A Writer's Childhood

Since my husband has gotten back into writing, he has inspired in me an old story that I have been contemplating writing. Yes, I write. I haven't done much if any since our daughter was born almost two years ago but I still have this idea for a story that I've had for many years.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that my mother is schizophrenic. Needless to say, this created a dramatic childhood to say the least.

I have two writing paths that I could go down.

The first path would be a focus on the 16 months that I lived in Fremont, California when I was 8-9 years old where I was a newly immigrated Canadian white kid trying to fit into the drama of a neighborhood of mixed race families and the torment that ensued when my mother went off her meds. It would be from a child's perspective geared toward the young reader set. I thought this would be a good area to write for considering the subject matter. I can bet there are probably a few kids out there who would end up relating to some of the humiliating events I experienced.

The second path would be a larger focus. Written for the older teen or adult reader in which the story spans my entire childhood including the time in Fremont, because trust me - there were plenty of awful moments on that roller coaster ride of mental illness. Including, but not exclusive to, the time my parents separated (the best time of my childhood) when I was about 13 or 14 and my mother was living with my Granny in Victoria, B.C. with my sister. Why my dad let my sister live with a mentally ill mother, I'll never know and since my father has passed away I will never get the answer anyway. One peaceful & happy evening my dad received a phone call from my uncle on my mom's side of the family informing him of my mother's arrest and charge of attempted murder and that he needed to come and get my sister right away (the worst time of my childhood).

Intrigued yet?

Anyway, this is the story idea that has been floating around in my head for years. I am not so self-absorbed that I think that my life is so interesting and that everyone will want to read about my life. My intention is to process through my childhood and make some sense of it, if any, and with the hope that it would help others out there who may have or are going through a similar experience.

I have come across a lot of reading material on adult children of alcoholics which were especially popular in the late 80's & early 90's but not much if anything at all on children of mentally ill parents. It's a topic that I think has been ignored for far too long.

94 Billion for Bikes!

I know we are in a recession but honestly, the States need to step it up a bit. I read this article on Copenhagenize.com and I was very impressed. What is it about this country that has it falling way behind? Was it eight years of the Bush Administration? Let's hope that Obama can bring us to the forefront and actually create those "green" jobs.

Damien the Omen?

All I have to say is: wow. I am sure this kid didn't choose his outfit but, that with the look on his face along with his name made me think of The Omen. Honestly Liz, what were you thinking? And what's with that hat!

*This is a photo of Elizabeth Hurley and her son Damien...yes, that's his real name.

Green Smoothies

I have started making green smoothies. It started out with a powdered whole food shake packet I have had in my vitamin stash for over a year. I haven't felt "healthy" in a long time and I am gaining weight and have zero energy. It is time to do something different. 

A friend of mine has been eating Raw for a while now and she looks so good. She looks vibrant and has lost weight. One of the things she told me she does is make a shake with tons of greens. This idea stuck in my head. I'm no dummy when it comes to nutrition, just lazy. So making green smoothies was a really great idea. 

The other night I made up the powdered shake and gagged it down. It was powdered, what did I expect. Still, I was buzzing until midnight. I was alert, had energy, and kept my focus on knitting and conversation the entire time! This was great!

I thought I could buy more of the powder packets from the vitamin store or I could my own FRESH green shake - probably cheaper. So I picked up some kale, chard and spinach. I thought I'd make it like I would a regular smoothie so I also bought orange juice, bananas, and Greek honey yoghurt to throw in to balance the bitter greens with some sweetness.

It was so good. That was last night, and now this morning I am having another one. I figure I could have one green shake a day in order to get all of the vitamins, minerals and protiens I need for the day. Now I can eat the foods I usually eat that don't usually contain many green veggies and still feel great.

Spinning DragonFibers

Last night I transferred the white Merino from the drop spindle to a bamboo knitting needle to hold for plying. I cracked open the DragonFibers targhee wool and begun spinning. This is only the second batch of wool I have spun in my life and it is really different from the Merino. The targhee is more course and in some ways easier to spin because it doesn't pull apart as much as the Merino. I can maintain a constant size with it than the Merino too. The Merino is so soft and slick that I was constantly having to stop and redraft and well, lets be honest, it's going to be a bulky yarn due to all of the irregularities in size. I love that kind of bulky, big knit yarn so I am happy with it and it will look so cool plied with the DragonFiber.

A friend gave me a huge bag of Corriedale which I can't wait to try and I bought some DragonFiber Blue-faced Leicester at the same time as the Targhee so I have a lot of different types of wool to experiment with and learn the differences. Fibers are so fun!

Gone Baby Gone

A calm has washed over the Sanders household with the fairly swift eviction of the "neighbors from hell". I received the update at work from husband that yes, the psycho couple were moving boxes out of the apartment. It was actually happening.

I had my doubts. I'll believe it when I see it, I told my husband when we got word that our neighbors, who have been tormenting the complex with their public displays of aggression toward each other as well as their not so private fights and obnoxious middle of the night movie, music and sex blasting from the bedroom, had been given an eviction. It was little relief since I know how difficult it can be to get someone out if they decide not to leave.

Getting that call from my husband was the best news I could have heard. I was bordering on a breakdown with the stress of inconsiderate neighbors and the subsequent lack of sleep. My shoulders didn't tense up at the sound of stomping feet coming up the stairs to our joined entry because there was no stomping feet!!!!

No screams in the middle of the night, or loud music, or action movies played at a volume for the hard of hearing, no bodies being thrown about, or marathon sexcapades of the extremely vocal variety. Don't get me wrong, I am all for a round of crazy loud sex. Just not when its my neighbor next door and it's going on from midnight to 5am and it sounds like she is actually in pain.

I'll stop now. It's over. They are gone. I can't rehash the horrible memories anymore. It's time to move onward and enjoy the peace while we have it, because you know it's just a matter of time until new people move in. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they are an old boring couple with cats!

The Resurgent Knitter

One of my favorite past times is knitting. I will admit to not being very good but I am a little bit more than a beginner. My thing is that I like immediate gratification so I tend to lean toward the easier patterns and smaller projects like hats, scarves and big bulky knits for sweaters. The sooner I can see my results the happier I am. Maybe I have ADHD or something but I can get pretty bored with something very quickly if I have to do a stockinette stitch that goes on forever, like in the way of an adult sweater in worsted weight yarn on size 9US needles.

The last project I completed was about a year and a half ago. It was a boatneck sweater by Debbie Bliss for the baby I was expecting. It was a size 3-6 months, so it was small and knitted up fast. The challenging part was sewing the pieces together. I wasn't completely satisfied with it but it was cute.

Now that I am thinking about it, I think I did knit a couple of small scarves since then, but nothing to write home about.

A friend of mine has been knitting and spinning for a long time and one day she had come over with a small drop spindle and wool. I thought it was so cool! I wanted to do that too!

I was a student and single mom at the time so I didn't have the expendable income to blow on wool and a wooden drop spindle so it had to remain a yearning desire.

Jump forward several years and I decide to put a drop spindle, wool and a book on the subject onto my Amazon wishlist a few weeks before my birthday.

My friend and I always joked around about how no one ever gets you stuff from your wishlist. It was true. No one ever does. So when it was her birthday back in February, I was determined to get her something from her wishlist, and I did.

But I digress...

My friend comes over a couple of days before my birthday bearing gifts - even after I said no gifts. She hands me a cool bag from a local yarn store, Village Yarn & Tea.

Inside are several wrapped gifts and as I begin to unwrap them I realize that she had just given me things from my wishlist - a drop spindle, carded wool, and a book. As a bonus, she also put in some recycled sari silk yarn from Nepal. How cool is that? I was giddy like a child!

Another friend, the spinning friend, also came over and gave me yarn along with a pattern for a neck warmer. This was all I needed to get me back into knitting again after quite a long hiatus.

I am so thrilled to have my hobby back as well as a new one that compliment each other so perfectly. In between spinning wool, I knit my neck warmer. Which has cables, something I have never done so it is an especially fun challenge for me. Needless to say, I did end up having to frog the damn thing and start over! So I'm a bit rusty, I'm just warming up!

Thank you to my wonderful friends who know just the right things to enable me in my obsession of yarn and fiber.