Well it was inevitable. I hung on, one foot in front of the other, trying to stay on top of the lists, and ahead of the schedule. Best laid plans. I was doing pretty well, going into the weekend. Really wishing I could just sit down and sew, or paint a warp, or do something other than prepare for my trip, I never-the-less plowed ahead, after all, this is my job, and I don’t get paid unless I fly someplace and teach. And I haven’t done that since last November. So, if i want to continue living in the manner in which I am accustomed, I need to work, and therefore, I need to do this prep work, though I probably shouldn’t have said yes to the guild commitments in March.
Anyway, on Sunday morning, my husband, for many many reasons which I won’t dwell on here, decided that we would be better off if we moved all our email accounts off the host server for my website, and onto Google as a host server, apparently there is an APP for that. And for many of those reasons, I agreed to let him make the switch, they all made sense, but I will say I wasn’t expecting it to happen on Sunday, six days before I leave for a 6 week marathon. Of course moving his account was no problem. When he went to do mine… well lets just say that we finally got it up and running properly on the new server, today, that would be Tuesday. And I’m slowly losing all my hair from ripping it out. It makes nice curls when it hits the floor in clumps… So, Amy, my mail to you won’t be blocked anymore, since I probably shared space on the old host server with a porn site or two, and now, I can access my mail files from my laptop on the road, or any place I can access Google and still keep my original email address. It is a wonderful thing, but, don’t try this at home, or at least don’t try this six days before you plan to go out of town…
I think I printed over 300 monographs and handouts, and I have a serious wrist sprain from all the binding. I’ve trekked boxes to the shipper, I’ve cut bolts of pattern paper, interfacing, and assorted materials, organized and categorized, and made my poor brain explode. But I was doing pretty well, in spite of the mess with my computer, until the weather report yesterday. That put me over the edge. Yes I know an 18″ of snow blizzard is out of my control, yes I know I just need to not stress about it and keep breathing, yes I know I’ll eventually make it to LA, hopefully in time to teach Saturday. And yes, I know there is a good chance of a power outage during that blizzard and I won’t be able to print, back up and transfer files, download books on tape onto my iTouch for the trip, or any of the 4000 things on my to do list that require electricity for the next 48 hours.
So, I went into emergency plans, that is to re-prioritize my to do list in order of electrical usage. So all the books/handouts/monographs are printed, (there was a huge delay there since the $500. worth of ink I ordered got stuck in Tennessee and was late coming in on the Fed Ex truck). All the books on tape are downloaded. I’ve transferred back up files of my presentations to my thumb drive. The only thing remaining that requires the computer, is entering the remaining four shows. I will do that first thing tomorrow morning. The snow isn’t suppose to start until later tonight anyway. And I’ll finish vacuuming my house tonight, leaving the bathrooms and kitchen to clean tomorrow and Thursday(which don’t take electricity), I’d like to leave behind a clean house so it won’t be cited by the health department when I return in two weeks. 🙂
But the good news is, I did manage a couple of creative escapades in spite of everything, so I can show you a couple of pictures that don’t involve comb binding spines and an HP laser printer…
Remember the rocker I recovered starting last October 31st? I finished recovering the rocker pretty quickly, but decided to weave the braid for the trim, which was about 6 yards. I had the inkle loom warped for the final couple of yards, but never got around to finishing it, and since it was the back of the rocker, and no one saw it, I wasn’t real driven to put it on the top of my priority list.
Sunday night, I curled up on the couch, the way I imagine knitters do in the evenings. My husband and I watched the Super Bowl together, eating Super Bowl junk food and watching the silly commercials. I brought the little inkle loom down and sat and wove off the remaining two yards of trim, and glued it on this morning. I can’t be happier with it. The rocker is done, and my mother-in-law, who gave us the rocker as a wedding present 32 years ago, is smiling down at me. 🙂
And yesterday morning I went to my guild meeting, Frances Irwin Handweavers. We’ve been focusing on some surface design technique for the last couple of programs, and this month (I missed last month with the flu), Jenny taught us all to do some needle felting. Since I’ve done needle felting, and I didn’t really have all the required tools she wanted, and I read the newsletter too late to request a kit, and because I really didn’t have time to plan too much, I just brought along my needle felting machine and cheated. So sue me…
But, it was just what the doctor ordered.
And, on top of that, I answered a challenge from Donna Kallner, who writes a creativity blog, and suggested a creative exercise, using a dictionary and finding a word and making up a definition and basing a design exercise on the definition. I had commented that it would be fun to use the funny words you get for what’s called a Captcha, the group of letters that come up, that you have to retype when you comment on some blogs. So Donna challenged her readers to pick a medium (I picked felt, don’t have a clue why, thought it would be quick?) and a time frame, (I picked an hour), and send it to her in a comment, and use the Captcha you were assigned as inspiration. Well I answered the challenge, and my word was “dededn”. I read it as a sort of mythical dead end, and I had that in mind when I started drawing out a design with the pencil for my needle felted piece yesterday at the guild. Am I efficient or what? 🙂
I still have to do the other edge of the piece, but I can’t tell you what fun I had just playing. I worked both sides of the cloth, and I’d love to be able to sit down and finish but it will probably have to wait until I get back. OK, I’ve already spent an hour, so my time is up, but another 15 minutes won’t hurt anyone. Anyway Donna, I’m doing my best!
In case we do lose power and I can’t blog, or I just completely run out of time, I’ll do my best to write in from the road, and send photos when I can. I’m looking forward to the trip, the crazy part is getting ready, leaving stacks of stuff for my husband to deal with in my absence, making sure everything is in order and all the details are covered. Once I’m on the plane, there is nothing to do but sit and read a trashy Janet Evanovich book and relax.
Oh, and if you notice that once in awhile, a message comes up that says there is a memory problem and my blog isn’t available, we are aware of the problem, that accounts for the other pile of hair on the floor, that pile is from my husband ripping his hair out, and we are basically convinced that my current host server (the one that shares porn sites), doesn’t offer the full capabilities of Word press and what we really need to do is dump the server completely, go to Pair Networks, and bring in Word Press directly, and start over. And that’s why ladies and gentlemen, I’ve come completely unglued. Just keep trying my blog, it eventually comes back…
Phoenix, my hostess lived in a development that reminded me of the architecture of a development I once stayed in in Florida. But what impresses me about Arizona is the vistas, driving along, and being able to turn in any direction and seeing for miles in any direction. I suppose it is something you get use to, and more than one person on my trip said that’s what appeals to them in this region, and when they go “home” wherever that is, that they feel claustrophobic. I’m use to tall trees and canopies of green, and I drive through Arizona and feel vulnerable and exposed. I guess it is what you are use to. The mountains are stark, and stony, and majestic, and imposing and visible whichever way you turn.
The Arizona Desert Mountain Weavers of Phoenix were a delightful guild, they worked so hard, and all 9 finished their vests by the end of the second day, except for the handwork, which is sort of a record. What surprised me the most, was how many of the students told me they hadn’t made a garment since the traumatic home ec experience in 8th grade. Listening to the discussions of getting D’s in Home Economics because of a bad sewing experience, made me so grateful that as middle aged adults, they tried it again, and woke up to the possibilities of what a sewing machine could do, especially with their handwoven fabric. There were a lot of smiles yesterday afternoon.
So I stayed at my 5th location on the trip, just for the night, in a lovely home in a retirement community, which looked like a weaver’s version of heaven. My hostess for the evening brought with her to the retirement community, all her looms and weaving equipment and each loom had a prominent location in her house. There was no dining room table, just a 24 shaft Leclerc Weavebird computerized loom. Can I say I felt right at home? We did the tour of all her books, her weaving themed collectibles, her spinning wheels, and then she took me into the living room to show me a wall piece she had acquired, an early piece of Theo Moorman’s. If you learned to weave in the 70’s, Theo Moorman was one of the key mentors and influences in the contemporary fiber movement, she wrote a wonderful tome, Weaving as an Art Form, which still sits proudly on my shelf, and my woven artworks I’ve been blogging about, are done with this technique. To see a real Theo Moorman piece was worth this entire 16 day trip to the southwest.
So now I am sitting at the kitchen table in home number six, on my last stop on this marathon tour. It hasn’t escaped me that I left NJ the same day the Olympics opened, and I will return home Sunday night, as the Olympic torch is extinguished. I will teach in Tucson for the next four days. The home I’m staying in here is spectacular. Here is a shot of the view out the window as I look up from typing. Those are the snow capped Rincon Mountains out there in the distance.
