Trifling Matters

Small things can really get under your skin. Like running up two flights of stairs only to have the train doors slam shut in your face. Going to a strange Starbucks and having the barista really fuck up your drink order and forget to buzz you into the bathroom when you're dangerously close to doing the pee dance. Inaccurate yarn estimates in patterns. Some guy sitting next to you on the train with his knees a yarn apart, seriously cutting into your personal space. Yes, I know that people are dying in places like Darfur while I whine about this crap. That's exactly what it is. How can such petty matters be so irritating at the time?
I went to the opening night of my latest project. They hadn't put my name in the program. Maybe they couldn't spell it. Maybe it's a general reflection of their attitude towards me, since they were inclined to walk all over me, but not let me actually get any tech accomplished. Grr. The technical aspects of the show were very, very weak. Hell, it was Waiting for Guffman bad. The cues were all over the place. The stage manager makes the actors set their own props. Their one and only stagehand moved like Sasquatch during the scene changes. And really, the audience's attention should be elsewhere. The piece de resistance, really, was that they were apparently doing laundry backstage and left the alarm on for the dryer. It went off four times during the first act. I was about ready to look for it and turn it off! But still, they don't pay me enough to care. There is some strong acting in the show, and a lot of strange choices. One of my favorite actors is in it, and it was largely because he is in it that I even bothered to go to opening night. That and the free dinner to follow.
I don't have any other theatre gigs lined up. I don't know how I feel about that. It is nice to not be working three jobs at a time. Was I trying to work myself to death or something? Still, I miss it. Not crap like the above anecdote, but working with friends, doing a challenging mix, the social opportunities. It's a busy time of year, so I haven't been able to get a hold of my friends lately, which is lonely making.
I'm making some new friends, as my horoscope predicted for the year. Over the past few months, I've met some really fabulous ladies through work. Friends who've let me crash at their place, gotten me ridiculously drunk, fed me wonderful dinners. It's good to build a bigger network of friends here in town, since most of my friends are far away. Yes, you can imagine me listening to old Carole King records on a rainy afternoon as you read that sentence, though I'm more inclined to listened to Joni Mitchell.
Since the Colinette pullover has turned out to be The Project That Eats Yarn, it's idling on the needles now. I'm working on another version of the Classy Drug Rug, for me this time. As I was knitting away at it on the train, I noticed a lot of people smiling at me. Maybe they think it's a child's sweater, I thought, but it's probably the happy colors. It is a very cheerful colorway. So, I'm alternating that and the Cashmerino Cowl wonder, which is moving along nicely even though I can only work on it in short bursts. I'm also trying to resist the temptation to start yet another project, as my Blue Sky Cotton yarn arrived in the mail today. It's for another Wendy creation, the Something Red, but I think I need Something Finished first. That is one disadvantage to working more than one project at a time.