Well, the mood at Rancho del Rubicon has been a little cranky. Midterms will do that to a person – that and a hubby who is suffering from back pain who refuses to go to the doctor, make an appointment for acupuncture, or a massage. Then again, when you click on a website for a massage, the theme music is “The House of the Rising Sun”, and said establishment is open until 11 p.m., you probably don’t want him phoning that one.
As a result, I have spent a lot of time in the bedroom studying, reading and hiding out. From the front room, I hear hubby groaning and moaning. I am hoping he will stop complaining since I am no longer responding empathetically because he won’t seek medical attention. I am also hoping that he will go to work in Cube Farm McNerdo instead of working from home like he did last week on my off day, completely messing with my routine and draining my mojo. I have determined it is bad when I would rather look at dissected corpses, study tissue samples, and generally get my science geek on to block out the pitiful sounds coming from the front room. Then again, Halloween is just around the corner. I could record them and scare the neighbor kids.
Since changing my course of study from social work to nursing I have made several discoveries. One: now when I watch Bones I know what they are talking about and can name the structure. Two: Taking an exam in social work is much different from taking an exam in a science course. Three: There is not enough Ginkgo Biloba, Aricept, or other memory enhancing drugs in the world to help me remember all the bones of the body and their multiple structures. Four: I cannot knit during class or lab. Five: Nutrition is really scary, especially after they teach you how to really read a label and how the stuff on the label affects the body. Six: I really didn’t need to know what makes armpit sweat stink. Seven: I really didn’t need to know what makes farts smell. Eight: I most certainly didn’t need to know that taking a shower after anatomy lab may or may not remove the smell of formalin from your hair.
I have been knitting on the Lady February Sweater. I am knitting the Mountain Colors Twizzle in Alpine I got to make a Clapotis into this sweater. Sometimes the yarn knows best. This particular yarn did not want to be a Clapotis, not even after I tried to make it – twice. The Lady February is beautiful in this yarn. I am going to have to LoJack this project when I take it to knit-night. It has inspired not a little project envy. The other issue with working on this wonderful project is that it is taking knitting time away from Christmas Knitting.
For me the official Christmas season has started. My brother is coming in from Phoenix and as is our tradition, we have Christmas when people are together. We may or may not have the tree up. We may or may not have turkey. We do have lots of cooking of favorites of the guests from out of town. With my brother I am sure there will be some cheese cake and cornbread, probably some ham.
So, I have to make sure I have his stuff knitted and ready to give. The problem is that I am so enthralled with the sweater that it makes all other knitting seem boring by comparison. This is so odd because the Lady February Sweater is not all that interesting. The pattern is just four rows – two are purl the wrong side. There are a million stitches as it is knit in one piece. Yet, I find myself wanting to cheat on the Christmas Knitting and work on that.
This is most unfortunate because this year the Christmas Knitting is not the usual Sock Knitting Bataan Death March to Hell. I have knit some socks along during the year, not enough for everyone, but a few pair. I have some non-sock items I am knitting to break it up: a shrug from Tracy Uhlman’s book; an Adama’s shawl out of some luscious silk from Blackberry Ridge; and some mitts.
At the same time I have allowed myself to become distracted in my knitting, I have also allowed myself a bit of reading distraction. When I probably should have been studying all the structures of the skin, I was instead reading a delightful book The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry. It is a memoir of a woman fulfilling her dream to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She gets the opportunity after being laid off from her job. I enjoyed the book so much that I found it hard to put down. I had to be a stern taskmistress with myself and meet studying goals before I let myself read the book.
Then again, I know that the brain sometimes needs a break from all the serious stuff of job, life, and school to restore and regroup. Just like the knitting mojo needs something to restore the joy and excitement of knitting. In the days ahead, I am going to need it because Christmas Knitting will become a competitive sport of Iron Man Triathlon status and my studies will continue to role toward final, comprehensive exams before the social marathon of the Christmas season. Here’s to hoping that Rancho del Rubicon doesn’t cross over from cranky to bitchy in the near future.
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