My Sick Day

I am staying home from school today. I feel kind of bad about this because I am the teacher. However, I don't think any of the kids mind. I told them they should use the time to work on their final projects. Hah. Like I would, if I were them. But I have to say that.

Actually, I don't feel that bad. I don't feel as sick as I did yesterday, when I did teach the class. But my voice is almost totally gone, so today seemed best spent resting, mostly in bed.

Yesterday Pocket of Bolts and I went and set up our wedding registry. How odd that was! As others of our friends have reported, though, it was also extremely fun. I'm shy about what other people will think of the china pattern, but PoB and I both liked it very much. We agree really easily on aesthetic decisions a lot of the time, even though we're both really stubborn and opinionated (it's not like one of us is a pushover and one of us always wins or anything like that). I mean, when we don't agree there are fireworks to be sure but we agree quite often, and the plates was one of the things we had no trouble choosing or agreeing on. Funny!

It's strange to think about what our life would look like with nice stuff as opposed to dumpster salvage in our kitchen. I still have a hard time seeing it, but wandering around the Crate and Barrel yesterday started to bring it in to focus a bit!

Not much else to be said about today. I am in the grip of this nasty chest cold and I have mostly been either sleeping or sitting on the couch taking care of small tasks.

After reading Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter over spring break, I decided to learn to knit. Why, you might ask, did I start reading a book like that in the first place if I don't even know how to knit? I mean, it's chock-full of knitting technicalia, which was just babble in foreign language to me mostly. But I was impressed by the Yarn Harlot's diatribe against crochet. I am a long-time crocheter, though not an especially expert one. I've got a bit tired of the way crocheted things look though and of the process of doing it. Also I wanted to try to learn something I can do when the light is not too good. With crocheting, you have to be able to see to figure out into which loop you need to insert the hook, but given that with knitting the loops are all strung on a pole, it ought to be possible to do it when, say, you're watching a movie or riding in a car in the evening. Don't blind people knit? So anyway, I thought I'd try.

You might wonder how I have time for that. But what I need to do is find something that is soothing and comforting but not quite as addictive or time-thieving as video games. So far I think knitting has been doing that pretty well. I am taking it slow, but have about 6 inches of a scarf going. It's fun, and (at the simple low level where I am now) especially good for days like this when my brain is totally thrashed and not firing on all cylinders.