Wow. Just WOW.
This is the first chance I’ve had to blog about my trip to St. Louis, MO and the Spring Fling…I’ve been working pretty much every single day since I returned, and the one day I had off was spent at SnB showing off my purchases and telling stories about the trip. But I’m getting ahead of myself!
It all started at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday night (which technically became Thursday morning), when hubby dearest and I went to go pick up Sarah (stickchicky on Rav) at her place. We then proceeded to drive down to Toronto to catch a bus to Buffalo. On the way there, we stopped at the Timmy’s in Nobel to get some snacks, and were confounded by the complete slowness of one of the guys who worked there. I shit you not – we were in line for 10 minutes at least, and it took the guy 15 painful minutes to complete our order. OUCH! Nevertheless, we pressed on to Toronto and made it there in record time. Sarah and I had to wait outside the bus terminal in downtown T.Dot for about half an hour, then for another hour inside after buying the tickets, then caught our bus at 6 AM. Thus, phase one of the journey was completed!
Phase 2 started on the bus down to the US. At the border, all of us on the bus (all ten of us, can you believe?) were made to get out and have our luggage x-rayed before we could go over. WTF? By the time we got to the Buffalo airport, I was getting a little nervous about the flight, but at the same time I was sooooo excited. It was my first flight, after all!
Phase 3 – the flight from Buffalo to Detroit. Oh. My. GOD. My heart was just pounding in my ears as we started to move down the runway. I didn’t know that it took so long to take off, but when we did…well, I remember thinking it was like dancing up a staircase made of air. Is that too weird? Anyway, I ended up staring out the window the entire flight, which was a little bit longer because we were in a holding pattern for about 15 minutes. When we touched down in Detroit…as much as I had liked flying itself, I HATED the touchdown. I kept staring at the ground getting closer and thinking, “OK, I think if we’re at _____ height, we probably won’t die if we crash…” Heh. ^-^
We had about half an hour to make it to our flight from Detroit to St. Louis, and since the stinking stewardess told us to go get our luggage from the baggage claim, Sarah and I went there. Bad idea! We had to go through security AGAIN, and since the retarded clerk in the Buffalo airport didn’t give me both of my boarding passes, I had to get them at the gate. Yeeeeeesh…
Then, off to St. Louis!!! This flight was a little worse for me, since we had been travelling for 12 hours already and I hadn’t slept a wink. I fell asleep right after we took off, and woke up a couple times when my ears started popping. When we arrived, we discovered a few other Flingers who were on our flight. I had a bit of a fangirl moment when Sarah pointed out that the very sweet lady I was chatting with was actually Anne Hanson!!! And right outside the terminals, waiting for the airport shuttle, was Gryphon Perkins. We all packed like sardines into the shuttle bus, and off to the hotel we went.
…I think this may be the point at which I lost my lens cap for my camera. But I did manage to knit up a dishcloth that day, so it and an elastic band became my lens cap for the weekend. ^-^
Elizabeth (mirepoixmagique) and her lovely pregnant belly were also there when I arrived at the hotel for the meet & greet. We got our welcome packages from Sheri herself (who is absolutely stunning in person, I have to say!) which contained a cute lil’ Loopy toy hugging a mini-skein of Fiesta Baby Boom (everyone got a different color), a mug, nametag holder, pattern from WendyKnits, a stitchmarker with Loopy on it, and (holy crap!) a skein of Wollmeise in “Femme Fatale”, dyed just for us by the lovely Claudia! Sadly, because of the volcano in Iceland, she wasn’t able to fly out for the Fling. 😦 If I’m forgetting anything from the package, it’s likely because it’s been what, 2 weeks since I opened it? 😉
Speaking of packages…I met my Fling swap partner there (Tammy, aka Darthknitter) and we exchanged gifties there. Man, Tammy seriously spoiled me…I was so overwhelmed by her generosity I nearly cried. Tammy, if you’re reading this…thank you again! You are AWESOME!!!
The weekend is mostly a blur for me after this, due to the overwhelmingness of meeting Jared Flood in person and being physically in Loopy Central (squeeeeeeeee!) and quite possibly it also has to do a lot with the 23-oz “wreck-a-rita” and various other alcoholic beverages I consumed over the weekend. 😉 But, I met a lot of amazing people and had a great time knitting, talking, eating, drinking and laughing with them. And as for the trip itself, it was an experience that I would not have missed for the world.
And after all…”it’s a Loopy, Loopy world”!
The Pixie of Sticks 