Tag: traveling

Forced to Craft Shop

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

Friday, Ken and I drove to Indiana to visit Vicki.  We got there late but I still stayed up until late talking with Vicki.  This is normal for a visit with one of my kids.

Saturday, we ran errands with Vicki and she forced me to go to JoAnn Fabrics.  We wandered for a while.  I may have spread glitter on her from some ribbon she was looking at.  It seems only fair since she forced me to go to the craft store.

Leaving the store, I had three bags of yarn, books, and supplies.  My wallet was lighter by quite a bit but I saved almost $65 which is more than half what I spent.  Surprisingly, I didn’t spend the rest of the day crocheting for her, though she did get two scarves out of the craft store trip.  It was fun to walk through and say “oohh, pretty, nice texture, hmm must have,” and pick up what we wanted.

A huge surprised, I picked up two skeins of yarn specifically for myself.  Vicki has them and is knitting me something.

My new books came home marred with tabs.  Vicki had to inspect them.  Of course during the inspection, she tagged all the things she liked.

The drive down was mostly uneventful.  We saw one accident which slowed us down around Chicago.  At one of the tolls, several cop cars had at least one semi-truck pulled over.  There were three cops at the back of the truck with bolt cutters.  I’d love to know more about that but of course we were driving so could stop to gape at the event.

The ride back was easy and had very little traffic.  This is always a good thing.  Basically I set my cruise and drove.  That makes the trip easy and pleasant.  We listened to a book most of the way back.  I woke up tired which is never a good thing but once we put the book in, it pushed back the tired.

Unfortunately, I got home, showered, and had every intention of working on writing but came to the living room and curled up in the recliner to nap for almost three hours.  Interestingly, I could probably turn out the light and go back to sleep.  However, in my head are two stories that started on the drive down.  I’m going to try to get at least the concepts down on paper.  In my head I have two or three other things I want to get done today.  What’s in my head and what will actually happen may very well be two different things.

MIA

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

For the last week, I’ve been traveling.  Ken and I went to visit all three of our daughters.  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed our family time.  I was very worried about not being able to go with all the problems I’ve had but I checked with the doctor and she said it was okay to travel.

Our southern girls gave us great hospitality and entertainment.  We played games, shopped, went to a movie, and visited an aquarium.  Since we don’t get to visit them often it was wonderful to meet their cats – two of my grand fur babies – Moo Shoo and Gus Gus.  They are adorable, of course.  The girls have a lovely apartment and we had a good visit.

Our midwest girl gave us great care when we showed up on her door tired from driving.  She took care of us, made us food and talked a lot.  We also went to her ortho appointment and her shoulder is on the mend.  We also went shopping and I found the shoes I love at a great price – saved myself about $50.

I was thrilled to come home though.  It has been a long week with driving and visiting and all the activities.  All of my daughters were careful about my foot issues which are doing much better.

As I drove home yesterday, I thought of all these things I need to get done.  I’ve done some of them this morning but my foot will soon drive me back to my recliner.  One last thing I want to work on is updating my todo list I have on the computer.  I have to cross off all the stuff I’ve gotten done and add in all the things that came to my mind when I was driving yesterday.

I wasn’t completely unplugged for the last week.  I did check my home email a few times but it was good to be mostly unplugged.  It was fun to focus on family and let the phone, email, and all the technology go for the week.

At the same time, I’ve been working on the computer this morning and it is like coming back to an old friend.  I’ve gotten a lot done including paying bills, submitting written work to different places, and checking on all my different publishing avenues.  I cleared a couple piles off my desk which is always a good thing.

While I was gone, I crocheted several scarves and slippers.  I enjoyed wandering around in JoAnn with my youngest daughter and Beth.  All of the items I crocheted stayed with my daughters.  My oldest daughter got the scarf she liked and my youngest got slippers she’s been nagging for and several scarves.  My middle got two scarves.

All in all – it has been a really good week.  Tomorrow I return to work and am looking forward to seeing my faculty and student workers.  I’m sure I’ll be stressed with all the emails I have and with catching up but that will pass quickly.

Summer Slipping Away

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

This summer I have a long list of writing projects to get done.  I have not worked on them at all.  I submitted one article for a contest but aside from that nothing.  I need to get focused.  It just seems like there is so much going on I have no time to consider my writing tasks. 

At work, my department is moving.  This week is filled with finishing the packing process and prepping for the movers.  They are coming on Monday to take all of our stuff upstairs.  It may be a bit of a crazy week plus for myself and the student workers.  Of course there are some things that can be packed in my office now and other things that have to wait for the last minute.  The problem is making the judgement call on each item. 

Last weekend I visited Vicki which was great.  I also discovered a less expensive way to travel to visit the other two girls in Georgia – that is SUPER exciting.  The cost savings means instead of going down every other year we may be able to go down every year and possibly more often then that.

This weekend I am hoping to get some of my craft room and office organized.  I have a number of tasks to get done and hopefully can make some good progress.  Hopefully I can work on a system for keeping track of my writing projects – where they are, leads, and so on.  I’ve got ideas in my head but at the same time I haven’t solidified what I want done.  One of the things I want to do this weekend is to sort through all my available yarn and put it into the bins that Ken set up for me (it is a wire crate type set of shelves).  This will make it easier for me to see what I have which will lead to me not buying yarn unless I need it rather than guessing that I might need it.  The crafter in my head is saying you always need more yarn – there can never be enough yarn, but I’m gagging her (or trying to) and being a responsible adult. 

I have a friend coming out to have lunch and chat.  I’m looking forward to her visit as we always have a good time together.  Ken will be off with his brother cutting up wood.  It will be just us girls.  I’m excited for this as I don’t often get time with friends just to hang out. 

Hopefully all of the activities this weekend will be multiple steps towards getting some of these writing projects and tasks done.  My biggest obstacle at this point is my messy office and that will be my focus this weekend.  Then I can hopefully post (somewhere) a list of things to get done and start crossing them off.