13 June 2008

both sides of the coin

Forgive my bluntness but there is only one way to sum up my week: it sucked.

My outlook on life lies in the middle of optimistic and pessimistic. I don't really believe in turning a blind eye to the outcome of any situation. And while I never hope or expect everything to go badly, I never rule it out either. I guess you could call me cautiously realistic since I believe its a good idea to look at both sides of the coin and make decisions that you can live with based on what would be ideal and what would be, well, sucky. Just seems like the smart thing to do.

So I've spent a lot of time hiding from the world this week. Mostly because it was stressful but also because I've given a lot of thought and consideration to stuff that has been going on. There are heavy things weighing, my friends, heavy things.

Here are a few:

The Good side: My job has relocated to a state of the art beautiful wonderful new building that is not full of asbestos, does not leak, does not smell like a dirty sock when it is humid outside and has no cockroaches or rats running about.

The Bad side: While the building I left was a pit, it was also the place that I made my footprint in a male dominated field. I was hired there before I even graduated, I received two promotions and took on work I would have never dreamed of tackling. It was hard to walk out on a place I've spent the last decade of my life.



The Good side: The new building is far away from where I live but thanks to Sid and her husband, I have found a very easy drive in that doesn't make me feel like I need a can of mace in the car with me. Its a long drive but not stressful and I feel like I can handle it.

The Bad side: Gas is approaching $20 a gallon and could make me consider walking the 43 miles to work.



The Good side: I live in an area that is not under eight feet of water.

The Bad side: Can't think of one.



The Good side: I am an automotive engineer working in a crappy economy and I still have a job.

The Bad side: I don't know for how long that will last. In the meantime I'm going to save money like a crack monkey. Extracurricular spending has now gone on an indefinite freeze. Moving is also on the back burner.


I'm worn out from thinking. My brain is close to leaking out of my head. I've been putzing around with fibery things to distract me. I've been obsessively stitching the hell out of this quilt:

I apparently won't be satisfied until I've used approximately 5,963 yards of embroidery thread on it. I've got a few more yards to go until I reach my goal.



There has also been sock knitting:

I started the cuff on the second sock of mom's frog socks. I was prepared to launch into the heel on the first one but decided against it. I've grown incredibly weary of this kind of cuff. Its boring. I bought this book and there are some neat socks in there that are calling to me. I showed mom one that has a ruffle cuff and mom whined at me that she wants that to be her next pair. So I figure its a good idea to start the second cuff and plow through that so I can get to the heel and then cruise through the foot.

Hmmmm...why do I have a feeling that I will almost always have a pair of socks on the needles for her? The woman is a sock fiend.

Okay, me and Dooley dog have a date with the sofa. I am going to knit until I forget all the stuff I've been thinking about and until it sinks in that the weekend is here and I do not need to face reality for two whole days.

Weekends rock.

2 comments:

Kim Hambric said...

I went to the PPG Aquarium in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago with hubby and daughter. We became entranced with these bitty eels (I think they were eels) that would poke their little heads out of their holes, have a look around, then go back down. I've been reading art blogs for a while now, and I'm starting to make a connection between artists, especially fiber artists, and these little eels. We feel confident, we come out. We feel less confident, annoyed or discouraged and we go back in. Thats the way it is. Nothing really profound in that. I'm one of those little eels. I'm venturing out this weekend. Will go back in soon. Hope you have a great weekend.

Anonymous said...

the quilt is looking awesome!
don't worry everything will turn out the way it should be.....that's what i keep telling myself anyway.
hang in there .