Today is Memorial Day, when most folks are barbeque-ing, attending a festival or parade, or – what I’ll be doing – shopping and visiting graves. They go together like – buying stuff & crying.
I visited Denison last evening, my alma mater, and then drove to the first hotel I could find that I could afford, dropped off my bags, and went for a long bike ride.
There’s good biking around here.
This morning I wandered into a Caribou Coffee, a little bit of heaven, Minnesota, in Newark Ohio, so I’m enjoying some long-term free wi-fi and I’m able to answer emails and get some work done.
I’m driving out to my favorite shopping adventure, the Eddie Bauer Factory Warehouse just West of Columbus (NOT an outlet store, the real deal!) and hopefully I’ll find some buys. I may even find a tent so I can cut down on hotel expenses between my engagements!
Then I’ll head down to Parkersburg, WV for my one-stop-shopping, supermarket-sweepstakes, WalMart of grief, Mt. Olivet Cemetary. My mom, dad, grandma, aunt, uncles and most recently my cousin, Jan, are all there. All that’s missig is Jim, my brother, who’s down in Tyler, TX. I’m taking my bike so I can move from grave to grave before sundown.
Then I may be be meeting up with a woman I’d been corresponding with when Jan was in the hospital, who came up to my class yesterday (how kind!) and invited me to dinner after my round of graveside visits. It’s kind of her because – at this point – there’re precious little folks for me to visit in Parkersburg. How odd. This will be an odd trip.
I don’t need to be in East Strousburg, PA until late on Wed, so I’ll meander my way over there, and I’m serious about perhaps finding a campsite if I can find a tent! I figure the next time I hit a hotel I can clean the burrs out of my hair.
GREAT LAKES FIBER SHOW
The Great Lakes Fiber Show was SO wonderful! I had the BEST time with all of my classes – the big ones, the smaller ones, they were all terrific!
Here’s one of my students in the Mitered Bag Class showing off her little knitted bra, ahem canoe, ahem BAG bottom.
Linda Reichert did an amazing job organizing much of this wonderful event, and I was thrilled to be back!
I thought I’d been here in 2006, but it had been 4 years since I’d visited. How time flies, huh?
This is a student from my classes yesterday who brought her new purchase, a bunny named Gidget, to visit the class. What a sweetie! I should NOT have hugged it, though, as I was wheezing for a while afterward. My bad.
The trip so far has been just wonderful. Very enjoyable! Seeing old friends is the best part, it’s nice to have a little bit of time between the gigs to just say “Hi!” to folks. Here’s Beth from Lorna’s Laces (standing by the El) when I dropped by that Chicago company to say hello.
I swear, every time I see her she looks younger – totally not fair!
Off to shop and grieve – in that order!