I am returned

I have returned from Cleveland.  And, I have thoughts on the experience.

First, I sewed in the public spaces of airports all over the country.  I sewed in Austin, I sewed in Houston, I sewed in Cleveland, and I sewed on all the planes that connected those cities.  What I discovered is that people break into two categories; those that just don’t care and those that are curious.  The curious break into two subcategories; those that just stare and wonder what I’m doing, and those that will ask.  Those that stare outnumber those that ask by about 50 to 1.  But the ones that ask are so much fun.  What quilter doesn’t love to talk about quilting?  Not me.  I loved every minute of it.

And, my most masculine “butch” co-worker was traveling home with me yesterday and got to see a whole new side of me.  And, I don’t think he thought less of me for it.  At least I hope not.  He seemed to fall into the doesn’t care category.  He was logged into his work computer and working.  That seemed sad.

I find that I require a quiet time before bed to wind down before I try to sleep in a strange place.  The first night, I stayed with my group until they separated and then I went to the hotel, but it was nearly bedtime.  I didn’t sleep worth a darn.  And, that’s not the norm for me anymore when I’m in a hotel.  The second night, I sneaked off (this is my expected behavior…I’m like a wisp of smoke.  I just disappear at some point and nobody knows where.)  But, they don’t ask anymore, so that’s good.  This is my norm.  And, that night, i watched part of a movie and I sewed and I had time to wind down and I slept like a log.  This is my new norm and I need to honor it.  So, the short story is; I am not one of the extroverts that doesn’t know what to do with time alone and that’s okay.  I get to be different and I get to take care of myself.

Cleveland.  EAT SOMETHING GREEN!  Don’t slather it in high fat salad dressing and don’t smother it in bacon fat.  Just steam it and add a bit of salt and pepper; maybe a bit of lemon.  Try it.  You won’t know if you like it until you do.  I have never in my life been presented with so much meat and potatoes.  It would have been Rob heaven.  I met my meat quota on Monday and for the rest of the trip, I ate sparingly.  I took a piece of pound cake with me…My Aunt Ducky’s pound cake…the best pound cake in the world!  And I couldn’t eat even that.  I just wasn’t hungry.  So, cooking my own breakfast this morning was a pleasure to do and to eat. 

I got a lot done on the new hexie project. 

This is from Bonnie Hunter’s project here.  I even copied her sewing kit for travel.

Bonnie, remember that imitation is the highest form of flattery.  I hope.

Before I left, this daylily bloomed.  It’s called Bernina and my Mom gave it to me last April. 

Isn’t that beautiful!

Finally, my girl missed me.  She really missed me.   I could tell when she was missing me because she started texting me.  We’d text during dinners and text during my meetings, when I could.  It was fun and it was funny and it felt real good.  One of the things she had to do while I was gone was feed my fish.  When I showed her how much to feed them, I said “now when you feed them, you need to spend a few minutes looking at them.  They like to be looked at every day.”  Her reply “I’m not looking at your stupid fish.  I’ll feed them, but I’m not looking at them.” 

This morning, I asked Rob how much time she spent feeding my fish and he said she’d go in the sewing room and be gone for a long time and she was convinced that two of them are pregnant. 

She looked at my fish.

Tee-hee. 

Hey, you have to count your victories where you can get them.

I’m going to close by reminding everyone that I don’t see Anonymous comments unless you have a name assigned.  I handed out a couple of business cards this week, so I thought the reminder was in order.  I get over a hundred anonymous, no reply comments a day.  I started out reading them all and marking them as spam, but that didn’t stop the same people from spamming me over and over.  I still read a few, but most go to my spam folder and get deleted without reading.  If there’s a name or email address assigned to your anonymous comments, it goes to my regular email and I get those.  I also get the ones from a regular blogger account.  But, I don’t read the anonymous at no reply comments because I have yet to find one that isn’t spam.  So, I’m giving up on reading any of them. And, really, spammers, do you think I’m actually going to click that link?  Not gonna happen.

It is Thursday.  Everybody have a great day.  I will have a mountain of emails to reply to, when I get to the office.

Everybody say yippee.

Groan.

Lane