Update from Stepford

I am sitting on my couch, drinking a second cup of coffee, knitting my Rockin' Sock Club socks and doing laundry. If it is Tuesday, I have also cleaned the bathroom and changed the bed linens. This routine is not my favorite, but one of the ones I have adopted since moving into the house.

Mondays is grocery shopping and errand day. At least this week I didn't have the whole Stepford moment when I am pushing my cart down the aisle in synch with all the other women. That did happen a couple of weeks ago and I simultaneously wanted to cry and set my hair on fire running out of the store screaming that I was surrounded by fembots. Such is life when one has moved to demi-suburbia with nuns for neighbors.

While I cannot say that I love my routine, I will say that with all the festivities that have stretched from Christmas to last week that perhaps I need the old routine. That plus the fact since August, I have been operating at a deficit of calm, stability and balance in my life.

I hosted Christmas dinner. Why I thought that was a good idea, I will never know. Only a crazy person volunteers to host Christmas dinner barely a month into living in their new house. Then again, I think the whole move did something to my sanity that I am only now beginning to understand. Still, I pulled it off with a lot of help from my mom and mother-in-law. We had good food. My parents got to sleep on the Ikea futon whose purchase would have made an excellent reality t.v. show. Hubby got to be the man of the house and carve the goose. I got to be crazy woman whose only fear was that there wouldn't be enough food (genetic - maternal and paternal grandmothers' DNA).

The H1N1 State of Emergency ended, making it easier to plan my job life. The return to my at work routine has helped. I enjoyed working with all my co-workers from the different clinics and administrative departments during the special vaccination clinics. Still, I like my regular job and was really starting to miss it. Yes, I just can't stay away from tenements infested with cockroaches, bedbugs, and lead paint.

The house is beginning to feel more like my house, my home. I have given up caring what the neighbors think of my red and white polka-dot bathrobe. I am also able to find my way to the bathroom in the dark, which has come in handy. My mom helped me get the curtains up and the bedskirt on the bed in the master bedroom. Those were the finishing touches from a decor standpoint. I still have the whole organization part of the package to do, but at least it looks good.

After several months of not knitting a whole lot, January was my return to knitting. I sat down on New Year's Eve and started knitting again. I knit a pullover and hat for my nephew. Finished a couple of pairs of socks. Knit up a Baktus. Knit and then screwed up the lace edging on a Multnomah that is still in time out until I feel like ripping it back a few repeats. Just being able to sit down and knit has been restorative. Of course it helped that we had an artic cold snap making venturing out unappealing - even for work.

They say the groundhog saw his shadow today promising another 6 weeks of winter. I think he was just mad they woke him up with a cattle prod. Maybe he should repay the favor. I am knitting again, so at least I will stay warm.