When you can't work...

In an unexpected twist, I actually didn't work much the end of last week.  I did manage to produce about double my Q & A requirements, and spent a bunch of time staring at the screen and trying to think of more questions.  While travelling with Richard on Thursday, I spent a nice chunk of time trying to research stuff in a library where the internet flitted on and off about every five to seven minutes.  I got so enraged that I gave up on it and read instead.  It was stormy in the mountains, so I don't blame the library per se.  I did give Richard lots of dirty looks while he worked though.  "Why is the network more important than MY internet?? Fix my internet!" were the topics of secret brain waves I was sending him as I glared over the top edge of my laptop screen.  It didn't seem to affect him, though, which is probably a good thing.  If he'd stuck around to fix the internet we might have been stuck there overnight in the storm, instead of going home to internets and hungry kitty cats.

We were given notice that the software was being upgraded on Mahalo, and that no further pages could be updated or created until Monday.  Huh.  We were never told if that meant we wouldn't get in trouble for not meeting our minimums, but since they carved four days out of our work week, I'm guessing we weren't.  I was initially asked if I'd be interested in beta testing the new software, which I was actually kind of excited about.  You see, I've told my husband now and again that I think being a beta tester would be fun.  "No," he repeatedly assures me, "It's nothing but an annoying headache.  You have to do repetitive behaviour until stuff breaks."  I of course, light up at the idea of getting to break stuff.  Not my stuff, of course, but someone elses stuff!  This must be the sort of thing that annoys programmers like him, people like me who can't make it but delight in the idea of destroying his work.

Alas, I was never called on to test, and am spending the morning waiting to be told when I'll be able to start work for this week.  The one problem in a situation like this is that you don't get paid when you're off doing fun stuff instead of being productive.  I did get in a bunch of fun stuff though, like making half of a bright turquoise summer tank sweater out of sport weight yarn that I'm looking forward to wearing this summer.  If I finish it by then.

I never understood how people could get bored if they didn't work.  When I wasn't working I was never, ever bored.  I have so many interests and hobbies and things I want to learn and books I want to read and ideas and theories I want to test out that I'll never be able to get it all done in my lifetime.  It's just impossible.  Even if I never worked again I couldn't do it.  I'd need at least three or four lifetimes.  Maybe five if I throw in all the languages I want to learn.  And of course there are new books I want to read coming out all the time, so maybe it'd be impossible for me ever to "finish" everything I want to do.  I'm resigned to it, have accepted it, but it doesn't mean I can't try. 

I have so much on the go that sometimes I fear one thing won't be finished before I start another.  I'm one of those annoying scrapbooking people, but I'm perpetually around a year behind.  Right now, due to a burst of productivity sometime in October or so, I'm only about 9 months behind, but it's starting to catch up on me again.  I have an altered book about love on the go as well.  It hasn't been worked on much since summer.  Then there's the cross stitch, I'm currently working on two huge projects - a dragonfly scroll for the bedroom and a Theresa Wentzler mermaid.  Not sure where that will go, but probably in the bedroom.  I'm resolved to frame it immediately though.  I used to let stuff languish unframed and unadmired in drawers, before I learned that was a ticket to losing them and ever appreciating them.

I have finished a couple of things lately though.  One is a bag for my laptop, to make traveling with Richard easier.  I bought this bulky, pink yarn over a year ago intending it for a tote that never happened.  The problem with buying yarn on the internet is that sometimes it's just not what you thought it was.  I thought this was a soft pinky-orange blend.  When it arrived, neon and with bits of green, I was appalled, but I kinda like it as a quirky laptop bag.  I worked it up in one day, just kind of going with the flow and designing as I went. It works well enough - the strap is stretchy so I can sling it crosswise across my body (and if I don't, I can deal with the laptop banging my knees!).  It's just so bright.  I worry taking it into libraries that librarians will start shushing it.