The Dress Update

Sadly, the dress is not going to be finished by the big day tomorrow.   I was actually shooting for yesterday as Harold took me away for a surprise birthday gift.  But first the dress. This is a beautiful dress, the pattern not so much.  I'm going to make a huge leap here and say it had to be the be the editing.  Having written a grand total of 1 pattern I know how difficult it is to convey in writing what you want stitchers to do.  Lily Chin has been in the industry for years and is well regarded in the industry and by her peers.  It's hard to believe that she would knowingly release a pattern so full of errors. Ravelry and all those who posted their notes and pictures were a lifesaver.  Without them, I would have thrown in the towel on this dress a while ago.  I'm still going to finish it, there will be plenty of opportunities to wear it this summer.

But that's not the only reason I'm not finished.  We had a long, wet spring and yard work was delayed. I dug up one side of the front beds.  I'm working to make those beds as maintenance free as possible.  I also planted my container garden.  I've come to the realization that I really only do have 2 hands and that try as I might I can only do one thing at a time.  I can't tell you what a shock that was!

But that's not all.  I'm the oldest of 5.  One sister is chronically ill.  I do her shopping and take her to the doctors and any other general running around.

Another sister fell down her basement stairs and tore up her knee in February. Subsequent to surgery, she developed blood clots in both legs and her lungs.  I added her doctor and physical therapy visits to the other sister's.

There's more.  The last sister got up to go the bathroom one night and tripped over a rug (that's been in the same place forever!!!)  She broke her left elbow in two places and her baby toe on her right foot.  No driving for her, so I picked up the other chores she was doing for the other two.  She's married so her husband did her doctor and physical therapy runs.

You knew this was coming, right?  Just after Mother's Day, I came down with whatever upper respiratory  crap is going around.  If you even hear that someone has this crap run in the opposite direction as fast as you can.  I still have a cough and am just beginning to feel human.

Thank God our mother was visiting to attend my oldest niece's graduation.  Who'd have thought that at 80 plus she'd still be taking care of sick kids???

I said 5 right?  Our only brother is a campus policeman at a different local college.  This is graduation season and is one of the busiest times of the year for him.  He couldn't get off.  When he isn't working he's doing house repairs on our chronically ill sister's home.

It has not been fun.  I'm not a statistician but I'd love to know the odds of all four of us getting sick at the same time!!!

Harold started planning my birthday surprise months ago.  And what a surprise!! We went to New York. We had an excellent meal, spent the night in a small hotel a 1/2 block off of Times Square and saw, "A Raisin in the Sun", with Denzel Washington.  I was absolutely gobsmacked.  We had a ball.  The actual day is tomorrow.  I don't know what (or if!) anything else is planned, but I've had a ball already.

Since the dress was unfinished, I went shopping.  I found this in the second store, but kept shopping.  I couldn't find anything.  I thought it was a little "young".  I'm still not sure, but I wore it.  As a fall back plan, I was going to wear the black jumpsuit, if I hadn't found anything, but I really wanted something new.  This is a milestone birthday. Tell me honestly what you think.  Is it a little "too mutton dressed as a lamb"?  Other than Harold I'll never see any of those people again. If it  really is a looser, it only set me back $8.49 plus tax so it's no big loss.

And the happy couple:

That's if for now.  More about the birthday tomorrow.

TTYL,

Melodye