Discretion. I don’t think of that as a hallmark of a long drive, but tonight – for me – it was.
I left Stitch DC right around 5:00 pm today and found myself in heavy, heavy traffic. Beautiful, last warm weekend, lets-get-out-of-DC on a Friday kind of traffic.
It didn’t take long for me to sense that I would NOT make it to Pittsburgh tonight as I’d sort of planned. “Maybe I’ll make it to Pennsylvania at least..?” I thought as I stared at the non-moving tail lights ahead of me.
As I got onto 270 the rain started. Just past Fredericksburg the fog began thickening. And then a truck began tailgating me and I realized I didn’t have the nerve for this game.
Ironically, as the truck finally passed me I could just barely make out a big Bible-verse message on the back doors. HWJD (How would Jesus Drive?)
It became clear to me that I was dog-tired, and I decided the best thing I could do was find a hotel. So, thanks to wifi and Priceline, I’m snug at a Best Western in Hagerstown for a cool $50, and I’m hoping by tomorrow the sun will once again be shining and my drive will be easier.
I’m just SO darned tired.
I’m VERY glad I pulled over. I think it is a $50 well spent, and I feel much safer not trying to brave the dark, hilly MD/WV highways and struggle with the trucks in the rain.
Besides, there’s SO much I need to get done this weekend (patterns outlined and sent off to Rockport Publishing, another pattern to go to a different book publisher, emails to answer, driving 1,500 miles) so I’ll use this enforced rest to get some of THAT work done!
My other work these past 3 weeks – the teaching – is done!
Stitch DC was the last gig of my trip, and it was – as always – a lovely shop to visit! Maria does a beautiful job with her stock (and with her babies!) and I found it hard to pull myself away from the various lovely skeins and the very adorable Oona (I may be spelling that wrong…) to teach my classes!
I worked the students hard – maybe too hard – it was difficult to gauge. I know that I made some brains hurt. But I tried to present the information in manageable bits, and not too overwhelmingly fast.
Sometimes I find myself facing a situation where I fall into the trap of teaching to the lowest common denominator (e.g., allowing the student who feels they’re not good – and it could be that they’re actually QUITE good but they lack faith in themselves – lead the class down a path of low expectations)
I fought that a bit today. All of the students were good, some were very good, none were slow or poor knitters. But sometimes folks can convince themselves that they’re not as good as they really are.
Convincing them of their latent genius, of their gift, is a skill I continue to try to hone.
In the mean time I make brains hurt. Mine included. But hopefully a king sized bed and some time getting work done will take care of that!