Potpourri
Hungry and very tired.
I'm meeting up with Lori later tonight to exchange Christmas gifts--I'd rather wait until Sunday or so but Kevin is taking down the tree tomorrow and it wouldn't be kosher, so to speak, to exchange Christmas gifts after January 6. Although I suppose we could call them Epiphany gifts? Hey, they do that in Spain. I am giving her some homemade peppermint bark and one of the holiday soaps I bought from Holly.
Speaking of Epiphany--Happy 12th Day of Christmas! Today kicks off the season of Epiphany which means you know what is coming up: Mardi Gras! Mark yo' calendars for February 21 and get ready to laissez les bons temps roulez! I think i'm going to have it back at my place this year--last year was convenient but not that many people showed up anyway (although I did get out the invitations late) and I just think it's probably easier. But looking forward to it! Hurricanes and jumbalaya and King Cake and The Big Easy playing in the background...
I used to hate January because it was so cold and crappy. Still not crazy about the dark and the weather but it's a nice change from December which was a little crazy this year. It's always that second and third week that kills me--my birthday is ALWAYS the same week as my work party and then someone's always visiting from out of town and there's a performance of Christmas Carol or something. Lots and lots of high-profile events that I can't miss. This year too I was working on a project for a friend of mine--she commissioned me to knit a Christmas stocking for her step-daughter. What made it tricky was that I didn't have a pattern--she wanted me to replicate a stocking knit by her granmother. With no pattern, I had to reverse-engineer it, which was actually kind of cool and fun. And I learned a couple of new skills, including the kitchener stitch which is a way to remove the seam from a sock so that it looks seamless. It's pretty cool and makes me want to knit some socks now! But I still (STILL!) have to finish up the purse I've been making for years now...almost done, I should finish it this week and then I just have to felt it.
Aaaaaand speaking of which...Drunken Knitting is coming up! Lori and I will decide on a date tonight and then we'll let y'all know. I want to do two dates this year, one in January and one in February. Ladies, sharpen your needles! (And rev your blenders for all those drinks :)
Since I've been having so much fun with softball (and spurred on by a FB ad pimping out an indoor soccer league at Chelsea Piers), I joined a Meetup group that plays soccer every week. They play at different locations all over the city but it seems the ones that meet my schedule best are in Long Island City at Queens West Sportsfield. I played my first game last Saturday--the format is 3 30 minute games, among four teams, played on a field that's about 3/4 the size of a full-size field. Generally speaking, the smaller the field, the more running. In a normal, regulation game, you can rest more because the ball can actually be away from you, whereas in indoor soccer, you are CONSTANTLY running. When they were assigning positions, I said sure, put me at wing (which is where I spent the majority of my soccer career). Oh my God. That 1st game was BRUTAL. Nonstop runningrunningrunning. I was in agony after the first game and I couldn't stop coughing. The second and third games went a little better. Or maybe my system was in so much shock, I just couldn't feel anything! As soon as I got home (which was difficult enough, my thighs kept buckling whenever I had to go up stairs) I drew the hottest bath I could stand and soaked as long as I could. This didn't stop me from spending the next two days pretty much on the couch anyway, but if I hadn't, I would've been literally bedridden.
But I gotta say, I didn't do too badly considering I haven't played for 15 years. I assisted on a couple of goals and got all up in the faces of a few of the guy players :) And I overheard a couple of admiring "hey, she's not too bad." I just love how brutally physical soccer is. They always pigeonhole me as some small player that's easily intimidated and I ALWAYS prove them wrong. Especially the big players :D Some of these players have amazing ball skills--it's like playing against Pele out there. Although as I said I played wing for most of my career, I was never an amazing ball handler--I was on the front line because I was very fast and had very quick reflexes, so I was able to score a lot. (And I did :) I was the lead scorer on my team--my coach used to call me Green, Green, the Scoring Machine. Isn't that adorbs?) Anyway until I get my wind back and can handle all that running, I need to upgrade my ball skills, maybe do some practicing out in Inwood Hill Park or something. I'm playing my next game tomorrow--hopefully I'll be slightly less physically devastated afterwards!
I'm meeting up with Lori later tonight to exchange Christmas gifts--I'd rather wait until Sunday or so but Kevin is taking down the tree tomorrow and it wouldn't be kosher, so to speak, to exchange Christmas gifts after January 6. Although I suppose we could call them Epiphany gifts? Hey, they do that in Spain. I am giving her some homemade peppermint bark and one of the holiday soaps I bought from Holly.
Speaking of Epiphany--Happy 12th Day of Christmas! Today kicks off the season of Epiphany which means you know what is coming up: Mardi Gras! Mark yo' calendars for February 21 and get ready to laissez les bons temps roulez! I think i'm going to have it back at my place this year--last year was convenient but not that many people showed up anyway (although I did get out the invitations late) and I just think it's probably easier. But looking forward to it! Hurricanes and jumbalaya and King Cake and The Big Easy playing in the background...
I used to hate January because it was so cold and crappy. Still not crazy about the dark and the weather but it's a nice change from December which was a little crazy this year. It's always that second and third week that kills me--my birthday is ALWAYS the same week as my work party and then someone's always visiting from out of town and there's a performance of Christmas Carol or something. Lots and lots of high-profile events that I can't miss. This year too I was working on a project for a friend of mine--she commissioned me to knit a Christmas stocking for her step-daughter. What made it tricky was that I didn't have a pattern--she wanted me to replicate a stocking knit by her granmother. With no pattern, I had to reverse-engineer it, which was actually kind of cool and fun. And I learned a couple of new skills, including the kitchener stitch which is a way to remove the seam from a sock so that it looks seamless. It's pretty cool and makes me want to knit some socks now! But I still (STILL!) have to finish up the purse I've been making for years now...almost done, I should finish it this week and then I just have to felt it.
Aaaaaand speaking of which...Drunken Knitting is coming up! Lori and I will decide on a date tonight and then we'll let y'all know. I want to do two dates this year, one in January and one in February. Ladies, sharpen your needles! (And rev your blenders for all those drinks :)
Since I've been having so much fun with softball (and spurred on by a FB ad pimping out an indoor soccer league at Chelsea Piers), I joined a Meetup group that plays soccer every week. They play at different locations all over the city but it seems the ones that meet my schedule best are in Long Island City at Queens West Sportsfield. I played my first game last Saturday--the format is 3 30 minute games, among four teams, played on a field that's about 3/4 the size of a full-size field. Generally speaking, the smaller the field, the more running. In a normal, regulation game, you can rest more because the ball can actually be away from you, whereas in indoor soccer, you are CONSTANTLY running. When they were assigning positions, I said sure, put me at wing (which is where I spent the majority of my soccer career). Oh my God. That 1st game was BRUTAL. Nonstop runningrunningrunning. I was in agony after the first game and I couldn't stop coughing. The second and third games went a little better. Or maybe my system was in so much shock, I just couldn't feel anything! As soon as I got home (which was difficult enough, my thighs kept buckling whenever I had to go up stairs) I drew the hottest bath I could stand and soaked as long as I could. This didn't stop me from spending the next two days pretty much on the couch anyway, but if I hadn't, I would've been literally bedridden.
But I gotta say, I didn't do too badly considering I haven't played for 15 years. I assisted on a couple of goals and got all up in the faces of a few of the guy players :) And I overheard a couple of admiring "hey, she's not too bad." I just love how brutally physical soccer is. They always pigeonhole me as some small player that's easily intimidated and I ALWAYS prove them wrong. Especially the big players :D Some of these players have amazing ball skills--it's like playing against Pele out there. Although as I said I played wing for most of my career, I was never an amazing ball handler--I was on the front line because I was very fast and had very quick reflexes, so I was able to score a lot. (And I did :) I was the lead scorer on my team--my coach used to call me Green, Green, the Scoring Machine. Isn't that adorbs?) Anyway until I get my wind back and can handle all that running, I need to upgrade my ball skills, maybe do some practicing out in Inwood Hill Park or something. I'm playing my next game tomorrow--hopefully I'll be slightly less physically devastated afterwards!