She Knits By The Seashore: December Musings

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. It seems like Thanksgiving was last week, and now Christmas is less than two weeks away!

Thank you all for your advice on my purple sweater problem in the last post. I've taken it off the needles to try on, and it's a little too short to just proceed ahead. The armholes would be tight. So, I'll rip back and alternate the increases every three rows instead of every two for a couple of inches, and see if that will help. I have been working on my pink skirt too; about 100 more rows to the top and then I can bind off.

And before I forget, I also wanted to share the happy news that Ashley, our rescue cat in my previous post, has been adopted! She was at the shelter for only a week when a woman with two daughters and a gentle dog fell in love with her and took her home.

The first weekend in December, I was invited to a lovely birthday tea for Jane Austen. The CT chapter of JASNA has an annual tea and talk; this year the author Caroline Linden spoke about the city of Bath, England. I'd only visited once a long time ago, but after hearing the author speak, I need to go back sometime and see all of the things I'd missed.

Last week my friend C and I traveled to NYC. She won tickets to see Sting on Good Morning America, and kindly shared one with me. I've come to Sting's music later in life; The Police and Sting were very popular when I was in high school, but somehow I missed them. With C's help, I am making up for that now.

I had to wake up at 2AM to drive to C's house. The train doesn't leave that early from my town. We took the 4:27AM train from her area to NYC (I didn't know there was a 4AM train!). We arrived just after 6AM and stood in freezing weather for about 35 minutes until we were let inside the studio.

I've never watched Good Morning America before, so I didn't know anything about the show before we arrived. The first hour was all news, filmed from another studio, which we could see on a little monitor. Somewhere around 8:30, a few musicians came to the stage, and then Sting came in last. The camera crew filmed a little clip of him donating a coat into the charity box, and then they went "live" with the orchestra and Sting playing two songs. I'm always amazed how they can start and stop right on the cues with no one missing a note. Sting is touring with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Symphonicity. C and I saw them in July and it was the best concert I've ever seen in my whole life. They are now promoting Live in Berlin, a taping of that concert on DVD. I may need a copy.

The only issue with our adventure was a woman and her daughter who came to the show for the woman's birthday. Apparently she is a rabid fan of GMA, and, turning 70, wanted to spend her day with the GMA staff. Both women were tall and kept blocking everyone's view with their very large sign and cameras, oblivious to the other, less tall people behind them, including a little girl whose dad finally, politely but firmly, asked them if his daughter could be allowed to get in front to see. It got to the point where I planted my feet firmly so every time they tried to shove, the Birthday Girl had to move back because she would run into me. I did not travel so far to spend the entire taping being forced to look at the back of her head. Overall, it was a fun experience, but I don't think I should do these lack-of-sleep adventures again. It took me about two days to recover. :)

What have you been up to in December? Are you enjoying the leisurely magic of the season, or, like me, trying in vain to hurriedly accomplish all that you want to?

4 Comments

What a fun thing to do in NYC!

Posted by: Beth | December 15, 2010 at 10:42 PM

I'm glad you had fun seeing Sting! I wouldn't want to get up at 2:00 often either; I know it would take me two days to recover as well. But some things are just worth it! I'm still trying in vain to accomplish all I want to (well -- grading), but soon I hope to feel a little more leisurely!

Posted by: Dorothy W. | December 18, 2010 at 07:17 PM