So what happened to that week? It just went zoom. I’ve read that that’s more likely to happen as one gets older and each day, each week, each month is a smaller slice of the total time experienced–a little piece of a big pie seems smaller than a similarly sized piece of a tiny pie. In this case, though, I think I’ve just been too busy to notice.

I packed last weekend with socializing and sewing. On the social front, I had not one but three engagements on my calendar, which is definitely not used to that much action. I had lunch with Jen, whom I haven’t seen since she was the journaler known as Caerula. I don’t know if she’s psychic or what, but her outfit coordinated perfectly with the bright fabrics for Li Ming’s quilt that I’d brought along to show her. I had dinner with a group of friends from two jobs and seven years ago. We try to get together four times a year and usually manage two. It was a little sad to realize that the last time we saw the couple who lives one township over from us was at the last “not coworkers anymore” gathering. Mr. Karen commented that it seems a little strange that we always seem to end up driving forty miles to get together with people who live not even five miles away. Once again, I’ve resolved to do better at keeping in touch, but we’ll see. In non-food related socializing, I met Erica at the guild’s quilt show. Neither of us had entered anything in it, so we escaped the forced volunteering. I wonder if the mix of quilts would be different if people who don’t want to or can’t work the show could have things in it.

When I wasn’t out and about, I was home working on my Hoffman Challenge entry for this year. Why exactly I left it so close to the deadline (it has to be in California by August 6th), I don’t know. I had the idea ages ago, pretty much as soon as I saw the fabric which must have been early this year, maybe even late last year, so the delay is not due to lack of inspiration. By Sunday night, I’d gotten the top done. I would have been done sooner, but the border decided it needed to be made from 134 one-inch finished squares, all of which had to be cut and arranged individually instead of being strip pieced. I tried to talk the quilt into a less complicated border, but it wasn’t having any of that.

Work has conspired to keep me too busy to do much with the quilt since. As of Monday, I had two big and difficult system implementations to work on as well as a chewy programming task I’m not sure I know how to do (but I successfully completed the last one like that, so I’m hopeful this one will follow that path). Yesterday, I got an even chewier programming assignment, just as top priority as the other one. Can you say “stressed out”? I think you can. Today, amazingly, the new assignment got taken away. Not completely, since it will come back to me for the accounting-specific bits later, but it’s literally off my desk for now and I’m choosing to interpret that as a good thing rather than a vote of no confidence in my ability to get it done timely and well.

This weekend is Mr. Karen’s family reunion, for which we’ll have houseguests, so I’m not sure when I’ll next get to sew. Is it crazy to think I can still finish the quilt? Especially given that I no longer trust FedEx to get things there overnight after the “we’re sorry we didn’t deliver as promised but the plane had mechanical difficulties and no that doesn’t mean we’ll go to any special effort to get you your package as little late as possible even though your office is only a few blocks from the sorting facility that its now at and too bad for you that you wanted to take this particular item on the plane with you because its’ really not convenient for us to get it to you until after you have to leave for the airport” incident. I guess I could try UPS even though the last time I checked their online tracking was less informative that FedEx’s. But before I can try anyone, I have to get the quilt done. Maybe I can bring my sewing machine to work and quilt at lunch instead of working on DP projects, even though I like the proofing because I come across all sorts of interesting things doing it. I recently finished post-proofing a travel book from 1899 that said of Detroit:

“What State is it in? Is it in the North or the South, the East or the West? For my part I knew in a general way, having been there before, that Detroit was situated somewhere between Chicago and Niagara Falls, but until a few days ago I should have been puzzled to describe its situation more precisely. Well, I arrive in this obscure, insignificant
place, and find it a city of considerably more than a quarter of a million inhabitants, beautifully laid out, magnificently paved and lighted, its broad and noble avenues lined with handsome commercial houses and roomy if not always beautiful villas, trees shading its sidewalks, electric cars swimming in an endless stream along its bustling thoroughfares, its imposing public library swarming with readers, its theatres crowded, its parks alive with bicyclists, an eager activity, whether in business, culture, or recreation, manifesting itself on every hand. … An afternoon stroll along Woodward-avenue, Detroit, or Main-street, Buffalo, reassures one as to the future–the physical, at any rate–of the American people. The prevailing type is, if not definitely Anglo-Saxon, at any rate Teutonic, and the average of physical development is very high, especially among the women.” (America To-day, by William Archer)

Electric cars? Where have they gone? And I’m not sure, but I think he’s saying the Detroit women had nice racks.

I’ve never written a July 30th entry before.