better

I was a domestic goddess today, and vacuumed the house thoroughly. It's been raining most of the day, great wind-driven waves of fine mist, cheering me immeasurably. I'm sick of this damn dry weather. Isn't that a hoot? Not four months ago, my readers were treated to my incessant tirades of whining about the continuous deluge from the heavens and the Pali. Now the "oh no it's too dry" whingeing starts. I like my weather patterns balanced. Except for snow. Bring me lots of snow. Nah. No can.

Anyway, the floor is restored to its relative clean, the rugs have been given liberal applications of Arm n' Hammer Pet Fresh, and the great swath of Rainbo's moult has been cleared from the dining room. I even vacuumed Cricket, who was standing nearby. He was not amused, nor was he frightened, either. I suppose a dog who's flown across the Pacific isn't rattled by a bit o' vacuum cleaner noise.

While I'm challenged by the process of actually getting started, housecleaning always makes me feel better. I can think more clearly, now.

Knit night last night was restorative. I ripped One Skein Wonder right out, not being convinced that I was knitting the right size. The Lorna's Laces is too precious to waste on knitting the wrong size, besides, I wanted to add lace to the back of this shruglet, and needed to find a chart, since charting my own lace pattern is way beyond my ken. Lilikoi pointed me in the direction of a lace chart on Knitty, and so I think the 2nd go-round of this project might work. Except I forgot, in all my swatching, to have anyone measure me. Ahhh, well. Acornbud suggested that I count my stitches and consider version #1 a swatch before I ripped, and in doing so, discovered that my gauge was off to begin with! So I'm feeling renewed with zeal for actually re-doing One Skein Wonder. Cheered, even, which is unusual for me, as I don't like to re-do anything.

I've kind of worked through my unemployed funk of last week. There's only so long one can wallow in self-pity and self-loathing. I'm employed, re-hired by the school district as a sub, already, so that's automatic work (and believe me, there's plenty o' subbing to do) once the school year gets under way. I am going to go around to the schools in the area and just drum up business for myself next week, remind them that I am on their sub list, approved and available. I found out that the reported job openings for teachers are pretty much concentrated waaay out in Wainae area, right now, which is not a drive I want to make on a daily basis. So I'm going to put my energy into passing the last Praxis II test, and once that's done and scores reported, around early September, my Hawaii credential will kick in, and then I should be able to find a job in the district's later wave of hiring. It's not an ideal situation, but I am through angsting over what I can't influence. I'm paying the price, repeatedly, for bad decisions and professional arrogance last year, and I'm willing to accept that and just get on with it. The Universe seems to need to teach me a lesson about overconfidence, the importance of maintaining a sustained effort and making better long-term decisions, and I think I need to stop whining and listen.

This makes me feel infinitely better, this realization. Letting go of that heartfelt belief that I was going to get a job before school started (it might STILL happen) and then fretting over what and when it would be, was a great leap in lifting my recent depression. Yes, I'm still economically challenged. Yes I'm still gonna have to stretch my pennies hard til the money flows again. But it's better. There's a light at the end of the tunnel.

In other news, I took a nice walk with Acornbud last week, on the Judd trail. She lives near me, up the hill, actually, as do a couple of my other Aloha Knitters. I went out for yumilicious Moroccan food with Patrice one night. P played hookey one day and we went to Lowes, on a big citronella-buying mission, coming up with candles, tiki torches and mosquito coils, all meant to make our deck a useful part of the house again. I took a rather hard hike on the Wiliwilinui trail with Marie, who is going to start teaching Agility again. I will help her with her beginning class, and in exchange, she will let me train Ella on the course and equipment.

All this, and finishing the wonderfully addictive "Outlander" too! Salon.com has this amusing article about a man getting hooked on Diana Gabaldon's time-travel romance series.

I'm going to re-organize my sewing room before I settle in with "Dragonfly in Amber".