making an addict stop whining

Apparently it does not matter if one's drug is legal (serotonin, endorphin, adrenalin) or not (all that other bad stuff): one whines when one is not getting any.

But my whine of the other day was so very uncharacteristic, that I had to positively problem-solve around it--which is my more natural frame of mind.

So, here's what I have figured out.

Sleep

• If one is over-tired, it's difficult to get to sleep.
• If one is stressed, it's difficult to stay asleep.
• If one stays up to late, one is more likely to wake up early. (Little kids are wonderful illustrations of this.)
• I have recently learned that sleep is a two-day cycle, so a bad night's sleep is still manifesting two days later.

I can solve a lot of this by taking evenings off and going to bed before 11pm. Having done so for two, post-whine nights, I am thinking more clearly.

Knitting

• I need to knit every day--doesn't matter what else is pressing.
• I need an Olympic Project!

I think it was Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who introduced this concept, and I've had these for the past 3 Olympics. For some reason, I lost sight of this. Because I was editing, my precious knitting time has been spent on something rather pedestrian--a 5th version of my Cross-over Top, which I love and need a summer version of but which didn't have the fun-factor and challenge of an Olympic Project. 

We can get stuck in our knitting when we're putting in time on something we know how to do and are just trying to get done. To feed our addicted knitter, my advice is to always have more than one thing on the go! (A student once asked if she could have a note to this effect to show her husband!)

 My plan for the project is to make the shawl I need--one that is the shape I want and uses all the gorgeous yarn I have otherwise wasted on shawls that I'll never wear. The yarn is ripped out and ready, the stitch dictionary is at hand!

If you have an Olympic Project, I'd love to see it. Can you take a photo and add it to a comment here?


The Olympics
I gotta watch!

• I took the night off to knit and watched the opening then went to bed early--which fed all my addictions and got me back on track.
• My tv is on all the time. (It's amazing what one can do with one ear alerted to breaking developments.)

BTW,  I loved the opening! The film sequences of Britain made me weep, and the Queen + Rowan Atkinson made me laugh 'til I wept. I always weep at the lighting of the flame, and I frequently weep at the commercials specifically produced for the event--honouring parents, tugging at the sentimental in us all, and totally working on me!!!

Despite the distractions, I finished the last big edits for my last book an hour ago, so the whining is over and the celebrations begin! What better way to celebrate than to knit and watch the Olympics!