The Heathen Housewife

Yesterday was Harlot Day in St. Paul. I woke up with a feeling not at all unlike the feeling I had as a little kid waking up on – well, not Christmas. On the day of a big field trip at school or a birthday party whose invitation has been tacked to the fridge with a magnet for the last month. Excited, happy, enjoying the anticipation that was almost over.

The girls and I spent the morning with my knitting group, as we do most Wednesdays. Then, to help pass the few remaining hours till Joe was to arrive home early so that I could skip off to the fun, we went over to Knollwood Mall and did a little shopping and lunch. Julie got to climb around on the kiddie rides for a few minutes, and by chance she is wearing her handknit leggings. More about those later in the post, I think.

At home, I gathered up all my things and got myself ready to flee out the back door the moment Joe walked in and took over parenting duties. I ran over and picked up my friend Kelle and we were off to St. Paul by 4:00. I was floored with surprise to find an open parking spot in the tiny lot behind the store, but there were actually two! We stopped in to check out the scene inside the Yarnery, and there was a nice crowd milling around. We said a few hellos, then ran over to Cafe Latte to pig out on salads and deserts.

While we were there, we ran into several other knitters, and I had a nice little explanatory conversation with the lady at the cash register trying to help her understand that yes, there are a lot of knitters in the neighborhood today – there’s an author coming for a book signing. I stopped when her eyes started to cross in confusion. As we were leaving, I ran into Susan Rainey and her (I think this is right, and please forgive me if I am wrong on this or any other name in this post. I am the world’s worst memory when it comes to names even when I try my hardest) sister-in-law Kim. I love Susan and her work. See that sweater peeking through behind the beautifully knit jacket? It’s a Bohus. A lovely Bohus that won ribbons at the State Fair a couple years ago. By the way, Susan, I really want to take your zipper class one of these days!

I went back over to the shop for a few minutes and was standing around schmoozing like an idiot when one of the managers spotted me and said “Aren’t you supposed to be over at the auditorium helping to set up?!!!” And I said “Oops! I thought I had a few minutes, but I’m going right now.” So I trotted right on over to William Mitchel and scooted past the line of people waiting to get in – see the line of people waiting to get in:

And then I got to hang around for a little while kind of helping to set up, mostly trying to stay somewhat out of the way, and failing somewhat as I practically drooled over the tote bags they had on display for sale. I came within a hair’s breadth of buying one, but when I asked about it, the cash register wasn’t ready to go yet, and I figured it was fate intervening on my wallet’s behalf. I do, after all, have about a million bags around the house already. They were SO cool, though! There was one in particular with brown and pink color scheme and it had monkeys on it. Oh, but it didn’t happen. And that is life.

So then it was time to open the doors, and my job was to hand out tickets to the book signing as people walked in – we were trying to stagger people in groups so they wouldn’t have to wait in a gawdawful line, but it just didn’t work out very well because everyone chose to be in the first group. Still, I had fun greeting everyone as they came in, and I had to keep reminding myself and my friends that I was supposed to be working and that I was holding up the line by chatting even for a moment. (Duh!) The auditorium filled up just about completely, but everyone who showed up managed to get in. Here’s a picture of the crowd right before Stephanie came out.

You can see my friend and Yarnery coworker Jess on the stage in this one – she sang Oh, Canada! in both French and English to welcome Stephanie. In fact, someone videotaped her, and you can see it on YouTube if you like.

I got to meet and also re-visit lots of friends, acquaintances and readers during the event overall, but I was particularly happy to meet Flan and Kathleen. Flan reads here, and I read their blog. Kathleen flew in from wherever exactly it is that she lives somewhere in the deep south (Atlanta?) and it was very cute to see the two of them together. Anyway, nice ladies.

And we all sat down and listened to the Harlot and she was incredibly funny as we all expected and we all laughed and had a great time for an hour. It was great! Then, there was the neverending line for the signing and since I was still sort of staff, I hung around all over the place talking to various people and helping out a little bit when I could. I met the guy who makes the awesome bags I was telling you about a minute ago, and I begged him to come leave me a comment here so that I can find his etsy site and maybe even buy the remaining monkey bag that he says exists in his possession. Dude! I can’t even remember your name, but you rock! Please, oh please e-mail me – shellyk at shellykang dot com! This guy also was knitting a beautiful knee sock out of his own handspun that I think he had dyed himself. And there were lots of other very nice people with interesting projects, and I am SO bad with names it is embarrassing.

And anyway, three hours later the line eventually slowed to a trickle and then finally we were down to the last handful of people waiting to get our book signed, say something nice to Stephanie, and take a photo or five. Having hung around all over the place, including just a few feet away from the signing table for much of the time, I was amazed at Stephanie’s grace in dealing with So.Many.People. with such patience and wit. Even though she’s been on an insane schedule with almost no sleep all week. She could easily be a poster child for caffeine. But then it was my turn, and I stepped up and put my book down and she looked up at me and said “You’re Shelly and I helped get all those knitters to bury you with yarn for that blanket you’re holding.” and I started blathering about yes, and thank you and you don’t know how much fun I had with that and blah blah blah thank you some more… and she signed my book and we took some pictures and boy I look good with my middle section hidden behind the blankie because that is where at least twenty pounds of the remaining baby weight is hidden.

And at that point it was very late, and although I was still jazzed up from the excitement of the event, I was also very tired and aware that I had to get up with the girls in the morning and get them through their day. So I came home and crashed pretty quickly. Except that I did stop over at CafePress and ordered a t-shirt just like the one Stephanie was wearing because I am a shameless copy-cat and I love the geeky inside-jokedness of it all.

I had lots of knitting time last night as I was walking around talking to people, and yes, I can knit while walking and talking without looking. But it has to be plain stockinette stitch, preferably in the round. I had cast on a new sock and knit up just the short-row toe in preparation for just this scenario, and over the course of the evening I finished the foot of the one sock. I started the heel today. This is that KnitPicks blank yarn that I dyed up with the Wilton food dyes a few months back. I’m a little surprised with how nicely it’s turning out. Makes me want to experiment a little more, in fact. Actually, I’m thinking of dyeing up enough of the some stripes to make matching leggings for the girls for next fall. Julie has gotten so much wear out of her current pair, it makes more sense than knitting them sweaters, which will just get covered in food stains and/or taken off five minutes after I put them on.

I couldn’t resist sharing this shot with you. Here is one of the many reasons why I love my husband forever and see him as one of the sexiest men on the planet.

Joe doesn’t cook for beans, but he does clean up the kitchen after dinner more nights than not without complaint, even after a long hard day at work. That’s what I call love!

Finally, here’s Julie with her Duplo block creation from this morning. She had to fight Sophie off t get it built without the random chaos and destruction that only an almost-toddler can reap, and she had a fairly elaborate story to go with it about characters from various books and videos going to the hospital, riding on boats and trains, and living together in a city. This kind of shit is what makes it worth being a mommy for a living.

In case there were every any doubt, I love my little girl with a passion. It feels almost (and I hope I am not tempting fate here because I need this to be true) as if the gap that was rent in our relationship after Sophie was born, the one where I lost her complete trust and attachment by giving birth to another child who needed me even more than she did at the time, has been closing a bit in the last month or so. Julie has been more willing to cuddle with me again, has retaken the habit of crawling into my bed and cuddling in the mornings, and is more willing to come sit in my lap or just come over and lean on me in the way that she used to in the pre-Sophie era. Please, dear daughter, let’s hold on to that closeness for as long as we can!

And now dear readers, I am off to go make up with the blankie. It’s hungry for yarn, and I’ve got three new DVDs waiting. Barring unforeseen obstacles, there will be a Blankie Friday tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 1:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.