Pusterom

I'm finding it harder and harder to get motivated to write for this blog. Partly it's because I'm not really doing any knitting right now, and I more or less think of this as my knitting blog. My life isn't really any different than it usually is, but maybe I've just started to feel less of a need to process it in writing. Maybe that's because living in Norway is starting to feel normal? I've started to gather a collection of acquaintances--people I feel comfortable chatting with at the bus stop,  on the ferry, or around the neighborhood. I'm mastering more of the routines of living in a bedroom community, and feeling more settled. At the same time I'm worried about my family for various reasons, and caught up in my work, and all the usual preoccupations that fill a person's mind during middle age. My online energy seems to be drawn toward my writing blog, Facebook, and the discussion forums I frequent.

Not sure where this is leading. Maybe I'll get back to writing more during the summer break? Maybe I'll regain my knitting obsession? Or maybe I'll actually finish another book manuscript this summer instead? Who knows?

ETA: well wouldn't you know it, but right after more or less predicting the demise of this blog, two topics started tumbling around in my head. Go figure.

The first is "stash" or more specifically my stash of yarn. There's been a discussion on Ravelry about the compulsion to buy more ("adding to stash") even when they don't have any purpose for the yarn. It got me thinking about my own consumerism. I had been noticing that my shelves of yarn were in disarray, so I figured this was a good time to sort through it all and take stock. Here's the grand total, including works in progress:

Any way you slice it, that's a lot of yarn. After I got it all laid out it didn't take very long to determine what I want to keep, and what I'll set aside to give away (probably to E's school for craft projects). I'd like to jettison it right away, but for now stowing it in a separate bag and putting the rest back on the shelves will have to do.

The other thing that has been bothering me has to do with the Eurovision Song Contest, which was aired last weekend. Of course I watched it with great enthusiasm and high expectations, but I was really disappointed. I won't go into how un-entertaining it was this year, but I do want to comment on the Swedish entry, Erik Saade's "Popular." Is it just me, or are the lyrics incredibly narcissistic and, well, just plain stupid?

I will be popular, I will be popular
I'm gonna get there, popular
My body wants you girl, my body wants you girl
I'll get you when I'm popular

I'll put my hands up in the lights
You'll see me dancing for my life
I will be popular, I will be popular
I'm gonna get there, popular

Spread the news, I'm gonna take the fight
For the spotlight day and night
I can't take this to the number one
Be someone before you're gone
Be someone before you're gone  

Gah! Is it possible to be more asinine? Is it just me, or is this song worse than the (rather funny) parody of Hannah Montana that was broadcast on NRK children's television earlier this year: "Æ e populær." And really, for musicality, I think the entry from last year's Melodi Gran Prix Junior contest, "Jeg vil bli berømt" was way better than Saade's, both musically, and in terms of the message. I'd much rather hear a preteen's naive dreams of fame than a cynical 20-something's lame attempt at appealing to the lowest common denominator of the widest possible audience. Yuck.

Uten tittel, tom for ideer

Yesterday I had my first meeting with my mentor. It was great, and it seems like he didn't feel it was a waste of his time. I asked him about his own experience and it was interesting to hear how much emphasis he placed on the importance of understanding Norwegian culture. I think he'll be a great sounding board for understanding the cultural differences behind the conflicts and frustrations that arise. He's also really funny and super competent in his field. Definitely someone to emulate!

Having said that, I think I'm at a low point in terms of my job. It had to come some time. I've been really put out about the huge amount of work teaching the NOR1300 break out group is going to entail. I don't see how I'm going to get anything done on the book. I was feeling sort of pouty, thinking that I'm being overworked. I finally got the template for calculating my 25% of non-research work hours. I was shocked and dismayed to find how much of what I have done (and been asked to do) does not even count! According to the template I'm actually under the number of hours for teaching and administration. I'm going to be asking a bunch of people about this over the next few weeks--presumably there are ways of reporting these things (like writing grade justifications, giving a lecture at the Faglig-pedagogisk day, etc.).

My break from knitting is helping my hands. Anxious to start up on the fair isle yoke pullover, though. Only a little more to go before I can put it together and start on the fun part, i.e. the yoke itself.

I finished unraveling the green cotton sweater yesterday morning and knitted a little swatch for Miss Honeychurch yesterday afternoon. I'm pretty sure it's going to work. I've changed my mind and am going to do the body first after the yoke. I didn't unravel the yarn from the part where the sleeve openings were cut. It looks like there's approximately 1 meter of yarn for each row there. I'll save it for a worst case scenario if I run out of yarn on the sleeves.

I popped into the Majorstuen Fretex store yesterday when I had 10 minutes to kill before my mentoring meeting, and lo and behold I found what is practically the holy grail: a black, 100% shetland wool, DK weight, men's XL cabled sweater with turtleneck! It was an acceptable (for Norway) price: 169 NOK (29.50 USD!). The seams are all great and I saw no damage. I have it stashed in the freezer for the next 3 days on the off chance it contains moth eggs, since it is wool after all, and I'll wash it before I start unraveling. I don't have a particular project in mind, and it's so handsome that KE might just claim it as is, once he sees it.

Today I'm taking some time off from work to go with KE to choose tiles for our kitchen. I'm so excited! Once those are up then he'll be able to install the upper cabinets. Can't wait!!! We've been "in progress" for so long that I can't remember what it's like to have a normal kitchen.

Oh, one other thing: last night I composed a draft of the letter we have to write in support of our application to the Waldorf preschool. KE looked it over, liked it a lot and found no mistakes! I think that's the first time I've ever written an entirely mistake-free and totally idiomatic document in Norwegian. I've never had to write so much in Norwegian as in this past year, and I think it has really helped.

Overveldet

So for some reason (maybe it's my period) I'm now feeling totally overwhelmed. The week has flown by, and a number of good things have happened, but I can't seem to get it together mentally. I had a great critique session with a colleague on Tuesday. She gave me the best possible suggestions for improving the Volvo Lastvagnar article, and in a normal week I probably would have been able to crank through the revisions by now. But since my Mom is visiting I took part of the day off on Wednesday to guide her to a weaver's studio in Oslo, where we visited for a good long while. It was really neat to see her house and studio, which she shares with her free lance sound engineer husband and children. She is a former architect who switched to textile art seven years ago. The house was a fabulous blend of old and new. I wasn't totally wild about all her work, but some of the pieces I found really intriguing.

Yesterday I had to give my first (ever) oral exam for the early literature course. I was really nervous about messing it up for some reason, but it went relatively well. The student did great, actually. I took care of a bunch of nagging errands on campus, but didn't manage to get any writing or revising done, which is a bummer. I've also not knitted at all for two days! My wrist was starting to hurt a bit, and I was literally too tired to knit last night (gasp!).

The biggest news of the week is that the sofa (ordered a full two months ago) arrived on Wednesday. It's great! I love it, and never want to have to buy another. Such a relief!