PlazaJen: Passion Knit

1. Finished Harry Potter. I just had to. If you saw the beginning of last night's Colbert Report? Let's just say that got a guffaw in this household. (Of course, I didn't actually :watch: the show! But JWo alerted me to look up, because the entire audience had the HP book open, appearing to read intently - as did Stephen Colbert, who paused to look at the camera and rapidly mutter, "Colbert Report....") Um, yeah. I had gotten to about page 450 or so on Sunday, and with people at work having read it, and radio people blabbering about it, I just wanted to experience all the answers completely for myself. It was a great read.

2. Sweet corn & tomatoes. We've had both for dinner, two nights in a row. Actually, I'm the one eating the tomatoes - JWo is more of a "have 'em on a sandwich" sorter feller, but having made the bad choice to only have popcorn for lunch yesterday, I devoured a huge Amana Orange tomato when I got home, and it actually tided me over for a couple hours! We had braunschweiger sandwiches, which as a sandwich filling seems to be not-so-popular, if the presentation and selection at my Price Chopper is any indication. I grew up eating braunschweiger-and-tomato sandwiches, and the summer we built our house, it was our primary food group, closely followed by Ruffles potato chips, and Chips Ahoy cookies. (My parents, the dog & I were living in a one-room dwelling with a sink, hot plate (for coffee) and I can't even tell you if we had a fridge. We must've. But it was close quarters with no frills.)

3. Speaking of Price Chopper, this is the second time in a row I have asked for paper, been distracted by watching the monitor to make sure I'm getting the sale prices, and paying for my groceries, only to discover the bagger, in their indifference and pressing need to talk to their neighbor bagger, has put all my groceries into a plastic bag. Having seen all the sites & push for bringing your own bags & not using plastic, this has made me even more irritated. And I've pointed out the errors to the baggers, both times. It's a little irrational, but it pisses me off. The first person offered to rebag everything, and I was tempted, but it would have delayed the person waiting behind me, blah blah blah. If it happens a third....well, it's not gonna happen a third time. We use our plastic bags to throw away unpleasant things, so I don't see us ever going all the way without them, but the paper ones we use for recycling all the newspaper, and oh lord, I'm just killing the earth one way or another, aren't I. Let's move on.

4. I'm chugging along, albeit slowly, what with all the reading, on my Mystery Stole. Because there are uh, 6,667 members in the Yahoo! group, I am only on "Special Notices" for the list. When I joined, it was like a surprise flash flood of email, mostly "HOWDY! I'm so-and-so!" and then some of the emails were in other languages, and I rapidly changed my settings for the group. I just got a Special Notice that the pattern is NOT Satanic (whew!) (are you kidding me? who has time to think about things like this, and WHY would anyone think such a popular knit-along would have a devil theme, and while it is a challenge for me to knit, I don't think Beelzebub is behind my slowness.) THEN another Special Notice came through that some of the list members are ganging up on another list member, and it's turning into Court TV, all drama, all the time. Again. WHO has time for all this? And can they come and organize my craft room instead? Idle hands are the tool of the devil! ;)

5. I keep hearing the book title "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" in my head. But I've changed it, to "I Know That The Caged Bird Can Fly". I have a good friend who feels trapped, and she hasn't flown in a long, long time. So long she doesn't believe she can. But I :know: she can. I'm not telling her to fly away? I just want her to believe in herself. Some things in life we just have to go through, ourselves, in our own way, stumbling in the dark, falling down, etc. and nobody can make that journey for us. Boy, haven't I learned that lesson, and my road had a shitton of gravel on it, some of it is still embedded in my knees. If I could, I would carry her, show her how I see her, reflected in my eyes, not the mirror she uses, give her strength when she feels weak. But I am limited. It is not my journey. But I love her, and above all else, want her to be happy. Want her to see herself as others do. I believe she'll get there. Because I believe in her!

6. Sometimes, if you wait for a sign, or an answer, it comes. I had a surprising resolution to some of the stuff that happened last week, and it was such a tumbling arrival of benevolence, an answer to one of the prickly problems in my life, that I was dumbstruck. As someone who always wants to act, have a plan, surge forward, even if it's blindly, thrashing and making my way, I'm starting to learn that it's another form of panic. If we're running, we're doing something. Never mind that it's in circles! I'm a panicky person, prone to anxiety. But I also learn, eventually. And I get tired of running sometimes.

Well, that's gonna have to do it for today. I'm going to be behind schedule if I conjure up another ort for today - and then I really will be running. And probably stuck (again) behind some slowpoke driver on my commute. You know the one. The one you stay behind because they're in your lane and you have to turn left, and you can't risk getting over because the traffic lights and other cars could conspire against you, and yet you cling to the hope that at least when you get to your turn, they will go straight, AND THEY DON'T? Yeah. I'm always behind that dolt.

Labels: random orts