unscathed

This morning, I went to collect my chauffer for the day from his other job. He was ready on time and even willing and able. Chef has finally taken some driving lessons and has an appointment to take his test on 4/3 and damn but that biy needs practice. So I actually extended the olive branch and told him we were going shopping and out to lunch.

All in all, not too bad. I see the irony of it all because the same things I have to tell him as critique, my father had to tell me, mainly to be committed if your going and give the damn car some gas. I think that is the chief difficulty and I have to give myself big points for expressing this in a much kinder and gentler fashion than my dad did to me.

I might even go clean out the car so it is presentable when he goes to test in two weeks time.

Tuesday...

I was really awake whn I got out of bed this morning, and now, a mere two hours later, I am really jonesing to crawl back. There is a certain listless quality companion to the frigid temps we have been experiencing of late.

Frigid. Yes! It has been frigid here in Houston, seemingly forever though realistically I suppose it has been less than a week since it was eighty degrees. On Saturday when I was driving to a knitterly meetup, I thought I saw a snow flurry or two even though I know it likely wasn't colder than 40, but 40 in March, in Houston, well, that's just criminal. I even wore socks one night out to dinner. Mismatched lovely hand knit socks with my sandals, and I was totally cozy at that point.

Today however, there is something disturbing in the listlessness. I feel on the precipice of something, though not necessarily in a bad way. I can't even vaguely identify what is disturbing about it all, but that label totally captures the feeling. Maybe I should just go home and crawl under the covers and knit a while.

some knitting

Since I keep forgetting to take a pic of this and finally it is finished, I decided to throw it onto the scanner this afternoon. The scanner makes the colors much more muted, almost as if being viewed through a filter of sorts, or maybe under a piece of waxed paper. The Pueblo Stole is glorious. It is the first project where I actually felt as though I were knitting fabric. I think part of the reason it took so long to finish was how totally ennamored I was with it and that I just didn't want it to end. Now that it is done, I never want to take it off. If Lauren Bacall sees it from the stage tonnight and begs, I will resolutely have to decline. I seriously heart it that much.

The sock pictured below was like this also, I was totally digging the knitting, but unlike the Pueblo Stole, I knit the first sock in about 5 days, which for me is really fast. Of course I have not yet been motivated to begin the second sock, but it will happen soon. The pattern just really kept my attention and the repeat was easily remembered.

I have something new on the needles keeping me from the second Guernsey sock. No kidding? No kidding. I bought a Fleece Artist Lady of the Lake sweater kit when we were at my mom's in November. The colors are bright and leafy in a chocolate, red, orange, gold sort of way. There are burgundy and purple flashes here and there, too. The sweater is knit in two different yarns and the pattern is daring and brilliant in a very simple way. Let's all take a moment to hope it fits when I am finished, I kinda think it will. It is just a little obsessive at the moment, but in a new to the needles sort of way. My downfall with sweaters in the past has been the bigness of the project bringing on monotony or boredom, but so far I have to say that won' be the case this time. As a side note, any of these pattern names can be googled or searched on Flickr if you are at all interested in seeing many versions of them.

45 minutes more to kill at work and then it is off to the theater and Mz. Bacall via California Pizza Kitchen. My favorite go-to pizza there Pear and Gorgonzola, has been off the menu for a while, so something new will have to do.

Guernsey Sock

The Big Sit

This morning marks day seven of The Big Sit. Woohoo!

It is an interesting prospect on the weekend. I am up every day usually around 6, and then I have sat first thing, then let the dogs out of their crates. On the weekend, however, I am up and let the dogs out, then go back to bed for a while, and when I rise after that I sit. This morning that was about 830.

We have a terrier mix, Sawyer, who is 7+ and about 40 pounds. Then there is Nola, the MinPin weighing in about 12 pounds who is 6+. Finally, we have Lilli Munster, the Yorkie whose weight and age are currently the same, just over 3.

Nola is never a challenge to my morning sit, because there is almost always someone still in bed, and if someone, anyone, is in bed somewhere in the house, that is where Nola will be found. Sawyer can also pretty much take it or leave it and not be interested in Mom meditating, but when he does show an interest, he will sit facing me, upright and alert. It’s startling when I open my eyes and he is there just being.

Lilli Munster, well, she is my challenge. I try to consider myself her meditation teacher and I try to lead by example. Some days she gets it, some days not. She has classic monkey mind. Today, she would bring me a puppy thing (stuffed toy) and put it directly in my palm. I would treat it as a passing cloud and place it in my lap without acknowledging Lilli in any way. She did this thre times. Then suddenly, Sawyer was sitting in her way. She put the puppy thing in my other hand, I put it in my lap. Sawyer then snatched it and ran, instigating a round of chase. This happened several times, and I managed to keep my composure long enough to finish my sit.

Katherine (our Yoga and meditation teacher of old) told us that when we meditate, if a thought or distraction arises, treat it as a passing cloud...notice it and then let it go on by. She said there will always be environmental influences from the outside and the challenge is to let them just be.

At 20 minutes on the dot, Sawyer was again sitting right in front of me and just before I opened my eyes, he placed a paw directly on my heart center and leaned in with all his weight. Lilli was curled up in my lap.

Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm…