SockTart

When one does something as drastic as dropping a pack-a-day smoking habit, things are obviously going to happen. Chances are that you’ll overeat. Or go through withdrawal symptoms. Or take it out on your spouse. The shit is constantly hitting the fan because it’s floating all over the place. For the first while, life is an awful lot like a toilet.

I’m not going to go through the gory details. Suffice it to say, anytime you attempt to give up an addiction that’s a fundamental part of your lifestyle, you’re going to have difficulties.

I missed work today for three reasons: Tummy cramps; lack of sleep; and depression. The tummy cramps could be for many reasons, one of which is the actual absorbtion (sp?) of nutrients. God only knows…I sure as hell don’t. Lack of sleep? The damned patch is coming off before bed tonight, no matter what Nicoderm’s propaganda says. Depression? Well, it’s normal. If nothing else, I can look back at feeling “blue” and a little anxious, and say “wow…for once I’m actually NORMAL at something!” Uh…even when that “normal” is about being absolutely bonkers.

At 9:36pm tonight I had a revelation. I had gone for over 15 minutes without thinking about smoking. I had been watching TV (yes, just watching TV…not dividing my attention between knitting and TV or whatever), and had gotten caught up enough in what was happening to forget.

Score!

Now to start getting the rest of my new lifestyle on track.

Well, Robin and I chose yesterday as our quit date, and so far I’m doing OK. Tomorrow morning I’ll find out how Robin is doing. That’s the drawback…during the work-week, we only actually see each other for a half hour to an hour in the morning as I’m waking up.

Today he made breakfast for me while I took a shower. This made me a very happy girl.

I’m using the patch. I’m not wheezing like I used to. I’m sucking on altoids and other mints when I get cravings. Which feels like All The Freakin’ Time. Robin is going the cold-turkey route, and he’s rather…cranky. We’ll see whether or not I wind up tackling him and sticking a patch at the part of his back that he can’t reach, just to see if it helps.

I’ve gotten a couple of inches knit on Robin’s sock…and that’s just during break times at work.

The Cat is confused.

Don’t congratulate me yet. I’m not out of the woods, though support is always helpful.

Blake, you want to either phone me after 10am tomorrow, or get hold of me online somehow? Looks like our WoW people forgot about the Turkey Deep Fry this weekend, and signed up for BWL instead.

Thinking we might just want to put it off for awhile…let the folks raid a bit before the EP comes out, since they seem to be chomping at the bit to get back to ye olde grinder…

(…plus…this is a really really lean time of year for the pocketbook in regards to making foods for people who won’t be there…we’ll just have to work on giving the Turkey in the deep-freeze some friends to hang out with, methinks…and our house really should be cleaner…)

Yesterday was quite interesting. We had dinner over at the in-laws’ house.

Robin’s Mum has lost about 25 pounds since starting to cook Heart-Smart for his Dad. She’s using the Glycemic Index as well as a Heart-Smart cookbook, and it seems to be working. From what I can gather, it’s very much like Atkins, only with some modifications (less fat, more veggies that are a bit higher on the index). It’s instantly noticeable on her frame, though…she looks a lot smaller and a lot healthier.

Robin and I are considering quitting smoking, and eating healthier. We’re actually considering it, not just saying it. It won’t be an easy thing to do, that’s for sure. Our reasons? Well, Robin’s Dad having a heart attack in his early to mid 50’s is one reason. We don’t want to risk this being a family trend. There are more cosmetic reasons, of course, like wanting to look good when we finally tie the knot. The subject of children has also come up somewhere in there…if we decide to start our family in the next 2 years, we’d like to have as few complications as possible. Robin doesn’t want to have to make the decision of “your wife or your child, you can’t have both”.

The money that we save on cigarettes can obviously go to something else…paying of debts, taking a vacation, having a wedding, supporting a small dependant lifeform, etc. We’d also have a lot more energy.

We’ll be incredibly bitchy and whiny. We’ve both quit in the past (both of us went cold-turkey at various points in life). We don’t expect it to be easy. It’s not. There’s a saying that quitting smoking is rougher than getting clean after heroin. I’ve never done heroin, but coming clean after years of smoking definitely ranks right up there in the list of “things that are hard to do”. I expect that my Yarn Addiction will likely grow as I try to keep my hands busy doing something *other* than feeding the hand-to-mouth habit.

This is why we’re discussing it. The whens and whys of the situation, so we can be sure we’re going to follow through. Most of all, it’s making sure we’re accountable to each other. Backsliding is understandable. Lying about sneaking smokes is not.

Wish us luck; we’re going to need it.

In more pleasant news, I’m 3 inches away from having a pair of socks to call my own. Much knitting was done last night while listening and talking. Then I either get Robin to help swift my second skein of Iris Garden for the second Jaywalker, or I start in on his Trekking socks. Or I finish up the X-mas gifts that got put to the wayside….

We rang the new year in quietly. A couple of friends popped by briefly along the way, a couple phoned at late hours, and we went to bed relatively early.

2006 wasn’t a bad year. Wasn’t the best.
- We didn’t go to New Orleans like we’d planned. Money and weather issues kinda got in the way of that one (grin)
- We had a spot of unemployment for one half of the family dynamic. We’re recovering from that little setback.
- Robin is now working for a company that isn’t either a small business or family-owned. There’s room for movement, which is very good indeed.
- Chelsea and I found a new yarn store, which does indeed sell yarn crack.
- I am kinda waffling on whether I want to become part of the “community” in regards to knitting. I’m a very solitary-type person, and just doing “knit night” with Chels can wreak havoc on my natural inclination to “turtle”. I’ve never been the best at socialization.
- I knit my first, second, third and fourth pairs of socks. Not bad for a chica who, up until the latter half of 2006, could claim scarves and an iPod cozy as her main finished objects.
- Our WoW guild started on Molten Core, and managed to get most of the way through Blackwing Lair. No Nefarian kills yet, but apparently he’s the only boss we haven’t downed at least once (X-mas knitting got in the way of me actually participating in the last few raids of 2006).

What’s up for 2007? Well, I can’t say anything about the work front, or the personal life (those are the kinda things that just sorta happen as they unfold), but there’s a lace shawl on the needles (Lace! Shawl! Wowzers!), and I’m almost done the second Freezie Sock. I also have the aforementioned first of two Jaywalker socks completed, and I’ve promised Robin at least one pair of socks out of Trekking XXL. Once I’m a bit more flush with cash, I’ll be hitting the Divine Store of Yarn Crack (I just consider the place an extension of my home stash) to sign up for the Sock Club. Damn, but socks are addictive. I have a ball of Regia that is tempting me beyond all belief.

As for tonight? Dinner with the in-laws. Yummers

I thought that knitting socks with Real Sock Yarn was fiddly? Try knitting lace with Size 10 100% mercerized crochet cotton. I have about 5 inches done on a lace shawl, knit on size 0 circulars. After working with that stuff, the sock yarn feels downright thick and luxurious…

I have no idea how many USB to mini-input cables we have in this house, but I can’t find a single one of them. There are at least 3 or 4, to my recollection. One for the Digital camera, one for my palmpilot, and one for our card reader. There may even be one for Robin’s Palmpilot (which, unfortunately, is no longer in working order).

You’d think that with all these resources, there would be a single cable lying around for me to plug in my digital camera. No…for some reason, all these cables have gone missing.

I may have to actually stoop to taking the memory card, plug it into Robin’s PC (it has a built-in cardreader) and transfer files over the network.

This, Chels, is why you haven’t gotten those pictures yet…

X-mas went well. We stayed up ungodly late to wrap presents on X-mas Eve, and then slept in the next morning. Because Robin is on a night shift, we couldn’t make the usual Veldhoen family breakfast (held this year Chez Scott). We *did* talk with Scott on the phone, and had phone calls from my Bro and Tyler.

Unwrapped presents from each other (Robin got me the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice! w00t! You hear THAT Chels!? We got more Costume Pr0n!), and had a quick game of Trivial Pursuit Totally 80’s (I kick bum at that game), then wandered over to my parents’ house.

Played with the kids. Uncle Robin is very popular with our nephew Milo. My Sis-in-law tells Milo little stories at bedtime, and she apparently admitted that Uncle Robin is Batman’s Robin. Apparently Batman lives just outside of Edmonton. We were stuffed with a huge turkey dinner, and were spoiled rotten with Presents. Robin walked away with some classic movies like Dr. Zhivago and The Pink Panther, and I was showered with Knitting books and supplies. Yay!

I now have a book on knitting vintage socks, a book on classic mittens, and a couple of knitting calendars. There is also a copy of Kitschy stitches (A gallery of Notorious Knits) floating around the living room.

Robin took the time to play swift, and helped me wind a ball of Lorna’s Laces in Iris Garden. I’m starting a pair of jaywalkers for myself as a recreational sock. Whee!

We wrapped up the night by having Tyler over for a drink or two. He and Robin talked gaming of various sorts for a couple of hours before we had to take him home.

All-in-all, a very relaxing and happy Yule for us. Hope it was just as good for everyone else

Well, more like a day and a half.

My brother loaned me a DVD. It decided to kill the DVD changer in our home theatre. We can’t afford to replace it. Good thing we still have the old DVD/VCR combo upstairs. Looks like I’ll be figuring out how to wire it into the system so we can get the surround sound.

I haven’t finished all my knitting projects. Robin assures me that we won’t be seeing his folks until after X-mas. I’m hoping I get done.

The cat decided to go into heat. She’s really annoying. Really REALLY annoying. I can’t stress how much this is pissing me off (on the flip side, it gave me a chance to clip her nails). No snide remarks about needing to get the cat fixed, thanks. We’re well aware of this fact and I’m in the mood to snarl.

The presents haven’t been wrapped.

Despite our best efforts, the kitchen and living room are both messy.

Speaking of presents, we have some last-minute stuff that needs to be purchased. Thus, we will likely have to brave a mall tonight. Tidings of comfort and joy, my arse.

We have to replace the disc that decided to kill our DVD. It’s not mangled, but it’s not pretty.

Robin has a huge headache.

I need a shower, a new pack of cigarettes, and a bottle of wine. STAT.

(sigh)…there are times when a good cry would be cathartic, but I’m just too numb to do it.

4 days until people open presents. This is how I’m thinking of it.

I have a scarf on the needles (despite what Mum thinks, it’s a scarf). I have a sock for my nephew. I need to wind another ball of chunky yarn for another scarf, likely for Dad or Jordan.

5 inches into the sock for Milo, I realize that it looks rather narrow. In fact, it looks like the same circumference as Georgie’s feet. Check it against the baby socks (same size…crap). Re-check the stitch gauge (somehow gone from 7 st/inch to 8 st/inch).

Frog back, recast. Damnit.

Now I know what was bugging me about these socks, at least…

Only 4 more knitting days. This is going to be…interesting…