Oh the perils of travel

They have certainly reared there head on this little vacation of mine. I was expecting a mellow week in Medford, OR with a friend full of movies, food, perhaps a winery tour, maybe some poker and instead this is what happened...

Day One. I arrive. :) A little early even. My first flight was on time, my layover was just long enough to get some sleep and my final flight left a few minutes before schedule and had a lovely little tailwind. Therefore, it pulled up to the jet way and I texted my friend. He was already there, waiting. My friend was excited to see me. A hug, a kiss, some luggage, a drive, and we were sitting across from each other in a diner over country fried steak and corned beef hash. After an early check-in and a nap, we decide to run some errands. Food for the fridge, alcohol for the evenings in, and gummy bears, well, because they're a necessity. We climb in the car, buckle up, my friend turns the key and... nothing. No click, click, click. No whirrrwhirrwhirrr. Nothing. Kind of ominous. I didn't know what to say. I could tell he was super frustrated. There was more than just silence from the car. A quick trip into the store, some wrenches, a little fiddling and basic knowledge on my friend's part, some crossed fingers and the car started. Huge sigh of relief. Instead of risking the same problem we cruised back to the hotel and picked up some Dairy Queen. Two bacon cheeseburgers and a movie salvaged the evening.

Day Two. Sleeping in is amazing. It usually cures everything. Sick? Sleep more. Tired? Sleep more. Hung over? Sleep more. Ate too much? Sleep more. Genius. After waking up, I hop on my computer because I'm an addict, and see a few emails that need to be responded to. I call into work to deal with a time sensitive issue and someone at work tells me water is pouring out of my brother's house. Not good. She's already called the City to go and turn the water off and check it out. I hang up and immediately call my Mom, who has to deal with it because I've decided to go on a vacation. Let's just say that my Mom is amazing. She goes over, mops up the mess (without any help even offered to her, even when someone saw her cleaning it up), call someone to come over and take a look at the problem and takes care of stuff. Exhausting and frustrating. We get into a little spat because of this. I get hurt and defensey. And frustrated because I'm nowhere near anywhere that I can be of help. So I call people out on some bullshit. They're defensive. More fighting. I end up crying a little just out of pure frustration. My friend doesn't like drama. I don't want to subject him to drama. Ugh. I compose myself. My friend takes me out to eat and then brings me back to the hotel. He gets to spend time with his kid so I get the afternoon to myself. I hop in the shower, respond to some emails, make a phone call or two, eat some dinner, crack a bottle of wine, and then put in a movie. The evening passes pretty fast and a bottle of wine later my friend comes back and chills. I'm a little pouty. This causes a few problems, but it irons itself out with tequila. The evening progresses with talking and movies and we got to sleep happy with each other.

Day Three. Lazy morning. Perfection. We muster ourselves for the day and head out the door for Chinese food. It's absolutely delicious. We hit up a buffet that has sushi, shrimp, and all kinds of epicness. I eat till my tummy is happy, about a plate and a half. I'm tickled pink that my friend doesn't mind that I have an appetite. We talk about going to see a movie, but the friend is a little tired so we decide to curl back up and nap with a movie on. I definitely don't have any complaints about a day spent like that. After waking, we mosey over to Carl's Jr for burgers and put in Red. As we're sitting my friend keeps very much to their side of the bed and isn't very chatty. This causes some concern. All day I had told myself that I wasn't awkward. That I was comfortable. Trying to make myself relax a bit more around my friend. And then my friend kinda pulls away from me and my neurotic self instantly thinks its me and shuts down. Turns out my friend has serious issues with making someone else sick. So after some talking I manage to get out that I don't care if I get sick. It takes some time. Apparently I'm not one for discussing things and have a hard time talking about crap. Huh. Who knew? I thought I was better at it. Nope. So it was a bit of an ucky ending of the day but turned out okay.

Day Four. Rumbling in my tummy. We wake up slightly earlier than we normally had been. My friend is feeling better and gets to spend another day with his kid, so we're getting our routine in and my stomach is kind of upset. I don't say anything to my friend, thinking I'll have all day to settle it down and feel better. We grab a bite and then off he goes. I pull the blankets off the bed and curl up in the chair because my back is bothering me. I put in a movie and doze in and out getting up about every half an hour to use the bathroom. Yup. I had the shits. SUCK. And they're not really improving as the day progresses. I'm miserable and horrible embarrassed and extremely uncomfortable. I text my friend and hint at the shituation. He comes right out and ask if I have the shits. No other reply but yes. He asks if I'd be more comfortable by myself. I say it's up to him if he'd like to be present for such horribleness or if he'd prefer going home. My friend chooses to come and stay with me and brings me food. I tentatively eat and it tastes fantastic. And proceed to use the bathroom ever 20 to 30 minutes for the remainder of the evening and into the night. I just want to cry and am horribly embarrassed. My friend understands and instead makes me laugh about the whole ridiculous thing. Definitely not the way I wanted to spend a whole day in Medford. What a waste. Ha... Full of waste. Ew.

Day Five. Thursday. Second to last full day with my friend. I'm feeling better and the day is looking up. We sleep in as usual. We go for a change of pace and walk to get food instead of driving. It's a nice day out and a pleasant walk. I love talking with my friend. Hearing their voice in person is infinitely better than texting. We end up sitting at the diner and talking for over an hour. The food was delicious and my friend's pancakes were sweet and tasty. He shared. :) My tummy accepted the food regulary and my body was happy with it. Relief. I was deliriously happy that my body decided to behave. We walked back to the car and my friend took me to a movie I wanted to see. It was scary. And he was warned not to scare me. My friend didn't think the movie was scary at all, although I had my ears plugged and my eyes closed for a few scenes. Nothing like a little tale of possession to scare the creepers outta me. Afterwards we went for a little drive and had more visiting time. It was pretty fantastic. One of the simple yet lovely moments during my stay. We were hanging out back in the hotel and my friend was texting someone and then recieved a call and stepped out. Kinda strange, because his phone beeps a lot from texts but rarely rings, much like mine. My friend comes back in with a troubled look on his face and due to an accident he has to take his kid for the weekend. Which meant that after about 2 pm the next day I wouldn't see him again. The final blow. We were both rather subdued that evening, but thankfully I left early early morning the day after.

Day Six. The yuckiest day. An early goodbye. I wasn't in very great shape by 2 pm but struggled through the goodbye without crying. My friend doesn't like tears. Throughout my stay we had placed the two hotel room key cards next to each other on the dresser by the door. Whenever my friend left, he took his card with him. It was horrible seeing the two hotel room key cards next to each other. The evening was spent getting myself ready for my next journey. I packed up my crap that seemed to explode all over the room and mindlessly watched hours of television for the noise. A goodnight call made my evening infinitely better. Not nearly as perfect as having my friend with me, but the next best thing. I think we said goodnight around 1 or 2 am. I curled up for about 2 hours and then got up at 4 am to begin my travels south.

Leg Warmers

I love 'em and I make 'em and I wear 'em.

Leg Warmers :)

These were made with a 100% wool yarn. And they're a little baggier than I like them, so I'm currently in the process of blocking them. Something I rarely take the time to do because I never know if I'll do it correctly. However, this time appears to be a success. I dipped em in some hot water and then squeezed them out and then pinned them to a towel so they would dry flat. So far so good.

I also made hand warmers that match. I don't think I'll ever wear them both at the same time. That might be a little too cheesy, even for me.

I've been into smaller projects lately, even though I have some big projects that I would like to get done. Maybe I've just needed the feeling of accomplishment in my life.

Wrist warmers