Secretly Insane & Productive

Job.Money.Car.Health.Katrina.
Once again, I've been MIA. My life is a bit insane. Job troubles for Wifey, money troubles, car troubles, and health troubles for me. Wifey's job troubles are working out slowly. Very slowly. Agonizingly slowly. Money troubles are money troubles. Pay the rent, avoid the utilities for a couple months, cut back on anything unnecessary, turn the damned lights off, stop buying organic for a bit, hit the library, sell some shit on eBay or CraigsList ... you know the deal. Car troubles boil down to this -- one VW wagon minus one timing belt=destroyed engine and a $4K quote. Hah! See previous sentence about job and money. Insert one beautifully caring and loving brother driving 6 hours in a SUV to attach my car to a dolly, sleeping for 2 hours and driving back. Then imagine a couple weeks of this young man searching for used parts online and swearing under hood of wagon. Now ... think of me, a couple weeks from now, trying to get to an obscure location 6 hours away with no money to rent a car and my only car celebrating its new engine. Needless to say, I'll be dealing with some logistical issues all too soon. Most importantly, My Brother is the Best! Health troubles are weird. I have some sort of heart issue. Not diagnosed. Doc seems a little worried, but not freaked. I call on Tuesday expecting to see her within a week or two. Nope, I was brow-beaten into coming within 3 hours of my call, and further scolded that if I had additional symptoms in the meantime (3 hours!), I was to get to an E.R. Fuck that, I'm 30! Anyway, I had some tests done with more to come. I had to cut back on my caffeine intake. Barry's! I can only drink you once a day, and perhaps give you up entirely! Oh the horror! Plus, I have to de-stress. Yeah, right. See beginning of post. I'll get right on that. Bottom line is -- I'm 30. I'm not going to drop dead of a heart attack. Yes, my Grandpa had his first 'big one' (as my family calls it) in his late 20s, a massive and disabling one in his early 40s and a fatal one at 53. Yes, my 49 year old Mom is on meds and closely monitored. But I'm 30! I'll be fine, if I can only stop thinking about Katrina. This was totally preventable. The government has been incredibly remiss in responding. I am delighted that celebrities are speaking out. But once again, I am ashamed to be an American. We can do so much better than this. However, as the job.money.car.health.self-pity.anger rollercoaster circles around in my mind, I'm painfully aware of how lucky I am to have my home and my family. I am thankful. The rest will work out eventually. 'Nuff said. Let's get to the knitting.

Knitting.
I just finished a semi-secret project that can't make it's bloggy debut until the end of September. Roo knows that Baby Joey is getting a Mafia original, but I don't want her to see it until the shower (9/24). Sorry dear readers (all two of you), you'll have to wait until Sept. 25th.

I plan to take the famous headless Mafia pic with my new AC Shawl/Not-Knit-Round Scarf draped across my shoulders. Problem is - it's black, and I almost always wear black. This does not provide many photo ops. I contemplated stripping off today's black shirt and doing a bra shot, but the belly isn't what it used to be. Sorry ladies, I won't be providing lesbian porn this week. [bring on the google hits]

The grind is calling...