Jigsaw Puzzle: Ur Doin It Rong

Bring me a hammer and the scissors please? Because that's the only way I can make these puzzle pieces fit.

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Firedoglake: Pull Up A Chair

crossposted 8 december 2007 at firedoglake

It's a Surprise!

Staring at the open box of 750 jigsaw pieces, each individually wrapped in a piece of toilet paper and scotch tape, I knew I'd been had---but good---by my six younger siblings.

They were hoping I would take the time to unwrap each piece, but instead I saved this creative treasure intact and it was re-gifted several times on other holidays. I like to think it's still out there somewhere, causing outrageous laughter for some hapless recipient.

Speaking of surprises, many years later when young egrDaughter was old enough to understand the idea of presents, she was all excited and helpful when taking a wrapped package over to my brother: "It's a camera! It's a surprise!"

Sometimes you even get the good stuff on video. Younger egrDaughter opened up the package with her Barbie house, containing all the little plastic stuff doomed to be broken or lost within 48 hours, and shouted "Now I know there's a Santa Claus, 'cause you said you would NEVER get this for me!"

You know, I love Dave Barry's wacky presents but he isn't the only one who can make us laugh at funny gifts or stories. I want to hear from you all about holidays past or present when you found yourself laughing aloud at something silly.

We've worked hard this week, it's time for some fun. So put the politics aside for a little while, pass the scotch tape please, and pull up a chair....

This mesmerizing photo from MarkyBon, flickr creative commons

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Not "Stuck" --- Evaluating available options

While we are on the edge of our seats waiting for the Libby verdicts, we observe that the jury seems to be held up on some issues. What is reasonable doubt? Must the government prove it was not "humanly possible" for Libby to forget? [Answer----arrrgh/RTFM]

We all encouter obstacles in our daily lives. This afternoon a tree fell across my driveway, blocking any further progress. This morning, a metaphorical tree fell across my progress with the Russian hospital work. It's been quite the time of surprise and anger, followed by cursing and general anxiety and depression. The usual meltdown. This is part of my job description I guess.

No wonder we can't find a successor. No one in their right mind would do this work, and mentally ill people do not customarily make it thru 8 years of college and go work in another country.

This was not a good day to have computer troubles thrown onto the pyre. Rains => pours. Don't they know, One Catastrophe at a Time™. OH YAY! I can't find my little trademark sign due to eponymous computer problems. Use your imagination here. YAY!! Success! Blast those obstacles!!!

When I am doing puzzles, which thankfully have no emotional content [tho I could make an exception for crosswords, since words remind us of things], I work carefully around obstacles. I never say I am "stuck." It sounds like surrender. Rather I say I am evaluating available options.

Sark said of me, without ever meeting me, that I am a "surrendering soul." This is right on so many levels. She also said eldest egDau was "exuberant" before ever meeting her. This woman has the Sight indeed.

In between crying jags I've been evaluating a whole lot of available options. This always has the same ending: a realization that I don't have the answers today, and pray to God that something brilliant will occur to me in the future.

Stepping out on faith? Hell, I'm rollarskating on faith. Hope God knows what I'm doing, because I've lost track.

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Dialing it back a little

Have been blogging less because of the need to rest and de-stress. That whole re creation thingie.

One amusing item, we found out why Mom's phone wouldn't work overseas. We called [name of phone company omitted to protect the guilty] to say it wasn't working for certain foreign calls, and their response was to turn off all of her international service just as she was leaving for Europe. Which they knew, since that was the point of the call. In fact that was the point of getting this particular phone.

I spent hours trying to get this straightened out, and my brother is doing the same, from France. I have to wonder if we are simply over-engineering the situation. There are bypass solutions [everything is surgery for me you know]. She could ditch this phone and get another one that will work in France. We could say that she doesn't really need a phone since my brother will be staying at the same hotel. But I think we are programmed genetically to take pleasure in coming up with the optimal solution. Bunch of engineers and scientists and lawyers.

A colleague and I once spent a half hour researching ever more clever ways to get from the city center to the airport. That was strictly for fun, but keeping the mind sharp for real problems in the future.

So when I say dialing it back a little, I guess that doesn't include the time with the phone company.

The puzzle puzzle: solved!

Did you ever find an activity that just made you feel calm and happy? Ok other than THAT one :)

People with ADD and possibly OCD apparently find some peace by taking up activities with repetitive hand motions.

I am surprised by how many acquaintances used to knit during the Vietnam war, then let it lapse, then have recently taken knitting up again. Myself, I don't pretend to make anything fancy, just rectangles that could charitably be called scarves.

My new activity is a logic puzzle called Paint by numbers.* My sister found one book of these that she liked so much, she would erase the puzzles and do them again. Me: ok weird, but interesting.

*Eeeeek, my first successful link on this blog...

Then I found a magazine in the St. Petersburg airport, airside, mostly in Japanese with pithy sayings and salacious ads in Russian. Got one for my sister and as an afterthot one for me.

Well! Turns out it is very calming to quietly calculate which squares to fill in with pencil strokes. So I find myself hooked. It has helped me keep my sanity while waiting in airports, on long distance flights, and while enduring inevitable pauses in Plame trial news. [Go Jane, Christy, Marcy, Swopa, Pach, TRex!!]

So this time leaving St. Petersburg, following a troubled trip in terms of customs harrassment and being followed by strangers, I looked forward to buying another pair of puzzle magazines at the airport for Marilyn and me. Alas! The space where they had been was vacant, open for reconstruction. Ach du lieber. Went towards the departure gate and found the store in its new location. Hope springs eternal [not, hopespringsaturtle, one of the all-time great pennames].

Rustled thru my briefcase and pulled out the beloved puzzle magazine, Do you have this? She looked over at the magazine rack and said, Sorry. Ruh roh. Class C emergency. It doesn't really matter in the long haul, but still....

[Little travel joke about long haul. Guess you had to be there.]

So upon return to the USSA it was a priority to research this puzzle book. I thot I would have to contact either a Japanese or a Russian distributor to get the needed material.

New theory: maybe a general US puzzle magazine would have this, good thinking. I looked carefully at Games Magazine and found the gold at the end of the rainbow: the familiar pattern on the corner of the cover. Raced to google the name of the puzzle, and found many! books and magazines with diverse names:

Hanjie
O'ekaki
Crosspix
Paint by sudoku
Paint by number
Picross
Nonograms
Griddlers

VICTORY! So I ordered a set for my sister and a set for moi. Patiently waiting. Ok those of you that know me, not so patiently waiting.

I struggle to calm my hyperactive brain. It is a great blessing except when it isn't. Thots flying too fast. Scanning the universe in search of....? Anything I find to help calm me down, excluding alcohol, is on the list.

I drink so I don't become hysterical, and angry, and say something that would hurt someone. PLEASE GOD let the researchers find new drugs that will help people like me.

Puzzle not quite solved, after all.