Hobby Hell

I am attempting self control right now. We'll see how long it lasts. What I really must do today -- and what I told myself I would do last night -- is finish up the introduction to my dissertation, move on to the next partially completed chapter (they're all partially completed -- and therein lies the problem), and pronounce myself amazingly productive. STUPENDOUSLY PRODUCTIVE!

I think I'd take any sort of productive, even without the adjectives.

What I was compelled to do last night instead of work on my dissertation (which I told myself I would do last night since I didn't do it yesterday during the day......) was knit up a cute little scarf with some cheap cotton yarn that I procured from the hobby and craft hellhole, Hobby Lobby.

Let me tell you again how I feel about the place. Hobby Lobby = Hell.

I feel the liberty to equate the two because Hobby Lobby, while very attractive on the outside, sucks you into its irrationality; overrun by shopping carts driven by half-crazed soccer moms with fake nails, filled with fake metallic poinsettia stems (the shopping carts, not the soccer moms' nails), the place seethes holiday excess. I mean, it SEETHES. And it makes you think, just for a moment, that maybe everyone else is onto something -- that you really do need 48 metallic red poinsettia stems. That is the logic of this place.

I went there originally because I needed to get a cheap, small Christmas tree for Cole's room, one that he could decorate in any way he wanted. Annemarie has had this for several years, and not suprisingly, he wanted one as well. They love to go to sleep by the tree's light, and I love to watch their faces as they decorate it. Justification had. I also needed some cheap-ish picture frames in which to place a most lovely xmas gift to myself and Brian (which I shall tell you more about later, since the grandparents are getting the same thing, and you never know where in the virtual world these grandparents might be lurking. Pesky grandparents.). And finally, I had heard mixed reviews about a certain cotton yarn that Hobby Lobby exclusively sells, and I thought I'd pick up a skein to see how it knit up. For 2.99, it was worth a shot. The yardage isn't bad, either.

A list of most noble pursuits, no doubt.

Perhaps it was that I was there with all three kids in a place filled with breakables, perhaps it was just this friggin holiday season, or maybe it was the realization that Brian was leaving the next day for an out of town trip, and that any sort of chaos that I experienced (or, rightfully, initiated) by my presence there might be what I could anticipate experiencing for the duration of his trip; WHATEVER IT WAS, by the time we left I was frazzled, Cole had my fingerprints permanently embossed on his wrist, and Annemarie was fretting, which she does when things get tense. The long lines, the Christmas tree that was in stock, not in stock, get out of the line for it, get back in another one to buy it.

Not cool. By the time we were done with our torture, I felt like I'd sold my soul. Now how to get the soul back....I hear it's hard to knit without a soul. We'll see how the cotton holds up.

Ah, but back to my dissertation. That's what I'm supposed to be doing now. And, uh, not blogging......