Thank you all for the nice comments. Perhaps I am actually more "popular" than I think I am.

Popularity is a strange concept. I think the reason I craved it - and think I still do - is in part, that it was so mysterious. As the anonymous commenter said, some kids were popular just because they were. In some cases, I think it was a matter of confidence - of seeming like you "should" be popular. I didn't have that confidence. In some cases, the kids probably "deserved" their popularity: they were attractive and well-dressed, they were good at sports, they were generally nice to people. But there were other cases, of kids who, you might say, talked the talk but didn't walk the walk. I remember a few popular girls who had really fooled the teachers into thinking they were nice kids and all, but wow, the things they would say to other kids when the teachers' backs were turned. Or the rumors they'd start and then disavow.

And I think, because I believed on some level that life should be "fair," it seemed wrong to me that a ratty-acting person could be popular, and could get away with stuff like, for example, referring to my friend Sarah as "trailer trash" (the first time I ever heard that phrase, and while she and her family DID live in a mobile home, "trash" was not a word that should have been applied to her). It seemed to me, even then, that in a just world, people like Sarah and my friend Debbie, and, perhaps even me, would be the popular ones....and the girls who spread rumors and teased other girls to the point where their stomachs would knot up just because they saw their tormentor coming down the hall...well, they wouldn't be.

So perhaps it IS a bit of ego on my part. And a bit of jealousy.

Actually, popularity is kind of like celebrity, I guess. There are some folks who are famous 'for cause' - they are good musicians, they do amazing sports feats, or they make good movies. But of late there's also been a trend (or maybe there always has been and I'm just noticing it now) of people who are famous because...well, they're FAMOUS. It's almost an Emperor's New Clothes sort of thing - everyone says that person X is famous and important, and people don't want to look like idiots or hicks, so they go along with it.

I guess the other thing I think popularity would give/would have given me is a sense of approval. I know, having a hundred yes-men around you is not equal to having one real friend who will tell you, for example, that something you are doing is wrong and you should stop it. But I've been in enough situations in my life where I wrote something, or did an art project, or made something else, and I thought it was pretty good, actually, and then when I presented it for someone else's approval, they tore it apart. And there have been other times when time or other pressures prevented me from making what I would consider the best effort, and I got high praise for something I believed to be half-hearted at best...and that, plus other things that happened in my past, have taught me the lesson of Don't Always Trust Your Own Judgment. And so, for better or for worse, I tend to seek "approval" from outside sources. And I think, popularity would be like the ultimate approval: a critical mass of people find you interesting and that what you are doing is good.

(You can imagine that reading the faculty evaluation comments every semester is pretty painful for me. I've been told by people that if you are 50-50 or better on the ratio of positive:negative comments - and I am - that you are doing a good job. But I still can't quite let go of those negative ones, even when they're NOT "constructive" criticism or when they're things I really had no control over and can't fix).

So I don't know. As I said earlier, perhaps craving "big knit blogger" popularity - when I do have a solid cadre of readers who like my stuff - is sort of a form of ingratitude, not seeing those readers for who they are. Kind of like the person at the party who is talking to someone but scanning the crowd for someone "more interesting" or prettier or who can advance their career more.

At any rate.

Revenons a nos moutons (one of my favorite idiomatic sayings, in any language. It literally means, let us return (to tending) our own sheep. Essentially "stick to your knitting" but not quite so imperative)

I've been working on various things...the Mystery Project (which I will photograph and put up here when it's done; I don't think the recipient reads here and even if she did, she wouldn't know it was for her). I'm also knitting on a pair of Kew socks (from Knitty). I like them but I think they will take aggressive blocking to make the edging work when they are done (right now, it wants to fold over).

And I keep looking longingly at my quilt fabric. Perhaps this weekend I will make time to work on the Pie Crust Pileup that has been sitting on my table for several weeks.

*****

Two other comment responses (if you've read this far):

to the anonymous commenter: I have not found a good source for 100% cotton pillowcases. In some cases I have made my own: it's not that difficult and if you get the slightly heavier quilting muslin, it makes good sturdy pillowcases that you can still embroider well on. (You could probably also make LINEN pillowcases, if you felt like spending the money - and washing the linen a few times to soften it up).

And Charlotte: the monster teeth are cut from white felt. The pattern suggests gluing them on but I stitched them on with white thread and a small running stitch because I tend not to like the stiffness that a large area of glue lends.

*****

Weather is unsure here. For three days they were selling the OH NOES GIANT ICE STORM and telling us to prepare to have "alternate sources of heat" if the power went out. Now they're saying we MIGHT get a little sleet.

While I'm grateful that we're not going to get hit hard, it looks like north of us it's going to be BAD. (I have a couple students who commute from McAlester). I hope TPTB, if it gets bad north of us and driving is unsafe, decide to cancel tomorrow and give the commuters a break.

(And I wouldn't complain about a Friday snow day myself. It's early enough in the semester that I could catch back up if necessary).

I did run out to the grocery yesterday afternoon (it wasn't bad yet, but I bet today it will be) and bought more milk and the few things I might have bought on a Saturday-morning trip, just in case the roads here are slick Saturday morning. And I did my laundry last night (Yes, I'm still having to stick the hose out the screen door, I'm still on Plumber-Watch) in case it gets really cold and would be kind of miserable to have that door open tonight or tomorrow.

So I'm as ready as I can be for bad weather.