Tomorrow Joe and Sam leave for a week on the rock, to hang out with her grandparents and hike Signal Hill and go sailing and eat jam-jams. I’m not going with them because I have work commitments here, and because, frankly – an 18 year old like Sam, who will never be stronger or more beautiful than she is now can miss a training ride, but a 44 year old woman who’s barely limping through this thing has to stay on track. If I went with them on holiday, I’d miss a week of training – and then another week when I go to Vancouver and San Francisco to speak and teach next week. Trust me. That’s not the kind of slacking you can do if you’re thinking of surviving a 660km ride. I already spend every minute that I’m off my bike feeling like I should be doing something to keep this Rally from being the biggest mistake I’ve ever made, and I know I’d just panic if I spent two of the last three weeks not riding, so – here I stay.
I’m a little bummed about missing the fun, I love Newfoundland, and it’s been a few years since I was there, but I know the decision to stay here is the mature, proper thing to do. I am spending a little time reflecting on how consistently I find that the mature good decisions are the ones that are less fun, but it’s not like that’s a new idea I have to adjust to. If I’m staying though, I’m going to make the most of it. Today I’m cleaning the house, doing the laundry, hitting the grocery store, making everything as nice as I can, because other than the weekday morning rides (and the whole day rides on Saturday and Sunday) once I’m done my work everyday for the next week, I’m on a mum-vacation. I’m going to be alone in the house for a week. Just think about it. Think about what I could do!
Okay. I can’t actually think of what I might do that’s really that different, but I’ll do it all alone, and that’s a pretty crazy thing. For one whole week, dinner can be whatever I say it is, and there’s going to be nobody here to judge it. For a whole week I can go into the bathroom anytime I want – heck, I can even read in the bathtub for an hour or two, and nobody’s going to knock on the door and ask me when I’m going to be done, or if I think it’s been a little long, or if my book is good because they’re out of books and did I really want to finish that one? I can write until 3am and nobody will say I should go to bed earlier. For a whole week, I can just use the phone whenever I want. I can even watch the movies that Sam and Joe think are stupid, like Deep Impact or The Day After Tomorrow or Ice Twisters (that one was particularly contentious) and nobody can say anything like "MUM. The comet is going to hit the earth just like it did last time, can we please just watch Glee?"
For one week I’m going to do exactly as I please (except for the work and the riding, but no plan is perfect) and I’m actually a little excited about that. If by excited you understand that I’m going to miss them dreadfully. So much. I’ll actually probably just sit here and cry the whole time.
Wanna do karmic balancing gifts to cheer me up?
—————————-
From the generous hearts at Hearthside Fibers, two skeins of their BaaBoo fingering weight yarn, one for Krystal R.
and the other for Sarah T. 
Christian over at Radioactive Rabbit has two beautiful bags to give away (and she’s doing a half marathon for charity – have a look! ) One beautiful bag for Kate K, 
and one pretty one for Laura W. 
Melanie at Black Trillium Fibre Studio has generously donated ten skeins of her pebble yarn – and five (that go together so beautifully) are going to Amy S. 
and the other coordinating five are going to live with Kalita B. 
(All I see when I look at those is Color Affection. I might not be quite over that.)
Max over at Max’s world has this great gift. 
Max makes knitted sculptures – and Linda P is going to receive a brooch, earrings and necklace, as well as the Knitting Octopus greeting card.
Tamara is giving away this beautiful handspun she made. 
She’ll pop that in the mail for Hilary J.
As proof that the planet’s really into the karmic balancing thing, Tamara is the winner of the next gift! (I swear. Random selection. Bizarre, right?) Elizabeth will be mailing her a fractal roving (have you seen this yet? Pretty cool) 
It’s shown here in Grey’s Analogy Antique, but Tamara will be choosing her favourite from The Hilltop Fibre Worker. (I also think it worked out rather nicely that I know a spinning gift is going to a spinner!)
Kim (who I know in actual real life and is really nice) at Indigodragonfly has a fabulous contribution. 
Two $30 gift certificates will be going out, one each to Suzzanne R and Lynne W. Thanks Kim!
Dani (who I also know in actual real life and is also very nice) who is KSC Designs, would like Vicki K to have a box bag – just like this one, except that she can pick the fabric: 
and a sweet roll like this one for Barbara LW except again – Choices!
Whew! 13 gifts – and there’s way more to come. Next week there’s some lovely things, and a surprise from Sam later in the week, as always, everyone who donates to anyone on our family team is eligible to get a karmic balancing gift, and I’ll be giving away stuff up to (and probably after) the ride- I’m going to keep going until there’s nothing more to give. (I’m starting to feel like that’s the theme of the whole rally.) Our departure date is 3 weeks and 4 days away, and as always – the links for our little team are below. Thanks to everyone who’s helping us make it possible.
Samantha
Amanda
Pato
Katie
Ken
Erin
Me
(PS. It doesn’t matter how much you give – everyone has the same chance. We know that everyone does their best with what they have, and we’re grateful for it all.)
Mum-cations are the best! And a whole week!! Just thinking about it (especially the bathroom thing–we live in a small house with four people) is exciting. Enjoy.
Oh I’m all in a tizzy seeing my bags. Thanks to everyone that donated to these fine riders!
Steph, as a runner I have to say sometimes a hot bath after a lot of mileage is the best thing you can do for your body. Glad the family will be out so you can take full advantage of the tub!
I was excited today to get the notification of my company’s matching gift for my donation.
I don’t think it gets added to the totals for the person I donated to, but it goes to the organization as a whole – that’s ok with me.
Have a good time on your mum-cation – stay up all night and then sleep in if you like – more than once.
you named 3 of my favorite movies. i ‘love” bad disaster films. now that the kids have all grown up and moved out i watch them whenever i want. it took of adjusting when the last one left but now i love living alone. 🙂
I can hear the gods cooking up something to foul up the “mom-cation”. You have accounted for Joe and Sam, but what about Amanda and Megan? As much as Amanda truly loves her new place, she may decide Mom is lonely!!! Or Natalie needs a place to stay while her place is being repaired (like a toilet mis-hap or whatever). Or better yet, some crazy Harlot-ite misunderstands the Tour de Fleece and thinks it is a group, participatory event being held at a certain house in Totonto where the added cooking experience involves pitting cherries. I hope your “staycation” works out as planned, but I fear I have only reminded you of the cherries to pick and preserve.
Lucky you..a whole week free! Make sure you take up the whole bed and all the blankets, lol.
Love love love the knitted octopus!
OMG I can’t believe my name was drawn. Thank you so much to all the donors, and a big thanks to the riders.
I would give my left leg for an All-Alone Staycation for a whole week! I don’t I’d think put pants on even once. And I’d rubberband the door to the bathroom open and watch movies from in there; it’s the coolest room in the house. And I’d cook all the things my Boyo and his Father hate the most but I love, like grilled zucchini or nothing but canatloupe for a whole day…. Sigh. Alas, my family is staying right at home this summer, except when they make me go camping with them. I’ll be watching your posts with envy. Now, I wonder if the cantaloupe is ripe at the farm stand yet?
The octopus knitting is so adorable.
Have a wonderful Mom vacation.
Molly : )
The thought of a whole week by myself in my house practically makes me weep with longing. Someday…
(Do I comment too much? Sorry. Sometimes I can’t help it!)
..a whole week, eh? …you can also leave the bathroom door open 😉 …..isn’t it great?
L
Enjoy being along, it doesn’t happen enough, to any of us. Though I hate to wish for it because of that whole “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it thing,” It always freaks me out, so I wish for a good eight hours alone, so I cover all my bases.
Good luck with the bike rally, I’m sure you’ll do fine, and that you’re just being overly neurotic like you’re so prone to do. Did I say that? Whoops.
I meant to say alone, but I’m sure you got that.
Enjoy your vacation! I hope it’s wonderful.
I just went and donated. After all, if I could buy a skein of yarn in someone’s destash (which I just did the other day), I can afford a little karmic balancing for that. Ride well, all of you!
I love those cheesy syfy channel movies! I watch all those crazy end-of-the-world scenarios. They’re hilarious. Bring ’em on, I say!
Do you know what I find the most enjoyable when my family is gone? (Because I miss them like crazy, too, of course, but still…) I find this magical thing happening where I clean something and when I walk back in the room, it’s still clean. I can clean my kitchen or hang up my clothes or make my bed or whatever, and as I float around my house, everything is staying just as I left it.
It’s something I try not to think too hard about. I think that’s the most relaxing thing to me. The work I do is finally finishable. (That’s not a word, but you know what I mean.)
For the uninitiated, what is a jam-jam?
I see Color Infection too, when I look at those yarns.
Many years ago my husband took our two kids on an overnight campout. My mother said I should spend the night with her so I wouldn’t be lonely. LONELY? I had been plotting what I was going to do during that day and a half all by myself for weeks!!!
A whole day alone in the house! Oh the things you can do and the places you can sit in peace!
Plow on with that practice. You’re going to be so damn pleased with yourself about a week after the big event when the pain settles.
It sounds like your mum-cation will be awesome. I’d just get the riding done as early as you can manage, so you can have more time to recover and soak those muscles.
Oh! I live in St. John’s now. And I even work at a hotel. I am quietly hopeful and wondering if they are staying at my hotel. Hmm…
Your half of the vacation sounds pretty marvelous. Well, except for the missing them and crying part. But the rest is perfect.
For some reason it didn’t sink in til this post just how far you all are riding for the event itself. Holy crap.
Color Affection rocks! I just did it in Malabrigo sock yarn. And the alone thing, ahhh bliss…
Thanks so much for my prize! I can hardly wait! Awesome about the stay-cation, I could go for that too. And best wishes to all the riders!
Just donated to Ken – he’s so close to his goal!
And time for knitting. And life on YOUR time schedule.
Now we are all plotting how to persuade our loved ones to leave us behind while they spend some time bonding.
I’m on a mom-cation right now. My DD has been gone for 11 days. I have 3 more left. I’m finally starting to miss her. She has had a ball with her grandparents, aunt and uncle. I’ve enjoyed watching a variety of non-kid friendly movies, eating lunch and dinner whenever, having a double date with some adult friends. Mom-cations are great for rejuvenation.
Also, I think I won a karmic prize. What a wonderful thing to happen on my mom-cation. I have the color affection in my queue.
Those three movies are pretty awesome(ly terrible), but if you want to see something even better/worse, check out Absolute Zero. It’s completely ridiculous(ly entertaining), and I’m sure you’ll love every second!
I noticed over the weekend that I missed seeing what was no doubt an AWESOME movie called PIRANHACONDA on the SciFi channel, and I was just BEREFT.
Here’s hoping the cheesy movie stars align while your family is off climbing stuff and eating other stuff I’ve never heard of.
I will try again to make a contribution to each of you, but my DH has set up a charity trust from which we are to contribute, and Schwab here doesn’t recognize any Canadian charities. If all else fails, I’ll break my DH’s heart and bypass the mess.
On the bright side: you can also listen to your music as loud (or soft??) as you wish. You can eat half a treat, refrigerate the rest and find it there! And there’s Tour du Fleece, with loud music. Or Downton Abbey reruns. And so on…
Awesome! Have a great time, enjoying your cheesy movies and peace and quiet. Loved all the karmic balancing goodies, but that octopus is something else. I lurves it, and wish it could come to live with me. Would you believe I found (and bought) “Independence Day” in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart today?
Your lovely cat is lonely and wants you to open the bathroom door so she can see what book you’re reading.
Enjoy the time you spend alone (with the cat). And you know you have to watch that Will Smith/Jeff Goldblum disaster movie tomorrow.
Remember to call your ladies friends for a lovely dinner out!
One of the best vacations I ever had was when my husband took our son to Calgary for a long weekend. Of course you miss them but its so nice to have the house to yourself. And for the only mess to be the one you make on your own.
Enjoy your mom-cation! I hope you get better food when you are out out west than you did on your last visit to the east coast….St Andrews isn’t quite veggie friendly! I just added to Samantha’s pot for the ride, you guys are all doing great!
Caught up yesterday after a few weeks away (crazy few weeks, at that) and decided I’d donate to whomever was furthest from the goal, so sent some Pato’s way. So in awe of all of you!!! …and I’m starting a Color Affliction as soon as I finish these socks for my Dad!
Yay!! I never win prizes!! So happy to send a gift to someone else while I receive one too!
Enjoy your time alone………it is a beautiful thing!
Keep up the good work on your training. You’re such an inspiration along with the rest of your family. When my friend ran her first marathon, I was the one crying at the finish line! It was a very emotional thing and I was so proud of her!! You’ll feel the same way at the end of your ride. If I was there at the finish line, I’m sure I would be crying.
Tamara
Enjoy your “staycation”, hope you get some much-deserved rest. For your rides, there’s something called “butt butter” (I know, terrible name) that all of the long-distance riders who shop in our store use. It works kind of like a balm for chafing and stress from riding, and another product called “body glide” that might give you some comfort. Of course, a lovely glass of wine and a cool tub might provide the same benefit. The gifts are beautiful, congratulations to everyone.
Very excited to “win” the karma-balancing handspun from Tamara. Good luck with the training and travelling and the mum-vacation.
I see Color Affliction too. At our LYS today, we had 6 of them among 4 people. I had barely started my first and then a new shipment came in with perfect colors and now I have yarn for two. Sorry coming to talk to us is part of what’s keeping you fom Newfoundland, but I can’t wait to hear you talk at AVFKW.
Not only that, when you run out of cigarettes, you won’t have to walk fourteen miles in the snow…
Newfoundland has been on my wish list for traveling for along time. My kind of place: rocky coasts, moody weather, good music, and a unique culture. Why go to warm sunny Mexico when you can go to cool Newfoundland.
I’d be bummed if I had to miss it. Still a long, multi-day ride is a whole lot of fun too. You will feel so incredible that you could cycle that far. There is something about finishing long goals that is so satisfying. No need to tell that to a knitter though.
I love your blog, but I am having a little trouble understanding why you would imply that 18 is the ge at which we (women? men? everyone) are at our ‘most beautiful and most strong? What happens afterwards? Does everything just go downhill from there? Perhaps you didn’t mean it exactly as I’ve interpreted it, but it doesn’t really strike me as being in keeping with the usual, very responsible, tone on your blog.
Just sayin’….
I fantasize about having time on my own. ALL to myself… you lucky thing!
I’m really excited about your Vancouver visit; I was online at 8 am the morning registration went live so I could register for the lecture as soon as possible.
Colour Affection/Affliction/Infection–whatever it is, is going the rounds out here, too. My knitting group did a joint one for a sick friend, and I’m toying with the possibility of making my own. Sadly, I have no suitable yarn…
Enjoy the mum-cation!!
Best of luck to all the riders. I’ve been a YH fan for years but my donation has gone to help the person who is furthest from their fundraising goal at the moment. Go Pato!!!
Harlot, I am in awe of you right now. I am a 45 y.o. knitter/spinner/cyclist-in-training for a charity event. You are ROCKING! And remember among the number of up-sides to all this training there is this: you can eat ANY DAMN THING YOU WANT and as much of it as you want with all that riding. Enjoy the perks!
My family’s going away in August and they keep telling me, “You should have a friend stay with you…” They don’t get that while I’m always a little freaked out to stay at the house alone (we live way out in the country and it’s DARK) I’m really looking forward to it. I’m seeing a week of knitting, spinning, and X-Files (what is it with knitters and sci-fi?).
Ah, freedom! Its a wonderful thing. Just make good memories so you can enjoy them in the times when you’re rushing about doing things for others.
Alone is a great thought but I did it for 48 hours a couple of weekends ago for the first time in 20 years, yes I have been away from them not not home alone. First, you will probably find yourself pacing around the house and trying to settle to one of those myriad of things you have dreamed about! Second, you will stay up waaay too late, but this has the effect of using up the time you have alone because you inevitably sleep late next morning. Third, it is searingly quiet, I needed noise, tv, something to save the sanity. Fourth, I did enjoy it but I loved their return. Hope you settle in to it well, Lisa in Oz
Home?? Alone?? All by yourself?? Wahooooo! The hardest part is fitting the wish list into the time slot, but you can do it, trust me.
Hi! I am so disappointed that I’m not going to be able to come to hear you speak while in Vancouver. I worked in the Vancouver public Library building (on the floor above all the books) for 8 years and now you will be there and I will not. I was just too slow in trying to get tickets. However, I am an avid cyclist and would love to take you out for a training ride while you are here, if you wish. I just had knee surgery so I’m not quite up to 140km right now, but I think I could manage a 60ish km ride with you, if you’d like. But wait, you probably aren’t bringing your bike with you, are you? And all the other bikes in my family are for people over 6 feet. Hmmm…Well, the thought is there.
Here’s an odd thing. I read this post, and saw that my name had won a karmic gift. Now, the odd thing is two-fold. First, I don’t usually use my real name when doing stuff on the net. And second, this is the really odd thing, I hadn’t made a donation yet. So, congratulations to the Amy S. who really did win, and since karma seems to be giving me a nudge, I went and donated a bit to Sam. Now we’ll just have to see if more oddness hits and I win, too. If not, it’s all good. Y’all are doing a good thing. 🙂
Well I can only dream for a mamacation for now: Al works mostly in the summer and when he goes I am left with the three (very nice) kids.
Anyway to celebrate your dedication to a safe and hopefully somehow confortable ride to my city of birth, I’ve decided to support Pato, because he is the one further away from his goal right now. And also because I like his smiling presence each time you talk about the ride.
I wish you all lots of wind in the back and a big smile on your face at the end line!
Ha I like those films too, watch 2012 !!
I don’t know, I think I was stronger and more beautiful when I was 40 than when I was 18, but then I’m not sure I’m the norm….
My favorite thing when I’m home by myself is that the house stays clean for as long as I care to keep it that way. No one is strewing Legos across the living room or leaving their shoes all over the place. Enjoy it!
(Also, Deep Impact is worthwhile because my friend and former boss was the science consultant, and has a cameo in it.)
long bubble baths, with maybe a candle or 2, and the door open so you can listen to music of your own choice….I love my husband and children fiercely, but every few years everyone goes off and its just me and dogs (and fish, but they hardly register) indulging in lovely solitude. The woman my husband married and wanted children with is the person I am when I’m all alone, after all; its good for me to keep track of her!
The Day After Tomorrow is brilliant! Have faith… here is one 18 year old who loves The Day After Tomorrow… it’s one of my favourites, and my family don’t seem to understand my fascination with it either!
Knitting and environmental disasters… sounds fun! Enjoy! 🙂
Too bad you’re not coming to St. John’s, no place better than the hills of downtown St. John’s for training 😉
The yarn is even lovlier in person than in the photo that Stephanie took. Thank you so much, what a day brightener. Wishing you the best on your Mum-cation and your bike ride to Montreal.
For US donors, if you choose your COUNTRY first, then it shows the list of states… If you let it default to Canada, it only gives you the provinces. 🙂
Enjoy your “mom-vacation” and keep up the good work with training.
Jam-Jams are a local jam filled soft cookie made by Purity Bakery.