Where did my week go?

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted. Since cancer descended on the family and I took up knitting and dancing and attending a local Unitarian Universalist church, the schedule is packed. Weekends are spent hanging out with the parents... installing handicap accessories (Dad's lower body numbness never did go away, even though it seems that he's getting better in general), helping with household chores and taking Dad back out into the greater world.

I'm definitely as in the world as I've ever been, and friends have been very understanding about the busy... so I think posts will happen when they happen... no more, no less.

lost my parking space

Secure parking is a premium in Tremont, and I just lost my rented space...

Suddenly, street parking seems terrifying... what if I have to carry in GROCERIES!
What about touch football Saturdays when all the tools at the Treehouse fill up the streets?
What about THEFT? BREAK INS? SNOWPLOWS with limited visual ACUITY???

Crap.

It may be enough to drive me to Lakewood...

Paging Dr. Brilliant

The director of Google's philanthropic arm is named Dr. Larry Brilliant.

I would love to do a study where I would track someone with his last name against someone with the same level of academic prowess named, say, "Billy Imbicile" and see if the name leveraged significant advantage over his peers.

I'm just really curious.

Would we care about Capability Brown if he went by "Ineffectual Indigo?"

My greatest fear, in black and white

Avoiding this moment is exactly why I've lived my life the way I have.

Thanks Lynn Johnson.

Resolved

As you can tell, I'm a few weeks behind the curve with the holidays.
So here I am on January 13, making resolutions...

I don't normally make resolutions, since I usually don't keep them, so perhaps this process of waiting a few weeks is a healthy one, as I'm resolving to continue to do things I've already started doing anyway.

Here goes nothing.
Resolved. In 2008, I will...
*not feel obligated to always answer my phone.
*continue to attend my modern dance class and not use the Film Fest as an excuse to get out of habit (although I will likely skip a class for the festival).
*continue to get out debt (I have no choice, I'm on a plan).
*continue to attend UU services when in town on weekends.
*continue to try new - challenging - knitting projects.
*seriously consider keeping my internal monologue INTERNAL.
*make my way down jenky-ass, tore up Euclid to attend a lunch-time Pilates class at the gym that's now near impossible to get to.
*change my oil when I'm supposed to, not 3-6 months later.

So there's a few things....

Fingers crossed.

Dirty Little Secret

I love Gossip Girl.

What I love more are New York Magazine's morning-after recaps.

Enjoy...

Cambridge Graffiti

Right before the holidays, there was a news story about drawings of penguins found in a basement at Cambridge by Shackleton and Scott.



They reminded me a of photo I took of a corner where someone had scratched directions to the river Cam in the medieval maze of the city. My guess is that someone wrote that years ago, and generations later, there has always been a punter with a piece of chalk ready to carry on the tradition of directing people to the river.



Something about this graffiti is charming... maybe its the ephemeral nature of the medium? Maybe the simplicity and sincerity of the message? Or perhaps the priority these otherwise brilliant minds seem to place playfulness...

If you get to Cambridge and love a good graffito, don't miss these and The Eagle Pub where the RAF soldiers all left their marks in soot on the ceilings during air raids.

Trying something new

For years I had jobs that were physical. Despite my own misgivings about my body's aesthetic, I always knew I could count on my muscles and bones to lift, hold and balance me. It was distinct sense of truly inhabiting my physical self. And, now, in my office job, it's a sense I miss.

I've come to believe that a disconnect from the body is a disconnect from something deeper and I've come to the conclusion that I will now decidedly inhabit my own skin.

For years I've had fantasies of being a dancer: ballet, jazz, modern... maybe a gymnast? The grace and solid carriage of being they have has always awed me, and I need to stop daydreaming and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Around mid-December, I received an email blast from a local modern dance studio for a show at CPT, the concept resonated with me, as did the fact that they are located in my neighborhood and have a beginners' class on Monday nights.

So tonight, I arrived with a bottle of water, a good deal of resolve and oodles of trepidation. Luckily, it was a small class: me, the teacher, and a dancer in town for the show. It was moderately difficult, with the alignment of the body proving most challenging. By the end I was remembering... is it "combinations" in modern dance?

I walked home on this unseasonably warm evening, thinking about how my back stays tall when I walk, how to align my feet to hips, and my hips to my shoulders.

I had this thought about 4 years ago that I would be my most healthy and most athletic in my 40s, and here I am, 31, and a modern dance class has begun to break down the 4-year silent estrangement between my mind and my body. Hurrah for resolve!

Wrap Sweater

So I wanted to prove that I could knit a sweater. I love a good wrap sweater, and found this pattern on the Lion Brand website. I changed the pattern a little to make the sweater wrap like one I wear now, and I used satin ribbon for the belt.

I No. 10 needles and worsted weight wool.





I still can't believe I can knit a sweater.
I totally expected my first attempt a wearable knit to look like Denise Huxtable's version of a Gordon Gartrelle.

keep on knitting

I started a wrap sweater around Thanksgiving and finished it last week. I'll try to take some pictures of it, but my camera isn't doing a good job of capturing anything more than the silhouette.

I just started a matching set of boy shorts and a tank top for sleeping... I had this ruffle yarn that wasn't sure what to use for, but it'll be perfect for accents!

a crappy photo of my sweater...

Pink Christmas

Christmas is put away, but I realized that I never posted a pic of the pink tree...





back to cold and dreary...

I miss the pink glow a bit.

Filthy Christmas Icons

I was putting away my Christmas decorations:
trees, ornaments, stockings...
and I kept hearing these ungodly noises...

and what to my wondering eyes do appear?
an elf and cookie, engaged in flagrante delicato.

the elf is half in the bag from what seems to be a cosmo? a negroni?


the gingerbread really seems to be enjoying himself.