Priorities

I know I still haven't delivered on part two of my little coming of age saga, but I had to break from that narrative to blog about my current trip.

It's September, and that means I'm back on reserve.

To celebrate, Crew Scheduling assigned me a spectacular combination of my least favorite conditions: a short overnight in Las Vegas, early check-ins, a 14-hr duty day, and the red-eye to Cleveland, topped off with a four-hour sit before being deadheaded back to Newark.

The one redeeming circumstance was 24 hrs in Marina del Rey in Los Angeles, and I intended to make it count.

After a good sleep-in to recover from the first two days, I roused myself and grabbed my knitting to work on as I sipped coffee leisurely nearby Starbucks then tried a little exploration. I had heard that the hotel had bikes, so I was really looking forward to the day out.

The hotel did have bikes, and they intended to keep them at the hotel unless I forked over the $15 rental fee! And there wasn't even a crew discount! I deliberated for a while, but, feeling thrifty (and slighted insulted) I decided against it.

Before heading out of the lobby I hopped on the computer to Google possible local yarn stores. I found that the "A Mano Yarn Center" was a very walkable 1.5 miles away and I clicked on the store's website. It looked like a nice place and seemed to have lots of "sit and knit" nights. Oh, and every other Tuesday morning they had a breakfast group. The next one was Sept 9th. September 9?

I glanced at my phone......."Today!!" And I was out the door.

Twenty-eight minutes later I walked into what could have been the set for one those gentle girl-power movies. The ones with a ensemble cast and a gathering gimmick....in this case the neighborhood yarn shop.

Among the eclectic group there was a mother and daughter duo who played off each other's stories with hilarious perfection, a young woman my age who designed "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" comic books and had lived all over the country, and Shanitta, the beautiful store owner and hostess who supplied the good coffee made sure everyone was content.

They welcomed me right away and insisted I pick up LAX layovers from now on. At one point, a particular car parked out front and there was a communal sound of displeasure and a few choice words. Shanitta laughed and said, "Stop! Geneveive's going to think we are terrible.!" I assured them that I wouldn't....so long as they gave me the back story. They happily obliged and added many others. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, in breezed another woman bearing homemade yogurt and granola (yes...granola) to share.

I found the perfect black mohair I needed for a current project and was repeatedly tempted by a seductively soft and ruffled wrap knit in babykid mohair. I wore it for much of the morning, but just couldn't justify the $13 each for the six skeins I would need.

After a few hours in the sunny window, several cups of strong Peet's coffee, and quite a bit of progress on my cabled scarf for Laura, I was ready to pay and part ways. Foolishly I had brought the soft babykid yarn over to my spot at the table, and my new artist friend and enabler argued that it would be the perfect souvenir of LA. I agreed, and added that it would also be perfect since it will soon be fall and the blend of blues and brown go with almost all my little sundresses. But I fought the urge to splurge.

Then, another customer dared to try on my shawl. I had a tangible pang of jealously.

The decision was made.

I brought my purchases to the register as Shanitta cracked up over how I had made up my mind. She must have seen me go pale at the total because out of the kindness of her heart she gave me a little wink and a discount for "coming all the way from NJ". She then generously punched a frequent shopper card, ensuring that I would be myself into more trouble later.

So with the makings of an $84 wrap to layer over $7 thrift store dresses (priorities!) I walked back to the hotel, exceedingly happy that I had saved the $15 rental.

The red-eye flight to CLE was fine. 98% of the passengers slept, the other flight attendant insisted on getting my number for one of his golf-pro buddies (Ohio boys! Yea!), and I made more progress on Laura's scarf.

At about 4am I had to go into the flight deck for a few moments. The pre-dawn Eastern horizon was just starting to brighten, and under the stars, above the city lights were a few bands of quiet blue and brown light.

The exact shades of my future shawl.