Wow—What a Weekend

It included several of my favorite things-- VT Hokies, Knitting and Knitters, and Baseball.

Friday:
I left work at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and made it to Blacksburg in 4 hours 10 minutes. Yes, I know….

Saturday aka Hokie Healing Day:

I woke up Saturday, got my stuff together (Chibi's, scissors, ibuprofen...) and went to Starbucks since I won't be back for awhile and didn’t want to open a new can of coffee. I noticed activity at Mosaic, and saw the crew, Gina, Sandy, Mimi, Belinda, Debbie and others loading up squares, silent auction items, goodie bags, so lent a hand take stuff to the VT Alumni center.

What a time we had!!!

Gina and her crew did a really great job setting things up. We sort of spontaneously made little work groups, and it all came together.
There was coffee-- Hurrah!!! and cookies, sandwiches, barbecue (from Top of The Stairs). YUM!!!

The goodie bags were great fun-- I wish I'd taken a picture of mine. It had a tube of Bioque cleanser and little samples of all the products to make us beautiful, a packet of coffee from Starbuck's, a Red Bull, yarn (mine was Elsebeth Lavold silk and wool in a really pretty golden tweed), "naked" yarn and Kool-Aid in Hokie colors to try one's hand at dyeing, coupons for $$ off at Firehouse Pizza and a free pass to the health club, and best of all, a 25% coupon off yarn at Mosaic. And there was probably more that I can't remember right now.

The silent auction was a kick, too. There were some amazing items-- a full set of full-sized Bioque products, numerous autographed knitting pattern books (I got one by Debbie Bliss and the "no sheep for you" book that I'd been eyeballing), some lovely Lantern Moon bags and needle cases, a Hanne Falkenberg shawl that I drooled over but forced myself to resist, and so on. There were also a bunch of door prizes. I won a gift card to the nail shop across from Mosaic which I gave to Suzanne who's going to be in a wedding next month.

Look at all these squares—Before

And After.
Go to the Mosaic site for lots more pictures.
I just had to get a picture of Debbie and me in our Hokies United t-shirts. Over 115,000 have been sold-- and if you want one, you'd better order soon...




We finished 16 of the quilts. People took the rest of the 32 home to finish, and took additional squares to make more quilts.

It was really neat to see some of my squares sewn in with others for this wonderful project. Gina had hoped for 2000 squares. They received over 6000 from all the states and something like 16 countries!

I thought about all the different knitters and crocheters who had contributed—I wonder about their lives—do they have small children? Are they great-grandmothers? Do they have professional careers? Are they the service people that make our lives livable? Did they knit all day to fill their hours, or did they squeeze in a few minutes each night before going to sleep?

Every stitch is a prayer. I wonder how many millions of stitches, and how many thousands of hours went into the contributions for the Hokie Healing project.

I met some really neat people—and unfortunately, I can’t remember all the names. Some who have remained in my brain are Kathy and her mom Charlotte, Suzanne, and Nancy (who will be moving up this way soon). (If I met you and can't remember your name, please email me-- my mind is a terrible thing to lose.....)

I took a couple of the quilts back to the condo with me to crochet around the edges. It was nice, contemplative work, fueled by a couple of glasses of wine and some movies on the tube.

Sunday
I woke up, ready to finish the second border, but needing some coffee. So I was getting ready to throw on some jeans and head down to Starbuck’s, when I remembered that they had donated 1-pot bags of coffee grounds for the goodie bags! Hurrah!!!! So I put on a movie, drank coffee, and finished quilt 2.

I spent much of Sunday at Mosaic with Mimi, and got another border completed. It was lovely to just sit and chat, crochet and watch the shop activity.

When the shop closed, I went over to campus and walked around. They’re putting in a semi-permanent memorial in front of Burress Hall that echoes the spontaneous memorial placed there by the students.

I am continually impressed by the sensitivity and respect for the students displayed by the leadership of Virginia Tech. How thoughtful to include student representation on the committee that planned this, and how they honor not only the victims, but the students by echoing the design that evolved in the location on the drillfield that has come to be so significant for so many. This memorial will be in place until a more permanent one is constructed, and the Hokie stones will be offered to the families when the semi-permanent memorial is dismantled.

After I dried some tears, I headed over to PK’s for a brew (the cold, wet kind) and some buffalo chicken. I just love that place.

When I’m in Blacksburg, it's usually pretty busy, so I took the opportunity to just drive around. The road past our condo gets really rural, really fast. I enjoyed driving along the very winding road, up and down through the mountains. There were creeks, and horses, farms, interesting little cottages and large houses… and I kept thinking of how nice it would be to live here, and wondered what it would be like to drive on this road during a blizzard in the winter.

I completed about 1-1/2 borders, then to bed.

Monday:
I woke up and finished the second border without benefit of coffee. Rugged. I took the 2 bordered quilts in to Mosaic (with the Loopy Ewe-- who is on vacation...) and then headed north.

I had a very pleasant drive up I-81 and across I-66 to meet up with friends and co-workers for the Nationals' game against Detroit. Our Nurse Executive invited a whole bunch of us-- and we had a super time. The game itself was a bit sad until the 8th inning when the Nationals got in gear, not quite grasping the game from the jaws of defeat, but coming out looking rather respectable in a 9-8 loss.

I wore my new "Knitting for Healing" t-shirt.

And then I went home.

I'm So Excited- Again

For several reasons:

1) Although I told you "enough already" about the bathroom, I get to use the shower today. The grout is fully cured. So that's REALLY the end of the bathroom news. (Fair warning-- there will be another bathroom renovation, but I'm pretty sure it won't be as exciting for me. At least I don't think I can afford for it to be....)

2) This arrived in the mail yesterday. It's my copy of The Book for which I authored The Chapter that I whined about so mightily a few months back. I'm Chapter 15- Capillary Blood Sampling. Aside from the fact that I am now published (in hard cover, I might add- with internal spiral binding for your reading convenience), I won't ask you to get excited about it. A bunch of my friends at work also contributed. If you're not "in the business" this book is definitely not your cup of tea. It's not only extremely esoteric, it's also a bit graphic. But as far as professional "how-to" guides go, it's pretty darn swell. It'll be something to show my grandchildren, which I hope I don't have any of very soon.


3) I was able to move some shifts next weekend, so I can go to Blacksburg to help sew together the Hokie Healing blankets. This project has helped me a lot, and helping put them together is something that I really, really wanted to do. And I was pretty devastated when I realized I was scheduled to work for the entire weekend. Some of my co-workers made switches with me-- one even working my Saturday in exchange for her Wednesday!!! I still need to work next Friday, so I'll either leave after work (7:30 p.m.) or more likely, get up around 4 a.m. and arrive around 9, in time to hit Starbucks before going to The Inn for the Great Sewing Together of the Hokie Healing Blankets.

4) I got a call at 5:15 this morning asking if I'd like to be off work today. Since I'm bumping up against my maximum number of vacation hours, it took about 3-1/2 seconds to say "You Betcha!!" I may be able to spend a bit of time at Knit Happens today. And if not today, maybe sometime over the weekend. I haven't been in for awhile because of my schedule, and I miss those chicks with sticks.

And now I think I'll go back to bed for an hour or so.

Hokie Squares

Squares for the Hokie Healing Project, that is.

I finished 9 squares, and blocked them last night. I wish I could have done more. I have plenty of orange and maroon yarn, but never enough time... The time that I was able to spend on them was soothing to my heart.


The Husband is off for Blacksburg after work today, and he'll deliver them.

The grand sewing-up of blankets will be on June 15 at the Inn at Virginia Tech. I, of course, am scheduled to work that entire weekend, but if you'll be in the area, contact Gina.

And now, off to work for the night.

Pictures of the finished bathroom tomorrow.

Tomorrow (Today) It Begins

The Great American Bathroom Rehab, that is.

Here are the "before" pictures. The Husband has already removed the blue tile, the white and blue flowered wallpaper, and knocked out a bit of the wall around the plumbing:

Note the snazzy floor tile. The crew is arriving at 8 am to gut the room, remove the tub, toilet, vanity, and flooring, replace the wallboard in what will be the shower area, and get ready for tiling next week.

This is going to be fun...

It IS going to be fun...

Right?

In Knitting Knews,
A Hokie Bird Hokie Square, with his friends the Mitred Squares and Mr. Diagonal Stripe.

He needs to be blocked, and he doesn't have his detail stitching around the beak and waddle area, but that'll be done soon.

And I need some instant gratification, so I'm starting on a boxy summer cardigan from bulky summer stash yarn. Here's the first bit:

Been Working & Been Working Some More

But before I get to that, today marks 26 years of (mostly) wedded bliss for me and The Husband. Of course, he had to work way early this morning, and I had a meeting with a non-profit I work with this evening, and-- you get the picture. It's pretty much been the story of our life together. Luckily we're both pretty independent, and able to survive a marriage despite wacky work hours and time consuming hobbies and interests. And we have two great Offspring.

Anyway, he's a remarkable man for putting up with my quirks, and I love him whole bunches.

Back to working-- it cuts a big hole in my knitting time, but that's how we pay for the yarn, no? (However, and more significantly, it also cuts into my time with my knitting buddies at Knit Happens.)

It's also how we help to pay for the bathroom re-do that will be happening soon at Casa de la Infermera. (That's The Nurse's House, more or less.)

The "before" is too fierce for vision-- The Husband started tearing things apart before I could capture the entire effect of the bright baby blue 60's tile. It looks like a war zone right now. We'll take pictures as the demolition and renovation proceed, and share it all in one fell swoop.

The Daughter is home from Tech. She arrived late yesterday, and I am just thrilled to be able to spend time with her. My time with The Offspring has always been precious to me. We enjoy being together and doing things together. But it seems even more precious now. It's been a really emotionally draining month.

Please indulge a repeat of Nikki Giovanni's tribute (shamelessly copied from Mosaic's website-- hope you don't mind, Gina):

We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

I've been chugging along on my Hokie Squares. I've completed 5, and they're not that terribly creative, compared to some of the others I've seen, but they're about what I can handle without lots of knitting time. I've done 4 mitred squares and one diagonal striped square. All the ends are weaved in-- that's major for me. I'm going to try a brioche square next.

And to wrap up this rather disjointed posting, I'm sending you to this remarkable song that my youngest sister forwarded to me. Apparently it is too "politically incorrect" to be played on the radio, and is not released, but gets a standing ovation every time it's played.


Thanks, Diamond Rio-- we needed that.

Check it Out

Mosaic In the New York Times. That's Gina and Mimi and Lawre and Loren (who's holding a square with a maple leaf on it in honor of her French teacher),and I'm not sure whose back of the head that is... (I was sitting in a comfy chair to the left of the table. Imagine me there.)

So, are you knitting squares???? Here are a couple that I whipped up over the weekend:

Hokie Healing- It's a Great Thing

So I'm in Blacksburg, and I gave The Daughter a long, lingering hug-- so that fix is taken care of. Temporarily. More hugs to come.

Then, since she's quite the busy girl, with quite the busy life, and since I'm trying to be the very liberating mother and resist the urge to hold on to her and keep her with me every second so that I can be 100% sure she's safe for this minute at least, I headed over to Mosaic. I was lucky enough to run into Gina just before she left for home. Lucky me!!!

I'd read about Hokie Healing, which is a project she started to make blankets for the families of the victims of April 16th. Gina and Loren told me that they've had inquiries from around the country.

What a great idea. I wanted to write notes to each of the families, but I just don't know what I could possibly say.

So I'm making squares-- and having fun using some techniques I haven't tried before. No pictures or details right now-- but perhaps in another day or so.

Please visit the Mosaic site, and if you have some time, and some maroon and/or orange and/or black and/or white yarn, whip up a square or two to send in. If you've been affected by this horrendous tragedy and need an outlet, this is a great one.

LET'S GO
HOKIES