Penguin Girl

Apology: Dear NYC, I’m sorry that it’s been really cold these past few days. I know that I was sad that I might not have a chance to wear the River Wrap until the autumn, but this isn’t acceptable weather. It is supposed to be Spring. Yes, rain is ok, I understand the need for it. Unfortunately I actually felt the need to mutter the s-word in my description of how the weather felt late this afternoon. That’s not ok. I’ve happily worn the wrap the past two days and have been very warm but I’d be just as happy if it were folded with some cedar for the next seven or so months.

Moving on, this afternoon I took advantage of my husband’s corporate discount perks to visit two amazing exhibits at MoMA: Color Chart and Design and the Elastic Mind.

I’ll start with Color Chart (sorry, site is in Flash). Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time at Knitty City not creating, but wandering around the store complaining to everyone that I was looking for inspiration. I should have stopped by MoMA instead.. the Color Chart exhibit wasn’t as inspiring as I hoped, but something about the white walls and the squares of colour by artists such as Frank Stella, Gerhard Richter, François Morellet, Sherrie Levine, and Sol LeWitt among others has left me thinking beyond my normal limited colour choices…

Yet Design and the Elastic Mind was exactly the push toward inspiration I was desperately seeking. Some of the items I had seen before (one example), however, many I had not. Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny’s “Honeycomb Vase” is stunning. A NYT review of the exhibit may be found here.

If you have the opportunity I urge you to visit both exhibits. Yes, you can see much of it online, but the experience of seeing all of this innovation organized together left my senses excited.

As a last minute decision, last night I decided to stop by Stephanie’s talk as it really was on my way home. I missed her talk [I’m trying to convince E to drive me up to Webs on the 27th] but arrived in time to get my book signed and see some people, but not everyone I was looking for. I wasn’t really with it as I had a long day and didn’t really /talk/ at all with her when it was actually my turn. Spot kept jumping out of my bag at every opportunity and was constantly muttering something about sock yarn and lace, even though he and I have discussed the contents of my stash and my time commitments for the next few weeks. Sometimes I don’t know what gets into him. I think it’s PG being a bad influence. In any case, I really love these types of events because the community of knitters always inspires me and I make new friends (and push at least ONE person to write a public journal. Last year it was A, this year it’s (hopefully) E. I’m very happy to see both on wordpress). I was sitting in a chair introducing myself to E and hopefully not leaving the impression that I’m completely insane and waiting so I didn’t jump the entire line when a woman and her friend walked by and stopped to compliment the Wrap (Actually, everyone did; I’ve never had so many compliments on a piece of knitting before. Thank you everyone!). I spoke a bit about it and she suddenly asks, “Are you Penny?”. To which I replied at the same time she said, “Melanie!”. It was so wonderful to meet her in real space.. she was there with her friend T who has been her penpal for many years and they finally met in real person as well. I had a wonderful bit of tea with them after getting my book signed and we actually succeeded in crossing paths at MoMA this afternoon.

Lastly, my mum bought a new car. This pleases me as her Corolla is almost 15 years old and the back doors no longer consistently open (or one no longer did and sometimes the other sticks?). The Corolla was a good car, it drove me (I rarely drove it) all over while I was in high school, making weekly trips across the length of the Island for orchestra rehearsals and at least two trips a summer (more like three or four) up to Oneonta for music “camp”. Please say hello to Snowflake (the car). May they enjoy their time together in health and safety. A has a new white scion too, his is the bigger boxy one and I don’t know if it has been named (helicopter taxi might be appropriate). If the weather is ever not grey hopefully we’ll get a photo of the two together. :)

Brooklyn, NY 2006

A while ago I was honoured to be tagged with this “make my day” award that’s making the rounds of the knit blogs these days… it made MY day… and I’ve been waiting for the right time and way to respond to it.

I’ve had a pretty rough couple of weeks and so many people have been very kind and generous with words and actions and just plain wonderful.

Thank you!

I really truly appreciate and admire the friendships I have recently formed in person and online and don’t quite now how to really thank you for it. The majority of you should know who you are; there are some whose writing I read but do not comment on, they make my day too. Thank you. I really don’t know how or if I’ll ever repay the kindness properly, but I will try.

I’m a really really bad twitterer. I don’t check it all the time, nor do I always update my status. I don’t pay to have SMS on my phone (I’m cheap sometimes) so if I’m not at a computer and checking it, I don’t see it. Therefore, if I don’t reply to a tweet timely I apologize.

My tool for this week satisfies part of my stamp problem. I LOVE stamps. I want to go back to tokyo just to stock up on a bunch since I seem unable to find these (second row, first column) here. I’m also fascinated by date formats and I have never liked the American standard date, i.e. February 21, 2008. I’ve written 21-Feb-2008 long before I knew it was “British”. We don’t know where I came up with it as I hadn’t had exposure to it prior to my adoption of it. It was an improvement in my eyes, but it wasn’t perfect. My largest complaint was that it didn’t sort well. It took me more years than I should admit to realize that the ISO standard 8601 would fulfill most of my needs. But most stamps I find here are the wrong format. When I was in Tokyo I picked up a DDMMYYYY stamp, so it was closer. A while back I found a how-to online which i now can’t track down which wrote about how easy it was to modify a regular date stamp. I have been thinking about it for a while. Stamps were more pricey than I wanted so I waited. Yesterday I wandered into the 99¢ store next door to the Firm and discovered they were selling stamps with a “received” or “faxed” add on … for 99¢ plus tax. I looked at it and appeared to be something I could easily take apart so I bought one. Tonight I did and then followed what I recalled of the tutorial and made my stamp. So I introduce to you my 99¢ ISO-ish date stamp.

Wow. That was wordy!

I can’t believe at all how fast this week has flown by, especially today. Therefore this post isn’t the “tools, where are they now, part II” post I had wanted to draft. I think it’s a bit of blabber that I feel the need to put out for the entire world to read. Which probably shows that I’m tired and looking forward to being recharged on Shabbat. I just hope I don’t deeply regret any of it in the morning.

Overall I believe I’m doing ok keeping my head just above water. I do hope things stop piling on soon because I don’t think I can tread much longer and I need to find solid ground to stand on. Things I have on my plate are not impossible, but this has been a very busy and intense week with tasks ranging the entire gamut of possibilities, and lots of normally scheduled programming. I’m saddened that I didn’t get a chance to properly draft this post. It’s 9pm and I believe it’s the first time I feel able to take a deep breath and think for me since I woke on Monday [and I have a 9am deadline tomorrow]. I am spoiled by generally enjoying flexibility in my schedule (and I do insist on regular down time) so this week’s intensity was deeply felt. If I could make tomorrow’s deadline by taking a nice long hot soak in the tub after publishing this, I would. On reflection I may anyway. It’s taken me far too long to write this. Thus, I’d probably generate many errors so I might as well just go soak my weary body.

However, I was quite lucky this week to discover some unexpected and most welcome extra knitting time. I haven’t yet finished E’s bday gift, but I’m past the thumb gussets and have only the dread of fingers left after 2 more inches of zen knitting. Yvonne’s pattern was perfect for this week and I’ve impressed quite a few people by holding a conversation and reading their lips* or at least making eye contact and still knitting and conversing coherently. I can’t always do that [successfully knit and converse] but it was nice. I like his mitts better than my new ones and may just have to cast on a pair of my own.

What helped me the most this week was to keep to our simple basic routines:
- Wake up at around the same time every week day (depending on snooze)
- Review my check list to ensure that I get out of the door with my most necessary objects (yes, it includes knitting but also keys and money).
- I try to eat three meals … and get bonus points if any of them are hot or healthy. I’ve done ok on healthy, the hot is difficult. For this I’m doing better than I was, but still need to make progress. It’s really hard to find food I want to and am able to eat.
- my take on the spicy coffee hot chocolate has been very useful. I made it on Wednesday and left the chile and cinnamon in all day and just refilled it with plain coffee and milk. Occasionally a seed would escape and the unexpected punch and resulting zap was just what I needed.

Most importantly:
- I am asleep by 12:30am at the very latest (that was Tuesday night), other nights we are both are in bed by 11pm (our normal bedtime School or not) and turn the lights out shortly thereafter. I have a small relaxation routine I do before bed which includes some reading, writing, and reflection. Why? I try to leave stresses outside as I can pick them up and worry anew the next morning. They really aren’t going anywhere and I sleep better if I can get rid of some of the stress. Plus the routine helps me to shut down.

I try anyway. I really do think that a regular early (by some standards, quite late by other) bedtime is key. Which is hard for this night owl to admit. As was this result from this quiz. (It’s melanie’s fault). In recent years I have taken joy in working early in the morning, often as the sun rises… and not after doing so the entire night. ;) It’s been a change but one I’ve come to enjoy.

Chilly #2 is that although my new mitts are beautiful and receive tons of compliments unless I keep my fingers moving constantly (i.e. typing and knitting, but this doesn’t always work), my fingers turn to ice regardless of the ambient temperature. I’ve asked my doctors in the past and have been tested [insert idiom I’m blanking on here, no it doesn’t involve a cat but I swear it involves a day and many sides or angles; E thinks I’m making it up] every which way, the result is that I’m not anaemic and am actually quite healthy. Right. I just do not understand how icy fingers and toes are normal.

In other random news and public disclosure, the kitchen cabinet delivery and installation has been delayed to Monday at the earliest … when E came home from work tonight, we moved the stove back in so I can cook things beyond the crock pot. Tonight we had pasta with pesto and I can’t remember the last time I took such joy in boiling water!

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* My hearing is ok. My lip reading, I believe, is a habit leftover from a childhood defence mechanism when I couldn’t hear very well (age 0-4½ years) and learned to read lips to make sure I got what was being said. I’ve lost some of my ability over the years since my hearing improved but I still prefer greatly to see an entire face (and hands if possible) when talking with someone. It’s partially why I hate the telephone.

First things first.

My kitchen and dining table currently look like this:

It’s being demolished tomorrow at 9:30. Life will be pretty interesting for the next week or so. At least we’ve avoided having to take off additional days for this by doing it tomorrow.

I’m rearranging the posting topic schedule for the next few weeks so perhaps I can keep some sanity and also make it easier.

Today (Sunday) will be about what I’ve read and any thoughts on writing I may have. This makes more sense as I read most of my books over shabbat and return them on Monday. This way I’ll have the books with me if I want them. The remainder of the revised schedule is at the bottom of this post.

I completed quite a few books this past week. Both in anticipation of the semester and because while feeling sick I didn’t want to do much more than that.

Daughters of Abraham: Feminist Thought in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and John L. Esposito
This is a very academic book and it’s been over a decade since I’ve looked at the three religions with that viewpoint. I’ve forgotten a good deal and much of it went over my head. However, I found each individual essay quite fascinating and I’d like to learn more about the role of women throughout history in the male-leader dominated religions.

Seed to Harvest by Octavia E Butler
Seed to Harvest is a compilation of the four Patternist novels arranged chronologically: Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Ark, and Patternmaster. I didn’t bother (yet) to reread Pattnermaster, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. I still think it’s my favourite book with Clay’s Ark the least favourite. It took me a while to get into Wild Seed but once I did I was hooked. I wish greatly that I had grabbed this first, instead of Patternmaster. It’s a fascinating series with interesting themes of gender, race, and power.

Next it was All McCaffrey All the time. I read quite a bit of Anne McCaffrey this past week and am quite frustrated to be out of her books on Sunday with the library closed tomorrow. ;)

First up was the “biography/scrapbook” by her son, Todd, Dragonholder which is written for a younger reader and gives snippets to his mother’s life. It was a fun quick read, but definitely not an intense biography of the sort that’s on my current reading list [Greenspan].

Next I grabbed the entire Harper’s Hall triology, more because all the books were sitting on the shelf and I knew that I’d be taking long hot baths each night. Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums are each part of this subseries to Pern. It was fun and if you find me talking obsessively about music in the coming days and weeks, I’m sorry. This sort of story does it to me. It’s a fun story with strong females and made my mandatory bathtime even more enjoyable. I definitely wish some days that I’d impressed a fire lizard.

Last of the completed reading this past week is Restoree. Honestly the cover turns me off. It looks like one of the romance novels my mom likes to read. Inside however, is a very different sort of tale and while there is a bit of romance, it is anything but. Some research now (I like to read books without being preprejudiced to the story) indicates this was her first published book and a response to how women were portrayed in SciFi. I agree with the reviews that it is very refreshing to read of a strong woman and this novel does not disappoint. I am saddened that it receives lesser attention than her other works and I’m happy I finally looked past the cover painting to the gem of a story inside.

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Revised schedule, 20080120 (we’ll see how this goes)
Sunday - Books & Writing
Monday - Fibre/Create
Tues/Weds - Off (I have class and am running out of things to write)
Thurs - Tools/Work/Project Management
Friday - Jewish Learning
Saturday Evening - Food

I’m still thinking lots about the comment made to me yesterday wondering how I get everything done and “have time to do all that I do”.

I wish I did get it all done..

While many things get done there are several factors currently at play which make me believe that little to nothing is really being completed.

First: my to-do list is growing exponentially. Part of it is my often having a difficult time saying no. Part of it is that several large projects are going into high gear at the same time. Part of it is that I’m being more diligent about recording things that I need to do.

Second: I do many different and diverse things each day. My day starts with an alarm at 5:30 and ends somewhere between 11pm and when I actually fall asleep. I spend about 40 minutes on the subway each direction four days a week. I spend micro amounts of time on probably all my projects and to-do list items each day. It’s this little bit of constant work which assists me in eventually completing the projects. As they all have different start times and duration lengths I appear to constantly have completed projects. My clients may feel that is true, but I often don’t (see item “First” above).

It is fascinating how my brain moves constantly between all the projects (paid, unpaid, fun, and not) I have on my plate. If I ever gave a running commentary output of what I’m thinking about at one time I’d probably get locked into a padded room (hey wait.. that might not be so bad will they let me take my fibre?). It’s this constant thought and processing and reprocessing and … mandatory downtime (known as Shabbat) … which I believe help me get things done and have time for fun as well as work. I also often find that while working on something that is NOT the project I solve the problems. How often have you started to drift off to sleep and realize that it’s a missing semi-colon which is causing all the difficulty? That’s why I read a lot and also knit, crochet, (and now!) spin.

So, yes, everything gets done. Eventually. Some projects are completed more quickly than others. I have quite a few perplexing work issues at the moment, nothing overly insanely blocking but long term planning long term annoyances and things of that sort so I expect a case of start-itis in an attempt to solve them.

So what is the purpose of this post? Well, I’m not about to share the details of my to-do list but I currently feel that I’m not getting ANYTHING done. I guess I should stop expecting to mark January as a breather and think that I’ll have the ability to get a chance to catch up and instead realize that it is a time to go into even higher gear.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’d change my life for anything else at the moment [except for to get rid of this cold] but I definitely wish I could catch up a little more… I’m sort of doing better at turning down things but lots of things I want to do are coming up as well.

Lastly: I’m thinking of restructuring the schedule in anticipation of the semester starting again next week. I’m not quite sure how this will work or if I’ll keep things as they are. Time will tell.