It was basically four hours of information, some of which I may have needed but won't remember (Please people, please: test out PowerPoint slides ahead of time in the room you're presenting in. AND NEVER EVER USE SMALLER THAN 24 POINT FONT!!!!!!). Some of it information I didn't need, and some of it:
(And yeah, I am in one of my periodic "nuke the human race from orbit, already" moods, based also on the extensive news about child molestation...)
But yeah. I'm tired and I'm done. The room was too cold and my back muscles started cramping up.
One admin shared a....story....I'm not sure how much was embellished, but: he grew a v. large, attractive, prize-winning vegetable under a great-aunt's guidance. She refused to cook it after the fair, pointing out that she had had him grow it near the outhouse, which meant it would look good but taste like "manure" (not the exact word used, but you get the idea). She went on to use it as a lesson - this individual, coming from a truck-farming family, like many truck-farming kids, had older and simpler and less-fashionable clothes than his school mates, and got teased for it. (Funny how common that experience seems to be among those who went into higher ed....) And she went on to tell him: remember this. That something can look good on the outside but be full of "manure" in its heart, and that what's in the heart that counts. And so, you shouldn't judge someone based on appearances.
And....like a lot of the stories like that that get shared with us, I don't know if it was meant to warn us ("Don't judge your students if they have to wear old clothes") or be an encouragement ("What is in your hearts is good, and let that out") but I don't know; it seems in the past months the main lesson I've got from looking at the outside world is that our world has hit a level of corruption where a nice outside and a manure-filled heart will get you farther than a pure heart but a shabby exterior, so I don't even know any more.
As I've said on many occasions (to quote Luther): "I cannot do otherwise, God help me" so yeah, but I admit to having an uncomfortable level of cognitive dissonance in the second half of my life when so many of the things my parents taught me seem no longer to get you anywhere on this Earth....
I have to eat and practice a little more and try to get in my daily Duolingo, but I have to go back over to work at least for a little while.
(And I'm tired. Last night was another night of bad dreams and I am beginning to wonder if it's trying to assimilate too much information during the day, and my brain's "recycling and memory center" has gone into overdrive but I wish I didn't have so much chaos in my dreams)
***
In a bit, I am going home. My brain is tired. I did get one important thing done: sent out the invitations to the scholarship-recipient dinner for the AAUW scholarship. (And discovered one of our past recipients, whom I thought was returning, has graduated and left. Oh well. I've got word out to the rest of committee asking for guidance, whether we offer it on SUPER short notice to an alternate we have, or whether we hold the money for next year....) But at least one of the new recipients has RSVPed (I e-mailed the invitations as well as sending paper copies) and said she will be there, and I am pleased, as this is one of our majors and someone I advocated for in the scholarship selection session.
I also should photograph the new little mitts. I used Alux, a new yarn from KnitPicks (short summary: I don't love it; it's very splitty. But it was a free skein). They are kind of pretty but of course right now it's too hot to consider wearing that kind of thing.
I also got the "Birb" quilt yesterday. It looks really good; I'm happy I had her do loose stippling on it. She had warned me it would cost more (because the loose stippling is tighter than some of the other designs, so more labor). My response was "I put in the time to make the quilt so I'm happy to pay to have it quilted the way I want it, even if it costs more." I realize not everyone is in that position (but then again: I suspect most people hiring a longarmer have a bit more money than the average person here).
It turned out to be $65. Which seems SUPER cheap to me, even for a slightly-smaller-than-twin sized quilt. And as I said, I'm really happy with it - I do still have to bind it. (They will do that for an extra charge but, (a) I like doing my own slightly funky pieced bindings and (b) I know it's a pain and I'd rather just do it myself rather than make someone else do it, even for pay. The quilting I *can't* easily do - I suspect it would be a lot of wear and tear on my older machine - so I'm happy to pay for that).
And one thing I want to do this afternoon is iron off the backing for the big quilt top I finished back in May and make sure the top is all ready to go, and get it out to her for quilting (she is still running about 10 weeks or so to complete one, but I am fine with that). This one is going to have the big loose loops (which I think will look better on a larger quilt of busier fabric) and probably grey thread. The best part is the backing is a wide backing, so no need to piece it - which is one of my less-favorite parts of quilting. (Wide backings are more expensive, but....it's nice to not have to piece)
I also am working on trying to wrap up a few existing projects before starting new stuff. I need to sew up the pink-and-French-Fabrics top (one I laid out back in July and let sit while I thought about maybe using sashing. I have decided not to, partly because then I will have enough of my chosen backing fabric for it.).
And I found a Sockhead hat I started YEARS ago (as you might guess from the name - it's a loose floppy hat made of sockyarn; I suspect it may also have taken a bit of inspiration from the cartoon character Edd, who wears a hat like that and whom I think was called "sockhead" at least once on the show). I am not in love with the hat. It was a Colinette yarn (so: not cheap) but, to my frustration - there was a knot in the skein and it seems like two different dyelots were pieced together (bad, bad, bad Colinette!) so the brim has some nice variegation and then.....it's just more or less solid purple the rest of the way. And that displeases me. I've decided to finish it (I need the needle, for one thing: I want to start another one of these out of a self-patterning yarn I bought in Whitesboro) and the idea of ripping out all that work is unappealing.
Instead, I'll finish it. I'll post a photo of it here and if anyone really wants it, you can send me your address, and I'll send you the hat. Or, if you are a collection point for a charity that can use a washable 100% wool hat (that is NOT thick- this is sockweight yarn), let me know, and I'll send it to you for the charity. (I don't immediately know of any in my area accepting this sort of thing, so I think sending it away is better).
I also have been working more on Augusta; I hope to finish that some time soon. It looks like I will have a lot of the "Camelino" left over from it; again, maybe I donate it somewhere - it's nice yarn, merino and camel-hair, and I bet someone who had a lot of time for charity knitting could do something nice with what I have left....more and more, I'm thinking "save part of a ball for future repairs but don't keep the three or four skeins you have left if someone can make hats or baby sweaters with it"
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