Sunday at Stitches

It's Sunday and I could have slept in, but instead I woke at 5 am with a heachache. I was not ever able to nap and in 30 minutes I start teaching for the afternoon. Headache is still going strong. Later I will be driving 10 hours to get home to Eric and Evan. On 5 hours of sleep. Woot!

It's going to be fine though, because teaching always makes me feel good. I will have loving goodbyes from friends, and plenty of music and audiobooks to keep me focused and awake while I drive.

Mostly, I have a really refreshing week to think back on, so I'm going to focus on that.

I drove off in our faithful 2006 Accord last Sunday and got to my pal Erin's house in the late night hours. She was up waiting for me and greeted me with a comfy, warm welcome. I feel so at home with her family and had two very happy days there, filled with, among other things, hugs, playground times, donuts, new jeans that I actually love, netflix, bike-fixing, bike riding, more hugs, and some great dinner times. I am grateful for my friends. It takes so much energy for me to find them and have the guts to get to know them, but what a blessing it becomes in the long run. It's always worth it to cultivate a friendship.

I love these boots.  And of course the kid wearing them. 

It's a good day when you can play outside with people like this. 

Early Wednesday I said goodbyes to the Tolmans and drove the other half of the miles to Atlanta. I got easily settled into my room at the new Stitches venue near the airport. It's a shame I didn't fly because this place is connected to the airport by a free skytrain. Sweet! I was tired from the drive, but first Gwen and I met up about Eduknit stuff. I should have napped first because I was grumpy, which I regret, but I managed to recover and get a fair amount done. Later Beth, Gwen and I walked into College Park and got a fantastic Barbecue dinner. 

About that grumpiness.  I worry about staying strong and fit and being able to take on all this new work, because sometimes I really do feel old and achy and grumpy an alarming number of times in a week. (The good news is that I always walk a lot at Stitches so I got more than 10,000 steps every day of the show. That will help, right?)

The rest of the weekend was pleasantly busy. I got paired up with a new roommate and she was perfect. We talked easily and had great times when we were together. It was wonderful to see my closest circle of knitting-teacher friends. I love them all so much. I am grateful to have them in my life. I don't always think I'm such a great friend because it really doesn't come naturally to me, but with practice and mindful effort, I have found more good, supportive and complementary friends than I could ever have dreamed of in the sometime isolation of my teen and young adult years. 

Great moments in the weekend included: 

• that barbecue dinner. Perfection. 
• 2 interviews recorded with other teachers for creating eduknit content. Amazingly talented people. 
• A long morning walk with Beth around the convention center complex with wisteria blooming and the warmth of spring confirmed. I have renewed faith that spring will come to Maryland. 
• Some absolutely amazing students. Thank you to Karen, Julia, Kelly, and many, many more. New Ravelry friends, yes. 

Some photos so I can remember: 

some knitting celebs. inside of my camera. amazing.

that is my name in print. 

regular take offs and landings. the iphone lens does not
show the fact that I could have reached up and touched this
plane. seriously

the pine trees probably don't love the invading wisteria, but
i am appreciative of the color and fragrance

even a convention center is lovely at sunrise

a little freeform crochet off the top of my
head. inspired by edie, of course, but I
was not looking at a book. hey, I should
be a designer or something. ha.

And so another Stitches winds up and as usual, I look at that paycheck and pinch myself that it's what I do for money. Lucky me, I tell you. 

I hope with all my heart that you're doing something you love.