Birthday Seriousness Oh Noes!

It took me a week to figure out what I wanted to say on my birthday this year. I'm not very exciting in person, not a terrific knitter, a particularly good parent or that great of a wife, but somehow online I seem to have a knack for making and keeping some really fantastic friends who are very creative, talented, funny, and loving. With these friends in mind, I am blogging as if I have something important to say. Possibly no one will read this and thats ok too, but just in case my tractor girls peek or the terrific Asheville crowd is following me, these are my birthday thoughts.

I have been concerned with a few things this year. Chiefly, this earthquake in Haiti. I wonder, every day, how those people are doing without shelter, living there with family dead or missing, children, animals left to fend for themselves. I worry. Let's not forget them.

I have a new hero this year. A good friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer. I have watched her slog through the ick and the fear and the whole terrible ordeal with a determination that I cannot even convey. I'm so very proud of her.

Just this week I witnessed another epic battle between good and evil when the horrible landlord of the Miles building downtown decided to get nasty with the owners of the Humor Shop. These are good, decent people with children to provide for, making do as best they can, and that landlord is trying to grind them under her expensive heel. I keep wondering how I can help.

This year has definately been epic. I'm turning 42 today, no big deal at all, yet I've been fussed over and spoiled so much that I'm embarassed. This is a positive thing, being so rotten. I have a theory that until your loved ones really make a big deal out of your birthday, until you really feel that people are celebrating your life on the planet, you'll need the party and the songs and the cake. This year, when I was asked "what do you want for your birthday?" I thought about Haiti, and my friend recovering from chemo, and my new friends from the humor shop, and I thought about how I'd love to help them all, heal them all, no more fevers, no more worries, a new job for Brenda, for Bruce, and I thought about my family, the loud boys and the crazy dogs, this unique city that I've come to love, and I don't need one single thing. I'm grateful for everyone, everything. Im lucky to be here.

42 is no big deal but Im so blessed to have these beautiful people thanking me with their gifties and their love. What else can I say? That is all.

Ahevegas Tractor Retreat 2009

As Borat would say, "great success." Since my peeps requested it, here is a rundown of what all we did... Friday I drove to the Atl to pick up Knittymac at the Needle Nook. Great yarn store! Small, but has tons of great yarn including a huge wall of Dark Horse Fantasy, lots of patterns and accessories. We browsed. Then we got stranded at a Cracker Barrel right outside of Atlanta when the van overheated. It could have been so much worse! We were in a/c, with food, iced tea, and they sell both sock monkeys AND John Deere merchandise. The people were extremely nice to us and right before I had a nervous breakdown we were randomly approached by an angel disguised as a fat redneck woman who both diagnosed my car trouble and gave me fifty bucks out of a clear blue sky. So we waited there for five hours, the hubs rescued us and we made it, hot n steamy in his car, to Asheville by 11 pm. Meanwhile the hub's Uncle knew a guy who fixed the van for free! Knittymac and I met up with ILSM at the Holiday Inn and they gabbed till 4am. Lizabee was thrown into hostess mode and they had a tea party at Purl's and dinner at Early Girl Eatery.
Next morning we met at Mast with sock monkeys in tow and began a memorable shopping/touring spree. These gals were going on three hours of sleep! After Mast (more sock monkeys, tractors, cute totes, candy, and silliness) we headed to Haywood. We went to Malaprops and looked at craft books, then we went to Earth Guild. Earth Guild was a big hit, and books, yarn, needles, wheels and roving galore were fondled and purchased. Then it was lunchtime, so we ambled over to Woolworths which is an art gallery with local artists and has an old fashioned soda fountain. We strolled and ate lunch. Sock Monkeys had an impromptu party on the counter, and Knittymac had a free ice cream sundae for her birthday! Afterwards we went to Purls and shopped more yarn goodies! Then we decided that it was naptime but we HAD to visit yarn nook first. Naptime was forgotten in a flurry of more yarn. Linda (yarn nook) was overjoyed. The sock yarn in there is to die for. We had a short rest afterwards then it was off to the Fiddling Pig for a wonderful dinner, with lots of sock monkeys who loved the live bluegrass, clogging and fried pickles. Dharma was reunited with Noah, and all the kids were there. After dinner we sang happy birthday to Knittymac and she opened presents and we had mocha choc cake from Lizabee. Then the hardcore girls went back to Holiday Inn to knit into the night, and drool over ILSM's awesome color choices and stash. Sock Monkeys partied at the hotel, even the annoying thing was invited. At 1am I left and went home to grab some sleeps. Oh! ILSM got to meet the puggles that evening too!
Sunday I tried to get up in time to get the Mac to church but we ended up playing hooky at pug palace drinking coffee and looking at yarn, which the hubs thought was somehow funny. We got ILSM and met at World Cup, eventually taking over our back room hangout and knitting with glee. ILSM handed out her first batch of hand dyed sock yarn which, guys, is astonishing and you need to keep an eye peeled for her etsy store. She also made us all stitch markers! Lizabee and I handed out the goody bags and everyone seemed to like/love those! We had treats and coffee and ended up with a very sweet, touching ending ritual that included all of the tractor girls, even the ones we love so much that couldn't make it. Pixiethief was there! She's adorable, and added to the fun. We ended with tears and hugs, and I got gifted with nunderwoman which is another post for later. Some of us parted ways then, and the rest went for MORE shopping at the hippie store and later ate hotdogs before ending with a bang at the home store, which has yarn! Big surprise. Pixiethief got me the Hansi Singh book (!!!!!) so I got sort of stuck there on the sidewalkk drooling for awhile over knitted loch ness monster and angler fish patterns.
So that was the gist of it, I think- I know I left out things like Lizabee's homemade peach pie, sock monkeys riding pugs, and lots and lots of wonderful sharing of life stories and knitting talk. We thought of you all very often, talking about Pgurl, Manitoba2ct, Amandaleigh, Unforgrettable, 8ntfrogn, TiredM, Sugarmomma, Gramma, MarySK, Sillyfru, and many many others. Were your ears burning? We love you all and met in your honor, and it was as wonderful and loving and silly as you'd expect. I'll let ILSM tell you about her trip to the sock monkey shelter, but we took tons of pictures and the monkeys made friends and (mostly) behaved. That's all folks!