Monday, October 23, 2017

Never Never Land

I disappeared for a while there - Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool happened this past weekend and I didn't want to miss the fun. I managed to spend all day Saturday there, and meet up with friends, and mingle with, I don't know, a few thousand knitters - so yeah, that was what I would call a good day. And I wasn't even succumbing to the temptation to buy yarn until, well, I came across this:


Stonehedge Fiber's Crazy Yarn -
No 2 skeins alike!
Trade with your friends!


I grabbed only 6 skeins, which believe me shows a remarkable level of restraint. I also bought a lucet (yeah, until Saturday, I had never heard of it, either), an excellent fresh-baked pretzel, and - for some reason - a set of leather handles that are supposed to go on a large hand-knit felted bag that I have not created yet. A bag, in fact, that I was not even planning to create until I saw those handles...

I didn't buy this. But I wanted to.


Rhinebeck's weird that way - you end up buying things you suddenly HAVE to use. It's weird in other ways, too:



Now there's something you don't see every day


I drove to NJ next, to visit a friend's church. You see, I grew up with her and now she is an honest-to-God (pun fully intended) Presbyterian minister, which career neither of us - as young girls spending our summer days listening to Peter Frampton and Rod Stewart - would have predicted in a thousand years. Anyway, she's been ministering for a decade, yet I had never managed to see her in the pulpit until this past Sunday.  Life always got in the way.

Her parents drove with me to the church, where we seated ourselves in one of the front pews. Let me say here that I went there fully prepared to act like the 54-year-old adult that I am. But here's the problem: my friend and I haven't spent much time together as adults. So, as soon as we do see each other, some weird sort of age regression happens.

For example, when my mother passed away 7 years ago, my friend showed up at the house and paid a shiva call. She was dressed in her clerical garb and everything, so she looked very official and grown-up. I was dressed as the grieving daughter and also presented a passable imitation of a grown-up.

"So!" she said, after she expressed her condolences. "Did you ever figure out how your mom made her tunafish salad, or did she take that secret to the grave?" And there we were, 2 girls again, giggling our heads off and trying to hide it. I mean, I don't even know why that struck us as funny. You had to be there, as we used to say to each other, way back in the 1970s.

In retrospect, however, I thank God she couldn't make it to the graveside service. I mean, imagine...

So last Sunday there I was, in the front pew, looking forward to the service, when the processional began. And as my friend walked past our pew on her way to the pulpit, it occurred to me (and I think to her, also, simultaneously) that if we should make eye contact AT ALL during that service...well, let's just say that would result in a respectability problem. A solemnity problem. It didn't help that her parents were both there, sitting right next to me - obviously, their presence would only serve to amplify the age-regression syndrome.

I did the only thing I could do - I fastened my eyes on the hymnal and didn't dare look up. If I even thought about inadvertently catching my friend's eye, I felt giggles rising from wherever they start and fighting to reach the surface. Because, apparently, I haven't matured past the age of 12.

Although I do think I'm past the Rod Stewart phase, at least...




12 comments:

  1. Oh, how I love this! Not just that she's a PC(USA) pastor, which is my kind, but the giggles in church and other places they probably shouldn't be heard.
    On the other hand, they SHOULD be heard in church. After all, Isaiah means "laughter."

    ReplyDelete
  2. PS: Spent Friday afternoon AND Sunday afternoon at the state quilt show where I bought a book for more quilts I want to make but probably never will. Seeing all those beautiful works of art both inspired me and humbled me into a self-loathing puddle.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That car! That's a "Free to be you and me" car. I love the giggle thing too. My sister in law and I went to our temple once where you are only supposed to speak in whispers. We were having...a little bit louder giggly time. One of the workers commented that we seemed to be having fun, and luckily she seemed to mean it. She wasn't being uptight. It remains one of my favorite times there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A different friend and I were almost kicked out of High Holiday services in college because they had just updated the English translations in the prayer book and had replaced "Let us welcome the stranger" with "Guard us from xenophobia." I mean, really, what do they expect to happen when they do things like that?

      Delete
    2. And I just noticed - you're a fellow Book of June fan! Saw you in the comments...

      Delete
    3. Oh yes, but I am afraid to comment today. How do you think it will go over if i say my turn offs are people who can't tolerate religious people or people who hate exercise? Yeah, keeping that to myself. And you.

      Delete
  4. We saw that car, too! In fact, we had seen a woman wearing a dress made of fabric that looked very similar, so we guessed that it was hers. Might as well promote your yarn store while you're there, right?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm going to SAFF this weekend in Asheville, and I expect that I will end up with things/gadgets I had no intention of buying. Or probably haven't even heard of. And my rule---no yarn unless I have a project in mind for it probably won't work out either.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, love that crazy yarn - and I don't knit, but you make me wish that I did. I guess it would be really silly for me to purchase yarn with no hope of learning how to use it. Love the giggly friend thing. Sometimes being an adult just sucks, so better to giggle yourself back to childhood. I was reading Book of June, but haven't in awhile. Thanks for the reminder!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Old friends are the best - and the giggling, no matter how inappropriate the timing, is always a good thing.

    And really? Does anyone ever grow out of Rod Stewart?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Now you're making me sad I didn't go to Rhinebeck - been on a yarn diet, it's still marching band season so the bow had a competition, yadda yadda. Should have gone. I bought a lucet a couple of years ago, too. They're very compelling, but I haven't actually used for anything. Maybe I should dig it out and then I can pretend I went.

    ReplyDelete
  9. But what about the tuna salad?

    ReplyDelete