Intention

Love

Right round

So I have another spinning lesson tomorrow. I'm getting better with the drop spindle, and am actually producing something that looks kinda like yarn. I've got a whole little ball of it, in fact. Which, frankly, makes me a bit giddy. It's still sort of inconsistent, but it's not all that bad (less so than Manos worsted, for those of you who know what that means). I tried to knit with it a little, but then it occurred to me that I don't know if we're done yet. Like, are we going to ply this week? I just don't know. But I'm pretty excited about it.

So for the fiberworkers out there, I pose you this question: Suppose I were to get a wheel. What do you have/like? What do you recommend? Are there any I should specifically avoid? Are there features that are more or less desirable? I have a friend who has two particular models she's selling (it's a long story how she ended up with two spare wheels), and I'll likely buy her Hitchhiker, but I'm willing to keep my options open.

For those of you who think the above paragraphs were written in some undecipherable code...sorry....

I did get up and go to the gym this morning. I'm counting it as a serious win, because I got to bed late and when I woke up this morning wanted nothing more than to sleep for another four hours (which I couldn't have done anyway, not if I wanted to keep my job), but I dragged my ass over there and did my thing. I didn't go all last week trying to rest my feet and my stupid plantar fascie, and as hard a time as I have dragging my sorry butt in there at quarter to dark, I find that I miss the gym when I don't go...

Work was....well, it was a Monday. I left my pager at home, so I had to borrow Rene's (she's on night float). I discharged FOUR PEOPLE from my team today, and have already picked up two brand new ones for tomorrow (fortunately for me, Sparrow caught what looks like the biggest train wreck). There was a lot of juggling and fire-squelching. I did a little postpartum group. I left around 6 after signing out two of my fires that were still smoldering a little to Scott and handing off Rene's pager to him.

But I did get to see robin at work today!!!! That was apparently quite a feat, because she's been working with us how long and this is the first time we've been at the big house at the same time...

Then I came home, did dishes, made spaghetti. And now I'm going to bed. My wild and crazy nightlife, folks.

And in totally unrelated news, it's still roachy in my apartment. I think we're looking at dropping a bomb on them soon.

Homespun

Darkness

Oh, for Pete's sake...

So I get home tonight....long day at work. Whiny patients. Lots of crap to deal with. Endless paperwork. 7am therapy patient.

Fortunately, I had my very first spinning class to look forward to tonight. And it was awesome. It wound up being a private lesson, because there were only two of us signed up and the other woman didn't show. And I LOVE it. She sent me home with a drop spindle and some roving, but I am so totally in love with the wheel. It's very....zen. I could just treadle for hours (and, in fact, did, for about an hour). I had lanolin all over my hands and left with about 11 yards of handspun from the wheel, and a huge ball of Blue Leicester Top roving to spindle. I am pleased. I have two more lessons, on the next two Tuesdays.

So I stop and grab some dinner on the way home, walk up to the door...and the dog is whining. And I notice it's awfully dark - usually the dog walker leaves the front room light on, and I always leave my porch light on. Hmm. So I go in, flip the switch, and....nothing.

Turns out, last week or so ago when I paid the bill that the power company finally sent me, the online bill payer never actually sent the payment. So they disconnected us. Also? My rent check "bounced" this month (more bank weirdness), and I came home at 7pm yesterday to a note telling me I was about to be evicted.

We have power again (when I started writing this, I was stealing my neighbor's wireless...). And are not being evicted. And I will get the bank straightened out eventually (because, you know, they're not open when I'm not at work...). But still....jeebus.....

In better news, only three more days until the weekend.....

Ho, ho, ho (reprise)!!

So, remember last December, when my girls from my knitting group back home and I did a Secret Santa exchange? That went so well, we decided to do it again, with a little Christmas in July twist. They had a little festivizing back home at Lorna's abode, for actual swapping in person. Those of us who are not exactly in distance to drop-in had to settle for the mail-order equivalent.

I? Am a dork who could not get my package together and in the hands of FedEx in time for it to get there for the party today (without paying $60 in shipping costs, which - no). But! Fortunately for me, Valerie is much more organized. Look what I got!!

Everything came wrapped in festive paper (impressive, in the middle of the off-season!). But look what was in it!!

(Val knows my favorite color is red.) There were also Dove dark chocolates in the box, mmmm-mmmmmm.

Heritage sock yarn from Cascade, in a lovely solid red...

...and in a really cool multi.

And a ball of Schoppel Wolle Zauberball self-striping sock yarn.

Wheeeeee, the socks!! The socks I can be knitting!

And...

The best of all accessories, to facilitate knitting of socks. In red. I love it.

Thanks, Valerie!!!!

And in other fiber news, I signed up (officially - I've been unofficially signed up for a couple of days now) for a spinning class next month. The one with the wheel and the spindle, not the one with the stationary bikes and the screaming instructor. I'm excited!!!

I just hope mine never ends up on there...

Click. Read. Laugh. Be forewarned, however, that a couple of them are not entirely safe for work...

Today was my last day going to the coast. I'm definitely not going to miss the commuting, but I'm rather going to miss the people on my ACT team. It was a good experience, and I'm glad I did it. And I'm happy to know my way around our little coastal town, now, because it's a great day trip...or weekend...I just need people who might want to come with. Any takers?

It was a nice time today. I went out with one of the nurses, who is one of my favorite people on the team, and who sadly is leaving before Fritz shows up to take over for me. We saw some people, gave some shots, and talked candidly about the team, mental health in general, politics, and a whole range of things. We got some lunch (Taco Bell, which was a little disappointing, because there's some great restaurants out there, but, alas, also work that needs to be done) and then wandered to the little Asian market next door, which is very fun. And then I went to the yarn shop out there, which is one of my favorite yarn stores, ever. I bought some great sock yarn (non-knitters don't understand about souvenir yarn, but you knitters know what I'm talking about. AND I got a gift for my Christmas in July Secret Santa, so that doesn't count, because it doesn't actually add to the ever-growing stash...). And then I hit the Starbucks near the college, like I always do on my way out of town, and came home. There was a little rain on the way in, but on the whole, it was another gorgeous day at the North Carolina coast.

It was a nice day, but I'm so exhausted. I meant to be in bed an hour ago, but then I got sidetracked, and then I realized I hadn't eaten dinner, and then I had to do that, and then I had to answer some emails, and then I had to write a blog....

Maggie's already asleep, though. Smart girl.

Oh, and PS, my meeting with my program director of course went fine. She gave me some guidance on the issue with which I'd come to her in the first place, and it built nicely on the advice I'd been given by my dynamic supervisor earlier in the day about not letting one person bully me into doing something that wasn't helpful for me. Also smart.

Answers

Oh. And in answer to some recent queries...

1. Carol - I bought yarn at the yarn store. Ha! No, seriously, I bought two colors of this merino/silk blend and a ball of Kidsilk Haze for projects which I will detail later. Maybe this weekend, maybe after Peng's wedding, but probably this weekend because they're not exactly secret, and only one is for her. I just need time to sit and write about it.

2. Maggie only gets to go to daycare when I'm on call, which means, sadly, that she only has one more little visit to daycare left (that's sad for her, not me). I mean, she'll stay there when I go home in July and December and when I go to Hawaii in October and any other times I might choose to leave town without her, but for the day to day, next Monday is it. However, we have a very nice dog walker who comes every day. He's an older, retired military guy and she adores him. He's really very fond of her, too. I like having him come, but I wish I had the funds to maybe put her in daycare one day a week, because I KNOW she loves hanging out with the other dogs. When I'm not post-call, though, I rarely make it home before 6pm when their pickup hours end (which is why the dog walker comes this year, because my days are looong). So maybe when I'm a Child Fellow, on the day I'm at State Hospital all day. We'll see.

3. I have not, I promise, forgotten about the prizes from the lyrics contest. I've just been working too much and moving (Julie moved, too) and now I can't remember where the post office is. Plus, Jenn, I have some finishing touches to put on something that's going in your box. But I need to send that stuff out, soon, because I'm thinking of doing the lyrics contest again. That was fun. But...patience. I promise it'll be worth the wait, and I'll be more expedient next time (that's a lie. I just moved the box of Barb's stuff I was going to mail to her for Christmas. Which is lucky, because we had to add something for the puppy). Hopefully within the next couple of weeks. (Julie, you need to Facebook me your new mailing address!)

4. I had a really, really long day. So long, in fact, that I just typed "That was fun. But...patients." And then looked at it for a good twenty seconds thinking, no...that looks wrong... So I'm going to bed. Oh, but not before I add...

5. Anonymous - NO PANTS!!

All things yarn-y

Guess what I got? No, go on, guess.

It's yarn!

No, wait, it gets even better. It's cochineal yarn. Hand imported, from Mexico, by Peng. Who happened to be in Mexico week before last. And bought a giganamous skein of the stuff, from the weaver in the marketplace who used the yarn in her weavings. She, personally, didn't spin and dye the yarn, but her cousin, you know, up the road, she crushed the little cochineal bugs off the cacti, and dried them, and ground them into powder, and used them to dye her yarn. Or at least, I imagine she did. At the very least, her cousin dyed the yarn, and someone crushed up the little cochineal bugs off the cactus.

And so not only did Peng pick me up after my stupid plane was delayed (stupidly), she shared her yarn with me! It made last night better.

And as long as we're on the subject of awesome people giving me wonderful yarn, remember the yarn that Valerie gave me last week? This is what it looks like now. The first toe and instep of the Ruthie socks.

I'm just getting to the start of the short-row heel. Which, sadly, is still the part I can't do by memory.

I'm making up the pattern, but it's basically a 3x4 mini-cable with a beaded rib border. I showed it to Ruthie today, she was pleased.

All in all, a good week for gifted yarn! Thanks, guys!

Home again.

I'm back in the Windy City. It's sorta chilly here, but not bad, and, at current, not even that windy.

Thus begins another whirlwind week trying to spend quality time with as many people as humanly possible. I flew in this morning....all my friends were either out of town, on call, or (ahem) ignoring their text messages, so I reserved a cab to take me to the airport this morning. The cab was insanely late, and I had to call twice. The fare was close to $50, he said, just give me $30, we made you too late. So I gave him $30 and not a penny more. Tips are for good service. He was 40 minutes late, and went the wrong way down my one way street. Here's a tip - try being on time.

The flight itself was reasonably uneventful. And then my folks picked me up and we ran home and I grabbed my dad's keys and went to knitting.

You know how, with some people, you can not see them for, say, over a year, and you sit down and it's still like you come every week? That's totally what knitting group was today. God, I miss you people!!

Val even gave me a skein of sock yarn. It was from a yarn of the month thing, and really not her color, but you know whose color it totally was? Ruthie's. And the socks I'm currently making for Ruthie are turning out to be very nice (and I love the yarn) but less Ruthie-colored than I was hoping. But I think they're looking to be someone else's color. And then the socks that I was going to make for her can go back to being for the person I was originally making them for, and then...well, then...one of these days I'm going to knit something for myself again. But anyway, I'd forgotten how much I missed seeing what everyone else was making and fondling everyone's fancy yarns and swapping project ideas. I miss these knitting buddies, but I think I also miss having knitting buddies in general.

Okay, mostly I miss these knitting buddies.

See, this is why I don't come home more often. Okay, no it isn't. I don't come home more often because I work 60 to 80 hour weeks and have no disposable income. But coming home also invariably makes me homesick.

Funny, that....

So totally love it Thursday

It was foggy in North Carolina today. Like, the kind of foggy where I kept missing my exits because I couldn't see the signs foggy. There was no way the flying tin can was going up in that, and if it was, there was abso-fucking-loutely no way I was going to go up in it. I get scared when the FTC flies through a solitary fluffy cloud. It's a ruddy tin can! The size of my car! That's somehow supposed to stay up in the damn air a mile above the earth! ACK!

So I drove to the coast. Because I was on walk-ins last week, so couldn't go, and then called in dead the previous two weeks when I had the plague, and then there was Thanksgiving in there somewhere...so, it's been a while. I figured it was worth making the trip, and when I finally got to the group room where we have morning team (I was a little late and then blustered past them "Hi-I'm-here-3-hours-in-the-car-gotta-pee!") they seemed happy to see me. I went out with the peer counselor, and we saw three patients clients consumers individuals people we serve (or whatever the hell we're supposed to call them now). The first one and the third one were relatively quick. The second woman we saw...wow, the whole thing broke my heart. So we walk up to this double-wide with six cats milling around our feet, gingerly step over the dead roach on the front porch, and have to knock four or five times before she actually answers. And she opens the door and is like, "I hurt myself." Which, in my world, usually means "I cut" or "I tried to kill myself." But, no, she'd fallen. Okay. And then she holds out her arm, and there's this giant bruise above the elbow...and, let's just say, from her elbow to her shoulder was not a straight line, as I imagine it was yesterday morning. So I look at this, as I'm walking through the door behind the PC, and said, "Hi, I'm Dr. Kate. You need to get to a hospital. How are we going to do that?"

We ended up calling an ambulance. We probably could've put her in our car and taken her, but I'll be damned if I was going to accept the liability of this otherwise medically fragile woman falling again or having any of her chronic issues kick up on the way there. Plus, they have things like pulse oxymeters and accuchecks and oxygen and arm splints on the bus. But while we waited, I sat and talked to her, got my exam in. We sat, in her filthy kitchen. With bugs crawling up the wall. And years of nicotine and tobacco smoke staining the ceiling tiles. Half the floor tiles were up, which gave her plenty to trip over. She herself was greasy-haired, dirt caked in the beds of her fingernails, in a stained t-shirt that was two sizes too small. She was dirtier than most homeless people I know. Poor sick old lady. And her husband shows up at one point, and says, "her damn arm ain't broke." The paramedic says, "Sir? Have you seen it?"

Alls I can say is...bless his heart....

But we were done by 2ish and so I hit the road, got some lunch, and before I truly pointed the wagons west, I stopped at my favorite not-so-local yarn store. And I made one of the coolest yarn finds to date.

Check this out.

I thought it was a scarf. But, no! It's basically sock yarn, knitted into a big ol' rectangle, with a provisional bind off. They call it Flat Feet. The idea is, you knit straight from the edge of the fabric, unraveling as you go. So no winding, no ball to mess with, no tangles, no problem! You can even cut it in the middle (there's another bit of provisional thread) and do two socks at once!

Here's a close-up of the hand-dyed-ness.

Seriously cool. I can't wait to see how they knit up. If, you know, I didn't already have three pair of gift socks on the needles...

Oh, but since we're talking about socks, check out this new and oddly addictive web-based game, Sock and Awe, in which you get to hurl shoes at George W. Bush's head.

Only in America, my friends. Only in America.

And, as it turns out....

I'm finally catching up on everyone's blogs, and of course, I managed to miss Marie's birthday. Hers was the 21st. She was, um, not 30. Go and check out the lovely pictures of her son and daughter-in-law's wedding, and her three other gorgeous children (her girls look positively stunning in the bridesmaids' dresses, with the flowers and the jewelry and the wraps that all coordinated...way to go, Claire).

Happy belated birthday, Marie. Hope the year gets progressively better and that the ceiling stops falling in on you!

Whew! What a day for birthdays!

Also of note in the blogosphere - go check out the handspun Charlie yarn over on The Daily Coyote. It's completely gorgeous. Makes me want to make a Maggie sweater....

Sock-cess!

I finished the Tolerance socks today.


The second sock went amazingly faster than the first. I mean, like, months. I started the first one in, what, January? December? This one took less than a week.

Then again, I had help.


Maxine was over to visit today, she gave me a hand.


Interestingly, you can see a big difference in the two. The second one (right foot) fits a lot better, despite my fiddling and shaping over the back of the ankle on the first. Oh well. The second one does have a tiny hole at the junction of the gusset and the heel flap.

The biggest problem I have is that where the heel flap starts (at the bottom, of course, because they're toe-up), it's weirdly squared. Which kind of pops out a little. Any thoughts on how to fix that??

I'm also thinking I should've done some plain ribbing at the top, and I'm not finding the sewn bind-off to be tremendously flexible.

They also pick up dog hair better than a Swiffer.

But I love the yarn (TinyTyrant may think she won the yarn swap, but I think I definitely came out on top), and I generally really like the pattern. I've started on another pair out of a leftover from the shop, which is probably too thick for the 3s (it's closer to a true worsted weight yarn than a dk weight, which the Royale Hare is, although it doesn't look too much thicker). Although if I can dig my yarn stash out of the pile of boxes in the office, I might do something different. We'll see....

Love Monday

Okay, so I'm a little early this week....

I was having a reasonably rough day. I had to admit one of my clinic patients to the hospital. For a while there, it was - to quote the Bangles - just another manic Monday (did you know Prince wrote that song? I did not). I finished my clinic late. I had to finish the H&P and put in orders for the patient I admitted. I had to just dictate that one....last...note. I ran to the car. I was late to my shrink's. I wandered - starving - around the Whole Foods for a while. And then I got home, and two really cool things were waiting for me. Well, three, if you count the Ben and Jerry's Banana Split ice cream in my shopping bag (seriously! Hadn't tried it, but it's soooooo good!).

One, my dog, right? She's been wandering around unencumbered during the day. She's been SO GOOD. But the best thing is when she realizes I'm home, and comes outside and stands at the gate...until I say, "Come on, meet me inside!" And she takes off like a rocket for the doggie door. Vwoosh! And then practically noses her way through the front door when I open it because it's justsoexciting!!!! that I'm home.

I mean, how can that not make your day?

And two, I had a box on my front door! Squeee! I knew Tiny Tyrant had sent me a present, so, I forced myself to put the groceries away and start dinner (feta and broccoli pizza - yum) before I opened it, or I knew I'd end up eating that pint of ice cream for dinner. So, okay, I got the boring stuff done. And then I peeked inside...


Pretty. There was a nice little card. And then I pulled off the top layer of paper....


....I found a toy for Maggie!! She gets super excited about presents, too.


Then there was a nifty coffee mug. With my old doggie's name on it! I'm sure that's exactly what the Sonoma-based Wolf Coffee folks were thinking when they named their shop back in 1990. Which, okay, Wolfie may actually have been born around the same time. Still. So cool.

And then I pulled off the pink paper...and holy cow!! Look at all this neat stuff!!


I was a little overwhelmed, frankly. I recovered quick.


There was a whole bunch of cool stationary stuff...a date book, these really neat colored pencils, a square journal, a card holder (how'd you know I needed a thing for carrying my new business cards??), nifty sticky notes, a cool pen....and a tiny mini Burt's Bees facial kit.

And of course....there was yarn. Wicked. Cool. Yarn.


This is more of the Royale Hare sock yarn from Santa Rosa, the same company that made the yarn I'm currently using for the Tolerance Socks. It's a sport weight silk/merino blend in Sonoma Spring. So soft. Almost as soft as Maggie. Oh, it's amazing.


And then, then, there were two balls of Koigu KPPPM in, um, color P 714. Koigu has to work on their naming. But the yarn is so awesome. I can't wait to see how it knits up! Except...I can't decide which one to use first!! Oh, the dilemma!! I'll be sure to savor that decision while I'm finishing up my current sock...see? Again with the tolerance.

As I mentioned, Maggie was excited about presents, too...she liked the package from the moment I brought it through the door. Probably because it smelled like Jenn's doggies...and she really liked her bone.


It was good for a game of "fetch", which in our world, translates to, "Kate throws it, and Maggie tackles it, and then trots back all proud of herself, sans toy." And a little nom-ing.


And of course, Miss Mags never disappoints in the goofy picture department...


So darn photogenic, my girl.

THANKS, JENN!!! You totally rock!!!! And your timing was impeccable. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

::sigh:: I have the coolest friends, ever.

It's like magic!

So I finished my first Tolerence Sock on Thursday.


It's sort of based on Sarah's December Nights sock pattern, except, it's a beaded rib instead of using her star pattern.

But the idea is the same. It's my first, actual, completed, toe-up sock. I'm pleased. It's the Royal Hare sock yarn (which seems to have lost or moved its website...) that Tiny Tyrant sent me in our yarn swap way the heck back in January.

I did a little fiddling with the pattern...as I think I mentioned, I did some decreases over the Achillies tendon to try and fix the bagging...I'm not sure it helped, but, whatever. And my heel turn is boxy and square, but actually pretty comfortable.

I'm reasonably certain the second sock isn't going to match the first one, because I want to perfect the alterations in the pattern before I start my next pair, which is probably going to be a gift for Ruthie, who requested a pair of wool socks and has been completely fascinated the whole time I've been knitting this one. I keep offering to teach her to knit, but I think she's still in the precontemplation stage. I also have, like, thirty-seven other pair I want to knit for people, not to mention the fact that I have this idea about knitting myself a whole drawer full of socks (if nothing else, the people at the New Balance store will stop yelling at me every time I go in wearing cotton socks). But I really like the pattern.

I also, as many of you know, used to be a die-hard devotee of the DPNs for sock knitting. It's traditional, it's small and portable, it's the way my ancestors made socks, right, there has to be importance in that. I tried the two-circulars method, because most of my knitting buddies were fans of that, and found it waaaay too fiddly to have those extra needls flopping all over the place. And of course we all scoffed at the Magic Loop people. That was just silly.

Until one day, when I convinced my bosses at the yarn shop to order the Magic Loop book as a means of using up some of the store credit I had. I said, make sure you order an extra for me, because I want to try this. They, of course, didn't (let's face it - my bosses are better at the yarn wholesaler business than they were as yarn retailers). But I got one anyway, and tried it. And got frustrated. And then decided to take a different approach. So I sat down and read it, and then went to my yarn and tried to base what I was doing on the idea rather than the step-by-step.

I've been a convert ever since.

So Magic Loop isn't nearly as strange or magical as it may seem. You'll need a long circular needle - 36" seems to work well for socks; 24" is doable but tight and 40" is a little too much cord but it also works (the Tolerence Socks are being knitted on a 40").


Here's what you do:

1. Cast on your stitches.


2. Pull both needles away from the cast-on stitches, so that they are now sitting in the middle of the cord.


3. Divide them in half (or, roughly so. If you're doing a multiple-of-four pattern or something, you can have two more on one side than on the other, but, you get the idea). Fold the cord at that halfway point.

4. Push on the needle end (either one) and feed the cord through so it makes a loop between the stitches that are folded at the halfway point.


5. Set your work up in front of you so that the yarn tail is on the back row of stitches.


6. Pull on the approriate side that loop of cord until the stitches in front are back on the front needle. Your back needle should be free of the back row of stitches with significant mobility so that you can bend it around and use that needle on the front row.


7. Knit into the first stitch of the front row. Work to the end of the row.


8. Flip your work over and repeat.


Eventually this will become a tube. I've made hats, bags, mittens...you can make anything circular with this method. It takes a little pratice and fuss to figure out how to position the needle around the working yarn so that you don't get it all tangled up in the cable, but you get this pretty quickly. And anything you can do on straight needles, or DPNs, or two circs, you can do with this - increases, decreases, cables, bobbles...okay, please don't do bobbles. The world has enough bobbles already.

For those of you who are more visual or auditory learners, here's a nice video off YouTube.



And you can use any sock pattern, but for the more advanced, here's the next one I want to try. It's the Magic Loop sock pattern from Knitpicks. Free download! Hooray!

Thoughts? Questions? Tips from the gallery? And hey, Allison - did that help??

Joy Sunday

No, I don't plan to make it a regular feature, but I missed Love Thursday this week, and Barb started this Rush of Joy meme, so I thought that since I finally had a few moments to sit and write (not that I shouldn't be packing/going to the grocery store/writing discharge summaries/etc/etc/etc), I'd throw in my two cents.

As you all know, it's been a particularly rough patch of late. So I thought this was a good challenge to take up. I went with Barb's original number of 15 because I wasn't sure I could think of 10, so, me being me, I decided that was a reason to aim higher. Because there are a lot of sources of joy in my life. Because I can certainly stand these days to concentrate more on the positive aspects. So...

Fifteen things that bring me joy (in no particular order):

1. Maggie's ears. They're incredibly expressive, very funny, and feel like velvet. I also adore her soft little muzzle, her curious little eyebrows, and her gentle, sweet (and surprisingly slobber-free) puppy kisses. Okay, fine, so generally, my dog melts my guarded little heart.


2. A really good, up-tempo, anthemic-y song, played loudly in my car. You know the ones. Full of energy and hope and you can't help but sing along at the top of your lungs. Or actually, even a song that may not be as adrenaline-inducing, but has really good lyrics that make me ache. And then, like, the songs of my youth (as utterly ridiculous as some of them are. I can't believe I still know all the lyrics to "Ice, Ice, Baby"). So really, lots of songs.

3. The ocean. And it sounds silly, but I'm more partial to the Atlantic than the Pacific. I love the rhythm of waves on the beach, the saline breeze, the ebb and flow of energy that comes with the tides. There's a peaceful fluidity and an expansiveness to life that you can't get anywhere else.


4. That ah-hah! moment when you finally "get it." Kind of regardless of what "it" is, whether the answer to a puzzle, the solution to a problem, or what someone is really saying to you. There's a particular rush in that moment when things click into place and suddenly make sense. You know?

5. Rain. Particularly, a good thunderstorm. I used to be terrified of thunderstorms for a while when I was an adolescent, because I lived in Chicago and thunderstorms occasionally mean tornadoes, and for a while I had this really bad phobia of the unpredictability of tornadoes. I've gotten over it, though, and a good thunderstorm is now one of my favorite things. Rain has a sort of cleansing feeling to me, and I totally love lying in bed all bundled up when there's a little chill in the air and listening to it rain. But I also love the force and tumult of a good thunderstorm. When I'm at home, they also mean that Maggie (who is still not a fan) gets extra cuddly. But, like, the last night we were at the beach for the intern retreat, and there was a tropical storm rolling in, and we sat on the deck and watched just the most impressive light show, and it was one of those storms where the thunder resonates and vibrates your very soul...it was magnificent.


6. That giddy intoxicated feeling you get when you're with good people and can be totally disinhibited and just giggle like a moron at the silliest things.

7. Getting totally engrossed in a good book, to the point that I lose all track of time or my surroundings and it's like the language of the page becomes my very way of thinking, when you're so voracious and can't hardly stand to turn the page for what happens next.

8. Birth. Wow, it's amazing. The whole process is like seeing God. But there's this particular moment when the mother's flesh yields and the baby (who's probably been on the perineum for some time, as long as everyone's tolerating it - including the doctor/midwife - just waiting, stretching, holding, almost there) slides into the world and a new life officially begins. To be witness to that is to touch a small piece of heaven, and is an incredible privilege.

9. Oh, speaking of which...my new nephew.


(Can you just smell that little baby head smell? Oh, I love that.)

And my "old" one.


And the myriad of other small people my friends have brought into the world.

10. The blatant innocence of children. You know those moments, when they're just so pure of heart. There's a reason the word is "unadulterated."

11. The heady intoxication of good yarn fumes. Wool, or alpaca in particular. Oh, man. The smell of baking bread, all warm and yeasty and comforting, is a different high than yarn fumes, but comparable.

12. Being with comfortable people. The ones you can totally be yourself with and know they'll still like you. The ones that you can just let it all hang out and let them see your really good qualities as well as the ones you're not as fond of.

13. Seeing "New Comment on your post..." in the subject line of an email. I seriously live for comments.

14. Dancing. Alone, or particularly with a group of friends at a club or a wedding or something. Where you're not trying to impress anyone, and you can just be free and open and dance like a fat white girl and it's okay.

15. The Chicago skyline at night. It's breathtaking. Why don't I have a picture of that?

All right, your turn. Click on the link above for the meme rules.

Northern Rain

I'm in Chicago, of course. My father picked me up from the airport, we had lunch, we killed time, I went into the yarn store by my lawyer's office (Malabrigo makes laceweight now! In Velvet Grapes! And many other fine colors that do not happen to be my favorite color of Malabrigo. I almost squealed out loud right there in the shop. I'm sure they would've understood. Alas, though, I left empty-handed. Because they did not have the bag handles for which I sought, nor did I have an actual need for laceweight Malabrigo. Because truth be told, I don't have a lot of patience for knitting lace these days). I lost my cellphone, and also found it (it was at the Starbucks. Where else? It's possible that I didn't actually lose it there, I think, it just instinctively found the nearest Starbucks and waited for me). And in the midst of all this it started snowing. And I (very sarcastically) said to my father, "What's with all this falling white stuff? What is that, again?" And he said, "That's Northern rain."

He he.

So begins, as my best friend has suggested calling it, the whirlwind of Kate's Litigation Tour, 2008. I flew in today. I have court (which is not actually court, but mandatory arbitration, which is in the "arbitration center" and not actually a court. Darn it, because I like courts) tomorrow. Then I'm meeting said best friend (the lawyer, although not my lawyer, at least not for this. I do have her on retainer, though, in case I ever need her services. I gave her a dollar right after she passed the bar) and we're then going to drop my parents off at the train station and high-tail it (read: sit in Chicago traffic for a couple hours) to the western 'burbs, where I get to see my nephew Basil and the now-very-pregnant Original Robin and the rest of my high school crew. Then I have family plans on Saturday, and fly back Sunday to go home, pick up the dog, and straighten out the paperwork that Medical Records is about to suspend me over, despite the fact that the "delinquent" notes all seem to have been signed and done with weeks ago.

I'm also getting a manicure and a haircut before not-court tomorrow. Because I may not have to wear a suit (and in point of fact, I'm going to show up in my day-to-day work clothes - the stuff I wear on the wards, not in scrubs - right down to my Danskos), but I still don't want to look like a schmuck.

Alright, I'm going to bed, because I was up late last night (one of these days, I will tell y'all about my call) and it's been a long day. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Oh, and in the spirit of Love Thursday, here's five things I love today:

5. Undercrowded flights. Although I have to say I think Southwest's new number system is way more complicated than it needs to be. But I definitely enjoyed having the whole back of the plane to myself.
4. The smell when I got off the plane at Midway. It was some combination of deep dish pizza and hot pretzels and Kosher dogs. But mostly Chicago style (read: real) pizza.
3. My dad for picking me up from the airport and then putting up with me for several hours (he gets bonus points for taking me to the yarn store, even if he didn't go in) before ferrying me to the lawyer's office. And then my mom for being home from work when we got back and feeding me really good home cooked food and also chocolate.
2. My aunt in NC for letting me call her at 10:30 pm last night when I got out of the hospital to tell her that I needed to leave for the airport at 8am, and then she brought me cookies and a muffin for the trip.
1. That THE BLOGGER SPELLCHECK LIVES!!!!!!!!

All my scut work should be like this

We were done with our work really early today - like two hours before teaching conference. So I sat around and worked on my sock and talked knitting with my senior (the one I'm on service with, not the weird one I take call with), who's a new knitter. And then after conference, she was like, wow, I'm on call tonight, and now I wish I'd brought my knitting. And then she looks at me, and is like, hey...can you go get me something?

Hmm. Can I go to the yarn shop on a mission with someone else's money. You freakin' betcha, baby.

My only rules were "brightly colored" and to get the right needles. So I got her a skein of Encore Chunky in something brightly colored, and Crystal Palace circulars, because the needle selection was really disappointing. Actually, their whole selection was sort of disappointing today. Except for this...you know, before I left a skein of sock yarn just happened to fall into my bag....

It's from a local spinner/dyer whose yarn I totally love. The color is called Science Fiction and frankly, this is going to be my second try at the obnoxiously bright on-call socks. We'll see.

Meanwhile....I'm still really tired. Which is sad, because I missed our intern night out tonight because I fell asleep on the couch and woke up too late. Oy.

Snow and Ink

So I'm driving around doing errands this morning, and I hear this story on the radio. Apparently the chief surgery resident at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale just got fired because he took a picture of a patient's penis with his cellphone during a cholecystectomy and then showed it to his friends. Horrible, right?

I'm having a little bit of trouble feeling sorry for this guy.

Yes, that was really unprofessional behavior. Yes, that was a violation of his trust and the doctor-patient relationship. Yes, the surgeon really should've known better than to create evidence. And it was jocular and silly. But...the guy had "Hot Rod" tattooed on his penis.

Not for nothin', but...hmm. Did you not think that would attract some attention? I mean, I have an unusual tattoo, too (different from a ta-tutu), and I knew when I got it that people would comment. And mine's nothing like that. So, come on, bud. What that resident did was wrong, but, really, the way he's carrying on and being all outraged and horrified is a bit...dude, you let a total stranger with a needle tattoo the words Hot Rod on your penis. Not to mention that now everyone in the literate universe knows about your, um, little secret. I? When that doc had called me, would've been like, fine, sir, whatever, let's just never mention this again.

We're not even going to talk about the number of times I photographed women's genitalia during surgery when I was a GYN resident because they had some clinically interesting or relevant finding. A couple of those pictures even got published, I think, in a journal article, of one woman's vulvar cancer. Not the same thing, I know, but, I'm not sure we told very many of those people we'd taken pictures of their cooch. Our ability to take photographs during surgery is in the standard release form. Now, I concede that the "clinical utility" of these Mayo photographs is questionable, and I was either taking them with the hospital's digital camera or a laparoscope, not a cell phone...but anyway...

In other news, it's snowing in North Carolina.

I think it's sort of funny. In the few hours since I started this post we've actually had some accumulation. We're supposed to get more tomorrow. Maybe it will keep people home and make for an easier call night? A call girl can only hope.

And in still other news, Tiny Tyrant sent me some very cool sock yarn in a yarn swap. Which I promptly tied into a great big knot (with the help of my ball winder) that took me two episodes of Bones to untangle today.

It's very cool. I'll post more about it later now that it's in actual balls and I have a tiny bit of it knit up. Maybe I'll have some time to write tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed for me), but right now, I've got to get to bed....

Fur and fun things

Maggie finally got her haircut today. She's so naked!!

And this would be why Maggie got a haircut.....

Seriously. The hair was out of control.

Maggie has a slightly different take on the day's events...

(Is that not the cutest picture, ever, of my dog? And look, now you can see her supercool Tarheels collar!)

So anyhow. When we got home from Petsmart, there was a mysterious box on our front step. It rattled! You know how I love presents, so I was very excited. Maggie also thought the present was very exciting, which made me think it must contain food and/or dog treats. Turns out, I think it just smelled like cats. Because when I opened it, it contained this:

Exciting, right? Well, look what happens when you open it:


It's yarn! And a pattern! And lavender-scented shea butter! And not just any yarn and pattern and lavender-scented shea butter. Hand-dyed sock yarn from Jen of Knitting Like Crazy. Sarah's December Nights sock pattern. And the shea butter is from Mother Earth and You, which is local to the yarn store. Yes, folks, it's one of the December Nights Sock Club Kits from Peggy's Strands of Heaven in Plainfield, IL. Sarah, of course, designed the December Nights sock. It's this very cool toe-up pattern that starts with a little knitted rectangle instead of the goofy figure-eight cast-ons everyone is always arguing about that never quite get tight enough and etc, etc, etc. So, so cool. And now I have one of my very own! Thanks, Sarah!! You totally made my holiday (sniff, sniff)!!