Nopalito did his service dog routine to get me up this morning. But then he wasn’t urgent that I feed him. He went outside and I’m pretty sure he was licking his chops when he came in. But his tail was down and his head was down and then he didn’t want to eat his breakfast. He’s curled up with Poppa on the sofa right now. Pobrecito.

I am still just waking up. It’s an iced coffee kind of day, because it was so hot yesterday and it’s already hot this morning. I’m going to get dressed and head off to the Hazardous Waste disposal to get rid of the last of our paint. I didn’t get to the other tasks yesterday because a) they didn’t take all the hazardous waste, so the car wasn’t empty and b) it was hella hot and I didn’t want to.

I finished all the New Mexico bears yesterday and am now working on the bear with the gumdrop yarn. It’s hella cute, but, like the “jeans” yarn, very difficult to work with. The strands all want to straighten out, or I guess that’s what they call “splitty” for a yarn. Maybe if I were using a larger hook, it wouldn’t be as bad, but then there woud be all those holes.

So this bear I’m working on, I experimented with making her a butt. Or rather, I increased one stitch on each cheek. The overall effect is subtle and looks less like a butt and more like hips, which is pretty interesting! I think if you want a butt, you must have to build a butt (like in a pattern) and it’s not just a matter of one stitch here and one there. That makes sense, because the AmigurMe book, for the breasts, it is either a straight row of a more textured stitch, or you make the bra with cups in the round and then apply that too the chest. Oh, and for who knows what reason, I bought a pattern yesterday for a “childbirth education doll”!! Yes, a pregnant naked female body, which you stuff through the vagina with the placenta and the baby! And the buttocks are definitely sculpted. It’s ingenious, although at least half of the projects made from this pattern (on ravelry) were hella creepy looking.

I know I have a Venus of Willendorf crochet pattern tucked away somewhere.

I had a really funny dream. I think first it was Tina & Amy’s wedding, and then it was going to be mine & Luz’s wedding, and then it ended up being Eileen and Alyssa’s wedding, with Amy officiating, but it was really disorganized. Part of it was definitely held on our campus, and all these people were coming out of the ceremony and I was trying to give them directions to the Cesar Chavez Student Center where the reception would be held, probably in the Jack Adams ballroom. (it’s not really a ballroom, but the call the room “jack adams hall” which is really confusing because usually “hall” refers to a building so from now on I’m just going to call it the Jack Adams ballroom, and maybe the children will eventually hold a ball there.)

And Joe and Paul were in from Chicago wearing 17th century wigs. Joe was wearing a really long one with curls, and Paul was wearing a “balding one” with thin little curls on top. And the whole Edwardian suit and everything. And my parents were there, but my mom looked way younger. She hadn’t drank at all at the reception and was leaving early because she said “I needed to live my own life.” My dad wasn’t as bad off as he is now but he was still a handful.

And I had missed the actual exchange of vows—I’m not sure why, I stepped out. But apparently Eileen and Alyssa chose to wear these wigs, long flowing hair, like supermodel hair, and they were prob’ly like two different shades of auburn. So then when I was explaining to Amy that we knew Eileen and Alyssa—because she was explaining who they are to me and I was like, no, Eileen works with Luz at Cal State East Bay—Amy was trying to describe what she looked like, but based on what she was wearing and the wig, and since I hadn’t seen that part it wasn’t making any sense to me.

Also in my dream, my sister was pregnant and had acquired 3 more children through adoption (a friend of theirs died and of course Christine and Sal welcomed the children.)

 

Anyway, the organization of the wedding was very bad because someone told all the guests to head to the reception immediately after the reception, but there was no way for them to know where it was so they were sort of milling about. and I felt responsible for guiding them, but also really wanted to mingle with people, and check in, especially with Joe & Paul and my parents.

And Amy was supposed to DJ the wedding and got really upset when someone announced there would be a dance machine.

But later on there was this fabulous soulful music and games like “grab the person to your left and get two different notes from banging their heels on the table” and I was all like, I don’t think you can get two different notes from the heels and I was experimenting and I was right. But in retrospect, I think if you found someone who was lopsided, i.e. someone whose heels had worn in distinctly uneven patterns, then it would have worked. But that would seem awkward for the person whose shoes they were.

There’s things I’m trying to remember to look at and maybe order from Amazon, but I can’t remember what they are. One is china protectors for the china in the basement, but that was the one I did remember. There were at least two other things I couldn’t remember

I’m on the last two of the New Mexico bears.

My embroidery skills are still not very good (but then it’s hard to practice free hand embroidery on a single crochet background.

Uncle Freddy died yesterday. I have to say QEPD, even if I have a lot of anger and judgmental feelings coming up. He was a beloved son to Libradita. That’s what I should focus on.

 

SweetPea is here alongside me. She was wanting to be with me but I have so much junk on my lounge with me that there was no room. But Luz just boosted her up and put her in the midst, and now she’s all happy and asleep.

She really has a knack for making herself comfortable no matter what. there’s an electrical cord under her chin, yarn and an embroidered needle case under her head, and barely an inch away from her eyes there’s a stitch holder and an embroidery needle, and right next to her nose there’s a packet of stitch markers. All of which goes to show how messy I am. But I finished embroidering the face of one of the bears this morning, while still drinking my coffee and just before starting this journal entry.

When we couldn’t sleep last night, just touching SweetPea helped settle me down. It’s like there’s something deep inside me that releases, unclenches.

There was, apparently, a huge fire this morning near St. Paul’s where Beverley lives. There was a big building that was under construction and the whole thing went up in flames. Pretty scary situation, but Beverley slept through all the fire engines.

I can hear the chickens clucking outside.

My plan today is for Luz to pack up all the hazardous waste (mostly paint cans) for me to take to the appropriate site, and then I’ll come back and Luz can load up all the donation stuff for Thrift Town in San Leandro. I’ll swing by Lexi’s to drop off the stuff she wants, and then go to Thrift Town.

I’m going to go double check the hours for the hazardous waste disposal.

 

 

 

We finished the garage, including a final roomba.

The kombucha has been transferred from the cooking pot to the kombucha vat. So I need to mark myself out a note to check it at the end of the week.

Nopalito (and SweetPea, of course) were very good during dinner with Beverley last night. Nopalito actually settled in his bed. Seems the Plenty in Life is Free training has been working!

I’m almost done with another bear. I think I have four now (but it could be 3) : stuffed bears with flat heads awaiting embroidery, seaming up, and ears. And with the three bears already in the box waiting, I might have a box to send off by the end of the week.

Luz was imagining different granny square throws to adorn the foot of our bed, and how they might design them, putting colors together. “But I don’t want to take you away from your bears because that really seems to be working for you.”

I do so adore Luz!

I’m going to go update my project list for the bears, so I know where I’m at.