Thursday, January 20, 2011

Power of the Mind

I am a grown woman, and one would think that by now, I would have outgrown my procrastination proclivities....but one would be wrong.  I am even more skilled at talking myself out of doing something I need to do, having gotten better at it with age.  I do understand why I do this with a big project at work, or with house cleaning, or some nasty chore I don't know how to do.  But, why on earth do I do it with my hobbies?!?

Take the star blanket.  I decided to crochet this blanket back when Glenn's cousin first told us she was pregnant and was not going to find out the sex of the baby.  I decided that crocheting a burnt orange and red blanket for her baby would be appropriate regardless of the sex, since her husband is a basketball coach for UT and they bleed orange. 

I bought the yarn, I began. And lo and behold, I had issues.  My main issue is that I didn't read the pattern.  [Hand Slapping forehead] and it wasn't turning out the way I wanted it to.  So, like any true procrastinator does, I put it in a bag, worked on something else and tried like hell to ignore it.  But, it bugged me.  Just like Poe's beating heart, at night when I was falling asleep, or when I was working on something else, I could feel it nudging me to get working. 

After frenetic knitting on Christmas gifts, I began feeling the pressure to finish the star, so I got it out and ripped everything out and started again.  And AGAIN, managed not to read the pattern correctly.  Sigh.  So, on a trip to see hubys' family, he drove and I sat in the passenger seat frantically counting stitches and getting very frustrated.  THIS is when the negative mind association started.  I was so focused on the stitch counting, I got pretty car sick.  And now, I never wanted to see the darn star again.  And despite the fact that we saw his cousin, looking very round, I worked on other projects and left the darn star in a bag in my trunk...take THAT star.  Becuase every time I looked at it, I turned a little green.  So, perfect solution...don't look at it.

It still bothered me, but I ignored it.  So, on Sunday morning, when the text came that she had the baby, I did what any good procrastinator does.  I grabbed the blanket, I started over AGAIN and I crocheted like a fiend to have that blanket ready.  And I MEAN UP TO THE LAST MINUTE.  I bound off, weaved in ends, blocked and steamed and RAN out the door to the hospital. 

And luckily, Glenn's cousin loved the blanket.  We got to hold the baby and enjoy a visit.  And now, I can never show her this blog, because while it wasn't that I didn't want to make her a blanket ( I really did), one really shouldn't know that I had mad thoughts at their gift.  I am just SOOOO glad it is done.  It's like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders.  And do I start the blanket for the next cousin who is due in May?  Nope!  Like someone with a true problem....I merrily cast on this hat for myself last night.  I mean, the logic is undeniable, I fnished one, so now I start one, right?  So what that I have 4 WIPs beside the hat?!?

The Star in it's finished state.  I had already put the girls in their crates when I remembered to take the FO pic. 

And here is a shot of how the girls encourage my knitting. Do they try to talk me into doing projects for upcoming occassions instead of selfish knitting?  No! Basically, they are happy to sack out and sleep through endless B movies, or crime dramas while Mom knits whatever she wants to knit. Moxie will occasionally look up if there is a funny noise on the TV, otherwise, they meet their quota of 22 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period quite handily.


Bailey is in the forgeround and Moxie is laid out in the background.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Inquisitivity

I talked about Moxie living up to her name here.  While she is a good escape artitst, she is an equally good monkey.  She likes to crawl up on things.  She loves to walk along your body on the bed rather than just walk NEXT to you.  Don't ask me why, she just does.  She rarely gets on the couch that she doesn't get up on the top of the back of it.  She likes to explore. 

We installed a cat flap in the kitchen window for the cats to come and go.  I had placed a patio chair outside under the door so they could easily enter and exit, but the dogs as well as small undesired critters would be less likely to use it from the window. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at the kitchen table working on the computer and the dogs were outside. I heard the cat flap open and when I looked over, there was Moxie sticking her head through it as if to say, "Hey Mom, did you know there was a hole here?!?"  I tried to snap a pic of her sticking her head through, but as soon as the camera came out, she didn't want to stay there.  However, several times that day, she jumped up on the patio bench sitting under the window, over onto the plastic chair under the cat flap and stuck her head in.  She hasn't done it since, but she watched the cats go through it and had to check it out. 
Moxie having watched Emma go in the cat flap wondering if she could follow
Wow, how long has this hole been here?  And can I fit through it?
Aww Man!  Why don't we have one of those?


Monday, January 3, 2011

Lost, but not Forgotten

Last Tuesday, Glenn's male cat, Ace disappeared.  He was there that morning when we left for work and he wasn't there when we returned.  We have scoured our neighborhood, Glenn blanketed the place in Lost Cat posters, we have visited the animal shelter (a visit I would like never to repeat as it was really depressing) and looked everywhere we could think of and more.

It is as if he vanished....poof!

It is interesting how much I miss him.  He did not interact with me much.  He wasn't the type to cuddle, or even come beg to be petted. He rarely interjected himself in my daily life....unless I was carrying something that obstructed my view (like a laundry basket or big box) and then he loved to run in front of me and stop abruptly.  But, when I would come in and see him cuddled on the bed, I would pet him and love on him and he would tolerate it.  He frequently chose a spot on the floor in between the kitchen and living room to sleep (perhaps to keep an eye on what we humans were up to) which never seemed really comfy to me.  I could think of 100 better places, but that is the one he chose more often than not. He LOVED sleeping in my computer bag on the table. Best place ever in his book.  But when I bought him a bed, he shunned it as if it were going to EAT him alive.

Can't you just read his expression: "What do you mean I can't lay here, it is shaped perfectly for me and is up here on the table where I can see everything at once. Whatever lady...stop flashing that at me, I'm not moving."

So how come I miss him so much?  How come every time I hear the cat door flapping in the wind I go running? Why do I look for him every time I walk in the house?

These are the last two pictures taken of him before he disappeared?  Being very cuddly in both!  The cold weather seemed to bring it out in him. 



He and Abby had their share of fighting, but when it came time to sleep, he let her rest on him.





Almost every night he stood on, kneaded and purred loudly with Glenn.  He had the most distinct purr.  And have you ever seen a longer tail on a cat?  Glenn's vet said he got in the tail line twice.

I think I can now understand a tiny fraction of what parents of abducted children must feel.  It feels horrible not to know.  If you KNEW they were dead, you could mourn.  Instead, you hope...against hope. And at every strange sound, you jump, hoping it is them come home again.  The hoping hurts.  It's a little cut every time your hopes are dashed.  And yet....thinking they are alive and ok somewhere feels better too. 

Ace, come home now boy!  We miss you!  I promise I will feed you your favorite canned food every day, even though you only lick the gravy and never eat the vittles.  Just come home.