I got finished up with class a little early yesterday (they were setting up an experiment which will have its data collected on Friday). Ran out to the wal-mart (there are sadly, still a few things I need that Green Spray does not carry, so I occasionally have to make trips there).
By the time I got home, I was starting with a slight headache. But the back of my neck and one sinus was involved, so that seemed like an oncoming migraine. I took something for it but decided to beg off the evening meeting I was supposed to go to. The headache never fully went away. If I had had to have been at the meeting, I probably could have gone, but I didn't absolutely have to be there.(Board meeting, it's not that essential I be there, as I'm not an "official" voting member of the board any longer; I'm what's called a "serving elder" meaning I do the Sunday-morning type stuff but don't have an official vote-as-an-elder on the board.
(And yes, it still seems strange to me that I would be an elder in my church. But I assume that people must see something in me I don't always see.)
So I stayed home. I think the headache may have been my body's way of telling me I needed to slow down a bit and stop pushing so hard.
I did manage to finish the second pair (the Snow on Cedars pattern) mitts. These took a lot longer than the average mitt but they're longer and more complex and prettier. (A better picture than what I could take is here, and there's also a link to the pattern shop where you can order the pattern)
***
In two weeks it will be Thanksgiving. There's a lot for me to get done between now and then, work-wise, but wow, am I looking forward to the evening of the 23rd, when I get on a train and don't have to think about work-related stuff for a couple of days.
I love Thanksgiving. I think it's a great holiday. (Granted, I've never had to do 100% of the hosting and cooking, and I get along with all the family that's likely to be around the table). I like it because there's relatively little to be concerned about: you don't have to plan for gifts (as much as I like giving gifts, sometimes it's worrisome if you're mailing them: will they get there on time?), you don't have the whole round of parties and socials and stuff like that leading up to the day. And the main focus of the day is a meal.
And I admit it: I like the traditional Thanksgiving meal. I like roast turkey and the New Englandy chestnut stuffing my mom makes. And the cranberries and potatoes and all those things. They're all foods I get maybe twice a year, at the most, so they don't seem stale to me.
I'm always a little taken aback by the articles and discussions I see about "pepping up" the traditional meal, or changing things, or any of that.
I can see, if you have a vegetarian member of your family - or someone on a very restricted diet - you would need to alter things to make sure there was enough the person could eat (and depending on the vegetarian's beliefs and their, ahem, "importance" in the family, maybe doing away with the turkey altogether.) But otherwise, I'm not big on the idea of eliminating tradition solely in the service of doing something "new."
I realize that's a philosophical difference I have with some folks. I tend to come down on the side of keeping tradition, unless there is something clearly wrong with it, but I know other people who want something new every year. I don't know. I suppose it's a personality thing - I know that I crave the familiar and that having Thanksgiving roll around again with the turkey and the green-tomato-mincemeat pie and the same kind of stuffing my family has always had is important to me. I think the familiar traditions (be they ones I do with my family, or things like my October trips to Longview that I've developed as my own traditions) remind me of what's good in life for me. And they remind me of who I am.
I think that's actually been a problem this fall: some days I think I started to lose who I was, fundamentally. I got so "covered up in alligators" and forgot to breathe and convinced myself that I couldn't take time for myself, that I kind of lost sight of things, and I know there were times when I was crabby when I normally wouldn't be, or despairing when I normally wouldn't be - crabby and despairing are not things that I am.
And it's weird - you do kind of see that you're losing track of yourself, but when you are, you either don't know how to stop it, or - it's not exactly that you don't CARE, but it's that you're too miserable at that point to see how to stop it.
But hopefully, maybe, after this week I can take a little bit of a breath and stop feeling like I have to run constantly to stay in the same place.
A funny thing: I was at the wal-mart yesterday, and while standing in the checkout line, I saw a guy in the next line over who looked kind of like my brother. I mean, he didn't look EXACTLY like him - but he was tall, and had long hair the same color as Jon's and the same receding hairline, and the hair pulled back in a ponytail, and the little oval glasses that my brother sometimes wears. And his expression and posture and general mannerism was very like my brother. And it was really strange, the intellectual part of my brain was going "that sure looks like Jon, but it's not him" while the emotional part of my brain was continuing to go "That's Jon! That's my BROTHER! I haven't seen him in so long!" Of course the intellectual part overrode the emotional part, but it was a strange sensation to see someone who reminded me so much of him, and yet know it wasn't him.
I guess it's been too long since I saw my family.
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