A Frayed Knot
First — my email has been haywire all day. I haven't tried to troubleshoot it which I will probably regret later but there you go. I'm hoping if I ignore it, it will go away.

For Christmas, Mom gave me a new black sweater. Priscilla gave me my first Pendleton cardigan almost 10 years ago and it is one of my favorite pieces of clothing, ever. I've probably worn it at least three times a week, during the cold season, every week since then.

I'm wearing the old one right now. It's completely in tatters. One elbow is worn throught. The collar and shoulder seams have holes. I cuff my sleeves because my arms are short and because the fold makes a handy spot to keep a tissue (am I an old lady or what?) and the cuffs are completely worn and frayed. Priscilla gave me a green cardigan a year or two later and that one's also in bad shape although I still wear it in public.

I love these sweaters because they are warm, they aren't bulky and they don't pill or look like crap after you've worn them a few times. If I was ever to be a spokesperson for a product, Pendleton clothing would be it. I have a pair of wool pants that my mom gave me when I moved to Oregon 15 years ago. They were hers for years before that. They still look fantastic although the lining is starting to protest.

The new cardigan has been hanging in the closet all pretty with the tag and extra button still on it. I kept putting off wearing it. It's so perfect and new, what if I went to the bar and people were smoking or what if I ate marinara sauce and got sloppy?

I finally wore it last night for bluegrass and nothing bad happened and I suspect this will soon be in the regular, all the time clothing rotation.

Bluegrass turned out to be pretty fun. There were a few organizational snafus. We started out to the left of the stage and a few kids were playing there which rapidly turned into a pack of kids playing there and being kids, they made a lot of noise. At first a few adults seemed to pay attention and shush them when they got too loud. But as more and more kids joined the games everyone seemed to shrug and look the other way. When you were a kid did your parents let you play balloon volleyball and hit adults who paid $55 for an all day bluegrass pass with your balloons? I didn't think so.

We moved closer to the middle which worked great except for the beer garden. The event is gaining momentum. I think this is year #3. They had a lot more vending taking up space in the back of the hall so the beer garden was moved up to the side of the bleachers. Before it was behind the bleachers. Emmylou was in the middle of a heart-melting melody and for accompaniment: the din from the beer garden. You have to ask yourself why someone would pay $55 for a bluegrass pass and then sit in the beer garden and talk.

Lots of people were looking over there unhappily so I suspect they'll rearrange next year.

We had a good time and heard lots of great music. Today I'm still trying to get organized whatever that means. I'm making progress. I got the paper edition of the newsletter done. I used Illustrator this year which made it a lot easier. If you're an experienced InDesign user you're probably laughing right now but I don't know how to use InDesign and it takes about 10 years off my life trying to figure it out on the fly, just for the newsletter. I didn't process my text properly, as learned in class: don't tell my teacher Nancy. I'm going to take to the printers tomorrow and get those in the mail next week. I also finished putting together a bunch of stuff I need to mail to people, another long procrastinated project. I thought I'd have time to watch a movie and hem my pants this afternoon but never got that far.

The weekend days always go by so quickly.