Time is flying by

Even though it doesn't seem like I've done very many things this past week, the time has been flying by. I've been working on my mom's afghan (which is progressing even faster than I anticipated) and I've been trying to read through my stack of magazines that have been piling up for about four months. The magazines are piling up because when I'm reading a good book, I tend to focus on the book rather than other reading.

Right now, I'm in the middle of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. It is an amazing book, telling the history of the U.S. from the perspective of those people whose story is less told. An example is telling the story of slavery from the perspective of the Africans who were torn from their homes. European settlers to America couldn't tame the Native Americans, so shipping people across the Atlantic and throwing them in a completely different world seemed like the best idea to them.

It is books like this one that makes me think back to my high school education and how in history class, we heard about the great things that the European settlers did without dwelling on the terrible things. History class seemed like it was trying to envoke pride in us for our country rather than telling of the country's complicated past. This is not true of all high schools I'm sure, but I only had a few teachers who truly challenged us to think outside the box. My experience did set me up to discover the other side of the story on my own though and in my own time.

In addition to reading, I am starting to get very excited for our trip to the Pacific Northwest! We are flying out the night of July 3. I have never been that far West - it will be beautiful! I am already trying to think about what I want to take along with me (meaning books and knitting/crocheting because those are the things that I really need to plan). I am afraid to take along knitting needles because I've heard that security sometimes takes them away. So, I've been trying to find a smaller crochet project to work on. In looking through the two crochet books that I have and my varied yarn selection, I think I'm going to make a baby blanket for no one in particular. It will be stereotypical boyish colors, so if any of you are having a baby boy soon, I'm getting started on your gift early!

I'm looking foward to getting away from work for a while. It has been slow and honestly kind of boring lately. The pace will pick up in a couple of weeks, but at the moment, it's painfully slow. So goes.