18 November

Caps for Kids and a Piece of Africa

Right now I'm watching a tape of tonights "Amazing Race." The teams traveled to Ougadougou, Burkina Faso and then moved on to a town called "Bingo" (I assume that's the spelling) There are a pair of blondies on the team and they've been complaining since setting foot in Africa. Well they got duped by a cabbie (classic) and now it's how the people smell, how there's trash, how there are bugs, blah blah blah. I found myself really really irritated by this. I thought "those stupid b*tches." Then I realized that a lot of what they were saying was in fact, the cold hard truth. I have such a soft spot in my heart for Africa that I overlook all of that. While I have seen trash, poverty and desperation there, what I see more than anything is incredible potential and beauty. I'm such a softie.

(PS the AR peeps are milking camels and freaking out and it's quite possibly the funniest thing EVER, having their hands around camel nips and shrieking "THERE'S NO MORE MIIIIILK" Awesome)

Speaking of softie, I'm currently knitting my 12th hat for Caps for Kids, which is a charity that my hospital knits for every holiday season. I'm not saying that to brag because I'm shocked to hell that I'm on my 12th hat. It's actually slightly psychotic because I had 10, a perfectly rounded more than respectable number, yet I have to increase production. I thought "what if I made 15???" I have a really great kiddie hat pattern that uses Fancy Fur and the hats make up fast. My plan was to buy 5 more balls of yarn and make 15, but when I went to the craft store, there were only 3 colors. So I decided I would let this be the limiting factor and keep my hat total at 13. But now, I, who am not typically superstitious, am thinking that 13 is unlucky!!! Crap!! I'm trying to think of how I'm going to fit in two more in...though in listing to Jamaal just now all I have to do, I think I'm going to cut myself off and be grateful that I've made 13 kids a little warmer this winter.....that's should make me much happier than knitting two more hats. Just thinking about that....makes me happy :)