It Will Pass

If you've never left home, you most likely have never been homesick. It is a terrible, grieving thing that goes on for awhile - when you first leave it's constant, but later on it can blindside you. I have no idea what brought it on today - the weather, the time of year, the fact we're selling our house, the stress of my job, I don't know. All I do know is I went shopping today and as I pulled into the parking lot it was like a blow to the heart. I missed West Virginia so suddenly, so intensely - it is like an ache in your chest that swells and fills every part of your being with a want so deep that you would give anything to get back there. I missed Jackson, my house, my yard. Saturday at the University Plaza shopping at Sam's and stopping in Barnes and Nobles. Downtown, the hills, my job, Susan, Roger, Hollister's General Store which is the only place you can buy lye soap for the laundry. My pool, Kingwood, the chinese grocery store where you can't buy the rice because it comes alive after a few days. I never really felt lonely in WV like I do here sometimes, the silence never got to me. There are days here I feel like a ghost, not quite a part of anything. I know this will pass, it always does, I have admissions to do tomorrow and there's problems with the ones that need to be done today and that will distract me one way or another. But today, is not a good day.

A Change In Plans

Now I'm working all day Sunday so things have been moved around -   today I have to finish  the cleaning, shopping and vamoose at 3 in time for the house to be shown. The office in East Stroudsburg is taking off and the staff isn't keeping up so I'll be doing an open on Sunday along with a couple of visits. It's overwhelming at times but at the same time, pretty exciting.  I ended up doing an admission up in  the other office yesterday - a patient's family that lets no one in and they send me. Sigh. The reason for the sigh is that in WV if there was a difficult patient they always would ask me because for some unknown - and rather irritating reason - EVERYONE lets me in. I have no idea why  - at one point I  had doctor's offices specifically  asking to send me for some of their crankiest or resistant patients - I even had one surgical team who refused to let me discharge the most noncomplient patient in the universe -  the NP later told me I was the only one the patient would talk to and I ended up having to keep her on until I negotiate her back to the hospital.  The only problem with this is you eventually end up with a patient population that encompasses the entire spectrum of Human Oddities and Neurosis - although I have to admit I did have fun back then.  I had one little old guy that would peer through the curtain and tell me to go away, no one was home because "Carl's Mother had taken him to Union town", I would yell back "I can see you Carl, let me in" and the fight would be on.  The whole thing was pretty hilarious and I have to admit, here in Pennsylvania I don't run into the quite the patients I did in WV - there are certainly less characters here! I suppose I should get moving, I really wanted to sleep in this morning - you would think since I''m off just one day I would take advantage of it. But I woke up at 3:20 am, turned over - and remembered I hadn't set up the coffee pot, the bathroom needs to be cleaned, there's the shopping, dusting, laundry, bed making, go over some paperwork for work and finish up the schedule, need to call those patients today......... I'm up.

Sock Of Ages

Isn't that the neatest yarn? It's Online self striping - 100% super wash wool - and it's not itchy either. I used a long tail cast on which I hope I can remember long enough to do the second one. It's a fairly plain sock but with those colors you don't want to get too busy. Anyhoo, I have to be a Cleaning Girl tomorrow as the house is being shown at 3 pm, at which time Pearl and I will be cruising the neighborhood for at least an hour. David is working so it will be just us girls. Sunday we're going grocery shopping - we are now only shopping one day a week and if anything needs to be picked up, it's that item and that item alone. Our food bill was out of control because of all the shopping we were doing, you know you go for that one thing and come home with about 6 bags of stuff you suddenly needed just because you were there. Our freezer is full and the pantry doesn't need a thing so during the week I keep a list and then we just go the one day.  Food just seems to have gotten really expensive lately, we're spending as much as when Jackson was here. I had my physical yesterday, it was a run there and then a wait, but it's done. And the rain was awful yesterday too - we have a satellite for the TV and the stinky thing is if it rains really hard it goes out. Bones was on and I had been waiting all week to see it (it was the season finale) but the rain let up just in time for it  to come on so I got to see it after all. Aside from BBC there's not a whole lot of shows I actually wait for, but that one I love - the actual books are great. 

You See What You Want To See

When I was driving home the other afternoon I passed by a church with a little billboard in the front - I don't know about your area but around her and in WV the churches tend to get cute with their little sayings. But I was a little surprised when I read "You Are A Spiteful Being". I slowed down and reread it - it actually said "You Are A Spiritual Being" - the only thing I can think is the first message is for me, the other one is for the rest of you yahoos. I am a spiteful being on occasion and always will be, it's a good activity if you're bored. Pearl is also a spiteful being, I forgot something the other morning and came back, she'd already gotten the can of cat food down and was busy snacking away when I walked back in. She dropped it and ran, but it was too late, I'd seen her. Otherwise she appears to be enjoying the attentions of the pet sitter and it's working well. It's nice not to have to dash home - it's expensive but we really don't have a choice at this point. We can't leave her outside all day and having her in the house for that long a period of time would be just cruel. This weekend is going to be a bit of a trick, the RE is bringing someone so we will be cruising with the dog for at least an hour or more while the house is shown. That is the part I don't like. We still don't have a house to move into but as the weather warms up more and more houses go up for sale. With the economy everything evens out, even if we sell at a loss so will the people we buy from so it's a wash as far as we're concerned. David was over an hour late to his class last night so if it happens again he may have to put the job on hold until the end of classes as you are not allowed to miss much.  He was pretty upset as the owner of the business had told him at the start they rarely ran late and that is not what his co-workers are saying - welcome to the real world. My sock making goes well, thank you for asking. I'll post a picture this weekend, it's a very plain sock but the yarn is very cool.

Halfway Through The Week Already

It's funny that no matter how big a house you live in, there's always one spot you consider yours - and yours alone.  Mine is the loveseat, directly across from the tv with the coffee table in front of me. I can - and often do, spend many happy hours there when I'm not out running around with my knitting, tv, books and laptop. I'm often joined by the entire zoo, draped across the back and arms of the sofa, they all tend to spend a great deal of time resting up. For what, who knows - their next lives I suppose.  David is enjoying his new job and classes, Pearl is loving the pet sitter who comes by on the days we are not here. If you met her, you'd love her too, she's one of those people that is actually perfect for her job. It's a little of an expense, but it's probably cheaper than cleaning up any messes on the new carpet. Our RE wants to have an open house on Memorial Day weekend, not sure how we're going to work that. Pearl will most likely have to spend the days at the kennel and we will have to find some way to amuse ourselves for 3 days straight. And we finally got our money back from the last house that fell through - what a pain in the butt that was. David told Harry NO MORE down payments until the whole deal clears the title company, that was just ridiculous.  Harry told David that in the past 11 years the title company we use have only refused to insure 3 houses - and one of them was this one. So it's back to the drawing  board.  I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday for a physical, David is going the same day for his allergies. My real benefits are kicking in the beginning of June which will be nice - I'll still have to pay in, but half of what we are paying now.  Oh well, time to get moving.

Sock Love

Well, the sweater is all boxed up and ready to go - it just needs to make it from the house to the post office. You know what that means - New Project!! It is going to be a plain knit pair of socks but the yarn is eye popping to make up for lack of pattern. It called for a long tail cast on which after about 300 tries following the Easy To Follow Instructions, I was ready to stick that knitting needle right in my eye. But then I hit You Tube - a lot of people are not aware that you Tube is full of instructional videos. It is! I just typed in long tail cast on  and a video popped up right away and the next thing you know I was casting away. So, today was David's first day at work followed by his first night at class, he decided to work every other day as 16 hours four days in a row is a bit much. He left at 7:15 this morning and won't be home until 11 tonight so I don't know how it went. Pearl had her first day with the Dog Sitter  who left me a note and apparently they had a good time. Pearl being Ever Watchful let her in with no problem (which is why "watch dog" is not on her resume), they romped around for about an hour and then Kristin left her on the couch.  I know it sounds a bit much, but leaving her in the house for 11 or 12 hours without a break is not right - and I can't always guarantee I'll be home before 7

The Sweater Is Done!!

First off , Happy Mother's Day everyone - the weather here is uber-gross, but I'm sitting in bed with a big cup of coffee so I'm not really caring. As you can see the sweater is finally finished and I'm very pleased with the way it came out. David took the pictures very quickly - it was really warm yesterday around here and that sweater heats up pretty quick. Due to the all over cabling on it, it's a very slouchy and stretchy thing which is just what you want your sweater to be. But overall - I'm happy with it. It's going on a cross country trip to Oregon to live with Kim and her three cats. Vincent has already licked it a few times so it's no stranger to cats. Now onto my next project - I'm thinking socks but I have to find a pattern. I was looking for a plain pair to make - after all that cabling I just want something a little mindless. I have the yarn and the perfect pattern - I even did a gauge swatch on a pair of #4 straight needles. Ready to go? Nope. Of all the gazillion knitting needles I own I do NOT own one stinking pair of size 4 double point needles. Bastards. And I'm pretty sure the only knitting store that would carry them is not open on either Sunday or Monday. So I'll look for another sock pattern or I might even try doing it on two circular sets, we'll see. I have a book on how to do  that but it always looks too hard to figure out. Other than that I'll be watching the TV of course. I watched the end of the Children of The Corn Marathon followed by Hell Tunnel (sorority girls spend a night in a haunted Kentucky sanatorium, C on the plot, A on the cheesiness) - today however in the afternoon on the BBC channel is an Ab Fab marathon - if you get that channel pull up a sofa for the afternoon. Out of all the shows I love that one is the funniest thing I've ever seen, when they ended that series it was a dark day.  Speaking of English things, my friend Nancy will be spending the entire weekend at the end of May - we haven't seen each other in about 8 years so I'm very much looking forward to that.