I'm having a pity party

Yes, this past weekend was Rhinebeck. Did I go? Well, sort of.

The curveballs started flying earlier in the week. It was my Jonathan's 13th birthday. It's a big day for sure. For him, he has finally made it to teenagehood, for me, I get to endure another 7 years with a teenager.

Also going on that day was the first Knitting Club meeting at his school. No Jonathan doesn't knit (he pointedly reminded me of this fact) but everyone at his school knows that I knit so I was drafted to help. How do you say no?

That's the school nurse who bravely took on this challenge. Check out all of the boys! Jonathan waited outside really angry that this was going on on his birthday. Ugh...

After the club meeting, I had to race from there to an event my garden club was sponsoring. A youth garden day in town


For about a month we gathered up garden foliage and dried flowers for the children to assemble into garden sculptures.

Jonathan waited in the car. I was only able to snap a few pictures before I had to rush home to get the birthday boy cleaned and scrubbed for dinner which was to be at a restaurant called the Melting Pot. A fondue place, I thought it would be fun. Well $250 dollars later (I shit you not), not only did we have to "fondue" our own raw meat, but the new college student (oh, I didn't mention that he came home for the week?) is a vegetarian and he resented the fact that the restaurant brought out raw meat to be cooked in the same 'melting pot' as his "fondued" veggies. I was so mad at myself for this entire fiasco but had to put on a smiley face for the new teenager. The only thing I did right that day, it seemed, was to invite his friend along who sat between him and his 16 year old big brother who takes special pride in needling him every possible second.

So, yes, the college student was home from school that week. Have you ever had this experience? Welcoming home for the first time a newly minted college student? Somebody ought to write an owners manual for this event. I'll say no more.

What, you say you want to know about Rhinebeck?? Well there's more. Saturday, we were to take the college student to the airport at 10am. The 16 year old had the PSAT exam at 7:00am and a cross country meet at 11:30 am. The new 13 year old had to finish a school project plus get ready for a huge dance for a popular girl's 13 birthday party. Dad chose the airport. I didn't see him anymore that day. It seems he was overcome with a severe case of fatherhood regret that he missed the entire life of his new college student. He stayed at the airport evidently immobilized. The problem for me (other than the obvious) was that he had my car the family van because his car a late model midlife crisis convertible isn't really suitable anymore for long distance driving.

As the hours ticked away on opening day at Rhinebeck, I bit off all of my nails, ate all of the birthday boy's birthday cake and worked myself into such a tissy that I have very little recollection as to how I managed to empty my bank account, rent a car, drive the 1.5 hours to Rhinebeck, and stagger around the fair grounds until people began recognizing me (blogger bingo) and jolted me out of my daze. I did manage to leave behind my camara, patterns folder, my needles and little desire to do anything other than go to the wine tasting tent.

Well, I guess there's next year. The plan? To book a bed and breakfast for the weekend and not look back.