Hello, dear friends! What an interesting week it’s been. And exhausting given that I had the luxury of roughly two weeks of staycation. Returning to work after any length of hiatus is never easy. But, still, my year started off great and I hope yours did too. To start off, when we went to have New Year’s Day lunch with friends, I got this surprise:
Yup, this is the little man (the one being held, not the one with the beard) for whom I knitted a little hat and cardigan. (Sorry it’s not a better picture but the lighting was low.) There was much oohing and ahhing around as well as gratitude that the day was cold enough for him to be all bundled up. Although I’ve knitted a fair number of garments for babies and children, I’ve rarely seen them worn in the flesh. Usually I get photos or perhaps a thank-you note since most of my handmade gifts travel thousands of miles to their recipients. I can’t imagine a better start to the New Year than this!
Now, I said going back to work is never easy. You may recall my complaining mentioning that my office mates and I were being moved back to the building from which we came two years before. I wasn’t particularly happy about this move, especially since it was done over the holidays. Also, I had a lot of wall decals to remove since I didn’t want to get accused of “interfering with state property.” So, with this move, I had resolved to spend less time “nesting” in my new digs. I consider myself a short-timer now so there’s no need to get too cozy. Yet, I have my priorities:
I had managed to salvage these wall decals and although I’m trying to eschew nesting, I’ll take whatever lifts to my mood I can get. It makes me smile to see the kitties on my door or the silhouette on my window (and I can even see her from the outside at the street level).
I’m happy to say that by the end of this week I feel reconciled to my new office if for no other reason than … well … I’m here 😉
And I’m a roll with the book reviews! A few days ago I finished Such is Life by Jeri Walker. Some of you may already know Jeri from her website, Word Bank Writing & Editing. I actually “met” Jeri through Triberr, yet another social media site that I spent too little time on. Jeri is a freelance writer and author, with a novel in progress and a few small pieces (short stories and essays) available through Amazon.
I loved the stories in Such is Life and, while reading, frequently compared Jeri’s writing (both form and content) to that of Joyce Carol Oates (totally innocent of the fact that other readers had made the same comparison). These are dark slices of life told with a sympathy that keeps you reading even when you know the ending won’t be happy. Go on over to Amazon, read my review, and then pick up a copy of Such is Life.
Finally, I want to direct you to the blog of a friend, a young man I’ve been following for some time and whose weekly updates were often sources of inspiration and validation, as well as some good eye candy. Phillip McCollum is a wonderful writer but also a dad and husband and full-time employee at a very demanding job. So, he’s making choices, thinking hard about what direction his life might/should go in. His musings echo my own. Writing is something I still care about and want to do, but these days it just feels like it has to take a back seat. Life is short. I may be able to carve out a month of crazy writing once a year, but I don’t (yet) have the discipline and focus to put my writing first every day of the year. And that’s okay.
I have plenty of books and blogs to read, yarn to knit up, places to visit, friends to write letters to. Writing is always there in some form or other.
Until next time, I’ll be dancing in my chair …
1 Write Way 
25 responses to “You Can’t Get Rid of Me … At least not easily #MondayBlogs #knitting #GrandFunkRailroad”
Love the cat decals. Your talk of being a short-timer and nesting reminds me of my temping days. You put a little up to feel like it’s your space, but not so much that you’ll have a lot to pack when the assignment is over. Most of the time I simply brought a notebook along and that was my decoration. Great job on the hat and sweater for the munchkin. Adorable look too. Kind of like ‘I can see you’re up to something. I wasn’t born yesterday.’ 😛
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Hey, Charles. That’s the challenge: enough office personality to make me feel comfortable but that I can also walk away from of need be. Glad you like the cat decals. I’m so glad I was able to save them 😉
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Guessing they were tough to remove. Decals are always a pain.
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They were designed to be removable so it wasn’t hard. I just had so many of them and I used my fingernails. Ouch!
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Ouch indeed. Sounds like it would wear the nails down.
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It did and my fingers were sore for days after!
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OMG, you are a “cat lady”!
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Yup, and if we weren’t open to leaving FL, I’d have more than 3 cats right now. Whenever I see kitties for adoption, I just imagine carrying crates of crying, puking cats across country, and then I move on 😉
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Ha! I can see it…
We’ve been adopted lately by our neighbor’s cat, who sleeps most of the day on our bed and leaves for his rounds in the afternoon. I have a sneaky feeling he wants to switch owners!
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I suspect that’s what happened with Maxine. She just showed up one night and has been with us ever since. She wasn’t feral at all. Just probably wanted more attention (which she gets, especially from my husband).
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Glad the move went well. I love your decals. They have got to lift your spirits a bunch.
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They do indeed! Especially the one in my window 🙂
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Yes indeed
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The sweater and hat turned out wonderfully! And the baby is awfully cute too. 🙂
I follow Phillip and always enjoy his writing. I think many of us can relate to his recent words.
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Hi, Carrie! I couldn’t believe the outfit fit him so well! Lucky me the temps were cold enough 🙂 I so agree with you about Phillip. I hope he at least provides us with occasional updates. I enjoy his writing whether it’s fiction or fact 🙂
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Aw…the sweater and hat looks adorable on the little fella! He sure is a cutie.
I’m loving your decals, Marie. As for Phillip, I can totally relate. Thanks for the ping! 🙂
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Hi, Jill! Oh the baby is so cute but he keeps his dad on his toes (first child). 😉
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I bet! You did a great job, Marie.
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Cats! I’m totally adopting another cat as soon as I get back to Anchorage (all of my pets died of old age last year, sigh, sigh). I also kind of feel the way that you do about writing right now. Sometimes it seems that when I write like crazy, I miss out on actually living my life. And lately I’ve been wanting to, you know, just live a little. And read more. And daydream and run and swim and just not worry about whether I’m writing or how much I’m producing, blah, blah, blah. Cheers and have a great week.
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Oh, that’s wonderful that you’ll adopt another kitty! It’s rough losing a furry friend at any time but two in one year! That’s way too hard. And I hear you about just wanting to live a little. It’s hard enough organizing my life around my day job. When I start feeling surly about writing (and I include blogging), that’s when I know I need to back off. The stories are always there but some experiences aren’t 😉 Cheers, Cinthia!
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P.S. Love the hat and sweater.
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You’re too kind, Marie. Thank you for the shout-out and kind words! It sounds like you’re doing a great job of figuring out where you want to be and I’m thankful that you seem to be doing it before you hit the brick wall at 100 mph like I did. 🙂 Like you said, life is short… I think it’s good to take a break from something to really see how much it means to you.
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Hey, Phillip! I think I’m doing okay with figuring things out. I’m too old to hit the wall that hard anyway. It would be the last thing I’d do and that would not be good 😉
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Cats rule! Even though mine has taken to scratching my couch. A lot. The water bottle isn’t much of a deterrent these days. Thanks too for the review of my short stories. I’m gradually getting back to my writing and still figuring out what type of writer I want to be when I grow up, so time will tell. Interesting too that we met through Triberr. That’s what I like about all the people I met online. You just never know when a good one will come along 😉
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Our cats have pretty much ruined our couches. And, yes, that is in spite of the ever present water bottle. I guess we should be grateful that at least it’s a deterrent when we’re eating dinner and they want to get up close and personal 😉
The thing about your writing, Jeri, is that I think it will be interesting for readers to see how it grows. You’re off to a very good start. Just follow your heart. From what you’ve said on Twitter, your influences were similar to mine; only I got derailed. Don’t make my mistake 😉
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