Sneaking in Past Curfew

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt quite this relieved to return home. The business side of my trip to New Jersey was just fine. It was productive and successful. The rest of it sucked ass! In the interest of not scaring any readers off with a tirade I’ll present the highlights of the trip in a little shorthand.

• Flight to NJ – hideously delayed. I got on a 3pm flight that didn’t get in till nearly 8pm. Yep – 8!
• Car rental – boring car, no satellite radio, missing the GPS it was supposed to have.
• Directions to hotel – dismal. Did I get lost? ... Did I ever!
• Hotel – look up seedy in the dictionary and they’ll show you this hotel. Curl up in bed and pray for morning.
• Dinner at 9pm – greasy pizza. The pancake house closed at 9 – who knew!
• Car return – as I drove into the lot and saw the sign warning of “severe tire damage” if you back up I thought - why would you back up? Maybe I'd back up if I realized at just that moment that I forgot to fill the tank. No I didn’t back up – I gritted my teeth and paid $30 for a quarter tank of gas.
• Flight home – I had a 7 pm flight but a little after 8:45 pm the captain announced that we were STILL not cleared for take off due to bad weather etc. and that if we didn’t leave soon we wouldn’t be able to land in DC due to the airport’s curfew. We took off at 9:15 and I slept in my own bed last night.

The good news is that I was well prepared for the trip and I made a lot of progress on both pairs of socks during the flights and I read half of the Yarn Harlot’s secret life of a knitter. When I got home last night I found both of my girls snuggled up together keeping my spot on the bed warm for me. Is there anything better than that?

Here is a picture that I’ve been saving all week. It’s the stuff I sent to my Dye-o-rama pal Jenny from Vertigo Wool. She asked for green and, since it’s my favorite color, I got a little carried away and made stitch markers and got her a bookmark too – the hidden end is a “J”. I was afraid that if I posted it she’d know it was hers immediately and the secret would be spoiled. The package arrived yesterday and she likes it so I’m happy.

There were things that arrived at my house while I was away that made me equally happy. My name finally came up in the que at the library to borrow the new book, Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs and my dh picked it up for me. I can’t wait to read it. He’s not for everyone but I’ve loved all of his other books and I’m sure that this one will be fantastic too. Madame Bovary can wait just a little longer.

The other thing that arrived in my absence was the long-awaited yarn for my Seraphim Shawl. I’ve already got M.M. Cozy on the needles but surely there is always room for one more project. I really don’t want to show you the yarn until I know it’s going to knit up the way I want it to. I’ll make the sacrifice and cast on this weekend.