Incoherent Scribblings

Here is my “Americana Sampler” all finished into a flatfold. The background of this photo shows the fabric that I used for finishing: Isn’t it neat?

Now, about the cording…

After much debate about whether or not I wanted to use a lot of DMC to make the cording, I finally decided to use yarn as an alternative. The reason I was having such a dilemma over the matter was because I figured I would be irritated at myself if I used all that DMC for the cording and then needed one of the colors for actual stitching. (Hmm… didn’t I say I wasn’t a floss miser when it comes to DMC in the last post? Maybe that isn’t 100% true.)

So instead of using my DMC, I bought some red, white, and blue yarn and used it to make the cording. I wasn’t sure if I would like the effect that the yarn would give the piece, but in all honesty, I think it turned out great. The piece has a slightly rustic feel to it anyway and I think the yarn cording compliments it nicely.

Of course, I had to buy three huge skeins of yarn in order to make this foot or so of cording, but I decided today was as good a time as any to also buy some new knitting needles so that I can eventually use the left over yarn when the knitting bug bites me again.

I guess now I need to look through my knitting patterns and see if I can find something to knit so I can use all that yarn!

Have a great holiday if you are celebrating today!

I got a taste of re-entry shock the other day. You see, a couple of weeks ago I caught a cold. The cold turned into sinus infection and I needed antibiotics. I went to see the doctor. I have no health insurance. I live in America.

I blame Iowa for all of this. While living in Germany, not only did I have cushy private insurance, but in the four and a half years I lived there I didn’t have ONE sinus infection!

So I went to the see the doctor that has been my doctor in Small Town Iowa since I was 12. I went to the new clinic and to make my uninsured pain worse, was told that they would have to charge me the “new-patient” fee for an office call.

I told the receptionist that I couldn’t be a new patient; I have been coming here since I was a baby, and surely they had my records. In fact, the last time I was here was in February 2002. Apparently they had either lost or decommissioned my file, because the receptionist claimed they didn’t have any records for me.

$111 later, I got to see my doctor (who remembered me!) and was told what I already knew: I had a sinus infection. Drugs Medicine was prescribed and now I am hopped up on antibiotics and over the counter nose spray. But damn if I don’t feel better!

Cat-O-Lantern
Originally uploaded by blondelibrarian.

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday and this year I got to do something that I have wanted to do ever since she was a baby: This year I celebrated Halloween with my niece. Of course, by waiting until this year I got a bonus: Now that my nephew is here I got to celebrate his first Halloween with him too.

Once upon a time, a young, hip mom found a cowardly lion baby costume that was just the perfect size for her baby. He looked so adorable when he tried it on that the mom was conned in to declaring that Baby would celebrate his first Halloween as the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz.

The young, hip mom also had a daughter and it just so happened that the little girl’s current favorite movie was The Wizard of Oz. With charm (and a little bribery) the mom convinced her daughter that she should be Dorothy for Halloween. The little girl (who, from now on will be referred to “Dorothy”) was very excited to be Dorothy and her enthusiasm was so contagious that her aunt nominated herself to be the Scarecrow. Because Dorothy and the Scarecrow were teasing the mom about how wicked she was, the mom decided then and there to be the Wicked Witch of the West. And true to her wicked ways, a few days later she drafted the dad into being the Tin Man.

And so it was done: On All Hallows Eve, Dorothy (and Toto too!), the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Wicked Witch of the West started out from Munchkinland and worked their way up the yellow brick road to the Land of Oz.

The entourage stopped along the way to gather chocolate nourishment and was requested several times to sing for its supper. Dorothy and the Scarecrow sang and danced their way up the road while the Witch and Tin Man pushed the Cowardly Lion in a cart. The ordeal was so frightening that the Cowardly Lion fell asleep half-way through the journey.

After Dorothy clicked her heels for the Fairy GrandGodmother the little group ended up back at Dorothy’s house in Kansas Iowa. The Cowardly Lion was asleep by this time so the Tin Man stayed with him while Dorothy and the Scarecrow hopped in on to the Witch’s car broomstick and drove flew off into the night to finish celebrating Halloween.

The End.

Hogback Bridge
Originally uploaded by blondelibrarian.

Last weekend was the annual Covered Bridge Festival in Madison County, Iowa. Now if you are thinking, “Hmm… it seems to me I have heard of these Madison County Bridges before,” you would be right. A few years ago (10 or so to be exact) there was a movie that starred Clint Eastwood and Meryl Steep entitled The Bridges of Madison County that you might (or might not) have seen. This movie was based on a book of the same name by Robert James Waller that you might (or might not) have read. (In case you were wondering, I have not seen the movie, but I have read book.)

Now, Madison County had this annual covered bridge festival long before the book or movie ever came out, but when the book was on the best-seller list and the movie was filmed on location (Clint and Meryl apparently even bought places to live in Madison County while they filmed), the festival became heavily commercialized and a huge tourist attraction… And in all my years in Iowa living less than 50 miles from Madison County, I had never attended the Madison County Covered Bridge Festival until last weekend.

On Saturday morning about 10:00 I stumbled downstairs in my blue and green IKEA robe to eat my morning bowl of oatmeal when Mom (who had been awake for a couple of hours) bounced into the kitchen and said, “Let’s got to Winterset today! They are having a quilt show as part of the Covered Bridge Festival.” I had planned a fulfilling day of nothing, but since Mom seemed so excited I decided I could take a shower after all and get my butt out of the house to see quilts and bridges. So I did and a little more than an hour later we were on the road.

With the exception of these covered bridges, the festival is a fairly typical small town festival. The town square was blocked off and full of craft and food vendors selling things at outrageous prices that for whatever reason you must buy and/or eat. And is tradition at these types of things, before we could see the bridges or quilts Mom and I had get our sugar rush by buying very crispy funnel cakes covered in powdered sugar. Once we could face the afternoon we purchased our tickets for the quilt show and covered bridge tour. And because we are always in such a rush to do things, we finally even managed to get the next to the last tickets for the last scheduled covered bridge tour of the day.

While we were waiting for the bridge tour, we went to the quilt show. I think this is the first quilt show I have ever attended and I was totally enamored by all of the beautiful quilts. Each quilt was displayed wonderfully with a little document next to it that not only had the quilter’s name on it, but a story about the quilt. Some were quilts that grandmothers had quilted for grandchildren, but the ones that I liked the best were the ones that had “history” to them: You know, the ones that someone puts together after inheriting grandma’s (or great-aunt’s or great-grandma’s) scrap bag. Someday I hope to piece together a quilt top (actually it is on my 1001 Days list) and this little quilt show really inspired me: I just wanted to rush home and start piecing away!

Finally it was time to load up on the school tour bus and go see the bridges. Our guide was a Madison County native so he gave us a lot of interesting history about the bridges and the surrounding area. As a librarian I was slightly offended that all of the interesting trivia bits he gave concerned the movie instead of the book, but sadly in this day and age I suppose it is likely that more people on the bus had seen the movie than had read the book. Six covered bridges remain in Madison County and all six are on the National Register of Historic Places: We saw four of them and got to get out and walk around on two of them.

It was a fun day and Mom and I considered going back the next day to see the parade, eat more funnel cakes, and finally try one of those pickles on a stick, but it rained and I had to work on Sunday night anyway.

My dad taught me to drive when I was 13 in the good old-fashioned Midwestern way: We took a tractor with a manual transmission into the middle of a field and practiced over and over again until I could drive around the field without killing the tractor.

A year later when I was eligible for my driver’s permit, I had to take the written test four times before I passed it. I suppose if I had actually opened the driver’s manual I might have only had to take it once or twice, but, you know, I was 14 and I knew everything.

When I was a sophomore in high school I took driver’s education and when I finally turned 16 in May I didn’t have to parallel park or worry about who went first at an uncontrolled intersection because I didn’t have to take a driving test. My successful completion of driver’s education was enough to allow me to be on the streets unaccompanied just a few days after my sixteenth birthday.

By the time I took the written test in Mississippi ten years later I had quite a few years of practical driving experience under my belt and, as a result, I passed that test with flying colors.

A couple of years later I was overjoyed to learn that Mississippi had a reciprocal agreement with Germany and I wouldn’t need to spend hundreds of Euros for driving lessons. Once again, I only needed to take a written exam. German driving tests are known for their difficulty, but I was able to pass even their written test with just one error.

I only drove a few times when I was in Germany, but since those licenses never expire I can use my German driver’s license to drive in America for now. And I have: I have been be-bopping around town ever since I got back two weeks ago in my old Chevy Malibu knowing that technically I am legal, but feeling a little bit dishonest about it nevertheless.

Therefore, one of my top priorities upon my return has been to get my Iowa driver’s license. Of course I want to be able to “legally” drive, but, as my American readers will confirm, a driver’s license functions as so much more than merely a license to drive here. And besides, the sooner I get my driver’s license, the sooner I will begin to really re-exist here.

So, last week I picked up the driver’s manual and have been flipping through it at my leisure. I took the written exam yesterday and very nearly had a perfect score. (My only error occurred because I carelessly marked a wrong box.) However, since my last American driver’s license had been expired for more than a year I was told that I would also need to take a driving test.

Even though I have never taken an actual driving test, I made an appointment for this morning with confidence. After all, I have been driving for nearly half of my life and besides, as long as I wear my seatbelt and use my turn signals how tough could it actually be?

When I arrived I joked around with the driving examiner because he had misspelled my name on the form. I proudly handed him my mom’s insurance card and calmly waited as he inspected my mom’s 2001 Pontiac that only has 37,000 miles on it. I didn’t pay attention to what he was marking as we drove around town through uncontrolled intersections and parallel parked. I turned off the radio and remembered to keep both hands on the steering wheel. I was glad I had worn a shirt that complements my complexion and hoped that for once in my life I would take a decent driver’s license photo.

And when we got back to the courthouse 15 minutes later, he told me he doesn’t like the way that I “roll” through stop signs and that he will see me again when I can actually come to a complete stop.