Oh, Hail No!

Ha! I'm so clever. Because there was a storm tonight. And it was hailing. And... Oh, never mind.

It was a pretty flashy storm, though. Lots of lightning and thunder and wind. And hail. (That's where the "Hail no" comes in.) I guess I knew it was going to storm pretty hard. I did, after all, choose not to go see the John Mellencamp concert on The Circle because of it. (And you know, me and John used to have a thing... remind me to tell you about this later.)

But, as is my usual modus operandi, I waited until the last minute before bringing my houseplants back inside. Actually, I waited until the last minute had well passed. All of a sudden, it's hailing and I'm whining "My rubber tree! My pineapple! My tomato plant!" (Okay, tomato is not a houseplant, but I'd just put it out yesterday.)

So T, my hero, armors himself with a laundry basket over his head and goes out on the patio in the hail to save my poor plants. What a guy. Meanwhile, R is no help at all. He just watched, laughing at his poor dad, fighting the elements to make me happy.

Someday he will marry a crazy lady too. (He won't be able to help himself. That's how we crazy women snag the good guys. You know what I'm talking about.)

Look at my poor tomato plant. It looks like crap, even after I tied it back up to the stake. And it was only out in the hail for a few minutes. Think what would have happened if T had not saved it!

I probably should finish T's Chaos Sweater now. I mean, he went out in the hail and lightning...

I did knit today. Started an Isabeau purse. using Sugar and Cream cotton. I didn't realize that is such a small bag. No way will that hold all the crap I have to have. (Not to mention that M has her own purse and yet somehow she always hands me something "Here, hold onto this for me, Mom.") Even without her stuff, let's face it. The days of the cute little purse with some cash and a lipstick are gone for me.

The days of just a lipstick being enough makeup are gone for me.


So I frogged it out. I added another lace repeat to the width of it and then made it about twice as long. I think this will work. Here's a closeup of the pattern stitch, in case you're one of those who like closeups of the pattern stitches. It's okay if you are. I'm one of those who like to post a lot of pix, so we're pretty well suited in that area. Actually, the color is somewhere between these two pix.

The pattern is pretty easy to memorize, so once I'd done it a couple of times, I just let the brain go into beta mode (no jokes from you) and knit away while I was watching Sci Fi Channel tonight.

Yes, that's right. I stayed home and watched "Dark Kingdom" instead of going to see Johnny play live on Monument Circle. But don't read anything into that. I just didn't want to get caught in the rain. It has nothing to do with what happened the last time John and I met. What we had was so fleeting, and so long ago... It's better this way.

I was a young college student, working at my first television job. He was an up-and-coming pop star. When I learned he would be a guest star on the music video program our station produced, I begged to work the booth (the production booth). But no, they said. You're such a hick, Pat, they said. You'll just end up making a fool of yourself, they said.

And then, they kept sending me out on assignments! They made me do my actual job! Until it was so late, I was sure that John had left the building. Crushed, I gathered the tapes for the evening news broadcast and climbed the stairs to Production.

When... You know that funny move you do when someone is coming down the stairs right where you are coming up? And then you both move to the same direction? And then you both move in the opposite direction? And then again? And so you're kind of bouncing back and forth like a moron?

At that point, John stopped me. He gave me the kind of smile you give someone who bobbles back and forth in front of you like... I don't know... a stupid bobbly thing. He gave me a courtly bow and said "I thank you for the dance, ma'am."

And just like that, he was gone from my life... And I never told him how I felt...

It wouldn't have worked anyway. I was engaged. He was married. We'd never met... And then, of course, I would've had to explain myself to Sting.

But that's a story for another day.