A Day to Remember

I played around all day yesterday setting up the blog and learning enough to get around a bit - sort of like using training wheels on a bike, I suppose - or at the very least wearing the pads that the kids do as they learn to ride these days.  All in all it was a pretty lazy day around the house.  OK, I'll call it what it was... a 'Jammie Day'.  It's a good thing too I guess because I had a call from a friend about 2 AM asking if I could meet her at the hospital. She'd recently had surgery, wasn't feeling well and was oozing from her would. When I arrived she was already back in a room in the ER and we waited patiently for tests to be run so that she could be admitted. Once she got to her real room and was settled she was able to rest, as much as one can with hospital staff taking vitals and doing all that they do.  Her hubby and mother arrived soon and around mid-day I left.  I had a class scheduled at the Rabbit's Lair, a Rogers quilt shop, to learn how to make a Salt Cellar Pincushion.  These are the most darling little pincushions and the minute I saw them for sale at the shop I had to have a few... to give as gifts, you know.  Well, at long last the lady who makes them, Candy Hargrove of the Jo Morton Yahoo Group fame, was here to teach me (and everyone else who wanted to learn) how to make these lovelies!  We worked for a couple of hours on our little pincushions and I quickly realized that if I was going to make as many as I wanted I'd have to work on my hand strength, dexterity and patience!  It's one of those times that a third hand would come in quite handy!  I'm so proud of my little pincushion, though.  I'm not sure whether I'll venture to make another but maybe it's like childbirth - once you have a little time to recover you forget just how painful it was... or so I've heard.

After class I went back to the hospital to check on my friend and show off my little gem.  She was medicated and ready for bed so I didn't stay long and went out to brave the afternoon.  I popped into Walgreen's for just a few things and the downpour began just before I started to check out.  I got soaked because, of course, it wasn't going to rain just yet so the umbrella stayed in the car.  Once I got home and dried out I was ready for bed early!  I'd started reading The Help a week or so ago and wanted to curl up and read but that didn't last long.  I was out in a flash!  A friend sent a text message a couple of hours later and asked if I was watching the news.  I was amazed that I woke just after it arrived.  I replied that I wasn't and asked why.  She replied that "They killed Osama."  Of course, I was confused and reminded of the story that my mom has told over the years of my dad's reaction to her waking him to share the news that President Kennedy had been shot.  In his groggy state he wondered why anyone would have shot his nephew, Preston!  Of course, I immediately read it as Obama and not Osama (which is the main reason I prefer the spelling Usama bin Laden - less confusing whether I'm half asleep or not). I called her to get more info and then turned on the TV for President Obama's press conference.  As I heard the timeline of what had transpired earlier in the day I couldn't help but think that as I whined around about my hand hurting as I packed my little pincushion as tight as I could with filler - and then added about that much more for good measure - how our brave Navy SEALS leaped from helicopters in the middle of the Pakistani night to rid our world of the man who'd ordered the death of thousands of fellow American citizens.  Such heroes they are!  I'll always remember how I felt the morning of September 11, 2001 and how I felt (and what I did) on May 1, 2011.  The little pincushion made from scraps that afternoon became a treasure that night.