Morning Noodling

The Monkey and I lolled in bed until quarter of nine today. When we finally opened our eyes to greet each other we gave the other a great squishy morning smile. On days like this I often get the gift of a "Hi mommy!" which starts my day off nicely.
I put on the kettle and popped a bagel in the toaster while Monkey wandered around reintroducing her clown to various characters in the kitchen. I started making a mental "should-do" list; dishes, buy baby wipes, do some laundry, etc. Meanwhile I flipped through a cook book ogling cake recipes and wondered which one my Dear would like as an after work surprise. Monkey ate a muffin and shared her Cheerios with me while I had tea and ate cream cheese and Joan's home made marmalade on a bagel. It was a nice way to start the day.
We went out and bought wipes but I am now studiously avoiding the rest of my "should-do" list. Thinking about my current knitting project. Wondering if I will get work today. Wondering if I should start tackling the tricky Halloween costume I have decided to make for Monkey. Should I shower now or later?
Monkey is enraptured by her favorite cartoon which frees up my time some but will I use that time "constructively"? Ah! I know, I will read the free paper and see what interesting events exist for my friend and I to do this weekend on my "day pass" excursion. Now that is time well spent!

Knit, Purl, Dream, Knit, Purl, Dream...

I have been knitting to such a fevered pitch recently that I dreamed of knitting last night. I dreamed the act of knitting and nothing else, no plot, no characters, just yarn and sticks. This is what I get for making knitted objects a goal rather than a hobby. At least I have the good sense to know that I never want to get paid to do it. Making it a job takes all the love out of it. And there is definite love there for me. The fact that I got giddy when a burly P.I character on a TV show I like (Pushing Daisies) was revealed to knit under pressure shows that I am obsessed and loving it. I don't go gaga over "yarn porn" like some but the act of creating a usable, hopefully, beautiful object really satisfies me. No wonder I dream of it.

Long distance relationships

We drove to Toronto last weekend to bring the Monkey to the zoo. Her favorites were the giraffes, elephants, gorillas and seals. While walking to the seal pavilion she was hollering "Seals, where aaarrre yoouuu?" in a sing song voice. And when we finally saw them she greeted them with a gleeful announcement of "Seeaalls!"
We stayed with a friend who always brings my spirits up. She has wonderful warmness and she gets excited about the same kinds of silly things as me. It's only a shame she lives in another city, like most people I would love to have close to me. I have some friends in this city and some of them I have known a long time but there is and always will be a distance of a sort. A squeak in my "letting you in" door. The ones I can fall down broken in front of are far away, the ones I would choose to help me up because they would do it just right. The ones who make me laugh from the gut, give hugs from the soul and gently but firmly tell it like it is all live away.
So despite the agony of the drive there and back the trip helped heal an empty feeling I had been having. I feel stronger after having spent time with someone I truly enjoy if only for a weekend.
Now all I need is to find someone or someones like that here but, of course, I don't get out much.