Today was what I call a "Tetris Day."

That is when you have all of these little odd-shaped things you have to get done, and you have to try to fit them all into the course of the day, because if they spill past the day...it's Game Over.

So, today, in addition to teaching my class, I
-gave an hourly exam early to a student who has to head off tomorrow for early training and testing for dental school.

-helped with the local AAUW "children's play" put on by the campus theater department. That included counting the baggies of quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies (yes, pennies) the kids brought for their admission).

-did some grading

-wrote a handout I needed for tomorrow

-mailed in my taxes with the unfortunately large checks they require.

-ran back to the copy shop to have some essential stuff copied for tomorrow's classes

-washed my hair, which I hadn't done in two days (I planned on doing it last night but it was close enough to crazy-storm that I didn't want to do it, Mythbusters' disproval of the old "get electrocuted in your shower" myth notwithstanding)

-attended the local beautification council meeting

and tonight, I have to go back to take the cash for the evening production of the play.

****

In between all that, I'm working on Cozy; I decided I wanted to get this done, somehow, before starting another shawl project. (Next shawl will be either the Bird's Nest Shawl from Folk Shawls, or the Woodland Shawl or a new free pattern on Elann, the Shining Bird's Eye shawl

I'm a bit less inclined towards the Woodland shawl as it is very like Cozy in that the repeat's not "regular" - it shifts back and forth a bit so you can't pop stitch markers between the repeats and have those as "insurance." (I think the Bird's Eye shawl is like that too).

I've had to rip back a few times on Cozy because I get off count, or I get distracted because I'm watching tv and I mess up on yo's vs. dec's. And that's just kind of frustrating.

Or, heck, I might do Muir from Knitty instead. I don't know.

***

The first of the Moomintroll comic strip books came (actually Volume 2; apparently Volume 1 is backordered or something.)

First of all, they're lovely books - big hardcovers, about 8 1/2 by 11, with nice paper. The strips are large enough to read comfortably so the lettering isn't all squeezed. (I wonder - did Jansson write these in English herself? There's no note of a translator on the book, but I know the Moomin novels were written in another language (Finn? Swedish?) and translated).

As for the strip itself, kind of amazing. It's described by some critics as "surreal" but it's more dreamlike fantasy to me. (In my mind, "surreal" can break bad pretty easily and become nightmarish; all these stories have fairly happy endings). I get that weird, Alice-through-the-rabbit-hole feeling like I get when I re-read something I read as a child, but haven't read for a long time. It's one of those back-in-touch-with-your-childhood kinds of things (even though I had never seen the strips before and they are a bit different from the books.) That being back in touch with the funny imaginative kid I was, the kid who was always making up stories, who could "gallop" across a field and imagine herself on horseback, who made little dollhouses out of old shoeboxes, who made up "further adventures of" for her favorite storybook characters. And you know? It's kind of nice to be in correspondence with that person once in a while.

There's a fundamental coziness to the Moomin world. Moominmamma kind of keeps everything together, she brings food to the Mymble when she's in the throes of unrequited love, she tries to bring Misabel out of her fear and depression (and succeeds...).

In this one, the fillyjonk moves next door to Moominmamma and guilts her into getting a maid. The fillyjonk apparently has three children and promotes herself as an expert in "mothercraft" and housekeeping. And she's quite prim and not very fun-loving. (Again - probably just a distant relative to the Fillyjonk who Believed in Disasters, the one who wound up laughing on the beach after she realized she managed to survive the storm. I like her better.)

And yet, you know? At my worst, I am kind of like that fillyjonk - at times, little bit judgmental, kind of rigid, not fond of noise or mess. Prim. Maybe a little prissy. Too rule-bound.

That's really the magic of Tove Jansson's writing - you can see people you know (and often yourself, and sometimes even the part of yourself you'd rather deny) in her fantasy animals.

But they're also good stories - funny, clever, fanciful, dense in characters and storylines.

I'm really coming to love "graphic novels" or "comic strips" or whatever you call them. I didn't read them much (other than the dailies in the newspaper) when I was a child, but now I find myself wanting every edition of the "Little Dee" strips that come out, and ordering the various Owly books, and I think I'll continue to order this series as it continues to come out (there's at least 3 volumes planned).

I tend to prefer the "all ages" strips, and the ones that have animal characters. And I tend to prefer the "happy" ones, where at the end of the story everyone is safe at home and has made new friends and conquered their fears and has learned something important.

(And I'd love to run across more series like the ones I mentioned.)

There's something very comforting about being able to curl up in an armchair with an Owly book or with some other collection of comics or graphic novel (at least the "happy" kind) and just sort of escape into that world. I suppose it's because all too often I can look around and see situations where people DON'T end up safe at home. Or relationships are torn asunder. Or there are new fears that crop up, and people resist learning things. So it's kind of a relief to see the world "as it should be" in my eyes - where problems are mostly solved by talking them out or figuring some kind of creative solution, and most ills are cured with a cup of tea or an afternoon curled up on the sofa under a blanket, reading. And where there's someone around who's wise and kind and who can make you feel better.