Oops, once again I've let the holidays and the new year come without marking the season by blogging my well wishes. Take it on faith, I thought many good thoughts and I have many resolutions. More on that later. This year end, more than any other recent period, been marked by nostalgia. Last year was my 25th college reunion, and while that was pleasurable and easy (not to mention around the corner), I'm now coming up on my 30th high school reunion and it is far more enveloping, although the actual luncheon isn't until April!
You see, my school was tiny, intellectually adventurous while also filled with the hormonal haze that colors everyone's teen memories. If I was just a bit older I would have looked forward to the day with mild anticipation and pleasure, filled with curiosity about what my classmates were doing, in the modern world I don't need to wonder. For good or ill this is the internet age, and sparked by one rogue classmate, we've all suddenly found each other on Facebook and started to engage in collective reminiscence. My memories, as fragmented as they turn out to be, are fresh and new and raw once more.
This is good as I live with two girls facing their own teenage angst living in the house. It's suddenly a lot easier to remember the slights and tears and uncertainty that marked the six years of 7-12 grades and I'm a much more sympathetic listener. But revisiting the mid-70s also opens up a lot of raw emotion that's been buried for decades. I attribute my nightmare of last night (raising funds for some unknown deserving cause with the help of Tom Cruise) to this newly rediscovered emotional fragility. Tom Cruise? Things must be bad.
Yes and no. It's great to think about my classmates and teachers. In a funny way that would take too long to explain, I miss them and crave reconnecting with them. I've always understood that the six years I spent at CGPS were more intellectually important than the the years at Bryn Mawr or the University of Michigan. I've always admitted that, but because people have never heard of the school, I don't think it made much of an impression. I became who I am while I was there -- it was a pretty intense place. Jeff Toobin and John Podhoretz were in the class ahead of me, Ally Sheedy the year following. Members of my class are journalists, novelists, therapists, teachers, business people, artists. There were only 54 people in my graduating class and I know I haven't been as challenged by any group of people since. It was, despite the adolescent trauma of it all, a truly amazing place.
Enough. I need to come back to the present -- to the story I need to write before Friday at 5 pm, to the 12 sweaters I need to knit before the end of the year. Yes, foolish and delusional as I am, I signed up for NaKniSweMoDo (at least I think that's the acronym). I should be able to do it from WIPs (most of which are just at the "swatch" stage). Last year I knit 10 adult sweaters, 2 baby sweaters, 8 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of handwarmers, 1 pair of mittens and 1 neck warmer. I may have missed something in the count, but that's pretty close to all of it.
I thought taking on 12 sweaters in 2009 would be doable and a good way to get rid of stash. Imagine my surprise to discover that knitting 12 sweaters won't even dent the stash proper (stash that is not yet cast on). I can knit projects that are already in progress, meet the goal and not even open a single stash box. This is bad.
This is very bad.
I may need to go buy some yarn to calm down.
Pictures tomorrow, when I get out of the time warp that has Bruce Springsteen, Heart, Blondie, Elvis Costello, The Steve Miller Band, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago, Rick Wakeman, Renaissance, Pink Floyd, and countless others cycling through my head.
Don't let me get started on the trashy novels that marked the decade's reading....
Say what you want about the novels, but don't you dare dis the music ;-) If I had been older and more adventurous, I would have been a groupie!
Wow! You really did a lot last year. I don't think you should restrict yourself to 12 that are in the WIP stage. You might come across some fabulous pattern that you absolutely have to knit. And re-stashing? I'm giving myself 3 opportunities!
Posted by: Marina | January 08, 2009 at 06:32 AM
oh, yeah.
I'm right there with you...
seriously, same decade and all that, with an equally *challenging*
group of high school classmates.
It is TRULY helpful to remember from the parenting aspect, though...
Blessings for a joyous New Year...
and you cracked me up with the *I might need to buy yarn to calm down*
Apparently, we are long lost SISTERS!
heh.
Posted by: greta | January 08, 2009 at 08:20 AM
Your high school sounds interesting. Mine hasn't produced anyone that famous as far as I know.
25th High School reunion coming up for me this year. I'm still not sure if I will attend or not. I graduated from high school a year early, in order to fit in a year of being a foreign exchange student between high school & college. (& thus started the knitting obsession...) The folks in my graduating class are mostly not people with whom I had any classes in high school, so I felt a bit out of place at the 20th.
I am going to have to open a stash box or two for My NaKniSweMoDo stash knitting. My "This is very bad" moment came when I realized that I was onto the second page of queued Ravelry sweaters & still having sweater's worths of stash left to match up to queued patterns. I can do NaKniSweMoDo out into 2012 & still be knitting from stash.
Posted by: Lucinda | January 08, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Hmm. Did we see pictures of all those projects?!
Interestingly, I'll never be notified of any of my high school reunions. I ran away from home in 11th grade and didn't finish high school in a traditional manner. It's a little weird. I do hear some tidbits from a friend who was a year ahead of me.
Posted by: Chris | January 09, 2009 at 08:30 AM
Anmiryam- Reunions can be bittersweet- as most of us didn't have the greatest high school experience. Probably because you're a teenager, and it can be rough.
I myself always look forward, never back, so I don't tend to take part in that stuff.
Posted by: Lorraine | January 09, 2009 at 10:20 AM
I didn't go to my last high school year reunion and sort of regret it. I decided I will go to the next one and just not worry about it.
I love that you might need to buy yarn to calm yourself from the stress of having a large stash.
I can knit all of the sweaters from stash and possibly have yarn left over for 2-3 sweaters. I'd be ok with that amount. I, too, signed up for NaKniSweMoDo. Can't wait to see what you wind up with!
Posted by: Wanda | January 12, 2009 at 11:22 PM
I missed the part where it's about the finishing lol, enjoy the fun of yours while listening to some of those great tunes :)
It's good to empathize with your teens, I'm sure they will appreciate it....eventually, being teens ;-)
Posted by: DeeAnn | January 13, 2009 at 11:41 PM
Your high school sounds great. One of the advantages/disadvantages of growing up in a small town like Haveford is that you know what everyone's doing even without facebook. I bet you could finish 15 sweaters in a year- 12 from you WIP pile and 3 new ones, when the patterns strike your fancy. What do you think?
Posted by: meg | January 15, 2009 at 10:49 PM