Archives for August 2004

All right, so the truth is I could barely walk yesterday. Shin splints are weird things. Yesterday they kinda wrapped up around my knee and said, “Hey, Stupid! You’re a damn knitter! Get a clue!” So I said take this! And walked briskly around the block. After trying all day to ease the muscle pain with various remedies, the walk was the only thing that did it. Motion for motion. Always a good thing, y’think?

But the rest of the day yesterday? I had such a good time. I spent most of it on my couch, either with my legs up on the wall, or nested up on pillows. I knitted a LOT. I watched plenty of TV. I read half a book. I got in my bed at four and pulled up the blanket at the foot of the bed (because it’s not a nap if you get IN the bed, or at least it’s not to people who work midnights. Sleeping in the bed during the day is just sleep). I’m a horrible napper, though, and my cats are horrible nap-enablers. Adah decided at 4:15 that it was time for dinner and walked over me, again and again. Crying. Howling. Whining. Stopping long enough for me to believe that she might be giving up, and then starting again. I actually yelled at her at one point and felt terrible about it. One, I just don’t yell, and I know I wasn’t convincing. Two, yelling at a cat? That’s low.

So the nap was unsuccessful. But the resting wasn’t. Damn, I’ve wanted a day like that for a long time. The only thing wrong with a day like that is that it doesn’t make you want a similar day any less. Confusing sentence. You know what I mean. Then yesterday evening was spent with a banjo girl, so that was nice, too. Cain’t beat a big-ass burrito, ice cream, happy dogs, and “Cluck Old Hen,” played clawhammer, and fast. Nope.

And now, today. Tuesdays are my days to get everything done. Today is laundry-doing and grocery-shopping and phone-call-making and house-cleaning, and that’s all before I go in to work tonight. But I’d still like to be on the couch. I am, at heart, extremely lazy. Really, I am. You know what I’ve put off recently? This is only a partial list of the things I need to do or schedule TODAY:

Take cats to the vet.
Go to the dentist.
Call realtor with awkward questions.
Get the car a tune-up, an oil change, a smog check, fix the front headlight, and pay the registration that’s four months late (oh, and a wash wouldn’t hurt, either).
Buy toilet paper (I’m two squares from a kleenex moment).
Put a zipper in that last sweater.

I know there are more things that need to be done today, but I’m too lazy to find the list. This is true. Dude, I am able to put off procrastination. I may knit a lot, but there are dust tumbleweeds under my couch. Good thing I rested up yesterday.

It’s late Sunday night. Dunno, might be Monday morning. Oh, yeah, it is. I’ve got fiddle music playing low in the corner, and half a glass of red wine to my left hand. Adah and Digit are both sleeping, sensible creatures that they are. I’ve been catching up on my TV watching (doesn’t that make it sound onerous? It wasn’t). I had three Six Feet Unders stacked up, and Oh. My. God. That’s the only show during which I weep, and it’s not usually anything major that elicits the tears—it’s usually a glance between the siblings, or the mother sitting on a sofa, staring ahead. I’ve only had a total of one glass of wine—I can’t blame it on that. It’s just such a good show.

Dang.

My friend Marama and I ran ten miles today. I know! I’m terribly impressed myself. It was actually ten miles plus a little—we didn’t have an exact mileage, but it was a bit over. I like to think it was four(ish) miles over, but it was probably more like a quarter-mile or so more than ten. We ran around Bayfarm Island and then out to the ferry terminal and back again. The best view in the world, I tell you. Long paths along grassy areas, nothing ahead of you but the bay and the San Francisco skyline, the Bay Bridge, and Alameda. Sailboats. Pelicans. One lone, tall heron. A million squirrels. A few bunnies. One jackrabbit. We saw more wildlife than I’ve seen in months. (It was a little unnerving, actually.)

Ten miles is a long way, yo. But it only took us two and a half hours, and that’s including stretching and bathroom breaks. That doesn’t sound too bad to me. Actually, sounds pretty damn good. Then, of course, I’m struck with the thought that while we were running, looking at the City, Mariko was running IN the city, in the Chronicle Marathon. I believe she finished the 26.2 miles in three hours and forty-three minutes, according to Joanna. Holy crap. I can guarantee you that had I run another hour and thirteen minutes, I would have completed maybe half that much. Can you imagine? She rocks!

She and Joanna and I went into the City (yes, it DOES have to be capitalized) yesterday afternoon.

Joanna was signed up for the 5K and Mariko for the full monty, and they both needed to pick up their packets. I just wanted to watch how registration went for a Great Big Marathon.

It was pretty cool, actually. Did you know there’s a computerized chip that you pick up, that tracks when you start and when you finish? And I’ve heard that you can actually track on line where a runner is in our marathon. I don’t know if I want to tell you all how to watch me run in December. You’ll see every pitstop I make….. Every time I sit on the sidewalk and cry….. Eh. Shaking it off. Okay.

Then of course, since we were downtown and Mariko had never been to Mecca (as Ann calls it), we had to make a journey. I bought nothing. Neither did Joanna. Mariko took care of that for us. Hee. (That’s the sound of the enabler’s guilty giggle.) Then we headed back to Oakland, where we hit Article Pract. I think I was the only one to buy anything there. I need to make a scarf for the lovely, lovely man who is selling me two tickets to Strawberry Music Festival, and I’m making a Secret Thingie, too. All to be revealed in good time. Cromarty works apace, although she seems to go NOWHERE. I’m about half-way done with the front, the last piece. And I made a pair of socks last week for my dear friend Trish’s birthday. They had been on the needles a while, but they flew off when I put my mind to it (that, strangely enough, was right about the same time I realized I had missed said birthday. Damn it). I have to tell you: Bernat Denim Style is fabulous for thick QUICK socks. Machine washable and dryable. Who knew? I just pulled one ball out of my stash, and I’m so happy I did. And no wrong can be found with Wendy’s pattern.

Ack! I forgot to list and thank the Skinny Rabbit for sponsoring me, too! How could I have missed that? She bowls me over on a continual basis with her knitting and her beautiful boy and her dancing, so thanks, Becky! Mwah!

Enough typing. I think I’m tired. Oh, yeah. Ten MILES! And the shins aren’t bad at all. Swear. Ya-hooo!