You Harlot!

I. Met. The. Yarn. Harlot. I did. I so did. I stalked her and everything. So let me tell ya the story.

I spent Friday night at mom's cuz she's closer to Austin and she had thought she might be able to go and she had my first 2 Harlot books from reading them and such. Then she and I got to talking on Friday night and the next thing I knew, it was 7 am and I had to hop in the shower to leave her house by 8 and be in Austin on time. That's right folks. No sleep. I didn't care. There was stalking to be done.

So off I head to Austin, cane in hand, worried that when I get to meet her I am going to totally dork out. I probably did, but I have an excuse. Ha! Anyway, I wasn't worried about falling asleep because I love the drive to Austin, where the motto is "Keep Austin Weird," so there's always something entertaining on they way. Like this little gem. Female biker. Love the license plate.

Rocket Bunny, indeed. Yes, we were stopped at a red light. Jeez, people. Do you think I take pictures while driving?? Ok, yeah so I took this one (and literally 8 more just like it) on the way.

This is why I could never fall asleep on this drive. It's gorgeous. It's like going through tree tunnels...and I think we all know how I feel about trees, huh. So, gorgeous drive, blah blah, motorcycle babes, blah blah. I found the church where she was speaking (does anyone else find this slightly ironic? Yes? No? ok) with no problem what so ever and man....was there a crowd! Here's the early crowd from my vantage point..


And that's just from 2 angles. I didn't get what was behind me. She had a nice turn out! I must say, it was a bit creepy to find people in the crowd knew who I was. If you guys papparazzi'd me, let me know would ya? I wanna come see how bad the pics turned out. To top off the heat of the day (Steph agreed with me that it was damn hot) my face broke out like 2 days before from my hip meds and I swear I had 15 yr old boys stopping me on the street giving me Clearasil money. It was sad.

So anyway, Steph was introduced as "Just another Harlot on South Congress" and we all laughed, but Steph? You're not just any Harlot, k? And here she is! Blogging us!

I know everyone says it, and it always comes across as sucking up to Steph or just, I don't know, insincere, but dudes, she's awesome. No, I am not gonna fall at her feet and worship her (unless my hip gives out and she calls 911 for me) and I know she's not perfect, but she is quite something. She's funny as hell. She had us rolling with tears in our eyes. Or it might have been lack of sleep. I don't know. I do know I watched her while I was in line after the reading and over at Hill Country Weavers and she treated each person individually with care and spent time with everyone. She viewed and commented on projects, asked about blogs....she is a lot more patient than me. Just another way we are polar opposites. She is also, quite lovely. Proof!

Before I got up to meet here, there was another lady in line who's name was Angie. Steph asked her if she was Stalker Angie. She was not. So I worked up nerve and went with the dorky and yelled "Steph!" She looked at me and I told her that I was, in fact Stalker Angie and I got the same response as Skitter; "Wow, you're a real person!" This cracks me up. It must be pretty awesome to travel the country and meet all these people. So then I got up there and I am so impressed that I didn't go total fan girl on her and just start screaming. Point for me. But I did get a Harlot hug, and we talked, we laughed, we blogged....


I totally dorked out when I got to hold the sock.


The lady behind me in the red skirt does NOT look amused. I'm sorry I took too long. Really. I know how bad the heat was. I promise. I know how hard the line was too. Thank you for not beating me with your circulars.


We discussed how now that we are face to face, polar opposites getting along, it was a bit disappointing because I think we both expected world peace to descend. I fully expected the middle east to suddenly sit down, pull out yarn and needles and discuss gauge and swatches. Someone in line said they would check the news when they got home. I like that person.

I didn't want to leave. I wanted to steal the stool next to her and just chill with her while she made nice with everyone. Or maybe I just wanted to sit and get off the gimpy hip. We may never know. I would, however, seriously love to spend an afternoon of tea/wine/beer and knitting with her. I think it would be a total hoot.

So I ended my Harlot adventure, stepped outside and stalked.




I uhh...don't know who these people are. By then I didn't know who I was. If you're in the picture, tell me! Hee!

I also got to meet Very Pink (very briefly, she liked my shirt) who is in one of these photos I believe. It was all a whirlwind but it was all wonderful.