Today, I went down to the beach and it was high tide, so there wasn’t much beach to walk on, nor were there many shells to find. The waves, however, were fantastic foamy creations, that I can still hear crashing out their rhythm in my ears. I sat on a rock and just stared, humming a song under my breath.
After that, I went shopping and bought chestnuts, among other things. I did roast the chestnuts today and you can read about it here. They are pretty tasty. I’ve made some quinoa for part of my dinner and I actually didn’t overcook it this time. The little curly parts are still firmly attached to the rest of it.
Yes, I know exactly what I’m talking about…honest! The last time I used my rice cooker to cook the quinoa and that didn’t work very well. Anyway, it tuned out much better than the last time, when the curly parts were not attached to the rest of the quinoa.
Tonight, I am going to crochet, listen to music, and eat my dinner. And I will probably read also. Oh, and I’ll be listening to the following:
NeedtoBreathe
Tenth Avenue North
Switchfoot
Anyway, I’m off to go finish that dinner that I’m in the middle of, and work on my crocheting. Have a lovely Saturday night, y’all!
I’m sitting here, with a peach pleasure from Jamba Juice, and thinking way too hard. I have lists of things to do, but I can’t seem to get them done.
I am tired, preoccupied, and my lower wisdom teeth have started to rear their ugly heads. Again. For about the fifth (or is it sixth or seventh) time. They start to surface, then recede…then wait a few more months, and do the same again. I suppose I should have them pulled, but I”m a little leery about the whole knife in my mouth, carving holes in my gums while I’m passed out in the chair thing.
I’ll wait until all four of them are firmly visible and have remained so for more than a week, thank you.
Plans are in the works for Keenan’s birthday party. I am very sorry to subject his guests to Chuck E. Cheese, but there will be cupcakes…does that sound like a bribe? It’s not…sort of. I don’t really like Chuck E. Cheese, but if they have that one game where you’re the boat and you’re shooting all the other ships and if you can get the guy on the souped up jet ski you get a million points, then it’s all worth it. I think it’ll be fun, to get together with a bunch of the people that Keenan loves, and celebrate the HUGE blessing and joy that he is.
Last night, Keenan and I watched The Water Horse. I liked it. Keenan fell asleep about 3/4 of the way through. I think he liked the beginning when Caruso was smaller and got into so much trouble.
I also somehow managed to lose part of a keychain a friend gave me. I just have the little metal circle that says “believe” on it, but the cross is gone. I have no idea when I lost it, or where it might be. It will be missed.
I think that’s all I’ve got for today. I think……..
Oh, no. One more thing:
It’s a good story 
I can see my hands in my mind making the motions needed to make a chain…a single, double, or triple crochet. I can see it happen in my head and know that I can get my hands to make the desired result happen.
I can do this with crochet, and to a certain but lesser extent, knitting.
I guess it’s just practice, or maybe it’s something that my mind understands. If your hands do this, you get this result. But if you do it this way, then you get something else.
I don’t even have a crochet hook or yarn near me and I can see my hands making chains with a crochet hook and some pretty green yarn. I can feel the yarn in between my fingers and know that I can get it to do what I want.
Now, I’m not crochet genius or anything, but I do enjoy it from time to time. I like to crochet things for other people, and right now, I have a couple of projects. As usual, I’ve not started on them until it’s almost time to give them away, but I’m fairly certain I can get them done. And everything I make is someone else’s pattern, but it usually turns out all right.
I suppose everyone sees things in their head, don’t they? Can you visualize what you want to do or make, and make your hands do it? How do you visualize it? Do you see a finished product, or step by step? Is it similar with guitar chords? Or pie crust? Or drawing?
How do we get to this point of knowing exactly what to do? Knowing that we can get an inanimate object to do our bidding? If I picked up a guitar right now, I wouldn’t have any idea what to do to make a chord. Actually, I probably would be able to make a chord, if I futzed with it long enough, but strumming would be difficult. Pie crust? We all know pie crust can be a fickle being…and this does take practice, to get perfect, flaky, light crust. How do you know just what will make it perfect? Drawing…hahahahahahaha. For me? Honey, I can’t make a stick man look good.
** Side note – I have to add that I am so very proud of my mom for taking up drawing, challenging her mind, and drawing lots of things that she doesn’t think she can draw. **
Ok, now that I’ve gone off on a tangent, and completely lost track of what I wanted to say in the first place, I’ll attempt to get back on the crochet track.
In answer to my question, we know exactly what to do because we practice. Partly. It does take a certain amount of try and dedication to become good at something, but sometimes, we just come naturally to things. Like, for instance, photography. I’m okay at this. Sometimes, I get a fantastic shot. Most of the time, they aren’t so fantastic. If I took the time to develop my eye and skills, I probably could get more fantastic shots.
And now, back to the crochet. I am excited to work on these two projects and should be able to use up some of my meager yarn stash There is something really calming about sitting on the couch, listening to the radio, and crocheting for awhile, until all you see is the one strand of yarn flowing from one hand, to the hook, through the stitch, and back, over and over and over again. It’s a mesmerizing rhythm.
Okay, I’m done now…have I confused you yet?
These are my grandparents. I have not met them, as they both passed away before I was born.
Apparently, he used to make that face (as shown in the second picture)…
I see my dad in them both, but until I saw these pictures, I never realized quite how much my dad looks like his dad.
Okay, so…I got to go to a concert last night! I’m still kind of reeling from the excitement and haven’t quite come down from the concert high yet. I got to see Tenth Avenue North! It was…for lack of a better word, awesome! I didn’t take very many pictures because I didn’t really want to live the night through a camera lens. Here’s one that turned out okay:
We were in the fourth row from the front, close enough to feel the bass drum beat in your chest…I’m really glad we got there early, because I think they had a full house. And let me just tell you, there is nothing like hearing over a 1000 people singing their hearts out. The concert was held in the old Golden State Theater, which is now the home of Monterey Church.
If given the chance, I will go again. Word has it the church will be doing concerts like this once every quarter…I really hope they do!
