Ok. So I can’t seem to get more than a third of my to-do list tackled on any given day,* but I can totally manage to start new projects.

The stuff that’s sitting on my list right now is mostly the hard stuff: some emails I need to send out (two of which require me to be brave), an art submission (which also requires me to be brave), and some handwritten letters that need to be sent out (two of the five require me to have something to say, and one more requires me to organize my notes into a comprehensible letter after reading someone’s poetry manuscript). Also, I need to call the health insurance company about optical, find all three of us new PCPs, arrange a dental appointment for Our Man Cub, and arrange for our car to be serviced.**

Yeh. So my plan today was to make mail. To sit down and write letters and pack stuff up to send out. I didn’t do that, so much. I handled the ironing and the changing of linens. I cleaned and finished a scarf and posted a couple new listings on my Etsy. And then this happened:

I’ve been aching to try out arm knitting for what feels like forever – A woman I worked with shared a video of it with me and I became intrigued like whoa. I even pinned*** it, intending to try it out when I got a chance. Ok, really, intending to try it out when I found the right yarn (chunky) at the right price (cheap – I’ve never tried this, so no need to spend a lot of money on it). I haven’t found said yarn yet. Also, I’ve heard tell of making yarn from tee shirts, and have been just dying to try that out. Then I mentioned to a friend the tee-shirt yarn thing, and she mailed me a pin about how to do it, and omg, SHOWED UP AT OUR HOUSE WITH A BAG OF TEES! Squeee! Thank you, Sarah!

What did I do? Well, I certainly didn’t write letters. I sat in my studio space and cut the shit out of some tee shirts, and then learned to arm knit, yes, I did. I made an infinity scarflet, and the whole project, from shirts to scarf to Instagramming my delight, took about ninety minutes. And then I cut up some more tee shirts. And then I made dinner and told the letter writing to wait until tomorrow morning when I can better wrap my head around things.

Project for tomorrow: write some letters. Tonight there is a big, red flat sheet (we don’t use flat sheets. That’s a whole other post for a whole other time.) made of tee shirt material, just languishing in the bottom of my closet. Yes, yes there is.

Is it striking while the iron is hot? Is it avoidance of the hard work? I prefer to think of it as warming up to the task by pouring on some sugar. A year or so ago I was cleaning my house in between pet battles on World of Warcraft – I would set my toon on a flight path and vacuum a room, then battle that zone’s master pet tamer and hop back on another flight path and fold some laundry, rinse, repeat. I mentioned it to a friend, who said she cleaned the house kinda like that, only instead of pet battles, it might be a glass of wine. I love it – but I don’t handle drink quite that well.† So I figure, I’m just working down my to-do list in that same way – an item, a bit of tee-shirt yarn, an item, a bath, an item, a little Netflix. Next item: letters. It’ll all get done, and it’ll all get done in good time.

***

*Granted, it’s a Mighty to-do list, with many items on it. I may be a touch over-ambitious.
**We have a belt going bad. The car has been trying to convince us that it’s composing dub step music when the weather gets cold. Or that it’s singing the song of its people. Every time we start the car in cold weather, the little rubber mouse on our dashboard insists, “I’m Nolan & I like to ride! Also, I like ethnic music and dub! step! Just wait for it – wait for that sick! bass! drop!” He’s excitable. Also, the airbag light has been on for a little while now. And we may need a brake job. I’m mortified at the thought of bringing the car in and them seeing the shape we’ve driven it into. So mortified that I’m seriously considering finding a new garage to do the work, one that doesn’t know us. Also, setting this up means asking to borrow a car from the in-laws for a few days, and I hate bugging them for something like this.
***Oh, Pinterest! I actually DO intend to try pretty much everything I pin to my crafty stuff board. I make time to try out the crochet stitches, and I pick up art supplies to try stuff out when I can. April and I got busy in the kitchen this weekend and made some bitchin’ bath bombes.  My intentions are pure, swear to dog.
†Also, holy crap – drunken letter writing. Bad. Idea.