Joy from Extremely Unexpected Sources
It's been a rough ride around here lately. In addition to a host of other things, my beloved husband threw his back out very badly; he has been laid up for 2.5 weeks and on bedrest for 12 days. I'm not looking to throw myself a pity party, but yesterday all of the frustrations of everything stacked up and eventually I had a miniature meltdown and vented my frustration on twitter. I posted this:
Dear Universe, Could you lay the heck off me for a couple of weeks? I'm not sure how much more frustration and stress I can take. xoxo Bon
Then I gathered myself together, took some time, scooped the cats' litter boxes and went to bed. When I woke up this morning and checked in on my stream, I had received the following @reply from the user: The_UN1VERSE:
I'll See What I Can Do. But You're Doing Fine So Far.
This may sound dumb, but it was really actually helpful. Just that little piece of random encouragement set me up for a great and productive day. I have no idea if it's a real person or a bot behind the account. If it's a real person, they dealt me a huge measure of kindness with this one silly post, and for that I thank them. I'll try to pay that kindness forward.
Looking Back: Blanket of Love
One of the things I am most proud of from 2009 is this blanket:
Knit for an online friend whose family is going through some major upheaval and shake-up, I enlisted the help of Lisa and a double fistful of other knitters and crocheters to help me create enough blocks for a big Blanket of Love.
The squares came from as far away from Japan, all carefully stitched with love and good wishes for speedy resolution of the family's sadness and stresses. Lisa and I seamed all of the squares together, zip-zip-zip, edged the whole thing with a black crocheted edging and sent it to it's new home in the Midwest where we hear it created quite a stir of joy.
We live in an amazing time, where people who are scattered all over can create such strong, amazing bonds and make a real difference in each others lives. I am proud of being able to corral a little bit of this to support someone who needed a little bit of reaffirmation that there is good in the world. I am proud of every person who set aside their own worries, cares, wants and projects to take the time to help with this (one woman squeezed a square in the week before her wedding!) It's a great thing sometimes, this crazy internet.
Knittin’ Song
Perhaps my Christmas knitting would go faster if I had some Doozers to help me out. Man I love Fraggle Rock.
Nostalgia
Embedding courtesy of Dintillion
I miss my family most at birthdays and holidays. This year I am missing my family something fierce and today I started thinking about this commercial for a local bank. It ran for a long, long time although comments on another version of this video say it has been axed now (is this true Mom? Dad?) Apparently it took the guy hours to get these 30 seconds of the cats playing. Thank to youtube, I can still watch it, even all the way across the country. Thank you youtube!
Flickr Meme
For anyone who wants to play along: Go to the sixth page of your Flickr photostream and post the sixth picture on that page.
Mine happened to be this Stellar Jay. One of the things that threw me a little when I moved here was that the blue jays did not look the same. Growing up, I saw jays that were a mixture of blue and white. They're so beautiful in the winter against the snow. Here though, we get these angry-sounding black and blue Stellar Jays. I took this photo at a rest stop in northern California, on our way back to Oregon. Just before the jay landed for a little visit, I'd been taking photos of this guy:
A super cute little chipmunk sitting amongst some seeds someone had put out for him.