rebecca soble

The medal-bearers for the Vancouver Olympics Ice Dancing Medal Ceremony are wearing cool chunky knit jackets:

My current knitting includes socks, socks, and more socks.  Mostly of the chunky variety, because I have the pattern memorized and can knit away while watching olympic highlights online.  Here are some finished ones.  The striped foot is because I was running out of the light green yarn!

Both of these socks have a turned top edge instead of ribbing, which I like.  The light pair has a picot turned edge and the darker pair has a single purl row turned edge.

One of the first things I did when I moved into my current apartment was to put translucent sticky plastic over the bedroom window.  The bedroom window faces front and I’m on the ground floor, and I had been warned that often the blinds are not enough to prevent people from being able to see in.  Also, I don’t much like having my blinds completely shut because I like a bit of sunlight, so the sticky plastic was the perfect solution, and I even did two layers just to make sure.  The blind usually stays halfway down as well.

There’s just one more floor above mine in the building, accessible by outdoor metal stairs.  There’s also an all-night light in the courtyard for security.  This combination results in an interesting reflection on my double-layer-translucent-plastic bedroom window.

This picture was taken in my bedroom late one night right after I moved in.   I generally sleep somewhat fitfully, especially in an unfamiliar place, so when I woke up that first night and saw this in the window, half asleep and dream-fuzzy,  I kinda freaked out.

Who was saying “HI” to me through my bedroom window in the middle of the night!!?  It felt threatening and alien and even after I figured it out, it was hard to fall back asleep, still irrationally feeling that something was outside my window trying to communicate with me.   It took about a week to stop feeling spooked whenever I saw the reflection.

These days, it makes me chuckle to think that if it had indeed been some malevolent alien visitation, that they would have introduced themselves with a “hi!”.

Every workday morning, I wait for a bus near my apartment. The bus comes at 7:35, I get to the waiting place about five minutes earlier, and take a few minutes to watch this view.

It does my eyes and my spirit good to be able to look long distances. I’m thankful for this view.

I’ve been trying hard to pay attention and appreciate the small things in life, because these days the big things are really kicking me in the ass.

I was in the bookstore yesterday browsing for a new read…  lately my favorites are historical fiction so if anyone has any recommendations in that genre i’m interested.  But these days, with the price of imported english-language books pretty steep*, thickness and word per page density are also important criteria.

The last book I bought was The Abyssinian Proof by Jenny White. Very enjoyable, linking the 1453 conquest of Constantinople with antiquities thefts and murders 400 years later, investigated by magistrate Kamil Pasha.  Jenny White has some other similar books but the only one I found here is still in hardcover and thus out of price range.

Total of 455 pages  @ 18 turkish lira price = equals 4 cents per page.  Not too bad, and I made it last for a week when I can normally read a book like this in a couple days.  But I decided I could do better, though it would mean a return to the classics.

That’s right, the master of long and dense (and entertaining!) literature, Charles Dickens. Actually, I can’t remember ever reading a complete C.D. novel, so it’s about time.  Total of 554 pages @ 16 turkish lira = a miniscule 2.8 cents per page. Score!

*Actually, when you do the conversion, the prices are not that much more than retail book prices in the US.  The problem is that in the US I often got books at libraries so I could read a much higher volume (and the things I truly wanted to read) without spending hardly any money.  Here, despite generous sharing among book-reading friends, it’s hard to find specific books and libraries are practically nonexistent so we naturally spend more money to read.  I’ve also adapted by intentionally reading slower!

yesterday, day one of my weekend, was spent mostly asleep or half-way there, working through a head cold most likely picked up at my new university job (read: teeming masses of teenagers). today, day two of the weekend, I woke up feeling less congested and slightly more energetic, but still happy to spend the day at home. here’s how i entertained myself:

Made breakfast, which actually was brunch because I took the time to do the hashbrowns right.  Peel a potato, dice and boil the bits until soft, saute with onions, pastirma (a turkish dried meat like pastrami), salt, pepper, paprika.   While the potato bits were boiling and frying I tidied the balcony and sat out there for my meal.  Earl Grey tea.

Planned some lessons and marked 30+ student papers. The students had done an experiment in class in which they were in groups of 8 and within those groups they had to put themselves in order from who liked technology the least to who liked it the most (these are students at a Technical University, so most of them were on the technophile end of the scale).  Then they had to write up their methods and results.  Considering it was the first week of class, I was really impressed with what they produced.

Knitted.  A few inches on a couple different socks, sitting on the balcony listening to my favorite weekend podcasts “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”, “Best Of The Left”, and “Car Talk” (I save the heavy newsy podcasts for falling asleep at night!)  Actually before the end of the day the purple sock was finished.  It’s for mom.  It’s done with Classic Elite Alpaca Sox (60% Alpaca, 20% Merino Wool, 20% Nylon) and the pattern is Embossed Leaves from Interweave Knits Winter 2005.

The yellow one is for me. I love the yarn, Plymouth Yarn Sockotta (45% Cotton, 40% Superwash Wool, 15% Nylon), because I like the cotton which adds a bit of definition to the yarn. However it can also make the yarn a bit less elastic. I chose the Hermione’s Everyday Sock pattern (found on ravelry) but modified the top to have a picot edge instead of ribbing. I think the picot edge plus the scaly texture of the sock makes it look like fish. They will be my fishy socks, for wearing on days when I feel suspicious of the world.

Watched the rain. No picture because I blanked out, but there was a nice bit of rain midafternoon that was hard enough to be refreshing yet light enough I could still sit on my balcony (with the overhang) to enjoy it.  And then the sun came out briefly.  It was lovely.

Did some yoga! Yay for the yogadownload.com podcasts – they are 20-30 minute audio accompanied by PDFs that include pictures of the poses in order.  Very professional and useful for do-it-yourself-yoga when you need a little guidance.

Took a shower. Evening showers for me these days, because I get up early and don’t want to waste time with the blow dryer or go to work with wet hair.  The shower was improved by my newly knitted washcloth combined with my newly purchased Body Shop Satsuma Shower Gel.  I think I really like evening showers, the hot water relaxes me and prepares me for evening mellowing and eventually sleep.  I also really like how it shortens morning prep time.

Plans before bed are to turn off the computer* and read.  Currently reading “Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith” by Gina Nahai, kindly left for me by my friend Jenney when she left Istanbul.  That was a while ago, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get around to this book, but I’m very glad to have it now.

That’s all, a quiet peaceful day to recuperate and prepare for a busy second week of classes.

*I mean it about turning off the computer, but it’s much easier said than done.   I can only do it if the mp3 player is fully charged and ready to provide a droning voice in my ear to fend off insomnia.