the quacking fiber addict

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
Oscar Wilde

Before we get to the 17 hour long train ride, here's a pic of St M carding Misty the Shetland ewe's dyed fleece the night before TheBon and I departed:


Anyway.

You might guess from this post that I made it to my destination in one piece, if not entirely coherent. Some day, hopefully soon, I will admit to myself that I am no longer 16 and cannot sleep anywhere anymore. Or function well (actually I was okay) for 36 hours without sleep.

TheBon and I got on the train at 5:45 pm in Eugene (1/2 an hour late) and settled in. She had armwarmers to knit, I had socks. Socks that kept me sane for 17 hours of rail-travel, it is worth mentioning. Mostly because I had to knit the heel 4 times before getting it right. I kept getting it confused with my other socks and... eugh. It's nearly done, though, and that's all that matters.

There isn't much to say about the majority of the trip - it was dark. So dark that the term ebony doesn't even encompass it. The only times we could see anything out the windows were when we passed through a station. At around 4 am, TheBon managed to sleep for a couple of hours.

I gave up on knitting at around 2 am since the lights were very dim and pulled out a book I bought yesterday, Sorcery and Cecelia, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. I absolutely loved it and was hard put to keep from laughing too loudly (and, thus, bring down the collective wrath of the conductors on me). It's written in the style of Lady Susan (epistolary) and takes place during the Regency. You'd have to be a fan of Austen (and Regency Society) to really understand the undertones of much of the plot (lucky me ^_^). It is written for the young adult audience, so it strays away from most things considered "unseemly". I'd definitely recommend it for a light, fun, read.

And now I want the sequels. I'll have to go book hunting tomorrow. At the same time I go hunting for yarn and groceries (my sister's kitchen is, ah, sparse).

TheBon woke shortly before dawn and we both grumbled about various things. Don't even get us started on the other passengers in our car. Most weren't bad, but since Amtrak serves alcohol there were quite a few inebriated travelers making a din earlier on in the evening. By dawn they were sprawled about and snoring so loudly you could actually hear them over the train's roaring.

Luckily, once the sun rose, the scenery was enough to distract us until we arrived. TheBon took several photos, that'll hopefully show up on either her blog or flickr page soon. My stop was 2 past TheBon's (1.5 hours), so I got to see quite a bit of the local flora. And graffiti. Some of it was quite impressive. Others, simples tags, weren't worth the paint it took to make 'em.

So harsh. I know.

Finally, though, I arrived (1 hour late) and B, A's FIL, was there to pick me up. Thank goodness he recognized me, since I wasn't really focusing too well at that point. By noon, he had me at A's house and I had quickly cleaned up and collapsed.

Soooo, here I am now. That's about it. The house is frighteningly clean and orderly. I'm not certain whether I want to touch anything, or not. I think I'll stick to my knitting for now. In the morning, I have to call several people and, like, do stuff. But I'm going to veg now...

Oh!, and it was really interesting reading everyone's memes! Thank you for filling it out ^_^

Labels: literature, travel