Rachael

Posted a crapload of Bethany’s pictures. Ow! You go, girl! I love her mascot, Stripes.

Whew. I made it to my new weekend (TWT). Didn’t know, for a minute, if I was going to make it or if I was going to just stay at work, forever. And ever. And ever. Like a record when it skips, like Bill Murray in Groudhog Day, I would stay in my headset, trapped at a computer terminal until I was old and grey.

Yesterday I managed to perfect my (new) morning routine. Up at six a.m. (OMG, usually just going to bed at that time), sat in the living room to check email and write a blog entry, made a little breakfast, DID MY WRITING (gold star, wheee!), took a walk, did a little yoga, took a shower and made it to work by nine. Felt like a million bucks. Then someone called in sick which meant I had to stay for twelve hours. And feeling so great and efficient, I volunteered to stay for fourteen. Dumb ass. Dumb ASS. Oh, yes, by eleven that night, I could no longer type. I MEAN it. I was writing words as they sounded in my head – I typed TIME instead of TYPE just because they kinda sounded the same and had the same number of letters. I couldn’t get a verb in the same sentence as a noun. Total disconnect occurred. It’s not that bad to work a fourteen, but not when you’ve been so very effing productive for the three hours prior to the shift.

Gawd.

Then, of course, I got home and Digit was making VERY good use of the while-the-cat’s-away thing and partying it up with the boys down the street. Never did get him inside – he rolled in about seven this morning, dirty and smelling like whiskey, yelling for his food.

And of course, I couldn’t sleep. I started another Booga J bag while watching the taped season finale of Sex in the City (I can’t help it – did anyone else besides Carrie and me (and I didn’t buy Carrie’s reaction) find Mikhail Baryshnikov hot? I could NOT believe I thought he was sexy. But I did. I didn’t expect that). Then I got in bed and read, expecting to fall asleep. Nope. An hour later, I gave up and sat up with a Koigu sock and a New Yorker and read for another hour. (Why didn’t you all tell me how great Koigu was? Oh, yeah. You did…..)

So it’s now almost one in the afternoon, I’m just getting up, and I feel like I’m back on my old schedule. Blast. And I’m also feeling lazier than hell. I had grand visions of laundry and cleaning out closets today. Ehh. Whatever.

Bored with myself. Means you must be, too. Off to be actively lazy. Yoipes.

That’s the thing about being sick. I missed a night at work, but by doing so worked some serious OT on the Wave-Along, and I’m DONE! And it’s HUGE!

And seriously, that Cascade Indulgence was some of the nicest fiber I’ve ever used, sooooo soft and whisper smooth and strong. It was really difficult to give it to Marama. But I did it, last night (after taking no less that eighty-two pictures of it. Not exaggerating. Difficult to get a good picture of dark grey yarn).

So here are some shots:

Just being finished on my lap, Adah helping the way she does best:

With Adah in the background for size reference (it’s about 70 inches long by 30 inches wide, I added two extra repeats across for a total of 116 stitches, on size 9 US, 4 skeins of Indulgence).

Folded up:

Wheee!

Oh! And the Wonderful Greta has finished her shawl, too! And hers has a great story behind its making. Whoo hoo! Anyone else? (remember, no deadline. Just whenever. That’s the way we play this one):

On a totally different subject, just to show you what happens in my brain when I’m sleepy, if you’re reading quickly (and you miss the word TOXIC) and you read this:

Toxic Flame Retardant Found in Breast Milk

You think, how cool! Mother’s milk really IS the best! Baby’s extra-safe, flame retardant built right in.

I dreamed this morning of being in on a rollercoaster ride, a rickety old one that had no seat belts, and it went around the side of a mountain. To the right was the ocean which was at first beautiful and then turned rough. Really rough. The rollercoaster took us right under and through great towering waves of water, hundreds of feet over our heads. We made it (barely) to the end of the ride. Isn’t this an odd dream for someone who feels pretty grounded right now? Other than changing shifts at work (which is weird but not life-transforming), I can’t imagine why I would dream so vividly of two such worrisome images. Can’t get more cliched than rollercoaster and wild waves, can you? Hmmmm.

[Oh, I just figured it out. It was the Wave-Along! Duh. What a ride!]

See? It takes all y’all whapping me upside the head to figger it out. Alison’s was the best: “Don’t worry about calling in sick, you knob. You’re SICK!” Oh, yeah. Then I guess it’s okay to call in sick.

Novel idea, eh? (hmmmm…. novel idea……)

It’s just that…. At some jobs, when you call in sick, your work piles up. You’re gonna be screwed when you go back, and other people may be inconvenienced if you’re not there, but their lives aren’t really overly affected. At my job, if my ass ain’t in the seat, someone else’s ass has to be there instead. You don’t close 911 due to staffing. So by calling in sick, I’m forcing my friends to have to stay twelve or fourteen hours, overtime that they weren’t planning on, probably cutting into plans that they already had, and they can’t say no. It’s forced overtime. It’s usually just easier for me to go to work sick.

Sick, no?

Eh. So it’s almost a relief that I woke up this morning still feeling awful. “Whew! I really WAS sick, wasn’t I? Hey! Good thing I didn’t go to work.”

(I think this is why I’m drawn to all things Catholic (girlfriends, candles, countries) – searching for a place to lay my guilt. At least if you’re Catholic, you have a REASON to feel guilty. Or at least a long tradition of feeling so. Being raised Episcopalian, I got nothin’ but some good hymns and a love of liturgical robes.)

(Judaism also appeals, gotta tell you.)

(It’s got to be wrong to be attracted to a religion for its romantic aspects, doesn’t it?)

(More guilt.)

(Now I’m just abusing parentheses.)

So I loved hearing the common-sense you all gave me. I’m taking it very very easy today, just knitting and reading, and then I start the new day shift tomorrow, Sunday morning! I’ll be healthy and happy and raring to go.

PS – That lick/spit thing worked SOOOO well in splicing the ends that I was actually able to go back and fix my glaring error in judgment. Thanks to Rob for suggesting it and Lisa for giving me great directions on how exactly to do it. If she hadn’t, I would have probably just licked the ends and done some kind of macrame-wishing dance that would have ended horribly.

PPS – I was noodling around, taking pictures of the thing that I always take pictures of: The Adah. Look, ain’t she purty?

And then I was feeling a little off, and wanted to scroll through the pictures on my camera, so I put my feet up on the divan and rested on my back on the carpet. This is what I could see from this vantage.

To my right:

To my left:

Overhead:

And looking down:

It only takes a second for her to settle in (and don’t expect my socks to match my pants on an in-house Saturday – I know yours don’t, either). Enjoy your weekend, all!

Erg. Sniffle. Whine.

I feel like crap, so will keep this short. Called in sick tonight, so feel even worse. But I couldn’t sleep all day – have been mostly awake since I got off work this morning – fever and bad tummy. That’s on top of the nose that doesn’t stop and the scratchy throat that feels like it’s heading to a cough. And I HATED calling in sick, especially since it was to have been my last midnight shift (new day shift starts Sunday morning), but I’m pretty positive I wouldn’t have made it to Sunday morning if I don’t rest tonight.

Which is worse? The crud or the guilt?

Need to get over myself. I don’t like me sick. Glad I live alone. I can throw my kleenex all over the floor until I get so disgusted I can’t see straight.

My friend Brandy cracked me up last night when she said, apologetically, “You know, I still like your blog, but I think I like your sister’s better!” And when I told Beth that this morning, she hollered with laughter, she was so happy. And so cute. Go see her.

1. Attempt open-heart surgery.
2. Have open-heart surgery.
3. Skydive.
4. Make evident your laziness by tying a knot between the two skeins of yarn and telling yourself you’ll just weave in the ends nicely.
5. Make evident even greater laziness by discarding the weaving idea and simply clipping the ends at the square knot.
6. Clip those ends closely (like, say, less than a millimeter, ‘cause you’re cool that way).

1-3 – No problem. What, you think I’m stoopid?
4-6 – Well. Yep. There’s the problem. Knitting back, the row AFTER I perform 4-6, the knot slips and I’m looking at VERY short ends rapidly unraveling (blast that gorgeous soft slippery fiber).

What do you do?

No. WHAT DO YOU DO?

I have no clue what the right answer is. I stopped breathing for a while but that gave me a headache. I swore a LOT. The cats went up onto the top of the refrigerator – where they go when the bad man picks up the trash outside or I run the vacuum. Then I kinda caught the loops that were now exposed, pulled the ends, caught some more weeping loops, got enough of the ends between my fingers to tie about seven (not exaggerating here) knots which are now sticking out in a twig-like formation and which I’ll have to sew into the finished shawl later (don’t tell Marama, the gift-ee). Still not sure it’ll hold. I’m having wild-man thoughts about things like a dab of Krazy-Glue on the last knot before I weave it in.

‘Scuse the French, but FUCK.

I tell you, it’s always right when I’m being smug, too. Pride goeth…. Look, how gorgeous and even and I ain’t done nothin’ wrong. Yep. What a great knitter I am! Let’s tie a knot!

Lordy. I need a drink.

And some soft kleenex. Still have the crud. Bleah. One of the things in life in which I believe most is the power of Kleenex ColdCare lotion tissues. I just ran out, so I’m off to the grocery store, where hopefully Bethany’s pictures are in – if they are, I’ll post some tonight on her site!

Unless it’s wool, don’t tie knots. You hear me? Don’t do it!