It's still October

I find this amazing. This month has felt about four months long to me. I think part of it is the intensive teaching (four classes is no joke) and lots of other stuff going on in my life (Bell choir, which is an enjoyable thing; doing a reception for a memorial service which wasn't, so much). I also have people who just have *problems* in my classes. Sometimes problems of their own creation (decide they don't need to come to class, earn a 40% on the exam, wonder what they can do to fix that), sometimes not (car trouble, problems on the job*)

(* One of the things about our students: most of them have to work, many of them are in parlous finances. I know a lot of them drive old cars that tend to break down. I sigh very heavily when I read some thinkpiece about coddled overprotected college students)

Also the campaign ads. I would love for them to stop. If I ran the world, there would be no campaign ads within a week of the election: call it the Dead Week Rule.

(Then again: if I ran the world, there would be no campaign ads, because I'd be Benevolent Dictatrix for Life, and you wouldn't need to have elections)

Yeah. Between the Cruz/O'Rourke race in Texas, and the Edmonson/Stitt race here, I'm getting allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the ugly campaign ads. (And yes, "It's your fault for still watching broadcast tv," I guess, except I have heard of people getting stuck with the ads on YouTube as well)

I will welcome the ads for whatever dumb "Buy it for Christmas!" things when they show up (do they still show Chia Pet and Clapper ads? When I was a kid, you knew Christmas was on the way when you saw ads for those, and for the compilation-albums of Christmas music - which is a long-gone thing, I guess, with Spotify and the like).

Actually, one of the reasons I like cartoons is that toy ads are a lot more fun than campaign ads. Did you know they're bringing back Gak yet again?

And Standard Time. I know people disagree with me on this and that's fine, but: driving to work at 7 am and having it feel like it's midnight sucks rocks. I prefer having it get dark as I'm going home for the day rather than when I'm driving to work. (Though I guess I'll have to figure out a time for the one last lawn mowing I will apparently have to do....).

I will welcome Standard Time back. Even though it means an end to piano lessons for the year (we have one lesson left on the current set I paid for; that is this week. Then it's no lessons until March, but okay, I can work on my own....and I confess, then I feel like I can take the occasional day of not-practicing if I'm busy or don't feel like it).

I am also ready for it to be cooler on a regular basis - for it to be nice to wear my sweaters. And to work on warm things.

I figured out the fix to the "I couldn't pick up enough stitches on the first go" last night on Harvest, so I should be able to just happily motor away on that while invigilating it this week. I may even get up to the point of dividing for the sleeves! (and I brought stitch holders in my knitting bag just in case).

I also have several blanket kits I want to start - one from a couple birthdays ago that was like the last gasp of Patternworks (RIP). And the crocheted throws. And I also - I confess - bought a new-to-me acrylic (Yes, I know, but: when you live in Bug Country you....I don't know, I can't make a "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" joke out of that, but....housewares are better made out of synthetics in Bug Country). It's called "Hygge" (yes, I know) and it's a pretty purple color they call "Wisteria," and it has a free pattern on the ball band for a blanket and I had a coupon at JoAnn's so....I got it.

I know it takes me forever to finish something like that. I find a lot of times when I buy yarn or fabric it's not so much "I am going to start this right away" but "I dream of a time when I have time to make this" - and sometimes, it's not so much the THING that I want, but the lifestyle it suggests. (That's why I like the Interweave Press books and magazines: all the knitwear is staged with what you can imagine as a backstory: I wish I were that young woman who lived in a "cool" neighborhood where I had time every morning to stop in the local coffee shop and work the daily newspaper crossword over a coffee and croissant. I wish I were part of the family going apple picking and laughing. I wish I had some handsome dude who knew how to play guitar smiling at me from across the room while I knit on a sweater....) And yeah, I'm susceptible enough to believe in some level of sympathetic magic: maybe if I knit these fingerless mitts, some time in the future there WILL be a cool coffee shop in my neighborhood. Or maybe if I make this blanket I can spend evenings curled up under it reading...

But I've told myself I must first (a) Finish a thing or two and (b) make the mitts for the AAUW gift exchange. (At least I don't have to worry about knitting deadlines for any other project, though my niece did - sigh - commission me to knit her an 8" long blue stuffed toy cat, and I"m not sure when I find time for THAT).