Music is the answer

I've been dragging around the house today. The internet does not amuse me and no one's picking up the phone. Ennui has set in. Nothing entertains me today, and I find myself brooding over the meaning of Sinatra lyrics. Isn't "A Very Good Year" really about the need for more and more stimuli, how our tastes become more sophisticated as we age? Maybe it's the return of Saturn, I don't know. I try to play it cool and I can't.

What has gotten me out of this Piscean funk? My drug of choice, music. Perhaps you have heard that Zooey Deschanel has an album out. Buy it. I wouldn't have thought that she could be more adorable, but She & Him makes me love that quirky, wide-eyed indie girl even more. Happy/sad love songs, retro girl singer arrangements, and an amazing cover of "You Really Got a Hold of Me" have made this album a quick fave on my ipod.

I also purchased an old album of chansons by Mme Sarkozy, Carla Bruni. Meghan at work recommended it to me. Seems we both love dreamy French music (see Keren Ann, Monade, Stereolab, et al). Quelqu'un M'a Dit makes an oddly good pairing with She & Him. Of course, I strive to complicate the iTunes store's recommendations algorithm. Really, how do you make predictions for someone who buys folk, trip hop, and French pop?

Communication is key

Sorry for the blog hiatus. I've been having problems with my DSL, which has put me in a foul mood lately. Doesn't the phone company know that I need to devote at least an hour a day to looking at lolcats and Ravelry? I thought that I'd solved the problem at the beginning of the week. Someone had tripped over the phone line to the modem and pulled it out of the wall. Problem solved, right? No, this was a two part problem. The modem had to be reset as well. Apparently, my modem is like a flashbulb, because it can only be reset so many times. The tech service rep told me that I have only one more reset. So that modem better be on its best behavior!

My cell phone has been acting up, too. The battery hasn't been holding a charge. Also, the phone has decided to constantly take pictures of the inside of my pocket. That may or may not be related to the weak battery. Fed up, I called my phone company and sweet talked them into giving me a new phone. Then I waited and waited for it to come in the mail. I'm not the most patient person about mail order, so this just added to my aggravation. I made a couple of phone calls and discovered that the phone company sent my new phone to the wrong address. They sent it to an address that doesn't exist and were about to return it to the sender when I called. Sigh. I have the new phone now and it is highly excellent. My mom even gave me a bluetooth earpiece to go with it, so I can rock out like Uhura. So if you see me walking down the street talking to myself, it's the phone, not craziness. Probably.

I went to the opera last night to see Eugene Onegin. It had a bit of a slow start, like a Russian novel, and a stark set, but I eventually got into it. One of our customers at the LYS is in it, so I was excited to see her. I was also a bit surprised. Poor Catherine. She's such a lovely, vivacious person and they gave her old age makeup, an awful wig, and a costume that looked upholstered. I'm so glad that I went to see her recital at the cultural center this week. She wore a gorgeous ombre dyed devore velvet flowing jacket that suited her perfectly and sung art songs. She also sang the "Out Damned Spot" aria from Macbeth, which was absolutely incredible.

On the knitting front, I have so many WIPs now that I may never finish any of them. It's too crazy. To say that I've come down with startitis is an understatement. Fortunately, several of the projects are small ones, so I may be able to finish a couple of them and return to the everlasting Malabrigo project with a bit of confidence.

I've got my voice back now and I'm making up for lost time! I am full of opinions, but oddly still lacking in energy. Maybe it's the uninspiring weather. This is the sort of day perfect for curling up with a book and a cat (provided that the cat is willing. He's had to be forcibly removed from the heat duct several times this afternoon.). This would undoubtedly lead to a long, afternoon nap. Given the choice between almost anything and sleep, I would choose sleep. I've been really tired lately and not getting much done. Yesterday, I planned to get moving in the morning, get a new driver's license (mine broke in half), go see a movie, get a manicure, etc. How much of that do you think I did? None. The current plan is to go to the DMV after my hair appointment this week. It doesn't guarantee a cute picture, but at least increases the odds.

My knitting is progressing slowly. Maybe I have too many projects going at once. The Malabrigo cardigan is marinating right now. I'm afraid of running out of yarn, which it is eating up quickly. I'm working on two pairs of socks: one for work out of Araucania Ranco Multi and one for me out of Noro Kureyon sock. Both are being knit from the toe up, Magic Loop, on Knitpicks fixed circulars. The Ranco makes a really soft, squishy fabric, with surprising color variation. The yarn is much more purple in the fabric than it looked in the skein. The Kureyon is full of surprises as well. It's not nearly as scratchy as it feels in the ball and makes a very striking sock. It's a lively single, which is a bit frustrating at times, but I am pleased with the project. I am also working on a One Skein Wonder shrug out of yarn from my stash, shale colored Manos. It's sort of an unusual un-color, but I like it.

My grandmother celebrated her 90th birthday on the first, which led to a weekend long family celebration. It was a great deal of fun, as my Aunt Jeanne came to visit and regaled us all with old family stories. My grandmother received so many phone calls for her birthday, as well as two floral bouquets and a fruit bouquet. The fruit was incredible. I had seen ads for them before and figured that the pictures were doctored, but the bouquets really do look that good. They also taste amazing. Everyone agreed that it was an excellent and clever gift from our cousin. My grandmother is terribly hard to shop for. I'd planned to make a lace scarf for her out of laceweight Malabrigo (fabulous! love!), but couldn't work on it while I was sick. I didn't want to give my grandmother a smallpox blanket birthday present. So, it's going to be a Mother's Day gift instead.

My mother talked me into getting a pedicure today. I've avoided them due to the state of my feet. I wear clogs without socks, and have hoof-like feet as a result. Calloused, rough, and neglected, they weren't going to improve on their own. I really needed a pedicure. It sounds so frivolous, but my feet feel so much better now. And I have cute pink nails. If I keep this up, I might even be able to wear sandals this summer.

Not being able to communicate is really irritating me. I went to lunch with my mother yesterday and wrote in a notebook to talk to her. Apparently I don't write fast enough, because she kept trying to guess at the end of sentences. Sigh.

I got a postcard in the mail from my actually local LYS and decided to go check it out. Sale, new Noro, and a remodel? I'm there. I was there for a big disappointment. They'd cut their space in half, as well as their stock. They must be having hard times like everyone else in the industry. I went in the mood to buy, but there wasn't a garment worth of any of the yarns that I liked (which has long been a complaint about the store in question). Oh, and one of the customers recognized me from work and called me out on it. I must have seemed really standoffish because I couldn't chat, but I was so disappointed that I didn't care. I wish the ladies who run the store the best, but I doubt that I will shop there again.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my new ipod? I do. I am downright smug about it. I fell asleep listening to it last night and forgot to put the sleep timer on. It still had a full battery sign when I woke up this morning (ok, almost afternoon. Obviously, I need my rest.), which would never have happened with the old one. The batteries have improved so much in the past couple of generations of ipods.

I watched a bit of Saturday Night Live last night, since it was a new episode. SNL hasn't been on my to-do list in a long time, but I figured they'd have some good material after being away for months. The news update was excellent, especially Tina Fey's commentary on Hillary Clinton, "Bitches get things done". It's true, and that's what I like about Mme. Clinton. It's hard to be a Clinton supporter in Chicago, which is quite Obama-centric.

I also read this morning that Nader is joining the fray. NO. Please stop ruining elections. In the 2000 presidential election, I kicked one of his campaign signs every day and my love for Ralph Nader has not grown in the intervening years. We have enough fringe candidates already, like Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. I'm tired of this ridiculous shit. I try to keep up with current events, stay informed, but lately it's been too much. What next? If only the economy weren't in the toilet, I could do what I did in 2004 and leave the country for a month. It was so nice getting away from it all then, even if I did have to listen to people in a tiny pub in Scotland tell me why Bush would get back in. Grrrrr. I'm suffering from election coverage fatigue.

Froggy

I have been sick as a dog this week. Miserable. Called names by coworkers like "typhoid mary". I don't know where I picked up this virus, but it seems to be making the rounds in Chicago. I got sick despite my recent clementine binge. Thanks a lot, Linus Pauling. It started as a ridiculously painful sinus infection, fever, chills, and general ick. Now that has cleared up, I have no voice. This may actually be worse for morale than the sinus infection. Naturally, I would like nothing better than a long, gossipy phone call to my grandmother.

My mother advised me to speak to no one, so that my throat and vocal cords can rest, but I cannot resist cooing over Winston. He has been quite the chum while I have been sick, a reassuring presence slowly taking up more and more space on the bed. My coworker Megan refers to this as "pillow Manifest Destiny". Winston has also been amused by the humidifier. He first regards the initial flumes of vapor rising from the machine, then hovers closer to hungrily swallow gulps of warm, moist air. Maybe he's a little under the weather too.

Normally, this sort of thing would provide me with hours of guilt free knitting in front of the television. A fever does not do good things for cognitive function. I taught my fair isle cardigan class on Wednesday and spent the entire class wrestling with my yoke. I was determined, though, and it seemed unwise to curse and angrily throw it in the corner as I would at home in front of students.

Other than that, there is really nothing interesting going on. Everyone seems to drag in February in Chicago. It's hard to work up much energy or enthusiasm. It's too damn cold. Zoe and I finally had dinner together last night at the Hack. We'd hoped to have a talky catch up session, but there wasn't much to say. We're tired and we want spring.

No big plans for me. I actually turned down the chance to have drinks with a couple of co-workers so that I could go to Whole Foods to buy a crate of clementines. Sad, I know. Lately, I've been leading a pretty dull existence. I've been busy doing boring things, like trying to make my new ipod talk to my mac. My firewire cable will charge but not sync it, so I have to tie up a precious usb port instead. I feel that there must be a trick to this, but hope that it does not involve buying a new cable.

I listened to a story on NPR the other day about classical music on Youtube. It would never have occurred to me to look for classical music there, but there is a real treasure trove of clips, like Rostropovich playing a Bach bouree and Toscanini conducting. A great way to spend the important midnight to three am designated internet trolling hours. I may be falling in love with NPR again. Lately, it's been a sort of background noise and I've been more interested in the Beeb and CBC. The local NPR station has had great stories, though, and is reeling me back in. When I woke up this morning, they were doing a piece about the Valentine's Day Massacre "for the single listeners". How could you not love that?

Oh--the new ipod. Love it! I had to sync it over night to get my library on it, but it all fits. I say all, but I still have dozens of cds that I never uploaded. I've even watched a video on it already, which was very exciting. I'm one of those people now, who needs to be entertained at all times.

I broke down and bought the anniversary issue of the New Yorker. I was going into snarky cartoon withdrawal and needed a fix. Still haven't made much progress in the Jane Austen compendium. I've got some sort of literary startitis now. I bought Julia Child's autobiography the other day (amazing! Every page leaves me hungry!) and some other book that I don't remember but must have seemed very interesting at the time. Add to that The Tea House Fires, a novel about the opening of Japan to the West, and a collection of short stories called My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead. I apparently think that I have a lot of time to read, but until I can figure out how to knit and read at the same time or drive and read (bad, bad idea), that will not be the case. The last book that I read, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, was a bit of a letdown. I'm not sure what I thought it was going to be, but the noir style really didn't it cut it for me. I like the idea of pulp, but Austen and I Capture the Castle are more my speed. Hell, one of my favorite books is a Willa Cather novel.