[Warning – this turned into a really long post. It was cathartic – but don’t feel like you need to read the whole thing.]

I get so emotional baby, every time I think of you-u-u! It’s emotional hangover time here at the blog, yet again. Slap me if I sound like a broken record. Emotions, emotions, emotions! The psycohological equivalent of Jan Brady, if you will. Feelings, whoa-o-oh feelings! Will someone PLEASE turn it off?! Please?

It’s a monsoon outside today, but inside it’s nice and quiet and warm because the love of my life sealed up all the windows this weekend. We live in something of a wind tunnel and the windows seem to have these huge gaps in them. They also line the entire west side of the apartment. That’s a decent amount of windows. There’s one room, when you walk by, your hair starts blowing around and you feel this arctic blast. We keep the door of that room closed until we do the seal; it always reminds me of the kids’ room in Poltergeist – you know, when JoBeth Williams opens the door and all the toys are flying around? That’s our den, possessed, but not anymore! Georgie! My hero!

Speaking of Georgie, he’s partly the reason for so much emotion these days. I’ve now known G for almost 19 years! And in all of the time I’ve known him he’s been living with some kind of pain. Since he was around fourteen he’s been having tons of trouble with his knees – but being the man he is – he played through it by being on the basketball and tennis teams in high school and college and spending his adulthood playing one or the other sport at least a few times a week. Poor Georgie has the body of a scholar and the mind of an athlete. You know how we love to knit and spin and craft? How about if someone told us we’d never be able to knit again? It would cause us to shrivel up into a little ball in the back of the closet and never want to see the light of day. That’s how my darling husband feels about his tennis. Basketball’s been out of the question for quite some time.

Things were looking up for awhile there. After his fifth knee surgery in seven years it looked like things were taken care of – his knees actually felt good! And then the hip pain started. At first he thought it was a groin pull but gradually it got worse and worse and finally he had the hip scoped down in Nashville. That was in ’03 and the doctor came out to talk to me while G was in recovery. His exact words were “he’s got the hips of an 80-year-old man.” My gorgeous husband is 43. It’s some kind of a degenerative tissue thing that’s basically left him without cartiledge. Back in ’03 we were told that eventually hip replacement would be the only option, but that we should try to hold out as long as possible because, well, he’s only 43 and hip replacements, as wonderful as they are now, don’t last that long. In 20 yrs it’s VERY conceivable he will need another new hip. Well, my friends, it looks like the eventuality has come. My sweetheart can barely walk. He is in so much pain and I can’t even begin to tell you the sadness I feel about this. I can’t do anything to help him. And trust me, if there was a way I could give him my hips I would. He’s in the process now of going to the doctors and getting diagnoses and I guess we’re looking to try and schedule this for early spring. Please, if you feel compelled to share stories of people you know having had hip replacements – DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT ANYONE THAT’S DIED. We see enough of it on the news about young(ish) people dying and I don’t want to hear it. G has had A LOT of surgery in his life – five knees, his hip, a hernia – and he’s come through with flying colors every time but I’m scared to death.

Add to that all the grief I’ve been letting myself feel lately about the infertility crap and you’ve got a sure fire prescription for MISERY! HAHAHAHAHAHA! That’s all I can do – try to laugh in the face of it! I’m reminded of that line Dolly Parton says in Steel Magnolias – laughter through tears is my favorite emotion? (I think they’re at Julia Robert’s funeral and Olympia Dukakis and Shirley Maclaine have just gotten into the bitch slap thing – Steel Magnolia’s is one of those movies I can’t NOT watch – not matter how icky it makes me feel.) Or some such nonesense as that? I’m not sure if that’s true, but if I can’t laugh, I’ve got nothing.

My peeps out in blogland have been doing their damndest to cheer me up and I finally got around to some pictures!

So you all know how Ann skims right? Seriously – she’s the ULTIMATE skimmer. I’ll be chatting with her on the phone (Ann gives great phone, btw – you know how some people are just not that good on the phone? Not Ann. She rocks. And Margene too. I get on the phone with them and guaranteed it’s like an hour before I get off. In a good way.) and I’ll say something to her and she’ll be like what? And I’ll just stop. Silence. “Ann. Did you read the blog? It’s all on the freaking BLOG!” And she’ll just start laughing because people SHE DOESN’T READ THE BLOGS! She just looks at the pictures or maybe not even that. Ever notice how her comments don’t really seem to have anything to do with what you wrote about that day? No. Well look. She’s a skimmer. Anyway, I’m READING her blog the other day, because I read your blogs, and leave a comment about the availability of Curious George cell phone charms. I had to have one. For obvious reasons.

Welp not ten minutes later the phone rings. It’s Ann. In a panic. She didn’t READ WHAT SHE POSTED! She only skimmed (so really how offended can we be when she skims HER OWN BLOG) and was all upset that I had run off and purchased a Curious George phone charm, because, she confessed, she had already bought me one.

George and my phone have been inseparable ever since. Not sure what the bunny means, but he came along with George and they seem to get along just fine at the bottom of my bag. I love them. If you refer back to the picture above, Ann also sent me a cutie pie frog prince – a talisman – she explained – against frogging our knitting projects. So far so good. There’s a CG bento box and frankly, a kind of scary snowman basket. THANK YOU ANN! Everytime I use the phone I think of you. You make me laugh out loud every time I talk to you and I so love you for that.

A few days after that my very favorite Bookish Girl checked in for the birthday.

Wendy told me that pretty much everything she sent had been purchased at The Bazaar Bizarre – one of those craft extravaganza flea market type thingies – we’ve got beautiful stitch markers, lovely handspun hand-dyed yarn from Woolarina, super cool patches, a denim zip purse, an orange chibi and a SUNFLOWER! To brighten my day. Thank you Wendy! I don’t think I’ve mentioned lately how much I love Wendy. She was one of my first blog friends that I had met in real life – she took me around Boston – a perfect stranger – and we had an instant connection. She’s as real as they come and she makes me laugh and I know if I called her up crying my eyes out she would listen, not judge, and help me. Thank you Wendy. I love you girl!

This is turning into a pretty long post, but it’s making me feel better, so I’m going to keep going.

I’m also pretty good at making myself feel better. I’ve been feeling guilty about all the talk about stashalongs and such and it’s time to admit, that on my birthday, I did what every self-respecting knitter does on their 36th birthday. I ordered a shit load of Alice Starmore’s Virtual Yarn.

Eleven skanks of 3ply Hebridean. For Crossed In Translation swatches. Right now the front runner is Clover, top row, second from the left. I think it will be perfect for this sweater. Perfect. But I can’t start swatching until I finish this:

TREK WINS! She guessed it – these are the sleeves for Short Rows. Back in the day, before it looked like I’d never knit anything other than Jaywalkers, I’d dare say Short Rows was my signature knit. I finished the back (twice!) and the front and left it. All that was needed was the boring navy blue stockinette sleeves and the seaming and a collar. But the sleeves. I couldn’t do it. But I promised myself I would finish this sweater. I’ve worked too hard on it not to finish and I really love it and I hope to see if it fits someday. So I’m not starting the CIT sweater until this is done. I’ve done about ten increases – I’m doing both at the same time, so it’s kind of slow going. My goal is at least one increase a night. There are 16 before you start to decrease for the raglan. Wish me luck.

Thanks everyone for your comments on my yarn yesterday! I’m very excited about my spinning and I’m so glad to share my enthusiasm.

All right. Enough’s enough. I’ve got work to do and I’ve wasted enough of your day. 😉 Thanks for stopping by.
L, C

PS – Please go and see what made me the happiest of happy today! Margene finished her jaywalkers! I swear it was killing me that she wasn’t enjoying these socks – but that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. POP ROCKS!