Where was I last week? Now I can't remember. Not much less far than this, I think. I didn't sew from Wednesday to Saturday, so that might be why. Last night, though, I got back to sewing the house, which is a blessed relief after the scrum that was the bush below the porch (on the right side). That just may be the messiest and ugliest part of this whole thing, up to this point. For some reason some of the stitches look ugly up close. I don't know why, except that those sections of bush are the most horribly frustrating of the whole thing. Even worse than the tree with Xmas lights. I'm so glad it's over, except that on the other side of the cut-off line is a tree, and on the other side of the tree is more bush. It's a depressing thought.
Part of the larger problem here is the TV situation and the new Xbox. I can't stand to watch Sam play his fighting/killing/shooting games, which puts me in the bedroom, sitting on the bed, watching TV. Except that wait! TV is pathetic right now. It's hard for me to maintain the desire to sew when there is no acceptable TV program to watch. Honestly. Sewing isn't stimulating enough on its own; I need something to listen to fairly closely (but not close enough for say, an audiobook) to keep me going. Thus, video games fail on that level too. And then there is the writer's strike, which I think I basically support, except that it's. RUINING. MY. SEWING. So here's what it boils down to: Sam wants to play video games, which is okay. I go in the bedroom to get away. After about an hour and a half on the bed, my back is killing me, and I want out. But when I come back into the living room, there's NOTHING on TV for that last hour of awakeness I've got left. So I can't muster the desire to sew. If Sam hadn't played games, I could have watched a DVD. But now I can't fit one in.
If this seems like an excessive amount of bitching, well, you're right, it is. But the situation, as it stands, isn't going to work in the long run, unless I can convince Sam it's in his best interests to let me pop in SatC the minute I emerge from my cocoon in the bedroom. And you know what? I need to keep sewing at a fast clip if I'm going to finish this thing by June. There's a lot still to be done. The TV needs to be my ally, not my enemy.
Could you put the DVD player on the tv in the bedroom? So you could watch a DVD while he plays Xbox?
Or, download podcasts of This American Life. I love it, because it is entertaining, but you don't have to listen as closely as an audiobook. They're generally 50 minutes long. I generally listen to them on the train while doing Sudoku. Sometimes, I can manage an easy crossword puzzle and still keep track of what's going on. You can only get the current podcast, not back episodes, but they do sell the old ones via Audible. Or, you can go to thisamericanlife.org and listen to all the archives in a streaming file on your computer, but you can't download them. You can also buy them directly from their site. I think it is $0.95 wherever you buy them.
Posted by: Rita | January 14, 2008 at 11:16 AM