Skeins on a Plane

I've been AWOL from the blog lately due to a family emergency which took me out of town. Travel is something I like to dream about, but don't really like to do when it gets down to it. I love to watch an airplane in the sky and imagine the exotic place it's going. Sometimes I wish I was on that airplane flying away somewhere. Then I think of how it all works and I start to get nervous. Planes fly in the sky, right? A big heavy apparatus with real people inside, flying over oceans, mountains, and all that entails. Then there's the planning which I am really bad at. 

This trip was different in that I had no time to think or plan because there was nothing to do but get to the destination.  No time to pack, just throw essentials in a bag.  When I have an emergency my fears fly out the window.  I had an objective and worked to meet it. What I did think about was taking my Artist's Way morning pages to write in and a couple of skeins of sock yarn.  At least these two things would keep me calm and be productive in down time.

I took care to bring bamboo needles for the sock knitting instead of my favorite steel double-points.  In this post 9/11 time, flying is tough enough that I didn't want to risk fighting with security over knitting needles and looking like a wacko flight risk.  Hey, remember people, this is New York!  Bamboo needles sailed through the check points.

Settled in my seat near a window, I took out the knitting and got to it. The "flight professional", as they are now called, asked me for my drink and snack preferences and added that she's seen knitting with two needles, but never with four. So I tell her, "It's for socks."  She starts laughing and hitting her head while I'm thinking, ok, what's her problem?  Looking at me between the blue chips and the cashews, over the heads of my seat-mates she says, "You did say socks, right?"