Ugh

Well, I didn't mean to be gone for so long, and this will probably be kind of a short post. We had a good Easter and visit with Patrick and Amanda, but last week ended up being kind of a blur. Things were really hectic and difficult at work, and a ton of people were coming to the house otherwise for repairs, estimates, etc. On top of which I felt really awful, and figured I was getting hit with allergies.

But instead, over the weekend, I realized I had an upper respiratory infection, which is a "regular" event for me, but had taken a break for the most part during and shortly after the pandemic.

I feel like the poor pup above. The worst parts are the severe coughing and exhaustion as a result because I get very little sleep. In the past, I would call my dr's office and she would call in some cough syrup for me, so that the coughing would settle down enough that I could sleep for a few hours at a time. But that Dr - who was one of my fave people ever - joined an MD-VIP practice which I could a) not afford, and b) have philosophical issues with, and so I switched to another practice somewhere because the one I was with for so long had no other drs taking new patients. And when I called this morning to ask for medicine, I was told I would have to visit the office first, and they would contact me later for an appt on either "Thursday or Friday." And I get it, I really do, but I have had this so many times that I know exactly what it is. So I have at least a couple of more days of feeling just plain awful before there is any relief in sight. 😕

I can read for little bits of time, but don't have the concentration to knit. So at least for the immediate future, I can't even take advantage of feeling like all I have the energy to do is sit in a chair. 

So that's where I've been and where I am at the moment. I'm not sure if I'll feel with it enough to post again soon, but if I do, you'll hear from me.

In the meantime, I hope if you are in the eclipse area, you enjoy seeing it, and no matter where you are, I hope your week goes well. That's it for now.

Good Friday FO: Birthday Socks

Well, OK it just so happens that I am writing this post on Good Friday. But I had these socks finished weeks ago, I'm just finally getting around to sharing the FO. 

With thanks of course to Alfie, who made it all possible ... 😂

Project: Birthday Socks

Yarn: Freckled Whimsy Serendipity Sock, Colorway Pisces

Needles: US size 0/ 2mm

Pattern: my own vanilla sock pattern

Notes: I have had this yarn for a couple of years, but every year would forget about it until well after my birthday. This year, I made sure that I put the sock set where I would see it, and finally, I could knit myself a pair of birthday socks! 

I didn't plan for this to be my birthday cast-on, rather I wanted to be able to wear them on my birthday. I started them in early February, so that I'd have plenty of time to finish them. Which turned out to be a good idea, since for a few weeks I lost my mojo, and I was also working on other projects, so my knitting time was divided among three different types of knitting.

The first sock was finished pretty quickly - that was before I lost my mojo. But the second sock suffered a bit, but I was still determined to get them ready for my birthday. And I did, finishing them a little bit more than a week ahead of time. I happily wore them on my birthday, and can attest to them being very comfortable, even though it was an unusually warm day for March. 

I really love the finished pair. The sock set came with the bright turquoise blue yarn for the cuffs, heels, and toes (I just did cuffs and toes). They are a closely related pair, but not identical, which is always fine with me. 

*****

As I mentioned above, today is Good Friday for Christians who observe the Easter season, with Easter itself on Sunday. My niece Amanda and her husband Pat are coming tomorrow to spend an overnight with us. We are looking forward to it, since they were not able to be here last year, and we really missed seeing them! This also means the return of the Inappropriate Easter Egg Contest, and it seems there are an overabundance of possible themes for this year! I have a really great idea (if a highly rude and inappropriate one) for an egg, but my challenge is also the drawing of my idea, so we'll see if I have any luck with that. I've considered a couple of ways it might work out, but the plan in my head doesn't always translate to the work of my hands, LOL. So we'll see.

If you celebrate, I wish you a very Happy Easter! If you do not celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful last weekend of March, doing what you like. 

I'll see you next week!

I Was That One

I was thinking about this the other day. See the image above? In my family, I'm the kitty in the middle. And it's always amused me how I'm sort of the "other" one in my family.

I have two older sisters, quite a few years older than I am. But they are a little over a year apart (aka Irish Twins). They are both very tiny people, both in stature and in weight. Not that I am a towering giant of flesh, but by the time I was about ten years old, I was taller and bigger than both of them. They both have brown eyes. I have blue eyes. Growing up, both of my sisters had thick, dark brown hair, with a natural wave. I had stick straight, very fine and thin blonde hair.

My middle sister was the "odd" one, skin-tone wise - where the rest of us have very pale skin with pink undertones, she has olive skin. When we would go on summer vacations to the beach, 4 out of 5 of us would be lobster pink, and one of us would have a lovely tan.

But otherwise, I was the one that was not like the others. And when I was a little kid, it kind of bothered me because people would always comment on it, and not in a necessarily sweet or kind matter. It was not unusual for people to see all of us together and say to me, "But you're so BIG!" or, "You just don't look like you belong to anyone, do you?" Now to my mother's credit, she would always tell me to just ignore people who were "ignorant enough to say ridiculous things." 

This kind of thing did make me very self-conscious a lot of the time though. Being reminded that I wasn't "tiny" or that I didn't look like I belonged to my own family was unsettling. Of course, as I got older I realized none of it mattered, especially to my family. 

Every once in a while, I'll overhear someone say something similar or equally as rude to a child or even an adult, and I just wonder if people ever hear themselves. Being generous about it, I truly don't think the people who said things to me about being the different one growing up meant to be mean or unfeeling. They clearly just didn't think about what they said - or maybe that's how someone had talked to them, and so they thought it was OK.

I'm not the nicest or the kindest or the most well-mannered person on the planet. Not by a long shot. But my experience has taught me to be more thoughtful when I make comments to someone. I try not to go with my first thought - which is a good thing since I admit that my first thought is not always the kindest thought ... I mean, I pride myself on never actually having said to someone, "When you looked in the mirror today, did you really think that you looked good?" 😂 (Of course, being a perfect example of someone who is ALWAYS perfectly attired makes me more critical ... )

I know that for a lot of people, getting older means that they are less filtered in what they say, do, wear, etc. And I'm not ever in favor of being so honest that you are cruel. I think we shouldn't always worry about what everyone else thinks of us, because that can make life miserable. But I hope as I get older, and my filters begin to drop, that I never turn into one of those people who tells a child they are too big, or don't fit into their family, or something that is both hurtful and none of their business anyway.

Don't tell people to be themselves and then criticize them for being different. 

New York, Day Two

OK, here are the photos and blathering about our second - and final - day in New York last weekend. So you only have to hear about it one more time. 😊

Saturday was another perfect weather day. On our way to breakfast at our favorite bagel place, I snapped this photo - I love clock towers, and this also shows what a beautiful sky greeted us early in the morning.

After breakfast, we walked south a bit and saw them setting up for the "Jameson Experience" since it was St. Patrick's Day weekend.

We had decided to spend the day before we headed to get the train home in Greenwich Village. I've never been there, and The Tim had been there, but it was years ago. So we got back onto the subway, and headed south. 

We had a fabulous time, walking around, people and dog watching, and just going places that looked interesting. One of our stops was the Stonewall Inn, someplace I've always wanted to see.

There was construction stuff everywhere, and a sign said they were opening a Visitor Center in June 2024. I would love to go back and see that sometime.

Then we headed to Washington Square Park for some sitting, and people and dog watching. It looked like everyone was having a good day.

Even more trees and flowers were getting ready to bloom! There was music, and a kind of crafts market, and some chess matches happening. I think every single bird in the New York area was there, singing loud and clear.

Last weekend was the first Greater Philly Yarn Crawl, which I was missing. So The Tim found us a yarn store in Greenwich Village!

West Village Knit & Needle was a teeny shop with lots of yarn and lots of [primarily] needlepoint supplies. The women who worked there were so lovely, and one of them had her dog there, so we got a dog fix as well!

Even though I had my Lent intention not to buy things, I broke it. I'm glad I did, since I found things that are not available around here; I still told myself that it was OK since I was on a trip (I can justify anything if I need to! 😂)

I asked about local products, and they directed me to some Japanese knot project bags - I decided to buy the one with the cherries and bananas. It's a nice size, and the workmanship is excellent!

And then I also bought some yarn:

This is from Life in the Long Grass, a brand from Cork, Ireland. Look at that green! Nowhere around here carries this yarn in person, and I've looked online at it, but never bought any. I decided that since it was my birthday weekend, St. Patrick's Day weekend, and green yarn from Ireland, I just *had* to buy it! (See justification comment above.) And I already have a plan for what I'll knit with it, so I don't feel like I bought yarn just to buy yarn. The Tim said to just consider it my mini-yarn crawl.

We also came across a really cute, small, but packed with good stuff bookstore, Three Lives & Co. Bookstore. I saw this book and decided that it sounded interesting - and anytime an Edward Gorey image is involved, count me in!

The justification for this one is that it allowed me to support a small, independent bookstore. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

The last place we stopped on our roaming around tour was Sullivan Street Tea & Spice Co. The smells were heavenly, and it was a really cute little shop with all kinds of interesting things to see (and inhale). This was where The Tim found some goodies.

We both love celadon pieces, and he found these pretty tea mugs, as well as this teabag holder.

Which is proof that I am not the only one in the family who likes cat/animal-themed things. 

All of these goodies fit just fine into our backpacks so we had nothing extra to carry with us on our way back to the train station. Neither of us had really planned to shop or buy anything, but we ended up finding items that were special, so what the heck?

Our trip back to Philadelphia on the train was very pleasant, and as much as we had a wonderful time, it was nice to be home with the kitties. A nice thing about an overnight trip is that unpacking is finished in about 20 minutes (I hate to unpack after a trip). I usually take St. Patrick's Day as a day off when I can, so I got to spend the day at home the next day, which was the perfect way to end the whole weekend. 

This weekend we will be staying put - which is a good thing, since it's supposed to be a day of heavy rain here tomorrow. I'd much rather spend a rainy day at home than have it interfere with plans on a trip.

I foresee a day of knitting, reading, and watching movies. I hope your weekend turns out to be one that agrees with you, too.

New York, Day One

I had hoped to post this yesterday, but my plans were foiled. We had electricians in the house all day into the evening (a whole 'nother story), and no electricity and therefore no WiFi. I could have used the data on my phone to post, but I have a hard time formatting posts, etc. on my phone, so I decided to just wait.

DISCLAIMER: For anyone who follows me on Instagram or Facebook, you've already seen/heard all of this, so feel free to skip reading and carry on with your life.

Onward.

Anyway our overnight trip to New York last Friday and Saturday was absolutely perfect. No glitches, and ridiculously nice weather, so the travel gods were clearly smiling on us.

We got off the train, and immediately took the subway to the American Museum of Natural History. Neither of us had visited before, so we spent most of the day trying to see as much as we could.

Of all the stuff we saw, this one is the one I photographed. A mammoth model of a mosquito. Because - just NO. Mosquitoes are a major nemesis of mine, and of course *that's* the thing they create as a major part of an exhibit. 

We had a great time and spent the majority of the day there. Then we left and sat outside for a while in the nice weather, people-watching and petting dogs.

Modern entrance to the museum

Original entrance to the museum

As it was just so lovely, we decided to just walk back down to our hotel in Times Square. We had the best, prettiest walk through Central Park.

John Lennon Memorial in Strawberry Fields

The Dakota - where so many famous people, including John Lennon and Leonard Bernstein, lived (not together, hahaha!).

So many of the trees and flowers were budding - daffodils and crocuses were already in full bloom, along with forsythia. But it was just so nice to walk around and take different paths. 

We checked into our hotel, and relaxed for a bit, and then it was ready to find some dinner and go to the show we'd come to see. We were disappointed to find that one of our fave places to eat had closed, so instead we found one of the bazillion Chinese restaurants in New York, and had dinner there. It was actually kind of a treat for us, since our go-to place in our own neighborhood in Philadelphia closed last year, and we're still trying to find a replacement for it that isn't too far from us. Anyhow we ate a yummy dinner and then headed to the theater.

The ceiling of the Hudson Theater lobby - so elegant!

And there we were, waiting for the show to begin. The seating area of the Hudson Theater had been redone (I'm not sure exactly when) and the seats were actually very comfortable and you didn't feel squished in to the person next to you, which was really nice.

And the show - OMG. So much better than we could have even hoped for, seriously. If you enjoy musicals at all, find a way to see "Merrily We Roll Along" on Broadway - even if you have to take out a second mortgage on your house! It's just that good. We were both blown away. Every person, including the ensemble players, was incredible.

Then we headed back to our hotel, and decided we would get a cup of tea before going to our room. Well, we lucked out with that because the hotel lounge was hosting a jazz group with a singer. 

So we enjoyed our cups of tea while listening for about half an hour. Once they packed up, we figured that was a sign to head to our room and get ready to wind down. It wasn't incredibly late, but for the two of us, it was REALLY late! 😂 Plus we had been going since early Friday morning, so releaxing and going to sleep sounded pretty good. 

So the primary reason we had made this trip - to see the show - was well worthwhile, but we also had such a wonderful day all the way around. Needless to say, we both slept very well on Friday night ... 

Tomorrow I shall regale you with our Saturday shenanigans, before it was time to take the train back to Philadelphia. Spoiler alert: a yarn shop was involved!