Some in-progress shots, for a Friday:

the edging on Hiawatha continues. There's an added trick to knitting-on the short-edge edging that makes it annoying, so I haven't worked as much on it as I might:



I'm working away on the ribbing for the Central Park Hoodie. I cannot get this thing to photograph true to color; here it looks more purple than it actually is:



And I also have begun the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf (.pdf version; the link I usually use isn't working this morning) out of the green ("Ireland") multi KnitPicks chunky highland wool. It's attractive but the wool's not especially soft:



****

I've been thinking about my malaise of the past couple days ("Do I suck as a teacher because students look bored in my class sometimes?" "I should be designing stuff. WHy am I not designing stuff? Where did my creativity go?"). I think it's partly just the end of a long summer. Coupled with the fact that I have a really busy life. Probably too busy for my own good - there are some nights when I'm home one evening out of four, and there are days when I have three meetings stacked one right after the other, in different parts of town.

I also haven't been having "fun." One of the questions my dad asks me when he calls me, after I've talked about the work-stuff or the research-stuff is, "are you having any fun?" And you know? When you don't have a family around you, "fun" can be hard to come by. So much stuff here is "family oriented" that if you show up as a single adult, you're seen as out of place or worse. And doing something like going to a movie by myself - I know a lot of people do that for fun, but to me it just feels like, I don't know, giving in or something. (Maybe because movies used to be the typical date-activity and I feel like going to one alone is like giving up on ever having a date again.) And besides, there's the issue of people treating the theater like their own private living room, down to the ongoing conversations and the cell-phone usage.

I need to figure out something "fun" to do. I toyed with the idea of going up to Chickasaw this weekend and just hanging out, maybe going over to Davis and doing some antiquing. I don't know. It's supposed to be like 95* this weekend (which is NOT right. The highs should be no more than 70* by now.) Part of the problem is most of the museums or art-related things or festivals are really far away and/or scheduled when I'm working. Or they're in a city where the stress and hassle of driving coupled with the stress and hassle of being in a crush of humanity would outweigh any "fun" for me. (I'm the person who gets frustrated shopping at the wal-mart at 3:30 in the afternoon).

I think I do need to plan some kind of long-term "fun" for my midfall break in the middle of October. Not sure what yet. I went to Hot Springs a couple years ago, and that was fun, but now that I've seen Hot Springs, well, I've seen it, and I'm not sure I'd be that excited to go back. I might look into Guthrie - Sealed With a Kiss is up there, and there should be other neat stuff to do, and I could probably get a room in a bed and breakfast for a couple days and just go up and do stuff.

There's also a place I've read about - Siloam Springs or something - it's in NW Arkansas and is supposedly an artists' colony where there are museums and interesting shops and stuff.

A big part of it is just wanting to get "away." And an "away" that's not Sherman or McKinney or Ardmore or any of the usual "aways" that I go to.

As for THIS weekend and my immediate feeling of needing fun - there's a good museum in Norman but - Norman on a weekend, ugh. I can't imagine competing with football traffic.

What I'd really like to do would be to find a pick-your-own orchard or a little farm-community shop that sold handmade cheeses and stuff and do that. Something quiet and fall-ish and outside of the crazy realm of Target on a Saturday afternoon.

There's an Amish community up at Clarita, about 45 minutes away. I know they have shops but I don't know anything about them. I don't suppose Amish communities have webpages talking about their attractions, even if they want tourists coming in? Because, you know, the no-electricity thing? It would be hard to make a webpage if you didn't use electricity.

I can't do what a lot of people around here do; just get in my car and drive until I find something interesting. That feels too wasteful to me, both of gas and of my time.