It's the Mira Cowl (the smaller version, so it's more snug fitting) made of one of KnitPicks sock yarns.
* More unsettling changes: my good next door neighbors (the cop and his family) have For Sale By Owner sign out in front of their house. So they're moving. I'm hoping and praying that none of the local "slumlords" buys the place (I already have a rent house to the south of me, but the owner lives in the neighborhood, so she's more careful about picking renters). Long time readers might remember that summer 2003 (or was it 2004?) this was the house that was occupied by a loose band of underemployed 20 somethings who partied EVERY DARN NIGHT and forced me to decamp to my guest room on the other side of the house just to sleep. And who trashed their yard and mine, and caused a rodent problem that affected several others in the neighborhood. So I am going "NOOOOOO!" to the idea of my good quiet neighbors selling.
I'm hoping someone won't buy the place and rent it out to awful people, but I also hope that the person who buys it isn't one of those busybodies who comes over to "remind" me that I really "should" have mowed my lawn three days ago, and oh, by the way, you've got a faded shutter over there, and really, we don't want to damage the value of properties in the neighborhood, now do we?
I'm just worn out by the changes in my world that are happening in short order. No more quilt shop, possibly more work for no more pay come spring, new neighbors next door. I am like Garth Elgar: "We fear change."
I'm hoping this isn't a subtle push from the Universe, telling me, "Hey. It's time to look for employment somewhere else in the country and move" because I really don't WANT to but I wonder how much more I will get hit with.
* Happier news: My exams for next week are ready to go. Well, they have to be, as one of them is a take-home I hand out tomorrow. And in one class it's a "common" exam that we all wrote earlier. This means I have nothing I HAVE to be doing this weekend. (And there is No New Pony, because it's the Hiatus Time). I have tentatively decided - barring the possibility of awful weather - to go antiquing in Sherman/Denison and also do my usual round of bookstore/JoAnn's/maybe the Target if I can get there before the people who are pushy and rude come out
* One thing I want to pick up, if available, is some kind of snowflake shaped button. I started Frost Flower last night, and I decided that rather than try to cut her snowflake "butt symbol" out of felt, I'll just get a nice button and sew it on.
I'm using a different pattern for this. It's supposed to be a FILLY pony but I suspect, from as much of the head as I've crocheted, it will be at least as big as the other ponies I've made. Oh well.
* I also got my annual review back yesterday. Not to brag but I was rated "outstanding" based on my scholarship and service, and "commendable" (one step down) for teaching.
(Part of this is the game-playing aspect of things, which I hate: my chair is directed to tell us all things we should "improve" and so she ran with my idea of "my soils class last spring was less successful than it could be" though I would argue that's at least much the fault of Certain Students as it is mine.) Anyway, it works out to an overall rating of "outstanding" (averaging, yo) so my job isn't in danger, at least from that aspect of things.
(I still remain fearful about the financial status of my university, and next year, we could all be RIFfed or something)
And yeah, I hate this idea of: everyone must find something they do less than ideally and be told to improve it. It's never enough to say "Keep on keepin' on" to someone, that their work is good enough. I'm a perfectionist and I'm plenty good at seeing where my work isn't perfect, so it rankles me to have to play a game about it. And I tend to over-interpret, where "You might think about changing...." makes me think "YOU ARE AWFUL AT THIS AND THIS MAKES YOU A BAD PERSON" so my chair is careful to emphasize the "this is a game we have to play" aspect of things. But still. It's a dumb game, and I know every workplace plays it, but why? Why tell the people working their cutie marks off that they need to improve? Is this some thing that's done so the people who aren't that great or who don't work that hard don't feel so bad about themselves? Or is it some stupid idea that organizations prosper when everyone is fearful that they aren't good enough?
* And that kind of thing is why I need to crochet ponies or make quilts or knit things. I like being able to look at something and go "this is good" (and yeah, even with my best ponies, I see places where they're not ideal, but on balance, they're good) and not have to overanalyze it.
* In the larger world, evidence of "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - apparently the University of Chicago (which I pay attention to slightly, as my brother used to work there) was closed yesterday because of "credible threats." Allegedly it was someone angry about the shooting of a teenager by a cop there. (And yes, I will note: the cop's reaction was way excessive and he should be tried, probably should have been removed from the force long ago if the complaints levied about him are correct). But threatening to "take out some of 'yours' because one of 'yours' took out one of 'mine"" - if that's even true - IT DOESN'T HELP ANYTHING.
I don't know what would help things, I don't know how to fix the problems that are there, but I know threatening other people's lives - people who might even agree with you on the issue - doesn't help.
this is what frustrates me about people, and this is how I fear we're going backwards as a species. The whole "us" and "them."
Or maybe it's not that we're going backwards, it's that we never went as far forwards as we could have. I don't know.
I'm beginning to wonder if my young adulthood was a rare, mostly-calm era (remember when the OJ trial was huge news?) in a terrible, dark history. (Then again: there was the Rodney King beating, the follow-up beating of the truck driver, and the riots). I suppose after the breakup of the Soviet Union I breathed a (probably premature) sigh of relief after a childhood of hearing Sting sing about whether Russians loved their children too, and hearing about how many times over we and the Soviets could destroy the earth.
I suppose part of it is I don't have the same perspective. I remember very shortly after September 11, 2001, I was talking with my mom on the phone and about how concerned I was, and she quietly remarked, "I remember being a Young Married during the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis."
Though really, that's kind of sad: "I'm not convinced the world is going to end now because I lived through an earlier time when I thought the world might end."
* I also wonder how long it's going to be before some kind of threat is made here, and we close for a day. I think of the late 70s, when my dad was a prof at the University of Akron, and how they not infrequently had "bomb threats" which always fell during midterms and finals. Oh, they either closed for the day or told the faculty to hold off a couple hours for coming in (there was a whole phone tree) but nothing was ever found and it was always assumed it was someone who was unprepared and wanted more time to study. (And what a stupid and irresponsible way to get it). But really, the profs' (or at least my dad's) reaction was to roll their eyes and go "yeah, sure." Oh, he stayed home until 10 am or whenever they said it was okay to start coming in, but the assumption was very much that there was no danger. Sadly, that's not the case any more, and stuff like that has to be taken deadly seriously.
I'm just hoping, not during exam week. Not in such a way that it screws up the travel plans of other students and faculty. (They have a way, here, of deciding at the last minute "OH IF THE WEATHER IS BAD FOR FINALS WE WILL JUST GIVE THEM THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 20," sort of forgetting that some of us go far, far away to be with family)
* I dunno. I think I need that Saturday out this week, hanging out in antique shops, looking for fun things or cute things or useful things, and also maybe getting the new Brit-Knit magazines, if they're in.
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