Wednesday, August 18, 2010 By Rick Levine
Virgo
(Aug 23 – Sep 22)
If you have been working too hard, now it’s time to start claiming your slice of the fun. But the Moon is in your 4th House of Home and Family, suggesting it might be nice to have a short “staycation” instead of going out of town.
You may even end up getting your kicks today by undertaking a simple domestic project or, perhaps, by inviting a friend over to share some quality conversation.
Yay, Rick Levine – thank you! Well, I’m staying put, that’s for certain.
I was green yesterday. Green from having a bit too much cider the night before, but mostly green from recovery of a week of teaching. I haven’t taught for an extended period since my fibromyalgia diagnosis, and now I know why.
It was a rather intense week of classes – 2 a day – with events with students in the evenings, wo/manning a booth at the marketplace and appearing in the Luminary panel (which was lovely, but quite hot…)
My students were wonderful – seriously astonishing – and I hope I lived up to their expectations for the classes.
But being “on” for a week takes its toll, and I’ve become expert at pushing away the tiredness for the present – only to have it come back and bite me hard when the dust has settled. And that’s exactly what’s happened to me now. The massive quantities of cider I imbibed on Monday evening didn’t help things…
Yesterday I was so not myself. Exhausted – shattered they say over here – and almost as if I were walking around in a different body. American Express [car insurance] couldn’t have been nicer or more comforting, and that’s a very good thing.
But my muscles and joints ache, my throat is sore, my ears are ringing – in short, I’m in a flare up. Di knows about this, and thankfully she also understands that what I have isn’t communicable, it’s just my wacky auto immune system on the fritz. Sometimes she has similar issues, and this helps draw us together. Love of fiber, hatred of fibro…
So after collapsing at Di’s on Monday, and changing from light to dark to middle green all day yesterday, she and her wonderful husband have kindly invited me to just STAY PUT for a few more days.
I’ve got control of the caravan next to the house, it’s my haven and my refuge, and I think I will be doing more sleeping than I’ve ever done before. This is my haven right now, I am quite fortunate.
Yesterday I rode with Di to her shop in Perth, it’s a lovely, sweet little pink shop – a boutique – with small amounts of specialty yarns. While she set up her window display, I wandered around the area and visited the Tay River. The perfect amount of effort for a husk masquerading as a woman.
The drive back was so beautiful – it was sunset, and the light on the fields was bright and golden. We saw a hot air balloon, watched it fire up a few times (rather alarming at first) then it set down as we were driving past. What an evening to be up in the air!
So, Rick Levine, once again you are right on the money.
And Di & Colm, Thank you!
Today I taught Di the American expression, “You’ve got my back” – which she has right now. It’s not so much that she makes me miss home any less, but she DOES make me love it here a bit more right now.
Annie I took one of your classes at Knit Camp and just wanted to thank you, you were an inspiration AND a good laugh…. I wish you and your family well.
I hope you are through the worst of it and are able to bike some when you can.
That photo w/ the balloon is fantastic!
Annie, I don’t do mystical, I don’t do spiritual, and I certainly don’t do supernatural, but I have to share this: I haven’t had a serious fibro flare up in more than 12 years, recognizing and avoiding triggers, and catching it early and using a number of techniques to squelch the worst of it.
But for some reason I’ve been on the edge since you started your UK adventure, and Monday I woke up with all of your current symptoms and about ten more … then I thought, well, okay, Annie is too busy to have this crap this week, so I’ll do it for her.
I was almost disappointed when I finally crawled out of bed late Tuesday afternoon, I really wanted to carry the load for you until you were safely back home. Since I couldn’t do that, I’m glad you’ve found a friend and a haven for a couple of days; those two things are better than anything that big pharma has ever produced.
you’ve probably seen this, but in case not:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/health/19taichi.html?src=me&ref=general
Thinking of you up there in the sky on the way home…thanks for a great visit and for your wonderful gift which I am wearing now…love to you all, di
I know you’re resting and recovering but I just have to vent. Something you’ve been doing for a while now re Vogue Knitting. I just got my copy last night, wanted to check out a pattern, and …… it’s on the website. So, I counted. 11 of the 31 patterns (that’s 35%) direct the knitter to the website. And this is in the issue where the editor talks about how print will never die and that 95% of VK readers keep their issues. I have every issue going back to 1982.
So, I wrote a furious email to the VK site saying they should call it VK with a few patterns, put a HUGE disclaimer on the front (not 10 pages in saying some large charts), and charge less. I’d rather have less editorial than no patterns. Really, icon that she was, how many articles can we read on Elizabeth Zimmerman?????
I do not want my pattern to be 1/2 on the web and 1/2 in the magazine. I do not want to have to pay for color printing to get the benefit of a chart. I want what I subscribed to – Vogue Knitting patterns.
So, if you agree, I would appreciate your voicing your opinion to others in the knitting community to get VK to pay attention.
Thanks. Relax for the rest of your trip.