Time You Enjoy Wasting...Not Wasted Time??

 

I feel very inadequate for not posting blog entries in a timely fashion.  Especially since I am unemployed outside the home and my children have all moved out.  What, you may ask, is keeping me so busy?  Huh.  An excellent question.  Some possibilities:

Puzzles.  Ever since the pandemic began, the San Jose Mercury News has been publishing three pages of puzzles EVERY DAY.  Plus a five-page insert on Sundays.  I love puzzles, and I am very bad at them, so this consumes a fair amount of my time.

Exercise.  I am not a fan of organized exercise classes, so I take healthful walks in my neighborhood instead.  However, my knees aren't great, and I don't like to get my bra sweaty, so it takes me hours to complete a five-mile walk.

 Dinner.  My fellow dinner providers all agree that the aggravation of providing dinner for the household is not the actual cooking, it is deciding what to serve.  I am a novelty seeker, so almost every day I prepare something for dinner that I have never made before.  This involves a careful reading of the recipe, which I consistently fail at, a trip to Safeway for obscure ingredients, and often a back-up dinner of cheese toast.  And a lot of dish-washing.

Spanish.  I have always wanted to be able to speak another language.  In high school I studied Latin, which was great for the SATs (a near-perfect verbal score), but you can't speak it.  In engineering school I was forbidden from taking a spoken language class because of all my computer language class requirements (COBOL, FORTRAN, Ada, Pascal, LISP, etc) So I yearn.  Much to the amusement (annoyance?) of my family, I am currently enrolled in my eighth intermediate Spanish class.  I have taken all the Intermediate Spanish classes at Foothill College and Cañada College and am working my way through the classes at West Valley College.  I love my Spanish classes, but I am very bad at them, so they consume a fair amount of time.  I just received an Incomplete from my lovely Spanish teacher at West Valley, so I will be taking 2A again in the Spring. ¡Adelante!

Crafts.  Not gonna lie, my favorite part of a craft project is the planning and the shopping.  I start many projects but then lose interest ten percent in and stuff them in a cabinet.  Some of my unfinished projects include, but are not limited to: 25 or so masks that I cut out but never sewed, a Santa hooked rug, those pants I started to alter, those old pillowcases I was going to tie-dye, that shirt I started five years ago, a knitted sweater I started twenty years ago, the crocheted string bag, the cross-stitched angel, the flapper costume, the lino print of St. Sebastian, the macrame plant holder, etc. etc.

However, I have actually finished a few things lately.  The suffragette costume that I started five years ago I finished for Halloween this year!  (I also made Larry's groovy costume years ago)

At a Christmas boutique this year I bought myself a cross-body handbag made out of an old blanket and a belt and decided that I needed some shoulder straps for it.  Having recently taken a weaving class at Montalvo, and presented a slide show on weaving for Spanish class, I decided that I could weave my own straps.  I dragged out the child's loom that's been under my bed for many years, ¡y tejí mis correas!.  

I made a Christmas present for my dad.  I went to JoAnn's Fabrics and bought a quarter yard each of some fabrics that reminded me of him and made a weird patchwork pillow.

I also made a Christmas present for my mom.  She loves loose, flowing housedresses with pockets so I made her one.  I knew I had it right because Susan said I looked like my mom.

Research.  I have embarked on a multi-year love affair with Wisconsin history and have read a lot of books and articles.  This activity involves spending a lot of time in libraries, which I adore.  I have taken reams of notes but have yet to write a paragraph.  It's a super-fun way to spend time.

In fact, I am in Chicago right now on a research trip.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  No, really, I have spent the last two days in the Newberry Library and the Chicago Public Library.  

The Newberry Library is a privately funded, publicly accessible history library.  You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get in, so there were only about four of us doing research.  It's so awesome to have a librarian bring you an old map or letter or manuscript on a velvet pillow.  I got to hold an original letter handwritten by that old French-Canadian drunk Joseph Rolette in 1826!  I think there will be a lot of research in my future.

I also went to the main branch of the Chicago Public Library, the Harold Washington Library Center.  It has nine floors of fantastic spaces and tons of books.  There's a whole indoor garden on the top floor!  I found some very interesting old books about the fur trade.  Also, I found a lot of homeless people.  They come in out of the cold, pick any old book off a shelf, and nap quietly at the tables.  It's what I would do, too, but I'm very thankful I'm not homeless.  

My friend Liz gave me a gift certificate to her friend's bookstore, Madison Street Books, and I spend a great couple of hours selecting books.  Thanks, Liz!

I also spent some time browsing in a gift shop run by a fussy old woman and an even fussier young gay man.  I felt like I was in a sitcom listening to them fret about the sock display.

I'm staying at the Aloft Chicago River North, where I have enjoyed staying before.  I love the desks that look out on Clark Street.  I have really enjoyed sitting here watching the rich tapestry of life on the street below.  Tomorrow I'm meeting Amy at the airport and going to see my parents.  Happy Holidays to you and yours!