Crochet to the Rescue

Here I was sitting in my hotel room in Appleton, Wisconsin trying to get myself to focus. I didn’t get enough sleep and I felt likehave a hangover from yesterday. Not from alcohol, but from a difficult day.

I found out at 9 o’clock in the morning that the seat I had reserved and paid extra for on United Airlines had arbitrarily and without notice been given away, via an opportunity to check in for my flight online. Months ago, I had made sure that I had an aisle seat as I am a little claustrophobic and now suddenly I found out I had an unassigned seat and there were only middle seats left. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was put on hold and forgotten. After twenty minutes of waiting, I figured out no one was going to help me and started all over again. The next agent I spoke to was a little more helpful and I realized you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip as in there were no aisle seats left. The agent managed to get me a window seat with a seat next to it empty.

I think it is really sad, but these days it seems like the customers are the enemy. At the airport, I had to check myself in on a machine, print my own boarding pass, and then have an impatient woman yell out my name so I could hand over my bag and ID. At the gate, the attendant ordered people to line up and then checked them in as if he was doing them a favor.

I got to Chicago around 9 o’clock at night with a nice hour to grab some food before the flight to Appleton. Only for some unknown reason it turned out my flight to Appleton was delayed, and then delayed again and again, but they wanted the passengers to be in the terminal just in case they figured out how to get the plane there sooner. The terminal for the small planes was freezing and lit with the most dismal lighting, like bleak and depressing. The people watching was kind of interesting. There was one guy in military green, but it wasn’t a uniform with some kind of big work boots. He had a buzz cut and only seemed to have his front teeth. He ran into a woman he seemed to know. She was much younger, maybe Latin, all curvy and wearing jeans. They seemed an unlikely pair and I couldn’t hear enough to figure out their connection. Finally we left an hour and a half late. It was a tiny plane and they turned off all the lights inside. Let’s just say it felt like we were being tossed around in the sky.

There was a shuttle to the hotel and I made a grand entrance by stepping in and falling to my knees. No damage done, luckily. I just dusted myself off and took my seat. The flight crew was on the van and I noticed that the captain got out first and offered me his hand to get out. It’s much better to fall up than down. I was trying to unwind and watch the news, but suddenly the TV froze and then the dreaded no signal danced over the screen. I had to call to get it fixed. It was the shuttle driver who apparently is a jack of all trades who showed up to deal with it.

And now I had things to do - I had brought work with me to do while I waited for the time to check in for Writers Police Academy. But I felt like I was in la la land. Until I took out the crochet project I brought with. Just a few stitches and I felt a big ahhhhh. And then everything cleared and suddenly I was alert, present and ready to seize the day. And I’m that much closet to having a pretty cowl from the yarn I bought in San Diego at the Knit and Crochet Show. Crochet is amazing.