Peak uncertainty

The peak of the title being an actual mountain, where we are headed for the next week for a supposed ski break. However the weather is looking extremely uncertain; at this point we can’t tell whether we’ll be enjoying perfect powder (supposedly the conditions right now), or sunny slush, or constant rain. Who knows! It’s a holiday anyway! A holiday that we might spend cooped up in a flat in the rain, in a village without any open restaurants (thanks, plague) or any supermarkets (you pretty much have to go down the funicular and take a drive to get anything more than a loaf of bread), but a holiday none the less.

Right before we drive to the mountains, C is taking the big exam, so that’s also a source of some uncertainty and anxiety. Although I think she’s mostly just looking forward to having it done at this point. She’s extremely well prepared and I fully expect to pick her up from the school in top spirits – but who knows, right?

And one more bit of uncertainty comes from having had a video interview last week – technically the second, the first was one of those horrible robo Hirevue things and I was more than a little startled to make it past that hurdle. It’s for the kind of big corporate job that would impress everybody except those who actually know me, who would utter a resounding chorus of wtaf? So it wasn’t a lot of fun, and waiting to hear back isn’t a lot of fun either, because as much as I don’t think this is a good move for me, it would still at least be movement. And rejection is never fun. But I’m about 99% sure it will be a rejection (the interview didn’t exactly go badly, I just don’t think we connected well; video, eh). And maybe 65% sure that’s a good thing.

In between encouraging C with her studies and fretting about the interview, I did quite a bit of sewing last week. Simple, satisfying things like converting an unflattering dress into a very nice skirt, and making PJ bottoms for the kids. All of this after the adventure that was constructing a patchwork-embellished knitting needle case for a friend, which involved a lot of new skills and figuring out the construction. All excellent fun. I very much enjoyed the engineering thinking, and the feeling that I was finally making friends with Etta, and the thrill of quick results, but it was distinctly soured by the loud squealing Etta started to make. The noise that had prompted me to take her in for a very expensive service. So now I have to go back to that really annoying workshop and have a fight with the really annoying dude, in Swiss German, over how very much he’s failed me. And I can’t do any more sewing until this happens. This sucks. And it really underlines the problem I’ve had with sewing all along: the machine part. With knitting, it’s all between me and the yarn. If I screw up I can figure out what I did wrong and how to fix it. With sewing, there is this Third Party, and I feel absolutely at a loss if problems come up. Did I do it? Does it need a doctor? How can I stop it happening again? HELP I AM SO LOST AND ALONE! It’s literally the only time I ever want my mommy. It also makes me want to buy a new machine, because somehow I have this instinct to try and solve problems by throwing money at them, and also I think I might very soon need a bit more, machine capability wise. Which is perfectly reasonable except for the part where I strongly suspect I’ll keep having problems and I can’t just keep buying new machines…

#Not52recipes: I have made more bread; a no-knead recipe and a fancy-looking fantails thing. I can’t quite work out how this is different to regular bread, why it doesn’t need either kneading or a really long rise, but who cares as long as the magic works. It’s really easy and really delicious (we were scoffing it without butter or anything when it came out of the oven because omg irresistible). The fantails were also magnificent – fun to make (Claudia barely let me touch them) and extremely good to eat. And also invite many delicious variations. Both of these will be repeated a lot.