And now, a series of random thoughts, begun while sitting in the Lenin Library on a Saturday afternoon that started snowy, but is turning into brilliantly sunlit, in particular the gold crosses on the top of the Kremlin churches that I can see as I sit at my desk. (A note written much later, at my desk at home... the snow came back, but that absolutely beautiful sparkly kind of snow, so sparkly that as I walked away from a symphony concert the sparkling trumped the grey slush... even the grey, icky sidewalks sparkled.)
An anecdote: Vladimir Putin walks into the kitchen and opens the refrigerator, where he sees a gelatine. He tells it "stop trembling, I'm here for the cheese."
An injury: I think I've sprained my toe. Or something. It hurts, and it's kind of purple, though I can still move it, and more or less bend it. Unlike my last Russian injury (I slipped on the sidewalk by the Bolshoi theatre, which has shiny marble inlaid in it, which is freaking slippery after a snow), it has nothing to do with Russia. Instead, as I got up from the desk to go out of my room, my toe caught the phone cord currently attached to the computer, which I didn't realize until I had actually pulled my computer off the desk, but fortunately only down onto a chair, where it snagged, which then snagged my toe. Ouch. Oh, and the computer's fine. (Again, later: it still hurts, but it's less purple. I figure that's a good thing.)
A story from my landlady: when, in the 1960s, the BBC miniseries of The Forsyte Saga was shown on Soviet TV, the streets were empty because everyone was home watching it. And it was spring, and the weather was even nice. (This might seem inexplicable, but becomes somewhat more explicable when the additional factoid that the complete works of John Galsworthy, translated into Russian, are still a frequent sight on Russian bookshelves.)
A new (and sad) sighting: I've gotten sort of used to the stray dogs (though I will grant that the stray dog sleeping IN THE MIDDLE OF A METRO CAR was a bit surprising, and not really a good start to the day), sad as they are, but I think I've now actually seen stray cats fighting for dominance. Well, not fighting yet, but two cats were having a stand off--IN THE SNOW--in my neighborhood the other night when I was coming home. That was mildly surprising. And earlier that day, in an odd coincidence, I'd seen the archive cats for the first time this trip. One was yowling to be let into the office. He got his way.
Thoughts on The Office, with which I am now caught up, thanks to the fast free wifi that came with my cappuccino yesterday: AUGH! Michael Scott has been enormously cringe-inducing over the last two episodes, just when it seemed like he was being sort of normally human for a while. MUCH more like the first season... and I actually even thought he LOOKED more like first season Michael Scott in the episode "Ben Franklin." I actually had to stop in the middle of that episode, because I couldn't bear the thought of where he might be going.
Thoughts on hats: this is a very, very sad attempt to capture some of the hats I've seen. I'm a little too shy, or something, to snap pictures of total strangers, even though there have been a lot of them that I'd like to capture. But they are examples of the GIANT fur hat on a tiny head, a too-small fur hat on a big head, a just-right hat on a head with Brezhnev eyebrows (seriously, they were amazing), and an attempt to express something I've found interesting about a lot of the knit hats I've seen here. First, most of them seem to be knit flat and then sewn up the back. Second, I've seen a lot in which the band is knit in a narrow strip, and then (I assume) stitches are picked up along one long edge and knit up for the main part of the hat. In other words, the direction of the knitting is different between the two parts. And there are a lot of hats with very wide bands, actually. And my favorite possibly hand-made hat I've seen was actually crocheted (or so it looked to my eye) kind of on the diagonal. It was very cool.
And a first: a pattern to offer (a pdf file). It's the entrelac Mac envelope, also suitable as a bag in other ways. Add a handle. Add a button. Add a zipper. Go crazy!
I've been using it as is, with no handle, just to keep the little guy warm when it gets cold out. Last week I had the brilliant epiphany that my computer actually fit just perfectly in my purse, and so I've been carrying that instead of my larger bag; there's then just enough room for necessities and a small book, and the occasional extra thing. I can carry the whole shebang (minus the book, which has to be checked) into the Lenin library, which is one place I really want a bag with a handle (ever tried juggling a wallet, a passport, a computer, a pen, a packet of tissues [since there's no toilet paper] and various papers while using a toilet with no seat? I'll tell you, it's not easy. I end up perpetually worried that my passport's going to fall in the toilet, which would be disturbing on SO MANY LEVELS.). But the envelope works really well at the archives, as it keeps everything together in a guard-friendly way. And I think it's also serving its purpose of insulating the computer from the cold, which has been stronger here this past week (though nothing like the northeast and upper midwest, I know! Who'd've thought my going to Moscow in January was going to let me be warmer than y'all??)
Anyway, the pattern may well be rife with mistakes. I totally just wrote it up from memory of what I did, not as I went. I think it's right, but if anyone happens to try to make it, and discovers there are major problems, let me know, and I'll fix them and repost. Some of the instructions (about amount of yarn and gauge, in particular, I'm afraid) are kind of vaguer than I'd like, and some are more rambling than is probably ideal, but... hopefully it makes sense.
(And a final, later note, on music: I love the Moscow Conservatory, not as much as the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, but still. Tonight I heard two Strauss tone poems, and two concertos by Bruch: the first violin and the violin/viola. The violinst was Maksim Fedotov, who I SWEAR TO GOD totally looked like Severus Snape, except less greasy, at least from a distance. And then that got me to thinking about Harry Potter and preordering it and dealing with the being in Canada thing for that and the new movie and the really disturbing pictures of Daniel Radcliffe that have recently been sent about. And my mind would NOT have been wandering, because the music was really good, were it not for the fact that the CHICKA sitting next to me started TALKING ON HER CELL PHONE in the middle of the first Bruch concerto. I mean, honestly. The hell?!? And I'VE been called uncultured for freaking trying to carry a sweater slung over my bag instead of over my shoulders?!)