Some random things

(A real-time post)

* I got a dress made, and I'm quite proud of it (photos will come when I return home). I intended it to be a simple "knockabout" summer t-shirt dress, but the combination of the fabric (a mock batik print - two shades of blue on a white background, with large flowers and butterflies) and the fit of the dress makes it look more like a "for good" dress - I'm really pleased with how it looks and how it looks on. (Up next is the pink dress; I have about another week and I can turn out a knit dress in about a day of intensive work, so....)

* I also made pajamas but they were less successful; the top had to be done of two fabrics because there wasn't enough of the first fabric, and I didn't see until I was sewing the top that there was a rust stain on the solid colored fabric. I'm going to try running it through the wash with some stain lifter but I'm not optimistic. (At any rate: I'm the only one who sees myself in pajamas so it doesn't really matter). That's the risk of using stored fabric; I've found a couple of other pieces with rust stains and they have been pitched.

* I did do a little clean up in the basement, but didn't make much headway; most of the stuff I am going through is not mine and I'm not comfortable, for example, even throwing out half-done car models my brother was building on 20 years ago and then bunged in a box. (I am doing this now on the grounds that the more I can do - or persuade my mom to do - now, the less I will have to worry about it at a more difficult and emotional time, hopefully many years in the future still, when my brother and I have to sell our parents' house and get everything out of it. Much of the stuff is VERY old tax records - my dad is kind of paranoid about saving these, and I think records from the 90s could be shredded. Some of it is old geology or plant-taxonomy journals that PROBABLY could be trashed given that my parents are fully retired, but I didn't want to push it.)

* I didn't find anything very cool, other than a mid-century (probably late 60s) lampshade that I swapped out for the lampshade on the lamp in the room I use when I'm up here, and I found a photograph of my mom's great-grandfather Linus and great-grandmother Clarissa, and their daughter (my great-grandmother, my mom's grandmother) Julia. My mom already had a copy of this photo but this is an original print, and it's better and clearer. (I don't know when the print was made, but I do marvel at how well the old photographic paper and - I guess it's silver crystals in it that form the black-and-white image? - keep. I know the photo had to have been taken before the 1880s because my great-great-grandfather died some time in that decade, but I don't know how old the print is, but I'm guessing it's fairly old based on my grandmother's notation on the back)

I was hoping to find the photo of my grand-dad (my dad's father) with his WWI airplane, but no luck yet. If I find it I am INSISTING on having a copy made for me because it is a very cool photo.

* I had a dream last night that - briefly - had my friend Steve (the person who died back in February) in it. He said something to me and I wish I could remember what it was because I tend to regard when someone who's passed on tells you something in a dream, it means something - whether it's a message from your own subconscious or from "beyond," I do not feel able to say, but I wish I could remember. We were in a big library, like my grad-school library, and I was riding down to the ground floor in an elevator, and he turned and said something to me, and then he got off at an intermediate floor.

It MIGHT have been something along the lines of "don't be afraid to be yourself" or "don't worry so much about what others think of you, it's better than what you imagine" because I have that impression.

* I tried to think about it on my walk this morning - I have been walking pretty much every day to try to keep my fitness up and also to keep my bad hip from griping me (it seems worse in the humidity). Something funny happened yesterday - I was walking along, I turned to check on a barking dog (to be sure it was tethered: it was) and all of a sudden, I fell. It alarmed me even though I was unhurt (I fell slowly; it was a slow loss of balance and I was halfway to the ground before I actually fell, and I was able to kind of roll so I wound up on the grass instead of the sidewalk) but it did alarm me because I was worried about a reason. I tend to worry about medical things: MS can make a person fall, and also drop things, and I wondered to myself: Have I been getting clumsier? But I don't think so. And also epilepsy - I have a cousin who is affected by this to the degree he's contemplating a big scary surgery to try to reduce the seizures. But I didn't lose consciousness or awareness of where I was. Dehydration? Low blood pressure? But I had eaten breakfast and drunk some water before going out. I finally chalked it up to "maybe my foot rolled" - I pronate (I wear orthotics to correct it) but sometimes my feet still roll, especially in dress shoes, and if I'm not paying attention I do stumble. But I was in athletic shoes. So this morning I walked back that same route, and tried to re-find the space where I fell (I recognized the house - the dog wasn't there today but I recognized the house). I did notice that the sidewalk was kind of uneven - the paver had sunk down at one corner - and I suppose it could have been that I was looking to my right to check on the dog, and I didn't expect the lower bit of sidewalk, and got my balance off, and fell. At any rate, I walked farther today in warmer conditions and had no problems, so I assume it was a one-off sort of thing.