365 Days Handmade

Making life a better place, one day at a time

Category Archives: Handmade


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Day 115/365: Being Married This Long Means Having Your Own Damn Box of Chocolates

This week the old speaker dock for my iPod died, which bummed me out because I like having music playing around the house.  So today Sean and I drove down to San Luis Obispo for lunch and a trip to Best Buy for new speakers.

After we made our purchase and headed out to the car, I told Sean, “I’m going to See’s Candies.”  Which was conveniently located right across the parking lot in the same shopping center.  I am a huge fan of the See’s box of Nuts and Chews.  I could eat a whole one-pound box of Nuts and Chews over a weekend, but I have to pace myself to make the candy last at least four days.  It’s a good exercise in restraint.

“I’ll come with you,” Sean said.

“I’m going to buy one box of Nuts and Chews,” I said.  “I can buy you a lollipop, or a box of lollipops, or your own box of chocolates.  Anything you want in the store.”

“No, thanks,” Sean said.  “You don’t have to buy me any candy.  I’ll just have some of yours.”

“No,” I told him.  “There’s not going to be any sharing.  If you want some chocolates, I will buy you your own box of Nuts and Chews, but you can’t have any of mine.”

“Wow,” Sean said.  “I guess we’ve been married that long.  That was a reverse scenario.  That’s something you picked up from me, isn’t it?”

Because yes, in the past I was the one saying, “I’ll just have some of your fries,” (or cake, or frozen yogurt, or any of a million things) and Sean going, “No.  I will buy you your own, but you can’t have some of mine.”

I guess we have been married that long.

4.25.2015

His and hers boxes of chocolate.  You can guess which one I’ll be eating.  And not sharing.

 


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Day 113/365: Killing Him Softly

4.23.2015

I’d scheduled six patients for my morning line, and the first three came on time.  At 9:40, my fourth patient was ten minutes late.  At 9:45, I started to wonder if he had forgotten about his appointment.  At 9:50, he finally showed up.

This is a patient who has been on my caseload for a couple of years now and with whom I have a good rapport.  We have shared some laughs.  So when he walked into my office, I couldn’t help giving him a little grief and jokingly shook him down.  “What happened, Mr. F?  You’re twenty minutes late.  I was worried we would have to shut down the yard for emergency count and start looking for you.”

Mr. F did a double take and looked at me in surprise.  “What do you mean, Doc?  My appointment was for 10:00.”

He handed me his appointment ducat, and sure enough, the time printed on the slip of paper was 10 AM.

“Whoops, my bad!” I said, handing back the ducat.  “You’re ten minutes early!”

“Oh, don’t scare me like that,” he said, shaking his head.  He settled into the seat across my desk.  “These C.O.s already killing me softly.”


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Day 112/365: Just a Number

4.22.2015

Today in IDTT (our Interdisciplinary Treatment Team meeting), I gave my case presentation on a new inmate, Mr. D, who recently transferred to our prison and had been assigned to my caseload.  He was a 68-year-old African-American man with a release date of 2027, when he would be 80.

After I presented the diagnosis, psychosocial history, and other relevant information to the rest of the team, Mr. D was brought in so that we could review with him the treatment plan and discuss any questions or concerns.  He didn’t have a lot that he wanted to say, so his portion of the meeting didn’t take very long.  After he left, my colleague Dr. Y turned to me and said, “He’s 68?!”  Dr. Y himself was 60 years old.  He said, “I wouldn’t have guessed he was 68.  He looks so much younger.”

He added, half jokingly, “It’s just not fair!  A lot of these guys look really good for their age.”  What he didn’t say and what we guessed was that he didn’t think he had aged as well in appearance as those guys.

“Aw, don’t feel bad,” Dr. E, who is Korean-American and around my age, said.  “It’s genetics.  And people of color just age better.  Especially Asians.  Look at Dr. V here.  She’s fifty-five.”


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Day 111/365: New Crocheted Afghan

4.21.2015

The thing about working a ten-hour day is that if I leave the office after 6 PM, I seem to have just enough time to drive home, check the mail, change out of my work clothes, wash dishes from the morning’s breakfast and the day’s lunch, get dinner started, go through my email while dinner is cooking, eat dinner, talk to Sean on the phone, prepare tomorrow’s lunch, and compose the day’s blog post before it is already my 9 PM bedtime.

In other news, I started this afghan.  It is the same shell stitch as this previous pink and yellow afghan.  I’m working with a pound of yarn.  Literally.  This is Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn in Bubblegum.  I’m very curious to see exactly how big an afghan I will be able to produce out of 16 ounces or 454 grams of this stuff, which according to the label is 1020 yards or 932 meters of yarn.  I’ll keep you posted.


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Day 109/365: Pink and Yellow Striped Socks, Completed

4.19.2015

A couple of socks, just hanging out.  Enjoying the sea otters off in the distance.

Today I got it in my head that I wanted to eat a large fisherman’s platter for lunch– you know, the meal consisting of deep fried battered fish and shrimp and scallops and calamari and clam strips, with a hefty side of deep fried French fries thrown in for good measure.  So this afternoon Sean and I walked down to Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant near the Embarcadero, and I was fully prepared to feast on a meal of a thousand calories… until we sat down and looked at the menu and my better sense kicked in.  I still ordered the fisherman’s platter, but asked for the seafood to be grilled and substituted rice pilaf for French fries.  I know, boooo.  But I also want to live to at least eighty, with relatively unblocked arteries.

After lunch, we walked down the Promenade and admired the sea otters that were gliding and twirling in the bay just several feet away from us.  I brought my completed pair of socks and took some photos.  I made this pair of socks for a friend, and I purposely started the second sock without matching the color sequence to the first sock.  I thought it would add a little more charm if the socks had mismatched stripes.  I’m hoping my friend will think so, too.


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Day 108/365: Catching Up on Down Time

4.18.2015

With the exception of going out to lunch this afternoon with Sean in San Luis Obispo, I didn’t do much of anything today.  It was nice to just sit around and decompress.  While Sean graded papers, I made some progress on my sock.  I turned the heel and started the ribbing for the cuff.  I should be done with it tomorrow.

I’m already trying to decide on my next project and whether I will start another pair of socks or start another crocheted afghan.


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Day 107/365: Winding it Down

4.17.2015

It’s hard to believe that a week ago today, we were in Minneapolis, it was my 100th post, and I met my longtime online friend Alisha for the very first time. 

It has been a busy week, jam-packed with all kinds of activities.  We traveled a lot and had a bunch of adventures.  We returned to California and went back to work.  Now it’s the start of my three-day weekend, and I am looking forward to doing absolutely nothing except sitting around the house here in Morro Bay and just knitting or crocheting.

Happy Friday!


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Day 106/365: Lifers Support Group Day

4.16.2015

I don’t remember if I mentioned this before:  Every Thursday afternoon, I facilitate a support group for inmates who are serving life sentences.  The participants range in age.  The youngest is in his mid-30s, and the oldest is in his late 60s.  If I recall correctly, the minimum amount of time served by an inmate in the group has been fifteen years; the longest has been thirty-two years.

I’ve been running this group for well over a year, and the members have been through a lot with each other.  They conducted mock board hearings in which every week one of the participants was the subject of intense and challenging questions posed by the others who role-played commissioners of the Board of Parole Hearings.  They expected each other to be honest and accountable for their past actions and choices, and they didn’t hesitate to call out somebody if they thought he wasn’t being entirely truthful.

Last week I added a new member to the group, and today was his first day of attendance.  Given the cohesiveness that had developed over the past year among the group members, I wasn’t one bit surprised when, upon my introducing the new member to the rest, one of the other inmates immediately demanded, “Who did you kill?”


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Day 105/365: First Day Back At Work

4.15.2015

Exactly one week ago, I was getting ready for our trip to Minneapolis.  It’s hard to believe how much stuff I did in the past seven days.  It also seems so amazing to me that we traveled to the Northern Mid-West and back to the Pacific Coast within a week.  It took months for the pioneers in covered wagons to cross the same terrain that we did.  But actually, when I stop to think about it, that in itself is really even more amazing.

I went back to work at the prison today and it was completely business as usual.  Luckily, I didn’t have to deal with any last-minute urgent referrals, emergencies, or difficult patients.  I did stay at my office until 6 PM, trying to finish the day’s progress notes and treatment plans and suicide risk evaluations.  When it got to be 6:00, I knew I had to pack it up.  Even though I cared about getting the job done, I also knew that the emotionally healthy thing to do was to go home and put the day behind me.

That’s another nice thing about taking vacations.  It helps to give you perspective on priorities and what really matters in life.