Retreat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday didn't get off to a very good start. It had the potential as it was a half-day for students and the kick-off to a three day weekend. I even had two of my more challenging kidlets opt to take the day off so it should have been like Christmas, Halloween and Be Kind To Sheep Day all rolled into one. But it all fell apart pretty quickly.

I somehow managed to find myself smack in the middle of a good, old fashioned hollerin' match between two colleagues by simply attempting to touch base with one of those colleagues and plan for my activities in his classroom that day. In the interest of professionalism, we'll not go into detail, but it was a Clash Of The Titans. And I, being new to the building and not knowing some of the finer points of the social system, managed to throw a very small, but highly combustible, bit of fuel on this fire by simply not understanding that these two hold an uneasy truce on the best of days.

As the battle raged, I did what any mature, reasonable woman would do. I froze with my mouth agape, all the while clutching the composition book I use for note taking to my bosom, looking for all the world like a frightened maiden of yore. The teacher to whom I was speaking kept returning to me to continue our conversation, only to be drawn back in by his adversary time after time. I finally managed to unlock my knees long enough to take two steps backwards then turn and flee. In doing so, I nearly took out one of my teaching assistants who, upon hearing the ruckus, had approached to either save me or determine where to set up the bleachers and concession stands for this event. I'm unclear which...

I fled to relative safety, followed by my entrepreneurial staff person and grabbed my coffee mug for comfort. In breathless tones, I began to share with him the events leading up to the current, "situation" in the hallway. Suddenly, I heard a break in the action followed by the sound of a teacher on crutches making his way towards our hiding place. (yeah...for those of you up on the events of my life, it was that guy) Next, we hear, "Where is she?" The colleague with whom I began this drama had now decided it was time to finish our conversation as we'd been attempting to do in the first place and put this unpleasantness behind us.

Now this posed something of a problem. You see, at this point, I was sort of in a hall closet. I'm just going to let you sit with that image for a minute...

It's not actually as bad as it sounds. It's not like I picked the lock on the custodian's supply closet and was cowering behind the paper towels or anything. This is a small space where we keep the microwave and store the paper. But, I'm still hiding in a closet and there is the potential for looking a little silly. I could have rather handily solved this problem by simply strolling out with a steaming, freshly irradiated bagel or a couple of reams of graph paper, but I wasn't really all that quick on the uptake at that juncture. I also could have remained hidden except for a.) all Mr. Teacher had to do was turn the corner in order to ascertain my location which he was going to do anyway because b.) my teaching assistant was standing in full view while he got the low down from me on the whole situation and I couldn't quite justify allowing him to look like he was just talking to himself and c.) a very small part of this conflict, and I do mean small, came about due to Mr. Teacher's sorta-kinda defending my honor. I owed him the courtesy of pretending that everything was just fine and that naught but love and joy reigned in our hallowed halls.

But, you can bet your sweet bippy that I avoided that little stretch of hallway for the remainder of the day. Because a really good retreat is a thing of beauty and you don't mess it up by returning to the field of battle when you can cower in a closet.

Meanwhile, it looks like my knitting has become something of a retreat for me as well. Last night, I finished up yet another pair of socks.

And I love 'em!!!!!

I made it to the finish line with yarn to spare, but not a whole heck of a lot. I sweated these right up until I started the toe decreases, at which point I knew I was going to make it. I prefer a longer sock so I went with the 8" cuff. They're knit in Socks That Rock's Fire On The Mountain and came to me courtesy of Trek. I suspect she may be an STR pusher. You know how it goes: your dealer gives you that first taste for free and then you're hooked! These are sturdy socks that can almost stand on their own. But the firm yarn also has a nice, "give" to it and your foot feels all cushy. I should know. I've been wearing these all day today.

As this is my second pair of completed socks in about a month's time, you'd think I'd be ready to try for something else. You know...switch it up a little. Nope. I've cast on for another pair. Perhaps you are thinking, "Well, I'm sure she's at least trying another pattern. We've seen these same socks about nine billion times now." Sorry. Same plain pattern. I like it. It's simple, comforting, familiar...it's a retreat from potentially conflictual knitting. I have a plethora of sock yarn right now thanks to some very generous donations and I'm sort of fascinated by how they each work up just a little differently despite using the same boring old pattern.

What can I say? It's, "comfort knitting." And I'm getting pretty good at knitting these particular socks. I can almost do them with my eyes closed.

Which is good because it can get dark in the closet...

SA