Yarn Diet 2005

It has taken me two days to go through my stash and relocate it appropriately. Two days that were the equivalent of standing naked in front of a three way mirror -- under harsh fluorescent lighting, deadly pale, no makeup, while severely PMSed and after a month-long pizza and beer binge and zero Pilates. Does that tell you how horrified I am by my stash? I disgust myself. I have lost the urge to buy yarn. I don't see that urge coming back for a long, long time. 12 projects before I am allowed to buy again? I think 24 would be better. 24 projects from now, I may be, if not stash-free, at least only lightly stashed.

This isn't a Stasher on the Wagon's Anti-Yarn Sermon, so I hope it doesn't engender any stash guilt. It's not meant to at all. It's just where I am in life now. I am uncomfortable with my stash and need to shed it. The good news is that revisiting my stash showed me I still love it. I still want it. I remember why I bought that stuff and I want to use it. I still like the yarn I bought, save for a few inappropriate wools, and some odds and ends that are going to Alderson. I don't feel guilty about the stash, it was a sanity-saving insanity, if you know what I mean, but at this point it's time to throw on the brakes and start working through it.

I did not buy carpet today, because I went to Lowe's first and they had nothing that thrilled me, carpet-wise. I did pick up some paint samples, because, of course, Cream in my Coffee is not in the chip display now. No biggie, I have a partial can in the garage and can get the numbers off that, I'm sure they can still mix it up for me, but I pulled a few more creams and a few richer shades that may go in my room. My room is the opposite end of the house from the Girlchild's and has opposite light issues - the hurricanes stripped the big raintree that gave it some shade, and now the room is very, very sunny. It needs color.

Kerstin's commentary is so sad and so moving today, especially for me, as a mother of two grown kids the same age as the ones we're shipping to Iraq. On the subject of military recruiting ads, a particularly distateful one popped up during a movie on USA, or TBS or whateverthehell channel I had on today while sorting yarn. An ethnic looking family - we know they are ethnic because they have slight accents and mom is cooking something with lots of garlic (closeup on the garlic - no, I'm not kidding). Son comes to mom and says he's going to college, because she taught him that this was the thing to do. She's all misty and proud. Cut to the slide - Join the Army.

No mention of that nasty little side trip you'll be making to Iraq, for God Knows How Many tours as they keep extending your obligation - no son, join the Army and they'll send you to college! You might be 30 by the time you're able to go and might not have legs when you get there, but hell, it's better than getting student loans or even working your way through, right?

As someone who took 14 years to get her bachelor's degree from a state school (actually, three state schools) while working and raising two kids, I know that there are lots of ways to go to college. And the "racial profiling" of the ad was very disturbing to me, it was very much aimed at working-class, young Hispanic males who love their mothers and want to make her proud. I wanted to grab the kid in the ad and tell him "Honey, as a mom I can tell you for sure that I'd rather have my son working his way through school a class or two at a time, taking forever to finish a degree, than in Iraq for five minutes. Ask your mom what she really wants for you before you sit down with that recruiter." Just a mom talking, but I'd rather have my kids healthy and safe than gambling their lives for a chance at money for college.

Gosh, I wasn't even going to get into the war thing today, because I was too bemused/incensed/disgusted by this: The Great Indecency Hoax.
Red State, Blue State, Janet Jackson's boob and Nicollette Sheridan's back, nobody's as upset about it as the "liberal media" (HAR!) wants us to think. Things that make you go hmmmm.... Hmmm that the switchboards didn't really light up with outrage after the Monday Night Football opener, but days later suddenly it's a manufactured scandal. Hmmm that "public outcry" about a show on Fox is, after investigation, actually three people generating email form letters. What the hell is going on here, and why is the "liberal" (HAR!) media going along with it and repeating this shit as if it were true?

From the Rich article linked above:
"The mainstream press, itself in love with the "moral values" story line and traumatized by the visual exaggerations of the red-blue map, is too cowed to challenge the likes of the American Family Association. So are politicians of both parties. It took a British publication, The Economist, to point out that the percentage of American voters citing moral and ethical values as their prime concern is actually down from 2000 (35 percent) and 1996 (40 percent)."

The Mandate of The Red States is yet another big fat lie. Let's start treating it like one.

Yesterday I turned on VH1, for the first time in, oh, years, because daytime television really does suck mightily and I needed background noise for the stash examination. I'm only vaguely aware of Green Day, but VH1 has "American Idiot" in heavy rotation. Now that song is playing on a continuous loop in my brain:

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new mania.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mindfuck America.

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.

I'm still not a Green Day fan, I think the video for this song looks like it was shot for $1.59 and they bought the old green slime from Nickelodeon's garage sale, but those lyrics definitely resonate with me.

We're not stupid and we are grownups. Let's just stop paying attention to the distracting shit and demand real information. Because that's what Tittygate and Monday Night Football faux outrage and all the other manufactured "shocking" incidents are about - distraction. If you want to really be shocked, let's ask the Pentagon to release the numbers they are sitting on - how many of our young soldiers will be living the rest of their ruined lives burned, blinded, or as amputees?