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more Christmas than I expected to have
Dec. 26th, 2010 02:11 amSince I'm living on my own, have no local social life to speak of, and am not a Christian I didn't really expect to do anything for Christmas, other than packing in preparation for moving out next week. However, at the last minute I got a FB note from the SCA family from Calontir who lives here in Milan, inviting me to drop by at some point on either Christmas Eve or Christmas day--they said they were hosting some of the Marines who work at the Embassy, and would enjoy additional visitors. Since I am very fond of the family, and hadn't been over there at all since my mother was here in October I decided to accept the invitation.
Besides, as I've been cleaning and organizing my things I'd found a few things I wanted to give their children, and this seemed like a good time to do that. As I was sorting out the collection of event tokens and other miscellaneous odds and ends into piles of mine and thins that belong to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
clovis_t I found a very pretty blue dream-catcher that someone made me many years ago, but I have never displayed, because I don't tend to put up any art that isn't also directly useful (and since my dreams are fine as is, I didn't see a need to catch them), and when I saw it I thought of their daughter, E, who is a very delightful, self-assured, intelligent young thing who often reminds me of me at that age (late elementary school). So I decided that it is time to pass it on to someone who will appreciate it. Having decided to give that away I looked again at the rest of the trinkets, and noticed a really nice event token I got at an event in Kotzebue, Alaska. The token is a small knife-like object with a bone handle, metal not-sharp blade, and sinew attached in a loop so that one can easily carry it hanging off of a belt or something. It was made by an Alaskan native, using traditional techniques, and was really a much nicer, more labour intensive site-token than I've seen most places. Like the dream-catcher it has been sitting in a box, neglected for many years. Therefore it is time to pass it on, and I gave it to E's younger brother.
I also passed on a UFO. Before I left the West I had made matching brown linen tunics with blue and black trim for myself and my housemates. When I arrived in Tassie I had a number of weeks before my things which were being posted over to me arrived, and found myself without a sewing or embroidery project. I decided that I would embellish the neckline of the tunic, which was only edged with contrasting colour fabric, and started stitching. I foolishly started at the mid-point in the back and worked my way around. I got to just past the mid-point in the front when my stuff arrived, and I had other projects to work on, so I set that one aside. That was in mid-2003 and I've never picked it back up and finished the embroidery, which means that I've also not worn the tunic. (There is a reason I normally embroider on a separate piece of fabric and then attach it to the tunic, rather than embroidering on the tunic itself!) Knowing that E enjoys doing embroidery, I asked if she'd be interested in having the tunic and finishing the embroidery so that she could wear it (yes, it is large on her now, but with a belt that won't matter) and was met with an enthusiastic "yes!", so the project is now hers. I wish her better luck completing it than I had!
They tell me that they will come over after we finish loading up the van and pick up things like lamps (which, having Italian plugs aren't useful elsewhere unless we want to use adaptors for them) and any boxes that don't fit in the van. I commented that I hadn't decided if I should keep the popcorn popper or not and E jumped up and down exclaiming "you have a popcorn popper? I love popcorn!" (I told you she reminds me of me.) Therefore I think I will probably be leaving that behind for them--that much enthusiasm needs to be encouraged. I can always get a new popcorn popper, with local plug, once I figure out where I will be living.
It was very nice spending some time over there this afternoon. Not only did I get to give the kids gifts, I got to witness the whole family opening them. Much to my surprise, they didn't do the gifts thing until 14:00. My family always did that first thing in the morning (and we kids would make coffee for mom before we dared wake her). It was fun to sit and work on stitching while they unwrapped presents (I was the only guest just then--the marines who had been there for brunch had left already). I finished the project I had brought with me around 15:00, and decided to head home myself.
I wound up walking home because I really need the exercise--it turns out that it is only 1 hr 22 minutes to do the walk from their place following the same path that the metro takes for most of it. This surprised me, because if I take the bus (which stops right outside of my door and goes to quite near their door) it takes an hour (or more during peak traffic). I often take the metro, which means walking 25 minutes to the correct line, and then riding to the closest stop by then and walking another five minutes, and that takes an hour total. It also takes about an hour to get there by walking to the closest metro (10 minutes), then transferring to the correct line and finishing the journey to their place. Makes me wonder if I wrote down the start and stop time for the walk correctly, if it is not much more time than taking public transit...
This time next week I will be in Sweden! If only my packing were done already. Perhaps I should shut down the computer and go do my yoga and get some sleep so that I can accomplish lots with tomorrow.
Besides, as I've been cleaning and organizing my things I'd found a few things I wanted to give their children, and this seemed like a good time to do that. As I was sorting out the collection of event tokens and other miscellaneous odds and ends into piles of mine and thins that belong to
clovis_t I found a very pretty blue dream-catcher that someone made me many years ago, but I have never displayed, because I don't tend to put up any art that isn't also directly useful (and since my dreams are fine as is, I didn't see a need to catch them), and when I saw it I thought of their daughter, E, who is a very delightful, self-assured, intelligent young thing who often reminds me of me at that age (late elementary school). So I decided that it is time to pass it on to someone who will appreciate it. Having decided to give that away I looked again at the rest of the trinkets, and noticed a really nice event token I got at an event in Kotzebue, Alaska. The token is a small knife-like object with a bone handle, metal not-sharp blade, and sinew attached in a loop so that one can easily carry it hanging off of a belt or something. It was made by an Alaskan native, using traditional techniques, and was really a much nicer, more labour intensive site-token than I've seen most places. Like the dream-catcher it has been sitting in a box, neglected for many years. Therefore it is time to pass it on, and I gave it to E's younger brother. I also passed on a UFO. Before I left the West I had made matching brown linen tunics with blue and black trim for myself and my housemates. When I arrived in Tassie I had a number of weeks before my things which were being posted over to me arrived, and found myself without a sewing or embroidery project. I decided that I would embellish the neckline of the tunic, which was only edged with contrasting colour fabric, and started stitching. I foolishly started at the mid-point in the back and worked my way around. I got to just past the mid-point in the front when my stuff arrived, and I had other projects to work on, so I set that one aside. That was in mid-2003 and I've never picked it back up and finished the embroidery, which means that I've also not worn the tunic. (There is a reason I normally embroider on a separate piece of fabric and then attach it to the tunic, rather than embroidering on the tunic itself!) Knowing that E enjoys doing embroidery, I asked if she'd be interested in having the tunic and finishing the embroidery so that she could wear it (yes, it is large on her now, but with a belt that won't matter) and was met with an enthusiastic "yes!", so the project is now hers. I wish her better luck completing it than I had!
They tell me that they will come over after we finish loading up the van and pick up things like lamps (which, having Italian plugs aren't useful elsewhere unless we want to use adaptors for them) and any boxes that don't fit in the van. I commented that I hadn't decided if I should keep the popcorn popper or not and E jumped up and down exclaiming "you have a popcorn popper? I love popcorn!" (I told you she reminds me of me.) Therefore I think I will probably be leaving that behind for them--that much enthusiasm needs to be encouraged. I can always get a new popcorn popper, with local plug, once I figure out where I will be living.
It was very nice spending some time over there this afternoon. Not only did I get to give the kids gifts, I got to witness the whole family opening them. Much to my surprise, they didn't do the gifts thing until 14:00. My family always did that first thing in the morning (and we kids would make coffee for mom before we dared wake her). It was fun to sit and work on stitching while they unwrapped presents (I was the only guest just then--the marines who had been there for brunch had left already). I finished the project I had brought with me around 15:00, and decided to head home myself.
I wound up walking home because I really need the exercise--it turns out that it is only 1 hr 22 minutes to do the walk from their place following the same path that the metro takes for most of it. This surprised me, because if I take the bus (which stops right outside of my door and goes to quite near their door) it takes an hour (or more during peak traffic). I often take the metro, which means walking 25 minutes to the correct line, and then riding to the closest stop by then and walking another five minutes, and that takes an hour total. It also takes about an hour to get there by walking to the closest metro (10 minutes), then transferring to the correct line and finishing the journey to their place. Makes me wonder if I wrote down the start and stop time for the walk correctly, if it is not much more time than taking public transit...
This time next week I will be in Sweden! If only my packing were done already. Perhaps I should shut down the computer and go do my yoga and get some sleep so that I can accomplish lots with tomorrow.
