Unraveling

Delurk!

I just learned, through Wendy, that it's National Delurking Week.  OK all you lurkers:

hee!

Sleep Deprived

For several months, I've been using an over-the-counter sleep aid to help me overcome the insomnia that accompanies the transition through the change of life.  Trouble is, I've been waking up groggy, pulling the covers back up over my head, using any small excuse to avoid the morning dog-walk, and sleeping in.  Most recently, I've intermittently been taking a muscle relaxant to help with muscle spasms in my left leg. And, wow, you wanna talk about groggy in the morning!  More like groggy all day. And not always quite there. Feeling a little stupid, you know. 

Don't get me wrong, both have helped and I've been getting lots of sleep. But I'm also not getting much exercise. And I love my morning walk.  So just this week, since my leg seems to be better, I've been experimenting with drug-free sleep.  No problem going to sleep.  None, so far. But yesterday's 5:30 a.m. blue panic was not an isolated incident.  This morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m.  I got up at 5:15, read all the blogs, and the weiner dog and I were out the door at 6 a.m.

I got so tickled reading about Sandy on the porch in her pajamas that I took the camera along and grabbed these photos of my pre-dawn sky: 

I took the 3-mile route, had a great visit with Gene at the coffee shop, and got to work on time for a change.  Wow, I felt virtuous. And by 10:15 a.m., I was reading email and dozing off in my chair.

So I'm wrestling with the question: Is it better to be fat, dumb, and happy or svelt, fit, and sleep-deprived?  My 10:30 cup of green tea perked me up a little.  I'm not a coffee or cola drinker.  Green tea is as far as I go, except on rare occasions.  That's what's happening in my neck of the woods.

Oh, and her housing fell through. BRRRRAAAAACKKKKKK! She's dealing with it. Cluck.

Panic-Cluck-OMMMMMMM

After a month with us, our girlie is getting ready to leave again for school - this time in Brooklyn.  I sprang out of bed this morning in a blue panic...Have we taken care of everything? Will she be ok in New York? What if there's some problem with her housing? How are we going to get her packed up and out of here? AACK! we didn't see King Kong yet and there's no time left to do it! AACK! we didn't go down to the storage locker! AACK! She's all grown up and not a little girlie any more! BRRRRAACKK!

Taking a page out of Miss Vicki's book, I will now take some deep breaths and find an outlet for my mother hen blue panic. Let's see now, what makes me calm, cool, collected? KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP, KKP. And then a round of KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP, KPP . O-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M

She flies the coop on Saturday.

Progress

The dearth of finished projects and failure to find a lost sock were really getting to me last week, so I picked up a UFO out of the closet and was finished finished so quickly I can't for the life of me figure out why it was set aside in the first place.

Stuck it in the washer on hot the next morning and Voila!

And this morning, while looking for a pair of socks to wear, what to my wondering eyes should appear?

Sock One, which I needed in order to work on:

  Sock Two.

General jubilation in the Land of Unraveling.  Now the knitting paralysis can become a distant memory.  I call that progress.

p.s. email appears to be fixed.  Looks like I lost a couple of comments, so please think kindly of me - even if I haven't responded.

It's a Tough Job

Staying in one's pajamas all day (35 hours and 28 minutes, to be precise) when the sun's out and there are so many tempting offers of things to do outside one's home.  But sometimes you've just got to do it. So I did.  It's much easier when the house is more empty.  Less people, fewer temptations.  For instance, Eva asked me if I'd like to go see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at our local movie house.  You should have seen the withering look she gave me when I explained, "Sorry, I'd love to but it's Pajama Day."  "MMM-HMM. OK, Mom. Whatever," was what her eyes told me. Plus, Mr. Celia & I had a date to stay in and watch Cinderella Man.  That was very worth it.

International Pajama Day 2006A (the Anthrogal edition) became truly international when Brenda revealed her participation from Toronto.  I was going to try to fudge it by wearing my lovely Chinese silk pajamas to dinner.  Actual international participation is so much better.

In case you missed it, or if you did participate and want to try it again, next IPJ Day will be Sunday, February 5.  Yes, that's Superbowl Sunday.  Only I and the Boyo will be home that weekend, as Mr. Celia is off his annual Superbowl golfing retreat that weekend and Eva leaves for Brooklyn this weekend.  I have a feeling the Boyo will want to entertain, which he is free to do as long as I can lounge around in PJs.  It always takes a little advance planning, but it is so worth it in the end.

And knitting? Oh dear, I am so far behind it's embarassing.  I still have Christmas gift projects to finish, I want to start a long-ago-promised sweater for my brother, I am working on a vest for myself, and I have gift certificates burning a hole in my pocket.  And that's not even taking the UFOs in the yarn closet into account.  All these knitting half-thoughts have me confused and virtually paralyzed.  Little gets done. But then there is Rachael's Knit Out this weekend and knitting at Jill's next week.  I suppose I'll get organized and post some real knitting content by then.

One last thing, email is broken, so if you've emailed or commented and I haven't replied, I apologize.  We are working on it.    

My Neighborhood

One of the things I really like about the blogworld is being reminded of the simple things. Yesterday Sandy asked, "What's your sky like?"  So I looked out the window and saw this:

Then I ran to the back window and saw this:

I love my sky! Later on I took a walk around the neighborhood.  I am so lucky to live in California.  Something's always blooming.

And the sky on College Avenue was beautiful, too.

And the best treat was last.  I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from in front of my house.

And today? Today is International Pajama Day. If you're still in your pajamas, good for you.  I've been wearing mine for sixteen hours now.   There are so many things I'd like to get done, but I'm trying like heck to lounge around.  It's hard to sit still and relax. Yeah, it's a hard job, but somebody's got to do it.

Join me? I'd love it! C'mon, you know you deserve it.

T.G.I.F!

The first week back at work after a holiday week is so stressful.  Everybody else has procrastinated, schedules are off, and deadlines suddenly loom LARGE. Oh. My. Goodness. The Post-holiday chaos is as totally predictable as the pre-holiday scramble so why don't we do something about it? Why does it always sneak up on us and WHAP us so thoroughly?

Silly question. It just does. But now that the week is (almost) over and the deadlines have all been met, it's time to plan what you're doing over the weekend. I hope you will consider joining me for Pajama Day on Sunday (January 8). Two sleeps and you're there.  (I am still looking for a cyber pal who will make it a truly International Pajama Day.) 

How long will you spend in your pajamas? Which pajamas will you wear? What glorious fiber will you knit?  Which fascinating movies will you watch? What dainty tidbits will you eat? What engrossing novel will you read?  These are not silly questions.

You have Saturday to run your errands, work out, take the dogs for a run, and get together with friends.  Sunday is for pajamas. Plan for it. Stay home, relax, put your feet up, b-r-e-a-t-h-e. You deserve it.

And if you can't join me in the Pajama Day festivities, please keep Pajama Day in your heart.

A is for...

ANTHROGAL!!!

 

Alter-ego of Unraveling.  Intrepid protector and researcher of old stuff.  Collector and analyzer of...um...garbage. Anthropology/Archaeology is my day job.

Today's post brought to you by Anne's ABC Along.

Reminder: Only 4 days 'til the first International Pajama Day of 2006

Toasting 2006

Champagne, chocolates, and a new project. What better way to start the new year?

We were a pretty tame crowd last night. And crowd is a bit of an exaggeration.  Our household plus my brother, Timothy, equals five.  Hardly a crowd.  We did go out and catch an early show of The Chronicles of Narnia.  And there was a lot of critical discussion in the car on the way back. Eva and I loved it.  Ron & Tim were more critical. Did the book survive the translation to the silver screen?  My answer is yes.

Then we had sushi delivered and watched Kouhaku (the annual Red and White Competition) almost all night on the Japanese TV station.  Tame, tame, tame.

Of course, it wouldn't be a New Year's Eve party without Uncle Tim asleep in the living room.

C'mon, bro. It's only 10:30...

But today, it's all about the pajamas.

My new holiday pajamas! And now back to bed our regularly scheduled knitting.