Nine years. That's ... so long. I'd like to tell you that my life has changed dramatically but it's pretty much the same. I have a nicer title and a bigger paycheck. The last generation of cats have gone on and a new generation is bringing me laughter and cuddles. I like to think that I'm wiser and more patient. I've traveled more - 3 more trips to Tokyo - and that's the best lesson in personal growth I can recommend. I am of the privileged and fortunate during this time of crisis. I am still employed and can work from home. Haven't left the apartment since March 13th and I'm completely cool with that. Bless UPS, Amazon and Shipt. (I'd thank Instacart but there's that issue of a $92 order of groceries never appearing so they are now dead to me. Yeah, I got a refund, but still. Dead. To. Me.) Anyway, life not in shambles.

I can't say I have tons of extra time to kill because I only had a 15 min commute anyway and I'm putting in 10-12 hour days, but after a few weeks the mind wanders to what else it could be doing. I'd started knitting a wrap the first weekend of the quarantine - an easy 4-row repeat of something light and airy. I added a few rows every time I watched something on Netflix that didn't have subtitles, which is only about half the time. One night I had insomnia (work-related) and I was cleaning up the favorites icons in my browser.  "Ravelry! I haven't looked there in ages! I should add my new wrap."  I saw my profile (where Maggie was still alive and I was knitting things that I never finished and couldn't even locate now) and thought I'd save that fun for another day.

But then I remembered Stephanie and went to the Yarn Harlot blog. First post I saw was of her grandson's 3rd birthday. What?? Grandson? Meg got married?? I searched back to where I could remember what was going on and it was sometime around August of 2015. It took a week but I read a few months at a time and caught up. Laughed. Cried. Looked up patterns and bought yarn like a crazy person. (Crazy. Person. At least 12 new projects - yarn and patterns and needles all on their way. When do I think I'm going to knit these?) Read her post from the beginning of last month, hand over mouth, in a kind of horror that the current pandemic has yet to instill in me here in my little cocoon of comfort and cat naps.

So much has happened in other people's lives - in whatever varying degrees of good or bad. Serious change. And I noticed that the knitting world has changed, too. Yarns that were staples just aren't there anymore. The local yarn store is closing. (They were before the crisis. Didn't care because I didn't like it there, but still.) Blogs that I used to read are gone. Poof! It's a new knitting world. I'm looking forward to seeing who the players are, the trends, the yarns. So, if this blog is still on anyone's feed, let me know that you're there. Let me know what's changed with you, how you think the knitting community has changed in the last decade, and what you're knitting.

P.S. OK, I did SOME stuff over the last 9 years.  5 years cancer free 5 years ago.  Got my MBA.  Just little things like that.