Holiday Hysteria?

Anyone else feeling the pressure? With the two weeks of holiday fast approaching, things go on high speed for a few days, as everyone who has tons of vacation they need to use up before year end, tries desperately to finish all their projects before they leave (that usually means this Friday). Those of us who have only a little bit of time left (or in some cases not enough seniority to be granted the precious holiday time off), usually feel the stress of too much to do in too little time (we of course, will get to take deep breaths on the days during the next two weeks that we work and they don't...things will slow down - I keep saying this as a mantra to remind myself that this too shall pass!). I've always worked at least some of the days of the last two weeks of the year. Many moons ago, I had a non-profit job that got many, many calendar year-end contributions (in the form of checks mailed in to the office). The president of that organization's board of directors firmly believed that someone had to physically be IN the office to pick up those checks, record them in the accounting records and take the deposit to the bank, at least several times before the LAST DAY OF THE YEAR or IRS would not consider the contribution as made in that calendar year.

I do not want to admit to you that my powers of persuasion were sadly lacking for a number of years - I could NOT convince the man that as long as the checks were DATED December 31, they were for that calendar year, regardless of when I took them to the bank - well, okay, had I waited to February? That probably would have raised an eyebrow, but the first week of January would have been fine. (After all, the IRS understands the machinations of the government machine that is the US Post Office - ok...POST MARK DATE at the very worst?). I finally had him semi-convinced, and then he left the board. The next president was a CPA. (Whew!)

But I digress.

My life is a little hectic right now. No. That's not it: Life is nuts! But only for a couple more days...there's light at the end of the tunnel and I'm pretty sure it's not an oncoming train.

I'm almost finished with Christmas orders (only local bags remaining to be completed - Whoohoo!). And I can't show what I've done, because they really could be seen by the recipient. Not a good idea - I'll show you photos AFTER the holidays, okay?

I'm knitting myself a pair of socks, because I needed something really simple to carry to work and I needed a chocolate brown pair of socks. I have one more Christmas gift to knit and that's complex enough that I want to wait till I'm off work to knit it (tho' it IS a quick knit) - and the recipient won't be here to open gifts till the New Year's weekend (oh, yes, the Knitnana family will have its normal multiple Christmases again this year!). So I have a little time. But they do read my blog so I can't tell you (or show you) what it is...

So. Hysteria and pressure-cooker environments tend to turn me to this:

Good, basic, garterstitch. Dishcloth cotton and Susan Bates pink aluminum needles. Do you remember that blog quiz that was around 3-4 years ago? What knitting needle are you?

I was pink aluminum. And it was true till Knitpicks came out with Harmonys! And Addi came out with their Lace needles...

I've decided that there have to be a number of things I can do with leftover dishcloth cotton to find interesting combinations to make dishcloths. There's a member of the Cloths for Crisis group that's in need. I have no stash (ack! and I'm a co-owner of the group - how bad is that?). So in between everything else, I pick up the dishcloth cotton and garter away.

Worried about the bailout of the banks and whether those bank CEOs will get their bonuses? Mad about those bonuses? Mad about government money enabling those banks to pay their shareholders dividends?

Pick up a dishcloth ... and garter away (and join us in C4C (link above) and we'll get those cloths where they can be of help!

It's something YOU (and I) CAN do, and right now doing something that makes a difference is what matters...and keeps us from losing it.

(because frankly folks? I'm not sure what we can do about the bailout mess and Paulson will be gone in about 34 days when perhaps we'll see some changes made at least to those little loopholes...)

Tell me, do you think The Meezer was trying to share her crunchies with the draftdodger cat?

She goes in there every night with a mouthful of crunchies, drops them on the rug and chows down in just that position with the cat draftdodger lying there...

Can you tell it's way too late for me to be up and talking to you? I'm calling it a night!
(((hugs)))