Presenting: Lovely Lalo in PJs

I started this bear with a different subject in mind (see Monroe bear). But once I was all the way to the neck, I could see the chubby little boy in his pj's. He was very much loved by his abuelita y abuelito. He never knew his immigrant father. After his grandparents died, his mother was not adult enough to parent him alone.

As he grew--learning to be confident on those LA streets, holding his head high as men called out to him from their cars as he walked home from school--he found his own way. Escaped to Ivy Leagues and higher degrees.

His mom turned him away for being too much her son--liking the guapos, laughing too loud, waving his arms.

I wish you'd have been my little brother (although the homophobia there was as harsh as LA, maybe more so). I wish we had been there to give that little boy hugs when his mama faltered.

Maybe I’ll make a bear for Becky Salas some day.

Side note: Lalo’s story is like the opposite of Jeff’s. Such different worlds. Such different twists…

Last night the animals drove me crazy, and we narrated this children’s story:

“Hermano,” Flaco says to Nopalito. “Mama and Papa won’t let me go out tonight, and I’ve got to get my prowl on. Can you help me out?”

“Orale,” Nopalito replies. “I can distract Papa like nobody’s business!”

Papa calls Nopalito and SweetPea for their last trip out before bed. Nopalito skips down to the bottom of the stairs. He looks to the left, towards the toileting area, and then towards the right, toward the orchard, where are are interesting things to eat, like figs, or slugs, or who knows what.

“Nopalito,” Papa calls out warningly.

Nopalito looks up the steps at Papa and then races off to the right.

“Nopalito!” Poppa scolds, coming down the steps after him.

“Thanks ‘mano!” Flaco calls, as he races out of the house before Papa can stop him.

“I got your back,” Nopalito replies.

SweetPea scampers up the stairs, unaware of the drama of dog and cat.

And so we all go to bed, without Flaco, since he’s on the prowl, and with much snuggling.

Less than an hour later, Flaco meows at the outside door. Mama grumbles and makes her way into the kitchen, turns on the light, and opens the door for Flaco. Flaco immediately runs into the bathroom and starts to meow some more.

Mama thinks Flaco is crying because the toilet lid is closed. Flaco sometimes likes to drink water out of the toilet and leaves the seat covered with dirty paw prints, as if a whole family of raccoons have been by. Mama starts to fill up Flaco’s water fountain in the study, so he will have plenty of fresh water. Flaco continues to cry “Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!”

That’s what Mama hears.

What Flaco is actually saying though, is “Mouse! Mouse! Mouse! Mouse! Mouse!”

He happily calls to Nopalito and SweetPea because he has brought them a tasty mouse.

“Hey, ‘manito,” he calls to Nopalito, “I saw you trying to steal my food before, so I thought you were hungry!”

“Eeek!” Mama screams, when she sees the mouse. “No! No! No! No! No!”

“What?” Papa calls from the bedroom.

“He brought something in with him! Ugh! I think it’s a mouse!”

Nopalito comes tearing out of the bedroom happily, with Papa right on his heels. “Oh no” Papa says, “no mouse for you!” Papa grabs Nopalito and carries him back to the bedroom, closing the door behind them.

Flaco tries to show Mama what a marvelous toy a mouse can be, batting it across the floor, scooping it up with one taloned paw and making it fly through the air.”

“Ugh!” says Mama, as she gets out the dustpan. “I’m sorry little mouse.” She scoops up the sad little mouse and tosses it outside in the direction of the orchard. I hope it’s in the orchard, she says to herself. I hope I didn’t throw it all the way into the neighbor’s yard.

Mama and Flaco come to bed and Mama continues to grumble under her breath.

“Parents just don’t understand,” Nopalito whispers to Flaco. A short while later, he gets out of bed and walks to the bedroom door, where he promptly vomits up whatever he ate in the orchard.

“Good night, Flaco.”

“Good night, Nopalito.”

I have a successful foot! Hurray! There were some gaps behind the stitches, where the stuffing would show through, so I just packed some scraps of brown yarn there, in front of the polyfill, and that seemed to cover it. I also tried embroidering a “duplicate stitch” over the color change.

[Later]

Okay, I’ve started over, because I wanted a black shoe. I’m following the Lily doll pattern just for the shoe, so the first 6 rounds:

Ch 5.

1st rnd: 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook. 1 sc in each of next 2 ch. 3 sc in last ch. do not turn. Working in rem loops of foundation ch, 1 sc in each of next 2 ch. 2 sc in last ch. Join with sl st to 1rst sc. 10 sc.

2nd rnd: Ch1. 2scin 1rst sc. 1sc in each of next 2sc. 2sc in each of next 3sc. 1sc in each of next 2sc.2 sc in each of last 2sc. Join with sl st to 1rst sc. 16 sc.

3rd rnd: Ch1.2sc in 1rst sc. 1 sc in each of next 4sc. 2 sc in each of next 4sc. 1 sc in each of next 4 sc. 2 sc in each of next 3 sc. Join with sl st to 1rst sc. 24 sc.

4th rnd: Ch 1. 1 sc in each sc around. Join with sl st to 1rst sc. 24 sc.

5th rnd: Ch 1. 1 sc in each of next 7 sc. (Sc2tog) 3 times. 1 sc in each sc to end of rnd. Join with sl st to 1rst sc. Place marker at end of rnd. 21 sts.

6th rnd: Ch 1. Working in back loops only, 1 sc in each of next 6 sc. (Sc2tog) 3 times. 1 sc in each sc to last 2 sc. Sc2tog. Join with sl st to 1rst sc. 17 sts.

Then two rounds of fur tone (not skin tone), then join blue yarn for jeans.

This is making a leg 16-17 stitches around, which is okay for a bear but prob’ly too big for a doll.

I should’ve done one or more rounds of the Lily pattern to keep decreasing stitches down to 14.

So, this foot would look great hanging next to my other test feet and legs and heads… Do I cut the yarn and chalk this up to a learning experience or will Xiomara’s first incarnation be a bear?

Well, I’ll finish the leg, anyway and then decide whether the second leg will match this one or be a second draft…

We tried watching an episode of TransParent tonight. Forgot how tedious (painfully bad) it really is. Maybe it gets better in the third season?

Went to Colleen Fong’s retirement party today and totally wanted to make an amigurumi doll of Xiomara. She was wearing black vans, light blue skinny jeans with holes in them, Like a pink or purple kind of tunic top, big bangs and her hair up in a sloppy pony tail, and earbuds & phone. She had so much style. She snapped photos of the chihuahuas. Her mom made her interact with people.

I’m going to have to try this several times, I think. Basically I want something like the motherbear pattern but with feet that stick out (rather than just stubs). My first draft of the first foot failed, but I’ll just keep trying…

Today’s farmchores were all chicken-related. Luz fed them and let them out before heading off to their action against white supremacy & fascism in Berkeley.

I cleaned the coop, cleaned out both waterers, gave the chickens fresh water, and brought in all the eggs.

Although I did most of this in the hotter part of the day, it wasn’t the absolute hottest part (in another hour), and of course I feel better for having accomplished the chicken chores.

I woke up from a dream last night of an Esquibel familia event and a Tía saying “Your grandpa’s too old to molest you now: you have to be nice to him.”

Ain’t that a kick in the pants.

I told this to Luz. I am so blessed to have a partner to whom I can tell whatever locura I am haunted by.

My mom has been saying how my dad has been deteriorating—more confused, more manic—but really there’s nothing she can do right now. In addition, the only doctor to take an actual interest in him, Dr. Rauth, the blood doctor, just lost his license (!!) and is being sued and so is no longer being covered by the insurance. My mom has been trying to get my dad a referral to another specialist, but it will take at least 2 weeks before they’ll even schedule an appointment. On the plus side, that means my mom is spending less time running my dad around to appointments and labwork. On the negative side, nobody is seeing my dad on a regular basis.

 

But he is going for a daily walk, and he is going to the senior center and he seems to have at least one friend, so those are all good things. Of course he’s also doing things like losing his keys and “playing in the garage” all day. But at least my mom is getting a tiny bit more downtime, since he’s not there all the time. And, for my dad, it gives him something to talk about, as he can now tell my mom about his walk, about his time with Christine, or at the senior center, or going around with his friend.

I’ve decided I need to buy a couple more brown yarns—light weight, for when I’m working with a lighter weight yarn for the clothing. That way I don’t have to move back and forth between a sportweight yarn and a heavy worsted weight, and try to figure out which hooks to use to get them to come out. It’s a plan.

I still haven’t washed or brushed my teeth, or taken my meds yet, but at least I’ve made some progress since Luz left.

 

 

Oh my goodness! On ravelry, I have just discovered someone who makes amigurumi saint dolls! I foresee a new stage in my dollmaking apprenticeship ahead!! (she’s a Catholic mother, so she’s going more for cute and cuddly than weird and specific, but I know I can make it work!

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.