Dealing with Grief

Don’t panic. Fiona is well. In fact, when I got home Tuesday afternoon, she was up and acting as if nothing had ever happened. Weird. But I’m watching.

The grief I want to talk about is int Jason Reynolds’ new book, The Boy in the Black Suit. 

From the Publisher: Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this wry, gritty novel from the author of When I Was the Greatest.

Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey, Matt’s snagging fifteen bucks an hour. Not bad. But everything else? Not good. Then Matt meets Lovey. She’s got a crazy name, and she’s been through more crazy than he can imagine. Yet Lovey never cries. She’s tough. Really tough. Tough in the way Matt wishes he could be. Which is maybe why he’s drawn to her, and definitely why he can’t seem to shake her. Because there’s nothing more hopeful than finding a person who understands your loneliness—and who can maybe even help take it away.

 I listened to this on CDs generously provided by Audiobook Jukebox. The book is narrated by Corey Allen, who does a great job. He effectively portrays Matt, a teenage boy from Brooklyn, and manages to voice female characters well, by simple changes in his voice. The recording runs 7.75 hours on 7 CDs and is well listening to. I think I enjoyed  The Boy in the Black Suit more as an audiobook than I would have reading the text because of Corey Allen’s ability to sound like a Brooklyn teenager.

Unraveling Portland #SOL15

The first weekend in March always brings The Rose City Yarn Crawl.

A Yarn Crawl is an organized event focused on exploring the yarn shops of an area over a specific time period. This year’s crawl runs from Thursday, March 5th through Sunday, March 8th. Every participant has a passport and the goal is to visit all 15 yarn shops in the Metro Portland area. I have only filled the passport once. I probably won’t fill it this year, due to other events this weekend, but I am not letting that stop me from having a bit of fun.

I have made it to three shops already.

  

The really cool thing is that every shop has yarns the other doesn’t. Oh, there is sometimes a little overlap, but there is something unique at each. And that is part of the difficulty. I set  a budget, allowing myself a finite amount I can spend. So I have to be careful. I am on a mission to get yarn for Christmas presents I plan to knit. I’m not divulging what or for whom, just in case they read this. Sometimes, the decisions are hard to make, but  I rarely by at the first shop I visit and this year was no exception. I don’t want to dip into my cash too early.

I ended up buying some lovely fingering weight yarn made by Three Irish Girls. It is Adorn sock yarn and the color way is Red Forest. I think, once knitted up, it will look like autumn leaves.