It’s pledge week…

For all of you fans of public radio, you know it is pledge week.  That’s the week when fans collectively sigh, and grin and bear all of those long drawn out pleas for money.  Like every four minutes.  Sigh…

For all of you fans of public radio, hopefully you have done your share to keep public radio vibrant and on the air.  WNYC, my local station has a great program for sustaining members.  I give monthly, an automatic withdrawal, and I never have to think about it.

I sort of feel like this blog is like public radio.  Though I provide it for free, and am happy to contribute something meaningful when I have something meaningful to say, this is really just an advertisement for my workshops.  Because that is really where I get paid.

So, before we get to the meat of this particular blog post, I have a couple of shameless commercial announcements, and you will just have to read through them to get to the good stuff…

First, some happenings this month.  I am teaching an eight week class starting next Tuesday at the Newark Museum, afternoons from 1-4pm, here in NJ, which is a pick your own agenda sewing class.  Everyone works on their own projects and agenda and I help and motivate and rip out if necessary, and get participants back into using the sewing machine for fun and wardrobe upgrade.  You can link to the details in the side column on the right under Upcoming Events.

For those who live in or can travel to New England, Webs yarn store (fiber mecca) is hosting me for a two day garment construction intensive.  This is a garment sewing class, with lots of lecture and some hands on sampling, and I basically cram everything you have forgotten or never learned, about fit, seams, construction techniques, sampling and washing for the weavers, and closures techniques, all in two days. You do not have to be a handweaver to attend.  There are still a couple of spots open, and the class is Saturday and Sunday March 31-April 1st.  Click here for more information…

And of course, I have ongoing classes in all kinds of techniques available on Weavolution.com, these are online classes, and there is one on Thursday, one session, in beginning Inkle Loom Weaving.  For all of my classes and my complete schedule, visit my website.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

So when last we left off, I was happily ripping apart a handwoven tencel gown, to refit my body, and then my plan was to incorporate a length of felt I created, and see what kind of interesting look I could come up with.  Hahahahahahahah…

That would be the collective universe laughing at my silly notion that I had unlimited days and nights to just entertain myself with such frivolity…

My homesick daughter, left University of Massachusetts Amherst last Friday night, to do a brief weekend at home, needing some mommy time, and dog hugging time, and a serious meet-up with the washing machine… (Drive four hours to do laundry?)  I said yes, because she seemed to really need a hug.

Unfortunately 40 minutes into the trip, she was rear ended on interstate 91, near Springfield, MA, which, though she was OK considering, has probably totaled her car.  She loved that car.  She had stickers over every inch of that car.  She named that car Percy.  We are waiting on the final damage appraisal, but it isn’t looking good.  She managed to get back to campus after contacting someone from her dorm, and we spent a shell shocked and teary Friday night, with a string of about 100 texts and phone calls.

It was decided to do what any self respecting mother would have done under the circumstances, I procured a crate, loaded the dog into my car, along with my son, and a dozen hot NJ bagels (you have to be from NJ to understand the significance of this) and Saturday morning we all drove up to see Brianna and bring the mommy and doggie hugs to her.  And bagels…  Because mothers do this…

Meanwhile, the universe is wreaking havoc on my electronics and Saturday morning my cell phone, (a Droid 2) succumbed and became unusable.  A well meaning friend tried a bit of Reiki on it, which allowed it to work on the trip to Massachusetts, but it was pretty clear that the 6 month old phone was malfunctioning and my Sunday was spent at Verizon dealing with that.  Sigh…  The upshot is, they will replace the phone, but it hasn’t arrived yet and this is Tuesday…

Monday was spent on the regular telephone with insurance companies, my daughter and my husband who is dear God, still in Saudi Arabia.  Sigh.  It is times  like these that make me so incredibly grateful I don’t have to be at a desk every day from 9-5, on the phone dealing with crap such as this.  My life and work is all wrapped up in pretty fibers and lovely students who are appreciative of what I know and what I can teach them.  And I don’t do it every day.  The rest of my professional life is seeing what fun stuff I can come up with using a bunch of yarn and cool fiber tools, and writing about it.

And so I’ve done nothing in my studio but take care of accident related stuff, cell phone stuff, refinancing stuff (which we are in the middle of), medical stuff (obtaining records and such), procuring titles, repair records, and anything else that pops up as soon as I walk over to the cutting table to pick up my tencel gown, now in pieces.  By yesterday afternoon, I was fried and stressed and needed a break.

So I got in my car, and drove to Trenton NJ, home to Stephanie Plum, and the Hospitality House for the NJ Restaurant Association where they teamed up with ArtPride to present a wonderful evening, a $50 a head fund raiser celebrating Inspiring Women in the culinary and visual arts.  There were tables of truffle butter, duck, the biggest raw oysters I’ve ever seen, wines, local microbrews, and so much food, salmon tartar, beet tartar, and anything else they could think of to tartar, all surrounded by artworks hanging on the walls from various NJ women artists.  I had two of my woven photos hanging in one of the hallways, and as a result, I got a free ticket to the event.

This was one of those classic times when I was too stressed to think about going, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing and I had trouble even getting to the shower.  I had almost talked myself out of going down to Trenton, an hour and a half drive, until I realized that without a working phone, no one could reach me. 🙂

So I jumped in the shower, put on my gorgeous coat dress, hand dyed and hand woven ( I do know how to stick out in a crowd), jumped in the car, and headed down the NJ Turnpike and gorged my way through the evening.  It was healing and productive.

And so, the drama continues at home, but I’m fine.  And my daughter is fine.  And cars can be replaced.  And with luck my workshops will fill, and I’ll get on with the tasks at hand that I do best.

I leave you with this epitaph that my lovely daughter, who calls herself Lunch Box Rodriquez on Facebook, wrote about her favorite car Percy,

Dear Percius P. Percival, (some of you know him as Percy) I thank you for being the car that you were (in case you are totaled). You saved the life of 5 people in your lifetime. Between the truck tire blowout that hit you, the teenager running the red light, and my accident 3 days ago, you have performed valiantly. I know we have put you through so much, but we love you and wish that you could have lasted with us longer. When recounting my story of last Friday, I’ve been asked if I had spun out or swerved. You, being the car that you were, handled beautifully and I did not spin or swerve, but drove straight and pulled over with ease, despite the blowout which was inflicted upon you.

Rest in pieces. ~Lunch Box

Stay tuned…