Syndactyl Salutations

Thoughts on writing, knitting, and the world around me.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Not a Habit

I'd like to make posting here more of a habit, but it just doesn't seem to be taking yet. I don't feel comfortable posting at work, and I don't always get online at home in the evening. One of these days I'll figure out a balance, I suppose.

Not much to report. I haven't been doing much writing, except emails to a friend with whom I've been out of touch for a while. I'm sure he's thrilled to be getting afternoon weather reports, but at the moment it's about as interesting as I'm getting.

I tried to start a knitting project, but I think I need to start over. The stitches are turning out too small. I'm not sure whether it's because the yarn is too thin or my stitches are pulled too tight, or some combination thereof, but I think I need to pull the hundred-some stitches I've cast on and recast them more loosely as a first attempt at fixing things. If that doesn't work, I'll have to come up with something else, altering the size, maybe.

I haven't talked to the folks about the nephews since I was over on the weekend. All I know is they ran me ragged and I was only there for six hours or so. I don't know how my parents are going to be able to sustain the energy to keep up with them on an ongoing basis. I have a huge amount of respect for their commitment to keeping things together.

I had lunch at one of my favorite places yesterday, and when I paid for my food, the woman behind the counter said, "Your hands are beautiful." I don't get that from many people. Only... Well, very few. My hands are asymmetrical and scarred and often awkward, so her out-of-the blue comment made me feel good. I should make more of a point of viewing them that way, maybe.

Racquetball was good, if slightly short. We hadn't played in a couple of weeks, and it showed. But we have fun and don't bother keeping score and laugh when things go wrong for no real reason. Exercise and quality time, what more could I ask for?

Saturday, March 13, 2004

Weekend

It's been a while, I notice. Not much to say. I got a nibble on the query I sent out in January. I have an invitation to send the article on spec in the fall. I'm planning on doing it, but I also have to keep repeating, "Don't blow it!" to myself. I've been at this point before and blown it, so my anxiety is justified.

My nephews are home, but freaky family stuff is far from over, this is more of a beginning of more freakiness. I'm not sure how much more my parents can take, especially the way it's affecting me, and I'm on the periphery of the nonsense. Makes me appreciate my middle-class ordinariness (to the extent I can actually qualify as middle-class or ordinary, that is) all the more, I suppose.

Waking up to news of Madrid's rush hour explosions did nothing for my overall outlook on Thursday, but at least I got to go dancing that night. It was the last lesson and we did well pretty much all around. I'm going to miss those evenings, maybe we can do it again in the fall.

Got a GRE study guide from the library on Thursday. Haven't done much with it yet, I'm still toying with that whole idea in a mostly non-serious manner. Especially since I can't even keep up with the Only A Novel assignments.

I have begun, once again, availing myself of the public library's services. I'm working my way through my to be read list, currently on In Legend Born by Laura Resnick. It's going more slowly than I would have expected, but I've been budgeting my reading time poorly lately. I also borrowed videos for the first time. None of my listed must-sees were available, but I got a couple others, and I'm sure the ones I really want will be returned, replaced, or removed from hold eventually.

Hasn't gotten much more exciting, has it?

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Nearly Spring

We've been having a string of lovely weather. The snow and ice in the backyard is nearly gone and I walked around at lunchtime today with my coat off. I'm looking forward to the time when this is a more permanent state.

I've heard from neither of my submissions yet. Or from my application, for that matter. There is still time for all of it, and things are percolating, even if I haven't managed to get much out on paper lately. But I'm caught up on many things, so I'm not at a complete loss.

I was going to walk up to the shopping center after work and see if I could buy tracing paper, but there was a shooting there last night and I'm still a bit wigged out.

I finished Prague by Arthur Phillips a couple of days ago. It was decent, but not wonderful, and it left me cold. Maybe I'm not cynical enough to be a true member of Generation X, and I can't see that I mind much. The characters have the opportunity to spend time living abroad and all they really do is complain about their middle to upper-middle class lots in life. There were a few images I enjoyed, but for the most part it just felt like another thirty-something ex-pat hipster trying to be Hemingway. How about we stop trying to be Hemingway and start trying to be authentic, for once. Is that too much to ask?

Meanwhile, I'm having trouble being anything associated with writing at all, and it's getting tiresome. I keep thinking that one of these days I'll spring back into action, but if one of these days doesn't come along soon, I don't know what I'll do.