funky monday night blues

well, i am in a funk. 

this means i may have the following going on:

1}i am tired.

2} i need a schtickel of dental floss. 

3} i lost a really important paper. 

4}i filled out about 3 w-9 forms today. 

5}i have NO idea what they are for. 

6} i fear that my lack of interest will always outweigh my need to find out. 

7} it even might be important. 

8}i made chocolate chip cookies last night and they look like muffin tops.

9} i fear my address is in a talent-free zone these days. 

10} i can't possibly say how badly i want an ipad.

11} would it be a real help to keep track of sales and inventory? 

and could i even figure out the idiot-proofed software used to do this?

12} tuition is due this weekend. 

and i am short. 

13} as much as i work, i seem never to have spare moola. 

14} i believe this is the beginning of hockey season in my house again. 

chaos will be our lingua franca.

15} my son is homesick from his first semester of college. 

16} i might have finally learned how to put up my tent for shows and take it down myself on the last open market. 

17} it is possible that i might have to learn how to do this all over again for next year. 

18} i finally kicked entrelac's ass. 

it took me one good day. 

after weeks of feeling like an entrelac idiot, the class moved on to really erroneously written pattern instructions. 

 no one in my class really cared that i could show them how to do entrelac a little more comfortably. 

19} a fresh show this weekend in newport ri, at the yachting center. 

it is gonna be good, even if i am moping tonight. 

20} i feel like i owe my children each a heartfelt apology. 

21} did i mention that my tv digital converter dies just outside of a year, every year? 

thus voiding its warrantee. 

by now i could own a flat screen tv with a built in digital converter.

so basically, i have no tv. 

this really stinks for my lifestyle. 

22} my new address is going to be in hululand.

 NO NOT NEVERLAND, i promise ever again. 

sorry peter pan. 

23} i cut tessa's hair last night to remove split ends and she still can't french braid it.

24} i am simultaneously thirsty and too lazy to go pee. 

25} i have a lot of shipping to do tomorrow and no supplies. 

26) i also have a lot of photos to snap. 

27} i do not know how to play "angry birds" and i feel fine about that. 

28} i am in a quandary: corn and chicken chowder or cod chowder for tomorrow's dinner. 

29} how will i find time to make an apple pie for funsies soon? 

30} BIG two day show... did i mention i have no inventory for it and am in panic mode?

( i know j and d, i will be calm by saturday...

 i promise you cheery sunbeams,that this will be true... )

and how could i possibly say boo-hoo to such nice lady jewels like nancy and laurie?

too bad i missed a shot with miss julie... the nicest kindergarten teacher in town.
anyways...

it is quite likely that this is all on my mind and i should just call it a day. 

no wonder i don't sleep enough for my stress levels.
they are artificially high and not worth buying into.

ugh. 

just thought i should share my brand of crazy. 

i know that you all have your own brand to tap into,
but this may be a reminder on how to really make little things add up and give you a headache for no good reason. 

night night ladies... hate to see you go. 

xo. 

w.

so who is my bitch now?

hello, hello, hello!

i promised yesterday that i would treat it right. 

i promised that i would let my hands get a break so when they needed to get a new grip, 

they might be more rested. 

i never promised to not use them. 

today, the car was in use as a hockey mobile. 

i had time to fiddle 

while i waited for its return. 

so i looked in at the site called 

ravelry.com

it is not a new spot, but it is a really great one for looking around in.

that is if you are a fallen knitter or other textile fascinated person. 

yes, i was aware that there are many people doing really fun things.

and yep, i knew that there were perhaps tutorials galore. 

and uh huh, i fantasized about sock knitting. 

but in reality, i have no more excuses. 

i needed to harness my attentional deficits and learn that technique that is hobbling my vocabulary of textural and creative textile making. 

that bad ass is called 

ENTRELAC.

and yep i was struggling to focus. 

i needed to be able to just sit down, read the instructions, 

suspend reality, follow the instructions 

and harness its magical qualifications. 

ok, so i decided to make a scarf first. 

not a hundred percent fun, 

but some of the fun is in the challenge of it all. 

and yes, i do feel mighty challenged. 

so i tried to get juiced about the potential for this form. 

and ravelry did not disappoint me. 

i found about 8 really delish patterns that could be knitted once i learned how to do it and that i found just yummy for different reasons. 

i love the lace edging on one pattern,

 the fitted jacket in another,

and perhaps my most favorite was a shawl in many color blocks, all having a buttonhole worked into each block. 

this showed not only how a boring ole pattern could be juicy with color but also flexible as can be... using those buttonholes to thread the shawl shaped garment through.

this allows for many drapery and closure choices. 

anyways, this is what i started... 

i was unconvinced about its end result, however i owned the yarn already. 

and i have NEVER been disappointed in anything i have ever made using 

manos del uruguay. 

it has an irregularly spun thick and thin 

quality to it. 

it has also been hand dyed. 

and it is really very soft. 

both to wear as well as to knit with. 

anyways, i needed to stay awake, so there are also the power pac additive qualities that 

are added to home made chocolate chip cookies. 

i like to bake them just a bit shy of fully cooked. 

this allows for an extra day of chewiness, without that stale flavor that can show up,

ruining the romance of that there cookie. 

and face it, as comfort foods go, no one likes a toll house cookie to be anything less than perfect. 

especially me. 

it is late now, and i will pay tomorrow when i need to be on my A-game. 

so i bid you a sweet adieu for now. 

later today, perhaps midway pics will be added into this rambling post. 

until then, 

xoxo. 

w.

entrelac, here i come.

entrelac. 

it is the current bane of my existence. 

if you are a knitter, 

and you like to try different things, 

and you have some attentional shortcomings, 

this may not be the thing for you. 

years ago, 

in a small world known as Harvard Square, 

i was a knitting junkie.

i lived in the square, 

i worked in the square 

and i had a t-shirt that suggested i did everything in the square. 

on its front side, it sported a simple message:

02138

on its rear side, was an explanation. 

it was a simple statement that folks understood. 

natives and imports alike. 

we all looked like extras from the movie "The Sting".

our eyes would meet and we would knowingly look at one another signaling like we had just put our forefinger to the side of our noses. 

it was understood that we all KNEW something that outsiders did not. 

it was that we were in the land of milk and honey. 

our t-shirt backs sported:

The Most Opinionated Zip Code in the World. 

yes and we were members of its secret arrogant, informed, think tanky, elitist, 

smart

world. 

who knows what the entrance fee or the secret handshake was. 

i just was delighted to feel part of something for the first time in my life. 

i had bartended and waitressed  at the Casa Blanca Restaurant.

as well as worked at the world renowned Design Research.

i drank beers, sipped cappuccinos and tippled cocktails 

in what i called the "golden triangle".

it was the nexus of three beloved places to me...

Casa Blanca, the Harvest and the Ha'Penny Pub. 

all three were well within a few blocks of my apartment and feet of each other. 

i also developed a strong, over indulged habit of knitting then. 

during my winter term break at college prior to these happy years, 

i spent the interstitial month between first semester finals and 

second semester starts 

learning to knit.

there was no Lopi sweater i was not willing to make. 

they were fast, knitted in the round(no purling need apply)

 and modestly priced to make. 

also they were fun and warm to wear. 

that was important in the colder months in western massachusetts. 

as time passed, 

i found the only reasonable way to support my harrowingly expensive knitting habit,

 was to work in a yarn store. 

go to the source for the costliest part of the financial burden. 

i was hired by a very quirky woman to work as a sales clerk in her store,

sadly, the now defunct

Woolcott and Company. 

i had no idea how much i could learn there,

 just by trying to figure things out for customers, 

as well as trading tips with co-workers. 

it was a whole other way of life to me. 

as my education in the world of knitting ensued, i developed many preferences in my own inventory of techniques. 

i eventually took on the joy of putting sweaters together for others, for pay. 

i learned enough to teach others how to knit.

i was able to develop a personal library of interests

 in color work through intarsia and fair isle knitting. 

i felt good. 

really good. 

and i felt i had perhaps earned a lot of stars for my virtual epaulets

 for accumulating and sharing as much of this handicraft as i had. 

there were naturally many techniques that eluded me. 

and for purposes of not making this too long and utterly tedious,

 i will say in one word, 

the worst was 

ENTRELAC. 

it is a technique that through one piece of knitted yarn at a time,

 one can create the facsimile of basket woven texture. 

it is apparently easy to do. 

it is also, not for folks that dislike following instructions. 

the ones like me. 

i can follow a chart and do complicated color knitting. 

things that Kaffe Fassett has created fall into this category. 

he is a genius as far as i am concerned and a very nice, modest one at that. 

i have been pleased not one, not two, but the three times i have met him. 

the only thing that is possible for me to share about this man 

other than his name is mispronounced constantly, 

is that he is a nice guy with the comfortable knowledge

 that he has talent oozing out of every pore of his being. 

with being a fan of kaffe's 

(rhymes with strafes, rafes, and chafes... 

no poncey accents anywhere for those of you not in the know...)

i truly felt no further need to master techniques that would ultimately frustrate me. 

so much of what mr. fassett does including the publication of many "glorious books"....

is that his style of work is very simple. 

its complicated and rich looks are created with color manipulations. 

i loved these to the nth degree. 

unfortunately, i took a sip of my own koolaid this summer. 

i saw a posting by a facebook friend that was a request for a knitting instructor. 

i wrote to the woman who was in charge of hiring.

let's just say,

 i did not do enough homework to evaluate the population i might be trying to teach to knit.

do not ask how many times that already has come to bite me in the tush. 

i had not knit for about 5 years, however that was not an issue. 

i feel that once you know how, your hands never forget. 

of course, my error was a little bit based on my 02138 mindset. 

clearly, i was unprepared for 02906.

UGH. 

i was feeling pretty smug, 

in that i applied for a job for the first time in nearly 20 years and

 felt completely qualified for it.

Wrong-o sleigh bell lovers. 

the women that i was to teach, are older than i, and part of a handicraft club. 

i missed the part of the introduction, where they were kind of all

"old providence" monied. 

i dare not say, but will in spite of the sureness that i am out of my depths with them. 

they are in my class to learn what they need to, to make gorgeous textiles, 

baby blankets, and whatever their little hearts desire. 

it is a good thing that they are all friends already. 

i am not one of them. 

i am second-guessing the hell out of myself in their company,

 alternating with feeling pissed at myself. 

while i was looking for something fresh to try about 10 yrs ago, 

i thought i might try a dip into a new pool of technical challenges. 

i tried to do some entrelac. 

i felt after less than half an hour, that my frustration level had reached 

alert level red. 

it seemed that with all that i could already do, knit-wise, this frustrating thing would be fine for me not to pursue. 

how often would i be challenged by not knowing how to do it? 

well two out of my four ladies are into it. 

and in a big way. 

i am just over my head, 

and now will be spending the rest of today working through the kinks in my focus. 

i will be suspending all of my other tasks on my stupendously long list of items to be finished. 

all for the love-hate relationship i feel with 

entrelac. 

i feel grumpy still, but know i will succeed. 

cause that is what i need to do. 

as sure as scarlett o'hara would never go hungry again, 

i will try to harness the wild counting flamenco of increasing, 

picking up stitches,

 connecting fabric one stitch at a time,

 turning work,

 and decreasing...

until that basket woven texture from hell is my bitch.  

all to show these women that i am "all that" still. 

a shredded form of my former harvard square self who has lost her mind to the challenges of motherhood; 

a clever person that surely can keep up and abreast and ultimately lead their own skills into some other form of success. 

a person that takes the frustrating gauntlet thrown down in front of her and making it hers. 

i feel just so hobbled by their attitudes, that i intend to succeed. 

so wish me and that untouched hank of manos of uruguay yarn sitting on top of my piano 

accumulating dust and dog hair from lack of use. 

we are gonna kick some entrelac ass today. 

and i really mean it. 

um. wish me loads of luck too please? surely i will need it. 

xoxo. 

W.

not enough time to do it all...

there is enough time to whine on about not having enough time. 

i spent the morning making some bracelets. 

i may 'borrow' one to wear out to the grocery market. 

i just am not in the mood for big bling... but a modestly sized piece can do the trick. 

the bracelets are for a couple of orders that i must push out of the door...

i can't truly believe that they are precursive strikes in preparation for christmas and other sparkling holiday times. 

(thanksgiving, channukah, kwanzaa, new year's eve, new year's day brunch and more.)

i have been unable to move on all of the commitments i have amassed over the recent weeks.

in spite of you seeing properly spelled things, i think one of my commitments might be that i am in dire need of re-learning how to spell. 

the auto correct feature on this blog saves my bacon more often than not. 

here are a few of the jewel toned bracelets that a customer ordered for their store. 

i am hopeful that after i cruise in from my knitting class tonight, 

perhaps i will be able to compose a few others in more green, blue, black and neutral palettes. 

one can hope right?

a small bouquet in progress. 

little blossoms in chains. 

sounds kind of racy right?

a quick pic to show how i wear the chain blossom bracelet. 

left handed and easy to put on. 

like a watch.

just in case you thought the wrinkled old bat hand was real,

 i photoshopped the crinkly texture in for you all. 

wink, wink.

there is so much more to tell you all about. 

i broke free from my maddening jewelry obsessed craze 

to go to the flea market yesterday. 

i got some great finds and will take some pics tomorrow for a flea only posting. 

just not enough time to take pics and ramble on senselessly as i do. 

also i am itching for an apple pie. 

that too is coming this week. 

just need to eat better 'junk' food.

and building a better apple pie is one of my gifts. 

my mother used to wait for me to come home for thanksgiving and other holidays. 

she would entertain the notion that i liked making her pies and i had no other dreams of being in town to meet up with my high school friends. 

just to curry favor, i would make the pies in a dash to get out to hang with my friends.

my pies were tolerable. 

not good. 

surely not great. 

however, i think she liked the idea that her pies were better made. 

or else i bet she was just sick of cooking for the big hoedowns and wanted someone else to do that last big dessert course. 

i loved eating them, but of course, 

also hadn't adequate perspective on what a good pie might taste like in those days. 

now i do. 

i took it as a gauntlet being tossed down in front of me. 

i wanted to learn to make a pie that would humble all of those around me. 

i also wanted something so pretty, that my stinker little brother would not jam his 

stubby 17 year old finger into to taste and mar irreparably. 

i do not come from a family that always has appreciated my culinary experiences and 

successes. 

they now do. 

and i am planning to send my niece a ten dollar bill to do a favor for me this thanksgiving. 

i am going to beg her to stick her finger into her father's pie center. 

and 

tell him how much i love him in spite of his being a horrible younger brother. 

maybe she will, maybe she won't. 

maybe ten bucks is not all that these days. 

anyways, i want a crusty, flaky crusted apple pie filled to the vents with 

mixed apple species. 

brown sugar, 

cinnamon, 

and more butter than is in the all butter crust. 

take that 

younger baker family members!

take that 

mom. 

take that 

hips. 

take that 

husband who can eat no butter,

 but shall savor a small portion.

take that 

children of mine who are at college.

(and not calling home to say they miss me and miss all that i have fed them over the years!)

take that 

tessie who is working on her sixpack. 

and now for a few pics of ladies from the penultimate 2011 

providence open market:

phyllis and lynn

kim in greengage and damson

kim in cotswold garden II

kim sparkling in twinkle.

 

lynn test driving the southwest bib. 

that's all folks... 

perhaps i will entreat you to some visuals from knitting class tonight. 

i was told it is a beginner's knitting class, 

however the students are NOT

fresh to the course. 

my syllabus was thrown completely out the window last week. 

and now i find myself in scramble mode. 

dammit. 

entrelac. 

i  do not believe that you ever were an intermediate course of study. 

of course, i will be humbled tonight once again. 

this is worth about $50 to get my ego trounced for a second time. 

guess i will have to suck it up and 

teach tips on how to increase and decrease nicely. 

dammit entrelac!!!

like i said, not really enough time to do anything well today, 

except whine. 

a domani...

xoxo. 

W.

perfect weather

today is just lovely out. 

i usually am grousing about such things as humidity and heat 

or 

ice and snow. 

today has neither.

to celebrate, 

i am gonna work til the smell of one of the last lawn mowings of the season makes me drunk.

and i am going to drink coffee...

and post some packages. 

it is time and then some. 

lines everywhere

recently, there have been some cross-over commonalities in my life. 

i tend to think of things in seinfeldian moments. 

this has been reported before. 

every time i have gone out this week, 

i have also enjoyed the dazzling suspense of whether there is gas in my car. 

the reason for this is that i am married to a "kramer-esque" character. 

my husband enjoys raising his fist to tilt at an imaginary "big brother" figure

or some whippersnappers that are trying to best him. 

the reason i suggest he has similarities to cosmo kramer, are multiple if listed. 

the one that is predominant{bugging the snot out of me} is that no matter how much gas i put into the car, 

he likes to drive it until it reaches that red line of empty or the heartbeat over where one will run out of gas on rte. 10. 

he drives me literally crazy. 

and since his truck, which is horribly out of date, guzzles gas to a point of financial ruin, 

he prefers to drive my car. 

i fill it, he drives it, then he gets mad if there is no gas available to him. 

the logic that he has is simple and inexplicably contorted. 

if he puts gas into his truck, and if it is used up faster than he thinks it ought to be, then my car should be made available to him at all conveniences and be maintained by me to fit  both of our driving schedules. 

this would be rational if i were driving the truck. 

it is not really a good fit for me, so i don't. 

the fact that the beast-mobile is driven to that fine red line of emptiness and break-down lane roulette... well i am going to be pushed too far some day surely as can be. 

as other events in this mayhem infilled day and life have embraced, the youngest needed to get an asthma test performed today. 

she is so sure that her breathing and lack of well oxygenated lungs is caused by asthma. 

it is completely conceivable that she is out of shape. 

i am sorry i said that. 

but she may well be a little bit behind that eightball. 

running used to be a fluid and fun filled choice for her. 

nowadays, she remembers nothing of her carefree running and is often winded. 

i am the poster child for winded running. 

and i have not run for years, just to reinforce that precisely. 

i also have experienced long painful de-oxygenated spates from this. 

allergies, cold and smoke will surely be the perfect triumvirate to send me wheezing back to the hospital for medications. 

avoiding any two of those stressors simultaneously in play has been a very important strategy for me to employ over many decades now. 

unfortunately, i think the girl is in for some training. 

and she is mighty angry about it. 

ugh. 

the whining and moaning. 

the moaning and the groaning. 

the groaning and the wheezing. 

and the attitude. 

all add up to 

unneeded drama. 

i feel for her, but that is only up to date. 

drinking sodas instead of milk, 

eating chips instead of fruit, 

and 

not regularly exercising will take its toll. 

i know all of this way too well. 

so the girl has been a little out of sorts about it all today. 

she also got a couple of shots today. 

her phobic attitude is wildly running amok. 

needing to keep the impalas on the reservation is very good. 

it is sometimes not possible. 

as usual, i am trying desperately to find that balanced place along the thin red line. 

it eludes me again. 

the boy enjoyed his 18th birthday today. 

he has had a cold and was a napping fool today. 

if my hearing over the a/c and fan is correct, 

i think he told me that he cut a classmate's hair. 

i miss him and wish he was nearer, but accept that he is further.

 i am trying to accept whatever faux-hawk do graham is sporting. 

i am hoping that he gets a more conservative packaging

really soon. 

if he doesn't, i fear that my ire will also trip over that red line and into the misfortunes of 

begging him to get a more conservative hairdo. 

ok, falling asleep at the wheel now. 

time to crash and burn.... 

very tired now. 

see you all out there straddling that red line yourselves. i hope that you find some peace along on a comfortable side of the line. 

xoxo. 

W.

what's going on?

i wish i could say something really interesting is happening. 

to me, it is really important, as it backs up my current mantra:
two kids in college. 

i am ridiculously busy making jewelry. 

between yesterday and today, i made a whole lot of stuff.

this has been the result of a 4 day job i spent scrambling for all i am worth.
after playing telephone tag for about three weeks, i got in touch with a new resource. 

i am now the proud owner of a ridiculously charming and cheerful 

art representative. 

he is david riordan.
i was on the edge about getting him to help me and my business to take a new step.
as fate would have it, i was again proven to have my head up my bottom.
david is the bomb. 

 his wife jennifer is the other half of a few driving businesses too. 

together, jennifer and david

have created a group of shows under the umbrella of 

FESTIVAL FETE.

the shows are ridiculously well attended. 

enormously organized 

and dare i say, as the reigning champion of growling curmudgeons everywhere,
 fun for even the vendors.
together between them, they ran OOP! in providence for about twenty years.
they are really wonderful to know, professionally and personally.
this is a really great thing. 

so before i go further asunder in my fatigue, 

i would love to tell you that david took a bunch of my things
(AKA:  a brief collection of my jewelry line)
 to

the new york international gift show.

he was able to slap me into shape by talking me through a few ideas.
and as hard as it is for me to stay focused and follow those limitations,
he had a few pieces of several of my inventory in a few color-ways as samples.

he came home with orders to be filled.

as reported, my life has been ridiculously busy lately.
(start of ice hockey, start of high school, start of college for thing 1 and his older sister, field hockey, algebra 2.... and puhlenty more)

after so many distractions that fall under the heading of mother...

i finally had a chunk of time yesterday and today to produce 

Rings,

Earrings,

Brooches,

and 

tomorrow i finish the tour with creating a bunch of bracelets too. 

i love this work.
lots of rings on my fingers...

 brooches  for chicagoans

more rings for an upcoming ladies luncheon 

some of my favorite brooches to date, with a smattering of more rings,
and mixed sizes of both... what else of course? 

big full figured brooches 

did i mention that there were more brooches? 

i spent time last week getting my signature flowers ready to be played with. 

they were washed and dried and colorized to prepare for this push towards making 

some pretty flowery  jewelry.

now that a lot of what happened is nearly completed, 

i am ready to fully finish a few orders. 

W A H O O !!!
keeping this inventory fresh and up to date is a personal challenge.

 i need a lot of variety to make a simple stacked and layered pin. 

but there is no reason not so delve more deeply into  info ...

as you must by now assume how much i love playing in my metal garden.

i am unnaturally tired, so i will wait to send my lovely boy, my happy birthday wishes for his 

EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY. 

SINCE you have all been very well mannered and polite, 

i will share some photos with you when daylight returns and i can take some.
thank you all again. . 

g'nights folks. 

xoxo. 

W

now where was i?

seriously, where was i this week? 

if my head were to be cracked open like a coconut, inside you may find swiss cheese
or lots of teflon coated surfaces. 

i remember absolutely nothing these days. 

i would like to attribute it to a lack of sleep or general distractability. 

however it really could be simple overload of my circuits. 

firstly and happily, 

my son was brought to college for the first time. 

our car was emptied by a very efficient team of students.
we opened the car doors and trunk,  they took all of his things to his room. 

he unpacked and made his bed within the amount of time
 that it took my husband to park the car and walk back to the dorm.
when we all were together finally in his room with his roommate,  graham christened the move in with a shower.
my husband wanted to walk to the hockey rink.
graham and his roomie had other plans.
he and the roomie decided to go to dinner so they could make it back in time to attend a floor meeting in the dorm. 

we found ourselves summarily dismissed.
what? no i love you's and we will have breakfast together in the morning?
nope.  

needless to say, we were trying to be so cool,
 our mouths just flapped in the wind. 

we left and had dinner

shopped at target and went to sleep in our motel room. 

 i have already divulged all that there was to divulge about this huge personal event in my life, in its own posting. 

so i shall move along to delivering halley to her college dorm. 

her dorm situation was very long in coming into focus for her sophomore year. 

no one could tell us where she was supposed to go for her living quarters. 

she was finally told that she would have an apartment in the middle of campus somewhere. 

she was highly thrilled. 

we were highly suspicious.
she had significantly more stuff to bring to school than graham.
it filled our car much more than its first trip to
the freshman dorm.
so hal and i rode the train up and had lunch while chris and tess drove to meet us.

we found her address, which was closer to the main part of campus by about a block.
 her view last year overlooked the fenway in boston. 

this year, she and her roomie are sharing a sweet little apartment.
the set-up was such that there were two rooms.

 one was a sitting and tv space.
the other was a bunked-bed haven to crash in. 

for once in my life,
i had a really terrific idea that everyone agreed upon pretty much immediately. 

how about both girls having their own room?
 wow. 

privacy and all.
sounded especially idyllic after halley had shared a bunk-bedded room
with her 14 year old sister all summer.
(no one was at all happy about that...) 

so the girls were both were treated to some moving in help
 from the lovely young men at the front steps of the apt. building
(the college crew team)
 and the very capable, union members of a moving company also at the entryway waiting to help move folks in. 

our girls were surrounded with their belongings,
almost as quickly as graham and his roommate had been.
they did have more stuff to be fair, so it was a little more of a flurry of activity.

it was never this easy when i moved into college or out of it. 

i had sooo much more crap to contend with. 

those pesky textbooks and papers and raw materials to create my educated self with took up space. and time to pack in cardboard boxes. none of those wonderful plastic tubs in a myriad of shapes and matching snug tops.
also, we had :

no computer. 

no kindle. 

no ipod. 

no flat screen tv. 

we had a small black and white tv. 13" cubed?

a stereo for our music.
and our music was on LP's. these collections also took up space. 

books everywhere. 

and bookcases.
our computer services were created by aquiring one of

 6 dedicated lines on campus. these we also shared with Dartmouth College.
these were dial up facilities to get the computer to work.
there was no mouse, or tracker pad involved.
we wrote the damn text for what we needed to do.  

our lingua franca was so antiquated. 

to make  a matrix of squares and fill it in like a rudimentary spread sheet,
 would take me hours. and more like days to finish. 

needless to say,
 the machines i use now are such a gift from heaven in comparison. 

heaven i tell ya!

here is my daughter and her well missed friend/roommate.

so after we got the girls as set up as was warranted, 

all of us went to eat in one of the dining halls.
this included my husband, tess(the little sister), the roomie, her parents and me.
as for the dining halls... 

these are not the little throwback to gracious eating
with sit-down waitressed meals of my college days. 

our
young ladies were paid for work study as dorm waitresses 

during my collegiate years. 

now the eateries have food stations. 

someone makes your salad for you instead of leaving you to think through the salad ingredients below a sneeze guard. 

there was a spicy gravy with mushrooms and peas to go with my wild rice mix and the curried pork i selected to have. 

tess was not interested in anything we had,  she must have been off of her game that night. 

hal enjoyed a plate of sushi before she and her roomie skipped off to go to a dorm meeting. 

the girls have the end apartment with windows.
 big windows with soft breezes blowing in from over the parking lot below.
really sweet, in spite of their tarmac view below. 

still a pretty sweet place to live. 

they have the now two bedroom scenario,
 an eating spot by the front door,
 a bathroom for the pair of them to split, as well as a cute little kitchen. 

in the kitchen there is a brand new fridge, a half oven

(large enough to bake 2 trays of cookies on or a chicken dinner) 

AND 

a dishwasher. 

they brought a microwave too. 

wow. 

i swear, this is a really great set-up if there ever was one.
we left our daughter to circulate with friends and finish moving in the next day.
her roomie's parents took the girls to target the next day. 

i am planning to return on friday,when neither of them have classes, to take them to IKEA. 

so far, most of the stuff in the apartment 

it is so nice and clean and new.
 i have no idea how much fun they will have there, but fun they will have. 

hal's room in progress

tessie trying it all on for size and mugging like a crazy person. 

and the other room... 

chosen by a toss of a coin. 

their kitchen

and basically, you seen one uninspired bathroom, you seen a lot of them. 

this does not have a pictoral history. and i am sure not to 

have you dying of curiosity over it. 

so this is all that i can stay awake to share with you about. 

while the skies are dropping rain 

and i am struggling to stay awake for a few more moments so that ....

i can bid you all a pleasant good night. 

xoxox. W.

rain

earlier this week, after a particularly busy weekend, i wrote a long beauteous post. 

it was lusciously full. 

there were photos, 

anecdotes, 

quips, 

etc. 

i pressed one button and lost the whole thing. 

i was so peeved with myself, i have not tried yet to reprise that line of what i may consider very narcissistically, clever yet crafty prose. oh yeah, i am my own biggest fan most days.

not always deservedly so. 

however...

today, i shall start this mishegas all over and hopefully, this time press the print button instead of a delete function. 

can you tell how much i annoy myself?

well i do. 

so on a more gentle and pleasing note...

it is raining out right now. 

oh how i have missed the sound of rain... as i fall or drift off to sleep. 

it was replaced over the past months of hot, muggy weather with the drone of the air conditioner making the air quality tolerable within my house. 

in tandem, the fan has been moving millions of cubic inches of dehydrated air over my sweaty menopausally challenged body. 

it mostly was tolerable, however, i do feel deeply addicted to living in dry cooler air.

without this, summer surely would be the least enjoyed season ever. 

i say i do this all for the dog, 

but as streams of water flow down my face in response to even the slightest hint of movement, i can only think of saturday night live episodes with 

chevy chase flop sweating his way through a weekend update bit

or albert brooks in 

"broadcast news".

it is once again, 

GODSMACK.

no not the musical group, 

but more like that thing people of my generation and many before me, may have referred to as, Irony. 

when my husband and i lived in our 5oo square foot Harvard Square 

apartment  for many years, 

he enjoyed having a fan in the window. 

we moved to providence and he put two fans in the windows and the ceiling fan turned at 

3 speeds. 

i slept in the nexus of a space that i often likened to a wind tunnel at Logan International Airport. 

it was noisy, and comfy for my other half. 

i hated it for  ear irritating decibel levels.

now i have created a variation on this theme... to withstand my own corporal failures. 

tonight, though, there is enough natural cool air out. 

along with that comfortable temperature, 

there is the soothing, gentle sound of rain 

and cars passing through it all. 

just a few feet from my windos. 

and yes, i feel very cozy, comfortable and 

naturally sleepy. 

me and my bff are gonna go down for the count now. 

perhaps in the light of tomorrow's hazy day, i can reprise some of the weekend's activities. 

or maybe i will just sleep a little more comfortably in the 

cool, air clarifying rain. 

thank you old friend for your timely visit. 

you have been sorely missed. 

xoxo w.