Life Is A Race

They’re so cute! These are the cashmere blend socks—anklets with ruffles around the top. I tried to get them ready for Valentine’s Day, but I had too many things going on, and was racing against time on two projects at work.

I’m feeling a little like my whole life is a race, and I’ve been keeping up, dancing as fast as I can for many years—a lot of years! I got the tee shirt for keeping-up at around 30, the medal at 40, a trophy at 50, and I’m working on the lifetime achievement award…. When I heard about “Knitting Olympics,” I cheered just as I did when a US athlete won the first gold medal, and then I said, “Not for me!” So, this is me cheering all of my knitting sisters and brothers on, but not joining in because, well my whole life is a race.

Part of the race is getting up in the morning. (I actually slept through a half-hour of the alarm ringing yesterday morning, as did DH). Another part is getting ready for work—looking in the mirror, putting makeup on wrinkled skin, and moaning about my roots getting gray again. Part is working all day when I would rather be knitting, and only mentioning retirement occasionally. It’s not just this time of my life. I have always raced against something; my kids eating taffy with braces, those term papers that the dog ate, the missed school buses that required me driving them to school and being late for work—ahhh, those were the days. Thinking about it, I realized that then I would have probably tackled something like Knitting Olympics. I had the stamina—the non-aching body—the oomph—miraculously, the time. That’s right, then I had more time. What’s wrong with this picture? The older I get, the fewer hours there are in a day. A friend said to me recently, “You don’t suppose that it’s because we are slowing down?” Nahhh, that couldn't be it.

So GO OLMYPIC KNITTERS!!! I’m with you in heart and mind. I can’t race fast enough anymore to keep up, but wait for me at the finish line and I’ll get there eventually—if I don’t sleep through the alarm!