Sylvia's Journal

Last night was about multiple meanings of stitches – knitting, a debate that would have us in stitches and stitches in my hand – yes, no and mostly itchy rather than painful.

My hand is healing so fast that I was able to knit again last night, while I watched the vice presidential debate. Tessa sat with me for a while and then got so bored that she went to bed; everyone had such high expectations about the debate, sparks, blunders, but none of that happened, no one was in stitches. So I knitted and listened and decided that Sarah Palin didn’t do as bad as people had predicted and Tina Fey has to make up another act. And as for the stitches, this morning I took the bandages off, observed that the cut had already healed and was nicely pulled together by three tiny knots, took a shower and went on with my life.

Today is Steve’s 25th birthday. I asked him last night about quarter-life crisis and how he felt about this quarter century milestone with a new job starting next week, a solid relationship of three years, a dog, a car and living with his in-laws. Not bad.

I talked on the phone with my colleague Hare Ram in Nepal on the eve of the Hindu festival of Vijaya Dashami. I had received a greeting card from Nepal with a picture of the goddess Durga slaying two bad looking guys with horns, with the help of a lion. She has 10 arms, and while one is spearing the bad guy the other carry stuff like food, something that looks like a twirling CD, other weapons and whatnot. I asked Hare ram to explain the imagery to me. The good conquering the evil was obvious, but what about the 10 arms? Oh, he said, that’s about women being better at multi-tasking than men, and about woman power; this is certainly true in my house, he added with a chuckle. Happy holidays to all my Hindu friends!

Talking about powerful women who have their many hands and arms stretched far and wide Sita has seen a few, as per her Facebook entry: Martha Steward, Sally Ride and Billy Jean King. She’s canvassing them about Sarah Palin and is getting, not surprisingly, both the thumbs up and down. I wondered if they all watched last night and what the commentaries were. We are looking forward to see her and get the stories. I am sure she will be happy to be among ordinary people again, the folks who live on Main street.