There's little else in Cornwall

Today was a fascinating day of NOT being a total loser!

For those in our audience who do not live in Ontario (which is, I think, pretty much everyone) we have a lovely system known as the Graduated Licensing Programme. At 16, you can take a written test, which, having passed, grants the lucky lady to a G1, which is essentially a learner's permit. After a year, passing a road test gets you a G2, which allows you to drive alone with a few restrictions. The G2 lasts for at least a year, and up to 5. I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so I've sort of...put off taking the road test that takes me from a G2 to a G - General licence. My G2 expires on February 27, and if I fail to take the final road test before that happens, I get to start all over again at the beginning, which would be Hubs driving me around (oh, can you imagine how thrilled he'd be to drive me to opera rehearsals and then WAIT for three hours until I'm done?)

Anyway, I was able to schedule a test on Monday for this morning. And Hallelujah! I passed! I was nervous because tests make me nervous. I usually do really well on them, but still I get all twitchy when faced with a test. And it went fine, because, well, I know how to freakin' drive! So now I'm a real grown-up driver, with a real grown-up licence. Fabulous!

In more knitty news:

I'm a fan of the KIP. I'm a fan of the doing-things-in-public-that-are-totally-appropriate-but-most-people-don't-do, like breastfeeding. I will feed my children when and where they are hungry, with only a few exceptions (ok, middle of church seems strange and kinda wrong) but at a friend's house, or when people are over, or in a park....you're getting the idea. I mention it largely because I had a conversation with a good friend of Hubs, who seemed totally grossed by women he'd seen nurse in public (I'm such a child, it's NIP!) We had this conversation on Saturday, by KIP evening. Hubs had a gig at a bar/restaurant in the 'burbs, and our friend Mike Munnik was opening. This is the friend who had Hubs and I sit in when he recorded his EP, so he had us sit in on the last three songs of his set. Which was wicked. Anyway, I brought the birthday scarf along in an effort to have more than just untapped balls of yarn for Hubs the following afternoon, and knit while the boys were soundchecking. I finished a stripe and a half, moreover, I knit in a bar, which I always enjoy. I used to knit in the grad pub on campus when I was in third and fourth year. My friends made a little fun, I didn't care, it was good times, all around.

I mentioned the birthday scarf. Hubs' birthday was Sunday, but I was so sick last week there was no way to get the yarn earlier than Saturday. He got a teeeeny bit of knitting on needles, and a few balls of yarn. I think - I hope - he likes the colours I chose for him.

The yarn is Rowan 4-ply Yorkshire Tweed, and it's just lovely. Truly superb. Not cheap for such low weight, short yardage balls of yarn, but fine for a very nice scarf. I'm knitting it lengthwise on a round needle, so it won't photography well yet. Soon as it takes a good pic, I'll post for you. I'm double-knitting and adding texture....I'm really enjoying working on it. I often forget how rewarding simple knits, like scarves, can be. No worrying about shaping, just textured stitch patterns and a nice meditative knit. I like it.

Having spent 4 hours (1.5 getting Hubs to work and myself and the car to the testing place, .5 on the test, 1 getting myself home, 1 picking up Hubs and coming home again) in the car today, I have done precious little else. Laundry to do, and a scarf to knit.

And don't think I've abandoned my stocking project. I have an entire foot completed, and I'm working my way up the ankle. And keeping tidy notes to post some day, should anyone other crazy person feel like knitting her own stockings.

I am a mad woman.

But not so much as most. There are horrible things happening in this world, and not so horrible things, but things more common and also quite devastating. And there is the sadness of watching someone publicly self-destruct. I'll admit, I'm a bit of a trashy gossip reader. How stupid, I know. But in the past 6 months or so, I've found that a lot of the gossip I'm reading is just demonstrating how disappointing and truly terrible, Western culture can be (maybe it's all people, everywhere, but since I don't know for certain, I won't paint everyone with the same pathetic brush). Example: last summer, gossip columns documented the rapid shrinking of Nicole Richie. And no one ever seemed to take any action to help the girl! She was sloooowly killing herself, and everyone just watched. More recently, Britney Spears has taken a pretty fantastic trip off the deep end, and again, everyone seems to just watch and enjoy it. Was I ever a fan of Britney Spears, or care about her life or career? No. But do I want to watch her get so royally fucked up that she publicly shaves her head (the owner of the salon is hoping to make millions off the hair she left behind, the clippers used, and the can of Redbull she was drinking, isn't that sweet of him?) and enters rehab? Absolutely not. I feel badly for her. She's obviously in some sort of crisis, and her - and her children's - life is going to suffer dearly for it. And the general attitude in gossip columns is that of gloating enjoyment. It's sad, sad that we think it's acceptable to profit emotionally from other humans' suffering, and sad that her little life has turned out this way.