Incoherent Scribblings

Wow! After an overwhelming response, I have NO Gmail invites left. Thanks to everyone that was willing to take an invitation off my hands.

It seems to me someone is giving me a little bit of crap about my choice of posts yesterday.

After all, yesterday was… you know. I thought about writing something concerning that particular date, but the thing is September 11, 2001 has very different memories for me than it does for most Americans.

See I was on my first vacation with my husband-to-be. We were in New Orleans and we got up around 10:30 am. The first thing we did was turn on the Weather Channel to see if it was going to rain because we were planning a swamp tour that afternoon.

I remember the first thing the weather dude said was, “I repeat, all airports in the United States are closed until further notice.”

And my reaction was “What the fuck?!”

We turned over to CNN and that’s when we found out. But we were in New Orleans and felt as if we were in another world. The bars on Bourbon Street were still open, the swamp tours were still going, and we were still on vacation. So we continued with our plans and we had a good time.

And so when the anniversary of that day comes along, I tend to keep quiet about my personal memories of that day because I know that it changed the lives of lots of people and I don’t want to belittle their feelings of that day with my own pleasant memories.

I started “Passing Admirers” the other day, but didn’t really seriously begin stitching on it until today.

Summary:

“Passing Admirers” will be stitched on Zweigart 32 count Cream 100% Linen Evenweave Fabric

This is my very first project on Linen!

For the first time ever I sewed the edges of my fabric down to prevent it from unraveling.

The chart, and therefore the design, is divided into 6 sections.

My goal is to work a section at a time, starting with Section 2 (the middle).

After each 7 hours of stitching time, I will post a progress scan in my cross stitch gallery.

Completed Stitch Time: 5 hours 15 minutes

This afternoon I decided to play Gertrude Gardener. A couple of days ago I bought some pansies at the flower shop and decided I needed to plant them.

Unfortunately for the sweet little pansies, the “Curse of the Black Thumb” very nearly struck again. When I went outside two of the three flowers were visibly wilted. I watered them the other day, but forgot to do so yesterday. I was afraid that I had killed them already.

So, instead of planting them in the window box as I had planned, I planted the one that still looked OK in a little pot. I watered the other two and put them in the shade. I think that by tomorrow they will either perk back up (if so, I will replant them) or be dead (in which case I will get rid of them). I did that about three hours ago and now as I glance at them I have strong hopes that they will survive.

As I was fiddling with the pansies, I also decided to empty the pots that had my geraniums in them. I didn’t do so hot with my geranium experiment. I didn’t out and out kill them, but a bad storm whipped them around pretty bad a while back and hurt the stems. They never really recovered from that. In addition, I hadn’t been watering them and taking care of them the last month or so as I should have been because it was hot.

In fact, around mid July I had a flower epiphany: I came to the conclusion that I am a spring and fall flower girl. I love to play with flowers in the spring and fall when it is cool outside, but once it gets hot… I don’t want to be outside and always manage to not water them enough. I don’t do it on purpose, but I guess subconsciously I am trying to kill them so I don’t have to be outside.

So, since the geranium pots were empty, I then decided to repot this tree that I have. I think I have mentioned my tree before. It is about 2 feet high and in addition to leaves, it has these fuzzy red fronds. I bought it about 2 years ago from the local florist. At the time she told me what it was, but I didn’t understand enough German then to figure out what she was saying. Since it looks like it belongs on another world, we just call it my “Alien Tree.”

A. had told me not to repot it because it will just grow, but I couldn’t resist. I know it will get bigger now, but I told myself that this will be its last pot (hmm… we’ll see about that!) Here is a picture of it in its new pot. No, it doesn’t have two stems… there is a stick holding it up because it is too tall for its skinny trunk.

By the way, if anyone knows what the heck this thing is, could you please let me know?

Since May I have been using the tanning bed at our local gym once a week for ten minutes at a time. Since I am naturally blonde, I don’t want to be too tan. I not only think that it looks fake, but I honestly don’t think my fair skin could handle it. However, I feel that I look healthier with a hint of a tan.

I have often thought that in the skin department I live in the wrong century. If I would have lived in the 18th or 19th centuries, I would have had the skin that all of the damsels envied. When I have no tan, my skin is so white that you can clearly see the blue veins underneath. Many European Aristocrats and Southern Belles spent hours soaking their skin in buttermilk, carefully shading their faces under mammoth hats, and dusting themselves with rice powder for the skin that comes to me naturally.

But alas, I live in the 21st century and even with a tan I have to choose the lightest shade of foundation at the makeup counter and it is still too dark. I told a friend of mine about a month ago that I had been tanning. Until I showed her my visible tan line, she didn’t believe a word of it. But I know. I see it when I notice that the blue lines on my shoulders aren’t nearly as visible anymore. I enjoy it when I am able to be outside all day in the sun with just a minimum of sun protection.

One day while I was surfing the Web I quite accidentally came across a very interesting article concerning skin tone in the earlier centuries versus today. (Sorry, I read this long ago so I no longer have any idea where the article was located) The article discussed how western society’s ideas of the beautiful shade of skin have changed in the past hundred (or so) years.

Once it was fashionable to have lily white skin because it was a sign of wealth and leisure. During that time it was the working class who had to be (i.e., work) outside and, as a result, ended up with tanned bodies. Obviously, for a person of leisure the thought of having to work outside was highly undesirable. Therefore, any sign that he or she did so (like tanned skin) was also unwelcome. Consequently, fair white skin was an indication that the person did not have to be outside or work.

Fast forward to the last half of 20th century. Suddenly working people had to spend the majority of their time indoors. Everyone* developed white skin per default. People wanted to be outside surfing, gardening, swimming, or a thousand other things that would, unsurprisingly, result in a tan during their hard-earned free-time. This shift to favoring a golden brown tan over lily white skin indicated not only that being outside was a good thing, but also communicated that the person in question had time and money to spend outside enjoying these things. And what better way to prove that you can spend time relaxing on the beach or smelling your well-groomed roses than with a tan?

Today we all know the dangers of skin cancer and some listen more carefully than others, but it still doesn’t prevent a large majority of people from thinking that a person with a slight tan looks healthier than someone with lily white legs poking out from underneath his or her shorts.

* = Allow my indulgence here for the sake of argument.