Tag: quarantine

Happy New Year
This Must Be Thursday

Happy New Year

La Tejedora5 Comments

More importantly, Good Bye to the dumpster fire that was 2020. But, then again, was it really? I mean, yeah, we all had plans. And those plans were incinerated. But, doesn’t that happen every year? No? Just me?

As an example….I had planned to complete Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitters Almanac. By the end of January, I knew that was a terrible plan. In January, before COVID and everything that came with, my plans were already destroyed. So, yeah, I can blame COVID, but really, it’s just life. Or, at least my life. But, see, I’m prepared for that. Since that is what I am used to, and what I prepare for, I’m OK.

I heard an interview with a couples counselor this last summer where she noticed that the person in the relationship who had been agreed to have the “problems” in the before times was now handling things well, but the person in the relationship who was “fine” in the before times is having problems coping. All I could think when listening to this interview was “Who’s coping mechanisms are unhealthy now, hunh?”

If any of you have loved ones in your life who deal with depression and/or anxiety, look back on this last year for yourself. How you have been feeling? Overwhelmed? Exhausted? Sick dread always? That weird feeling in your chest? That’s almost every single day of their lives. We are 9 months into this, and lots of people have gone beyond cracking. Imagine year in and year out. *That’s* a small sample of what they…we…deal with. This year has been what we’ve been constantly preparing for.

So, while all y ‘all were scrambling around trying to find fabric and elastic for masks at the beginning of all this, me and my fabric hoard stash were merrily sewing away. While everyone was panic buying supplies, I went through my house and gathered what I could, and we put the supplies on the shopping list so we could grab some of what was available every time we shopped. We didn’t empty shelves. There wasn’t a reason for that. But, by stocking up a bit, when the wildfires came through town, we were able to share what we had. The only down side to this is that Poopie has seen this as a sign that his choice all those years ago to put tissue packs in the piñata was a good one. He is still wrong about that. But, I will take that, since it means my “crazy” ideas of having buckets of staple supplies in the garage have been proven useful. Don’t get me wrong, I would have preferred not to have all the loss we’ve had this last year, but there is that tiniest (OK, not so tiny) part of me that is saying “See!?! Not crazy, visionary!”

Sorry if some of this is repeat, but it’s been a while since I’ve written, and I assume it’s been a while since you’ve read. I’m going to try to work myself into getting back to blogging. I imagine I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to over this time period while I’ve been away. While not necessarily exciting, you know me, I’m always busy.

Also, please note, they’ve changed the formatting for me. I can go back to the classic, but let’s see what this does for now.

Blerg! The bulk of this was written Monday/Tuesday. I’m still processing Wednesday…so, I won’t be talking about that here/now. I’ll be knitting/weaving/sewing, whatever….

Re-acclimation
Monday Musings

Re-acclimation

La Tejedora1 Comment

Whatever your feelings on the matter, the economy is trying to reopen, and legal restrictions are loosening. This means my halcyonic quarantine is coming to an end. My volunteer gigs are starting to reopen. Which has meant I’m starting to have to have a schedule outside of work that does not include just going out and digging in my yard.

This transition has been harder on me than the lockdown. Monday, I missed a VERY important meeting I had with the Council where I was to have appeared as the Chair of another committee. There goes my hopes of public service (yeah right). Literally the next day, I got an IM from my supervisor asking if I was going to show for the all office training? Oops. I did manage to be on time for an interview for a new podcast later that night, though the host was late. Here’s the interview, by the way: https://anchor.fm/gary-fox2/episodes/Garland-Pepper-presents-Daisy-Santana-Hickman–Fiber-queen-knitting-spinning-etc-ef04a7?fbclid=IwAR16c1Mgsc19yskKoxvkmh0BZH0fvXaVJ5yjPIYNhb786RVnSNcqxp0bsdY

Wednesday, I had 2 work meetings. I only remembered one, and then I had to take a late lunch because of meeting 1. By some weird quirk of fate, I clocked back in just minutes before my second meeting (which was the one I forgot). Thank goodness for that, since it was a skip level meeting with my boss’ boss’ boss’ boss (yeah, 4 levels up). Thursday’s after work meeting went off without a hitch. Thankfully, no meetings for me to screw up Friday. However, Saturday, as I was going through my emails, I found not one, but two emails from someone trying to interview me about some board work. We’ll see if my response is too late. I haven’t missed feeling like a failure.

And no, putting these things on my phone calendar hasn’t been working, I’ve gotten out of the habit of having my phone with me all the time. Clearly, emails are not currently effective. I’m just going to have to go back to being used to being tethered to my phone and being pulled in a lot of directions. I foresee knitting making a comeback for me. It is a wonderful stress relief.

As I’m personally struggling with this dumbness, the world at large continues to struggle with larger issues, and I find myself expending more mental and emotional resources outside of my home. Gardening, as well as knitting helps with that. While I pull weeds, or move tons (probably not literally) of rock, woodchip, and dirt, I listen to podcasts and alternately learn and think Great Thoughts. As I have to start engaging more outside my home, that time will go away, and I will miss it. But enjoy photos of what I’ve done (mostly) by my lonesome. However, I still have my fiber arts, and they are often portable

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One thing I’ve realized during my down time, and solidified in my conversation with Garland, is that knitting gives me the space to respond, rather than react. This was a concept I learned from my first Molly (yoga teacher). Yoga/meditation helps you build your proverbial moat so you have time to respond to stimulus, rather than react. Knitting does that for me. When smoking was a thing, cigarettes did that for the world at large. Think about the old movies/shows. Some groundbreaking thing was said or done, and the person took a drag off the cigarette, buying a few moments, before they responded. We don’t have that anymore. I think a lot of people don’t want that anyway–we are so in need of immediacy. Knitting gives me that, though. I can finish up this row before I respond. Or, I can be so involved I completely missed whatever asinine thing came out of your face.

I haven’t needed that for these last few months.

Please be patient with me as I re-acclimate to “reality”. And thank you, Dear Readers, for your words of encouragement. They really do mean a lot.