A random thought

Maybe the reason so many of us (and I include myself in at least one of the following categories) are so crazy, angry, or needy, is that our credit cards get validated more often than we do.

(Yeah. There was a little sign at the JoAnn's about "please hand credit card to cashier for validation" and I was like I WISH I COULD HAND MYSELF TO SOMEONE FOR VALIDATION).

And no, I didn't get to use my "store credit" - the place was slammed, there were literally two (2) women working the entire giant store, and by the time I got to the cash register, there were ten people behind me. I MENTIONED the store credit in case the cashier said, "Oh, that's easy! It's in my system, just show me some ID" but it wasn't, she just grunted at me, and so I figured...


well, I figured either:

a. I use it when I come back on some random Thursday (I am not shopping on Saturdays any more)

or

b. they get to keep my crummy $21, I never shop there again, and I just mail order all my craft supplies. And I admit, I had a bit of an angry/ugly cry in my car afterward because I am SO fed up with having to drive 45 minutes (at least) for anything beyond a wal-mart and why is everything so hard and there are too many people and no one ever listens to me and and and. And how much I wish we had a real craft store in my town still, instead of a pathetic half-aisle of Red Heart and a few bolts of fabric at the wal-mart. And how much I miss the quilt shop. And how tired I get of this place some times, where most people see nothing wrong with driving to freaking DALLAS for stuff and I can't even bear the drive to Sherman....

well, it was partly being "hangry" (though I don't get angry when hungry, I get weepy), so after a smoked turkey sandwich at the good barbecue place (and maybe now smoked turkey is the favorite thing of mine that they do....with pulled pork RIGHT behind it and the ribs RIGHT behind them. Seriously, I've never had a bad meal there, and I eat there a lot). The owner wasn't there today so I didn't get high fived but at least the people working there were friendly.

But the rest of the day was effortful because everything was crowded. It had been a long time since I shopped on a Saturday afternoon (I had been doing Fridays in the summer. And I STILL could, I just wouldn't get off very early....). At least the natural-foods store now carries the little turkey sausages I like, so I bought a couple packages (they are frozen so they keep well).

AND THEN, I found that Kroger's has them too! They have a separate little frozen case with the veggie/gluten-free/all natural stuff in it, over by the produce. And while they were currently out of turkey sausage, they had some pork ones....so I looked, and they are equally low in sodium. So I bought a box.

But these are the perfect "I need protein" (or "I need a quick meal") "but I don't know what to fix" foods - they are fully cooked so you just have to zap them for a bit in the microwave or heat them in a pan.

So yeah. And I got what I needed to cook the meatballs for church tomorrow. (We are having a potluck and the secretary was concerned about there being no set main dish, so I decided to make the raspberry-sauced turkey meatballs I do - and do a double batch). I didn't get the chicken I need for feeding the college kids Tuesday night but I can pick that up here in town at the Green Spray, so they get a little business.

But yeah. Too many people, and too many loud people, and too many demanding people (The checkout line got stacked up partly because the people a few folks ahead of me were arguing with the cashier over something). But I do sometimes wind up feeling kind of ignored and tired and sick of it all after shopping at those big stores when they are busy. I'd shop exclusively at small businesses EXCEPT we don't really have any.

That said: the people at the Green Market are nice. I like shopping there even though they are crazy expensive on stuff and don't have quite everything I use. But they do have some things - like the canned pureed sweet potatoes - I cannot get anywhere else.

****

All of that said - my most recent small Webs order came. This was a specialty order of some washable-but-100%-wool yarn (luckily they had a closeout that was perfect: Schachenmeyer Wool 85). Someone posted on Ravelry about Hats for Sailors and upon thinking about it - I want to knit a few hats for that. For a couple reasons: first, a young woman my mom was the "baptismal sponsor" for is now in the Coast Guard (my parents' church was doing a thing for a while where mature members could sign up to talk with and listen to the concerns of a candidate for baptism). And secondly, this is how my imagination works: I may not be able to travel to faraway places, but I like the thought that one of the little hats I knit might. Whether it's keeping someone warm on a Coast Guard cutter in the Great Lakes, or going with someone in the Navy into the North Pacific, or whereever.

Hats I can manage. I admit I still have a Red Scarf on the needles I never finished. I suppose I could pull it out and figure out where I am and try to finish it but I don't even know if that project is still going on - Hats for Sailors is still active on Ravelry so I know they are still going.

(They remind that both men and women are sailors....some of the yarn I bought was a nice unisex blue, some was a softer mango color, some was more of a blaze orange).  Maybe these even become my invigilating knitting, and if anyone asks, I can tell them. I have enough for three hats, or maybe four if I do one in stripes of the two blues.

I wish Woolease were acceptable, I have tons of that I could use, but they specified washable 100% wool and I presume that is for warmth as I bet most places it gets really cold out at sea, especially at night....