I work at a concert hall, so we often have insane weeks. Last week was it's own special mix of amazing, heartbreaking and insane. Usually the insane weeks don't have me in tears.
We had two Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra concerts scheduled, just past the year anniversary of the beginning of the lock-out. On October 1st, the same day our wonderful (/sarcasm) government shut down, Osmo Vanksa announced that he was resigning as the conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, which is something he had threatened months ago if an agreement wasn't reached. By the end of the week, he was conducting his musicians for a farewell concert and we added a third concert. This turned into a media three-ring circus. On top of it all, the musicians were also honoring their long time stage manager who had retired last month. I still cry when watching All Dogs Go to Heaven, so there was no way I wasn't going to be crying at some point during these shows. Add into it everyone else crying and it was inevitable that I would be crying.
One thing that helped get through most of the concert (the last piece, the encore, was heartbreaking and entrancing and the only thing to do was to watch and listen to it) was that I had my knitting on hand. Knitting helps as a way to focus on something mechanical to prevent emotions from overwhelming me. I had brought along Waves of Love in hopes that I would finish it. And I almost did. Why didn't I? Too much crying? Nope. I ran out of yarn with about 4 rows left. I had an extra skein at home, but that wasn't going to be of much help during the last piece of the printed program. Cursing myself for not planning ahead, I set the knitting down and somehow managed to get through the last of the concert with only a modest amount of crying.
After an exhausting weekend, I pretty much crashed when I got home. I insisted on driving to church the next morning, mostly because I didn't have a project on hand. Husband drove after church. There were some raw emotions. I was resigned to not being able to work on anything until I got the other skein caked, which I wasn't looking forward to as I didn't have a swift and I find it tedious to wind yarn without one.
Husband needed to go out and do something, anything. It was a rough day for him on Sunday for personal reasons and it was a rough one for me too. Sunday was my Gramps' birthday. He passed away in 2008. I've actually gotten "better" at not tearing up on his birthday but Husband greeted me Sunday morning by proclaiming "Happy Birthday" after I noted that our bedroom doors were up (he built them as a birthday/Christmas present). That pretty much broke my sleep deprived brain. When we headed out, he told me to grab my knitting, so I picked up the Fruity Tulips. Apparently my brain had decided that the pattern was much harder than it really is because once I got a few rows into it, I realize that I mostly have the pattern memorized on the leg. At least I know I have another travel project now! We ended up buying fabric for an outfit for Husband that we need to start work on this weekend. Still need to buy a pattern to modify but it's only Wednesday, right? Before the night was out, I did lock myself in my craft room and wind the second skein for Waves of Love in hopes of finishing it before the night was over but the finishing didn't happen. Maybe by the next update it will be done.
This mid-week updates tend to screw up my thoughts as to what I did during the "week" but I do know where I stopped on Sunday. The whole weekend was such a mess that it's taken me a few days to recover. This has somehow given me a good idea of where I had stopped for the week. Maybe next week their be something finished and pictures.
Sounds like a pretty rough and emotional week. Glad you had your knitting to help you through it.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Things have mostly settled down now.
Delete