A Brand New Chapter

In which Angelina takes up knitting needles once more
(but will not be knitting anything challenging)

So very much has happened recently that when life gets quiet I get nervous about what it might be brewing up. On the other hand, I feel a line has been crossed. A finish line in an endurance race which just makes me think of the time my Dad made my try out for the track team in sixth grade and I had to run the four hundred run in front of T, the love of my life* from the time I was 8 until I was 12, and I passed out on the field. When it comes to endurance I'm clearly not a champion.

Still, the atmosphere around here is clearing up. I have that feeling that a new era is dawning.

Total random side note: I love Janeane Garofalo in Mystery Men. I love Mystery Men**. The guys are watching it in the other room. Seriously my kind of hero movie.

Anyway... there's always room for more crisis in life, there's always room for more tragedy, we all know that. That's a given. There's no point where you can't experience more. People like to say that "God" will only give you what you can handle and I take great exception to that. If God only gave people what they could handle then people like the Yates woman wouldn't have murdered all of her children in an act of desperation. My great uncle wouldn't have spent the latter part of his life in an insane asylum. People wouldn't be going postal all over the planet. Those are people who couldn't handle what life gave them. You could argue that they're all examples of truly insane people, but aren't insane people still people worth God's consideration? Shouldn't God be especially considerate of their limitations?

No, lots could and still will happen in our life here. Both bad and good. Life doesn't sit still. But today feels quiet. In a good way. You know, if I can just stop my mind from wringing it's hands, so to speak. Even with all that could continually go wrong, it really feels as though a corner has turned. Or a new leaf. A fresh day. Pick your cliche, they all work here.

Max apparently told Philip that he can't go any amount of time without cats in the house. So we are putting the word out that we're looking for two kittens. We want them young (8 weeks old) so that Max can have the experience of having kittens instead of an older cat which is what Ozark already was when Max was born. So if anyone local to us hears about some one's cat about to have kittens or whose cat just had kittens- please let us know. Although I do not feel that getting more cats really soon would dishonor the memory of our recently departed cranky old bastard cat that we loved so dearly, I must admit that I can't think of getting an orange male tabby any time soon. Also, we won't get purebreds. Not only couldn't we afford them, but we prefer our animals of mixed heritage. We also prefer them free.

My visit with my new psychiatrist went much better than my visit with my ex-therapist. I feel that I am now in competent hands to deal with my head. You know when you have found a good match because you just feel relief. The Doctor gave me a much needed medical vote of confidence.

Now that I don't have a business to run or worry about, I can take up some dropped projects and reluctantly abandoned activities such as knitting. Three years ago I promised Philip a knitted scarf. I bought the yarn and still had it sitting around. I think I knew I would have to return to knitting at some point. Although I do want to learn some crocheting as well, I don't know any crocheters here in my town to show me the ropes. So I will wait a little to tackle that one. This week I re-learned to cast on under the supportive eye of my knitting friend Lisa E. and am working on a very simple garter stitch scarf for Philip.

I just talked to my sister last night who has also started knitting. It gave me such a warm fuzzy feeling. My sister is a very urban, cool, chic, hardworking person and I absolutely LOVE the idea of her knitting because it is so domestic (yes, I know, all kinds of non-domestic type people knit these days...I maintain that it's still a very domestic activity) and there's a part of my sister that is very home centered, though she has not been able to focus on that for a very long time. Knitting is something you can do anywhere and although maybe, like me in the past, Tara won't keep at it, but it still made me so giddy to hear that we are both knitting now.

I have a cold. I'm alright with that. I mean, I wish I didn't have a cold, but I'm just rolling with it as though I was a really mellow person who isn't bothered by the small stuff.

I haven't been able to focus on my yard in such a long time. I turn my eyes to it now and feel that stirring of excitement I often feel when I have all the planning in the world to do. In my Master Gardening class yesterday we spent half the day learning about growing berries. Berry growing is so much more exciting to me than conifer growing, so I was in heaven. I'm thrilled that I don't like raspberries much because to grow them here is to sign a binding contract with ROOT ROT. We learned about strawberry growing as well and they come with a butt-load of diseases and problems in this region, yet when grown well produce a better quality fruit here than when grown in California. Philip loves strawberries so I keep wanting to grow them for him.

Yes, I said "Butt-load".

I finally have my new camera back from the shop. Fixed and ready to record all my new adventures.

One more tidbit before I run off to do some dishes and take a shower...

If anyone has been hoping for a bath bomb tutorial, Whipup will be posting one I wrote on January 31st, so be sure to stop by and check it out. Obviously if you have any questions after reading the tutorial I will be more than happy to answer them either here or there.



*Fully unrequited love. Just as well. I heard that later he dropped acid like it was candy.
**On line reviews of this movie aren't too great but that's such a crock. It is brilliant.