The Unexpected

A lot of unexpected things have happened this week, and not just for me. Take for example the horrific shootings by a desperately disturbed young man on the campus of Virginia Tech University. On a seemingly ordinary Monday morning in a small college town just 4 hours from where I live, suddenly 32 innocent lives were taken. You can't anticipate such things ever happening. But they do, and it did, and we are left to mourn, then carry on taking with us fond memories and hopefully lessons learned that will help in the future.

My unexpected events of the week may pale in comparison, but still they are powerful to me. For example, the phone call I answered yesterday that just so happened to be from my best girlfriend, Donna, who lives in Salt Lake. We haven't been together for 5 1/2 years and haven't even talked to each other for 2 or 3 years, that is until I called her on Sunday evening a couple of weeks ago to tell her I was graduating. So she called me yesterday to inform me of her decision to fly out and attend my graduation and spend a few days with me. I was both stunned and elated as I never dreamed she would come, even though I really wanted her to be here for the big event. Donna isn't particularly adept with technology, so I agreed to help look for a cheap airfare. I've always had good success on Travelocity so I went there first and was horrified to find nothing but expensive fares with terrible times and connections. So I headed on to Expedia where I found one, and only one flight with a great price. The catch was 2 layover and a very long flight time, but Donna was OK with it because the price was so cheap and it was a major airline. I know this was just another in a long line of unexpected miracles God has provided me in the last year that has allowed me to be facing graduation. He *does* create pathways to lead me where I could never go alone.

And now I have one last paper that I'm struggling to write. Things have not gone well today or yesterday because I've been having strange, several allergic reactions. What I'm reacting to is only a wild guess, because I really have no idea. All I know is I woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon because the palms of my hands were itching like crazy. I went to the bathroom a discovered that my whole face was swollen and covered with itchy red blotches characteristic of a serious allergic reaction. I was not having difficulty breathing so I didn't feel forced to go to the Emergency Room, but I took a big hit of benedryl instead. I was OK this morning, except for feeling very fuzzy that is, but the rash was gone. By afternoon I was itchy again, but the rash was still gone. I can't write on Benedryl, so I stuck with Allegra today.

On the knitting front,I did manage to get another repeat knit on the cuff on the 2nd lilac sock. I finished the last round of cables, so I'm almost home free. The only fiddly part left is picking up the gusset stitches, but that's not really all the bad. I do adore these socks and suspect they will see a lot of wear. I also knit another repeat on the Spring Things shawl. I still have my doubts about this one. The yarn is really a bit too skinny for my taste. It looks just fine, and it is very light and airy, which is desirable for a summer shawl, but I'm still not feeling the love for this one. I could frog and try knitting with the yarn doubled but I didn't like the doubled yarn when I tried that with the yellow Gentle, so doubling may not be the answer. I think I'll just persevere for now and see if I can get through Chart A. Maybe getting past this first lace pattern, which I don't care for, will help improve the situation. I hope I last that long ;-)