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Monday, July 18, 2005

Isn't it sweet when your family doesn't know what you do? I'm starting to feel like Chandler, the transponster. My mother told someone that I was a board op the other day. My brother is somewhere doing a "the boss is on vacation" dance.

Family, loved ones. I AM THE MANAGER. I am in charge of the office. I have a crappy co-worker, over whom I have technical superiority (well, I personally think I'm superior in a great many ways) but not the right to fire him. He's the one who's gone this week. And technically, he's a good employee. He's a little insane, and very OCD, and nuerotic, and a jerk, and likely slightly psychotic, but he works hard and the OCD means he double (and triple, and quadruple, and beyond) checks enough that he doesn't make a lot of mistakes that I have to scramble for. He's just not someone I would ever want to see in public. Or reproducing.

I had a tough knitting class this morning. My solid student who's doing really well actually got asked to knit some demos for the store (that wasn't the tough part, I think it's great) and I also had a mother/daughter team who went to town and since Friday when they learned cast on, knit and bind off, have done something like 4 square feet of garter stitch... things. I also had a student learning purl, who is a crocheter, so she's pretty easy to teach things to (I like teaching crocheters to knit a lot - they are familiar with how yarn works, and aren't afraid of dropping stitches and things). I'm finding though that my memory is really failing lately (a side effect of the hormones) and so I'm not remembering from one class to the next where each student is, or what I've told them, and normally I'm really good at that. And I also had my most challenging student to date. She's the one I mentioned a few weeks ago, who shakes a lot. That sets me on edge anyway, more so now since my "powers of empathy" are only growing. But in addition, she doesn't seem to be aware of what she's doing. She can knit the stitch normally five times in a row, and then on the sixth time will have absolutely no idea what to do. It's as if you pulled someone who'd never seen knitting before and said "go, knit, be merry" It was positively mind-blowing, and I was getting really impatient, just from feeling so bad.

When I left the class, there was a message on my cell-phone that the person who is now supposed to regularly come in for me on Tuesdays hadn't shown up yet. I had an appointment with my car insurance agent that I had to shuffle around, meanwhile I was frantically making phone calls trying to find him, and growing more and more ticked that as lousy as I felt, I was going to have to go and fill in for the person who was supposed to be filling in for me while I recovered from this. I moved up the appointment with my insurance agent (who managed to save me $200 out of pocket on a claim by having me call from her office to file the claim so it went in before she made a change she was about to make) and when I got out, there was another phone message that he'd shown up. Seems the aforementioned jerk of a co-worker had told this guy he could show up two hours later than anyone else thought he was showing up. That's not a problem other than the "what we expect vs what we get" issue. I was really in a panic that I couldn't count on him to show up and there would be massive trouble if he didn't show tomorrow.

What's tomorrow? Why, I'm glad you asked. The first day of the rest of my life, that's what.

I take radiation tomorrow morning at around 9:30. Then I have to remain completely isolated for 48 hours, because I'll have such high dosages of radiation in me that I am a risk to others. After 48 hours, I have slightly limited exposure to others (nothing serious) and then I move on with life cancer-free! (that's the case in about 70% of folks, anyway, and if for some reason this radiation doesn't kill any remaining cancer cells running amok, I'll have another bout of radiation, much the same as this one, in a few months.

But in the meantime, the understudies much appreciate your applause, but they are now ready to offer bows to their full-time counterparts:

L
=
(see? a black sock. Ain't nothin' ya can do to make that look impressive. Feels terrific though - it's Esprit Sock It To Me, 98.7% cotton, 1.3% elastic, or something like that)

_ =
(Lorna's Laces Dafodil. The yarn is not technically self-striping, but it's doing a darn fine job of getting ALMOST there...)

I =
(It turns out that dark brown faux suede is just about as tricky to photograph as black. It looks pretty good in person. In photo, not so much. But I did include a shot of what the cable would look like if you could see it, there in the corner - it's from the Harmony Guide to Aran and Fair Isle Knitting)

And for those who care, here's a Scar Update. I'm working on getting all these links and stuff together on one page, that you can get to from my side bar, but for now, this is what you get. Hey, some people don't get gross scar pictures, so you just count your blessings, okay?

15 Comments:

Blogger Shelia said...

I'm making making black socks, too, and it occurred to me that I will have trouble making them look exciting - now you have convinced me of it! Mine are Fixation - pretty much the same yarn as yours, I think.

5:04 PM  
Blogger Pugknits said...

naturesgift.com carries rose hip seed oil that works very well for scar.*hugs* i alternate that and seabuckthorn berry(sp?), but rose h.s. alone is good enuf if you're interested. i mean significant reduction in redness. a pot burn will be very not noticeable in a week with dilligent application.

5:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

48 hours? Doing what? I'm assuming you can't bring anything in there with you. Are you going to be feeling icky?
Sppoky stuff, Maynard.
sallyjo

5:37 PM  
Blogger Amie said...

Nope, I'll be fine - I'm allowed to knit, watch TV, read, whatever I want. I'm actually staying at the house of some friends' who are vacationing, rather than the hospital. More comfortable that way. The radiation won't last on clothing or fabric or anything, but if I come in contact with you thyroid-laden folk, you risk having thyroid issues in the future due to radiation exposure. Other than that, it just consists of swallowing a radioactive pill, so it's not at all painful or uncomfortable, no side effects expected like nausea or anything along those lines.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if you had to pick a cancer, pick this one.

6:02 PM  
Blogger Rachel said...

Well we'll just have to keep you company online for the next couple of days, huh? That just strikes me as one of the strangest treatments I've ever heard of. Maybe the radioactivity will spontaneously bring out latent superpowers and you can have comics written about you. ;) Seriously though, I'll definitely be thinking about you and celebrating with you once it's all over!

6:19 PM  
Blogger KatyaR said...

Good luck tomorrow--if I see a glow in the horizon, I'll think of you!

Sincerely, enjoy the quiet time--you deserve it!

8:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now that I have taught a few people, I have run into that same situation. Just today I was teaching my niece to knit and she was just speeding along, and then it was like all her brain had just "gone somewhere" and she was stuck - didn't know what to do.

All I can figure is that these people are getting into the zone in a trance-like way, and then when the "come back" they can't remember where they were at.

9:58 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Best of luck tomorrow, and I hope you get lots of rest and knitting time! Glad you like my banner -- and yes, you did so help: there was a KR thread in which you posted about banners, remember? Or am I dreaming? So what if you helped me in my dreams....

10:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amie, best of luck! We'll all be saying our prayers and thinking our best thoughts for you!

9:53 AM  
Blogger Donna said...

Wishing you all the best, Amie!

10:13 AM  
Blogger Sue said...

Good luck on the radiation. We're all still thinking of you and sending good vibes your way. Enjoy your 48 hours to yourself, and knit away!

1:02 PM  
Blogger vi said...

you are healing beautifully dear.....
and after the glow in the dark thing..........
you will be fine
( a new life and now healthier)
vi

3:56 PM  
Blogger erica said...

Amie, I'll be thinking about you during your treatment. My aunt had a radiation treatment and had to be completely still for 24 hours. At least you can knit and watch tv.
I hope things went well and that you got a lot of knitting done. :)

10:51 AM  
Blogger Amanda said...

Amie,

I'm working on a pair of black socks in Fixation right now and there's just not much excitement here either. It's tough, but oh, they feel nice. I'm making them for my husband to wear under his combat boots so comfy and practical are good. Looking fancy, not so much.

I'll be thinking of you the next couple of days. You're gonna do great.

Amanda

11:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've had that happen before too. My brother thought that I wrote parking tickets, when really I do all of the public relations for the parking department.

9:59 AM  

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