I've been off my feed lately. No cooking to speak of, and no inspiration to spark my activity. Instead, I've been knitting a pi shawl, and while my family can't eat that kind of pi, they are hardly going to starve. In this household, leftovers are not just an occasional treat, they are a cottage industry.
The last few days have been rough. Yesterday we saw the never-ending docket, pretrials and judicial reviews and shelter reviews and new shelters and independent living reviews all on the same day. A brilliant act of scheduling that will live in infamy. I got my 15 minutes seconds of fame, and thank goodness that is over. I noticed that I no longer cringe when listening to my own recorded voice. Twenty years in Florida has taken the edge off of my Brooklyn-Jewish-Five Towns accent. My speech is regularly peppered with "y'all" and my seventh grade Spanish, drilled into my head 45 years ago by the slightly scary Senora Lydia de Stier. Senora Stier, wherever you are, you would be proud of me, as I am sometimes able to actually think in Spanish, and my pronunciation is not too shabby. The advantage to speaking Florida Southern Spanglish is that I no longer sound like the punchline of a joke or Fran Drescher.
Despite the fact that yesterday's docket was conceived in the depths of Hell, while today's was a lot lighter, I would do yesterday all over again. This morning's Court was like watching the Titanic crash into that iceberg. Without getting into detail, someone - actually several someones - has stepped on my last good nerve. I'm generally quite mellow in court, so on those rare occasions when steam begins to rise from my head, it is not a good sign. That's not a hot flash, folks - this little old lady is very ticked off at you. You treated me like dreck, so don't expect me to turn the other cheek yet one more time. No one likes being blindsided, ambushed, or steam-rollered, and you managed all three in an incredibly short period of time. You are on my List. You know which one.
Can you believe I still love my job? Because I do, truly. There is still "nowhere else on earth that I would rather be", unless it is a cruise ship to Alaska.
One example of a pi shawl
The pi shawl is a circular lace shawl, knit according to the mathematical epiphany of the late, great Elizabeth Zimmermann. I hate math, which is one of the reasons why I am a lawyer instead of a doctor - one of many reasons, ha ha - but even I can remember that the circumference of a circle is equal to diameter times the value of pi. I don't like to think of math and knitting in the same sentence, much less the same project, but this works without too much pain. And there is a lot of pain associated with mathematics, especially calculus. Fortunately, there is no understanding of calculus needed to knit. Or I'm screwed. My pi shawl is a work in progress, pictures to follow. The Antimony shawl is safely tucked away in the spare room, along with Julia's shawl, a pattern by Alison Jeppson Hyde of Wrapped in Comfort fame, which was completed and set aside for blocking an embarrassingly long time ago. Blocking a knit garment sucks, and I usually avoid it, but one cannot ignore the inevitable when it comes to a circular lace shawl. Block I must.
Congratulations to Master Fidel Casco on the presentation of his newest black belt, reflecting his achieving seventh degree rank. You may remember we watched Master Casco test for seventh while we were in Little Rock last month. Awesome!
Seventh Degree Master with his Fourth Degree Padewon Sidekick
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