sweater therapy

There are days at work that leave asking: what just happened to me? You try to find explanations for the cuckoo of it all. The inversion? The snow getting rid of the inversion? The price of milk? The apocalypse finally happening, with its origins here? No answer comes.
    That's when you find yourself at one of the happiest places on earth. Target. You have to grocery shop. This is something that gives you mild anxiety and more than a mild case of the grumps. But at Target, things are better. And you try to figure out something to make you feel like the day has not been a waste. You don't self-identify as a person who regularly uses retail therapy. But you make an exception for this:

It's a cardigan you found in the men's section. You go there periodically to see if you can find a treasure you can make better. The sweater is fine by itself, but you decide fine is not good enough on this day of the near-apocalypse. You want festive. Valentines festive. But not so specific you can't wear it other times. So you get your needle, red embroidery floss and scissors.

You start using the outline stitch to outline the top of the pockets. It's relaxing, fun and aesthetically pleasing. All things you need on the inversion-induced insanity of the day. But you don't stop at just the pockets.

You have to outline where the buttons are too. Then the buttons give you pause. There isn't enough pizazz to be considered Valentine's festive.

You find yourself changing the buttons out with some that you bought for a project in December but never used. You even attach them with red, which is something you saw in a Martha Stewart magazine you bought to cannibalize for another project.

The sweater turns out something like this, when all is said and done. It is festive without slapping you in the face and looks like a new and improved version of the sweater you retail therapied yourself with. The what-just-happened-to-me day is a distant memory. Finally you can stop narrating your life like that one version of Hamlet you watched a week or so ago. That's a relief.