Proof

1. That there is still room in my brain for more know-how. I went to the entrelac scarf class last night and came home with two coompleted rows:



2. That in one weekend I can drive over 800 miles by myself to St. Louis and back (in a rented SUV, no less...SUV!! What a monster), stand in a crowded, stuffy book store with hundreds of edward/jacob/jasper/bella-loving teens without regressing (too much), all the while eagerly awaiting Stephenie Meyer's appearance so I can then stand in line and be about the 200th person to receive an autograph that day (kazillionth that week, no doubt...bless her heart; she's probably got carpal tunnel by now). DEEP BREATH...exhale. The whole experience was a little weird. A little frighening; I guess I've become more of a loner in my 30s because all those bodies felt a little claustrophic to me. On the other hand, I was never one without friends in high school, so I did acutely miss someone to talk to while standing around in the midst of all that sprawling youth and home-decorated t-shirts. My favorite T: "Real men sparkle." In the end, it was a great opportunity to people watch.

Please excuse the blurry picture of Stephenie Meyer. In the screen on my camera, it didn't look so bad.

Although I'm going on and on like a groupie about this little quest, one thing I've learned about quests is that their purpose is rarely about the stated goal. The Meyer signing was a great excuse to get out of town for 48 hours, to stay away from the phone, email, tv, and other technological what-have-you...and whiny cats. Not that I'm in great demand during my everyday life--ha!...except for the cats, of course--sometimes they're worse than a beeping smoke detector. Anyway, not long after Dad's funeral this winter, I broadly hinted at myself that I was going to use one of Stephenie Meyer's appearance dates as a means to retreat for a bit. I've never gone to great lengths to listen to an author before, but Stephenie seems down to earth, and I can relate to her sense of humor. We're about the same age...so she's not real intimidating to me. Plus, she's smart and creative, so I knew I'd like listening to her.

Yet I spent more time by myself during the weekend than psyching myself up to join an admiring mob and then actually doing so. And I enjoyed my own company, my own parade of storylines and what-ifs that get jostled about otherwise when I have my daily duties to attend to. I got better acquainted with my own set of imaginary friends (using S.Meyer's own terminology for her Twilight characters), so I'll see how I can entertain myself with them now that I'm back home.

By the way, there's a correction to last week's post. My review of Eclipse wasn't the first one on Amazon. It was the second, and it's entitled, "Melts in Your Mouth." Now you know.