Knitting, Crochetting, etc.

Written the night before on the bus on the way home

I keep thinking about knitting or crocheting a scarf with one of my fancy yarns up in the attic. I am even thinking of redoing some of the scarves I had already finished to make them into scarves again using a different pattern. I want to crochet a flower brooch I can wear on my coat’s lapel in Paris, or maybe attempt a funky hat. Then I am reminded that I have to sew the hems of 3 pairs of pants, at least 2 of which I intended to bring to Paris with me. — Maybe I’ll do the brooch at list.

Doing things with my hands has always been very therapeutic for me. I find great comfort in the rhythm of creating something with my own hands. When I am in the midst of crochetting, feeling the crochet hook wind and pull the thread into the loops to create the stitches is like a dance of the fingers to the beat of a very fluid cadence. Cross stitching is like a drama in dance in slow motion as I put the needle into the aida cloth’s predetermined holes to recreate the pattern in full color on cloth.

I have to admit that there are times when just thinking about these crafts gives me a sense of relaxation even if I am only imagining what I wanted to do or remembering a project I had done sometime ago. The only thing is, fulfillment can only be found in working a project from start to finish and seeing it to completion. In time.. in time.

Weekend thoughts on a Friday

Written on the bus on the way home the Friday night before

The bus isn’t crowded so I thought I’d whip out my laptop and write my post that never was… life has been very hectic at work. Believe it or not, I left the office at 10PM last night. One of the hazards of being in HR is when there are high level terminations happening, you have to put in the hours to make it happen if you are serving a high level boss. Some people’s weekends are going to be tense as they got requests from the President & COO to come to a meeting on Monday. I hope those men and women do not get a heart attack pondering their fate between now and then.

I rode the subway staring out to nowhere. It’s almost 7PM and the bus is crawling through the 59^th Street bridge. I promised mom I’d pick up dinner and I wanted to get some Thai food from TOPAZ on 56^th (between 6^th and 7^th Ave) but just as I was about to cross the street, a very sparsely occupied QM1A drove up to the corner, so I ran and caught it in time. I guess I’m ordering Japanese then from NAGOYA on Springfield near the Horace Harding expressway.

Alan is still in Paris – speaking of which, I got a message from the French Consulate in Manhattan that my visa is ready. (Paris, here I come!) I’m very excited about this trip which Alan and I had tried to do together last year. Unfortunately, I was ill-prepared, having put too much faith in the fact that I was a greencard holder. Apparently, the so-called Schengen countries were selective about visa waiver to greencard holders like myself. (That aspect of the whole process requires a separate blog entry) Not knowing I needed 2 weeks’ processing, I had applied with a week to go before my trip, and the gentleman at the accepting window politely told me the visa would not be issued in time. $45 bucks is already a decent meal so I said, forget it.. I ended up losing $200 on a $401 fare (no thanks to American Airline’s change fee on international discounted fares) and opting instead for a trip to LA with Alan in December. (Please see my December archive for entry about that particular trip.)

Back to Alan, he and I are looking forward to a quiet weekend in what is reportedly the most romantic place on earth – – the so-called City of Lights: Paris. It’s only our second vacation without Angel, but we are trying to do our planned “couple activities” despite the fact that we now have to factor in the fact that neither one of us can bear to be away too long from the little guy.

I know I am looking forward to the long weekend although I’m sad that Alan isn’t here to spend it with us. Angel has been growing like anything! Before I know it, I’ll be running after him and we’ll be racing each other through the malls. Alan can’t wait to have Angel tag along with him as he does his errands. Already, he is so excited to bring Angel to Sesame Place when it opens in the summer.

After the long weekend we just had, I’m just glad the boss didn’t ask me to come in on Monday even if she was coming to the office for those terminations. I don’t love my work THAT much.

Besides, despite all the praise and thanks she heaped upon me, I still feel that in the end, she remembers my shortcomings more than my good points. Isn’t that always the case? I guess it is but human nature.