My boss in lab (oh yeah, I have a lab position now; more on that later) is one of those people whose minds seem to run at a rate and capacity an order of magnitude greater than the rest of humanity. This can make following him hypothetically difficult, though I think I've managed well thusfar (as long as he doesn't unknowingly switch languages or start quoting Shakespeare). I lag like dialup on Youtube, but even if I'm buffering about as fast as glass flows I get where I'm going eventually. One day, however, we were discussing my work and my ever-irksome schedule and I totally and completely lost my connection.

Error. Empty dial tone, blank screen. Bzzzzzt. Noticing my confusion, my boss paused.

"I've lost you train of thought, is all." I explained.

"I don't have a train of thought." he replied (and to get the full effect, you'll have to imagine this in an Irish accent). "I have thousands of trains, all running at once, and I'm just trying to keep them from crashing." His image lit up like a lightbulb in my mind, because I'm like that too. It shows in my work and school, in my writing and conversation, in my reading and learning and yes, in my crafting. Now I can put it into words, or even better, into images.

So what trains do I have running which are at all relevant to this blog? I'm still working on the cross-stitch and embroidery, but my progress has not been notable enough to deserve photography. The mittens, however, I can't resist snapping shots of:

Thrums delight me.

My progress has slowed considerably with the end of Spring Break, but I'm determined not to let the project slip off into inactivity. Mittens, particularly thrummed ones, are just too cool a train to let rust in some forgotten junkyard somewhere.

Remember this comb, which I claimed I was keeping for myself? I changed my mind. I want this one more:


Green

I haven't worn the other one yet, so I have no qualms against selling it (probably titled something like "Blackberry Vines"- thanks grrlpup). I'm not real good at doing my hair- for one, it's quite fine, and for another I've never been much of a girly-girl in that way and thus never really learned the art- making a lasting bun remains an arcane and alien idea to me. I'm proud when I can put it up in pigtails which aren't lopsided, much less figure out how to work in decorations like this. I'm always up to learning new things, though, even girly-girl ones... so I'll try new things and I'll keep a comb or two.

Finally, I've been playing with my ancient Sculpey stash.


Skulls

The eventual hope is to use up said Sculpey stash, but that may just take a while. There's a lot of it, and most of my grand ideas require a pasta machine.

One last thought: I'm notoriously bad at finishing things- I can prevent most major collisions in my train-conducting duties, but I'll be damned if I have time to get them all where they're going. This is something I'm working on.

This is how Mother Nature chooses to wish me a happy Spring Break:

Brr.

She and I will have words.

In other news: my mittens.


Wait for it...

They are blooming.


Ka-pow!

Spring a la sheep. Baa, baby.

The window is open and through it I hear birdsong. Oh, sweet hope for Spring.

This weekend has been a bit odd for me, mentally. Saturday I spent the entire day feeling like a ghost (thank you, sleep deprivation); I felt so faint, so colorless that it was almost surprising and somehow wrong to see that I cast a shadow. If my mind is so distant and disconnected from the world, after all, what right can my body have to be so monotonously concrete?

The longer you stay awake, the more life becomes a dream.

Today I’ve simply felt uncomfortable in my own skin- not mentally, but physically. It’s as if someone took my brain and moved it into another body, indistinguishable from my own to all but myself. This part’s a little too long, this one a little too sharp, this one tight and this one itches funny. Rather strange, that- perhaps it has something to do with being sick recently? Damn you, influenza.

If this sounds like whining, please know it’s not intended. The loss of inflection, of tone and cadence on the internet is something I have not quite adjusted my style of communication to- were I speaking to you right now, my voice would sound not exhausted and beaten, but quietly speculative. All these myriad sensations of life are still a marvel to me, even the ones that I categorize as "bloody weird".

But enough philosophical jabber (I get philosophical when I'm tired. You have been warned). I’m here to introduce you to my new knitting project. What of my old knitting projects, you ask? Shhhh. I’ll finish them eventually, promise.

So here we go. My best friend bought me a present, and it is this:

Grapes and Oranges

What is this, you ask? A thrummed mitten kit! All winter I’ve been dreaming of a pair of these things (my circulation and usual core temperature both resemble the living dead more than a healthy 22-year-old girl, so my hands freeze fast), and the fact that Spring is stirring beneath the dead grass and frozen soil does not damper my excitement in the least. It just means I’ll have to knit fast is all.

(I can hear you people who have read me for a while laughing at that “knit fast” comment. Shh again.)

I love the colors. I’ve grown a real taste for vibrant colors in the last few years, and there’s no point I crave them more than on those cold winter days when I’ll use these mittens.

This brings me to a recent post on All Things Lilliput. Frequently I’ll stop and ponder the things that make me smile in my day-to-day existence and, inspired by said post, I figured I’d let you in on a few today.

1. Mittens!
2. The relatively warm weather we’ve been having, and the promise of Spring to come (and Spring break, the week after this one- woot!).
3. I got to take a nap today. Naps are awesome.
4. Grapes. Big fat red grapes.
5. I’m keeping this one to myself, but trust me, it’s good.

* * * *

Final comment: I have a goal and it is this: one project per week for the next month. I will define what constitutes a project, as something like “get my photo book up to date” is impossible, while “get the San Francisco pictures into the photo book” would suit a week's timespan perfectly. That shouldn’t be too hard, right? Further goal: blog about all of ‘em. One post per week. Minimum.

Hold me to that one, okay?