Saturday, July 30, 2011

personal space invaded

As you can tell, I haven't been writing much on the blog lately. Pictures are easy enough, but I've been avoiding any contemplative moods, instead drowning anxiety about upcoming changes with bad TV and sewing projects.

I'm only writing now because my home has been invaded and my normal routine crushed under the dirty feet of my sister's new boyfriend who likes to spontaneously remove his shirt and doesn't wear shoes outside, afterward considering his feet perfectly presentable on cream wool carpet (where I lay out my large projects). I suppose everything all happens for a reason because this all is making my impending move feel a lot less dire-- it will be a RELIEF to have my own space to in live again: dirty feet will not be permitted across the threshold. At this point, a bit of loneliness feels like a fair trade for some cleanliness.

It probably isn't very good for me to have my own place if I am ever supposed to cohabit with anyone ever again (but I doubt I will). This is because I get more and more rigid about routines and cleanliness in my isolation-- naturally, because no one is challenging me-- so that it is downright painful to live with other people after the freedom of complete control over my surroundings. I'm experiencing a bit of that right now as Banana arrived home from CA today for a week and the new boyfriend, who I will henceforth call Whipper Snapper (he truly is), is sleeping on the floor in my regular living area на второй этаже. This is usually a space of tranquility or productiveness all day and late into the night.

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But no, Whipper Snapper will be coming up and sleeping on an air mattress in my sewing area. So, I could have basted my quilt today but didn't start because I wouldn't have been able to leave it out unfinished.

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Anyways, I've gathered quite a lot of sewing supplies this summer and have a nice stash of fabric. This is the stuff for my new, quick 8" block quilt to bring to school. I put together the entire top last night from 8PM to 5AM.

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Finding fabric for this quilt, which was inspired by Cherry Menlove's spring quilt, was surprisingly difficult! Evidently Midwestern American quilters are not interested in neutrals. I ended up with five yards of not-right fabric, three of which were unusable in any other projects and one which was, allegedly, nonreturnable. Exhibit A:

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This fabric is from Carousel Designs, called "Sage Mini Stripe" and described as "fine sage green stripes over a soft white background, this pretty fabric functions almost as a neutral." Ah, neutral? I think not! That is lime green if I ever saw lime green and not something I would ever use in a project. I did eventually get the nice customer service rep to let me return it, because it was still in plastic and I was so "disappointed", but I have yet to see whether I've been credited for it.

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Ah, so the thing I've been dancing around, and not thinking about or doing, is packing. Normally I don't mind packing as much as some seem to, but I need to repack a lot of my things like NOW so I can get a moving quote and this requires a lot of running things through the dishwasher, long periods of inactivity waiting to get more boxes or packing material with everything strewn about, and then having to figure out what to do with things that I can't really throw away but don't want anymore. Also, living without things that I've already packed and so feeling like my life is in cardboard limbo. Drudging through all one's worldly possessions can be draining and it might actually be just as much, or cheaper, to buy new things in Boston, so I'm not sure what best to do. Three thousand gallons of gas is expensive.

Bah, and then there is the program I'll be staring itself. Russian has been eating me up all year until a few days ago when it struck me that if I spent half as much time studying as I do worrying about it, I'd be fairly well along. You see, even if I manage the English Literature (my program) I'll be screwed if I can't pass the language requirement test and then I'd be kicked out, which would mean moving 1,500 miles again and living at home. This is not an option.

And egads, I am so looking forward to having my own place again because Whipper Snapper has displaced me to my bedroom for the night and this means using the basement bathroom which is mainly used by my brother, so less than desirable.

Thank goodness for wireless internet.

P.S. I do feel a bit bad about being a little less than friendly to Whipper Snapper. Though I did give him a full chance until I had to pick him up, with my sister and my brother (who were riding in the car), one night a few weeks ago because he'd been drinking and was pulled over. He managed to scrape by without a DUI because he is sneaky. I wouldn't have minded picking them up, but afterward he instigated a coverup about it, obviously not wanting my parentals to know. So I was put in the awkward situation of lying about it while my parents talked about how "responsible" he was.

I'll try to give him another chance, I suppose. I did feel sorry for him at the end of the night after he arrived with spilt beverage on his pants, spilled his alcohol twice in thirty minutes on the floor of my sister's room, then again on the shorts he borrowed from my brother, then ripped the shorts. He was obviously less than comfortable.

P.S.S.

Here is a bad photo off FB of said wedding:

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You know how I'm always saying that this is the year I'll end up looking like Jennifer Garner? (Or do you? Have I said that on this incarnation of my blog?) Well, this year looks quite promising, though I've had one to many cookies lately. (I figure I may as well take advantage of having fresh baked cookies brought to me by my mother while I can.)

P.S.S.S. This kind of post is exactly why my family can never find this blog.

Monday, July 18, 2011

there had been rain all day...

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"There had been rain all day, and there was a damp feeling in the air. The leaves were thick upon the trees, and heavy with wet; but the rain had ceased, though the sky was still dark; and the hopeful birds were singing cheerfully. As I walked to and fro in the garden, and the twilight began to close around me, their little voices were hushed; and that peculiar silence which belongs to such an evening in the country when the lightest trees are quite still, save for the occasional droppings from their boughs, prevailed."

-David Copperfield

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belated father's day pictures

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Happy times. Even a nature loving Dad likes to have a bit of a fuss made of him every once in a while.

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(Feeling left out)

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