Playing catch up

The last week has been a largely wasted one. I blame Boy-Creature, because last Monday he brought home games for the PS2 that's been sitting ignored on the shelf below our TV. I had been fine with it sitting there, inert, for the two months since our friend gave it to us, but suddenly there was Lego Indiana Jones, and Kingdom Hearts, and just like that the week imploded.

Luckily, the novelty has already worn off, so I'm back to getting things done.

I was reading The Prestige, but I finished it on Saturday morning. It was weird, and while I appreciate some of the differences between the two, I think the movie was way, waaay better. For one thing, the movie has more than two characters. It got kind of boring after awhile. Anyway, I finished that, and then read Alice Hoffman's Local Girls, all in one day.

It felt good to finish a book that fast. I used to get one of my parents to take me to the library on a Friday night, and I'd check out six or seven chapbooks from the young adult section and read as many of them as I could in that one weekend. You'd think I wouldn't have retained a single thing, going at that speed, but it's surprising how many of those books stuck with me. Patrice Kindl's Woman in the Wall, and this strange book called Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, and anything by Patricia Wrede or John Bellairs. And Douglas Adams. It used to be a ritual I'd perform every summer, that I'd steal my brother's copy of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe and read through the whole thing, lying on a beach towel in the backyard and drinking cherry 7Up and eating E.L. Fudge cookies and cherry Twizzlers.

I'd give just about anything to be able to read that quickly and that deeply now. I realize a big part of what's slowing me down is that I'm reading more substantial books, but I still miss the days of the pages flying past. But at least I'm still reading. So like I said, I've finished those two, and now I'm on The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear. It's a little bit insane, but pretty funny. Plus it's a pretty quick read. I'm already on life number six. Which is much farther than I've gotten in Kingdom Hearts.

Speaking of how far I've gotten, I'm finally nearing the end of the Blue Angel Sweater. I finished the right sleeve, and I'm through the cap sleeve and onto the decreases on the left. Then all I'll have left is the neck, and a little bit of weaving in ends, and it'll be done!

One of my short row wraps went a little wonky on the sleeve cap, though, so I'm contemplating ripping it back and redoing it. I most likely will, just not tonight. I don't have the strength for frogging tonight. But I'm sure I will. After all the time and effort I've already put into this thing, I want it to be as perfect as possible. Besides, the weird spot makes a little hole, and it's right in front. So I'll fix it tomorrow.