The first leg of my trip was to the Jersey shore ... I had a reunion with my old roommate and we celebrated with a trip to Chili's.
We hung out at her apartment and watched TV like nothing had changed. I did most of the listening in all talks about the break-up and gave her my $0.02 when I thought it was needed. We even did a mini photo shoot in her parking lot ...
I was off to D.C. 15 hours after I arrived in New Jersey. I restocked my Lush shampoo and conditioner and I went to Sephora and got my first-ever makeover, if you can even call it that. I got half a face of Bare Minerals (uhh yes, the makeup artist only did half. It was kind of awkward.) and loved the results, so I took the plunge and spent some serious $$ on makeup. I survived a hellaciously long what-should-have-been-20-minutes-but-was-an-hour-and-15-minutes drive across the beltway to my friend Jamie's apartment, where we put my new makeup to test and went for a long walk in the hot weather in the park next to her apartment:
The walk was lovely - just what we needed. (And the makeup survived unscathed - I didn't feel it sweat off, even though I know I was rather gross.)
We went to bed early, as Saturday was MS&W. We left for the 45-minute drive at 9 a.m., thinking we'd have some cushion time for traffic, as the fair opened at 10. Well, we hit traffic three miles away. This was the parking lot at 10:30 a.m. (when we finally arrived):
Craziness. (The hazy sky belies what was to come. The sun came out and it hit about 70 degrees, so perfect.) I knew I was in for a madhouse at the first place we went - the booth that sold Socks that Rock. It was busy, but I easily found some yarn that I loved (well, I loved it all but didn't want to blow my budget at the first booth!) and got in the very loooong line to pay for my three skeins. We were in line to pay for about 45 minutes. Seriously. Jamie held my spot in line while I checked out a vendor we surreptitiously heard being promoted as having uber cheap prices (it was true - I bought yarn and returned to line).
I was really pleased, though - I was nervous for the vendor, because I thought that people in line could easily have walked off with the yarn without paying. The line stretched 20-25 feet away, around the corner from the checkout area. There was no one monitoring it, either. It's corny but I was really happy to see the honor system in full effect.
I was afraid there would be some nastiness - it was really, really crowded and rather warm, which could make for some tempers. But the only awkward moment I witnessed was a woman waltzing up to an open portapotty and ignoring our line of about 10 people - several people called her out on it (not me). And, um, I found myself in a precarious situation when I set my yarn down *on the checkout table to pay* and these two women saw my soon-to-be-purchased yarn and exclaimed "Oh my god, that is so BEAUTIFUL!" They picked it up and kept talking about it, and I was afraid they'd walk off with it, so I said very timidly, "um, I was just paying for that." It was rather awkward, and they played it off by asking me what I was going to make with it and I told them where it was in the booth (though I neglected to mention that there wasn't much left. All's fair in love and yarn shopping).
Oh and of course we saw sheep.
I love the sweet (blurry) face! I also got a video of this verrry outspoken sheep:
We spent about four hours there, but I could have easily spent more time (and money) there. We saw about half of the place but were just so very tired from it all. It was sensory overload. I didn't even make it to the Ravelry meetup, though I would have loved to. I would definitely go back - and now that I've been there once and know the lay of the land, I hope I can return. I'd love to go with my mom.
I'm at the point where I'm just too tired to blog about my purchases ... I went to bed the past few nights before midnight - which is a rare, rare thing for me. I plan on blogging tomorrow about my purchases. Here's a sneak peek:
eeee I'm so jealous! Glad you had a great time though! =D
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