Wow! A whole week!

The past week is a blur. At least. Where do I begin...

The book signing was AWESOME! Jim is a riot and so very nice. It was lovely to meet him (in person, again) and to be greeted so warmly by him. He even remembered how long we've known one another via mailing lists without any help from me. (about 8 years now) It was loads of fun, there were tons of people there (more people than chairs), and I met some nice people, but I missed my kids. Weird. I get a night off and all I can do is miss them. Go figure. LOL

The Blue Sweater is progressing nicely. I'm almost back to where I ripped it out, which is good. I was a bit afraid I might slow down once I got over the initial "get this back on the needles" thing. I did find myself distracted while my MIL was here. I actually sat down and cast on a simple shawl with some Plymouth Eros. Why? Why not? Or something, I just don't know. We were so exhausted from all of the church activities (and for me, work stuff) that we were all barely functioning. Well, I'm not sure "we" were all that tired, but I was and everyone else seemed tired too, so who knows. The upshot is that I cast on a stupid shawl, then decided that I didn't have enough yarn to do a whole shawl, or if I do I can't find it, and it won't work on my wooden needles. So I had to run out to my LYS and buy more yarn. And needles. They, of course, did not have the color I needed, so I bought something else. I went home and set it down on the table where I can see it, and now I think I must have been on crack. (not really) I just have no idea what the heck happened. I blame it on stress. I didn't really need another project, remember? Stash busting? Other projects to get done? Hello? Is this thing (my brain) on?

My MIL, a very sweet, lovely woman, was a disaster this visit. She has been suffering from severe depression (which we did not know until very,very recently), and a super busy weekend was not the time to have her visit. My four year old was easier to manage than my MIL was. Example: 30 minutes waffling over what to wear to a picnic, including two changes of clothes. "Should I wear my pink suit?" "That would be nice." "Do you think that it would be appropriate?" "I think it will be very nice." "Do you think I should wear something else?" "No, I think the pink suit is a good idea." "Are you sure I shouldn't wear something else?" "You can if you want to. People will be wearing everything from suits to shorts for the picnic. You could wear the pink suit and bring something to change into if you want, then you're prepared for everything." "So the pink suit is too much? Maybe I shouldn't go." Wash. Rinse. Repeat. FOR 30 MINUTES while I'm trying to put finish cooking a cake and a big, giant pasta thing that I've never made in quantity before, get my kids ready to go and help my husband remember all the stuff that needed to go in the car. I thought I might have to put her head in the oven. I did not include all of the incomplete sentences that went on. The woman is challenged to put a coherent sentence together right now. My heart breaks for her, she is in really bad shape, but we had no idea when we invited her down. I'm pretty sure she shouldn't be traveling alone, but no one told us what is going on with her. This was a really bad weekend to have her visit. Hopefully, she enjoyed her time with us and maybe even found some kind of peace in the church services. It would be worth the stress for me if something in the visit helped her.

This week should be a nice time to slow down and rest, but work is total chaos right now. I'm actually rather giddy about it. I didn't do it, it isn't my fault and, for the moment, it has nothing to do with me or my life. I'd like to pop some popcorn and sit back and watch up to the moment when it does involve me. I should probably feel bad about that, but I get so little joy in my job these days, I worry about that later. I'll also fill you in on the details later, I think the MIL story was enough stressful trauma for one day. I'll just go back to giggling and the blue sweater now...