Morning to Relax

After a long, hectic, work-filled week, I was able to sit back this morning and do some things that were just for me.After cleaning the kitchen and tidying my room, I sat down with a coffee, my knitting and some Gilmore Girls to have my first morning off in a long time. When life is moving at a thousand miles an hour around you, taking a minute to yourself to do little things that you enjoy is important. Even just slowing down for a minute is nice.
Last night and this morning I delved into Justin Cronin's The Passage, a futuristic novel where a virus takes hold of the human population, killing most and turning others into vampire-like creatures. After reading so many reviews about how good it was, and even though I'm not a big fan of the whole vampire craze, I decided to give it a try, taking a break from theater theory texts I've been working through in planning my syllabus.
About halfway through now, it's intriguing enough to continue. If nothing else it's a good break, and it continues my post-apocalyptic type of novel streak I've been in since February. The first sleeve of the Vivian sweater is coming along nicely. After how many rows and stitches and patterns full of cabling for the body, doing just one pattern and a bunch of seed stitches feels like a breeze. I'm already almost up to the elbow, and with a bunch of long shifts at VE next week hopefully I can finish the first sleeve and move quickly into the second. The light at the end of the tunnel is approaching, and boy does it look good.
On another note, having Tyler back from Europe has been great. Between our work schedules we've only been able to grab an hour or two here or there, but we're going to go up the shore tomorrow (weather permitting) for climbing, camping next to Lake Superior, and then more climbing on Monday for a "just us" type of weekend. He brought me a few presents from overseas too- a carved wooden music box with a violin inlaid on the top, which plays "Edelweiss" when opened, probably four pounds of chocolate, 4 bottles of wine (mostly from Italy), and something very cool:a bottle of Italian perfume from a tiny town on the Italian coast. I've never actually owned perfume in my entire life, so having really nice stuff is a luxurious treat.
For now, back to coffee, knitting, and a little guilty pleasure. Good start to another full day. :)