding their own in terms of slouch.

Me likee. Me will do ‘gain.

I used Lisa Souza’s Sock!, which as always performed brilliantly. The generous skein has left me with plenty for a pair of Denizen knee highs. Memo to me: If I ever do start selling sock yarn, 450 yard skeins ROCK. $9.75 175 yard balls do NOT. Thank you, amen.

And of course, the last thing that popped my week into happier territory is, well, kid-stuff.

They really are my little Army of Chaos. My medics, dispensing cuddles and votes of confidence when I’m feeling low. Willing to help out with chores. Laughing. Playing. Showing off their schoolwork.

Saying I’m the best mommy ever.

Even if it isn’t true, it surely does make a mommy feel a lot better about Stuff, that.

5 comments:

Elizabeth L in Apex, NC said...

It sounds to me like everyone on the planet needs to have dinner with your Gran! So glad you were able to sneak in a joyous encounter - you certainly deserved some fun (and who says torturing Yuppies isn't fun?). Your yarn is very fun, I especially like the 'sprinkley' white. Will be thinking of hubby this week; let us know!

PipneyJane said...

I hope your DH is OK and that the CAT scan shows up nothing more than one of those "Mr Chaos, we can confirm that it is an old dice imprint from the time you were hit by a D20 back in 1995" injuries.

Good luck with the recruiters.

- Pam

Unknown said...

Oh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who is not tweeting! I teach teenagers, and I feel like I spend all day listening to disconnected conversations. I certainly don't feel like reading or writing them. I used to have those sorts of check encounters with my mom. Of course, there was also the uncle, who when the check got close to the table, said, "I'll get the tip!" That became something of a family joke.

Steph B said...

So glad your week ended well! And how lucky are you to still have your Gran? That is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love.

Yarnhog said...

I had a similar problem with the toothpaste and the Preparation H, but you only make that mistake once.