I hate _

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I haven't been depressed since I got here, six months ago.
Today and yesterday I've been choking with rage. I won't write why on the internet, not today. I just want to go to sleep and not deal with it. I've considered chugging some wine or cough syrup.
Then I found this site:

Two minutes later, I'm sharing the link here and maybe I'm ready to pick myself up and breathe.

Hermès, schmermès. Buy this scarf.

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I'm knitting.

Why? I signed up to do a local playreading (in Oakland, tomorrow.) My character is a librarian named Joan, who knits throughout the short play. I could fake-knit on stage, but OF COURSE I drove to Michael's before rehearsal one day and bought some conspicous gold-coloured knitting needles, some yarn and a beginners kit a helpful attendant picked out for me, which includes a how-to-knit book with pictures.

The basics are easy, I've been back to Michael's for more yarn, including a different colour to pattern it, and now the knitting has grown to about 40% of a scarf.

Just now I picked it up to continue and exclaimed "God, it's beautiful." It occured to me that I had more than a stage-prop on my hands, I had a scarf in the making.

First thought: give it to Raj, but he's a man who hasn't learned to wear pink yet. So I'm going to sell it.

You should buy it. See sidebar on the right for Google Checkout button. I'll ship no sooner than a week from today, after it's completed, insha'Allah.

New magazine article on my friend Billy

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A Terrible Thing to Waste
From laweekly.com
Convicted as an ecoterrorist, a brilliant young scholar nose-dives in prison. UPDATE: Exceprts of Billy Cottrell's letters from prison
By JUDITH LEWIS
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 1:00 pm

Billy Cottrell in kindergarten

When Billy Cottrell was first sent up to Lompoc Federal Penitentiary, he thought he had landed the perfect job. A brilliant student of theoretical physics at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Cottrell has a high-functioning form of autism that makes it difficult for him to pick up on people’s emotions, but also gives him a grave appreciation for detail. At Lompoc, he thought, he would do secretarial duty in the “boiler-room office,” spending many hours alone, filing, sorting, typing and proofreading. He could be useful.

Before his first day, however, prison officials got nervous. They knew Cottrell was smart; they’d seen his physics textbooks and writings. And wasn’t this the kid who’d been convicted of blowing up Hummers somewhere in Los Angeles? Thinking he might find a way to rig the water heaters to blow up the prison, Cottrell says, they denied him the job.

Next, Cottrell was offered a job mowing Lompoc’s copious lawn. Read more...

This article joins my other posts on Billy's legal trials at http://lifelib.blogspot.com/2004/11/mrs-smith.html
If you have comments, please leave them there. Thanks.