Time Cop

I need to take a timer when I go into craft stores. Seriously. I cannot be trusted to go in, get what I came for, and get out. Nope. Never has happened.

I ran out at lunch to the nearest one for a set of size 6 dpns. (A year ago I would have thought I had lost my mind to even consider using dpns of ANY size… knitting socks changes you.) I only get 30 minutes for lunch. With noontime traffic (did I mention it is snowing AGAIN!!!!?) it takes maybe 8 minutes each way. Fourteen minutes to locate needles, buy them, grab a bit from the local Subway, and inhale it before returning to work.

Well… that didn’t happen, either.

The first 8 minutes went like clockwork. Then I entered the store (a JoAnne’s Fabric store, but that is hardly relevant. It could have been my LYS, A. C. Moore, Michael’s, or whatever. Same thing.)

I didn’t finish making an Egg Tree. I don’t know what happened to the last two I had (maybe I sent one last Easter out to Phil in Texas… maybe) so I was thinking I would just make another one. Ran out of time. I need it for this evening, so I decided to use what I used to use before I made my own Egg Tree–floral branches in a pot. Initially we used actual tree branches in a dirt-filled pot, but it is too early get any branches with buds or small leaves on them this year. So I browsed the floral sprays, narrowing it down to a full multi-branched dogwood one.

I wasn’t sure I would remember to pack a pot (to put the branch in) in the car after work and before heading up to dinner in NH, so I wandered about looking for appropriate, inexpensive solutions to “POT: cheap.” Said cheap pot was actually an aluminum container which needed weighting to support the branches and the eggs on them. Add 2 2-lb bags of ‘decorative’ stones (looked like plain-ol’ stones to me) for ballast.

Yikes! I have now used up 20 of my allotted 14 minutes. I still need the one thing I came here for. Where are they hiding the blasted size 6 dpns (double pointed needles)? Scramble up and down aisles. A line begins to form at the empty-until-now cash register. Locate bamboo size 6 dpns. Look for preferred aluminum ones. Hidden behind a size 7 package, I snatch a set of size 6. I race to the end of the line. There are three people in front of me. When did they come into the store?

The cashier is chatty and cheerful. I am squirmy, too fussed to think of pulling out my OTN sock for a few stitches of calming activity. My turn next…and the store phone rings. She answers it, pages the call recipient, and turns to me. At last!

Returning to work (skipping the Subway stop, natch) in the 8 minutes allotted for transport…and there are no more parking spots near the front of the building. It is now sleeting. I walk only a half-block to the entrance, amazed that I am only late by 15 minutes.

A bag of Ruffles cheddar-flavored chips and a Cup-of-Soup at the desk pass for lunch.

Then I remembered I was supposed to buy gas at lunch. I hope I make it to our favorite gas station (a nickel or more cheaper than most around us) before running out.

A timer probably wouldn’t have helped me remember that.

Sigh.