Accidentally Invoking Adventure

For the past two years I've adopted a "Word of the Year" as a tool to help me focus on my personal growth and development. I've been auditioning new words, and one word popped up that I hesitated over.

Adventure.

I like the action of it, the daring, the take-charge-go-out-and-do-the-thing nature of the word.  But I hesitated because I tend to associate "adventure" with "things that went entirely pear shaped and now we're dealing with it," and THAT my friends, I am not interested in invoking for 2018 - particularly after the two consecutive tire fires that were 2016 and 2017.

I'll talk more about all of this in another post, but I'm bringing it up now because I want to tell you about my week.  I bet you can already see where this is going.

I flew down to our Florida office on Tuesday.  We have a new team member that I've been helping to onboard, and I wanted to spend some in-person time with my team. 

Yes Virginia, You Can Knit on a Plane

The trip down was easy-peasy.  Flights were on time, people were well-behaved, and my book was engrossing.   (Pro-tip: think carefully before picking a novel about a pandemic that kills over 2 billion people in a month if you're going to be reading in an airport.  Suddenly every sniffle and cough takes on new and sinister meaning.)

I spent a lovely couple of days spending time with people I really enjoy.  I went to dinner one night with two women I used to work with back when I was in Operations Training, and they caught me up on all the good gossip over wine and lobster rolls. 

After work one afternoon I went and got some Key Lime pie, and sat and knit for a while.  Because of reasons.

The weather was gorgeous, and my hotel room overlooked the ocean.  All in all it was an awesome three days.

I got to the airport on Friday for my return trip at about 10:30 am, for my 12:00 flight.  The Melbourne airport is small so security is usually pretty painless.   The guy at the return counter for my rental car asked me if I was sure I wanted to return the car - flights were being canceled because of weather.  (Mind you it's 75 F and sunny as we have this conversation).   Delta's app says all is copacetic, so I turn in my keys and head on to get my boarding pass. 

The flight might be a little delayed, the lady says as she hands me my paperwork. 

The nice security man asked if I had any liquids in my bag, laptop in it's own bucket, yadda yadda.  I'm an old pro at this by now, so I assure him it's all in order.   They pull my bag out for inspection, and he asks if there's anything sharp in there.  Just my knitting needles, I tell him.  I left a bottle of water in my bag that I completely forgot was in there.  Rookie mistake.  I chuck the water and gather up my stuff and head off to my gate.

Ten minutes later I'm heading back to security to pick up the laptop I'd left behind because I was embarrassed about the water. 

My noon flight became a 1:00 flight.  And then 2:00.  Maybe 3:00.  Probably 4:30 for sure.  Around 5:00 Delta brought in about 20 pizzas, because the other two flights for Atlanta that were supposed to leave after ours were also delayed, and the tiny airport didn't really have a lot of infrastructure for that many stranded passengers.

My connecting flight out of Atlanta got canceled somewhere in the middle of all this, but they put me on another flight that would leave at 11 pm.  Not ideal, but what are ya gonna do?

Besides knit, I mean.

Melbourne Airport has my favorite wacky airport carpet.

It's a good thing I had three different knitting projects in my carry on luggage, because I worked on all of them.

We finally flew out of Melbourne at about 7:00 or so.   By the time we got into Atlanta, every flight out had been canceled, and there were no hotel rooms to be had.   The Delta app cheerfully informed me that I've been rebooked on a flight home... on Sunday.

I called Carl and had him looking at Expedia, trying to find me a room (there were none).  Really I needed him to be a sounding board so I could figure out what the heck to do.   The way I saw it, I had two options: 1) sleep in the airport.  Twice.  2) Rent a car and drive home. 

So that's what I did.  I got a car (and thank G-d for National's Emerald Club, because without it I don't think I would have gotten one).  I did a mental calculation of what was in my suitcase and decided that I didn't care, and I drove out of Atlanta at 9:20 p.m.

(For the record, there were three pairs of hand-knit socks in that suitcase.  I hope that helps to impress upon you the gravity of the situation).

I called Carl back and he talked to me for about two and half hours of the four hour drive home.  There had been weather (snow!) so he was letting me know what to expect in terms of driving conditions ahead of me.  More than that, he was making sure I was staying awake for the drive.

Once I hit Monteagle mountain we hung up and I put in a podcast.  Kevin and Ursula of Productivity Alchemy kept me company for the rest of the trip, and I finally got home at about 1:30 a.m.

But that's not the end of the story!  Remember the suitcase I abandoned in Atlanta because I could not even?

Delta put it on a plane to Nashville and I grabbed it off the carousel at BNA right after I returned the  rental car.  I didn't even ask them to do that.  It just happened - and I knew about it because the app told me. I love technology.  And good customer service.

I'm not sure what the moral of this story is exactly.  It's good to know that I can handle things when they go pear shaped.   Good to know that if I'm alone in a big city with no place to stay and no confirmed travel plans that I will navigate that situation successfully.   Maybe I'll check to make sure Mercury isn't retrograde before the next time I decide to fly somewhere.

It still isn't my favorite definition for Adventure, but I'm glad to be reminded that when the time comes that I am a self-rescuing princess.

Advent Knitting

When I was little we had an Advent Wreath with candles that we lit right before supper every Sunday in December.  I have very clear, very warm memories of watching the light grow, and watching CHRISTMAS OH MY GOSH get closer and closer with every passing week.   The symbolism is not dissimilar to lighting the menorah during Hanukkah, or any other ritual that honors the growth and birth of light at the apex of the darkest part of the year. 

While I still have my mom's Advent Wreath, I don't use it.  It would feel (to me) disrespectful to set it out as purely secular decoration, and I no longer observe the rituals and prayers that go along with it. But still there is something really meaningful about marking the time in December leading up to Christmas. 

Advent is a Latin word that at it's simplest definition means "coming."  It is a time of "expectant waiting and of preparation."   As a parent, and as the person in charge of Making Holidays Happen, my experience with Christmas tends to weigh more heavily on the preparation side, and less on the expectant waiting bit.

It's with that in mind that I decided to undertake an Advent knitting project this year.  I want to cultivate a sense of peace and mindfulness each day, even as I'm running around wrapping presents, putting up trees, baking all the things, making lists, ignoring the lists, buying more things, and making sure the stacks of presents are more or less the same size.   Just writing all of that out makes me want to clutch my planner to my bosom and rock back and forth, eyes wide and staring.

Last year I knit Project Peace in December, finishing it up right at the new year.   There is another Peace Project for 2017, but I think I'm going to wait until January to knit that one.

This year, I'm knitting the Land of Sweets Cowl by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade.  She designed it specifically to go along with the yarny Advent calendars that several yarn companies and indie dyers are selling.   The cowl is designed for 24 different colors (less than 8 grams each).  I didn't buy an Advent calendar kit, so I went stash-diving into my bits and bobs and scrap yarn blanket collection.

It's shaking out to about 8 rounds of 150 stitches in each section.  Just enough to take the edge off of the day and to let me focus just on me, just on peace, just on the knit stitch or the purl stitch. 

So far (it is only Day 3) I've spent some of the time knitting this cowl in mindfulness meditation.  It's rather lovely, and just feels good to do it.   I've also spent some of the time reading Tony/Steve Avengers fanfiction, and I'm not gonna lie, that was pretty great too.

The point is that I'm taking a little space in my life every day to mark the passage of time, in a quiet, reflective way.   Making the time for the "expectant waiting" is helping me remember what it was like, as a little girl, to view the entire month of December as a magical time of wonder and build up towards something incredible. 

When you're the adult in charge of making the magic, sometimes it's easy to forget to stop and enjoy the miracles and wonders of the holiday season.