In response to previous post: You all are amazing. I can't even express my joy at the response to the Boston Love Blankets. Rena, coordinator extraordinaire, would like to start putting the blankets (plural!) together around May 8th, and get them done by Mother's Day, in case you're wondering about the timeline to get your squares in. With all my heart, thank you.
Random Things I Thought About Last Night Instead of Sleeping
1. I googled an ex-boyfriend yesterday. No, don't look at me like that. I know you do it, too, unless you married your high-school sweetheart before the internet was invented. And if that's the case, you're missing some primo google-stalking, my friend.
So I googled this guy. Not many hits–it's an unusual name. It wasn't until hours later, when I was in bed, reviewing my day (you do that, too, right? You don't? No wonder I don't sleep) that I remembered I got his first name wrong.
I spent years with the guy. And I got his first name wrong. Very wrong, the equivalent of Peter for James. Not even similar names, and the first name I chose (at random, apparently) wasn't the name of anyone I'd ever known.
2. I thought about how much I had to tell you, dear reader. I swear to you, I'm so funny when I'm in trying to fall asleep. Not funny as in interesting (because I'm not that unless I've taken Ambien in which case I'm super-interesting and will tell you how I'm being held by the Nazis and that your face looks like the finest mahogany) but funny as in ha-ha. I make up jokes that would SLAY you. Not only that, I'm smart, too! I write paragraphs that are so brilliant I'm completely sure I'll win MEGA PRIZES AND FAME (Pulitzer, anyone?) and then when I wake up, it's all just gone.
Last night in bed I wrote in my head for hours. I'm sure that all writers do this, and I wonder if other artists do it, too. Do painters lose sleep, painting in their minds things they can't recapture the next day? Do pianists imagine whole pieces in their minds, only to be unable to hear them again in the morning? (Speaking of pianist and creativity, go read this amazing piece on dropping the remote and grabbing your dream: Go now. I'll still be here when you get back.)
So last night, I couldn't wait to tell you about __________.
I'll let you know when I remember it.
3. Several people have asked me about traveling light. How much do I LOVE traveling light? So much that sometimes planning for travel is more exciting than the actual trip. (That's horrible to admit, right? But honestly. Think about it. Sitting in that cramped airplane seat? Agony. Sitting in your desk chair, researching suitcases? Straight-up JOY, y'all. Sometimes I actually reread luggage reviews in the middle of the night, just for fun. Huh. I'm seeing a pattern here.)
My question: does this deserve a whole blog post?
4. Just because, a Digit sighting (with the beast Willie) .
Looking more like the crypt-keeper each day. Still officially Not Dead, though! The older he gets, the more he allows other things to cuddle him.
Isn’t it interesting how we forget critcal details about people who are no longer important to us.
At least you are only doing the brilliant but transient composing just before falling asleep. I also do it while walking the dog and cutting the grass.
Hate it when I can’t remember the brilliant memo or powerpoint when I get to the computer
Awww Digit! Give that little old-timer a kiss from me, very carefully. 🙂
oh, sweets. a lovely post and also DIGIT! has he been tested for thyroid issues? I found much goodness at http://www.catinfo.org. it can hit older kittehs especially hard and is treatable. I’m sure you’ve already done that so I’m probably just easing my own cares but, you know, hadda ask. Love the old man, I do. you, too, for that matter.
hugs.
I have not forgotten the name of my ex-husband (yet), but so many of his family members that I used to know well have completely escaped my memory. And there are so many things (books, movies, adventures) that I can’t tell if I did with him or my current hubby 😉
Also, I have the most brilliant ideas when in bed or jogging or washing dishes, but know right there that even if I tried to capture them on paper they would not come out the way they sound in my mind. I need a recorder of thoughts. Is there an app for that yet?
Dear Rachael – I do write in my head when I’m trying to fall asleep, but now (because of you)I also knit in my head when I’m trying to fall asleep!
A) you are funny.
B) yes, it deserves a whole blog post. I either way over pack or way under pack, because I travel so seldom, I never get it right. But I am planning to be a whole new person who travels, so, please, impart your wisdom.
Ginnie
Will we get an email with an address for mailing the blanket squares?
Wow! Rachael, wonderful post. Plus you inspired me to listen to the pianist. Brilliant. Inspiring! I mentioned you in my FB Writing Page. . . You made my day! Now. . . I absolutely need to google my first “true love” . . . with whom, at 14, I envisioned the white picket fence, etc.
I lie in bed designing knitted things! Also YES, please write about traveling light. I’m going to SF in August and have lain awake looking at carryons on my phone, planning and plotting to not have to check any luggage! I need to pack for an 8 day honeymoon in one bag. With knitting.
Digit. <3 Good to see him. I need to re-read his return. Can't tell you how much I loved that story. If you wrote a book about him, I would buy it.
Sometimes I knit in my dreams. No joke, just plain knit stitch, over and over. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and think “Huh. I wonder what I was making.” But I don’t knit in my head to fall asleep. 🙂
I love seeing such an amazing community come together to create these blankets, and can completely relate with Digit. My lovely cat wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything until she turned about 16— she is turning 21 this year and all she wants is to be cuddled and doted on now.
I always do that night writing thing. I swear, my contrary mind just comes to life when I’m trying to fall asleep.
I have and ex boyfriend who I always, always call Ken. His name is Dylan. I know. To complicate matters further I have another ex who is actually named Ken and I swore over and over again (still do) that they had nothing to do with each other.
THANK YOU for sharing James Rhodes’ article. I was just pondering how there isn’t a long enough life left to learn about all the old and new things tugging.g at my brain cells. I just want to download all the books in Barnes and Noble directly into that hollow dusty pumpkin sized data storage unit on my shoulders and then…and then??? Hmm This will require mote coffee. A LOT MORE coffee.
Dear Digit so glad you’re still hanging with the world-you too are inspiring furry friend!
While recovering from illnes( and stuck at home already second week!!) I’m knitting those squares for the Boston Love Blanket(s).Its a great feeling that I can have a tiny part of this great project …so I started thinking about the family who lost a little boy Martin Richard and his little sister ,who lost a leg.Wouldn’t be wonderful to make a Love Blanket for his mother and maybe sweet pinkish-purplish-and whatever other colors a little girls love Blankie for this little girl, who lost brother, lost leg and to young, to early learned about Evil .Maybe cuddle in this pinkish cloud of her blankie soaked in love of caring strangers she will recover faster, maybe she will start believing again that people are good, that life is good. Anybody willing to make some more squares for another grieving mother and a very hurt little girl? I could be the contact and the final maker of at list one (might as well both blankets).
I am not a writer – but I have written some greats books/chapters in my dreams at night – a couple of times I have woken myself up by writting words with my finger in the air!!!
I thought you had already written a separate post about packing light, and I was JUST TODAY going to try to find it. So pretty please do! I’m leaving for Germany in 3 weeks! Also I just spent a few hours trying on every black stretchy yoga-ish, yet not, travel pants in REI and only found one maybe. So please cover what to wear to be comfortable on a long flight too? Thanks!
As I’m posting from the UK, if we could get a postal address for the blanket squares soon that would be really helpful as 8th May is not that far away. Thanks again for helping to organise this wonderful project.
I once wrote an entire novel in my dreams, was convinced I’d remember it and of course it disappeared the minute I woke up. Apparently your brain turns off its inbuilt self critic just as you fall asleep hence the influx of good ideas.
I am in the market for anew suitcase…. Bring it on
I love 2. And please do post about packing light. I just got back to Atlanta from trip to Taiwan with Husband and Baby. Ugh, the transpacific leg…
Thanks for the Digit picture. Whenever I need a good cry I just go re-read your post about when Digit came home and then cry my eyes out. Tearing up right now just thinking of it…
I have had dreams about dropping stitches! Over and over and over in the same dream.
I haven’t smoked in 25 years, but still have dreams where I can’t figure out if I smoke or not. Sheesh!
Yes, I totally review my day as I’m falling asleep. It’s in a state of semi-consciousness, automatic. I always think of it as my brain just sorting out the day while preparing for sleep. Like taking deep breaths. Love seeing Digit. I have an all black guy, Wally, just like him in the personality dept. Keeps things interesting around here. We’ve got stories. Just this morning he dropped a huge scrub jay next to my son at his computer. Yikes!
Oh, Digit, you handsome boy! And getting cuddly in your old age? So sweet!
Thanks for the link to that wonderful piece of music. My day was heading to crazy town and it brought me right back to sanity.
Also, if you are carrying on knitting, ensure that you only take bamboo needles. In Canada it is okay to have metal needles and most US cities I have travelled out of allow them. Mexico however will not always allow them thru. Cabo San Lucas allowed me thru and 6 months later in Cancun I had to take lace that did not have a lifeline in it, off the needles. To say nothing of a 6 hour flight with no knitting….
I would be enthralled by a post about travelling light, especially since I am planning a trip to Germany and I don’t want to sacrifice space in my backpack to underwear when it be better used for holding souvenir yarn.
sit up and start writing it down with paper and pen kept nearby for this purpose. Don’y actually get up to use a computer, it interrupts the flow.
This also good for things you’ve just remembered that are important.
Digit is the Abe Vigoda of cats!
I have finished my square but did not get email about where to mail.
Thanks
Ann Marie
Amfalsone83@gmail.com
Qqfmom@yahoo.com
YES! for a post on packing light. Yes, yes.
Just put an envelope together with 6 square, from me, my daughter-in-law, Bridget and my friend, Elena. It will got to the post office this afternoon. We would all three be happy to knit more if they are needed, or for any other blankets.
Thanks for the pic of Digit. He’s a loverly curmudgeon, isn’t he?