Bummed Out
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007I’m grieving a bit… not a death of a person this time, thank goodness. Just the loss of a dream. I thought I’d be going to Chicago to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Yarn Harlot) tonight. It looked like I might even be going with Rae. (I missed the Ann Arbor talk to work at Threadbear, not a bad reason at all, but I really wanted to see Stephanie.)
Now Rae isn’t going, and I’m not going, and I’m bummed. I love Stephanie, and I wanted to Represent. To be one of the zillion knitters who show up on her tour and make a statement that we knitters are many, among other things. She filled a 750-person auditorium in NYC last week… I longed to be one of them.
The weather is supposed to be much better in Chicago than Lansing today (although this photo of a fully-blooming bush taken April 2 is proof we have had many good days already). I would have enjoyed the adventure, had I decided to go.
My car needs an alignment (since I hit the curb from distraction when I was in shock from my friend Robert’s early demise). I got new tires already but the self-employed life is such that you must handle essential things (like tires) immediately, but sometimes wait on less-essential things (alignments) until after the next check arrives.
If I drive eight hours on brand new tires without an alignment, the new tires will not be happy. I bought really good tires and I’m not inclined to throw them away early just because I wanted to see my knitting friend at her talk four hours away. After all, she lives only about 5 hours away from me in the other direction… I could just drive to Toronto sometime, right?.
Nevermind that the talk is at 7pm Chicago time, which is 8pm our time. Last time I saw Stephanie speak, the line to talk with her was 2 hours long. After a half-hour talk that means I’d leave to arrive back home at no earlier than 2:30am. Now, I usually am awake at 2:30am, sometimes 3:30. However, driving that late alone is different than sitting at my desk that late alone.
Between the time situation, the car situation, and the lack of a companion, I’m staying home. It seems the smart move. There was a time when I would have forced the issue, waking up at 8am and finding a place that would do an alignment the same day… but that would mean being even more tired at the 2am hour. I’m deciding today to be a grown-up adult.
Now I have a day to myself, with no plans. Well, actually I do have one more thing to do for my taxes which will take about an hour and I’ll do that as soon as I hit “post” here.
I am really digging the relative silence in the house. There is the swish of cars going by and the clicking of the keys, but nothing else. I talked to Diana for 10 minutes at noon. I may just sit on the couch and knit my super-fun, super-colorful project for the Dallas runway, in peace and quiet.
I could drive to Ann Arbor to the Border’s knit-in (or the Sweetwater’s knit-in which I’ve never attended but Riin enjoys… she has a good blog… read Riin’s version of the Ann Arbor/Yarn Harlot event). If Diana could go to Borders I’d join her, but she’s fighting a cold so she’ll be staying home.
If it were as warm as it was last week, I could put up the hammock on the porch and read Stephanie’s new book out there. Now maybe I’ll snuggle in a blanket on the couch or in bed and read it there.
I could go see Rae or Altu (at their respective businesses) or sit at the Gone Wired Cybercafe. Right now I feel like hiding from the world, instead.
April is going to be a very social month… first I’m teaching at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Fiber Festival April 13-15, then two weeks later we sing at the New York Ukefest… our concert is Friday April 27 but I have six days marked off my calendar before and after that, depending on how our travel plans go (we will be driving to NYC).
So maybe hiding from the world is the best idea for my “free” day. Meanwhile, I’m going to do a little tax work on the computer first. It’s so close I am pretty sure I can file today.
After that? Probably I will knit on this colorful wondrous project that will become a runway item at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Fiberfest. I have used 7 colors so far, but it will contain 13 yarns/colors by the time I am done.