Playing inside

I don't believe Rob and I are more sensitive to the heat than our neighbors, but we do adapt to it differently.  Everything we are going to do is done by 10am, and we're in the house.  Ever the busy one, I'm getting some really good deep cleaning done, and some sewing.  I'm so glad we had the house insulated and the air conditioner replaced a couple years ago.  

One of the things I worked on was the July American Stars BOM being run by Barbara Brackman.  When I saw the picture of the block, I was like, no way.  Who has time for that?  But, then I made it and it worked out fine and it really wasn't that hard.  I pieced it traditionally, marking each match point on each piece to get them to align correctly.  I only had to pick out a couple seams.  And then when it went together and I laid it out, I thought 'what shape is this?' parallelogram maybe?  But, it really was square and just needed to be blocked to shape.  7 of 12, so more than half way there.  

Sydney came for dinner Saturday night so it was time for her to try her basted shirt on.  I noted some adjustments and yesterday, I took it all apart and started to put it together "officially".  And, I messed up the yoke and instead of coming out a little bigger, it came out considerably smaller and I am still not quite sure I understand how I did that.  But, you know bullheaded me, I kept sewing pieces together and this morning, while was lying in bed waiting for the day to start, I realized I'm going to have to take it apart and cut a new yoke.  Fortunately, I didn't get further along before my smart brain overrode my bullheadedness.

The new yoke will have a seam down the center.  I've never done that but have owned several shirts where it was done.  It'll be fine and the princess will never know.  And, you won't tell, will you?

Syd is doing well.  She and her boyfriend are both looking for new jobs.  They've decided that unloading trucks and stocking shelves (the reason for the extra width in the yoke) might not be worth the pay.  She brought me her IRA statement so I could tell her what it meant (these people keep sending me letters and I don't know what they mean).  I explained that she had a retirement account that her previous employee had established for her and emphasized how easy it was to save for retirement since she hadn't even noticed that they were taking money out of her check to do it.  I could see her face light up at the thought of having access to some savings, but then explained that if she tried to take it out, the government would get most of it.  I don't know if I convinced her to keep adding to it.  Hopefully her next employer will do the same thing and get her to save without noticing it.  

The Texas Red Star hibiscus has bloomed some more.  What a beautiful flower.  

Last week, my boss asked me to do the thing that broke the camel's back.  I've been to him twice in the last six weeks to tell him that my workload was too heavy.  Both times, he either made my work more complicated or he gave me additional work to do.  I was pretty upset about that and when he asked me to do an additional task, I said no, I'm not accepting new projects at this time.  And, he mealy mouthed about how he didn't expect me to do it right away and I very clearly stated that I'd already approached him about my workload and maybe we needed to find someone that could meet his needs better than me and move me to different responsibilities.  I am lucky enough to have such a specialized skill set that I could do that.  And, he is working on ways to lighten the load.  He says he didn't realize, and I agree that he is oblivious enough not to have heard what I was saying.  But, I've got him listening now.  

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Cleaning and sewing feels like rearranging chairs on a ship that republicans seem determined to sink.  

Conservatives pretend to be downtrodden.  That "they" (we) are trying to take away conservative rights to believe whatever bullshit they want to believe.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  They're welcome to believe whatever batshit crazy bullshit they want.  But, they can't force me to believe it.  They can't force me to believe that equal rights are only for them.  They can't force me to believe that straight, white and christian are the only way to be and the only people to respect.  

I don't think they realize that we've been watching.  Watching their high holy leaders fornicate outside of marriage with basically anybody, which is the opposite of what they tell their followers to do.  Watching people with skin tones different than mine rise to positions of power, from which they can represent and raise up other people like them and are actually doing the work to make things better for everyone.  Watching them selectively use parts of the bible that point at me, but ignoring the parts that point to them (where in the bible does it say to hate and hurt people?) .  

The other day, I found myself wondering whether I could still "pass" for straight if I had to and I was ashamed.  Ashamed that a bunch of assholes could make me think that.  And, more devoted than ever to fight back in every way I can.  

Everybody have a good week.  Be brave.  Be strong.  Be kind.  Let's not let the haters make us change.  

Lane