I suddenly realized that it’s been weeks since I’ve updated the blog! Yikes! I suppose that my limited brain power has sort of been consumed by other stuff recently, so I do have an excuse, but I really didn’t mean to let it go on this long.

So let’s get the health update out of the way. The 2nd opinion was very reassuring but the diagnosis was basically the same. At least this doctor said I did have the option of waiting for a bit if it wasn’t a good time for me to do this. I’m very much of the opinion that I would rather get it over with, so we’ve scheduled surgery for May 11th. For those of you keeping score, that’s after Maryland and 2 weeks before bassoon camp. The idea is that with a 2-6 week recovery ahead of me, we’re hoping that I’ll be ready to travel two weeks after surgery and I can complete my recovery at camp, because I honestly can’t think of a better place to heal. Hopefully I’ll be ready to go back to work when we get home. I’ll be having the surgery in NYC with one of the best doctors around for this condition. I think I’m in very good hands. I’m still nervous about it all, but I think I couldn’t have ended up with a better situation. And the fact that the doctor *just* started taking my insurance in February seems to be a good indication for me that the universe has led me to the right place.

So I’m feeling better about that situation. Of course, the drama couldn’t be over just yet. I had to find out last week that there is a very good chance that I will be laid off from my job by the end of the summer. Lovely, eh? I’m just counting my lucky stars that the surgery and recovery should all be over by then. I can go on HWJF’s insurance at any time, so that’s a good thing, but needless to say we’re going to be doing our best to save as much as we can until the time comes. As I explained to my Dad the other day, I think I only have so many “slots” for things to worry about right now and since they’re all kind of full, I’m just trying to take one day at a time and really just don’t feel that I can give this much mental energy at the moment. Of course that by no means indicates that I’m not doing a full blown freek out now and then (like when I started reading about nerve damage this week), but I’m trying to remain calm and realize that there are some things in life that I just do not have control over.

One other sad bit of news: If you are local and haven’t heard, Modern Yarn will be closing their doors June 1st. I’ve been attending the SnB there fairly regularly since we moved to Northern NJ last year and I just have to say that this will definitely be leaving a hole in my life and those of my fellow SnB compatriots. Kristin and Paige couldn’t be nicer people and the community that they’ve created will certainly be missed. I just want to wish them well in whatever the future holds for them.

In the meantime there actually is some good news floating about around here. Wedding plans are marching forward and I went dress shopping with my Mom and Annie a couple of weekends ago. I’m happy to say that it will also be the last time I go dress shopping because I found one! This experience was much less painful than I thought it would be I’m happy to say and that can definitely be credited to the wonderful staff at the shop. If you are local and looking for a bridal shop, definitely let me know and I’ll be happy to recommend the place I went (which I incidentally only went to because it was suggested by a fellow Raveler. Yay Ravelry!). I won’t be posting a link here for fear that a nosy boy might start poking around, but if you’re dying to know I’ll be happy to send you the link (if you aren’t HWJF! Sorry honey! Not happening!).

The other good news is that my surgeon gave me the ok to go back to my regular activities, so I’ve been doing some spinning and knitting again. The spinning has pretty much solely consisted of working on a blend of cormo (from the fleece I bought at the last MDS&W) and angora (yes, from Stitches) into a lace weight singles. Bet you can’t guess what might become of that.

It was 110 wpi at last count. I plan to ply it and I’m not sure what pattern I’ll end up using until I know how much yarn I’m going to have, but part of it will have the lily of the valley pattern.

I’ve also been working on a birthday gift for my Dad, which didn’t quite make it. I guess he got a kick out of opening a package with just one sock. At least it fits and I will hopefully be able to give him the complete pair when we go up for Easter.

The socks that never seem to end!

That’s about it for now. I’ll try not to let it go so long between posts again. I’d really like to try to get back to some of the “normal” things while I wait to have my surgery. I think my sanity may depend on it!

P.S. For those of you that may be wondering, plans for SOS’09 are up in the air at the moment. I’d like to do it again, but it will need to be *very* low stress for me and everyone else involved this time around. I’m working on ideas and will certainly make an announcement when the time is right. Thanks for your patience!

Tags: health, life, Spinning, wedding

Thank you all so very much for all the congratulatory comments on the last post!! Definitely a new commenting record. We are, of course, insanely happy. The response from our friends of many stripes and family has been overwhelming. I just keep telling HWJF how incredibly loved I feel. It’s really been amazing and has been so awesome to share our joy with so many. So much so, that it’s been hard to bring myself to write a new post, but lest you think I’ve fallen on my way to happy land, here I am.

I thought I’d answer a couple of the questions that I seem to keep getting from various factions.

1. No, I will NOT be knitting a wedding dress. Plans for a shawl have been in the works for some time however. There will be a blend of cormo, angora and maybe some silk, spun up and knit by me if I can find the time between now and then.

2. No, we will not be getting married at Wildacres. Sorry bassoon camp friends!

3. No, we will not be getting married at Rhinebeck. Sorry fiber friends! Also, although we are aiming for fall of 2010, do not worry! We will not be picking a date to interfere with us attending Rhinebeck in the near or distant future. A girl has to have her priorities after all.

4. No, we do not have a place or date yet. Let’s just say the process of dealing with those two issues got into full swing last week and I’ve already been totally stressed out. We are hoping to have that nailed down by April. I’m hopeful, but a bit panicked about that at the moment.

I think those are the main ones. I’m sure I will be posting some details of the planning process here as I go along, but I certainly don’t want this to turn into a wedding blog and I’m sure that’s not what you come here for either. You should excuse me if there’s a bit of a production slow down in the coming weeks though as we try to find our place and date. I’ve felt it already. My head is still in the clouds and quite frankly I’m trying to enjoy that feeling while it lasts as much as possible. The stress is already rearing its ugly head and we’re gonna try and stomp that down if we can. But I have found myself staring out the window instead of knitting on the way to or from work lately. And I haven’t touched a wheel since before we left for Chicago. Priorities are a bit different at the moment I guess. That’s normal, right?

So let’s go back to the rest of that trip to Chicago for a bit. After the excitement of getting engaged, we spent a lovely few days enjoying the rest of our trip. As you saw in the engagement photos, we took Amtrak there and back and got a sleeper car for the longer legs of the trip. I don’t think I was quite prepared for just how small the room really was, but we seemed to get used to it pretty quickly.

What you can’t really see in this pic is that HWJF’s feet are nearly touching the back of my seat and the other bed folded down from above. Cozy for sure. We didn’t sleep too well on the way out (wonder why?!? ) but we slept like rocks on the way back. We got into Chicago around 9am on Wednesday and hit the ground running. The first stop was the Shedd Aquarium:

My only complaint with getting to the aquarium was that we had to park at Soldier field and I mistakenly thought there was going to be a bus. Hence, the lack of hat. And it was cold!! And not a short walk! Obviously I survived. It was a great aquarium and we definitely enjoyed it. My favorite animal was this funky breed of seahorse:

Next it was on to the planetarium which was another not very short walk away on the same campus.

See the wind whipping those flags? Cold!! But inside was a lot better. Unfortunately at this point the travel schedule and lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me so I was a little more tired and less interested than I should have been. We watched two shows, one of which was in a modern theater with a modern projection device. The other in the country’s first planetarium which was more like a fair ride than what you would expect, but quite interesting none the less. I must have learned a thing or two despite the tired because I found myself looking at the sky after yoga one night last week and was able to find Orion which I hadn’t been able to do before.

We finished the day by finally being able to check into our hotel, crashing for a two hour nap, getting an amazing dinner at Brazzas and I enjoyed the opening reception at the conference.

Thursday was all business for me during the day while HWJF made a trip to the Fox Bassoon factory to pick up his bassoon and have a tour.

You can see the full set of pictures from his trip here. I’m a tiny bit jealous that I didn’t get to go along, but I had plenty to do. Here’s one interesting shot from his trip.

A bunch of bassoons ready for keywork.

That evening we had a dinner of deep dish pizza (which was good but made me realize what an east coast girl I am) and I ran back to the conference for our second annual SnB where I got to meet none other than Franklin!

Franklin pictured with Laura Gayle.

He was a ton of fun and was kind enough to gift us all with a tote bag featuring his art work. I had a great time knitting with my fellow librarians for a bit and HWJF was kind enough to hang around and wait for me.

Then we took a very cold walk over to the John Hancock center to get a view of Chicago from above.

The next day went so fast it was almost a total blur. I did more conference stuff and then HWJF and I took a quick run through the Art Institute of Chicago where we both got to see a couple of favorite works of art.

That was followed by a mad dash through the Chicago Symphony store. And lest you think I’d leave a town without yarn or fiber of some sort, HWJF dropped me off at Loopy Yarns while he went to get our car so we could head back to the train station.

What a lovely shop! Franklin had recommended it and I was sorry I couldn’t have stayed for the event they were having that evening. I managed to take advantage of their sale and a couple of skeins of Lorna’s Laces went home with me. The shop owners were very kind and I ended up going home with another tote bag featuring Franklin’s artwork as well. At this point my back was not good and I had the beginnings of a whopper of a cold, and they were nice enough to let me sit and wait for HWJF inside after I had made my purchases.

After that it was back on Amtrak for our 24+ hour journey back home. I have to say I am very much in love with train travel now and I think HWJF would agree. It was definitely one of the more relaxed travel experiences I’ve had in a while and not worrying about how much shampoo I was bringing with me or taking my shoes off certainly helped. We also were able to take advantage of the nicer lounges that Amtrak offers its first class passengers (which includes roomette ticket holders like us) and that made things even more comfortable. Knowing that our luggage would arrive when we did was also quite nice. I would definitely do it again!

So I hope you enjoyed this little travelogue of the rest of our Chicago trip. Next time there will be actual knitting content including a finished engagement sweater and more!

Tags: Travel, wedding