that was Saturday

 This was, I guess, the first full day of my break? I didn't have any work-work to do, grades being handed in, and I am NOT checking campus e-mail until Monday. (There may be begs for "extra credit" which will get a polite no, and it's also not IMPOSSIBLE I miscalculated a grade but if that's the case there's a form to fix that)

Today was Zoom knitting group, which is really nice to have - it will continue in the New Year and while I may not be able to attend the full time every week, I will try to do it as much as possible - for one thing, it's nice to talk to people (from different areas of the country - among our regulars is someone in Ohio, someone in Pennsylvania (I think), someone in Arizona, someone in Mississippi, and me).

I finished these during Zoom knitting time:

Oma's Sokken, knit from one of the Opal "Frische Freunde" yarns (I think this colorway translates in English to "smart aleck" or "know it all"). I didn't try to make the colors match because of the enormously long repeat - I was afraid of running short of yarn. 

I also cleaned house just a little bit - cleaned the bathroom, put some stuff away in the kitchen and washed the floor, put a few things away in the living and dining rooms and swept the floors in there. It feels better to have the house a *little* cleaner; I may try to do a bit more (at least in the sense of making sure all crumbs and stuff are up and gone) before I leave - and I am going to set more traps just in case it gets cold enough for mice to find their way in. (So far, no evidence of any more, and I did catch a rodent in the garage and I'm hoping beyond hope it was the one that cause the damage and others have stayed away)

We didn't get any heavy weather last night, and my mom called (about an unrelated matter*) so I know for sure she didn't get any, but wow, how horrible for the folks in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Illinois that got hit - especially that one town in Kentucky that might have 100 dead. Tornadoes are horrible and scary because often there's such short warning that one's headed to you (I remember April of 2020, where I thought there might be a chance I'd be wiped out in one - it's a horrible feeling to shelter in the safest room in the house and realize all you can do is pray)

(*her next door neighbor lost her keys - the best guess now is when she took her jacket off while doing yardwork, they fell out on top of their emergency generator and she failed to see them. My mom found them when going out to feed the birds - they think they must have been far back on the generator but the high wind last night pushed them to the front edge of it, where my mom spotted them. Which saves the neighbor the $200 for changing the house locks and maybe another $200 for getting a new keyless-entry fob for her car)

But anyway - I'm essentially done. I may go in on Monday and see if the other prof for the intro class left me the scan trons for the final and if he did, do the item analysis. But other than that - I am delivering Meals on Wheels (with whom, I don't know yet, but I'll need to clear out my car so it's not such a horrible mess) and I need to pack and it's the CWF Christmas party (tomorrow I need to make Batch II of meatballs for it). 

And then Tuesday, I head out. I admit I'm still apprehensive about COVID but what can you do any more? This may be just part of our landscape now, we may be back to a life where infectious disease is just more of a thing than it was (funny how I lived in a golden age in the 80s, 90s, and 00s, and never even realized it). I will mask on the train and eat in my compartment UNLESS it is an absolutely deserted train and the attendant won't bring my dinner to the compartment (I tip for that on top of tipping for help with the suitcases).

Tonight, though: I hope to find something nice to watch and maybe I finish the Pioneer Braid scarf tonight (it's getting close) and maybe even take a warm bath before bed. (I started watching "The Man Who Came To Dinner" but had to turn it off, it's too chaotic, people yell at each other too much, the titular man is too unpleasant - I used to like the movie but I can't watch it any more for some reason. I see Scrooged is on tonight but that's another movie I find hard to watch now because of how loud it is and how unpleasant some of the characters are.)

But I am looking forward to being in Illinois. Gonna gather up the stuff I need to work on the Incunabula sweater (I will have to FIND my cable needle again, I think it fell on the floor) and am taking the Rambouillet yarn for the hat and mitts, and a couple of stuffed-critter patterns on a hope that maybe a trip to the new JoAnn's would be possible to get yarn for it, and several sock projects. I really do feel like I need just a few days on the sofa watching nice movies and knitting socks and also not having to worry about "what do I fix for dinner for just one person" because my mom will be there too, and it's easier to plan food for two than for one, and also, she likes to cook, so she will do some of it. I'm hoping I can lose some of my tiredness and some of the feeling of....I don't know exactly what it is beyond tiredness but there's something there, some sense of "why bother" - I'm not an innovative knitter who makes cool stuff, I'm not that good at playing piano, I'm not as good a teacher as I once thought I was, I'm not special. And while all those things may be true, they're also a little hard to adjust to, especially after having grown up being told I was Smart and Outstanding and all that other jazz. But a year and a half or whatever we're at now has given me too much time to ruminate, and I think it's led me to realize some uncomfortable and unpleasant things. And that I will have to sort of mentally reconstruct who I am, because I'm not who I was.