I left the house shortly after 7 am. The sun wasn't quite up yet, but it was on the way, which made driving then tolerable. Also traffic was very low, so I got onto the interstate with no problems, and from there onto 69. (To get from my house to Longview, you get onto 69/75 - which I call "the interstate," because it is, eventually 69 peels off and becomes effectively a 2-lane; 75 continues on south to Dallas).
I did wind up getting slowed down because I got trapped behind some random "OVERSIZE LOAD" - looked like a piece of heavy road equipment and I kept expecting it to leave at every point of road-construction but it didn't. So I was a tiny bit late getting to Stitches N Stuff, but that was okay.
It was good to see Laura. I don't get to see friends like her nearly enough because we live too far apart. We spent a long time talking, and also talking with Sue and Francis (the owners of the shop).
I found a nice rose-pink yarn for a vest I am planning to make eventually Poet's Vest, a free pattern from Lorna Miser. The yarn I bought is darker than the one shown there, and it's a Berroco merino wool. I also bought a skein of sockyarn and some size 0 needles - I have been looking at Nancy Bush's patterns again and some of hers require size 0s, or else they're men's patterns that could be made to fit me by dropping down a needle size. And I got some grey dk weight with tinsel in it, because I'm a sucker for sparkly yarn, and I wanted it for fingerless mitts.
From there, we went to Barron's for lunch....and shopping. I had plans to do a lot of Christmas shopping, and I got a lot of it done (stuff for my dad, who is hard to buy for, stuff for my brother, my niece's gift, and a couple small things for my mom and sister in law, both of which can be added to....I might give my sister in law an Amazon gift certificate in addition, I think she uses her Kindle a lot)
Some of that was from Books A Million....
We talked the WHOLE TIME we were shopping. I think once before someone at Books A Million assumed we were sisters (thinking we lived at the same location). I guess our coloring and build is similar, so it wouldn't be unimaginable....(Then again: in adoptive families, siblings could look very different, for that matter). Anyway, we can talk A LOT.
We also went to Michael's, she had heard that the Caron Cakes (variegated yarn) were on sale and wanted one. I had bought the Floppy Little Pony pattern (almost a beanie-baby style My Little Pony) and wanted to look for yarn for one....I didn't really have one in mind, had a vague thought of doing a Lyra or maybe even a Berry Punch....but I found orange yarn and the right shade of "not quite hot pink, not quite purple" in Red Heart Soft....so I'm going to make myself a second Scootaloo, and have this one be a sleepy pony.
(I couldn't think off the top of my head of any recent "background ponies" I wanted a version of....body shape is wrong for Bulk Biceps....and I didn't have any "OCs" brewing in my head I wanted to make up that way).
It was a good day. We split up around 3:30 and I just had to make tracks for home - I had plans to stop at Kroger on the way. That got truncated a bit - it became VERY overcast and it gets night FAST here in the evenings....and it's a new moon. And I see badly in the dark, and I really really hate driving in the dark. In fact, when I got off onto 82 (how you get to the Kroger), I got turned around because of construction, wound up on the wrong road, hit a couple potholes hard (doesn't seem to have damaged my car but I was scared at a time). Somehow, by the grace of God, I managed to retrace my steps (making a big box shape - none of those "access roads" are two-way, so if you get going on one the wrong way, you have to find an overpass to cross over to the other one). Finally got to the Kroger.
I had stopped previously at a Brookshire's in Emory or somewhere because I had to gas up and also I had drunk an extra-large iced tea to wake myself back up and also to stave off an incipient headache and....well, I had to get rid of that iced tea. I also quick bought four cans of apple pie filling ("to be polite" since I used their restroom, but also I needed it - I help feed the college-kids ministry Tuesday and I am making apple crisp as the dessert)
Anyway, I grabbed what I needed most (milk, some fruit, and a fresh jar of Duke's mayonnaise - which is my preferred brand these days and which can be hard to find) and paid and scrammed. By then it was very night out. I did my best, but I admit it scares me a lot driving in the dark - no familiar landmarks are visible, I don't judge distances well, oncoming drivers' headlights hurt my eyes. I tried doing the "Every minute you are safely on the road is a minute closer to being safely home" and I tried the old "anti-fear mantra" from "Dune" but finally the only thing that worked was praying a lot. I don't like driving at night because I don't judge distances well and I feel like the only thing I can see are the white lines - which, really, are probably all you need to see, but, fellow drivers aren't fun - there was one idiot weaving in and out of traffic, going about 15 miles above the speed limit (If there was any justice, I'd have seen him pulled over by a cop, but that didn't happen). There were also a couple of either overtired or impaired people - there was an 18-wheeler that kept slewing over onto the shoulder. I could have passed them but stayed behind on the grounds that I wanted to be able to see them, so I could take some kind of evasive action if I needed to. There was also someone who nearly sideswiped me, and then nearly sideswiped the 18-wheeler in front of me. Drunk? I don't know. But it reminds me why I dislike driving at night, especially on weekend nights.
I'm glad I went, and glad I got to see Laura, but also glad I made it back home.
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