Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Being grumpy

It's nice to be grumpy. At age 69 I feel I'm entitled and my daughter says it's fine to be grumpy here on my blog. Yesterday I was very grumpy and today less so. I decided to let off steam on the Beadchat email group about people who come to me for free beading lessons for as long as 2 hours of my time. These are people who can't read instructions for themselves, have almost no beads and materials and just try to learn for free using the cheapest materials. They also never bead on their own. I met some of them at the local retired center where there's a lovely woman who teaches crafts and seems to mainly teach beadwork. She's really good too. But in 2 hours with about 30 to 40 women all wanting her help, she really can't do that much so some of the ladies seeing that I'm pretty good, try to come and visit me for help. They come with poor materials that are not suitable and are not interested in buying the right stuff. Some think they can use mine. One lady came without her glasses which she really needed as she had a high cylinder number. AFter quite a few of these visits I finally popped. Well, today the beadchat email group responded. I thought I'd be burned for sure and was very surprised to read the outpouring of support by other beaders who had also been burnt by students and people wanting to learn for free. I got a lot of good ideas too and the big one is to just say: no.

I also posted a letter to knittalk which is a knitting email group and here I wanted to write about a knitting book published in 2003: New directions in Knitting. Several people said they had bought it and others wrote they were ordering it and it was available very reasonably now. So I just might send in a few more reviews. I know that people prefer positive reviews so I need to take a look at my large collection and see what is there. Now that I'm alone again, and dieting, I often take a few books or magazines to read while eating to eat less and it also gives me time to go back over something I had forgotten about and say: wow, I'd like to knit that.

I had to go to the dentist today after hours of pain yesterday. The lady dentist said it's time to take out the tooth. It didn't even hurt and she hardly used any pressure as it was so wobbly. Then she had to put that horrible thing in my mouth to get the measurement for the new tooth which will be added to the stuff I have. I'm so happy as it will be ready tomorrow. No waiting.

And today it's terribly hot and heavy. I don't usually feel much from the weather but sitting at home in my usually lovely living room, I felt a slight headache. And the weather tomorrow is going to be even worse.

1 comment:

ColorJoy LynnH said...

I am getting grumpy lately, too. I do teach for pay. I want a space where my students sit away from shop drop-by-and-chat folks. I want a table for some of my classes. It makes the class more valuable to my students.

There is one woman who asks me to sit by her and help, help, help without paying for a semi-private session. She said once she thinks she should pay me but she doesn't really do it.

The last few weeks my voice is getting very tired by the end of the day. Instead of hanging out and knitting with folks (I don't mind helping people but I don't want to translate every part of a pattern for them), I'm going home earlier than the crowd.

Boundaries. I think it will take me a lifetime to learn them well. This is just one more place to learn.