First thing I did this…

First thing I did this morning was vacuum, while my tea was steeping. I've been in a sort of putting-my-house-in-order mood...not 'cause I'm planning to die or anything; just because. Because I'll be decorating for the holidays soon, and I like to start with a clean base. Because when I get harried, I get messy, and it's nice to clean up when things are slower. I spent a while yesterday reorganizing the medicine cabinets. It was very satisfying. :-)

Mostly yesterday I just sort of wandered around, doing random things. Around seven, David called, and we ended up talking for close to three hours. We hadn't had a long talk in a while; it was nice. After that, I watched tv and crocheted -- only one more set of rows (maybe an hour?) to finish the body of this piece. I always have mixed feelings about crocheting; I'm still unskilled enough at it that I make lots of mistakes at first, some of which I catch soon enough to fix them, some of which I only notice much too late. (I guess not too late if I were sufficiently anal, but c'mon -- it's knots, right? Who's going to notice a couple funny knots in the midst of a bunch of knots? I'm so glad I'm not a perfectionist...my life is crazy enough as it is. I think they must issue a limit on the number of neuroses they offer you ("Here, Mary Anne. You get: control freak, megalomaniac, borderline hysteric and possessor of a mild anxiety disorder. Have fun!")). My low skill level means that towards the end of a piece of crocheting, when I've finally figured out what I'm doing, there's a nice satisfaction in humming along, not making mistakes. Which usually happens just before the piece finishes -- and you're not even really finished, because when you finish the body, you have to do the edging, which is really just an opportunity to make a lot more mistakes. Especially if you messed up the body badly, so that the count on the edging doesn't come out right. (Sometimes I think I use counting more than I use spelling/writing. I mean, not really...I think? I find myself counting all the damn time, though.) I suppose as I get more skilled, this will all ease.

Anyway. I refuse to get anxious about my afghan; that's just silly. Things that you do for fun shouldn't stress you unless you actually like being stressed.

Other random things to do today: write a recommendation for a student, go over my cousin's high school admission essay (as the only English major in the family, I've become the default consultant on all such essays. I have over 50 cousins. Eek. Interestingly, they became much more active about contacting me for this stuff recently. I don't know whether this means a) they're just getting to the right age for it, b) the family is trying to welcome me back into its bosom, or c) they trust me to be more of an expert now that I'm in a Ph.D. program. My family is goofy.), clean bathroom and kitchen, revise my damn Wet intro. The last of the contracts should be coming in soon, and the book won't be truly done until they're sent back to Melcher and the intro is revised. It'll be so nice to be actually done with it.

I may check in later; Jenn and I are going to the art store this afternoon, so I might have cool book-type stuff to tell you about later (I hope I'm not the only one who finds bookbinding fascinating :-).

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