Despite the raging guilt that:

1. I hadn't finished marking
   
2. It was a school night
   
3. I was leaving my baby
   
4. Just who the hell do I think I am with this knitting stuff, anyway?

...I went to the Harlot's birthday party. It was probably the best birthday party I've been to in the category of a party for someone I hadn't met before that night. (And it was one of the best birthday parties I've been to this century, when it comes to that.) They gave me beer and fine chocolate and the yarn was on sale. And then Stephanie opened up the stash pinata and the night transcended beauty. It just might have been the best night in the last month.

Highlights, because I'm too tired and guilty to write a coherent lyrical narrative:

• Not only is the Harlot from B-ton, we grew up in adjoining developments and attended the same middle and high schools. And I got the library to buy her book, so never let it be said that I'm not doing my part for fellow BSS alumni.
  

• Amy (Editrix of Knitty) pulled up a chair next to me and was actually amused when I told her that my choice was between Knitting Rules! and Big Girl Knits, and I made that choice while my toddler played with trains. Amy also said that I am too cute for my name. No one has ever said that to me before. After last night, Amy has my loyalty forever.
  

• And speaking of Amy (EoK), she flattered the hell out of me by introducing herself after I'd shyly introduced myself to the Harlot. And to take some of the heat off my display of bashfulness, she then proceeded to get into a sock yarn discussion with Stephanie that ended in Stephanie knitting the sock to give the yarn and needles a test drive. Dude! I was watching Amy and Stephanie collaborate on a sock! It's like watching Robert Smith and Johnny Marr talk about guitar strings. I fear that I smiled syncophantically. Yeah, I probably did. But DAMN it was cool!
  

• And the free yarn. As if YARN SALE, FREE BEER, and FREE CHOCOLATE weren't enough, there was Stephanie holding up a bag, announcing that she'd cleared out some stash excess, and putting it down on the path for us rabble to divide. It was like Pixie throwing the bouquet, only with more potential recipients. I wasn't the first to get into the bag, but I know how to get me some free stuff without using violence or swears (I used to write for campus newspapers, remember), and I managed to come away with a big ol' skein of KnitPicks Colour Your Own Sock Yarn, just what I've wanted for awhile! (You can see my lunge in the Harlot's entry. Ass in the air, abandon all dignity, holy shit there's free yarn from the Harlot and it could be mine. And then, it was.)
  

• Coincidence abounded. I was weaving in ends on my ice-cream scoop Harlot-designed "Ken's Dulaan hat" when Ken showed up and sat down opposite me (on top of the beer cooler). We passed some remarks about Koolaid dying. That was neat.
  

• And then there was using great minds to solve my knitting problems. All the finishing started to screw with my good buzz, so I started working on Blake's sock in a giddy daze. Result: I was about 6 rows along before I realized I had forgotten to slip the side stitches. Me: "Uh, Amy, I think I have a problem." Amy: "Does that matter?" Me: "Stephanie, does it matter?" Harlot: "You've done six rows? SUCK IT UP! Keep Going!" (I remember startling at her enthusiasm Whatever you say, Birthday Harlot.)
  

• I might get a robot pattern! Thrills.

And then there was the hip vegetarian dinner at the Gladstone with Dirk Nightshade, and "who gave Maria a whistle?", and the car full of German hotties, and the rainbow, and holding Poison Ivy while she made little baby grimaces and coos, and the wee elegant spider in my car when I went home. And Shaun Rider singing "Dare," my driving-through-the-dark-streets-at-high-speeds-while-ecstatically-happy theme song. And getting home cranky and happy and tired and the Boy knowing why it was all so wonderful.

"That's what you do baby!" Yes. Yes it is.

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 6/15/2006 08:39:00 p.m.