The Adventures of a Christmas Hermit, pt 1

Sorry for the month-long vacuum of silence. This semester was just ridiculously brutal - between research, classes, and teaching (which totally consumed all of my time), and some messy personal issues that kind of sucked but seem to be working themselves out, there was really no time to sleep. Or eat properly. Or (shockingly enough) knit.

But all that's behind me now, because it's Christmas break! And I'm spending it here in Ann Arbor, alone but for the cats. Whenever I tell people that, they tend to gasp in horror and tell me that it's sad/not healthy/bad for me to spend the holidays alone, which I find amusing because all I really need right now is to catch up on sleep and veg out with the TV and some knitting. And Warcraft, which I just started playing and am now crazily addicted to. I don't really need to travel all the way to Texas to go see my very nice, if somewhat overwhelming, family nearly as much as I need to sleep in everyday and not change out of my pajamas all day. It's cool, they've given their blessing.

Deep down inside, I think what I really want to be when I grow up is a mad scientist. But not an evil one bent on world domination, just one out in the boonies fiddling with shit and periodically sending an assistant out for provisions and supplies. So, less evil genius in the song "Skullcrusher Mountain"¹ and more tiny dude at the Southern Oracle in The Neverending Story. Yeah, I want to be him, but marginally taller, a woman, and with all my teeth.


Taking the Mad Scientist as a model for my week as a Christmas Hermit obviously means I'll be keeping myself busy. I mean, any decent mad scientist is highly productive, right? Always a new death ray of transportation pod or something. Just look at Dr. Weird. So, expect some knitting to be accomplished (though there is a hiatus from the Sock Queue...a gift from me to myself), great leaps to be made regarding Jarthen, many a marathon of bad TV to be watched, and my 4 (and counting) Warcraft charatcers² to level up all over the place. I may also construct a fort out of sheets, which would be only fitting because every mad scientist has a secret mountain stronghold.

the beginnings of a herringbone vest and copious notes about Jarthen

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¹ Appropriately enough, someone's already made a video to this particularly awesome song using Warcraft. The heavens have aligned.


²In case you're interested, my four characters are Wholahay (a draenei shaman, level 11), Svava (a night elf druid, level 11), Madge Bobbins (a troll hunter, level 10), and Elcrona (a blood elf warlock, level 6). It should be noted that the first name is a reference to Dionne from ANTM cycle 8's nickname for herself, and all other names are in some way Jarthen related. Because I'm apparently competing with the guy that made that video for the title of Biggest Dork in the Universe.