Brain Drain

Today’s thoughts:

1. I can’t drink coffee any more before 10:30 am (assuming I’ve been up since 6 am). Why not? Who knows? It makes me feel terrible though.

2. Speaking of feeling terrible, Dunkin Donuts blended coffee beverages are not your friend. I haven’t felt so sick in a long time…

3. It’s been super slow at work the past few days and I’ve had quite a bit of time on my hands to contemplate home décor and fashion. Yes, I am speaking of online shopping. Anyway, the point is: I’m traditional and pretty vanilla in my tastes. I would like to be splashy. I would like to be sleek. I would like to enjoy a modern space (for a while) but I ultimately want to live with shabby-esque, fabric-laden traditional interiors that remind you of cottages, Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn. It’s true. I also am drawn increasingly to Land’s End (seriously—some things are really cute!) and not, say, Prada. I just can’t do it. Even searching for a cute black tote, I find most things too busy for my taste.

4. I work in a building where we rent space from a very large, well-established, well-known research laboratory. All day long I get to watch employees from this other company because my desk faces our floor’s two elevators. I’ve written little stories about almost all of these people and I’ve given them names. My favorites are Alex Hung and Wendy. I’m not sure what they do, but they are always together and they take the elevator many, many times a day. They also wear lanyards. I took the elevator with Alex Hung today and it was sort of like meeting a celebrity…only he didn’t know he was famous and in all honesty I know nothing about him.

5. My other favorite employee I’ve named Peter. Peter is quiet and always looks sort of embarrassed when you get on the elevator with him or he catches me staring at him as he gets off the elevator. I like to think Peter is a grad student who is pining away from his fiancée who lives in Illinois still but will be moving to Boston after she graduates next May. Then they’ll get married and have babies quickly.

6. I’m making Newman-O cupcakes tonight to take to the Cape and can’t wait to see how they’ll come out.

7. I’m going to the Cape this weekend with some of my most favorite people in the world (including two indescribably fun Baby Girls)! Color me excited.

8. I did some extensive online research last night into area yarn and fabric stores (inspired by Libby’s comment which led me to Yelp!) and I’ve developed a must-shop list that is somewhat long. What does this mean for you? If you come to visit me and can knit and/or sew you are obligated to visit at least one of these stores with me.

9. I’m craving fabric. Can you crave fabric? Why, yes, you can crave fabric. I’m threatening fabric-based Christmas presents on many people. I’m really itching to sew. I want to finish my mondo heavy (literally—10 pounds!) knitting project and move on. However, I love this project dearly and am fiercely proud of it so I really want to do a great job.

10. Speaking of knitting, remember those socks I posted a few days ago? I took them with me on the T because I finally found this magic express train that no one takes so there are always seats available and I figured I could finally knit on my commute. Well, knit I did! I knit that morning AND I knit on my lunch break. In fact, I had 7 inches of the sock finished by that afternoon’s commute. I stuck them in my tote and on the way home I lost all my stitches off the needles. Seriously! So disheartening! I’ve begun these socks three times now (once destroyed by my painkiller-induced reasoning after having my wisdom teeth removed, once destroyed by Miss Marple who thinks it is fun to destroy knitting and now once destroyed by my commute). My word. I lost the will to re-start them again. I’ve decided to go back to working on my pre-Bulgaria sweater.

11. I want to start sending mail again. I love getting mail (about once a week) and I figure other people must love it as much as I do. Watch out! Mail’s coming your way.