Tuesday, October 25, 2005

good golly, miss lolly! (and 20 things, too!)

Yesterday, I had the pleasure and honor of meeting our lovely Socktoberfest hostess, Lolly, her wonderful husband, Kris and her gorgeous sister, Mimi. I'll admit to having butterflies in my stomach before meeting Lolly! I had so many thoughts playing racquetball in my head- What if she's an internet weirdo? What if she thinks I'm an internet weirdo? What if we meet and have nothing to say to each other? How long can I talk about the weather? Can I pass Bossy and Stinky off as someone else's kids if they start acting up? And my fave from my very protective Hairy Leg-ged husband: What if this is some kind of online stalking sex solicitation lure? All of my anxieties were immediately allayed the moment we met. Lolly is as gracious and beautiful "in real life" as she is in her blog. No awkward pauses, no mumbling about the rain, no nervous giggling or leg shaking in silence. Talking to her, I felt like I'd known her for a long time. She and her family are so warm and real- so full of aloha- they give you that tingly good-feeling when you meet them.

We started with lunch at The Green Papaya, a Vietnamese restaurant in Honolulu. Finding the place was a little tricky (So sorry, Mimi!), but we both arrived in good time. With so many great types of cuisine to choose from locally, my concern was finding something with vegetarian options for Lolly. Hairy Legs and I enjoyed lunch, and the company, especially, with only one minor mishap when Miss Independent Stinky decided to launch her water glass in a fit of defiance. We were grateful that Bossy didn't decide to follow suit. Instead, he was content to suck his vermicelli noodles up through his straw. We were thankful that Lolly, Kris and Mimi decided to have selective vision with regard to the kids' behavior.

After lunch, we went on a yarn crawl! Well, it should have been a one-stop LYS visit, but my lack of foresight turned it into a two-store crawl. Being the space cadet I am, I neglected to find out whether Isle Knit would be open on Monday. Let me assure you that it most definitely isn't. Ever gracious, our guests trekked back to their parallel parked car in the pouring rain, sans umbrellas, with smiles, though I'm sure they wanted to clobber me. I got my bachi (returned bad karma) for my negligence when the bottom handle of my automatic umbrella popped off into the street and got run over by a bus. At Lolly's urging, I almost ran out to save it, but was grateful I didn't when I saw my umbrella handle's fate.

Not wanting to experience any more spontaneity, Hairy Legs called Yarn and Friends to discover that they were indeed open. We drove there and were able to snap a few pics during a brief sunny interim. I didn't notice it earlier, but we were both wearing fuschia colored tops and skirts! How weird is that? Knit blogging minds must think alike. Kris and Hairy Legs were also wearing the same colored tops and shorts. Eerie! I also didn't realize it till we got home and I looked at the pics, but gosh, Lolly sure is tall!! Makes me feel even more vertically challenged. The yarn store owner was very sweet and outgoing, but Lolly managed to distract her long enough so we could get down to yarny business! We perused the store for quite a while and decided on some Cascade Fixation for some future matchy-matchy socks- maybe a little corny, but it is still Socktober, after all.

Although I'm sure they were hoping upon hope that we would decline, Lolly, Kris and Mimi invited us to the Waikiki Aquarium. Well, by now, my whole family had become true-blue Lolly-family stalkers, so of course, we tagged along. Bossy, because he is aptly named, led the tour, since the Aquarium's one of our regular haunts. Kris cracked us up with his knowledge of the Latin genus and species names for all of the aquatic plants. You would've thought we were in ancient Rome, the way he spewed those names out so effortlessly! Bossy and Stinky managed to hold it together pretty well in spite of having no nap (you can see they're about to pass out!), though I'm sure we averted certain impending disaster by deciding to finally stop stalking Lolly's family after leaving the Aquarium.I was a little sad to leave- we'd had such fun all day and there were still so many more things I wish we could've talked about, but I'm so grateful that we had the chance to meet and make a connection in person. Lolly, Kris and Mimi, it was truly such a pleasure meeting all of you!!! Our family loves you and we hope we get the chance to do this again someday. Thank you for a wonderful day!

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The very talented Myra of My Little Mochi tagged me with a Twenty Things meme. Thank you, Myra! I am an incredibly boring person, so it took me a quite awhile to come up with these. I salute you in advance if you manage to make it to the end of my list without falling asleep.

1) I used to work in an entomology lab where one of my duties was disemboweling poor, unsuspecting termites by pulling their alimentary tracts out through their anuses for "testing."
2) I also used to work in a fly lab, where I'd regularly commit mass genocide by freezing thousands of flies in a minus 20 freezer, all in the name of science.
3) I knit English style.
4) I've tried knitting continental, but apparently I am an undextrous continental loser. It would make knitting ribbing go so much faster and lessen my odds for bursitis.
5) I gave birth twice without the use of drugs or medical intervention.
6) That said, I am the first to request (okay, beg) for anesthesia during the most minor of dental work.
7) I am a coffee fiend. We actually spaced Bossy and Stinky apart so that I could have a few months to support my habit between weaning Bossy and getting pregnant with Stinky.
8) I nursed both Bossy and Stinky for a combined total of 33 months. They sucked the life out of me, literally. I am now left with pathetic, deflated balloons in their wake.
9) I once broke a mercury thermometer during Organic Chemistry Lab. I've never seen a roomful of people evacuate so fast.
10) I still consider myself a Big Island girl, even though I've technically lived in Honolulu longer than I ever lived in Hilo.
11) When I was a little girl, my dream was to be able to eat Sapporo Ichiban ramen everyday of my life. That dream came true my first year out of college because it was the only thing I could afford to eat. And it wasn't even Sapporo Ichiban, it was that cheap Top Ramen, feed-yourself-for-a whole-month-with-this-$2-case brand.
12) I regularly have elevator nightmares. I swear it's some past life thing. And it sure makes living in a condo and riding the elevator daily a freaky trip. I enjoy it in a sick kind of Fear Factor way.
13) I am an out-of-the-closet American Idol fan. And a Clay fan. So there.
14) I know all the words to every Barry Manilow song ever written. I am not proud of this. It is my evil mother's doing.
15) I love Christmas trees. Real Christmas trees. When I found out my mom bought a fake fiber optic tree from QVC last year, I almost cried. Both because of the fakeness and because she was subscribing to QVC. Which, of course, she got me hooked on, just like Barry Manilow, though I will adamantly deny it if questioned point blank.
16) I have a very nervous stomach. Unfortunate things happen when I get nervous. Out of both ends.
17) My husband claims I have two stomachs. One for meals and the other, more highly developed one for snacks. I think that just makes me more evolved.
18) I almost won my elementary school's spelling bee in the fifth grade. Except that I misspelled playwright. How the hell was I supposed to know what a playwright was? (And yes, I asked for a definition.) I just figured it was what my mom always admonished me to do with my sister.
19) I once tried to mangle a Chinese squash plant (hyotan) in our backyard with a sickle when I was little to stop it from producing any more squash. Divided into a 100 different pieces, that evil Hydra grew into 100 distinct monstrosities. We ate hyotan soup for many, many nights.
20) I am a very protective mom. I have been known to engage in WWF type smackdowns at Thinker Toys with parents who let their evil spawn run amuck.

Hmm, now I need three people to pass this on to. Most bloggers I know have already done a 100 things meme, so I'm passing this on to acornbud, karen , mamma and beak knits, so I can delve into the darkest recesses of their minds, bwahahaha!



23 comments:

amylovie said...

Thank you for the comment on my blog. Be thankful that your husband has small feet! I was living in DPN heck for months!!

How cool is it that you met Lolly? What a treat.

Amy

Jillio said...

okay, you know what's really weird? i was thinking about dropping by yarn and friends yesterday because i knew isle knits wasn't going to be open, but i decided not to and that i should instead go straight to iolani for lifting with the kiddies.
but wow, judging from the entirely pooped appearances of bossy and stinky, looks like you all had so much fun yesterday! isn't knit blogging great!? (once you get over the anxiety attack and find that you really are meeting some great people, of course.)
thanks for sharing!

Mamma said...

You got to meet Lolly? Lolly got to meet you? I wanna go where it's sunny and fun. We could leave a trail of broken sewing machines in our yarn frenzied wake.

stricken madchen said...

Oh how neat that you guys could met and hang out! And matching outfits! hehe. Great minds do think alike, huh?

Anonymous said...

I can't think of many things I'd like better than a yarn crawl in Hawaii with friends! Sounds like a lovely day.

Anna said...

You lucky duck!! You got to meet Lolly!!!

It sounds like you all had a great time! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Acornbud said...

Lucky ducky got to play with Lolly! I hope to see your purchase soon. Very funny 20 things about you...Clay and Barry, heh, and you admitted it!! Guess I'll have to be truthful since you tagged me and I know you didn't make that up. Please share your hyotan recipes, you must be a pro.

Anonymous said...

I loved your 20 things! #1 and 2 were especially impressive. And just so you know I was singing Copa cabana just the other day. :)

Anonymous said...

I love your blog. I'm also a mother of two trying to fit it all in without killing something or someone in the process. I'm amazed at what you accomplish! I'll be definately coming back for more. :)

Anonymous said...

That is so great that you got to spend time with Lolly! It's so nice to read of another happy knit blogger meeting.
Thank you for the nice comments on my blog.
Karen
http://nothingbutknit.blog-city.com/

Agnes said...

Hi there, I hopped over here from Lolly's blog and man ... you are such a funny lady! I had a great time reading and laughing over your encounter with Lolly's bunch. Besides, I was amazed at Mr Hairy Leg's special skill of grabbing 2 kids with 2 hands and can still stand straight and smile into the camera! Are you sure he is not Mr Incredible instead? LOL!

Alison said...

Very cool that you met Lolly. Glad you had fun.

Jen said...

I had so forgotten that Lolly would be in Hawaii, and therefore in your neck of the woods. So happy you got to meet a fellow blogger. I love it when that happens.

I absolutely LOVE #1. It's utterly amazing what people will do in the name of science and I'm sure that describing it sounds a whole lot worse than it actually was. Or at least, I hope it was.

I also agree on the Christmas tree thing. There just isn't a smell with the fiberoptic version!

At least playwright isn't a word you'd expect a 5th grader to know. P-A-D-D-I-O however is just plain embarrassing for a fourth grader. ;-)

knittinmom said...

How fun! Sounds like a great day. We will make it to your island one of these days and then our kids can all be bad together...

My favorite is #19. Sounds like little shop of horrors or something!

Karen said...

OOhh, thank you so much for tagging me . . . I was starting to think of 100 things a while back, so maybe I can come up with 20 now and it will be much less pressure.

I would've had the same internet weirdo fears running around in my head if I could actually meet another blogger. I'm glad to see how wonderful it was . . . hopefully we can all have great experiences like that. You were very lucky to meet Lolly . . . but don't forget how lucky she is to meet you too. I envy her.

Oh yes, and I loved loved loved the Hyotan story. Cracked me up.

Jo said...

LOL! I came to your blog via Lolly's and I laughed out loud at your childhood dream of eating Sapporo Ichiban all the time. My childhood dream was to eat whole cans of corn all to myself!

Terby said...

Now I know who to e-mail if I ever make it to Hawaii! That looks like such a nice day.

Thanks for visiting me! :) I'm really enjoying your blog.

Anonymous said...

So cool that you and Lolly got to meet. Looks like you had a really fun day!

Unknown said...

Hearing about your meeting is better than TV....you have such a cute family!

Anonymous said...

Chris,
Your account of meeting Lolly is adorable! All the pictures are cute too!

SAM said...

The Green Papaya? Sounds yummy, I love Vietnamese food. Looks like you all had a great time. I so understand the meeting internet friends phobias. I felt the same way the first time I met my knitting friends that I met online. They are now some of my dearest friends.

SAM said...

Hey...I know I already commented, but want to comment on your comment :)

You know the 80's thing I don't get...leg warmers. I didn't get them then and I REALLY don't get them now.

Thanks as usual for your sweet comments...I always get excited when I see something from you. I re read your complete profile. You reminded me of some favorite movies that we share...we really need to meet someday!

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