Everything is working fine, everything is fine. Today I have shuffled my task deck and I’m doing my usual daily things — but in a completely different order. We’ll see how all that works out. Situps after coffee? (Well, not immediately after coffee.) Blog-writing in the morning and school-writing in the evening?
I must say that it’s a nice change of pace to be able to write this while looking at the window, with the trees and the landscape bathed in a soft autumn morning glow. But if I blink, it may turn to afternoon and then evening and darkness, and then I’ll have the anxiety and sense of urgency that come with the last night before the work week arrives. It’s harder to be creative under that pressure, when I can imagine the clock ticking down, down, down to bedtime.
To relax my mind today, I’m thinking about the squabbit, a hybrid animal a friend of mine recently described to me. They say it’s the indeterminate animal you see at a distance when you can’t tell if it’s a squirrel or it’s a rabbit. I think it would be more fun if it were a shy and harmless cryptid of the Upper Midwest. Their main activity is trying to elude discovery.
Fortunately for my imagination, people have been designing squabbits in Photoshop and animation for a while now.
And what could be cuter than a baby squabbit?
Oh, my. It looks as if it’s going to be a very long fall and winter. Let’s hope that will be good for creativity, productivity, and other kinds of activity.
I have made no progress at all on The Impossible Read this week, partially because I’m currently caught up in the planning, research, writing, and editing for my final paper for the graduate course.
After reviewing my favorite student development theories from the course, I selected my absolute favorite and started thinking about the types of programmatic interventions that it could support. This makes more sense to me than my original plan, which was to design an elaborate intervention and then figure out which development theory might best support it.
The instructor reminds me each week, “This is not your life’s work, Beth. Just write the paper.”
So I’m writing the paper. Not buying more typewriters or starting novels or learning languages or repairing the car or renovating the house. Just writing the paper.
Knitwise, I have been making steady progress on the shawl. I now have exactly one ounce remaining of the three-ounce full skein of Dark Rose Heather, and I have a pretty good idea of when to stop using it so I can switch to adding a grey stripe on the right side of the work. Row-counting wasn’t a concern when I added the first stripe, but now that there is a front and a back to the shawl I need (well, want) to respect that.
Just wait until I add that second grey stripe. Then it will look really different! After that we’ll be in the home stretch, as it were: I’ll knit up another full skein of Dark Rose Heather and then finish off the work —in some manner that has not yet been determined — with the dark grey yarn. Then I should probably decide on the next project. Warm basic scarves to donate to the Student Food Pantry wouldn’t be a bad way to go.
Chocolate Sheep 