The Better Part of Cross Country Driving
Discretion. I don't think of that as a hallmark of a long drive, but tonight - for me - it was.
I left Stitch DC right around 5:00 pm today and found myself in heavy, heavy traffic. Beautiful, last warm weekend, lets-get-out-of-DC on a Friday kind of traffic.
It didn't take long for me to sense that I would NOT make it to Pittsburgh tonight as I'd sort of planned. "Maybe I'll make it to Pennsylvania at least..?" I thought as I stared at the non-moving tail lights ahead of me.
As I got onto 270 the rain started. Just past Fredericksburg the fog began thickening. And then a truck began tailgating me and I realized I didn't have the nerve for this game.
Ironically, as the truck finally passed me I could just barely make out a big Bible-verse message on the back doors. HWJD (How would Jesus Drive?)
It became clear to me that I was dog-tired, and I decided the best thing I could do was find a hotel. So, thanks to wifi and Priceline, I'm snug at a Best Western in Hagerstown for a cool $50, and I'm hoping by tomorrow the sun will once again be shining and my drive will be easier.
I'm just SO darned tired.
I'm VERY glad I pulled over. I think it is a $50 well spent, and I feel much safer not trying to brave the dark, hilly MD/WV highways and struggle with the trucks in the rain.
Besides, there's SO much I need to get done this weekend (patterns outlined and sent off to Rockport Publishing, another pattern to go to a different book publisher, emails to answer, driving 1,500 miles) so I'll use this enforced rest to get some of THAT work done!
My other work these past 3 weeks - the teaching - is done!
Stitch DC was the last gig of my trip, and it was - as always - a lovely shop to visit! Maria does a beautiful job with her stock (and with her babies!) and I found it hard to pull myself away from the various lovely skeins and the very adorable Oona (I may be spelling that wrong...) to teach my classes!
I worked the students hard - maybe too hard - it was difficult to gauge. I know that I made some brains hurt. But I tried to present the information in manageable bits, and not too overwhelmingly fast.
Sometimes I find myself facing a situation where I fall into the trap of teaching to the lowest common denominator (e.g., allowing the student who feels they're not good - and it could be that they're actually QUITE good but they lack faith in themselves - lead the class down a path of low expectations)
I fought that a bit today. All of the students were good, some were very good, none were slow or poor knitters. But sometimes folks can convince themselves that they're not as good as they really are.
Convincing them of their latent genius, of their gift, is a skill I continue to try to hone.
In the mean time I make brains hurt. Mine included. But hopefully a king sized bed and some time getting work done will take care of that!
I left Stitch DC right around 5:00 pm today and found myself in heavy, heavy traffic. Beautiful, last warm weekend, lets-get-out-of-DC on a Friday kind of traffic.It didn't take long for me to sense that I would NOT make it to Pittsburgh tonight as I'd sort of planned. "Maybe I'll make it to Pennsylvania at least..?" I thought as I stared at the non-moving tail lights ahead of me.
As I got onto 270 the rain started. Just past Fredericksburg the fog began thickening. And then a truck began tailgating me and I realized I didn't have the nerve for this game.
Ironically, as the truck finally passed me I could just barely make out a big Bible-verse message on the back doors. HWJD (How would Jesus Drive?)
It became clear to me that I was dog-tired, and I decided the best thing I could do was find a hotel. So, thanks to wifi and Priceline, I'm snug at a Best Western in Hagerstown for a cool $50, and I'm hoping by tomorrow the sun will once again be shining and my drive will be easier.
I'm just SO darned tired.
I'm VERY glad I pulled over. I think it is a $50 well spent, and I feel much safer not trying to brave the dark, hilly MD/WV highways and struggle with the trucks in the rain.
Besides, there's SO much I need to get done this weekend (patterns outlined and sent off to Rockport Publishing, another pattern to go to a different book publisher, emails to answer, driving 1,500 miles) so I'll use this enforced rest to get some of THAT work done!
My other work these past 3 weeks - the teaching - is done!
Stitch DC was the last gig of my trip, and it was - as always - a lovely shop to visit! Maria does a beautiful job with her stock (and with her babies!) and I found it hard to pull myself away from the various lovely skeins and the very adorable Oona (I may be spelling that wrong...) to teach my classes!I worked the students hard - maybe too hard - it was difficult to gauge. I know that I made some brains hurt. But I tried to present the information in manageable bits, and not too overwhelmingly fast.
Sometimes I find myself facing a situation where I fall into the trap of teaching to the lowest common denominator (e.g., allowing the student who feels they're not good - and it could be that they're actually QUITE good but they lack faith in themselves - lead the class down a path of low expectations)
I fought that a bit today. All of the students were good, some were very good, none were slow or poor knitters. But sometimes folks can convince themselves that they're not as good as they really are.
Convincing them of their latent genius, of their gift, is a skill I continue to try to hone.
In the mean time I make brains hurt. Mine included. But hopefully a king sized bed and some time getting work done will take care of that!
Feed me, baby!
7 Comments:
Glad you decided on the side of safely. You must have been exhausted. It was a wonderful class. W
Proof you were tired: Fredericksburg is in VA -- you would have been totes lost if you'd passed that on your way to Pennsylvania! Everyone confuses Frederick with Fredericksburg... even the traffic people!
So sorry I didn't know you were in my neck of the woods -- I would've found my way over to 8th Street SE and taken your class! *waaah*
Happy travels -- will let my Pittsburgh folks know you'll soon be in their neck of the woods!
So glad you pulled off. Safe trip.
Gillian
I've driven those MD/WV roads in the rain and the dark - smart move settling in to the hotel, babe!
We came home from Silver Springs, MD
on Saturday to PA. Rain and traffic. Hubby didn't like it and then it got dark, so heavy rain and traffic, not fun at all. But after 5 1/2 hours we got home to the Poconos. It's normally a 4 hour trip.
So, I feel your pain. Glad you stopped. We couldn't afford to.
I had a similar hellish trip one year trying to find StitchDC from NIH in Bethesda on a Friday afternoon - and I LIVED in DC forever and should have known better. That drive is plain awful anytime, let alone a Friday afternoon. Glad you stopped.
We have lowest common denominator management around here - it's my least favorite form of anything, that LCD mode. I thought you were quite good at nipping that "I'm not good" thing when you taught at Knittapalooza - I was impressed that you had a schtick about it!
Wish I could have been there....
Good on you for pausing where you did!
I took a great workshop in complex braiding from Rod Owen a few weeks ago, and was most pleased to be able to sample & experiment right up to the place where "my brain asploded" - yes, there's the place I got confused, there's where it clucked and Made Sense, and I'm going to spend a lot more time with *this* bit. I love that you encourage folks to that extra bit of beyond. In her decades of teaching weaving, my mother claims the biggest thing she did was to give permission. Yes, you get to Do This, to make beautiful things. I think it's another view of the same phenomenon.
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