I'm back!!!

Hello everyone!! I'm back from vacation.... and an eventful vacation it was. Here's the story:

First, the car tire blew while the car was just sitting in the garage. So we had to take the tire and get it fixed. The first place we took it to said that it would take almost 2 hours to fix it, so we took it somewhere else. So finally, we had the tire fixed and we were ready to go.

The journey there was uneventful. I was actually feeling pretty good because I finished two Jazzy Coffee Cup Cozies (for me and my brother) and we stopped at a Barnes and Noble and got to use them. Also, I made one of a pair of fingerless gloves that I've been meaning to knit for ages.

Once we got to Asheville we got a little lost, but not drastically, so we found our hotel without too much stress. After that we went for a late lunch/early dinner at Chili's because we were starving. Then I managed to convince my family to take me to a yarn store called Yarn Paradise, which was amazing. Since there's only one real LYS (besides Michaels and Wal-Mart) anywhere near me, it was a real treat to get to go in one. I went in looking for some yarn to make my NaKniSweMo sweater, but quickly realized that unless I wanted to pay $150 for a sweater, I should look elsewhere. I ended up spending about $37 dollars for three skeins of Berrocco "Bonsai" (a super-cool bamboo and nylon ribbon yarn) and two skeins of some Kaffe Fassett self-striping sock yarn in an awesome blue and brown colorway. They're going to be the coolest socks ever!

The next day, we went to an awesome concert called Downtown After Five, which is a monthly concert the city of Asheville puts on, and the whole reason we went to Asheville. The featured band was The Waybacks, one of my favorite bands ever! They were so amazing live!! It's hard to describe the genre of music the Waybacks play, and they're usually categorized as bluegrass, which they are sooo not. Check them out at their website http://www.thewaybacks.com/.

After the concert, we wanted to walk around downtown for a little while. The streets were pretty crowded with people returning to their cars from the concert, and with people just walking around downtown like we were. I had my knitting project in my purse at the time, because I'd worked on it a little bit at the concert. So, I was dodging some of the crowd when I ran into a pole, like a light pole or something, I'm not really sure. My purse ran into the pole first, and then me into the purse. The result: the vintage (and therefore sharper than normal) knitting needle in my purse went through my purse, through my pants, into my thigh. Ouch. Talk about freak accidents. It didn't hurt at first, but then when I realized I couldn't pull my purse away from my leg, because there was a knitting needle stuck in it, I started panicking. My dad had to pull the needle out of my leg because I was too freaked out at the fact that I'd just been stabbed. I thought there should be blood gushing down my leg or something, but there was almost none. The next day there was only a little scab on the wound. But Jesus, It was scary when it happened. Then I had to limp several blocks to get back to our car.

My bad luck wasn't even over, however. The next morning I had a little stomachache. I shrugged it off, thinking it wasn't that bad. We were planning on driving to Marshall, NC to take a raft down the French Broad river. Since my name's Marshall, of course we couldn't pass by the opportunity to take a few pictures with road signs:



If I don't look happy, it's because I was standing on one of those little metal barriers on the side of the highway (y'know, the things that are there so you don't drive your car off into a ravine or something) while I was 1) scared of falling off the thing backwards, 2) annoyed because people kept driving by and waving at me, so I was a little humiliated, and 3) really nauseous.


So anyway, driving to Marshall meant miles and miles of twisting and turning mountain roads. Not good when your stomach already hurts. I got really carsick, which has never happened to me before, so I knew something was wrong. So we couldn't go rafting because I felt so awful, so we went back to the hotel room. Where I spent the rest of the day either in bed shaking with fever or throwing up. Yuck. Especially when you're in a hotel room and want nothing more than to be in your own bed at home.

So then, this morning, I felt a little better and we came home. I still don't feel well, considering the only things I've eaten for two days is half a bagel and some toast.

So, that's all about the vacation. Stay tuned for upcoming posts, including the photo-packed one I promised, and one with a pattern for those fingerless gloves I made. So yeah, I'll get back with you soon. Adios!