The Fullest Day Yet

In preparation for the crazy week to come, this day decided to be super awesome and productive on a social, crafting, cleaning, and administrative level. The day began with a swim through the pouring rain to start my laundry. While that was in process, I worked to finish my glorious basket (this will appear in a post very soon to follow). The lovely ZeldaStark arrived and we flew to the farmer’s market. Our baskets were all the rage, and received many compliments. We cheerfully gathered our produce and moved on to the next errand. I asked to stop at Target, and ZeldaStark happened upon a fantastic shirt for herself while we were there. While I did find an adorable plaid that I enjoyed, I opted not to purchase  for the sake of keeping the $20. Afterward, we headed back to ZeldaStark’s abode for delicious homemade chocolate mousse (this woman is flippin awesome!) and to convert empty bottles into glassware (again, will be a post soon to follow). We concluded our time together on the couch knitting, watching British comedy, and I contently snuggling with her cat. Upon my return, I made myself a delicious grilled avocado sandwich with cheese (thank you Persephone!), and then proceeded to clean like a madwoman. To finish all this fabulousness, I typed up the punch list for this week for work so that I wouldn’t constantly be flipping through my rather flimsy notebook. I am glad to say that there were certainly enough hours in this day, and I am one happy panda.

Private and Public Pursuits

I find that I need time and space by myself in order to recharge, which apparently makes me slightly more inclined to introversion according to the personality test I just took. I have a longstanding loathing for such tests, but I must say, after reading the deeper analysis on my type, this version was not wholly inaccurate. Apparently my seemingly extraverted nature is a result of my moderate trend towards Feeling versus Thinking. Ah the Meyers Briggs model just keeps on cropping up in my life. Anyway, the reason I began with my need to be alone for certain periods of time is how I am currently trying to gather my strength for the coming week. I haven’t been in want of social contact. Today Nifty Neighbor came to join me for some tea and knitting (and pleasant conversation I must add), and last night I had the awesome pleasure of meeting a WordBridge colleague at World of Beer. Texas Rockstar met me at this magical bar, and we proceeded to yell at each other over the live music that insisted on compensating for its average quality by turning up the volume. Sore throat from yelling aside, I had the most wonderful time talking with this man because he is always a riot, and probably one of the most genuine people I know. I was afraid that the dregs of real life outside of the Lab might kill our conversational vibe, but my fear was quickly squashed with a vengeance within the first five minutes. I am so glad Texas Rockstar is a local, and I can’t begin to describe how much I look forward to the next chat. Those two occurrences aside, I have spent this day just enjoying the crafting pursuits of my basket and the new shawl I started. The basket will hopefully be picture worthy by tomorrow, and I am positively giddy to see ZeldaStark’s embellishing of her own receptacle (although, I hardly think it fair that she had two full days to make hers stunning while I had to piecemeal based on my schedule, but that previous statement sounds an awful lot like whining). In terms of the shawl, it is a glorious beaded confection of  alpaca in a soothing heathered purple. I am also delighted to be playing with an excellent app called Knit-knitting counter, which does all sorts of simple and nifty things that help me keep better track of my knitting. Whenever I knit lace, I will, almost without fail, work on it feverishly for two weeks, and then put it aside for a month or two before picking it up again. The problems with this pattern of knitting behavior is that I forget to mark where I am in the actual pattern, and with lace that is a supremely pretty thing to do (as the Knitmore Girls would say, sometimes we are more pretty than smart). Well, with this shawl, I am starting off right, a.k.a. smart. I organized my chart (so I stop tearing them to shreds/losing them), bumped up the needle size (so I would stop struggling with my gauge), placed two kinds of stitch markers (so I stop struggling with where things happen in the row), and I am happily plugging my progress into this new app so that I stop losing my place in the intervals where I am being unfaithful to my lace. Yeah, fun fact, it took me multiple lace projects to take these steps all at the same time. The definition of insanity is certainly applicable in my case. Tis no matter, the ultimate goal of all my private pursuits are to re-calibrate my inner fullness in preparation for the coming craziness. Next week is certainly going to be rather insane, seeing as how PNinja and I are now on our own to take care of a huge mess of notes in a short amount of time. The Lord has granted me the strength and courage to face much more frightening monsters, and I trust that His power can get us through this week. No matter what, the end of the week is going to prove wondrous fair considering the lovely and fantastic Handsome is coming for a brief visit.  My life is moving steadily, and mayhaps I will soon be able to get an indication of where it will continue to move in the more distant future. Til the morrow, hobey ho!