So where were we, O my long-suffering peeps? Yer anti-heroine has washed up on the shores of sunny Miami here to save the day and help the beautiful little oasis house find its new humans and ward off disaster.
The fear part? I think you can figure that out on your own. The joy? Wonderful new friends (Hi, Marnie & Tim! Hi, Dawn! Hi, Lynne! Hi, Kris! Hi, Gretchen!) and wonderful old friends. I have never in my life had such wonderfulness juxtaposed with such dreadful anxiety and uncertainty. Bizarre and weird and somehow OK all at the same time.
Ever since I reluctantly set off from Boulder to Miami all manner of amazing things have happened. It started in Bluff, Utah, our first night's stop out of Boulder. When the owner of the Recapture Lodge heard that we are volunteer firefighters and that I am (was) studying for my Basic EMT, he wouldn't let us pay for our room. You see he's the fire chief of Bluff and he said that all firefighters get a free first night at his place. And then there was the small matter of a teeny, tiny local firefighter/EMT Dawn who had saved his life a few months earlier when he collapsed due to an heart arythmia. He was paying it forward.
Peeps, I NEVER forget my purse anywhere. But I forgot my purse at the lodge and didn't realize it till we arrived, 2 1/2 hours later in Farmington, New Mexico. That's a 5 hour roundtrip to fetch it. And we were already behind on our deadline to get to Asheville, NC for a furniture conference/show where teh boyo teaches every year. We call the Lodge and lo and behold, Diana, the EMT we had heard about, is studying to be a massage therapist and her classes are in Farmington. She will bring my purse to me. Disaster averted. Are you with me so far?
I'm a massage therapist studying to be an EMT. She's an EMT studying to be a massage therapist. When we met up at the local Target/Starfucks coffee shop we just looked at each other and laughed. I told her that I had heard all about her and figured that forgetting my purse was the universe's way of having us meet. We agreed to meet up and do trades when I get back to Boulder. Folks, unless you live in or have visited our tiny towns in the middle of bumfuck nowhere southern Utah, you are not likely to appreciate how unlikely someone immediately heading our way was. Teh Boyo and I fell in love with Bluff and plan to go back to explore the area. It's a wonderland of rivers and redrock and petrogylphs and more.
The saga continues. We make our way across the country to Asheville, actually finding decent food enroute. We get to Asheville and set up our booth and start teaching the classes. I'm the assistant. Enrollment is down and we're worried about the outcome of the show, ie. selling Teh Boyo's beautiful furniture. We need not have worried. We sell scads of beautiful shawl pins and coasters, three lamps including two of my first lamp design ever(!), and a pair of beautiful, curly red oak adirondack chairs. Wahoo!
And I reach out to pet the scarf of a knitter walking by the booth and meet Marnie, lovely knitter recently relocated from upstate New York. The next day I met her beloved, Tim as he took his turn at the show. So now I've got a knitterly friend in Asheville and we've got a year to plot next February's pillaging of Asheville yarn stores, heh.
Story to be continued tomorrow. With pictures because my friend Neesy has lent me her canon camera cord. And are you sitting down? I finally finished the Scarf of Doom. Pictures at 11.
That chair is gorgeous. Sounds like a sucessful show. And yes, what a cosmic experience with your purse. Bluff to Farmington isn't exactly the well beaten path. We will have to patronize the Recapture Lodge next time we stay in Bluff. Did you eat at the Twin Rocks Cafe?
Posted by: Sheila | March 14, 2009 at 07:12 AM