five good things about today

Today is a Very Good Day. Here's why:

Good Thing #1


ahhh...it just really started getting hot and humid and for the first time in my adult life I now have air conditioning in my ENTIRE house.

Growing up in Tennessee everything is ridiculously air conditioned to about 60 degrees and it is unquestioned that you WILL have air conditioning (except for the year we moved there and my parents thought we could forego it-- I spent the summer playing christmas carols on the piano thinking it might make my 8 year old body cooler if I could pretend it was winter.) Though now it makes me chilly when I go home to visit, it is so lovely to go in and out of those arctic blasts into the simmering hell of humidity outdoors (and vice-versa).

Up here in yankee-land, air-conditioning really IS an option (this was shocking to me when I first went to college, how could you NOT have air conditioning?!?). For 2 weeks of the year it is an absolute miserable hell without it, but you survive. Until last year I had struggled through Minnesota and NY summers with no air conditioning at all. Those 2 weeks never seemed worth the few hundred dollars the air conditioning would cost. But thanks to
A) last summer's string of heat waves that forced me to camp out in my bedroom for 4 days, emerging only for food.
and
B) a generous air conditioning grant provided by the in-laws
...we now have air conditioning. In every room (we live in a small apartment, it isn't as excessive as it sounds).
This means I can knit. All summer. Even with wool. yipeeee!

It also means that I can have Good Thing #2


mmmm coffeee. I love it. I HATE iced coffee. I HATE drinking hot things in the heat. Therefore, today is partly a Good Day because Good Thing #1 and Good Thing #2 go so well together.

Good Thing #3


This picture doesn't do her justice. In the past week or so this bird has become the most entertaining thing in the whole world. She has just started talking and comes out with new words every day. She likes to have little sessions where she puts together everything she knows into various groupings. So far "everything she knows" consists of:
singing the Simpsons theme song
clucking
saying "gris-gris" (but it sounds like a frog ribbiting
"hello"
"good-morning"
"hi"
slidey whistles a la "Groove is in the Heart"
"step up"
wolf whistles
"Guess what?"
"stop"
"no"
"how are you?"
The queen of the night aria from _The Magic Flute_
"oh boy"
laughing
"bye bye"
Shave and a Haircut (two bits!)

She combines all of these words together into hilarious strings. My favorite so far is the, "Good Morning Gris-Gris, How are you? Guess what? step up. Stop Gris Gris, No." Then of course it is interspersed with Simpsons music and unique variations on that theme. It makes me laugh. Then she laughs back. I laugh some more. And it is off for another round of hilarity. She also is doing a lot of funny upside down tricks but whenever I point the camera at her to get a picture she stops and tries to chew the camera. Oh well.

While watching and listening to the birdy show I have finished Good Thing #4


My favorite so far.

Which naturally leads me to Good Thing #5:


So much more dishcloth yarn left to play with. I love looking at all of it in this little basket. I love making predictions about how many dishclothes I will be able to make with so much yarn. I love thinking that weeks worth of entertaining knitting (not to mention a pile of pretty dishclothes) only cost $15.00. I may never stop.................

welcome to my recent knitting craziness

So it is summer vacation for me. When I tell most people this I am met with a look of longing desire mixed with deep hatred. i understand this look, really. Because I think that look is sort of how I feel in February when I think, "how will I ever make it to summer vacation and there is no way that it is ever ever going to happen." Except the difference is that when I have that thought I know it will eventually come wheras when people look at me with that special blend of desire and hatred I know it is because they know it will not.

Yes, I am blessed with 2 months off every summer, but it is a mixed blessing. There are many stages of summer vacation excitement. In talking to other teachers I have come to believe this is indeed wide spread and can be termed "summer vacation syndrome" It begins with the the dreamy thought of ahhhhhh two months where I can do WHATEVER I WANT! Then there is the terrifying thought of eeekkkkk I can do WHATEVER I WANT! No structure, no appointments, just a blank void of time. A terryfying void. The first responsse is to begin filling it with fantasy projects. Here are some of mine:

oh! I can stay at work a few extra days trying to get a few things done that I never seem to have time to do!
mmmm! I can knit every morning!
oooo! I can redo the sewing closet!
ahhhh! I will knit lots of dishclothes!
eeek! I can read lots of books!
sigh! I will knit an octopus for my classroom next year (the kids picked the animal)
hey! I can take a few education classes!
hmmmm....I COULD go see a 4 evening opera with James since he really really wants to go.
yipeee! I'll go to Africa!
yes! I will knit socks on the way to Africa!
ohhh! I have lots of friends getting married, I'll be able to go to 3 of the weddings!
hmmmm...maybe I can finish that shawl on the way to those weddings!
yeah! I will work out a little every day.

This continues throughout the spring as you list one dream after another.

At the beginning of summer you begin to plot the reality of the relaxing summer you have planned for yourself and then begin to get very very stressed. "How will I do all of this?" you think.

Finally you decide that your goals were "guidelines" rather than actual things to accomplish.

Most of those things on my list WILL happen but I might have to let go of the sewing closet in order to make enough time to knit, though that thought makes me hold back a few tears. We will see. THERE IS NO RUSH (as I keep telling myself to no avail).

The best part of summer has been the ridiculous amount of time I can spend knitting. I've finished up several old projects and begun the "March of the Dishclothes." I might be addicted.