Good Friend of the Day:

So, I got up this morning.  I dragged my sad, chubby self into the living room, sighed a deep, self-loathing sigh (ohhhh  i feel craappppyyyyy) and decided to do some yoga.  I'm new to yoga.  What I hear is that one of the basics of yoga is compassion and acceptance of one's self and respect for one's body.  I need to learn these skills, so.. yeah.  yoga.

I was yoga-ing, however imperfectly, and frankly enjoying it thoroughly, and my phone rang.

As I gave in, paused the yoga video and went to check the message, I notice my friend, with 2 of her daughters, in her minivan, parked outside.  Huh. She said, "Come with me to the craft store.  I will buy you coffee."  Well, who am I to turn down such an invitation?  I got my keys and wallet, and I climbed in.

It was an excellent decision.  We walked into the store, and the first thing I saw was a thing I needed:  tie dye.  OK, I know what you are thinking.  You think nobody ACTUALLY NEEDS tye dye, but you are mistaken.  I do.  See, daughter has a window, with blinds, but no curtain. Recently, I bought a 5 buck Walmart single sheet, which she was intending to use as a backdrop for a puppet show presentation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  I kept saying, "BRING BACK THE SHEET WHEN YOU ARE DONE."  My intention at the time was that she would draw or paint all over this backdrop, and when she was done with it, I would tear it into strips and include it in my rag rug.  but... she thought she wasn't allowed to draw or paint on it, because I kept asking for it back, so she didn't.  So it's a perfectly good, non-raggy sheet.  So I am going to tye dye it and hang it as a curtain at her naked, boring window.  It will be fab.  I plan to dye it teal, or some kind of nice color that is close, and I will then simply drape it over a curtain rod.  I plan to put two vintage knobs or something like that on either side of the window, and the sheet can be pulled aside over the knobs or just left to hang straight.  The window is narrow enough that the sheet will be gathered.  Inside my brain, this is really a fun looking window treatment.

If it turns out well, I am going to buy six more of these cheap, 5 buck Walmart single sheets, and do the windows in the rest of our apartment.

And if THAT turns out well, I'm going to have to figure out a way to do something similar for the sliding glass door in the living room.

I'm on a roll, people.  There's TIE DYE to be done.

I spent a chunk of my time tonight looking at youtube videos about how to tie various patterns... like, peace signs, and mandala stars, and spirals, and circles, and stripes.  So fun.

While we were at the craft store, just to make the entire experience perfect, I got to touch YARN.  You know this wide mesh "yarn" that knits up into a ruffle?  well...  they had it on sale, and this lady was standing there demonstrating the glories of this stuff, which I frankly hate to knit with, but .. ok, I was almost tempted, anyhow.  and she was teaching Friend's Daughter to finger crochet, and she was teaching Friend's Other Daughter how to knit with the ruffly stuff, and another little girl (about 6 years old) came over, all fascinated, and I had the MOST fun teaching her to finger crochet.  She was so cute, and so proud of herself.  Bright little thing, too.  She caught right on.

That little dose of happy, that time with my friend, that success and creative impulse, that chance to teach a child, all of that good stuff completely changed my outlook from a self-pitying, self-loathing, self-critical, self-obsessed negative person to a person who felt joyful, lucky, grateful, positive, and happy.

I went home, finished my yoga and really, had a pretty good day.

Thanks, Good Friend of the Day.