weekend
I accidentally had a 3-day weekend. See, Thursday, I went to a goodbye lunch. 26 of my co-workers attended, and we must have been at the restaurant for two hours. All the laughing and eating made it feel like a small party. After we got back to work, I only sat at my desk for an hour before it was time to celebrate October birthdays with cake and ice cream. Another hour of work and I went home. It felt so much like a Friday afternoon that when I woke up Friday morning I thought it was Saturday and went back to sleep. Around noon, QD asked me if I was going to work. Oops!
I needed the extra day, though: the dads came back on Saturday to finish the wall and that tired us all out. While the project took less work than it could have, it still gave us more difficulty than we expected. Projects always seem to run in to those little snags...Still, it's mostly finished. There's some trim and stuff to do, but I wouldn't be ashamed to have other people see it.
Both dads gave a lot of their time and energy to this, for which I'm grateful. QD's dad helped just to help, and maybe because he found it a challenge. My dad did it because he loves me. Daddy never build a wall there when he constructed the addition, because he and my mom used the space differently than I do. But when I wanted one, he helped me, even though I know that he wouldn't have done it for himself. That's a mark of good parenting: supporting one's kids even when one doesn't necessarily agree with their choices.
I worked on a different kind of construction: my next patchwork project. I sewed squares together (while hanging out with QD's mom) for about four hours. The last half hour felt like a complete slog, but worth the effort because next time I sit down to work on it, I can put the whole quilt top together. I've determined two thing from this project: first, this one will actually be a quilt, with proper batting and layers. Second, I'm not ready for those precise, geometric quilt designs yet. I don't cut very straight or sew very neatly, so I need the wiggle room of patchwork. Plus, I just like how it looks. I've always adored patchwork. This quilt is ostensibly for a holiday gift, but I found myself falling in love with the colors. I really shouldn't keep it, but I'm mighty tempted and it's not even put together yet!
I spent Sunday in a haze of exhaustion. I enjoyed the weather, cuddled with the dogs, watched Hitchcock's "Rear Window," cleaned up construction detritus, drank chai, re-read Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, discussed my and QD's futures, did a tarot reading, and browsed through this month's Yoga Journal.