tired and frayed

Warning: this is going to be crabby. And I'm going to do (sort of in absentia as the other person isn't actually sitting here arguing with me) something I really hate having done to me: the one-upmanship of miseries. But I'm just kind of p'd off and this is what my p'd-off-ness settled on:

I'm getting fed up with the Socknitters list again. (I'm on digest, so there's no easy way for me to delete particular messages). Someone apparently got a bad skein of a popular sockyarn that had a couple knots in it. So she emailed the company, and then also emailed the list to complain about it. (Aside: I hate it when someone blasts a company or business in an e-mail list before they've had a chance to try to resolve it with the company. It is like "I want to smear you even before you have a chance to defend yourself." Totally unfair in my book.)

The company emailed her back an apology - but that wasn't good enough. Why didn't they offer her free yarn? Why didn't they replace the yarn? Why didn't they bow down immediately, say "we're not worthy!" and tell her they were going to hire 1,000 yarn-inspectors to make sure no knots wound up in the yarn.

Arrrrrrrggggggh. All I can say is this: If the BIGGEST issue you have going on in your life is that you get the occasional skein of yarn with knots, count yourself VERY VERY VERY blessed. Okay? Because that means you don't have:

a parent with a serious disease

other aging family members to worry about

more responsibility than you can possibly deal with

grey hairs sprouting like weeds

40-50 pounds you'd really be best off losing

asthma like an iron vise in your chest

a class so unruly that you dream about them at night and wake up shaking

Students asking "Are we going to do anything FUN today?"

Students saying: "I missed class last week. Did we do anything?"

Students saying "If we promise not to tell anyone, would you cancel class?"

Students never showing up to class, and then wondering why their grades aren't better and why they don't MAGICALLY get their assignments handed back as fast as everyone else's

people DEMANDING why you don't have grades posted THE VERY MOMENT you complete them

near-burnout in the only career you know or care about doing

people calling you up to ask you for an extension on an assignment, and telling you every bad thing that has happened in their lives from 1989 until now

the impending sense of guilt because there are scientific meetings this weekend you're blowing off because you are so damn tired you just want to put your head down on the desk and weep

Okay? If I got a skein of yarn with knots in it, I'd be ticked, but I'd get over it pretty fast. I've GOTTEN skeins with knots, worn places, odd-dye-bits. It's called having a pair of scissors and weaving in more ends. Yeah, I hate it too. But you know, it's something in life that's EASY to fix. Okay, so your socks aren't perfect Martha Matchie-Poo. Seriously. It's called "wabi-sabi." It's called "humility patch." Many artists around the world INTENTIONALLY make their work imperfect, either as a recognition that only God is perfect, or as an attempt to avoid offending God.

Sigh. I need an EASY button like on the Staples commercials. Then, I could at least get a decent night's sleep and come home to a clean house. And maybe get my grading done for me.


Why no, I haven't had time to knit recently, why do you ask?