Well this just chewed up my lunch hour :) Its a simple little experiment to see if I could capture the feeling and changing moods as I got ready for work this morning.Its written in a rambling stream of consciousness style which I hope helps place the reader in the story. Or maybe its just revealing waaaay to much about myself. Anyway its a writing experiment - so feel free to ignore. If you do wade your way through it, some constructive feedback would be nice.Be warned: this is a first draft, so it has lots of spelling mistakes and the grammar is atrocious. Mind you some of the grammar changes are deliberate. But it still needs a good polish. I just thought I'd ramble it off and send it out while the feelings were still fresh in my mind.Be doubly warned: This is a piece of self-indulgence - so if you hate it or its boring you *can* stop reading {LOL}Monday morning, I awake with a start, is it 4:30am yet? Have I overslept? Looks at the clock, no its only 4:00am. 4:00am after finally dropping off to sleep around 10:30pm last night – five and half hours. Not bad. Around usual {groan} Snuggle back under the doona for little while longer.
So paranoid about sleeping through the alarm I always wake up early. Hmm what’s that noise? Oh the alarm –I must have dozed off again – 4:32 – OK only slept in a little bit. Shower then off to check my emails ….
5:25am finished on the computer, checked emails, replied to some and moved some money around – broke again, oh well at least it was a good weekend with Paul and I’ve arranged some gifts for next month. OK dressed, and out the door – thank god I packed my bag last night. Can’t be bothered with the cat litter – will fix it tonight. Trub’s still in bed anyway, OK lock balcony door open, check pockets for wallet, car keys and train tickets, all in their right places, lock the door and trudge up the stairs to the car.
5:55am On the platform waiting for the train. Its freezing. Its September and its stinging my cheeks freezing! God I wish I had worn my heavy coat! Looking over I see a train pulling in going the opposite way a couple are sitting in a carriage. No-one else there, just the couple, snuggling and smiling.
I look around the faces beside me on the platform. All grim or blank. Those that have gloves are reading the newspaper, everyone else has their hands jammed in their pockets, eyes mostly closed, drowsing or just blanking out. I close my eyes joining them.
6:00am I hear shuffling, a change in breathing and the sounds of backpacks and handbags being shifted slightly – I know the train is approaching. I open my eyes to watch the train come into the platform and the first couple of carriages glide past as it slowly comes to a stop.
The train is slightly forward today, the doors to the third carriage are about a foot to the left of me, instead if right in front, so I am the fourth person aboard instead of the first. Makes no difference on a Monday morning, there are plenty of spare seats around.
I enter my usual downstairs carriage – S is there again. I take a seat a few rows in front and on the other side of the carriage from him, blotting him out of my mind.
OK, deep breath! Time to get on and get moving for the day. I pull open my backpack. No book. Darn! OK definitely stitching. New project. I have the fabric. I have the floss !!! Bought the floss on Friday – even bought an extra skein and put them straight in the project bag as soon as I got them home – damn I’m good. OK scissors, pattern, needles! Great. OK, snip a length of DMC, thread the needle. Slide the threaded needle throw the knee of my pants. Find the middle of the chart, find the middle of the fabric, and find the nearest stitch. Ready – OK where are the Q-snaps. I forgot the Q-snaps!
OK stitching in hand today it is. It’s difficult to do a pin-head start when the train is going over a bridge. Hmmm – good Tales column “Places not to try a Pin-head start!”.
Its even more difficult when my fingers wont warm up properly. The pad of my right index finger is numb. I’m right handed. Hope this is temporary. OK started and got first row in, coming back for the second, hmm – looks a little odd.
OK its Silkweaver 32 ct opalescent linen. And it looks like some of the warp threads have pierced the waft. Or the other way around! I can barely see the holes, I am so tired! How can I figure out when it’s supposed to be a hole and when it isn’t? This is weird. The last piece I tried didn’t have this problem. Maybe it’s because I turned the fabric around and I’m stitching landscape. Maybe I’m stitching on the wrong side of the fabric. Does stitching linen have a right and wrong side????
OK focus Mel. Look up and down the strands, ah yes this one is pierced and thus shouldn’t be counted, that one is a real hole, just looks like it shouldn’t be. Oh this is too hard. OK undo back to the beginning and try again, concentrate on each stitch! Don’t look around. Don’t look at S. Don’t think about work, concentrate on the stitching.
S. S the wanker I’m starting to think of him in my head. He works in another section at the Uni. He sits in another cubicle that butts right up against mine and always prairie dogs when he thinks he’s got something funny to say. I know if I turn around or look at him, he will immediately move and sit next to me and start a conversation! He’s a married man with kids – and a lousy conversationalist. When I was first catching the train, I got on at different carriages, and he would walk up and down the train looking for me so he could sit next to me. A few jabs with the needle warned him not to sit next to me when I was stitching, but he sometimes still does anyway. And he’s sooo depressing! Everything is negative. Couldn’t have a happy thought if his life depended on it. He was gloomy that the APEC summit didn’t disrupt our travelling last week – it robbed him of something to complain about! {snort} Wanker.
Oh wow, I’ve got eight rows in! No hassles with split fibres – must have been concentrating too closely. I love stitching, it gives me a great chance to zone out and just let my fingers work. I’ve seen people do the same thing with knitting. Maybe that’s why I hate confetti stitching so much? Oh that’s bright! Where are my sunnies. Bright? I look around – oh the sun’s up! And we’re in the city – looking good. Looks like it will be a bright clear day. Wonder if it will be warm? Coming into a station, better take the opportunity to do the pinhead stitch to start the next thread! I love the city stations, sometimes the train stays still for over a minute – perfect to get that pinhead stitch done! And yes she beats the clock; she’s got two more stitches in before the train lurches ahead!
Lurches ahead. Like the dalek I bought Paul for his birthday – god that was funny yesterday watching him unpack and put together his remote-controlled dalek. And then both of us zooming him around the loungeroom and kitchen of my place. Well slow paced zooming anyway. I remember a story Paul rang me when I got home last night. He always rings me after I drop him off home, to say goodnight and make sure I have arrived home safely myself. He’s so sweet sometimes. I can just imagine the scene – he was using his Dalek to chase his cat around the loungeroom and the cat simply ran up the stairs! I mean that’s exactly canon for old style Dr Who. How do you get away from the “over-sized pepperpots”? You run up or down a flight of stairs!
I wonder how much a hover Dalek would cost and where I could find one?
Another station and a passenger beside me for the first time this trip! No bad odds. Doing well today. I move and reposition slightly so I’m not crowding him. Its an older gentleman. He says no, don’t move, you need to be comfortable to stitch! Bless him! Oh bugger! That block was supposed to be four stitches wide, not five. OK undo seven rows of stitching. Hmm – 35 stitches? Is that a frog or just a tadpole? It is 35 stitches – but its all in block and using the same thread ….. hmm might ask as a Wednesday Wobble. Lovely gentleman sitting beside me - he clears his throat every few seconds. Its amazing what sounds you can get used to ! Like a barking dog, you can just tune some sounds out – and anyway, he’s reading a Raymond E Feist book. You can’t get annoyed with a fellow science-fiction reader. Actually there are a lot of sci-fi readers on the trains. Maybe it’s just because it’s a form of escapism for commuters? Whoops that was one stitch out. Frog three stitches and I'm back on track - that was definitely just a tadpole!
Ooops there goes S the wanker. Disrupting his seat fellow and everyone standing in the aisles so he can be the first off the train! I fail to see why? He always jumps off and then stands and waits for me to emerge so he can talk to me. I gave up trying to do things his way. I’ll get off when there’s space and my seat fellow has moved. Better pack up the stitching – oh kewl! I’ve done about 100 stitches! Looks like a cute letter S. Well all progress is good progress.
OK Mel time to get your game face on and go and deal with the world. Its Monday. wonder what the time is? You’re about to start talking shop and you’ll have to start thinking about work now. Well maybe I could that last bit off until after the bus ride. He’s S striding beside me now.
Edited to include a pic of said stitching accomplishment. The train home was only five carriages instead of the usual eight - so we were too crammed in like sardines to even consider stitching.
