I'm here

Hey ho.

I know it's been a while since my last posting. I wish I could say my time's been occupied by a girlfriend or boyfriend, but nothing so sordid as that has been keeping me busy. Part of it is learning how to live with diabetes: taking classes, making changes, gathering info. Part of it has been chorus. It was our holiday concert last weekend, so I was very busy with rehearsals and performances. Part of it was other medical stuff, which I'll get to in a minute. And part of it was knitting. Really!

Sing of joy!

I live in Portland but sing in a chorus based in Salem. It's Confluence, the only GLBTS* mixed voice chorus in Oregon registered with GALA Choruses. We sing three concerts a year, one in December, one in March, and one in June. Each concert consists of two performances, one of which is in Salem, the other in Corvallis or Portland. The December concerts were held in Corvallis and Salem with the tech rehearsal in Corvallis. Last week, I went to Corvallis on Wednesday for the tech rehearsal then back home, then returned to Corvallis on Friday, stayed the night with friends, sang in Salem on Saturday, then returned home Saturday night. Tuesday this week the chorus sang in Portland for PFLAG's Christmas party. Not much room for other things. The concerts were a lot of fun, though, done jointly with the choruses of the Unitarian Universalist Congregations of Salem and Corvallis (all but the Portland one). They held a special place for me because I was surrounded by my chorus family when I needed them.

Lordy Lordy do I feel forty

It seems I've had a litany of ailments this year. It used to be that the worst thing I would get was bronchitis in the winter and achy knees from too many stairs. Who said that it was my turn to get old? It bites, let me tell you, to be told your cholesterol's jumped because you're getting older, your blood sugar's jumped because you're getting older, and you're wheezy because you're getting older (well, not really but it sure as hell feels that way). Then that old fart Perry Menopause comes around and decides that not only should my body feel hotter than it already feels but I should experience the Johnstown flood 3 days every month. The Kotex and Tampax people love my buying their products by the case. Well, not anymore, kids. This end of January I'll be going under the knife and having a hysterectomy. The fibroids that have recurred have given me the ticket to have my womb removed. I'll never use it and gawd knows I don't need another place for the big C to be tempted to try to rear its ugly head. I don't know which it will be: laparo or abdominal; my surgeon's consulting with another in the clinic to see if I qualify for the laparo. That will shorten the recovery time significantly. Remember the hernia back in September a year ago? (If not, go to the archives if you so desire.) The recovery time will be a little longer than that. It doesn't matter to me which as long as it gets done and done well. And I'm just loving telling people that I got a hysterectomy for Christmas.

Click and click

So the WIP basket has been sort of overflowing. The Rogue sweater went on hiatus while I worked feverishly on a pair of mittens and a pair of gloves for a couple of kids who are patients at the Providence Child Center. Our office is gathering gifts for them this year as part of our mission projects for the holiday. We love them dearly, those kids. Today I turned them in, so now I can go to another project. I want to make a felted hat for my friend Linda, so I'll be working on that this weekend. It will go quickly. After that, I can return to the Rogue. And if I time my surgery right, I'll be able to take my class in Orenburg shawls from Joan Schrouder January 27th. Whee!

My LYS got copies of XRX's latest Knitter's compendium, Victorian Lace Today, which I've been waiting to see. What with the latest issues of Knitter's offering patterns ranging from dull to OMG, I was skeptical about what would be offered. But I was pleased to find that there were items in it I would make. I consider myself to be sort of an intermediate lace knitter, beyond the simple stuff but not ready yet for Shetland shawls and certainly not up to Knitterguy Ted's league. I felt comfortable with the patterns in the book. I wasn't crazy about the photography of some of the items, though. When I look at lace, I want to see the pattern. I don't give a rat's ass about the model. So I have a copy to peruse, and if I'm up to it, to play with on the needles.

*I want to spell it GBLTS, but then I want to pronounce it giblets. I don't think the community would appreciate being compared to turkey guts.