Bohemian Bluestocking

Mass-holes. They are from Massachusetts and they are *fill in the obvious blank*.

Let me explain:

I was running late to work this morning. Nothing unusual. I am more often than not 10 minutes late to work. I stopped to get coffee at the combo Shell Gas/Dunkin Donuts on my way. Hey, I was running late. I placate my draper with coffee -- caffeine is a great smoother out of many things. I pull into the center(turning) lane of of traffic, get my blinker on, there is a car in front of me who is turning too. There is gap in the on-coming traffic, just long enough for both of us to make the left turn, with no hestitation. So of course she hesitates, and I peep my horn, one single light peep, to let her know they is someone behind here, and she needs to move a bit more quickly, so I don't block traffic. They I scoot around her, and get into the drive-through lane, order my coffee, pull up to pay.

SHE IS WAITING FOR ME AS I GET READY TO PULL AWAY FROM THE DRIVE-THROUGH WINDOW.

• I have my window down, and she says, "you are a crazy woman."
• Me: "You waited for me to come through the drive-through?"
• Her: "You are a dangerous driver. You and your fancy vehicle, you need to go back where you came from." (My license plates are from NH; the 2002 Jeep Liberty is on loan from the parents, it is *not* a really fancy vehicle. Cool, yes. Fancy, no)

She, on the other hand, is driving a brand-new Mercedes cross-over SUV. (What she had can be found through that link, MSRP starting at $45,000, Liberty was about 1/2 that)

I give her "oh, god, what a wack-job" look and quickly drive away.

There is a reason I tell people I am from New Hampshire. We tend not to scream at people in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. Unless we are related to them. ;)

I have a day off. In my current theater incarnation, I have 1.5 days off(1/2 of Sunday, and all of Monday, when the theatre is dark) I came in today to do a couple of hours work, truing up a shawl-collar vest pattern, which I will cut tomorrow afternoon, after my draper has trued and cut a tailcoat using the same lining.

But what to do now that I have the rest of my evening? Probably go home, clean the apartment a bit, keep knitting on the sweater I've started, maybe start another pair of socks, if so inclined. Not very exciting, I admit, but more reassuring that I can have a seemingly normal life, if I choose.

So, I don't pay much attention to my blog stats, because I assume I'm out there in the ether, on my own -- except for Beth S. -- who I know reads it :) But I looked recently, and yes, someone's reading it. Not that I have facinating things to say, but hey, I have something to be said.

The update is I am hard at work in the costume shop at Shakespeare & Co., that regional theatre(note the 're' -- very important...) in Lenox, Massachusetts, nestled in the Berkshires, "America's Premier Cultural Resort," according to the country's promotional materials. Which really means the area is full of second-home owners and the touristas, coming to imbide "culture" in the form of Tanglewood, Norman Rockwell, and the various theatres that abound.

The reality is gridlock, crabby customer services, and new yawk accents clamouring in the humidity of July and August. ugh.

I just wait for September and they head further north to gawk at the leaves. Yeah -- they're pretty, but jeez, making a special trip?

So I am making costumes, and knitting my little heart out so I'll have stuff to sell this winter. And a home-cooked meal is probably not within site any time soon. darn.

It's amazing what you can accomplished when you are unemployed/underemployed. Projects get DONE. period. end of story. It knitting, knitting, knitting, sewing, cooking, milk chocolate brownies, ginger carrot soup, homemade bread(?!), mopped floors(that just amazes me to no end -- I rarely mop the floors.)

I sorted all my embroidery floss and wrapped it onto little DMC cards.

And while it's certainly not boredom because I have plenty to do, I am wondering at all the things I've managed not to finish since I moved to Pittsfield. In the process of finishing some embroidery project(done after I sorted/wrapped all that floss) I came across/finished a dishtowel, as far as I can determine, has been sitting in the workbasket for over 10 YEARS. I packed it up unfinshed when I moved to Pittsfield from New Hampshire. I don't know if I should be horrified or humiliated.

Leave it at that. 

The homemade bread was yummy.

I keep telling myself that if I have an happy outlook the day won't look so bad. But it still does. You know those late winter days when it dusk ALL DAY LONG!? I got some knitting done though, 3 cotton scrubbies and 2 dishcloths. A friend of mine makes this wonderful olive oil/cocoa butter soap, so I think a trade is in order next tiime I see here. This winter is just drying up my skin, so much that I want scrape if off and start over. 

I made a list of the unfinished projects in the 2+ "sewing" laundry baskets and 2 "knitting" baskets. And this is the plan. It ALL gets done by mid-April. It has to get done. I'm unemployed, except for some pieces of stitching work, so there is NO EXCUSE this time around (I made this promise to myself last late winter, and very little came of it.) I start back at Shakes & Co at the end of April, so there's the deadline. And it's not insurmountable, either. Very manageable, in fact. And the other basket, of completed objects, is growing big enough that it might spill over into 2 baskets, which would mean I may actually be close to being down to 1+ basket of sewing projects. Which would warrant of real cry of "whoopi!"

I have joined Ravelry, which I have to say -- SO COOL -- that's it become very addictive. And i've realized that I've finished of almost finished 17 projects since the new year. And that's not including the sewing stuff. Unemployment can be a wonderful thing -- frees the mind to wander/wonder. Now I just need to get pictures of all this stuff posted. A digital camera would be soooo neat to have. But the unemployment thing can get in the way to.

Just picked up 3 skeins of Tahki Donegal Tweed at half-price, in an amazing blood red with black tweedy bit, from one of my LYS, Colorful Stitches. Not a place I usually go to, since the customer service SUCKS, and the owner doesn't quite get the whole "maybe i should like my customers" thing. And I also picked up some very cute fabric at my LQS (local quilt shop, natch) Pumpkin Patch, to make some reusable grocery bags, that I found online at BurdaStyle, and open source pattern site (sort like Ravelry, but for sewers) and then I found a pant pattern, and then a shirt pattern, and now I am back up multiple baskets of projects.

"Office life and real life had to be kept separate. On weekday mornings, you locked the door on your unacceptable self; you let it out again after five. This was the arrangement by which I knew I had to live. But only for the time being" -- Joyce Johnson. Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir (1983)

If it were only that easy. Sometimes you end up closing it off completely, and never letting out your unacceptable self. (almost dangled a participle.) There are those moments when you want to shyly offer to open the box and let others see that creative, unique self, and you do, and noone seems to be paying attention.

I am certainly not pointing to any recent offering, just musing on the nature of creativity, and acknowledgement of art and craft in a world that willfully undervalues/misunderstands the nature of craft -- the "gosh, aren't you clever and craft-y" response to creativity, albeit maybe not art, because what you do is what countless grandmothers, spinster aunts, and crabbed old ladies rocking in chairs do when they are not starching dollies and making cookies.

And that would be undervaluing and marginliation of their work as well -- though sometimes some of that work might be better off unmade/undone, because there are moments when the craft is overwelmed by the "what was i thinking?" point of the process.

Never in a bunch of years, would have I thought this to be true:

so yaaah, I'm a loser.....haven't written for a really long time. you know, work gets in the way of real life. Between working at the theater and this retail lackey job, there wasn't a heck of a lot of time to write anything. But. interestingly enough, while working backstage doing wardrobe I did finish 4 scarves and 3 pairs of socks.

Right now it's onto Fall Festival again, hundreds of school kids and lots of Shakespeare. Luckily, I am at the same schools as I was last year, so I'll know most of the kids and parents.  I have not idea what shows are planned, but will probably get swamped next week when I go on contract. yipee!

I am moving right along. The holiday season got me really swamped with retail lackey life, but there is a lightening soon into the new year, because soon the tourons (an alien species that sees our earth as a vacation planet) will leave earth for their home planet in the planetary system Longus Islandia Prime. And then I can focus on finishing up all the various projects left over from the fall. Really I will.

A bit of goodish news: I did get an email from my fearless leader at S&Co. saying she wants me back for the summer and fall seasons, which can mean anythings as far as shows go. I'll keep everyone posted as soon as I know where I'll be.

I think I have New Year Resolutions, but they may wait for couple of days.

I have photos to pick up from development, at some point.