It's ALIVE...er.um I mean, I'M ALIVE

Yes, I am. I finished the most dreaded paper yesterday and now have a bit smaller, much less worrisome list of things to do. Oh, and my kids have been swept up by their nana and brought to NY where they can bathe in the warmth of familial love from both sides of the family and remember that not all adults have laptops, books and rollerball pens as appendages. I miss them so much. I have never gone so long without kissing Ezzies plump cheeks and being squeezed by Henry's stronger and stronger hugs.

But, if they were here, I would be doing my best to ignore them and I wouldn't have had the time to go to Pintus with Curt and Maggie, to eat some yummy Indian food and be serenaded by a hot chick doing "the snake" and "shut the door", sheesh.

And when my eyes are burning from the glow of the screen and my brain feels a tad mushy, I need some down time. I make yo yos.

I have neglected posting for a while and so I did not post about the wonderful craft night at my friend Kim's the other week. Helen was there, knitting. And some unfamiliar faces showed up too. We got to watch a new friend spin dog hair into yarn. NO kidding. We drank vino, ate cookies, listened to soothing stories and swapped crafting, momming, parenting stories for a few hours. Great fun. That was when I started making the yo-yos. I hadn't been doing any crafting at all and yo-yo making requires very little: a needle, thread, small scraps of fabric, scissors and a circle template. It's sort of fun. They are so cute.

A pencil case and a theme song, or two

Thanks Mama. I love my new pencil bag. Kaffe Fasset makes such loud and happy fabric. It makes me smile every time I catch a glimpse of it. And my big bag is so much more organized.

It's no surprise that gospel songs make some of the best personal theme songs. Here are two songs that pop into my head when I am trying to calm down and not worry for crying out loud.

#1 and #2 ( I do love Bruce but I prefer Neko Case's version but couldn't find it...)

Molly's Blog

My sister Molly is an extraordinarily talented artist. I will say no more. Check out her new blog- Works by M.E. Carlisle...p.s she does commission work...

just imagine

So, just imagine a gal who likes to cook, and sew and knit (rather poorly), read novel after novel, grow vegetables and flowers, teach young kids, sing, play with her kids, hang out the laundry, paint, draw, sing some more. Just imagine that this same girl (seriously) can't tell her left from her right, can't ever remember a single number if it is more than 3 digits long, gets lost in any building with more than two corridors (especially if the color theme is beige), and had panic attacks in Math class since 10th grade. Imagine that this girl has to write a paper comparing legislation and regulation for her policy class. Imagine her blowing her nose on a hanky, drinking her throat coat tea and wrinkling up her face because she suddenly is convinced she has been writing her paper in a circle. Is it possible? She doesn't even know. She has never been very good with directions. But if you have ever taken a peek at regulations and statutes there are lots of numbers and letters and when they run out of those they start doubling and tripling them and using lower case and Roman numerals. And there are subsections that refer to even more subsections. It is absolutely brilliant.

I feel like Alice. In Wonderland or maybe even from Gertrude Stein's novel. Either would do.

All Hallow's Eve