Unraveling

International Pajama Day

Literally - world class.  Grace is joining me from Ontario, Canada and actually sent photos of herself in new barrel o' monkeys pajamas:

I, on the other hand, am lounging in new silk pajamas on the west coast:

This is my idea of a perfect day.

I am working on a feather and fan scarf in Kidsilk Haze. 

I made two of these last Christmas and gave them away to sisters in law.  I wanted to keep one for myself but selflessly relinquished it in the spirit of Christmas cheer.  I have put off knitting its replacement for too long. So I'm indulging myself in a little personal knitting on this International Pajama Day, thinking about Grace in her cozy monkey pajamas, watching movies, blogging, and catching up on the laundry.  Laundry, after all, can be folded while lounging on an enormous bed...

Today is also  a milestone - my 100th post!  So I'm celebrating by changing the color scheme of the blog.  I hope you like it.

Happy International Pajama Day to all.

Added Later:

International Pajama Day II, in what I hope will be a monthly cycle, will be February 6, 2005 (Superbowl Sunday).  Please join me!  And send me pics of you lounging in your favorite pjs.  And if you're knitting, then all the better.

No More Boyo

Yes, he left yesterday at 2:20 p.m., winging his way back to Frankfurt, then taking the train to Heidelberg.  It does seem awfully far away.  But I was able to finish a Fat Hat for him before he left.  Yup.  Fat Hat:

(details in Finished!)

If he looks a little bleary-eyed, the photo was taken at 3:10 a.m. on Friday morning.  I had trouble sleeping his last night in town.

And just so we wouldn't miss him too much, he're's what he left behind:

So, laundry is in the wash machine.  Muffins are about to be made.  Life is going on.

Check, Call, Care

Check , call, care.  That's the three step action plan in adult CPR, and for the first time ever, I had the unfortunate opportunity to put it into practice this afternoon.  My coworker collapsed in the cubicle next to me.  His groaning alerted us.  What a terrible sound.  Out of place.  His three closest neighbors popped out of their cubicles at the same time.  He was trying to get up and when he saw us he sank down.  Frightening.  "What am I supposed to remember?"  I found myself thinking.  I couldn't remember the three words, but I followed my instincts.  He was breathing, thank goodness, and had a pulse.  "Call an ambulance," we all said at the same time.  "Do you know where you are?" I asked.  No response.  But he was breathing.  I held his hand.  I put my hand on his chest to feel him breathing.  I talked to him.  "We're calling an ambulance."  I felt his forehead and kept leaning in to check on his breathing.   He seemed to slip in and out of consciousness.  Disoriented.  In pain.  "I need an ambulance," he said.  "It's on its way."  The supervisors showed up and asked lots of questions.  "Call my wife," he said.  I wrote the number down.  That's a hard call to make.  "He's sick," I said.  "We've called an ambulance and we're waiting for it to get here."  Where was the ambulance? We're on the wrong side of the railroad tracks when there's a slow train.  That's where the ambulance was.  The delay wasn't that long, but it seemed like an eternity.  I had to call his wife back to see where she wanted him to be taken. 

Those EMT people really know what they're doing.  Didn't take them long to get him out of here.  They ask a lot of questions, like detectives, so they can size up the situation quickly.  He's in good hands, and at the hospital by now.

Now that the hub bub has died down, I pulled out the booklet from the CPR training I took last October.  Check - check the area for your own safety first, then the victim's.  Call - for help, 911.  Care - administer care to the victim.    CPR is easier in theory than in actuality.  The dummy you practice on isn't someone you care about, who sings softly to himself during lunch. I'm taking the booklet home to review, just in case next time something like this happens CPR is really necessary.

Added Later:

He's OK!  At least, he was released from the hospital this morning and is resting at home.  We're hoping he'll stay at home for a few days, until he really feels better.  We're also glad to know he didn't have a major cardiac episode or a stroke.  I won't speculate on the actual cause, just happy to report it wasn't serious enough for him to be hospitalized any longer.

And, everyone, update your CPR training asap.  And if you haven't had the training, go!  You never know when you might need it.

Unraveling, take two

The holidays are over.  All that family. All those friends.  All that rich food. All that too much. I have so enjoyed visiting with everyone.  It's been so nice to have boys in the house again.  My brother dropping by whenever - once at 1 a.m. (I was posting on the blog and he saw me through the window as he was leaving my other brother's house - how cool is that?). And having Gayle here to talk to and walk with was a real treat.   

By Sunday, there will be only two humans living in my house.  The tree will be down.  The decorations put away.  My son will be back in Heidelberg.  My friend will be back in Long Beach.  My brother will be back in New York.  Life will settle down to a manageable pace.  I will become slightly less muddled.  I'm starting to feel the letdown from all that too much - starting to feel slightly blue.

It's not the blue/panic I was feeling in late summer.  For one thing, it's not keeping me up.  But it's that unraveling-life-is-changing-faster-than-you-want-it-to feeling for sure.  It will take some getting used to. Again.

Gayle left this morning, but not before I had a chance to take a photo of her in the pink bucket.

(Details on the bucket are posted in Finished!)

Timothy is leaving tomorrow.  Owen on Friday.  And Eva will be off to China in exactly two weeks.  In light of world events, there's not a lot to be blue about.  I know I'm going to relish time spent alone.  There's been precious little of that for many weeks.  And Sunday could be a world-class pajama day.  Mom and Dad gave me silk pajamas for Christmas.  Imagine spending the whole day in bed, watching movies, knitting, and wearing silk pajamas. I believe I could talk myself right out of that unraveling/blueness and into some silk-wearin'-gonna-have-some-time-to-myself calm and restedness with very little trouble.

I'm still gonna miss everyone.  But serenely fom the comfort of the gigantic bed in silken splendor.

Movies, Movies, Movies, Movies

That's right, four in two days, to be precise.  And perhaps there will be more before the new year gets much older.  It's odd.  It's the first year in twenty-two that neither kid was at home on New Years Eve.  They both had other plans, that didn't include their parents.  The adults in the household had no obligations and no plans of our own.  After a lame attempt to latch on to someone else's celebration, I realized that there were plenty of possibilities for a fun, celebratory evening and we could play it by ear.  Go with the flow. 

So, we started out yesterday afternoon with What the Bleep Do We Know? Dinner was at Raphael Bar-Ristorante, an excellent vegetarian Italian restaurant that happens to be right next to the movie theater. We hadn't been there before and the gracious staff seated us even though we didn't have a reservation.  On New Years Eve. Then we topped off the evening's entertainment with The Aviator and were home in time to ring in the new year with a bottle of champagne and Scharfenberger chocolate bars. 

Today was a quiet day, mostly spent in pajamas. At least I was in pajamas.

Gayle and I watched The Manchurian Candidate and Hidalgo in bed.  Ron watched all the bowl games downstairs in the living room.  I cooked breakfast and dinner, felted and blocked Gayle's bucket, started a feather-and-fan lace scarf for myself.  My kind of celebration.  Going with the flow almost always pays off.

Here's our ten-second movie reviews:

What the Bleep Do We Know? - Slow to start but intriguing.  Sparked a lot of conversation throughout dinner

The Aviator - Well acted, especially Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, & Leonardo.  Some spectacular cinematography, great material, but also some interminable static scenes.  Would benefit by judicious editing.

The Manchurian Candidate - Solid performances by Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Shreiber.  A little over the top (gratuitous) reality in some scenes.

Hidalgo - one word: Viggo

Cheers, everyone!  Here's hoping 2005 is full of accomplishments, adventures, and plenty of opportunities to go with the flow.