This Must Be Why I Usually Skip The Morning

But first, this just in:

Holy crap you guys, thank you for all your comments about this entry! I don't know many of you who commented and Blogger doesn't give me your email addresses, so I can't write you back (here's me pretending that I am ever good about responding to comments), but I do appreciate all the comments very much. :) The pattern in Phildar book #440. You could order the book from Amy's shop, you know. Yes, that is a shameless plug for a friend.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled blog entry:

I got up at 6:something this morning to go to the US Consulate and see a notary for a boring reason. Things I learned this morning:

1. Visiting a consulate is a way more dramatic hassle than I had expected. I suppose it makes sense and everything, but I was not prepared.

2. My husband know how to push my buttons. Thankfully, he uses this power for good, not for evil. (Crankzilla to Pollyanna in 5 seconds flat.)

3. I can get an ignorant, bile-spewing racist pigfucker on a crowded bus to shut his loud, revolting mouth, and without even swearing! I'm not very smooth at it, but the appalling asshole did shut up. I got called a lot of names to my back first, though (not surprising), as I walked to another seat on the bus. I can't believe no one else said anything to him.

All in all, this, the first morning of my attempted return to a more normal (ie. not nocturnal) schedule, was not a hit. I like 4 am much better than 8 am.

New Tiny Humans

Some of my very favourite people have recently (in the latter case, very recently) reproduced. And they both live too far away for me to meet the new small ones before they're less small. This makes me very, very sad.

Congratulations, little C and little T. You are lucky, lucky babies. I hope I can meet you soon.

Making A Thing For A Friend

Well, how about that? I have a finished thing to show you!



This little scarf is made from some of my precious handspun from Wendy Black. It was a gift for Susie, which I gave her tonight. This leads me to think about two things:



1. So far, with the handspun which I received from Wendy in exchange for the painting I did for her, I have made 4 small projects and given away one skein. The one skein I gave to Amy, because it screamed her name too loudly to ignore. The projects were:
- a small creature (a travel charm) for my brother Dan
- a Flower Basket Shawl for my Mom
- a "Chanson on Crochet" capelet for Bel
- this scarf for Susie. The pattern is from Phildar book #440, which is still available from their website, though I think it's only available in French. I made the scarf fairly short, to wear draped around a jacket collar, or fastened with a pin, or tied like an ascot, or... well, as an accessory. I love how it turned out, and it was really fun to make. Plus, it looks great on Susie.

I really, really want to make things for myself with this yarn, because I adore every single meter of it. Apparently it was instead designed to carry messages of love. Wendy, is this a trick of yours? I swear, I will make at least one thing for myself before this beautiful yarn is all gone!



2. Spending an evening with Susie is definitely in my top small number of things to do with an evening. Often when we hang out, I am reminded of the things I look for in a friend, now that I am old enough to have learned a bit about what I do and do not want in the people I choose to spend my time with. One of the things I was thinking about is this:

When I spend a few hours with a friend, I would like to feel replenished afterwards, instead of drained. I don't want to feel resentful, like I have given a friend the best of myself that I could during the time I was with them, and that it wasn't enough. I don't want to feel like I have poured myself into a black hole or a sucking wound. I don't want to feel used. Instead, I want to feel like I have shared and been shared with, and that my friend and I are both the richer for the time we spend together. That isn't to say that I can't be the shoulder to cry on for a friend who's had something bad happen or is going through a rough time, but I've been in friendships before where that was all the relationship consisted of, and I have to tell you, I'm done with it.

I feel very replenished tonight. :)

Well, Shit.

Wow. You know what's not a great pick-me-up when you're tech editing a book? Going to look at the errata page for the last book you edited. I was so, so scared and nervous the week before the book came out, for exactly this reason. It seems like every single knitting book out there has errors, but still... you try so hard to make your own work perfect.

Zak and I have this imaginary contract which delineates some of the conditions of our relationship. One of the clauses forbids ritual suicide. He keeps quoting this at me at times like these, the bastard...