OH...WHAT A PEACEFUL MORNING

I am having the loveliest day despite the fact that I didn't get out of the big girl sleigh bed until after 1pm! I know, I know...not a good thing, but I am having sleeping issues, and despite my very best attempts to get on a "normal" schedule, I find myself starting out well, but awake for several hours between 2-10 am.

Now Betty, before you come for me, every single one of my docs has explained that sleep issues are part of being me at the moment, and that unless I need to fly a plane full of puppies out of a burning countryside, or drive school children through morning rush traffic...

Let it be. Ride it out. Practice good sleep hygiene. It'll pass.

So in that spirit, I had my morning beverages...apple juice, a vat of iced water, and a proper cup of damn good, and I read the second chapter of Ulysses and the analysis of it on ulyssesguide.com (which is absolutely fantastic). 

A painting crew has set about the huge task of painting the exterior of our apartment complex, so for several weeks we've been hearing lots of ladders banging and taping and such, and yesterday they finished refreshing our balcony.

I forgot how much I love sitting out there! Rich goes out every afternoon to listen to his radio and enjoy a cigar, but for me it was going out in the evening and reading in the rocking chair. Despite the fact that it was still warm, there was the most beautiful breeze, and the humidities were blessedly low! 

Bliss.

The big huge Penguin History of the World is for Spinster School. I had to abandon ship when Louis happened, but I'm ready to jump back in next week. I think I'm going to use World History as the primary "class" and maybe go down little rabbit holes as I come to a certain period that strikes my fancy. So, for example, if I'm reading about the Middle Ages, maybe I take a little detour through the art, music, literature, and culture of the time. 

Just a thought.

I'm going to stick with Ulysses, too, and hope to always have a Shakespeare play going so that by the end of the day I don't feel like this is a chore, but rather a complete pleasure. It's not formal, kids. Just a portly, broken down old Spinster trying to keep her mind active and her days productive. I figure an hour or two here and there is much better for me than incessant doom scrolling.

So that's it, In addition to adding chores and some daily movement into the mix...my days are finally starting to take shape. My evenings have alway been pretty good...stitching or coloring or diamond painting, etc...so now I've got a daytime lineup that matches.

I'll leave you with a funny little thing I found while looking for pictures of pretty stitching. It's some kind of gizmo/site where you can create a portrait of yourself in various styles. 

Here's what I came up with:

 (I wish I could have figured out how to change the martini glass to a coffee cup!)

(Stewey, I think, would have loved this...life size...over the fireplace.)

I'm going to sign off for the weekend. In the spirit of trying to get things done, I have plans of housecleaning and bookshelf dusting (but not on the step-stool...I promise). I hope your days are equally as blissful, and that whatever blows your skirt up is there in abundance! What is that for you? Come tell me all about it!

I'M GOING IN...

Dearies, if you've been dropping by, you've probably wondered what's up with me and the reading.

The truth is...I've always been a reader, but thanks to a couple of podcasts and Moby Dick, I find myself going more in a Classics direction, with a bit of Literary Fiction thrown in as a palate cleanser.

Until now, I have never contemplated reading my next book, because I fell into the trap of thinking it's just too "hard" for me:

But as I was scrolling my eyeballs out on the YouTubes, a Harvard professor named Adam Walker told me otherwise. Instead of pouring over it and studying every word, line, and nuance of this book...he told me to just.read.it. Don't worry if it doesn't make sense. Don't worry if I don't get it. Just. Read. It.

(The professor's rationale is that scholars spend their entire academic careers dissecting this, and there is plenty of analysis to help one do a deep dive. But for a first read...just jump in and enjoy it and know that you will find new things and revelations every time you re-read it, and that there will be nothing like your first time through.)

So in I go...armed with nothing but a cold brew and a wink to the heavens for Professor Cronin...my Senior Thesis mentor at Notre Dame. (We had to write this Senior Thesis as part of the graduation requirement from the Program of Liberal Studies...a fact that terrified me from the moment I stepped into the first PLS class.) 

Professor Cronin had long since retired by the time I put pen to paper, but I honestly think the other professors realized that he was the only one who would know what to do with me.

And he did. He was the most delightful, brilliant, kind, lovely person I could have hoped for. He knew how far out of my depth I was in my program, so he used a firm yet gentle hand while guiding me through a look at Daisy Miller by Henry James. Our meetings were often luncheons at the Morris Inn with his lovely wife, and it was there that I first learned what "courtliness" meant by seeing a living, breathing example of it across the table from me. 

So, cheers to you, Professor Cronin! It took me almost forty years, but here I go!

(I thought this was a lovely remembrance from Notre Dame Magazine after his passing):

EDWARD J. CRONIN ‘38, a legendary professor in the Program of Liberal Studies who taught at Notre Dame for nearly 50 years, passed away on Christmas Day at age 88. He so loved what he taught —literature, especially James Joyce’s Ulysses — that in class he would often read aloud a line from a book and ask, “Isn’t that beautiful?” He said his wish was to die sitting on a bench at the Grotto reading Dickens. He actually was at a local nursing home when he died. The PLS professor was a demanding teacher, nicknamed B-minus Cronin by students because of his high standards and tough grading. As one former student recalls, he would return “themes” in a box labeled “Garbage Out” placed outside his office in the basement of the library. Students were admonished to pick up the papers quickly so as not to violate a city code prohibiting the leaving of garbage in a public place for longer than 48 hours. The devoutly Irish—he referred to Ireland as “the Holy Land” —and Catholic professor was always available to talk with students, though. He referred to these conferences as “confessions.” His teaching was so valued that it wasn’t unusual to hear a student remark, “I’ve got to get my Cronin course before I graduate.” He was a member of the regular faculty from 1949 until he retired in 1981 but continued to teach one course a semester until 1998, when he suffered a stroke. His focus on teaching rather than published research recalled an earlier age for academia, and he was old-fashioned in many other regards. Women were encouraged to wear skirts in class and men to remove their caps and hold the doors open for women. In 1983 the Program of Liberal Studies established the Edward J. Cronin Award for the best-written paper turned in as part of routine departmental course work. The professor himself would present the award at an annual dinner and make a show out of carefully opening the envelope and reading every word on the page, even the letterhead, to draw out the suspense. This year will be the first that the award is presented without him.

MAKING PROGRESS!

 

A quiet, sleepy, hot, hazy, stormy, stitchy Monday. Just what this Spinster needed!

WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE A MONDAY?

 I just cannot get my wits about me today. Everything is blurry and I keep thinking it's Monday morning, and I must have had an adventurous weekend that has left me befuddled.

Oh well.

Here's progress on Mini Moon:

And here's the next read after finishing Jude the Obscure and having to process it for a few days:

Yes...I know it's not a "Classic", but Jude knocked me out. Honestly...I did NOT expect it to have such a strong impact, but it did, and I needed a minute to recover and then something a bit different after.

I'm still looking forward to the return of Spinster School. I was going at a pretty good pace before surgery, so it's time to get back in the saddle in that regard.

Speaking of surgery...it was exactly six months ago. I feel like I've made good progress, but know that  I still have a fair bit of distance to go!

So Happy Whatever The Day it happens to be, Dearies! Are you well and safe and happy and joyful? Come tell me all about it!

AAAAHHHH...THAT FEELS BETTER

My poor stitchy mojo has been so non-existent lately that I feared it had fled the coop forever. But...thanks to my fifteen minute rule (*) I am happy to report that I am back in the saddle.

I had this lovely project kitted up in the cube room studio, and if memory serves me, I picked it up a few years ago during a Guild trip to the House of Stitches. I promised myself that I would only purchase things in kits, which meant chart, fabric, and threads...and that resulted in an easy decision for a fast start up.

The first step in getting ready for a new start is to create/organize my thread pallet. This means that I basically put little labels with the chart symbols onto a felted surface so that I can hold my working threads and not spend time fishing strands out of the storage pouch or off of cards or out of skeins.

See? Now all I have to do is look at the symbol, strip off a ply, and get to it.

Then I find my bling...these are some of my favorites, and since it's still very summery they seemed still appropriate.

And then we make a start! This was as much as I got done this afternoon while doing six loads of laundry and ordering our monthly household supplies from the Targets.

 And here's where I ended tonight! I hope I don't jinx myself for the rest of the project, but I'm thrilled with the amount of progress I made!

What a happy Sunday, Dearies! I got to spend some quality time with my Jersey Boy, my needle and thread, and some Dots Snack Mix that was somehow part of the household supply delivery.

(*) The fifteen minute rule is that I tell myself I only have to do something for fifteen minutes before giving up or switching to something else. 

 

ZERO STARS. DO NOT RECOMMEND.

Rage cleaning the kitchen for three hours on a 90 degree Monday with one kidney, no thyroid, and no colon?

As I said to Stewey before throwing my Mr Clean Magic Eraser across the room...

WHAT THE BLEEPITY BLEEPITY BLEEP BLEEP AM I DOING?!?!

Oh, Dearies, gone are the days when I was able to clean the house like an Amish woman, do the laundry, change the bed, do the groceries, and cook for the week and not only live to tell the tale...but put on the denim mini and go dance the night away. (*)

I was bemoaning this fact out loud to my Jersey Boy, when he politely reminded me that he reads this here blog, and as far as he can tell I haven't been able to clean the house like and Amish woman, etc since I was in my twenties. That would mean it's been FORTY YEARS ago.

FORTY. YEARS.

Damnit. Just when I was thinking that with enough practice and willpower I might return to my Saturday routines of yore, he has to go and remind me that I am now old and just simply unable to do so.

(Plus, there's that whole kidney, thyroid, and colon thing.)

But it's done, and as soon as I figure out how to get up off the floor, I'm going to re-make the bed, fold the four loads of laundry, take a nice shower, and enjoy the sparkle for the fifteen minutes it's going to last.

Bathroom tomorrow. 🤭😬🤭😬🤭

(*) Of course I didn't have a denim mini! Don't you know me by now? I have always been a beefy gal, and my biggest nightmare would be overhearing somebody say "Oh my Gawd! Did you see that big beefy gal in that denim mini?!"....so I stuck with the pleated front Mom jeans like all of the other beefy gals, thankyouverymuch.

THURSDAY

The days are kind of all blurring together, Dearies, but you won't find one single complaint coming from this direction. I am happy to be living a quiet, restful, simple routine. My stitchy production is nil, but I seem to be reading at a good pace. I finished Katabasis and then The Secret History, and now I think I'll jump into East of Eden or Jude the Obscure. Not sure which yet.

The Shamrock Series uniforms were unveiled without a peep of disappointment from Yours Truly. Neat, crisp, traditional, and not a hint of shower mould. (My school had a propensity for trying to recreate the wheel for a bit with stupid trends like all white, gold lame', or colors that don't exist in normal nature.)

So that's it for now.

I'm here.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME 🫤