Aaaagh...

I am supposed to be doing homework, but the subject material is so exceedingly boring that I cannot keep my mind from straying long enough to read a whole sentence.  I can sit on the couch for HOURS concentrating on making continuous uniform interlocking loops with hooks and needles, yet I cannot concentrate on this crap for more than a minute without breaking into random daydream. This class is called "Research Methods and Analysis".  I can, indeed, confirm that it is as boring as it sounds--but so far very easy.

I am starting to hope that this whole library school thing leads me toward a career outside of the library some day.  I don't like working with the public.  Every day it verifies for me that the fate predicted by the movie Idiocracy is very accurate and inevitable.  Maybe I can work as a cataloger or in another branch of the library in which employees get to enjoy a quiet, peaceful working environment (because this is certainly difficult to find at the reference desk in the public library, contrary to popular belief) and weekends off.  And the ability to maintain wide-eyed idealism about the good of people and the importance of the library.

I am constantly dreaming up ways in which I can somehow get away from working [for the man] altogether.  Some have been:  start a hippie commune, become a hermit, become a hobo hopping freight trains,  build a shack to live in with oil lamps, outhouse and garden,  be an author [Oliver says I should do this, but I have no ideas what to write about.  I prefer to ramble in journal format], travel around the country with the renaissance festival selling handmade wares.  So far I am leaning toward the commune or being a hobo.

Idea:

Crochet refrigerator magnets shaped like little fruit.  These I will make at some point.

Snow today?

According to the weather there is a minuscule chance that it will snow today.  So far I just see rain.  Yet a fantastically large chunk of my friends on Facebook have already written statuses regarding this snow.  I prefer not to get my hopes up, because what Texans call snow is actually sleet (or something).  I only learned within the past couple of years that snowflakes are actually shaped like snowflakes.  That was an exciting revelation.

My cat should definitely be glad he returned after his long night out partying last week.  He'd slipped out the screen in the window at about 7 pm and returned at 6 am through the same window.  I was freaked out because we're talkin' about a foo-foo pudgy, lovable dumpling of a cat who had never been outside before.  He must have realized that there are no brown, tiny hard exes growing out in nature. 

I am laying under a man-quilt I made for Oliver a couple years ago.  I really enjoy using handmade quilts, but I really hate making them.  The problem is that I have not been able to successfully measure the fabric without tracing shapes onto it with a sharpie, and this takes FOREVER.  Ugh

Acony Bell

Yesterday I had a case of the sads.  I decided that I needed to create a playlist for my iPod full of happy songs that I could listen to on my way to work and possibly infuse me with a little of that missing pep.  While doing this I realized that my iTunes doesn't contain all of my happy songs.  Number one among them being a song called Acony Bell by Gillian Welch:

The fairest bloom the mountain knows
Is not an iris or a wild rose
But the little flower of which i'll tell
Known as the brave acony bell

Just a simple flower so small and plain
With a pearly hue and a little known name
But the yellow birds sing when they see it bloom
For they know that spring is coming soon

Well it makes its home mid the rocks and the rills
Where the snow lies deep on the windy hills
And it tells the world "why should i wait
This ice and snow is gonna melt away"

And so i'll sing that yellow bird's song
For the troubled times will soon be gone

 

I love the lyrics.  It reminds me to cheer up because my "troubled times" cannot last.  One time last year I was feeling really discouraged by my job and I would sit in my car and listen to this song three or four times before going in, and then I put a picture of an oconee bell flower on my desktop.  

BUT I couldn't put "Acony Bell" on my playlist BECAUSE it is not saved to my computer.  I gave up and thought I'd just have to make a playlist manually as I drive (I know, safe...).  So I put on "Mr. Moon" by Kate Micucci, and while it was playing my iPod died.  So I didn't get to listen to "Acony Bell" or any other happy song.  I had to listen to the bloomin' RADIO which was playing sad country songs or "Eleanor Rigby". 

New fiber

Last week I received some more roving in the mail that I bought off of Etsy.com.  It is six ounces of bliss, otherwise known as plain white corriedale.  I was immediately impressed by the slight sheepy musk emanating from the mass.  It feels a lot different from the silk/merino mix I had first--it is slightly rougher and drafts much more easily.  I am able to get this yarn more consistent because (aside from the experience I gained from my last fiber batch) it's easier for me to draft it out more uniformly.  I think the difficulty from the merino/silk was that the silk fibers seemed to be much longer than the merino fibers, which created more resistance to my pulling.  Of course, this could be all my imagination. I have already spun a spindle-full.  I want to ply this batch and have as little left over as possible.  I rigged up a second spindle exactly the same as my first one so that I can leave the first batch on the spindle while I spin the second batch.  I think it might make it easier to estimate when I have equal amounts to ply.

I'm lovin' the pure whiteness of the corriedale--I am positively humming with excitement about dyeing it.  I don't know what color.  I might dye it with Kool-Aid.  Definitely not cherry.  In high school I dyed my hair with cherry and the nauseatingly sweet smell lasted through more washings than you can imagine.  Also, the color lasted a LONG time.  Even after the red wore off you could still see touches of pink in some of my blonder strands.

I also hope that people are right about wool being warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  I'm having a blast creating all of these woolen wearables.  I don't want to give them up when it gets hot here.  Otherwise I will just have to learn how to spin cotton, or knit/crochet lacy things and handbags.

I waaaant that....

Message-in-a-Cookie Cutters

But it is no longer fucking available...damn.  I'm making Valentines Day cookies today to take to the library tomorrow for my teens to decorate.  They won't be as adorable as Message-In-A-Cookie cookies, but I will most definitely decorate some myself tonight.  Hopefully they will turn out at least marginally cute...

Wanderlust

I have come down with a serious case of wanderlust.  I am finally starting to consider ways that I can get my ass back to Newfound Gap.  Early last year I thought I might be able to get back to the AT for a 2011 hike, but now I'm not so sure I can make that happen.  It took me many months to consider whether continuing my hike would be a continuation of an unfulfilled dream, or merely making up for a perceived shortcoming in the dedication department.  I didn't want to attempt to make up the 1900 miles I lost just because I was feeling guilty for quitting the first time, it would have to be a genuine desire to reconnect with the trail's beauty and camaraderie. 

Two of the major obstacles to my 2008 hike were that 1. I really wanted to get married more than anything else, and 2. I wanted to get my library science degree.  By spring of 2011 I'll have completed those tasks, and my husband agreed that I can return to the AT before we have any babies.  Some difficulties to challenge this plan include:

1.  I'm getting my MLIS on scholarship in which I have agreed to work at a public library for two years after receiving my degree.  Of course, they didn't say immediately following receiving my degree...

2.  I work part time and I have bills, so it will be very difficult to save up money for a trip.  I guess it is helpful that I already have nearly all of the gear I would need.  I should really get my Lekis fixed.

3.  I doubt the public library where I work would grant me a leave of absence, and the job market is very bleak at the moment.

4.  I think my parents would be extremely disappointed if I throw my job away to wander around in the woods.  Again.  I should seriously not live so close to family, it just complicates things.

So, all in all, it still comes down to uncertainty. Sigh.