WHAT A MESS I HAVE BECOME

 

I gotta tell ya, Dearies...it's just not easy being me sometimes.

My stupid lower back muscles all got together when I was sleeping and decided to REVOLT. I thought I was getting a little better yesterday, but the pain level has ratcheted up from a level seven to a HOLEY SCHMOLEY, and I am one big fat weepy miserable little cow..

I promised myself that if it wasn't substantially better by tomorrow I would call my PCP (that's Primary Care Physician in insurance speak), but methinks I might do that this afternoon instead.

Thank you for all of your tips and suggestions. I am ridiculously limited as to the things I can take/do because of BellyBean, but it does make me feel a bit better knowing that I am not the only human person on the planet who has pulled a muscle before.

Needless to say, there has been no stitching or diamond painting progress to report. Here's where we left things on the Cotton & Twine June project:

And here's what I've been doing all morning/afternoon:

The selection was serendipitous, since I googled "Shakespeare at Notre Dame" and discovered that there is quite a program/department of Shakespeare studies there. I knew that there was something called Actors From The London Stage, and I kind of knew that performances were common on campus, but little did I realize that there is quite an advanced Shakespeare Program at Notre Dame! AND...in August, they have a Shakespeare Festival and this year's performance selection is King Lear! If all goes according to plan, I'll get to see it the last weekend of August!

So that's the report from the friendly confines of CS2 today. I hope that your corner of the world is exactly what you need it to be! 

HOOSIERVILLE ICE PACK 🤭

 

IN WHICH THE HEATING PAD AND THE SPINSTER BECOME BEST FRIENDS

Guess who managed to screw her back up in the shower on Saturday?

I've been having a little problem with passing out when I take a shower (🙄), so on Saturday, I decided to bend over to wash my hair instead of lifting my arms over my head to see if that made a difference. Yeah. It made a difference alright. It pulled the muscle in my lower right back so bad that the pain from it almost made me pass out.

So I guess that's progress....the almost part.

Anywhoooo...the heating pad and I have been having 15 minute play dates for the last few days, and I am actually able to stand up without invoking all of the demons from the seventh circle of hell this morning, so methinks I might survive.

But just barely.

Not much of anything to report, but I did have a little progress on Friday with my various and sundry bits of fun. 

First, I finished a little diamond painting that I got on the amazons a few months ago. This one would have been a simple day-long project had I not been distracted by a binge of the SisterWives:

And I did make a little progress on the Cotton & Twine June project, despite giving Don Draper and the Mad Men all of my attention:

If I can manage it today, I might try to push through a few hours of stitching and documentary watching. Yesterday I watched Tea With The Dames...very very good. Today, I think I might watch a doc on John Irving. Anything educational/interesting lately has kept me happy and out of trouble. Virginia Woolf and I are becoming more and more acquainted, and I am thinking that my next adventure will be a bit of Shakespeare. (😮).

I decided to up my reading game a bit, so my evenings are still spent with a good novel, but I've added a little "deeper" reading in the mornings. Nothing too serious. Just a half hour or so of something that makes my gears move.

Well, time for my second cup of damn good. It's hitting especially well today, so I'm going to enjoy it! What are you up to? Come tell me all about it!

 

 

MONDAY...A LITTLE TEENIE BIT OF PROGRESS

 

I have no earthly idea why the stitching of this is dragging on. Is it the fact that this is 32ct and I have been in a 28ct mode? Is it the recent acquisition of all of these stitches from the skin cancer removal? Is it the heat? Or maybe it's just my normal annual Summer Schlump.

In looking back over previous years' entries, I see a pattern of hitting a bit fat sweaty wall right about this time every year. I had always suspected that it was the fact that my summer inventory of projects was somewhat lacking, but I think it's just...me.

Yes, the heat and humidity (*) are certainly factors, and this year I have the added bonus of an extended length of time without my Jersey Boy to entertain me. (No, Betty, he didn't finally come to his senses and leave my miserable blankety-blank. He's in New Jersey taking care of his mom for a bit because she needed a little extra TLC.)

But I digress.

I'm not complaining. Really, Dearies. I am only too happy to have entire days with nothing to do. But my pace of things has just completely...halted. I am spending a lot of time sleeping in. And reading. And writing. And organizing and re-organizing vegetables from the Costcos in the fridge. 

It's not a bad thing, really. Just different from the days when I felt like I was running around with my hair on fire. The funny thing is that I'm not too sure that anything that was on fire at that time was worth saving. Instead of constantly throwing myself on the flames and slapping bandaids on all of the wounds, I should have just let it all burn and then moved on to peace and quiet.

Whoa. That went dark.

OK. Back to me being slow and quiet. I have two more weeks of healing to do, and then I can return to my old lady exercising in the pool. In the meantime, I think I'm just going to enjoy the slower pace and let it come what may.

What's the pace of things in your corner of the world, Dearies? Come tell me all about it!

(*) I'm a Midwestern girl, born in Ohio and living here in Indiana since 1984, and I heard something on the TeeVee the other night that stopped me in my tracks. At first, I thought it was a joke, or perhaps some internets thing, but then I looked it up. Do you know why it gets so miserably muggy here in the Summer? (Muggy means that when you step outside you are immediately struck by the sensation of being covered with a hot wet blanket and told to just breathe normally).  

So, do you know why the humidity levels approach "steam bath" levels here in late July/early August?

CORN SWEAT

Nope. You didn't read that wrong and I'm not making it up. 

Apparently, there is so much farmland here in Hoosierville and elsewhere in the Midwest, that when the corn grows it literally gives off so much moisture it affects the environment by way of increased humidity levels.

So if you're a portly gal like me and you are mopping boob sweat every time you open your front door to bring the trash can in, or you're sporting your coolest old lady big top to go get stitches out...blame it on the corn sweating its little kernals off out there in the fields.

This concludes your AgDay minute. Back to regular programming tomorrow!

 

I LOVE INDIANAPOLIS

SOMETHING NEW

I feel like I haven't stitched in a month, even though it's only been a few days. I received the June edition of the Cotton & Twine subscription box, so...

The fabric that came in the box is a white linen, but I thought this one might look pretty...Chesapeake from Colour&Cotton:

 

IF I HAVE TO READ A BOOK ABOUT THE BOOK I'VE JUST FINISHED READING, DOES THAT MEAN I SHOULD BE READING DIFFERENT BOOKS?

OK. Confession.

When all of my classmates in the Program of Liberal Studies ( the Great Books Program at Notre Dame) were reading Woolf and Tolstoy and Herodotus...I was reading Glamour Magazine and the latest Jackie Collins mass market paperback.

I decided to remedy that by revisiting some of the classic novels from the pantheon of literature, and I'm happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed Les Mis, Don Quixote, and Moby Dick very much.

But Mrs Dalloway?

Mrs Dalloway and I had a bit of trouble. 

I really loved the book...truly, I did. But I felt like I was understanding about 7% of it. Surely, a 59-year old portly Spinster is capable of going deeper into a work of interiority and meaning, no?

Well, the YouTubes lead me to this book, so I'm hoping it gives me a good insight into all of the crap I missed or was just too emotionally immature to truly appreciate. 

(But I still really loved the novel.)

(In case you're wondering, I'm reading Of Human Bondage at the moment, so we've gone from a middle-aged housewife planning a party to a little boy with a club foot making his way through boarding school and examining the nature of Faith.)

(What could possibly confuse me about THAT?)

In other news, I haven't stitched since my surgery. I'm feeling a bit "banged up"...

Never fear, though. I am truly feeling a hankering to pick up needle and thread as soon as my third or fourth cup of damn good kicks in. 

(Or maybe I'll completely abandon my usual routine and just go right to the cold brew and not wait for the 3:00 hour.)

So that's the report from Hoosierville, Dearies. What do you suppose Stewey would have to say about my sudden interest in having a life of the mind? I can see him rolling his eyes now, and warning me not to get anything sticky on his Proust collection.

Happy Saturday! Yes...it's still hot enough to boil potatoes out there, so until this passes...I'm in a deep interiority of my own with the a/c and lots of water! (No sploshing until the stitches come out on the 21st, and then you'll find me sporting a full-on hazmat suit to do my old lady arm exercises in the early morning hours!)

Ciao for now! Do something fun and come tell me all about it!

 

WEAR YOUR SUNSCREEN, DEARIES

They told me it would eventually get me, and it did. One of the problems with the drugs I take for BellyBean, is that they greatly increase the risk of skin cancer. When they told me this, I nodded politely and said to myself  "I never leave the house, and when I do, I apply 100spf on my face and 80spf everyplace else", but despite these precautions, as well as full body skin checks at the dermatologist's office twice a year, I just had an excision of skin cancer from my forearm.

I'm fine. A bit shaky and dizzy, but that very well could be from my vat of cold brew I slurped down before heading out.

Twelve days of wound care, and then I'll get the stitches out.

In other news...I have a finish for you of Teresa Kogut's Patriotic Tweet:

The fabric is called Spacious Skies and is from Colour&Cotton, and I converted the threads to ones from my stash. Please also note that I made the flag pole and the letters and numbers brown...the chart called for them to be grey and dark blue, respectively.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think it's time for a couple of Tylenol and a nap.

What's new with you?

TWENTY YEARS...HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

 

Twenty years ago today, I met the little fuzzy dog that became the very love of my life. If you've never married and never had kids, you wonder if you have the capacity to be a mom, and then you trek through the cornfields of Ligonier, Indiana to find out that you do, in fact, have the ability to love something more than you could have ever imagined.

Thank you, Stewey.  

Mommie Dearest loves and misses you.

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE WEEKEND, DEARIES

 

ANOTHER FINISH!

 

She is large, Dearies. I enjoyed every single placement of every single little itty bitty drill. According to my notes, I started this one on April 21st, so a little over two months isn't too bad, in my humble opinion.

This kit came from Diamond Art Club and is called Copeton Floral Lilac. It measures 26x36 inches and has 60 different drills, plus a special square sparkly one.

No idea what the heck I'll do with it. I've just been hanging the larger ones I've finished on the door knob of my china cabinet. Like with stitching, I love doing this whole diamond painting thing for the process of it rather than the final product.

Hope your day was wonderful! What shenanigans were had? Come tell me all about it!