her harlotyness

ok, here's the post y'all have been waiting for.

i took off from here about 10:30 wednesday morning. i had wanted to leave earlier, but my mom's hematologist appointment took a little longer than expected, although we did get the good news that she didn't need a procrit shot, for the second month in a row. her hemaglobin seems to be doing well.

anyway, so i started on my way, and ended up at the hotel at 4:30 that afternoon, after getting just a tiny bit lost. the main road the hotel was on goes north and south, and i ended up on the northbound, when i needed the southbound. fortunately, i found my way back, and made good time. i called beth, from AC4C, whom i had made arrangements to meet, and let her know i was in town, and then dug out my directions to find the wild onion, where we were going to meet and have dinner. it was actually much easier to find that, than the hotel! anyway, we had dinner (we both had steak sandwiches, lol), then walked to the auditorium. it was about 20F (maybe 2 or 3 degrees warmer, but what does it matter at those temps?), and everybody around me was having a fit because i was wearing my flipflops and no socks. just my way, lol.

we got there, and stood in line to check in. the yarnery was taking reservations, because they only had room for 400 people in the hall at the law college (i can't remember what the name was, i only know it was only about a 2 block walk from the wild onion). when they got to me, the lady taking names had to tell me a story. apparently, a knitter had called, and found out they weren't taking reservations any more (apparently they had 100 people wait-listed!), and told them that a large # of knitters would be upset. she even sent a link to my blog, and asked them how upset would i be if i didn't get in? she laughed (to me) and said, "you've chosen the wrong example. she has a reservation." good grief!

we ended up sitting toward the back of the room, so i got up to take these pics:

Stephanie is doing her thing. that is why you can't see me sitting way back in her pics. i was up here!


and then her talking:


as for what she said? down with C.H.O.K.E.! granted there was a small amount of kidding about u.s needle sizes (i would live with metric, honest i would! i'm of the generation where they tried to teach us metric, so we could match with the world, and then never did. however, i know a meter is approximately 39 inches, and an inch is 2.54 centimeters, and a kilogram is 2.2 pounds. and a kilometer is .6 miles. good enough?), but it was a WONDERFUL talk. she went over by half an hour, and finally, the lady running the event had to rein her in, and told her they needed to start the signings. so stephanie announced that anybody pregnant, aged, or needing to feed little ones (there were two babies there) would get to go first. they were handing out totebags with "the yarnery" on them, and whomever had the "golden ticket" got to go first as well. i didn't mind waiting, lol. i knew i didn't have to work the next day, and it wasn't that long a drive to the hotel. so, i bid beth adieu (she'd gotten a pre-signed book, as she DID have to work the next day), and got the ladies sitting behind us to take a picture:

well, i thought i'd loaded it on flickr, but i didn't. you'll have to wait to see beth & i holding the sock! (mine, lol, not stephanie's)


i got in line (at the very end!) and met a lovely lady named Theresa. While we waited, a reporter came and interviewed both of us, and we both got quoted in the paper! here's the link to the article. thank you to theresa for emailing that to me! we got in line at approximately 8:25, and waited. and waited. and waited. we were in the hallway til almost 9:30. i didn't mind, because i got to chat with theresa (i never got your blog address dear!), and they were going down the line handing out chocolate! if you pulled a particular color, you won a prize. theresa got a nice sock pattern. i kept pulling the previous color, lol. i had worn my marge t-shirt from franklin, over my prison long-sleeved t-shirt, also a franklin original, as i knew it was going to be cold. however, it was hot in the hall! i should have known, 400 women (and men!) with wool. sheesh. i had to ditch marge because i got to hot, and i couldn't keep her because it was a white t-shirt, and i wasn't wearing the appropriate color of undergarment (yes, that means i was wearing a black bra!) as i got to the table that the yarnery had set up with all kinds of yarny goodies to tempt us, everybody started asking about the prison t-shirt. so i told the story as i remembered reading it by franklin. everybody got a huge kick out of it (i also get odd looks and questions when i wear this t-shirt in public (mark bought it for me, lol!)). so, franklin, if you have a lot of new readers, you can blame me, lol.


and then it happened. i was standing in front of her yarnness. it was 10:20 at night, i was barefoot (i had taken off the birkies and stuffed them in my yarnery bag so i could cool down a bit), and my arms felt like they were going to fall off, as i had balanced my coat over my original bag, and hung it from my right shoulder, and put my sock (which was at one inch of cuff when i got there, and i had just finished turning the heel by the time i got to THE table) and all my books in the yarnery bag and hung that from my left shoulder. i had marks on my chest from the straps for 3 days! i looked at her, and grinned. "you had told me to tell you my email address when i got here, so you would know who i was." i started to spell it, as nobody gets it other wise, but as soon as i got through "d-r-a-g-o-n," she grinned, and stuck her hand out to shake mine, then got up and gave me a hug! she said it was wonderful to connect names & faces, because her imagination never got it right. i laughed and said that i could just imagine what images my email evoked. so we chatted for a few minutes while she signed my books (i brought all my old ones, as she had said it would be fine), and then we got down to picture taking:

i actually have a picture of her and i holding each other's socks, but it's on mark's puter, and i forgot to upload it to flickr, so you'll have to wait for that one. Theresa took it for me, as well as another one i hadn't been aware of. i'm wondering about posting that one, it highlights my ultimate dorkiness, lol.

anyway, this post is getting way too long, and i haven't had breakfast (taco bell has started serving breakfast from 9-10:30, as a test, apparently, so i'm having a guacamole bacon grilled stuft burrito!), so i'll sign off for now. you'll get more later, i promise