My dear friend "rose" gave me my birthday present a little late. First off, it was wrapped in some beautiful fabric that I can make something out of, tied with real ribbon that can also be used.

Inside there was:

Knitpick Wool of the Andes Yarn - 3 of the Sapphire Heather, 1 Black Cherry Heather, and 1 Amethyst Heather. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.

There was also:

Sensual Knits by Yahaira Ferreira.

I have to tell you, this made my sucky day so much better, I can't even tell you. I have had so much crappy and when I get these little bolts of happy, I find myself fighting tears - grateful tears.

So now I am giddily considering the prospects of knitting a fab coat from my new book, and this gives me more incentive to go to the yarn fair in September (thanks for the tip, Karen @ Shall We Knit?).

I showed my sister in law the new book and stash (memo to self: take photos to update ravelry stash info) and now she wants to knit more than ever. Rose wants to coordinate some time with me her and my sis in law so we can both teach her how to knit. They both have more than that in common and I believe they'd get along famously, so I'm trying to figure something out that works for all of us (and then there's the equal challenge of finding a day where my health does not prevent me from enjoying my time with them).

Anyway, no need to get in that, I just wanted to crow about my treasures.

Have I ever mentioned my friend V?

Probably not. The reason being - I miss her so very much. There is a huge vacancy in my life that is left especially for her, and no matter what I do, nothing and nobody else can fill it. We were friends in college, and of all my "college friends" she is the only one that has stuck. What I mean is, I don't write about her much because there is so much to say. But I think of her all the time. She moved to England quite a few years ago. We get together maybe every 2 years if we are lucky. If she or I could afford it the visits would be much more frequent.

Today I got a package in the mail from her. She gave me "eat pray love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, and a CD of her making. It was so strange because I have seen this book on shelves in stores all over lately, and have felt drawn to it, but always held back from getting it. Now I know why. She wrote all over the inside cover of the book and I cried. And I read the tracks on her CD and I laughed and then I listened and then I cried.

All I really wanted to say here is, I miss her.

I thought it less like a lake and more like a moat.
the rhythm of my footsteps crossing flood lands to your door have been silenced forever more.
the distance is quite simply much too far for me to row
it seems farther than ever before
oh no.

I need you so much closer

(death cab for cutie - transatlanticism)

I'm still too tired to detail the minutae of my current illness, but I read Hammer's post and it reminded me that I wanted to share what K wrote to me for mother's day. C made me a card herself and was nice to K (a huge gift, she's drowning in hormone soup these days). K's class made "cake in a cup" for the moms. So basically it was cake mix in a coffee mug mixed with an egg and some oil & water. Then icing sugar & water mixed up to "top" the cake once it was microwaved. The poem inside went like this:

"Where I'm from"

I'm from great Christmas mornings.
I'm from the chirps of birds.
I'm from hugs and kisses.
I'm from the taste of chocolate chip double fudge cake (with smarties).
I'm from the smell of yummy turkey.
I'm from dinners at restaurants.
I'm from love.

To Mom from K.


Also, I am proud as a peacock about this - he had a little blurb he wrote about Canadian soldiers published in the education week special pennywhistle thing from our local paper (Pennywhistle is basically a periodical they publish in the paper, each time taking contributions from different schools. During Education Week they publish a special paper on its own with entries from each school in it. K's writeup was selected. He was pretty surprised, he didn't even know about it until I told him when I read it in the school bulletin).

That was an awful long parenthesis

Ok my fingers are getting numb again, later turkeys

I have a headcold.

I have a headcold, which means my head is full of goo.

I have a headcold, which means my head is full of goo, and I'm worried about my mother.

I have a headcold, which means my head is full of goo, and I'm worried about my mother, BUT my friends witchie & fez (but mostly witchie) sent me a kick-ass package.

I have a headcold which means my head is full of goo, and I'm worried about my mother, BUT my friends witchie & fez (but mostly witchie) sent me a kick-ass package, which made me cry.

I have a... oh fuck it.

Witchie, I got your package and it was awesome and everything was wrapped so beautifully that I was half-afraid to open them, and every little treasure I opened up just made me happier and happier, and I cried because I've had such a lousy time of things lately and this just made me so damn happy it wasn't even funny.

So thank you. And thank you. And thank you. I feel blessed, in spite of the head full of goo and the very sick mother.