Tatting, Travel and other news

My tatted bookmark is close to finished! This piece will be called "The Doctor's Bookmark". Not because I am a doctor (although I am, albeit retired from practice) but because it was almost entirely tatted in doctors' waiting rooms!

So, according to my post of one week ago, I should be somewhere in Virginia right about now. Clearly I am not. It's been a heck of a week!

The good news is that the quizo with my former students was TONS of fun, the CTMH crop went really well and I finished a bunch of cards to send to Cards for Heroes, and Mom's procedure went great- her vision improved dramatically almost immediately!

All my doctor's appointments were kept. Since all of them ranged from not-too-bad to bad news, we won't talk about them. Nothing life-threatening in any of them, just lots of aggravation, lots of time to be spent in hospitals for tests and offices for procedures and such, and lots more interference in any ability I might have to live "normally" and not have to have my schedule controlled by health issues.

Dinner with the Aunties was supposed to be fun- my youngest Auntie up here- who is SUCH fun all the time- and my Florida Auntie were finally going to meet! Well, Florida Auntie ended up in the hospital for several days which meant a) no dinner and b) significant changes to the travel plans.

So, instead of the side trip to western North and South Carolina- which was to have included a day at The Biltmore!- we will be driving straight to Florida. While I am certainly a little disappointed, I am totally NOT upset- whatever is best for darling Auntie is absolutely what I want to do.

Now we will leave on Sunday morning, hopefully arrive in Florida on Monday evening, spend Tuesday at the hospital for Auntie to have more tests, and Wednesday with her own doctor to review the tests and the hospital reports, and get things situated for her to be fully healthy again. Presuming a good report, then the fun begins.

The rest of the revised schedule includes a trip to St. Petersburg to visit the P.Buckley Moss gallery there, hopefully a chance to get together with my friend and high school classmate who lives about an hour from Auntie, and lots of restful time reading and tatting, and sitting in my favorite chair on the lanai. Then, the following Monday it is Off To Chicago to visit my favorite DB and his wonderful family until Labor Day!

I spent some time the other night, when the insomnia was raging, AGAIN, to go around the Internet and find tatting patterns that would be good for my trip. Working on the bookmark showed me that my stitches and my picots are far from uniform- it's been a LONG time since I seriously tatted anything- so I collected and printed out 10 motifs that will be good practice and I can include in my 25 motifs challenge. Whether I also take some cross stitch will depend on the room in my backpack. I have to travel light as I will be flying solo, with crutches, and therefore need to have as little carry-on as possible- and I certainly would not risk a piece of needlework in checked luggage that might get lost. So, it's likely that tatting will be the only needlework I take.

OK- this is turning into an epistle of immoderate length. Time to get back to my to-do list for today- which is LONG!

Hope it is NOT as hot where you are as it is here. Have a GOOD day!