Pinch Me

Do you ever have moments when the spectacular breaks through your mundane? Moments when you think, how'd I get HERE? What on earth did I do right, to get to experience THIS? It's just too good. Someone pinch me!

I work at a pretty well-known place. The kind of place that makes people say, "Wow! Really?" when you tell them the name. But as with anything that's day-to-day in your life, it becomes blah. Yeah, I work here. It's not that special. It's like any other place. The same stuff happens here as in any other job. We've got memos, policies, slackers, departments that are nightmares to work with, annoying people, etc. We've also got great people, dynamic change and pride.

There's a pretty famous route to get around this place. It's a walkway that connects a bunch of buildings and it's always full of people. It's the way to get anywhere around here. I travel this path a couple times a week if I'm lucky and busy. When I'm there, I'm head down thinking work thoughts and preparing for the meeting I'm headed to. Worker bee mode. Getting work done.

The thing is, people travel to see this walk. It's always full of people and wide-eyed foreign travelers. It spans a couple fancy lobbies, passing architecturally significant details and marble floors. It's the hub of this entire place, but to me it's a means to get where I'm going. It's just a path through the same old places.

There have been times when I'm walking alone along this route and something catches my eye. I look up. I notice the green courtyard, I look directly up and see the spectacular rotunda, I notice people taking pictures, I see a parade of people in white lab coats... and it hits me. I work here. HERE! My pace slows, I take a good look around, I notice the marble, the door knobs, the everything. I take a deep breath and soak in the wonder. I can't hold in the smile. The worker bee in me is gone and I'm just so thankful that I have this gift of a job.

So, maybe you don't know what I mean. I know it's rare for people to love their work and feel completed by it. But I hope for you that you do have moments in other parts of your life when something in your mundane strikes you as incredible. Maybe it's when your children teach each other, when you finish that lace project, when you're skiing/fishing/hiking, or when you cook something really divine.

One without wonder
Will not see It.
While the eyes of grateful
Will reflect It.

Haven Trevino

Hope you have a great weekend.

More sock yarn and KOIGU!

My first skeins of Koigu (PPPM 621). I've heard lots and lots about this yarn. My local stores don't carry it though. I finally gave in and bought some online. I think I'm gonna make a smaller, scarf size Clapotis. Pretty exciting stuff. I'm concerned that maybe two skeins isn't enough. I'm holding back the urge to hoard more Koigu.

More yarn for Harry Potter kiddo socks! Another new yarn: Baby Ull

Here's that kiddo sock I started during the paintball saga of Saturday night. The pattern uses a heel that's new to me. Wrapped stitches. Lang Jawoll comes with reinforcing thread to carry through the heel and toe, should you remember to use it. See that little spool that's not connected to my heel? *sigh* Oh well.

Cheap Sock Yarn

15 skeins of cheap sock yarn. Awesome.

Plans for kiddo socks from the Charmed Knits book. Hopefully I can knit these and stash them so sometime in December I can find them and proclaim loudly: "HADDY! You're brilliant! Gifts already done!!"

Stay tuned to see if that happens. If I were a bettin' woman, I'd give myself no more than a month before these babies are in the mail to some kiddos. OR that the yarn sits in my stash for a year before I see it again. Like I said, stay tuned...

Busy Bee

I've been so busy. With what, I don't know. Not much knitting going on. Too much reading and shenanigans.

There has been lots of yarn ordering. I was hoping to get some in yesterday's mail, but no luck. I will have pics later this week, depending on arrivals and how fast I finish HP 7. (Speaking of reading, I read slow. It's something I've tried to improve upon since I was 8. I had a class in which there was this speed reading machine. It would show you one line at a time and you could set the speed. The object was to improve your reading by gradually increasing the speed. I was dreadful at it.)

Since there's not knitting or anything of import, here are some observations:

• At Starbucks this morning, I overheard serious work talk that included the words organic, facilitating and demonstrative. I love professional talk like this. I think ordinary conversations would be much more interesting if carried out this way.
  

e.g. "Hubby, thank you for facilitating the replacement of the treads on the entry stairs to our house. This project is truly demonstrative of your talent as a carpenter and your organic approach to improving our living space.

See, funny.

• Someone tried to jump onto the moving train from the platform this morning. Moron. We started to pull away from the station and we braked suddenly. I was able to overhear the radio transmissions. No injuries. Moron. You will never catch me jumping on a moving train. Life is too short. I'd rather be late for work.
• I did knit half a kid sized sock on Saturday night. My plan was to finish reading HP 6, but when Hubby and his brother arrived home from paintball they had other plans. It was apparent that I needed to put my book down and listen to the heroic tales of paint, sweat, bruises and sore losers. When I realized I was in for the long haul, I grabbed some sock yarn and some needles. They informed me of their death/kill ratios, the ridiculous characters of the day, accounts of how the other brothers fared (Hubby has 3 brothers) and strategy. All the while, they flinched as people walked past our house. Our neighbors were dubbed as "targets" and I could see a strange disappointment in their eyes when they realized they could no longer shoot people. A couple hours later, I had half a sock. I will never fully appreciate paintball. I can understand how others might like it, but I will just knit instead.
  
• Watch PCU. Despite being 13 years old, this film is still LOL funny.