Today being at work doesn’t feel nearly as burdensome as it did Friday. The office re-do courtesy of my friend Ellen certainly helps. I also dug out a crystal that had been given to me by a friend years (about 23!) ago and hung that in the window, so I can give it a spin and watch the wild dance of spectra.
Saturday was the memorial service for a dear friend of mine who died unexpectedly last month. This is the first friend I’ve had who has died of more-or-less natural causes, and I am simply not ready to accept that someone in my peer group has been around long enough that it’s appropriate for her to be leaving. She was a good match for me—we shared all sorts of semi-obscure interests, including a fascination with space exploration, an enthusiasm for ballroom dance, and an occasionally eye-rolling appreciation for the choreography of Michael Smuin. It only takes one good connection to make a friendship, but she and I had all sorts of connections, so there have been and will be many moments when I come across something I want to share with her, then realize that opportunity has passed. The service, which we held at the local Quaker church, was surprisingly comforting: I’d been resenting the need to mourn and to mark her death in such a definite way, but I loved getting to meet her different circles of friends and getting to see the affection and appreciation others had for her.
Sunday, I felt able to step a bit more solidly back into my own life. Melissa helped me get a start on the week’s cooking, including several good recipes from the latest issue of Vegetarian Times (definitely worth checking out, even if—like me—you’re not a vegetarian). And heedless of the number of projects I currently have on the needles, I cast on for something new—
one of the “Grand-Plan Capelets” from Wrap Style. I’m knitting it in (surprise, surprise!) Malabrigo, the creamed carrot colorway, which glows like a spring sunrise.
Now that I’m properly caffeinated and have indulged in a perusal of the new patterns on Ravelry, I’ll settle down to my “real” work. I have class enrollments to check and a syllabus to finalize, but I’m hoping I can plow through those quickly enough for a bit of backyard knitting while the sun’s still out.