Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The Last Few Details

Yesterday was as crazy as I expected it to be, although the full force of how crazy it was going to be didn't hit me until nap time, when I began making the snoods that I need to ship out sometime in the next 26 hours and realized that I had 14 to sew, which, is about 14 hours of snood making.  I stayed up late and have an estimated 3 hours left to go today.

This is what happens when you spend so much time packing that you start to think, "oh sure, I have some orders to do, but I'll have time to do them all tomorrow!"  I am very, very thankful for the sudden rush of orders, however, because they're helping pay for our trip back to California which is a huge blessing (and the shop is now closed so I don't get in even more over my head today!).

It's a good thing that I do enjoy sewing...  When I was talking on the phone with my mom yesterday and mentioned that I was bringing my sewing machine along in it's new rolling case (mother's day gift!  Yay!!!)  and that I was hoping I'd be able to sew in the evenings after the girls went to sleep, she may have thought I'd completely lost it.

If I'm honest with myself, knitting needles and rosary making supplies should be sufficient to keep my always-need-to-be-doing-something-when-sitting-still hands busy (it's sick... I get excited about car trips because I know I'll have ample time to work on projects!)... but I figure if I'm knitting/holding pliers in the van all day long those muscles will probably be so tired as to need a break... and sewing doesn't require the same muscles/calluses as knitting or twisting wire.

Besides, having the sewing machine will keep me from bringing a giant garbage bag full of yarn just in case I somehow knit 1000 faster than I normally do and finish every craft project I've brought along.  And that doesn't even take into account the couple dozen snoods I machine finished that still need to be hand sewed, proving that when it comes to bringing along projects "crazy" would probably be a rather accurate term, although I like to think of it as "keeping busy."

Today is the last day to get things done.  The car needs new tires (apparently the ones that came with it are cracking...).  I need to print out the new AAA cards just in case our problems extend beyond the tires.  There's the packing of all the princess dresses that Sadie thinks we need to bring, and the final cleaning of the house, so that the teeny tiny ants that invade periodically don't find anything on their next visit.  And hopefully Paul can squeeze in time to use the $9 groupon I bought for a car wash and (more importantly) a professional cleaning inside the van (let's face it, there's not much to be done for the outside).

Now to go and actually do the things I've been thinking about doing since I woke up an hour ago.

I'm so excited.  I've only been dreaming of driving across the country for the past 17 years when I picked out a green notebook, covered it with Lisa Frank stickers (admittedly, I wasn't the "coolest" junior higher) and began charting a "road trip" my friends and I would take after we graduated from high school.  It only took and extra decade and a half to find a reason to hit the road!

And I'm extra excited to be leaving "the Swamp" (the new, affectionate term I've been using in my head more and more frequently when I think of South West Florida).  I'm just not the type of person who likes to step outside at 8am and be instantly soaked in 80 degrees, 5000% humidity sweat, and with the local water park closed down until September (I just don't understand why that wasn't a winter project...) I might have gone crazy waiting for the daily rain storms when the temperature becomes somewhat pleasant.  I'm ready for my triple digit dry Northern California heat!

3 comments:

  1. I've always had a cross country dream too, but not sure I'll ever have an excuse to take it! Make sure you take pictures and post about it later for those of us who will live vicariously :).

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  2. I did the cross-country thing when our older daughter and husband moved out to Berkeley for his post-doc 3 years ago. I seem to remember lots of brown dirt from Texas to California and was very surprised to see how unattractive California was, until we hit the Bay area. (The coastal areas are much different, I know.)

    Not in a hurry to do it again, but then again, I didn't have projects to complete...just an angry cat to keep an eye on!

    Safe travels!

    Marie

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  3. Cam - you always amaze me. I'm bad at commenting these days, but I'm reading, praying for you, and I wish I could sew like you. Take care!!!

    (Enjoy the trip! I love car trips too).

    Blessings!

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