hodgepodging again

temporarily grounded
A few months ago when I saw the movie, Eat, Pray, Love, I was quite taken with the landscapes and Javier Bardem. We watched it on TV last night and I was just as impressed. I did some research on Bardem and learned that he, along with a great cast, appeared in a Woody Allen movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a couple of years ago. I rented it on my way home. The scenes in Spain are astounding (so is Bardem) and the story for which Allen won a screenwriters award is complicated, but fascinating so far. Unfortunately the DVD is damaged and I didn't get more than 30 minutes or so into it. I'll exchange it tomorrow. I watched it just long enough to make me nostalgic for Spain where I've never been. And to start thinking again about the trip we did take to London and Paris nearly two years ago. This last year has been pretty routine in the travel department which makes faraway places seem more desirable. Wouldn't it be nice to sit in a London park and write or read or snooze the way the Brits do on spring days. My English friends tell me that spring is in full bloom there. All those empty chairs.

Or telephone ahead for a reservation at a lively pub. Maybe a Thames boat trip.

But that sort of journey is not planned at this time. Instead, I'll be heading east in a few weeks and west a few weeks after that. But not crossing the pond this time.
And then I went to the post office.

a stupifying stash
It was a routine trip to pick up the mail. I'm expecting a couple of books and when I found the yellow slip in my box I thought they'd arrived. Instead, it was a huge box (26"x20"x10") from the Las Vegas, Nevada nursing home where my son is Food Services Director. Yikes! The box was stuffed with acrylic yarns, aluminum knitting needles, partially finished projects (predominantly pink and orange) and a variety of crochet hooks. Scott said they didn't know what to do with the accumulation of yarn and thought of me. I promptly text messaged him back that I think I'm going to have to kill him!

I've never had so much acrylic in my house and I've never seen that much outside of Walmart's shelves. I made some phone calls and found a taker.  Tomorrow all the yarn will be going to the Taos Ancianos Senior Center where knitters and crocheters (who aren't yarn snobs like me) will turn it into afghans, hats, and novelty items. Some of it may even turn up at church craft fairs this summer.
          It's not just that the yarn isn't what I'd normally use. It's that I wonder what happened to the crafters who acquired the yarns and started their projects with hope and plans. The only way I could be separated from my stash and projects would be:
               1) I no longer remember they exist
               2) I'm deceased.
          It's a sad stash. When I dumped out the box to take the picture, I felt it. The seniors at the center in town are lively, very much alive and productive. They won't know where the yarn originated and they'll have no preconceived spooky notions about it. Like, will some crocheter's spirit be following her yarn? For my part, I'll be happy to let go of it. And then there were the feathers. Tiny canary or parakeet feathers that floated out of one of the bags. OMG. It's outta here!