Ooops. I seem to have missed January somehow.

It’s been a quiet time for me. I haven’t been in touch with almost anybody. And I haven’t written a thing on my blog in a month. There was nothing to report, mind you, other than sleeping (hibernation) , a lot (A LOT) of reading, and very little in the way of knitting, just working through lots of of internal matters, personal evolution, processing baggage and such, mostly with good results, but taking time and energy. And honestly, I have scarcely knit a row or two, though I have wicked want-to-make-it-itis and many things are clamouring for me to cast them on right now.

This week I'm handling a lovely econo-sized multi-pack of minor illnesses and iritations, on a daily roller-coaster ride through mild discomfort to lots of pain:
(pardon me - TMI coming up - not a pity party, I just need to vent a little and get it out of system, so feel free to skim/skip):

1. sprained ankle (repeatedly freezing and thawing slush creates icy and uneven ground, makes the sidewalk terrain all twisty)

2. I'm in another perimenopausal period-from-hell (though glad it's here because I skipped the last two in November and December and that made January's return brutal, like a three-in-one!) Seriously - I am SO going to rewrite a satirical version of this number I enjoy being a girl and include all sort of fun things about when my cramps have cramps and I'm feeling cranky and bloated...

3. I have an infection (don't ask) requiring ginormous antibiotics (ugh)!

4. I am mildly hypertensive (mostly due to stress), trying to avoid further blood pressure problems by practising holistic approaches (nutrition and mediation), but I may have to go back on a "water pill" because I am at risk for chronic venous insufficiency. I am even more crazy about the idea of taking any long-term pharmaceutical medications than I am about the short course of antibiotics.

5. I've been fighting with my husband daily for the last two weeks or so (poor guy - just because I am a premenstrual bitch on wheels, doesn't mean he didn't screw up, but I could be handling it a lot better). Unfortunately I have maybe half a nerve left and he's stepping on it all the time because he's retired and always here. Also, I am struggling with the post-retirement realization that he's acting like he's on perpetual long-term holiday and there are things to be done that need our attention and I feel like I'm the only one here for that and it's driving me crazy. Seriously, I adore this man, I would take a bullet or step in front of a train for him. However in the game of day-to-day he's often part of the problem and rarely part the solution (though he's great in emergencies, he comes running when I holler for help). He is smart, funny, sweet and great with the TLC and affection. He may even be the reason I'm still here as a couple of bouts of clinical depression in my life have had me in despair and it's largely his love that drew me out. But he's seems oblivious to most of the daily responsibilities necessary to keeping a household from crumbling around our ears, and when he does help, he often disappears again as soon as the crisis part of the party is perceived to be over.

6. We had a long meeting with our new lawyer on Saturday (yesterday) morning, revising lots of very shady crap in the sale contract with the property development company that wants to buy our house and build condos. It's full of smoke and mirrors, trying to obfuscate the conditions all to their benefit and pull off some dirty maneuvers. Any clauses not directly copied from the standard real estate transactions books are legal drivel, not close to English or good legal form. It's all the kind of thing that makes me glad I didn't go into law after all (as I thought I might in junior high) because apparently this is fairly common practice these days and it makes me a little sick. Seriously, even our lawyer said he was amused and almost embarrassed by association with it and confirmed our view that anyone who'd sign that thing as it is written (without serious ammendments, as well as codification and clarification) is an idiot, as it's not worth the 8 pages of legal size paper on which it's printed.

7. We spent Saturday afternoon lunching and visiting with my 89.5 yo MIL - which is great because I adore her, but hard when I'm unwell. Still, I am glad we went. She's a fabulous old lady, feisty and independent, mobile without assistance and generally in remarkably good health. She's also funny and clever and interesting - and I want to be just like her when I grow up.

8. I did not go to the Shaw play yesterday afternoon, a local movie theatre showing of the Shaw festival's [correction:]the Stratford festival's production of Caesar and Cleopatra from 2008 (with Christopher Plummer!), similar to what they are doing with the opera broadcasts from the Met in the movie theatres. I REALLY wanted to go, but after the lawyer I was in so much pain, largely stress-induced, that I couldn't have sat through it.

So today, though I'd LOVE to play hooky and go hang out at one of my fave fibre-enabling venues, I really need to stay HOME to recuperate, putter around the house, to research some background info and practise music for my upcoming concerts and auditions, and get all (or maybe some of) my personal and household stuff done (like 4-5 loads of laundry) before my "date" this evening with a friend I haven't seen in years and the next busy week starts.

I'd so much rather be knitting/learning to ply or spin/inhaling new yarn fumes/visiting with all of the yarnies. I actually tried to trick myself into it last night, in spite of all the above, by making arrangements to go to the LYS with a friend – because I know how much I hate blowing people off when I've made arrangements with them. But I decided to bow to my better judgement this morning that fibre-frolicking was not going to happen. And thankfully she understands.

I realize that I have just posted a long whiny blog entry. And that I have nothing knitterly to show for January. Sorry. Hope I can get my act together and post some pix this spring, but it's not likely to be sooner than April or May because my schedule in the next few months is about to go ballistic - in a good way, but still...