Tuesday, which is not Monday

I passed a church on my way to work this morning and the sign outside said “Heaven is perfect, no Mondays.” Does that seem irreligious? Seems like if your going to bother with religion at all you should at least take yourself seriously…but after yesterday I have to admit that a place without Mondays does have it’s appeal. I wonder if there’s a pagan heaven sans Monday waiting for my dirt worshipping self, although I would have to insist on no Sundays as well, Sundays being the days that you can’t buy alcohol until after noon in Michigan.

Obsession de jour: making a list. I don’t really have passing fancies I have passing obsessions. For whatever length of time the obsession has it’s hold on me, it’s all I think about, and then when I’m done it’s as if it never was. Today it’s making a list. I don’t make new years resolutions anymore, because I forget what they are about 10 minutes after I make them….it was a good idea to make a resolution to cut back on drinking, I think to myself as I am pouring a beer. I recall having a thought somewhere in the vicinity of the New Year that it would be a good idea to start the year out by making a complete list of all my incomplete projects, and I do mean all…just so that such a record exists. Sort of like a clean slate, except exactly the opposite. Of course I forgot about it almost instantaneously, but I’m getting back to it now, so better late then never.

If I had a complete list of projects then I would be less tempted to start new things without finishing the old ones, right? And I would thus be more productive, organized and happy, right? But how does one define “project.” If I promised someone that I would make them a pair of gloves, but never bought the yarn is it still an incomplete project? How about that undyed wool that I’ve been trying to spin up so that I can make a coat like garment for myself. Is it the spinning that’s the project, or the as yet undesigned nay even unconceptualized coat? And what about that vague notion I once had about getting my portfolio in order so that I can send off some entries for quilt shows? Reinforcing the knees on the Manimal’s work pants? Argh! I guess the first project to go on the list is “make a list of unfinished projects.” Gosh, it’ll be nice when this particular obsession passes, and I can get back to my normal meandering thought pattern…all this focused energy is sort of scary.

And in a completely unrelated note (although somewhat related because it is causing a long neglected project to be worked on) I have discovered a way of coping with the most irritating aspect of my job…being on the phone. I have dedicated the “skull shrug” as the “on hold” project. It lives at work now, and sits next to the phone, and when I’m on hold I get to knit on it! Oh joy! I love being on the phone now….I look for excuses to call vendors and get price quotes….and the crazy thing is that I’m actually more productive because I do all those previously irritating phone calls right away, instead of putting them off and putting them off until, whoops! it’s next week already. And since I’m working on the sleeves of the shrug, and they are in the round with no pattern to speak of (incredibly boring to knit, in other words) it’s the only way that I’m ever gonna work on this project. It’s hard to get all worked up about “yay, if I do three more rows of tiny little all the same stitches, I get to decrease one!” but it seems like fun when you’re doing it while on hold…don’t ask me why. It’s probably that thing about multiplying two negative numbers together makes a positive.

This turning into a knitting blog isn’t it? Okay, tomorrow, no knitting talk. No purls, no yarn, I’m not even going to talk about spinning….because spinning leads to knitting, and this is not (just) a knitting blog damn it.