Adventures in Nashville

I'm home and chipping away at the work I need to get done, but I wanted to post about this before the details became too hazy.

I haven't gone away on a trip in several years, so I was excited for a lot of reasons and not just the obvious. I had to remind myself repeatedly that I am actually capable of being a grown up in public and traveling to a strange city where they speak the same language as I, without getting permanently lost. Also, I took this trip with an old friend from grad school (Julie) and so would be able to make her navigate. This is very important given how I've turned getting lost into an art form.

First observation on the plane was that the river does some amazing things to the terrain. Second observation in the airport is that Nashville Int'l Airport is tiny. I realized over the course of the four days just how pocket sized Nashville is. With the car, we were never more than 20min away from anything, and that was if we hit rush hour traffic. Mind you, I realize that I may have unrealistic expectations growing up with New York as "the city" and Newark as "the airport".

So, Nashville was FOURTEEN DAYS into a heatwave of 90°F and up weather the day we arrived. The day we left, they were excited because Sunday was forecast to be "only" 89. It was a heat that just sapped the energy and turned us into melted puddles of people. The normal temperature for this time of year is a good 10-15 degrees cooler.

Thursday was the day of the event and we got up early to visit the Parthenon first. It's a full sized replica of the Greek building, but with all the friezes, etc, intact.

It was just the right size for something to occupy the morning, but I'll spare you pictures of the interior. There's a giant gilded sculpture of Athena inside, as well as replicas of the original stonework, etc.

More chatter and pics after the cut. 

Kermitflailing and shenanigasms

So, um, I just learned I won something. It's access to a private event with a musician/band I greatly enjoy.

On the downside, I was a second level winner which means I have to get there and stay there on my own dime, and it's in Nashville which means I can't just hop in the car (and sleep in it either). But dude, I am SO THERE.

In aid of actually being able to fund this trip (IT'S NEXT WEEK!), I'm having a sudden and inevitable SALE. If you know me, you know I rarely have sales; they make me nervous. But given how I'm shaking over this sudden trip, I don't think I'll notice any sale nerves at all.

The coupon code for 10% off is JuneOMG and the sale will run through June 7th so I can mail the orders before I go on the trip. For orders $50 and up, I will refund domestic shipping and cap international shipping at $5, refunding the difference.

A link to the shop.

And to play you out.... ... It autoplays, so I'm putting it behind a jump cut. I thought we used to be able to modify that setting?!

Sometimes

Sometimes I get really tired and discouraged, depressed, frustrated. But sometimes, sometimes things click.

This has been a very busy week, and it's not getting any less busy any time soon. I didn't cook dinner tonight because I had to finish updating the shop so I could finish working on my page for the Fiber Cooperative.  14 colorways went up in the shop, I have another dozen or so to photograph yet, and the end of this week is full of dyeing and sample making.  Meanwhile, tomorrow I'll hold another give-away, and then there's the holiday weekend coming up.

I hit 400 sales this month, another little milestone.  Even with a package missing in the mail, even with several lackluster advertising attempts this month and the bills they generated, I look around and feel proud of my accomplishment this week, and it's good to feel good about this and about myself.

And tonight, as I was editing pictures, I got this:

This is the colorway Starry Night and it is the most perfect example of a desire turned into reality that I have ever managed with my yarn.

Zombies have eaten my brain

And I don't even like horror movies. But I've been playing a ridiculous quantity of Plants vs Zombies in a desperate attempt to finish it so I can stop playing. I love puzzle games, and it's a tower defense game with strong puzzle elements, so it totally hits all my buttons.

In an effort to wean myself off PvZ, I started a new knitting project last night. To whit, a scarf for my mother. Of course I would do this right as we head into a weekend of ridiculous heat. What is with the upper 80s and into the 90s in May? It's May 1, for heaven's sake!


Noro Kureyon Sock in color S180

But she borrowed the silk scarf I made for my father a couple weeks ago citing the fact that she has no light scarf for those cool days, and that everyone seems to be wearing scarves lately. So, a scarf. It's simple feather and fan/old shale, although I had to modify it because the asymmetry was annoying me.

Is this TMI? - weight loss

I'm a little o.O because I'm under 160lbs for the first time in, well, a really long time.

On the one hand, it's celebratory because it's a sign that I'm doing something right. On the other hand, it's not. Because it's just part of a very long road, and because while I weigh less, I'm not more fit.

Weight loss without increase in fitness is mostly cosmetic when it's the difference between 176 and 156, I know that. Still, I have a little interior satisfaction knowing that the 156 is there staring at me from the scale instead of the 176. And all it took was 3 years of portion control and getting out of bed. :P

*dances a little, anyway*

Here, have a picture of the sky yesterday, when I finished taking yarn pictures. The light was starting to angle low behind the house, and was catching through the new spring green.