Books "on tape"

When I'm not goofing around on my computer in the evenings, I do like to knit. My TV is strictly for the kid's use, as I don't have cable or the converter box for local channels. He watches videos from the library, and I don't feel compelled to get cable just so either of us can watch more TV. I've never been able to knit and watch TV anyway.

I also feel like I don't read enough. I really don't, and although it's something I do feel motivated to change, I haven't yet. I'd like to go to bed 30 minutes earlier, and split the difference by reading for a little bit before lights out.

Solution? Ta-da! In a fit of multitasking, I've joined www.audible.com, a site that sells all sorts of recorded books as downloads. What actually pushed me over the edge was hearing an interview with the author of "Eat, Pray, Love", who has a new book out called "Commitment". I thought that Eat, Pray, Love would be a great start, so I downloaded that. Haven't started it yet.

The book I did start is called "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. The book chronicles her process of finding out and then undertaking steps to become more happy. She wasn't depressed, has a satisfactory home life, family, kids, job, etc., but felt she wasn't as appreciative of those things as she could be.

I'm only about an hour into it, but I see the opportunity to do some of this myself. Goal setting, mindfulness, and allowing myself to "be Linda". One of her "rules" is to "be Gretchen", which I think means to accept one's own strength and weaknesses, without slipping into some kind of narcissistic tunnel vision. All of this kind of smacks of thinking about oneself a little too much, but I believe you have to get yourself to a spot where you're OK with who you are, what you want and where you're going so that you don't end up 75 years old and wishing you had enjoyed what you had a little more.

And listening and knitting is working just fine - I can do those at the same time, and am almost done with a scarf I've been working on. I listened to a podcast from www.knitpicks.com about blocking knitted things, and am eager to try their techniques. Blocking relaxes the fibers, and has one soaking the piece in warm dilute soapy water, rolling it in a towel, and then tacking the piece down to dry. All I need now is a nice scarf pin - Etsy, here I come!