Banishing the Stepford Wife Within

Sweater Grrrl

Imagine my shock yesterday when I called Alan to see if he was packing up to leave Sacramento, and he announced that he got to leave early and was already here in town.

Since my plan had been to get home from work and do some miraculous whirling-dervish-style cleaning to sort of conceal the fact that I'd been living like a TV-centric cavewoman/recluse/yeti for the last two weeks (I had a horrible cold) and flinging clothing and yarn ends and laughing cow cheese wrappers recklessly all over creation. AND I’d been planning to make a nice dinner. Well, color me surprised! Plus, I'd left his Christmas presents out in plain view, without getting a change to even wrap them yet. Whoops! (I don't think he spied them, however.)

So I was a little conflicted- happy that he was home, but a trifle embarrassed at the state of the house. I managed to console myself with the knowledge that the man has been married to me for two years and some change- he's aware of the fact that I get into slob mode occasionally. So I managed to banish the latent attack of Stepford Wife Syndrome.

Anyway, Alan was on a perfect-husband roll. He washed the dogs and picked me up at work to take me out to lunch (with two large, excitable, slightly damp dogs in the backseat.) I had been having a lousy day (the less said about my job, the better) but I came back from lunch all smiley and goofy and happy- and THAT'S when a dozen long-stemmed red roses with a sweet card from him arrived for me at work.

Aaaaah- Do I deserve this? Yes, dammit, I do! I am so glad he's home- and I am so worried that they might send him overseas again. We've been married two and a half years if you count straight time. If you take into account the total time he's been deployed, he's been gone for a little over 1/4 of our marriage. I guess it's a good thing I'm not particularly clingy, but I sincerely wonder how the families with children can do this all by themselves.

Anyway!

I think I am going to get the acrylic yarn for the dog sweater this weekend. I want to make it in green, with black stripes, and I am even considering making four little matching legwarmers. (Yes, I am fully aware that I am going over the edge- at least I am not making booties.) There are some great patterns in the new S&B book- the dog sweater is yet another one. It just looks like a fun project that I can get into.

Also, I joined up with a local Fresno knitting group through "meetup" a few days ago-http://knitting.meetup.com/261/

They get together once a month at a local coffeehouse and work on projects (and of course, talk)

I am looking forward to attending the first meeting, perhaps with my buddy Angela in tow. There's also a woman I work with who I am going to ask. So it could be a big group! We'll have to see what happens. I think I could use some inspiration!