Saturday, October 20, 2007

Angst Ended


Before I give my monthly excuse for not blogging, there are a few accomplishment I can boast about. I knit some cute little gloves for my little six-year-old neice for Christmas. I accidentally ordered one skein of Claudia's Handpainted yarn in Jill's Pink from from the Loopy Ewe, so I decided to make something with one skein instead of ordering another skein to knit another pair of socks. I love this yarn. It's so soft. I think it's softer than Lorna's Laces yarn which I also love. The color is perfect as well. I also knit another little rabbit so that both of my neices can have one.

I don't live an incredibly stressful life, but it does seem like sometimes I have too much going on to really enjoy it much, and I will begin to feel this growing angst. I usually take a day off work when that comes on, but I haven't even felt like I had time to do that in the last couple of weeks. Some of the sources of my anxiety seem pretty humorous now, but they weren't when I was going through them.

Here is a not completely atypical day in my life. Up at 5 (even though I was up until at least 10:30 to run 3 miles, get to work by 7:40, which is technically ten minutes late. Within five minutes of arriving, I discover that the school's televised morning announcements which I am partly in charge of are not working on the principals computer even though they work fine on mine since I check them innumerable times in the morning because I worry about them not working.--problem is eventually solved. Teach three classes of English to students whose only desire is to sneak text messages to their friends, accuse each other of being gay, or merciless tease members of the opposite sex. (And I teach the "good" ones!) I then teach two technology classes which are fun BUT hectic. And finally go up to another class during my preparation period to tutor students on webpage design since their teacher who is mainly a football coach doesn't want to understand it himself. By the time 3:00 rolls around, I'm pretty beat, but still have to tie up some lose ends, prepare for a evening college class I've been teaching, for the first time. Parent arrives with his son in tow because the son got a deficiency and parent's goal is to humiliate his lazy but decent kid in front of his teacher. I soon discover that I have a bloody nose at about this time which won't stop bleeding. Parent doesn't seem to notice and makes son get all of his make up work and take a make up test right then and there. I finally get rid of this no altogether unpleasant pair, when my good friend comes in all excitied about starting a new college academy thing at our school He also seems not to care that I still have a bloody nose and talks for another fifteen minutes. I make it home to realize that husband has made "dinner"...that is--one item--Pad Thai out of a box from Trade Joe's. (OK, he did work all day too teaching first graders, but...) Somehow I make it through the day, but that was the day that I decided that I needed to slow down. I'm tired again just reading about it. Anyway, I'm really happy that it's fall, and I've been gardening and cooking....and knitting, of course. The only fullfilling thing I haven't been doing is blogging, and I'm going to start doing that again too!

Gidget, our beagle puppy, is still cute and troubesome. She loves yarn like Rowdy used to, and can't seem to control herself around it. Here is what is left of some Nashua yarn I accidentally left in grabbing distance.



Here's why I don't care that much what she does...within reason!

5 comments:

Cloudberry said...

It's seems like you've had a busy and tough time. Hope you get the time to relax and enjoy the fall!

We have the word hyggelig, and I think it's hyggelig to pop in to your blog as well ;) Hope you post pictures of your knitted rabbit! they are so cute :)

Tracy Batchelder said...

Some days nothing seems to go right. Hopefully this doesn't happen too often. Love the gloves...a great one skein project!

marit said...

Nice to have you back- but take care and relax a bit- just READING about your day made me exhausted!!!
Love that puppy- and it is such a nice photo of her and your daughter!
The gloves are great too, and just what little girls want:-)

TheBlackSheep said...

Again, your dogs are just too cute! They also have to added benefit of motivating you to put your yarn away. At least it was only one skein and it wasn’t the mitten yarn. That yarn is gorgeous! She’ll love the mittens I’m sure.

Your day sounds like it was pretty bad. Sometimes I don’t know how teachers survive these days. Between parents and students, your life cannot be easy. Seriously, that man’s time would have been much better spent at home with his son making sure he did his homework. I got exactly one deficiency notice in my entire educational career (in 7th grade Spanish. It was too easy and I was bored). My mother sat down with me every afternoon for a half an hour until I got my grades up - three As later she figured I’d gotten the point. It was the best thing she could have done for me. That father ought to take a page out of her book.

Thanks for the comments on the Aran socks. I just finished them on Sun. I commiserate with your frustration. They aren’t actually difficult as such, in my humble opinion, but you do have to pay attention. At one point on Sun., I realized that I’d done the right cable panel two stitches too soon and had to open up 16 rows of that panel to correct it, which was a pain in the derriere, and it wasn’t the first time it had happened. I was beginning to doubt the second sock would ever get finished. As for the heel flaps, I fudged. The pattern tells you to do the even rows on the WS, but I figured out that it’s much easier to do the odd rows on the WS since there are fewer twists on the odds. I had to add a row to do it, but it still looks good and I didn’t wind up stabbing my eyes out with the needles. This is always a plus. Like with you, it will be a while before I do these again, even though I do LOVE them now that they’re finished. Thanks for your comments anyway. I’ll certainly be stopping by your blog again.

Very randomly, if you just happen to be in the Pismo area in the next couple of weeks and per chance run into a blonde woman with a young mini Schnauzer, that will probably be my aunt (you never know, the world can be a small place). If the yarn is anything to go by, it looks like your dog and her dog would get along smashingly! :P They’re going to Pismo for some down time, although I’ve heard it’s not supposed to be so cool there at the moment! Hope you’re not frying.

Julie said...

Hey you're welcome to an excuse. Being a teacher is not easy, and teaching to both high school students as well as college students means you constantly have to flip your mind back and forth between two intellectual levels. And then you go home to a cute yarn-eating puppy and beautiful children - and they need you too. Your blogging friends will still be here so catch your breath and take as long as you need.