Warning ...

A major rant follows the photos below, so if you can skip that if you're in a good mood and don't want to ruin it with my whining.

Dawn C's quilt (it's huge!):















close-up of center:















The photo of the whole thing turned out to fuzzy to show you, but trust me -- it's very pretty. You can double-click these photos to enlarge.

The rant follows: Last Thursday went like this ... What a day! I had some errands to run, and a few meetings to attend. I thought I had it all figured out how I was going to accomplish everything in one day, and without back-tracking.

I left the house a couple of hours before my meeting, in order to hit the Post Office before they close. I had a bunch of things to take care of there -- packages that needed to be weighed, taped, sent out. I waited my turn in line. The postal worker could tape the first class packages with her tape, but for the media mail packages I had to purchase a roll of my own. Okay. Odd, I thought, but no biggie. While she weighed my packages, a group of men who were not speaking English came in and got in line behind me. All of them. The postal worker said she'd weigh my stuff and let me get out of line to tape my one package while she waits on the rest of her patrons. Okay. So I step out of line, take about four seconds to tape a package, and then get back on line behind the fellows there. I guess it took all five of them to figure out how to interpret what she was saying. Very interesting. So after quite a few more minutes went by, I was on my merry way. Next stop: the library with only about an hour left to kill. Better than driving all the way back home and turning around to come back to the same town.

I found a book I thought I'd like to read. Again, I waited my turn on line. Oops ... can't find my library card in my purse because I recently changed wallets and it seems I didn't move the card to the new one. A young man literally ran into the library, grabbed a movie he wanted to check out. Well ... he grabbed the case. The actual disc is kept in another place where the librarian has to go fetch it when someone wants to take it home. So she asked if I minded that she waits on the young fellow first, seeing as how I did not have my card? Okay. No problem, sez I. The librarian is new, and doesn't really know how everything works yet. After fumbling around for quite a while, she admitted she could not find the disc he wanted. He, obviously being more familiar with the process than she, told her where it should be, and how to open the case. But together, they still couldn't find the movie he wanted. He decided he'd just grab a different one -- one that they had already seen in their previous search -- because she was taking too long for his liking. And guess what?!? He didn't have his library card, either. She had to look him up in the computer by name. He spelled it for her. Several times. Each time, she typed it in wrong, so it would not come up with his card number. But at least she was getting practice for having to wait on me next.

When she typed my name in, she got it right on the first try. We're on a roll, here! Oh, not so fast ... the computer brought up my name and my library card number, but it also brought up a window that said 'THIS PATRON IS NOT REGISTERED IN THIS SYSTEM." Huh? Try again. And again. And yet again. Resort to calling for help from another worker in the building. She had never encountered that message before. Neither did the other worker. Of course not. Things like this only happen when I am around, and they've never been there before when I have. Much time passed. In order not to be late for my meeting, I suggested she write my card number and the book title on a piece of paper and figure it out later. I needed to get going, and after waiting all this time, I wasn't leaving without the stupid book.

On to the first of two meeings for the night. With careful coordination, I'd be able to do both. Right. Will I NEVER learn? The first meeting started about 25 minutes late because the presenter waited for every last person who had signed up to arrive before starting. In what world besides mine does this happen?!? Knowing I'd likely have to leave before it wrapped up, I had told her when I went in that I may have to leave a bit early and to please not be offended ... it's just that I had another meeting that I had to go to. She urged me to stay for the very end because some very important information would come at the very end. The meeting ran late, so they decided they would get the the "very important information" at the next meeting instead. But by now, it was too late to go to the second meeting, so I went straight home -- exhausted.

And today the most important package (DGD's birthday gift) came back, undelivered. Just shoot me.