Honey, if I wasn't knitting most of my day, I'd either go entirely insane, start killing people or drink. OK, drink more than I do now. Somehow knitting balances me in the freaky world that surrounds me.
Yesterday, all I had to do was drive to the airport to pick up the youngest Weasley (my son Joey) from the airport. He was flying solo for the first time, returning from his dad's in New Mexico. Being an extreme Type A personality, I left early enough to leave time for construction issues, parking issues and knitting time waiting. My apologies to my local knitters who've already been through this story once.
Short story: I was there to pick up Joey as he walked off the plane and all is well.
Long story: You don't want to read it and if I had to go through the whole thing again I'd probably have to go home an go back to bed.
Medium story: Construction down to one lane on 635 to the airport put me behind schedule, but I wasn't worried since I'd left early. Terminal B circle parking lot not only full, but blocked off and no entry allowed. Parking lot between terminals B & C full, I end up locked inside where the stupid ticket machine won't accept my ticket, won't let the stupid bar go up so I can get out of the parking lot and NO ONE is inside the stupid guard box with said bars across the road. I'm locked in for over 20 minutes here. People stacking up behind me while I'm trying to back up and decide whether driving up the really REALLY big hill and over curbs in my truck or busting through the gate at the parking lot exit would be the best bet of getting out and doing the least damage, hopefully avoiding prosecution by airport authorities. I'm trying to back up and try the hill when other cars start piling up behind me. 2 cars back is this woman that's cursing me at the top of her lungs. I realized I'm walking back TO HER CAR with my hands in fists balled up so tight that I had fingernail marks in my palms the rest of the afternoon. I am not a violent woman, but I swear it was all I could do not to punch her right in the face! (As Teri pointed out, my metal hiya-hiya double pointed needles would have done the trick, good thing I didn't have any in my hand at the time or Joey would have been hearing, "Sorry your mom can't pick you up today honey, she's in jail" and you KNOW they'd have taken away my needles. Not a pretty picture.)
ANYWAY, a very nice man came up while I'm in tears, worked with my stupid parking lot ticket and on the 14th try it WORKED! There were NO buttons on the stupid ticket taker machine to call for help, it just kept beeping and saying "insert ticket" over and over. I gunned it out of there without doing any damage to people or airport property, went to the lot PAST the next terminal and found the last parking spot. In the midst of this I received an update from the airline saying that Joey's plane would land 20 minutes EARLY. Are you freaking kidding me?
Oh, and it was in the upper 90's and muggy as hell. I hit the ground running, run past the C terminal, run past the stupid parking lot I was locked in, wishing I'd see that same lady locked in herself but no one was there. Ran, ok stumbled along through the B terminal because you KNOW his stupid gate would be at the other end, right? Saw a Southwest plane unloading at gate 22 where Joey's plane was supposed to be and people walking along. As I stumble past, gasping and sweating and looking around like a crazy woman, I shouted at people "Did you come from Albuquerque?" Seriously, people pulled their bags closer to their bodies and looked around for security. Someone finally said "no" so I dragged myself to the arrivals screen and saw the flight was on the tarmac and going to a different gate.
I also had to pee the entire time. But I made it. I was there with a smile. Sweating like a pig and shaking, but I was there.
Oh, and my daughter? She's coming back from NM in a couple of weeks. Get to do it all over again.
THIS is why I knit. After the 25 minute hike back to the parking lot with Joey we just sat in the truck with the air conditioning blasting. I told the kid it was to cool down and I wanted to hear about his trip. It was really so I could knit a few rounds of my pi shawl, preparing myself for whatever crazy shit was coming my way next.
The yarn crawl on Saturday? Fabulous. I really behaved myself too. Most shops gave 25% off. TWENTY FIVE PERCENT. I spent less than $150 and was in and out of FIVE yarn shops. Amazing. I ended up with two skeins of crafty in a good way sockyarn (did you know she's going back to school and not dying for a while?), Cascade now has sockyarn. I bought some in a blue that matches the ribbed happy-happy-joy-joy sweater I made a few months back and some dark green for lacy socks of some sort. Can't wait to see how they knit up. What else? Oh, a skein of Schaefer elaine to use as a border to make my migraine blanket a bit bigger. (I knit it out of all the ends of the elaine yarn I'd made scarves out of my first winter as a knitter and it's a titch colorful). I also picked up a cute flower hat kit for my new nephew/niece (we don't know which yet). OK, it's for a niece, so if it ends up another nephew, I'll have to hang onto it. Colors in the pic above. Driving around the country with women you like buying yarn? It doesn't get better than that.
My Maltese Fisherman's hat from EZ's Knitters Almanac for June. I still have needles in the top as Jeff needs to try it on and I'll see if it's big enough or not. I couldn't wait and already cast on and have knit almost the entire pi shawl, July's project, out of laceweight painted yarn I bought at the Knitting in the Heartland vendor market.
Mom's felted ballcap, 2nd version. This one seems to be more adult-head-sized instead of too felted for a child to even squeeze on their head. I'm still not a fan, but it's done.
You know, knitting as therapy isn't that bad of a deal. The only main side effects are no storage in the home (it's all full of yarn) and lots of hats. lots and lots of hats.
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