Messy Desk Sunday

When I was a young child, I always had my nose buried in a book - sometimes to escape the strange twists and turns that life had already thrown at me, sometimes because the story or the information was so interesting, I couldn't bear to look up and pay attention to the world around me. It was often at those times that my stepmonster (former - not the wonderful and dear Maureen of current times) would say to me that when I grew up I was going to probably be one of those mothers who had stinky diapers piling around me, with numerous children screaming for my attention while my nose was buried in some book. As one can readily see from the above, she wasn't far off. Although (thankfully) there are no stinky diapers needing to be changed and washed and no little ones are now screaming for my attention. Once when Dori was little, she had a couple of children's books that I thought were just hilarious - The Stupids Step Out about a family of incredibly stupid people (what can I say? The book cracked me up) and George and Martha about two good friends who just happened to be hippopotami. I told her I would have those books near my desk when I became a lawyer and that they would have the same pride of place as Black's Law Dictionary or the Maryland Code.

Well, I can't find my copies of The Stupids or George and Martha, but I do have an occasional ball of yarn nearby and one of the Juvenile Clerks at the courthouse keeps xeroxes of coloring book pages with a box of crayons for kids who come to court and have to sit up at counsel table for their hearings. And though I did manage to carve out some time for music (Choirs of St. Mary's, St. Louis, Alexandria Choral Sociey, Baltimore Symphony Chorus and now wonderful St. John's choir) and I did manage to take time knitting over the years while the kids were little, and yes, my nose was often in a proverbial book - more often one from the library, titles culled from the pages of the NY Times Book Review, even then I was able to get the housework done and no one went to school without clean underwear or a matching pair of socks. John may disagree with this, but I wasn't that terrible (well, except for that time during finals of my first year in law school when a mushroom type thing actually grew in the upstairs bathroom, but, hey, we all get one boo boo, don't we?).

I know I should care more about this stuff - keeping up a professional image at work, looking good, running a well kept household. But the fact is, I just don't. OK, I suppose it is helpful to have clean underwear. I grant you that. And the one day a week I actually cook something, I should make it at least palatable. And every so often, I really do dig out of my clutter. Really I do. It's just that there are so many other interesting things going on, that I sometimes forget - and then resolve to do better.

Today is another beautiful weather day in Merlin. The heat has not really passed 80 degrees F and most evenings, it's back into the 70s. We in Merlin do not know how to act; we are such wimps and prisses about weather, that it's become a statewide occupation to piss and moan about it. Now all we can do is say, "Nice weather, isn't it?" A real conversation killer!

This morning I (GASP) actually went to church. Nancy was playing and Donna and Tom H were singing. What I didn't realize was that Nancy was singing the alto part in the a beautiful duet. One focuses on her instrumental talent and often forgets what a pure, lovely singing voice she has. And they were a person down - Sally L (the one who was supposed to sing alto) was out with some sort of bug. The sermon was really great - with a quote from Pascale about one of the downfalls of the human race being the inability of human beings to sit quietly alone in a room for a period of time. True.

Afterwards, I met up with friends outside - Susan F introduced us to a French student who was staying with her family and we tried in our terrible high school French to communicate, which to this young man's credit, seemed to be amusing, LOL. I had made plans a couple of weeks earlier to have coffee and catch up with Ellen R, a former fellow EfM'er who had been through some recent life-changing events. Nancy, Donna and Tom joined us and we had a nice [br/l]unch and great conversation. I know this will sound weird, but I was never so happy as when I heard from Nancy that they were all coming to meet up with us. OK, I am crazy; I think we've established that! It was like the cavalry coming to the rescue:)

So now I am at my rather messy desk, trying to figure out how best to get ready for this evening and this coming week. John is still asleep, though I hear some moving around upstairs. Soon I will be calling to get a head count for Sunday dinner and then it's off to get groceries and figure out what to make (yeah, not very organized, is it? - should probably do in opposite order!).

Yesterday, I did go to the Saturday Sip 'n Knit at Savage Mill. There were a good 15 or so of us and I must have sat and knitted for a good three hours, because although I did go grab some coffee afterwards, I didn't get home until 3:30 in the afternoon!

I worked on the Sandrine from Knit Chics' Bonnie Marie Burns. I finally got to the dividing row and it's going a little bit faster.

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This evening was dinner with four of the six and the two and seven ninths grandchildren and it was nice. A quiet summer evening with dinner thrown together, mostly from the deli section of the supermarket, a few glasses of red wine, and a beautiful evening on the little swing on the deck. Can life get any better?

Before I go, I leave you with some pictures - progress on Sandrine and a little project using a lace pattern found on the internet via a knitting listserve. (Gotta love 'em!)

Good night, oh patient readers- God be with you 'til we meet again!

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