treating my self

 Yeah, the 13th of this month is allegedly now "Treat Yo' Self" day (from one of my favorite episodes of Parks and Recreation, and maybe I go back and rewatch some of the favorite episodes again; they cheer me up, partly because of the "family feel" of that workplace - and someone who had read a little about the show once told me that guest stars liked going on that show because it was such a friendly and relaxed set, and maybe it shows through a little?)

But the 13th wasn't a good day for me - lots of grading, lots of less than ideal interpersonal interactions. I can't remember now if that was a day I tried to fight with the assessment or if I was just unhappy because I had that on top of the many other things to look for.

But today, I decided to do it.

(I did take a "Treat Yo Self" day last year, in easier - if not necessarily happier, given my more-recent grief - times)

Today, I ran to Target to stock up on some food items and I also bought a few fun things.

Like

silly cosmetics/bath products

TREAT YO SELF

(and oh, how happy I am that "scrunchies are back in fashion now" - I use them a lot and new ones are a nice small treat)

new winter pajamas/lounging clothes

TREAT YO SELF

Fun books

TREAT YO SELF

(Yes, this is probably a kid's book, but I love "talking animal" books and it looks funny and nice, and I need funny and nice right now - I might start this as an antidote for all the palace intrigue in "In A Dark Wood Wandering")

New stuffies!

TREAT YO SELF

(His name is Axl. Because he is an Axolotl, get it? I was considering him vs. a bolster in the shape of a fox, and while the fox was softer, Axl is more unusual AND more colorful)

Picked up my quilt (which still needs to be bound, but it counts for this)

TREAT YO SELF

And get home in time for the MS Teams knitting meetup a couple of us do every 2 weeks, and knit the heel flap/turn the heel of the sock while at it:

TREAT YO SELF.

This is the second sock of the pair, so I'm closing in on being done with these. It's Opal, which is a good sock yarn from the standpoint of wearing well, but it's not very soft to work on - usually you have to wash the socks once or twice to soften them up a little. 

I admit, in my magical-thinking way, I am wondering if I try to finish all the projects I had going in the before-times, it will end the pandemic and free us - then again, I have a v. complicated colorwork sweater I've stalled out on, and a quilt in the frame, and technically the candy/cake patterned quilt that I've been working on and off (mostly off) since 2013 count, and I'm not sure I can get those done any time soon. 

The quilt - I am very happy with how it turned out and maybe soon I will get a binding on it. (I want to finish the current top I am working on - I laid it out last week but guess I never posted the photo:

I was going to do it a a simple zig zag in both colors, but messed something up in the first four rows, but decided to look closer at it before I ripped out the offending seam - and decided I really liked it. So I laid it out, both to be sure it would come out symmetrical (I dislike asymmetricality) and to make sure I'd sew it up right - so I stacked up the rows and pinned each one together with a slip of paper indicating which row it was).

I was thinking of taking it in to be quilted, but the woman at the quilt shop said they had 60(!) quilts to complete before Christmas, so she wasn't taking any new ones until after the first of the year. Either I can just hang on to this one, or if things stay okay enough I feel all right going to Denison again, I might message the person at Home A La Mode to see if she's taking quilts - though I bet she is as stacked up as the people at Lulu and Hazel's are. 

But yeah. Maybe what I do need for my equilibrium is a bit of the occasional treating of myself, even if it is just taking a warm bath or reading something nice.