Procrastination and a rising flood
Happy Mother's Day!
The day has rained, on and on. We have our sump pump set up and pumping the water out of the basement into the backyard, where it seeps into the ground and heads back for the basement. It's clearly an attractive destination. So far in this little game of floodwater tag, our little-sump-pump-that-could is winning. Yay, Heroic Pump! After getting this established and picking up DD#2 and discussing with Beloved Aunt that driving across the causeway to Beloved Aunt's house might be a teensy bit dangerous and saying um, no thanks, to her relief, (all the preceding happened in reverse order, actually), DH and I ended up driving up to the last little bit of the NH Sheep & Wool.

I'd seen the news saying oo! the Merrimack River is flooding near Goffstown! And I said, phht, go on, you silly news guy. Well, dang if it wasn't a really scary sight from the highway. Sure enough, the Merrimack River is overflowing its banks, right near Goffstown. And we will be having more rain for another two days, they say. So I hope Kat is okay, and everyone up that way, too. Good gracious. *note: The Merrimack River has the fastest current in New England. It winds south and north again and wanders eastish and lets out at Newburyport. It is right now an extremely dangerous body of water.

The S&W was very wet. Also nearly over with. Yes, I am indeed bonkers for going up there.
There were a couple of lovely border collies still working in the rain, and some vendors still there, bless 'em, so I came away with:





No, I still don't spin. But who could resist that roving?? Come on!

I had a blast chaperoning the homeschoolers' formal last night. What a cool event, and what a terrific bunch of kids. They came from all over! They were so nifty! I'm really glad I was there. "Formal" was expressly intended to mean whatever they wished, so we had a Matrix outfit, a sari, some vintage 80's florals, some really nice prom dress things, an Elizabethan doublet and pantaloons, a couple of tuxes, and one teenage boy in a tasteful burgundy velvet gown (which looked surprisingly good; reminded me of David Bowie in a red dress). Etc., etc., etc. DD#2 slept over her friend's house with a gaggle of other girls afterwards, hence the pickup this a.m.

Homeschooling teenagers can be astonishingly wonderful.

And some thoughts from an interview on NPR with Hans Zimmer, the Oscar-winning composer who's scored Gladiator, Pirates of the Carribean, and the upcoming DaVinci Code: He says he puts the "pro" in "procrastination." The interviewer talked a lot about the score for DaVC, then said, hey! You're also scoring the new Pirates of the Carribean movie that comes out in July! And he says, oh my god I am so late and I can not think of anything and everybody always goes, oh you'll think of something brilliant and What If I DON'T? oh my god! I shouldn't even be doing this interview, the release date is coming up so fast and I have Nothing, I am so screwed.

Not those precise words, but very, very close. And I found this so heartening. Even this hugely talented famous guy who does tons of wonderful work that I even LIKE has the same issues with procrastinating and imposter syndrome and freaks out about deadlines. You could look at it as really depressing, in that even this successful and prolific person has no better skill at managing his time than I do, and that it may not get better as I become more successful, I might just freak out more publicly. But the heart-warming thing for me, and how I look at it, is that he's getting the work done and it works out brilliantly and even though he has a lot of the same issues as I do, they aren't getting in the way. Even though his inner demon is trying its damnedest, it isn't winning. So maybe I can do it, too. Maybe I won't have to wait until I Finally Figure Out How To Not Sabotage Myself. Maybe things will still work out even if I still struggle.

On that note, I really should go swatch for the two designs (for hats! don't lose it by proxy, anybody!) that are due June 1. I'll go and look at the yarn some more, and doodle, and eat dinner, and cast on the other sleeve for the malabrigo (thud), and read a bedtime story, and maybe, just maybe, get out my own way long enough to really get going.