A playlist.
Fire Woman – The Cult
Coal Miner’s Daughter – Loretta Lynn
Goodnight, Irene – The Weavers
Boys – Wolf Alice
Maggie’s Farm – Bob Dylan
Blue Moon of Kentucky – Patsy Cline
Mother’s Day – Gillian Welch
You are the Sunshine of My Life – Stevie Wonder
Some of them are my mom’s favorites. Some of them make me think of my mom.
Have a happy Sunday.
Last week was a really long day. Baby Goth graduated yesterday. It’s been 4 of the toughest years of her life, but she is finally done.
All of her family was there yesterday. Her real mother and grandmother, her boyfriend and buddy – and us. Her pretend family. Never have I felt that more than this past month. My bio family wants very little to do with us, and for the first time the feeling is mutual. But anyway.
Her experience was much different from mine. I sat in the rain with the rest of the college wind ensemble, in the middle of a football field, watching the worst Attorney General in history drone on and on. And on some more. Then we hiked up to the music building, were handed a diploma, and went home.
BabyGoth had the last of 3 graduation ceremonies. All in the basketball arena. By the time her ceremony came up, the plan to have the lineup match the graduates’ listing in the program had vanished. It may even have gone out the window by 9:30 that morning, honestly. We cheered when everyone came out, cheered for all of them (based on the past 4 years, they should have gotten medals. Every one), and in less than 2 hours, it was over.
These past 4 years have taken a lot of adjusting. Having your heart living almost 100 miles from home was not easy. She learned how to be a relative grown up. She’s becoming a great writer – she’s always been good, but she’s had a lot of writing practice these past 3 semesters. She dealt with car troubles, roommate troubles, and rental troubles, and dealt with them well. She’s understandably panicked about what comes next, but I think she can deal with whatever it is.
She wants to go back up there to live for a while. For now she’s coming home for the summer. Then we’ll see what happens next.
But for now…
After the shenanigans were over, we went out to an old-school Italian place, with an old Sicilian guy in the kitchen. Like the places where I grew up. We talked, laughed, some of us drank. Then we all went back to her apartment, said goodbye, and went home.
It’s very weird, seeing one of the people you love more than life start her future. I can’t explain it. But that’s life. Closing doors and rushing to open new ones.
Good morning. It’s Monday, which means Spindle Day here at Chez Goth.
Spindle Day is due to my working late on Mondays. There are (if we’re all lucky) long stretches of time on Monday evenings when there are no customers contacting us. That’s when I pull out my hummingbird Wooly Designs spindle and my reddish-brown alpaca roving, and keep myself more level headed. Mostly it works.
About a few weeks ago, I found this old friend when cleaning out our previous attempt at stash organization.
This is my Lollipop spindle. I bought this long ago, on a trip to Leadville, CO. The store has long since gone away to the Great Yarn Store in the Sky, but the spindle is still here. It spins well, and it’s just the thing for light laceweight and sewing thread-sized yarns.
It’s a little lighter than I normally would choose, but I like the way it’s spinning up. The silk gives a ton of strength, and it’s easy to spin it very finely.
In other news, we now have 2 garlic plants coming up. It’s not possible that they’ll all come up, but at least we’ll have 2 heads. Probably.
Yes, it’s been a while. My day job sucks SO VERY MUCH OMFG, and we are finally entering the end of the Hell Quarter. Anything I can make is a bonus around this time of year.
I finally finished something in 2024; as it happens, it’s the last thing I cast on. It’s the Musselburgh hat by Ysolda Teague. See? Here it is.
This is the thing I’ve been waiting for. My tendencies to use unreproducible yarn for most of my knitting means that I am a…tiny bit reluctant to make a swatch. But when the swatch is a part of the design? Oh hell yes.
I’m also going on a trip to Sleeve Island. This is the easiest sleeve knitting ever. Knitting in the round makes it feel like it’s faster (even though it’s not really), and I can adjust for DadGoth’s giant arms.
There’s a little bit of progress on BabyGoth’s Folklore sweater. I see there are a couple of new candidates for my little Swiftie’s present, so I’m not on a big hurry with this project. Not until her last semester’s over, anyway.
It’s a beautiful day outside. Spring’s almost here. If it’s a typical year, there will be a huge snowstorm in about a week. But very little about this year’s been typical so far.
It is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr day here in the US. Most white people will only seem to remember the “I have a dream” speech. Basically the least threatening speech you can conceive of.
Being a tad contrary, I prefer this one:
December 4, 1967 Ladies and Gentlemen:
Last week the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held one of the most important meetings we have ever convened. We had intensive discussions and analyses of our work and of the challenges which confront us and our nation, and at the end we made a decision which I wish to announce today.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference will lead waves of the nation’s poor and disinherited to Washington, D. C., next spring to demand redress of their grevances by the United States government and to secure at least jobs or income for all.
We will go there, we will demand to be heard, and we will stay until America responds.
America is at a crossroads of history, and it is critically important for us, as a nation and a society, to choose a new path and move upon it with resolution and courage.
December 4, 1967 Ladies and Gentlemen:
The Poor People’s Campaign speech, 12/4/67.
Last week the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held one of the most important meetings we have ever convened. We had intensive discussions and analyses of our work and of the challenges which confront us and our nation, and at the end we made a decision which I wish to announce today.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference will lead waves of the nation’s poor and disinherited to Washington, D. C., next spring to demand redress of their grevances by the United States government and to secure at least jobs or income for all.
We will go there, we will demand to be heard, and we will stay until America responds.
America is at a crossroads of history, and it is critically important for us, as a nation and a society, to choose a new path and move upon it with resolution and courage.
This is a long speech, the beginnings of the Poor People’s Campaign.
We intend to channelize the smouldering rage and frustration of Negro people into an effective, militant and nonviolent movement of massive proportions in Washington and other areas. Similarly, we will be calling on the swelling masses of young people in this country who are disenchanted with this materialistic society, and asking them to join us in our new Washington movement. We also look for participation by representatives of the millions of non-Negro poor–Indians, Mexican- Americans, Puerto Ricans, Appalachians, and others. And we shall welcome assistance from
all Americans of good will.
This was meant to be the beginning of real change and possibly of racial healing in this country. It’s heartbreaking that after all this time, America is still not ready for this.
I am an old woman now, old enough to dimly remember watching Dr. King’s funeral on TV. My mother sobbed during the whole thing. She had never met a black person before I went to grade school, and she went with me to hang out at my BFF’s house (she had also become friends with her mother). She felt like things wouldn’t get any better for any of us.
Not much has changed. Not really. In fact, comments are closed for this particular entry. That’s how enlightened we are.
The Spinning Goth 