Week 50 - Ups and Downs

This week was full of ups and downs but at least it ended on an up.

Monday was deans’ reports day and it was going so well that I decided to take a lunch (something I rarely do on deans’ reports day) and went to Yarn Charm. I exchanged my $34 skein of yarn that I’d bought the wrong weight of for a gorgeous skein of sock yarn. Still $34 but at least I’ll use this one. After chatting with the owners, I headed back and blazed through the rest of the reports, finishing in record time. I was on the fence about swimming and opted for heading home to bake brownies before knitting.

Tuesday didn’t start well. I picked up my glasses when I got out of bed and one of the temples fell to the floor. I dug through a box in the closet to find my last pair, which was a different prescription and 3 years old. I could see with them on but was left feeling slightly nauseous. Then I logged onto my email and saw one from the boss with a laundry list of problems from the deans’ reports emails but most of them were on Josh’s emails so I headed to work not feeling too bad. First on my list was to fix the emails and respond to the boss. Well, let's just leave it at it didn't go well. Even our first cookie sharing afternoon didn’t help. And I was struggling to see my computer screen with the old glasses. I had planned to swim but couldn’t find parking (Nothing was going my way. Nothing.) so I gave up and headed towards home, still feeling crappy.

My plan was to stop at the market on the way home and I had to drive right by Goodwill so went in to check out the yarn. Well, there is some justice in the world because the yarn gods smiled on me. I found 8 skeins of good quality yarn, including 5 for socks, and they were 99 cents each. I was still not happy but it helped a bit. I picked up my glasses, which they’d been able to fix enough to get me through until January when I’d already planned to buy new ones. Yay! The day was getting better and better. Then I got home and found my swap package and it was from ENGLAND! At last an international package that wasn’t from Canada. And it was full of wonderful things – gorgeous handmades, fabulous yarn and all kinds of goodies. There was a sweet note from my swap partner that I was supposed to read last. Well, I finished reading it and burst into tears, crying hard for 5 minutes. And when I was done? MUCH better.

Wednesday was a much better day. I had a nice lunch with Darla at Virginia’s Café – the local greasy spoon, where we had creamed chicken and biscuits and split a piece of lemon meringue pie. Beige comfort food. I finally made it to the pool for our last water in motion class (that instructor, who is our favorite and the only one who does that class, isn’t coming back next semester) and then went home to Survivor.

Josh called in sick on Thursday so I was all alone in the office. I got lots done on my to do list. Nora, Cheryl and I went to Ben Franklin’s over lunch and I found a couple of stocking stuffers for my sisters. We got pizza to go next door then it was back to work. The afternoon flew and I swam again, ate the sandwich I’d brought for lunch in the car and headed right to the library for book club. We had a good discussion on The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It’s a good book – check it out. Four of the Monday Night Knitters had all chipped in for a knitting surprise box and since 3 of us were at book club, we took the box to Anne Marie’s (the 4th) to open. It was kind of a bust with 4 skeins of meh yarn and a circular needle. I didn’t stay long because I hadn’t been home yet and Pixel had been out all day. I expected to find her waiting on the deck but I called and called and nothing. So I put on a sweater, picked up a flashlight and started walking the neighborhood calling her, looking like the crazy cat lady for sure. I gave up at 9:00 and went inside, worried and thinking I wouldn’t sleep at all if she didn’t come in. She showed up at the back door, scared to death and poofed to twice her normal size a few minutes later. What a relief!

Josh was out again on Friday so I had another quiet day. I had lunch with Layton at the Chinese buffet and picked up some photos at Walgreen’s for my calendars. I tried to leave early but that didn’t work out so well (10 minutes does not count as early!) I had a big weekend planned so was happy to get home. I didn’t get much done on Friday night but enjoyed sitting, knitting and going to bed early.

I was up early on Saturday and decorated my deck tree before the sun was up. I just love having it glowing outside and this year I put my too bright for inside LED lights out there. Perfect! I had an 8:30 hair appointment and then ran my errands in town, getting home by 9:30, ready to tackle my big list. The first thing was calendars. Now you’d think that with the pages all made and the photos all printed, it’d be easy and quick. Not so much. Between jockeying the not quite what I had planned pictures (I never got around to scanning the old prints I’d chosen so resorted, yet again, to my scanned slides file) and looking for just the right embellishments to flesh out the pages, it took most of the day. I stood and worked at the bar so I took several breaks for knitting, finishing my 2nd to last Christmas gift. When I was done ~5:00, I sat down to give my knees a rest and started my last gift. I got quite a bit done before going to bed.

Lorri and I were leaving for Lincoln at 12:30 to see Away in the Basement: A Church Basement Ladies’ Christmas at The Lied so I spent the morning doing chores. When I left, they were pretty much done so if I got nothing done when I got home, I’d still be good to go. We had lunch at Panera (a pick 2 of my fave steak and blue cheese salad and mac and cheese, which was the perfect antidote to the newly arrived frigid cold) and then went to the play, which was enjoyable. I had talked about stopping at HyVee afterwards but just wanted to go home so we did. Lorri gave me some English rock cookies (very fruitcake ish) when I dropped her off so I made a big cup of tea and had some of those, calling it dinner since it was after 5:00. I did have some cheese and crackers later and was bummed that I couldn’t get CBS in (I never can when it’s windy and boy was it blowing!) to watch the finale of The Amazing Race so I put on Downton Abbey repeats on PBS and knitted the night away.

After a rocky start, the week had completely turned around. I was pleased with the progress I’d made on my Christmas to do list and was actually enjoying the long overdue winter weather. With eleven days until I fly east, I still have time to get things done and not feel too stressed. Ho ho ho!