I am a Mad Genius

(I need a picture of the Mad Hatter, I think)...(voila!)

Wednesday night I hit the road late (like 10 pm), so I was pulling in to Redding at 1 am. What was on my mind? Corset-foo....

By 1:30 am I had the kids unloaded and tucked in bed, the car unloaded and the obligatory phone call to the spouse to let him know I was safely tucked into Motel-X (and he'd get the bill. lol)... Instead of going to bed, I pulled out the offending corset.

Umm.. yes, I was on a trip to visit Great Grandma in Oregon, not on a sewing holiday. What was I doing with the corset? and my sewing machine? and my sewing gadgets?.... I had a wild notion to pack them. No reason, just "madness"....I really had no expectations of having time to sew during the visit... or did I? (squinchy eyes...)

For the last hour of the drive, all I could think of was my project. It ate my brain. And since I was apparently possessed by some precognative force, I had packed my sewing machine as well as every scrap of fabric, trim, ribbon and braid I was thinking of possibly using for this project (except the hook and eye tape... grrr) The "project" gorp easily took up half the space in the back of my car when balanced against the stuff for the kids and I.

At 1:30 am I was hacking off 4 inches from the back of the corset. And the insanity began ... cut for your protection just in case it's contagious ( Read more... )

Welcome to Oregon, here's your speeding ticket...

Day 2 of travel... operating on 4 hrs of sleep, sewing adreniline, and at least half way through my 12-pack of diet coke, I get my first ever traffic ticket in Oregon. Location: Interstate 5, Medford, OR, 2:30 pm

( My Adventure with Oregonian State Trooper )

Other Highlights of the drive:

Caboose Motel outside Weed - Nicholas was car sick and we randomly pulled over and discovered this spot. I'll be booking some overnight stuff there for our trip to the family camping adventure in July. Very cool. The kids totally dug it.

Snow in the Siskiyous and Mt Ashland. Snow on the ground on the trees. The trees looked flocked. Very cool.

A roadside sign saying "Vinyl Is The Answer". I giggled over that. It was a reference to house siding.

We dropped into Ashland for an hour and puttered around. Evie lost her new toy and that became an object lesson. We found some book stores and got some kids' books and some hand-made candy.

I love the Medford-Ashland area. I love the Hwy 42-I5 area, too. I'd move there if there was work and if the spouse could be pried loose from the Bay Area... and if we could somehow wave a wand and suck all our family (blood and self-made) up there. Just freaking beautiful. I love the mountain back drop.

Coos Bay is NOT at Hwy 42 and 101. It's about 16 more miles up the road. Feh! Just when I thought I was done I had 16 more miles to go.

It felt like every family member with a freaking cell phone was calling and tracking my progress. And they were confused at how long it was taking. Jeez - you do a 500+ mile trip with 2 kids that have bladders the size of walnuts, constant appetites and a tendency to car-sickness. Humph! Get real, people.

The last 2 hrs of the drive on Hwy 42 were torture. I was so tired and having the worst time staying alert. feh! Nicholas had to go to the bathroom AGAIN in the middle of nowhere!!! So I pulled over and had him aim away from my car. Irony would have been another State Trooper driving by, but that didn't happen. The pull over did perk me up.. all the racing around the car and supporting his weight so he didn't pee on me, my car or himsefl.

We pulled in to Grandma's around 6pm. Grandma and Uncle George were ecstatic. The screech monkeys were overjoyed at being out of the car. They pretty much bounced off the walls until 10 pm or later. I'm not sure what time they crashed. The three of us were sleeping in the family room and I fell asleep mid-conversation shortly before 9 pm. I know I woke up around 10 pm to call the spouse and say something like, "We're here. I love you. I need to sleep. Will talk tomorrow." He said, "love you, too. Okay". I fell asleep again. Even later I vaguely recall sitting up at one point in a zombie-like state and clicking off the TV to the protest to the screech monkeys... who were greatly subdued at that point.

At least I had the sofa to myself for a little while. At some point little girl screech monkey got off the floor because she got cold. She climbed on top of me and burrowed into the comforter to sleep. That was... fairly uncomfortable. BUT...she was so happy to be snuggled in so I dealt with it for as long as I could before I tucked her back in her sleeping bag. This became a recurring theme each night, too. She's so cute.