Cruel, Cruel Summer

Okay, so it hasn’t been all that cruel. Just busy. I apologize for the unexpected hiatus. Things got a little bit crazy around here. Here’s an overview:

- It’s summer, which means that things pick up at work. You know, summer blockbusters to see. Beach reads to peruse. New bands to check out. Things like that. Most of the time, that means that I work from about 7:40, when my husband leaves for work. I do a little reading, listen to a CD I have to review while I’m taking a shower, do more reading or watch a DVD of some TV show while I eat my lunch…and that typically continues until about 9:30 or 10 at night. Except on Fridays. If we’re not traveling somewhere, Friday is Pizza and TV Night. I love Friday.

- Paul got a new job. Yea! Things had been pretty bad at the last place, and after five years, he decided it was time to move on. So after lots of job searching and things, he finally found something new. He started the week before we had our family travels planned, so he worked a week, then took off a week, then came back to try to get into it again. But this summer has been a lot of meeting new people and trying to learn about a new company (him so he can do his job, me so I’ll know what he’s talking about when he gets home). So far, though, it’s a great place full of great people. And I don’t have to worry about him having to pack up and go to Timbuktu every other week.

- We’ve had approximately two weekends with nothing to do. No kidding. We’ve been to the cottage for holidays. We went to Toronto to visit our new niece. We went camping with my brother and his family. We had a garage sale (which I still swear I’m never, ever doing again). We went to Cedar Point and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We went to baseball games and picnics. And once or twice, we saw a friend or two.

Things have been downright crazy. Take this week, for instance. On Monday afternoon, I was sitting here, working away in my office, when a storm blew through. It was really windy, and at one point, it sounded like something had fallen over on our front steps. Since we don’t have anything on our front steps, I was understandably rather curious. So I walked to the living room and discovered that half of our tree had fallen down. No kidding. It was just sitting there, all over our yard and into our neighbor’s driveway. What followed was two days of trying to get someone to take care of it—resulting in a crew showing up yesterday (one of whom had a hook for an arm—I kid you not—and that made me a little nervous). Also on Monday afternoon, my hosting company decided to do some upgrading, resulting in my entire site being inaccessible for almost two full days—and then mostly inaccessible for another day after that. Not pretty. Oh, yes. And my in-laws are coming this weekend. Needless to say, by Tuesday morning, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

So that’s been my summer. As for the knitting, it’s been rather brainless lately. I find that my knitting goes in phases. For a while, there was The Sweater Phase. I made a million sweaters. I couldn’t stop. Now I’m not in that phase, and I have a million sweaters that I want to make (complete with all the yarn), but I just don’t feel like it. Then there was The Lace Phase, when I wanted to do nothing but knit lace. I loved the detailed work and the thought that went into the patterns. Now, I have a lace pattern that I want to do, but I don’t have the mental capacity to put it together. Earlier this year, I was in a serious Baby Phase. With everyone and their brother having babies these days, I spend a lot of time knitting nothing but baby stuff—bibs and sweaters and burp cloths and things. But now, that phase has clearly ended—because I have a couple of baby sweaters that, for the life of me, I cannot finish. Because right now, I’m in The Blanket Phase. I know. It’s insane. It’s summer, and all I can seem to do is knit blankets. But I started knitting blankets, and I realized that I could do cool patterns that would allow me to do very little but brainless knitting, and I’d end up with something very cool. And even though I said I’d never, ever, in a million years, ever again knit a baby blanket, I’ve knit three this summer. Or maybe more. I’ve lost count. Pictures to come.

But why The Blanket Phase? You see, I’m a busy woman. I work and work and work all day, and that work often requires me to use my brain. I have to think about schedules and grammar and all that stuff. And I need to write and be creative. And I’ve been a little burnt out lately. The last thing I want to do when it’s 10:00 and I’ve been trying to write and schedule and edit all day is try to work out that stupid pattern for that stupid top I designed in my head from a top that some girl wore in some movie this spring. I just want to knit. Don’t make me think. Thus, blankets. I’m sure, after summer’s over, and after I finally get a chance to catch up on some sleep (October, maybe?), I’ll be ready to face patterns and things again. But, in the meantime, I’ll continue to crank out blankets.

Oh, and felted coasters, too. That’s the latest.

So anyway, I’ve been doing so much writing for work lately (actually, I’ve already written more this year than I did last year—and it’s only August!), that my blog took a back seat. But yesterday I got an email that Sue had commented on the site—and that pulled me out of my haze. “It’s time to blog again!” I announced to myself. And then, as I was thinking about it this morning, I turned the page on my knitting page-a-day calendar and saw a familiar picture—my very own bath mitt pattern! So that just made it all the more final. I had to get back to my blog. So here I am. More to come soon. I promise.

I missed you guys!