Spring break starts today! This afternoon I drive down to Mineola to catch the train.

I really need this break. This is the time of the semester when I just start to get so tired...so much weighing on me.

I'm taking the couple of Directed Readings books I need to read with me, plus the other books in-progress. I've got Pickwick Papers (Still, but I'm nearly done) and the "first" Campion novel (and it gives no more hints to his origin or who he "really" is...I suspect he may have been a secret younger brother to the King, or perhaps a wrong-side-of-the-blanket relative..but his "real" name is never given). And I threw in my copy of the "Not So Small Life." It's something I've been thinking about lately...about the idea of a life being "small" but good.

(Part of my midlife plan to rid myself of guilt feelings about not having done the "Great Good Thing" that everyone predicted I would when I was an so-called "gifted" student in school. Life as it really is, is a hard thing to live up (or perhaps down) to, when your high school "Most Likely To.." is "discover a cure for AIDS." No, I am not ready to surf over to that French FAILlifeBLOG that Charles posted about a couple days ago, because I tend to think anyone (including myself) who has managed to avoid compromising their moral principles while at the same time being capable of keeping a roof over their head and food on the table is NOT a failure, but still...there are days I wonder what I could have done if I had only been willing to work harder and enjoy less leisure time...And those sort of maunderings are not good for one's sense of equilibrium.)

On to knitting. ("Small" life, indeed.)

I'm planning on finishing both the Little Child's Sock and the Caledonian Mists sock. I also pulled out a couple wound-off skeins of sockyarn - one of deep blues and one in a color called Kilauea (you can see it here). I love the idea of the color, that it's inspired by volcanoes (and a place I've actually been), but never knew what to do with it.

Enter the Rib Fantastic sock in the "Socks from Handpainted Yarns" book...which is designed for these "wild" colorways. (And if things go like I hope they will, it will look like streams of lava intermingled with the rock).

Still not sure on the dark blue, which is a lot more sedate. Perhaps the Herringbone socks from the same book, or Nancy Bush's "Fancy Silk Sock" (which is a lacy sort of pattern).

I've not totally decided on the "big" project, whether it's the sweater in-progress or the Bird's Nest Shawl. The sweater has the virtue of being closer to done. But the shawl has the virtue of being something I could actually wear this season if I finish it soon. I still have to decide but I don't have to leave here until 2 pm or so.

If things go as I would hope they do, this time tomorrow I will be eating breakfast a bit south of St. Louis. (If things aren't going quite as I would hope, I will be eating breakfast somewhere in Arkansas. But at least I'll be on the train and on my way)

I have my tax stuff, I have the birthday present for my dad (whose birthday is actually today, but who said that a present a day late but delivered by the giver is preferable to a mailed present on-time) as well as the next few birthdays' worth of presents (my brother's, my sister-in-law's) to take with me and pass along.

I'll be back in about a week.