Hawaii, Day Minus One

Well, I’m in California! Not a simple trip, exactly, but nothing major went wrong, so it goes in the win column.

Not that I have no gripes; have you been here long? Of course I do. Any day where the alarm goes off at 4 and the car service picks me up at 5:30 isn’t going to be my favorite way to go. But there are others.

For instance. A few years back, JetBlue switched from Coke products to Pepsi, which, as I am firmly on Team Coke, bothered me. But hey, I can buy a Coke before I board and take it on with me. Well, not today! All the places near my gate only sold Pepsi products. Sheesh.

There was also this very odd display. I can only guess they ran out of the “unique” treats of the “region,” whatever those were, since as far as I know, Snickers and M&Ms are neither in Florida.

In any event, I got on the plane and started knitting (of course).

But I was also looking at this screen on the entertainment system. 

My two row mates and I did not have this functionality the whole 6+ hour flight. Bummer, man! I would have watched a movie or tv, or just the map showing where we were, I like that. Oh, well.

Does anyone want to tell Silver that their planes are painted pink?

Up and over the water, and away.

Since I didn’t want a Pepsi, I asked for a lemon lime soda, which is what their menu says they have. He gave me this … thing … instead.

It does not taste like lime. It tastes like bitterness and missed opportunities. And maybe limestone. That would be a natural flavor, right? (Later I had a Pepsi anyway. How the mighty are fallen.) (Tomorrow I fly United, and reportedly, they have Coke!)

So I knitted, and listened to an audiobook, and sometimes I read, as my hands were getting tired after a lot of knitting. It was fine. Some turbulence, nothing major, and we landed early.

My friend Alison, who lives in the Bay Area, had volunteered to meet me at the airport and have lunch, which was fantastic! 

Never enough meetings with good friends, and while we’ve been blog-friends for years, this was our first face-to-face meeting! So cool.

Also, she gave me this gorgeous cowl! Soft and beautiful.

And how great is this name? Pick Up Stix!

This was my fortune. I’m not sure about this one, honestly.

Cool sculpture in the airport. Always look up!

On the shuttle to the hotel.

This seems very ambitious. I just want to wash my hands.

The room has this fun couch. It’s not as comfortable as it looks, and it’s crying out for some cushions, but nice to have the space anyway.

In the latest of what’s sure to be many “oh, right, I changed time zones” moments, I discovered a hockey game on tv at 4 o’clock. Weird!

Just trying to stay awake until a reasonable hour to eat dinner and go to bed (I am so tired and sore, what with all the sitting still and the hauling luggage around.) Up early again tomorrow, but not as early, so yay!

It's Movie Ratings Time...

Work was quiet this afternoon, so I was able to almost finish my packing: picking which bags, organizing things into them, etc. My back is none too pleased with me, so having a day between all the bending and carrying and the now-why-are-you-getting-on-the-floor activity and the actual traveling part of travel is a good thing.

I may blog tomorrow night. I may blog Wednesday night from the hotel in California. I may blog from Hawaii. Or I may vanish for two weeks. Who knows. As some of the writers I work with like to throw out the cliché, only time will tell.

I'll leave you with another good-sized batch of movie ratings. I just love these things. Thank you, Boston Globe, for letting your reviewers have this fun.

Blue nudity: is that better or worse than other colors?

Oh, dear, no animal death, please. Do note the "Starring" section, though, with donkeys and humans specified.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...

Oooh, no thank you, not for me!

Ah, I will vote no on this for me as well. Though the robot twerking is making me curious.

Violence, suicide ... permed cat?

Nothing that even called for the PG-13, eh?

Now that, I would see! An argument over semicolons is right up my alley.

Any of them sound good to you? Or amusingly bad?

Getting There

I leave Wednesday morning (at the crack of dawn), but since I work Monday and Tuesday, today was my big day to get my packing organized. I took some of the big totes that were recently used for sorting the yarn windfall*, and started gathering items in them based on what I want access to on the plane, what I’m carrying on but don’t need on the plane, and what’s going in the checked bag. Yeah, not doing the all-carryon thing; I’m nervous about my suitcase being delayed or lost, but I just can’t do all carryon for this. 

*The woman with the charity group came and picked it up, whew, temptation get thee behind me. 

By the time I was done, or rather my back was done, what’s left to do is basically clothing. Not that it’s the least important, but it’s pretty straightforward to pack, and we have in-unit laundry, so that makes it easy too. It will be more thinking to decide what bags to use.

Yeah. I’m tired of all the decisions. But it’s getting closer to done!

More Yarn Thoughts

I set aside a bunch for myself, I have three good-sized boxes of yarn to mail to my knitters up north, and a bunch of my local knitting friends have come by to "shop" the yarn. One of them lives in Ft Myers and lost all her yarn* in hurricane Ian, so she especially was due some good yarny luck!

*And everything else, ugh

One of the comments on the yarn windfall (from Diane C, for whom I don't see an email address) made me laugh: "I think I like the idea and potential of yarn more than the actual labor of doing something with it!" Diane, I've said it before, I'm sure, but buying yarn and using it are two different hobbies. Related ones, sure, but not always so closely related as some might expect.

I also have said many a time that in large part, yarn buying for me is retirement planning. Years ago, I was talking to a knitter who said that after she was laid off, it was a great comfort to have plenty of nice yarn on hand when she could not spend money on it. I got to thinking that one day, that mythical day when I can retire, I won't be able to spend a lot of money on yarn, so I want to have what is essentially my own yarn store, stocked with only things I love, to get me through that. Which is why SABLE* doesn't scare me.

*SABLE = stash acquisition beyond life expectancy; that is, more yarn than you will live long enough to knit (crochet, etc.)

Time for what's left to go to the charity knitters. And do good in the world. 

Preparing (Not [Quite] Panicking)

I don't feel completely unprepared for my upcoming trip, but I don't feel as prepared as I would like to be. My subconscious agrees: in a dream last night, someone was coming over and I wasn't ready and I was skulking around without clothes on, and it was stressful.

Well. Onward.

The trip is logistically more complicated than I'm used to, which is no doubt a contributing factor. I have my usual, very segmented packing list, but for this trip, I'll want/need things for the cross-country flight, then the night in the hotel, then the flight to Hawaii, plus an extra outfit for the next day if my suitcase is delayed*, and there are just a lot of "ifs" to take into account, even for someone who kind of enjoys the planning-ahead part.

*Please no serious delays, please no serious delays.

This weekend, I'm going to start not just pulling things together, but organizing them into piles. I think that will help me see where I am, literally. Then I can figure out exactly which bags I'm going to want, and so on.

Meanwhile, I will keep telling myself that there is almost nothing I can forget that will be a catastrophe. It will be fine.

I think I will have a good time once I get there. Hold on to that thought.

She Can't Know, But

It's not that Maggie knows I'm going away next week. I really don't believe that.

And yet, she has been on my mother's lap more often this week than in the previous four years combined.

Looks pretty pleased with herself, doesn't she?

Looking at My Yarn Stash (as I add to it)

On the one hand, the amount of yarn I'm keeping from my recent tremendous windfall is a very small amount of what came in.

On the other, it's more yarn than I've ever bought at one time. 

So, it depends how you look at it!

This is almost all of what I'm keeping:

I say almost because some of my local knitting friends came over on Sunday and today to take yarn, and I did end up picking up a few more to keep. But not a lot more!

Of course, that means finding room for it in my stash, and I have a not-small amount of yarn already. NGS asked how I organize it, so I thought I'd show you here.

I sort my yarn by weight, so that if I'm looking for what I have in aran or DK, I can look in one spot. I have the most in the category of fingering/sock-weight yarn, and that I have mostly sorted by color, too, though it's outgrowing its designated space.

There's this:

But also this:

Those two shelves are part of this bookcase stack:

So I think what I'm going to do is find a different place to put project bags and organizers (since this space isn't working well for those anyway), which will clear another three shelves for fingering. Look for the massive fingering stash reorg sometime!

Aran (one square) and worsted (two):

DK and sport, two each:

One each of odds and ends, lace, and bulky, with projects behind the closed door (which is closed because they start falling out when it's opened):

And more projects and intended projects, below the coffee and cat food:

I wouldn't call myself super-organized; it works fairly well, but I certainly do have times when I can't find something I'm looking for. But it mostly works.

Knock on wood!

Any questions?

Holy...Yarn

Last year, I was at a Newcomers' lunch and one of the women came up to me and said that she used to knit but hadn't in a long time, and she'd decided that she wasn't going to go back to it, so she wanted to clear out the yarn she had, and did I want it. (I always knit at the lunches, so I am Known as a knitter.)

If you've been reading here very long, you know that my answer to that question is always yes. She said she had to go through things, but she would let me know, and I said no problem, of course, no rush. A few months later, at another lunch, we bumped into each other and she mentioned it again, that she was still planning to get to it. No rush.

Yesterday was the day. She came by, and her vehicle was full of huge black garbage bags.

Eleven of them. Here they are in the garage.

So.

Much.

Yarn.

(Two of the bags were full of project bags, so many different sizes and types, so many bags.)

And it's good yarn! Lots of Baah (La Jolla and Sonoma and others), and Madeline Tosh, some Anzula, a little Noro, Malabrigo, brands I've never heard of, oh, and an absolute shit-ton of Hedgehog. I've been going through it in amazement. I swear, in my life in Massachusetts, this never used to happen to me, and now the yarn keeps finding me in Florida. (This is NOT a complaint.)

The amount I'm keeping for myself would be a huge, huge shopping spree by my standards. It isn't a tenth of what came in. I just can't get over this.

I hurt all over, though. This should count as a workout: lifting weights! Well, my doctor wants me to do weight-bearing exercise, and I just did. So much weight bearing. So happily.

Listening to Books

I enjoy audiobooks, but particularly, for some years I have gone to sleep listening to one, to help my brain turn off. (It has to be a book I know, so it won't actually get my brain more awake.) 

I use the Audible app, and they send a summary at the end of the year with some metrics, which can be very amusing. Last year, they noted that I listen the most at night, which, yeah, tell me something I don't know.

This year they summarized different metrics (or possibly I just don't remember these from last year). For instance:

Two fantasy authors and a hockey writer, yup. I highly recommend The Down Goes Brown History of the NHL: The World's Most Beautiful Sport, the World's Most Ridiculous League in either print or audio, if it's at all of interest to you. He's both informative and hilarious.

Here's another in the 'tell me something I don't know' category.

Yup, every day! Or, rather, every night.

I'm looking forward to doing some awake-time listening on my upcoming trip. Which, eep, two weeks from now I'll be underway! That does seem soon. I know that I'm fairly well prepared for it--but I don't feel ready!

Today's small achievement was about the eye mask with bluetooth speakers that I bought a few years ago: I found it, I charged it, and I got it to play Audible from my phone. I win!

Contrast (another way)

One thing to keep in mind, in running across people's lists and discussions of how many books they read in 2022, is that both of these are books:

I know there are people who track page counts instead, to get around this, but if one reads e-books, and makes the print larger, then that affects the number of pages, so it isn't a perfect solution. And really, even in print books, some books are denser per page than others. It's an interesting thing to think about.

If one is a book nerd, anyway, as I obviously am.

Contrast

Ran across this today; thoughts?

Let Go of the (Book Club Non-reading) Guilt; More Yarn!

My book club meets on Sunday, tonight as I write this; this is the dozenth meeting (we meet about every two months). Of the selected books, one I had read before (Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir), and one was my choice (Small Blessings, by Martha Woodroof), so of course I had read that before. 

Side note: I am fundamentally unable to suggest a book I haven't already read and liked. Because if I don't want to finish it, I don't want to! And if I don't finish the book, how will I lead a good discussion of it? So while some of the others suggest books they've heard about but not read, my suggestions (we do ranked voting, and suggest 3 or 4 books) are always known to me.

The remaining ten books, well. I finished three of them, and didn't finish the other seven (including this selection, The Lost Vintage, by Ann Mah). And I'm struggling with the not finishing! No one has said anything--other people don't always finish either, and I don't think my record bothers anyone. But somehow it bugs me, and I'm trying to let go of that. Because who cares? Are they going to kick me out? We're all friends, I don't think they will. And if they did, well, we'll still be friends. 

Let go of the rule-following, people-pleasing pressure. There's nothing wrong with every book not being right for every reader at any given time; doesn't mean the book is bad, and doesn't mean the reader is either. Ahem.

Annnnnyway! How about some yarn?

Yesterday I was part of a group of ten knitters who went up to Sarasota to visit a store there, A Good Yarn (and we had lunch, at Millie's, which was really good). It was a really fun day, and I brought home these two beauties:

So lovely! More specifically, this one is Miss Babs, Yearning, which is a big ol' skein of their heavy laceweight Yet yarn, 65% merino and 35% silk.

Those colors, mmm.

The other is a Florida dyer, KittyBea Knits, and Palma Sola is an exclusive that's DK, and 100% baby alpaca. Mmmm.

Another thing I came home with was a gift from one of the group, who had made a bunch of small project bags as samples for a sewing class she was teaching, and gave them to us as gifts. So neat!

So cute, so well made, just the size for a 100-gram skein or ball.

Sadly, today I've been dealing with a migraine all day, which is unfortunate, but at least it didn't spoil yesterday.

Before Yarn: Yarn

On Saturday I'm going to a yarn store with friends, so before I write up whatever happens there (ahem: chances of coming home empty-handed are very small), I wanted to show what I got in the mail the other day.

In November I showed you the Shibui yarn I got at half off; it turns out that the company is shutting down, which is sad, as they make lovely stuff. It further turns out that the shutdown includes their subsidiary Camp Color yarns, and in fact I heard before Christmas (my friends are such enablers, I love it) that the CC yarns were $5 a skein instead of the usual $15*. Well! I can't resist that sale!

*It's not all gone yet, either...

They have a fingering-weight yarn that I bought last summer, to make the Electric Slide shawl. And they have a bulky yarn. And they offer free shipping if you spend $100 or more.

Do you see where this is going? Yeah. You do.

Five skeins of bulky in this beautiful blue that will make a nice cozy shawl.

And the rest fingering. Some multis:

Random beautiful colors.

And a vague idea for a not-quite-Bruins black and gold project.

That, my friends, is $100 well spent. No regrets at all.

Fuzz Therapy

As I get myself worked about about trip planning, I think I could use some Maggie therapy. Enjoy some views from the last week.

As a break from visualizing every stage of my trip and what I will want to have with me for it, pack-pack-pack, I will visualize this little face.

Three Weeks?

Wait a minute, I leave for Hawaii in three weeks? What? I mean, three weeks from tomorrow, but given the hour I'm leaving, it's basically three weeks from today. Ack. I knew when I was making the flight plans last month that I would have more to do, but I figured it could wait until after the holidays.

Well. It's after the holidays. I had best get to work, hadn't I. 

And I have! 

I made my hotel reservation near SFO, so that's set. 

I also called the person who does car-service-type rides (he has been highly recommended by neighbors), as my flights leave and arrive back to Lauderdale very early, and though my mother is willing, I am not asking her (or anyone I like) to do that for me--I would feel awful about it. And I don't want to drive myself at that hour either, particularly after the red-eye coming back. He's got me on the list, and I'll check with him a few days before, but I should be set there.

I always make a packing list when I travel, to sort out what to bring, what to carry on (and to access on the plane versus carry on just-in-case), etcetera, so I looked to see if I had a saved one from the last Hawaii trip. I did, so that's a good starting point, and it includes this item in the carry-on list: "so many snacks!" Evergreen advice. The cross-country flight is 6 and a half hours, and then California to Hawaii (the next day) is another 6 hours. I am going to need so many snacks!

Next, after:

• a very large amount of moaning, whining, and complaining, 
• one phone call (how on earth did I end up with two reward numbers for United? when is the last time I even flew United?), and 
• one what-am-I-missing-here google search (turns out that in order to get the Southwest flight I have previously booked to show up in my brand-new rewards account [that I created from the link in their email asking if I wanted to sign up for rewards for this flight], I don't add it from the account, I add the rewards number to the reservation), 

I have updated alllllllll my info for the various airlines I'm flying, signed up for the things I need, added my known traveler number, and so on ad infinitum. What an absolute pita that was, but I have all the apps on my phone now and I think it's all set. Pretty please, universe.

I got a new cord so that I can use my power pack with my new phone (because of course it doesn't have the same cord needs as the old phone, ha ha ha), and I also got a little case that fits the power pack perfectly and has room for the cords. Very satisfying. I ordered a travel light for knitting, and hopefully that will be just as satisfying, knock on wood.

What else? I'm sure there's more.

Getting There

I mentioned last month that I was making plans to join my aunt for part of her trip to Hawaii (my brother is also going to go for part of it). I made my plane reservations that week: from Florida to San Francisco nonstop on JetBlue, using miles; plans to overnight in a hotel near the airport (still working on the hotel choice and reservation, the many options are currently overwhelming me); then a flight the next morning from SFO to Kona, on United. 

I'm hopeful that by making the trip two days each way, and only nonstops*, it won't be as hard on me as last time (which ended up being close to 20 travel hours in one day--no wonder I was a wreck by the time I got there, and got home again).

*No more four-airport days, thank you

For the return, I booked a flight from Kona to Oakland, so I could spend the night at my brother's before going cross-country again, though after the recent mess, you can imagine how I feel about flying Southwest for even one flight. Hopefully they'll be straightened out by then? They're the only ones with a nonstop from KOA to OAK, and given that my brother lives in Oakland, getting to him from SFO is much more of a production, which I'd rather avoid.

So complicated. I know I'll have a good time, but right now I'm just tired thinking about it.

Setting the Trend for the Year on January 1: Yay or Nay?

I understand that some people feel very strongly that what one does on the first day of the year sets the tone for the year: they might clean the house thoroughly by the 31st so that they aren't cleaning on the 1st, and cook certain dishes, and be sure to do things that they want to do more of in the coming year.

As you may guess from the start of that sentence, I don't fall into that camp, or at least not fully. I don't think I'm jinxing my year if I have to do some unpleasant task on the 1st, and I don't worry too much about what I do. Well, beyond the fact that it's a vacation day, so I can do what I want! In that sense, I guess my day did set the tone, because I spent time with the cat on my lap, had a little moving-around-in-the-pool time*, watched hockey, and picked up some knitting. But I don't feel that if I hadn't done any of these things, it would impact the coming year.

*Calling it exercise is a bit of a stretch, but it was time I spent moving around, so partial credit for that.

Do you have traditions for New Year's? What do you do, or avoid doing, for this holiday?

Bonus Maggie-on-lap pictures: