travel

I finished the top for Pentagon papers tonight. I don't have any photos, because it's dark and it's late and it's Friday and … do I really have to make more excuses here?

… yeah, thanks.

I need to flip the quilt top over, trim any seam allowances that are too large, and then press it … but of course, pressing it means re-filing all of the fabric that I've pulled out this week to finish PP. It does seem like every round of tasks comes with seventeen codicils these days, but it is what it is.

I'll clean off the ironing board, trim the seam allowances, clean off the sewing table, pin the quilt, and get to work.

I'm actually mourning the lack of more pentagons to make — I never thought I'd say it, but life in its current state is often a lonely and solitary beast, and those pentagons have kept me company in a lot of strange places. I toted this project to …

Travel looks glamorous for the first thirty seconds, especially when it's work travel. New places! New things! The implication of being skilled enough that you need to take your skills to the people who need them!

Except it isn't really like that. It's looking at your cats and saying, "Shit, honey, I'm so sorry. Please don't bite the cat-sitter. I have to go to the airport again…"

I knew I'd flown one too many times this past week when I walked up to the coffee stand and said, "Oh, when did the coffee machine break? It was working when I was here a few days ago…"

I spent a few days in Washington DC, at Matthew's house. It was an actual vacation, albeit a short one. I felt vaguely ashamed at how I roosted on the couch for the entire weekend, barely moving, but I wasn't ashamed enough to actually get up and do something about it.

My vantage point:

It was a good, and needed, rest. My unnamed pentagonal hand-sewing project, code-named Bow Tie Pasta, got plenty of love. We watched the entirety of the UK version of The Office (♥), the Rifftrax for Inception, and more. It was absolutely what I needed.

Two trips coming up. I'm in a frantic rush right now, looking to my to-do list every few minutes to make sure I'm accomplishing the Things That Must Be Done, for the countdown to takeoff is looming in my ears.

I'll be hitting the East Coast for both trips; one trip is business and the other is pleasure. I'll mark "Massachusetts" off my to-do list of states, and that's a win, right?

I've restocked groceries, gotten Jeff for an extended weekend, bought traveling supplies, done laundry, made two batches of hot pepper jelly, and scribbled down lots of random things into my digital to-do list. Last night, I did my best to let my brain go into Trip Mode in an organized manner, by curling up with my notebook and my to-do list and dumping in everything I could.

It beats waking up in the middle of the night before your trip and thinking OH CRAP I DIDN'T DO…

I'm bad about that. Perfectionism; it does have a down side.

I'm a bit more careful about broadcasting my location these days, but now that I'm — uh, back in Alabama? — I'll say that I had a good time in Minnesota. I should post some pictures, shouldn't I? First up, though, a gentle bit of listening pleasure for your Friday. Guster still sounds like Guster, but the images in this video are the real winner.

[‘Book is for ideas, change is for luck’]

It’s time to go. I’ll spend an hour and a half at work today, tidying up some unfinished business, and then I’ll head to Atlanta. A long lunch with a friend will segue into me dropping off my car, then a trip on MARTA to the airport.

Paris, like it always has, awaits. I’m bringing my red shoes.  They worked for Dorothy, after all.

[‘Things to take on the plane’]

(Twitter reposts begin tomorrow.)