I’ll will have to do

41 hours at home. I had this conversation with a musician a while ago, talking about being on tour and leaving for a long time and going through phases when you’re not home, and we talked about the phenomena of coming home for just one or two days… and he said he wasn’t a fan. “The expectations are too high” he felt. “You walk in the door and everyone wants you to make up for being gone, but you can’t make up for it, because you’re so tired and empty yourself. You’re disappointed that your family turns out to be more people who want you to deliver, and they end up being disappointed because you’ve come home to rest and they think you’ve come home to make up for being gone.”

It would almost be better, he maintained, to take the two days lying in a hotel room watching tv and getting room service, punctuating your sloth by going for he occasional walk in the park. That, he felt, would be more restorative than running in the door, throwing your stuff (along with their stuff because nobody has done laundry in weeks) into the washing machine, cleaning the kitchen and hitting reset on all of your relationships before going back out the door with clean pants 41 hours later.

Dude has a point, I’ve discovered, although I think that his warning has served me really well. I don’t come home expecting a rest. I come home expecting that there will be people who need things and me, and that I have come home to give them a little bit before I leave again. It has helped enormously to lower my expectations….as it almost always does. Plus, while I am giving them what they need…

Seconddana0205

I can knit. Loksins (link to pattern in the right sidebar) sock in the entirely delicious superwash merino from Dana. Every person I show this yarn to has boggled that it’s wool. We have even conducted a few experiments to see that it is. (It is.) It’s lustrous and a little shiny and bouncy and elastic and I’m a fan. I think these socks are going to be rather hard wearing too. I started another pair too…

Franciesgst0205

Classic Elite Alpaca Sox in a gorgeous gold, being knit into the charming Francie socks. Should both be excellent entertainment for the plane. I’ll be in San Fran by dinner time.