A year in review

Well, has it really been over a year since I published a post?  Talk about the death of a blog, or as I like to think of it, the birth of a very busy and happy life.  I'm not sure if I am going to keep up the blog or not.  I'm just finished with a week of vacation, so I'm feeling relaxed, but it does take time to compose the posts and I just find that I want to spend my time differently.  I'm also not reading blogs as often as I used to, so I'm less inspired to post then I have been.

Despite that, I've done about a million things worthy of posting.  So here it is a year in review.

We bought a new (3rd) house - crazy I know, but this one is home - finally!

New house = lot's of crafts, many inspired by pinterest.

This stuff...

...became this lamp (we painted the table too, and the coasters are from here)

New house = lot's of weekends spent furniture shopping.

my favorite is this dining room set we put together from 3 different antique stores.

New house = my own sewing/craft room =  a wintertime flurry of sewing bags and pouches (and pillows and curtains).

Tote bags - pattern made up based on the classic LLBean boat and tote.

Pillows for our couch.

 I might have gone a little mad with the triangle pouches based on this tutorial.

I started (and completed) my 2nd full year at the new university.

2nd year of job = full teaching load, hosting a visiting scholar, serving on a search committee, becoming faculty adviser of a club sport, and just a general a flurry of activity.  No pictures of this, but it was busy and fun, with a touch of stress sprinkling the whole thing.

I started running.  I did the couch to 5k plan, which in my case took ~16 weeks and only got me to a very slow 2k.  My goal is to run our University's Family Weekend 5k Fun Run at the end of September.  It's been averaging 100 degrees here, so "training" is slow going.

I do like the nike+ thing on my ipod nano.

I knit a little bit here and there.

Monarch Shawl

Pillar Socks

Windward

Making Waves

I bought a new camera, hence the ability to run around and take pictures this morning. So far I'm really happy with it. 

I went to the Olympics. No, seriously, I was there to see preliminary rounds of beach volleyball, boxing, field hockey, basketball, indoor volleyball, and weighlifting, thanks to a very awesome best friend who scored tickets over a year ago.  This was phenomenal and worthy of a whole post or more. Maybe once I sort through the 600+ pictures I took with the new camera that will happen.

The orbit at night

I'm taking a few more days of a staycation/writing retreat to counter the big burnout I was feeling before I left.

We start a new semester in two weeks. I'm thinking about putting in my tenure files at the end of this academic year, so it may be another year before I post again :)

Still alive...`

...and kicking and climbing. Just so the blog doesn't feel ignored, there are 400+ unread posts in my google reader, 214 unread messages in my gmail and 100+ things I need to deal with or file in my school email. Life in the field is busy. Work hard play hard. But for those of you who wonder what I've been up to since I left the feedlot last month, it's exactly that. I've been up this:

That's me up there. Boy are my arms tired. Home and hopefully to regular posts and updates in ~1.5 weeks.

It's the little things

I think I've had an ah-ha moment.

I started keeping track of the good days and bad days as a way to figure out why I wasn't happy here. I thought it would be enlightening and I thought overall that I'd find that things weren't as bad as I thought they were. I documented the first three weeks and it seemed that my hypothesis was right. More days were good than bad. Weeks 4 and 5 were more of the same. Some really bad stuff, mixed in with some really good stuff. I took a trip home and got knocked out by a major cold somewhere in there so they updates didn't happen, but rest assured, while a 4 hour budget meeting truly sucks, I find joy and satisfaction in starting new collaborations so good > bad.

This discovery, however, has not solved the problem. While I mostly love my job, and can mostly handle the craptacular politics that come with it, I'm still finding myself not overly happy here.

Here's the ah-ha. It's not the job. It's not the tenure track (which I'm starting to think might be worthy of it's own blog). It's not my house, or my stress about finances, or the stress of still owning that other house, or being away from everyone I love, or even my husband's joblessness. I'm sure all of those things contribute to the general blahs, but I've come to terms with them, and rarely think about them these days.

What is it? It's the little things. It's not being able to easily make a Doctor's appointment (we had take two on that today, it didn't go much better), or the pains of finding a new hairstylist, or relearning how to vote, or regularly getting lost, or filing paperwork for health insurance, or learning a new driving style, or walking barefoot in the yard (fireants yikes!), or the million other little things that we do every day without thinking about them...that is until we can't do them, or worse get very strange looks when we do do them. It's the constant low-level anxiety that exists when you are a stranger in a strange land.

It's kind of like traveling. I love to travel. But, no matter how much I love exploring a new place, after 2 weeks in an environment where you don't speak the language and can't read the menus a McDonald's is a really welcome sight. It's not that you hate being where you are, or even enjoy the culture any less, but there is a certain level of anxiety that wears on you, mentally and physically, when you are constantly in an environment where the simple things become difficult, and a glimpse of something safe can take it all away.

But, I didn't move to another country, just another state. There's a McDonald's and Burger King on every corner, and for sure they speak English here.

Last week I went to a Burger King that didn't have any burger's and y'all and yat were not in my version of Webster's, but I hear them quite often.

So there it is. I'm in a foreign country and I don't think I'm going to find a McDonald's anytime soon. I suppose I'll learn the language and culture over time, but right now, I'd kill for some fries. :)

An Early Christmas Miracle

I just found my Christmas spirit, and feel just a little less displaced.

Dear El Paso TSA,

While I'm sure you often receive complaints about luggage searches, I feel just the opposite. I owe your kind agent thanks.

1) Thank you very much for repacking and using the pouches provided in the suitcase to do so. Although I did have a moment of confusion when opening my suitcase, the organization was quite appreciated.

2) Don't loose any sleep over the crazy lady's luggage you searched today. It is not normal for me to pack only wool sweaters, file folders, paperback books, allergy medicine, a pair of dress shoes and a wooden tractor. My life is a little out of whack right now and I have life essentials (like pants, undergarments and toothpaste) in two homes on opposite sides of the country. I merely felt that since there is no longer any need for wool in you're climate I should bring them home. And well, about that tractor, my nephew is super cute, you'd buy him a wooden tractor too. Just be reassured that I am ok although my packing may indicate otherwise.

Thanks again for the repacking, it was very easy to find what I needed today.

Sincerely,
A

Tired

So very tired. That's how I am. I haven't blogged in a while, because there has been nothing really to blog about. Nothing positive anyways, and I hate to seem like a whiner, so I've been avoiding the blog. But to my loyal readers I owe some form of an update, and since I believe in being a straight shooter, that's what I'm going to be. This trip sucks.

The trip has not yet been what I would consider a success. In fact, it's dangerously teetering on severe failure, which is just emotionally tiring. I am exhausted on every single level one can be tired on. Mental, emotional, physical, etc. My bones are even tired. I forgot how physically demanding field work can be. I swear out loud everytime I have to pick up the damn generator. That sucker is heavy.

.........

Well, apparently I was so tired that I fell asleep. With my contacts in. Which made for a very confusing morning when I put another pair in right over the first....Anyways, yesterday was a low point, that is for sure. Today much better. All equipment up and running and functional: AT THE SAME TIME!! Miracle of miracles.

Plus, I got some wicked good news today. Babies are always good news, especially when the are going to be from such great parents. (You know who you are.) Congrats!!! It might be time to break the yarn diet because baby knitting will ensue. :)

Ok, well, I'm still pretty pooped so more news soon. Goodnight all.

Well here I am

So, as you may or may not know, I originally started blogging on a the three month research trip to collect the data for my dissertation. That was three years ago. Wow, three years in blog land goes by fast. The original intent was to keep everyone up to date on my goings on out here. Some people thought I was funny, some liked knowing what I was up to and well, I blogged just slightly more frequently then I called home, so my mom was pretty happy too. Of the 20 or so friends I emailed about the blog, about 5 actually read it. During that time I found a renaissance in my crafting, mostly crochet at the time, so the blog was a little about that too. When I came home I stopped blogging almost completely, but kept up with it sporadically.

After a lot of thought about my online life and googlability, I moved the blog here, which had no connection to my real name, and tried to give it a theme. I was knitting a lot, and reading a lot of knitting blogs so I thought I'd give it a go to be a *mostly* crafty blog, with some tidbits about my day job of science. But mostly, the blog remains the same, random thoughts and tidbits about my life. My readership remains about the same as well, although I've picked up a few readers since then from friends made since the original departure. So here we are 3 years later, and I'm one week into the three month follow up study of that original project. Which means I am ~2300 miles from home back in the littlish town and the very different life that provided the inspiration for that original blog. (I don't really know where I'm going with this, but hang on for the ride, it might be fun).

It's weird to be back. Kind of like going to your hometown after you graduate college. Everything's the same, but just a little different. Was that minimart always there? Was that house always purple? When did that development start? I think that it's those little things that remind us that it's not just the physical place that's the same but different, but ourselves too. Three years ago I had been married for <6 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">resurrection of the fiber crafts. It was also an extremely productive time for me professionally. All that alone time was great for writing my first paper, and most of my second. I have fond memories of that time, but to be honest, I have no desire to relive them. I want to move on with my life. Al ot can change in three years.

This time it's different, we have new grad students working on the project, and we are all living in an apartment together. If the over 60 set made me feel young, these guys make me feel old. nearly 30 is a far cry from just past 22. The math doesn't show it, but trust me, there is a lifetime in those 8 years. These kids were in 2nd grade when Kurt Cobain died. They weren't old enough to vote in the Bush/Gore election, and they were sitting in a high school classroom on 9/11, not even remotely the same stage of life as I was starting my very first research project at that particular moment. They are great fun though, I think I'm still hanging ok, but it is an effort to not take on a mom-like role.

This is a sad realization, but man, I'm just not that young anymore. I miss the early bird specials and the golf outings. These guys are wearing me out!



ETA: After I posted this I remembered a trip recently which inspired this rant, seems like I'll never feel like I fit :)

touchdown

On the ground for the next 18 days. Equipment is busted. I'm exhausted so posting may be sporadic until I catch up with myself.

Still alive

I'm in Texas. Yeehaw. Longtime readers know of my relationship with this state. Would you believe I'm actually considering moving here. Just goes to show you, never say never. :)

S is for Security

Well, here I am, looking like a yuppy in the fancy coffee shop, drinking tea and typing away on my macbook, in the Cedar Rapids Airport. Yup, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. With snow everywhere, I'm very glad to be headed toward slightly warmer clims. Texas here I come baby.

This leg of the trip was pretty successful. We got the equipmentSe up and running, took it all apart, put it all back together, took it apart and packed it up. Then loaded it in the van that left home the same time I did, but arrived two days later. Just in time to watch the snow start to come down again, which very politely stopped in time for my drive to airport today. Since I ran out of stuff to do, I'm here and checked in 3.5 hours before my flight. Thank goodness the Eastern Iowa airport is much more forward thinking than say, Chicago O'Hare and provides free WiFi, so I can blog for you today.

Speaking of what else the airport can provide. How about some visual interest:


That is a fancy old car for sale right here in the airport lounge. It's a sweet ride, and given the amount of snow on the ground here I'm posting it so dear hubby can see getting his own old beauty is possible, even in the bad weather. :)

So, while the goal of the trip was accomplished and overall it was a success, I did have a bit of logistical issues getting here, which I alluded to last time. The short story is my orignal flight was canceled so I was last minute rebooked on another airline, evoking, what I like to refer to as the evil S on my boarding pass. It's actually a set of four capitol letter S's in a row along the bottom, which makes the security agents get out their red pens, and sends you to the special line, with full bag search, triple ID check, and full body pat down. This is the first time I got the S for a legitimate reason (last minute booking), but I'm numbering over a dozen of the Ss in my time. It's not really evil, just inconvenient and raises the heart rate just a tad. As much as I follow the rules there is always a little voice that says what if you left your pocket knife in the bottom of your bag, being scrutinized that closely is never fun. It is a post 9/11 security measure, some Ss are assigned randomly, some are assigned on itineraries that have been flagged and some are just because you might be on a list. For a period of time I think I was on that list, I got the S 2 out of every 3 times I flew, then sometime in the last year and half, the Ss stopped, I've taken 4 or 5 trips without the intense scrutiny. (I think the list was active for 5 years and hence after all those inspections the list expired. I personally don't think there was any logic in the system, just bad luck on my part, or good luck depending on how you view the situation.)

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because I was reminded of the whole security issue in a roundabout way this morning. I woke up at the hotel this AM to the people in the room screaming. At each other. Loudly. The couple was fighting. Loudly. It was scary. The girl was crying and shreiking, the man was yelling. Loudly. It started off simple enough, a heated discussion in another language. At first, I thought maybe it was the TV next door, I had heard the TV from across the hall the other night, so it was a plausible explanation. Then I realized that there were no foreign language channels on the hotel's cable system. The argument got louder, and more heated. There was more yelling and a loud bang. By this time a little over 20 minutes had passed. So I called my husband, who convinced me that yes I should call the front desk. Who then called the police. In less than 5 minutes, the police where knocking loudly on the door, waking up anyone in the vicinity that had not been awoken by the initial argument. They separated the couple and another 15 minutes of interviewing ensued. (The walls in this hotel were particularly thin, and much of the interviewing occured just outside my door, so I heard almost all of the details).

Then, what I had been dreading from the start happened. Someone was knocking on my door. It was very kind police officer who nicely asked if he could come in an talk with me. Hello heart rate. Here I was, with nothing to fear, having tried to do what I believed to be the right thing, and suddenly I could feel my whole body go into fear mode. I was suddenly like a awkward teenager who didn't know how to talk to anyone. My voice was barely above a whisper as I explained what I heard, why I had called, apologized for calling, etc. Why is that? I am a pretty self assured individual, a law abiding citizen with absolutely nothing to hide. But there it is, a fear of authority. I felt unbelievably vulnerable. And it can't just be because I was still in my pajamas, because it's the same feeling I have every time I'm marked with the evil S, and I never go to the airport in my PJs. Anyone have any good theories on why I apparently have a fear of authority? Anyone else have it? Police and security agents are there to protect us, shouldn't that envoke feelings of safety and calmness, not clammy plams and hot flashes? Anyways, just some random musings I thought I would share. I think we have maybe done something wrong in our society if someone like me has such a stressful reaction in situations that should be just fine.

Anyways, I've rambled long enough, it's time to face the security line. The kind cop did explain that they had been arguing, their stories aligned, there was no evidence of physical violence and that probably something just fell against the wall. He thanked me for calling. Left my room and told the man that the fighting needed to stop because it was disturbing other hotel guests, etc. My breathing returned to normal. Then my alarm clock rang. It was quite a way to start the day!

Here I am

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm safe, busy and tired and the trip is going well. Will the time difference it's been too late to call anyone back home by the time I finish my day, so I'm blogging what you all really want to hear. :)

Hopefully a real post tomorrow.

Let the mobile blogging begin!

Hello blog, I know it's been awhile. I hate to make excuses, I know I should be better, but you know how it is, I've been busy. What were we talking about when we last met. Oh yes, elections I believe. When I have been woefully remiss in my duties as a citizen. I cast my vote, watched the super Tuesday returns, and promptly freed up all thought space to dedicate it to the preparation for the travel whirlwind that is my time. At this point it's out of my hands unless I want to become a crazy political activist of some type and well, I'm on this career path right now, so I guess I'll see where it takes me. Right now, it's taking me EVERYWHERE.

I'm sitting in an airport as I type, waiting to get on the 3rd of 10 planes in my 10 in 10 adventure. 10 different flights in 10 days. A personal best for me (I once did 10 in 11). I'm not flying daily, so it's not as bad as it may originally seem. Most of them come in pairs as there are very few places you can fly direct these days. All in all it is a total of 4 cities 5 if you count my home base which I visited for several hours last night, and won't see again until ??? (I'm hoping for a visit in April). This was a packing nightmare by the way. Today I'm headed to a city that had a high of 18 yesterday, friday one that was 70 yesterday and then Sunday on an interview, pretty much my entire wardrobe is either checked on a plane, or in the back of the van which is carrying my equipment across the country, which I may or may not see on Thursday, then may or may not see on Sunday, so the contingency plan was that I won't see it until a week from Wednesday.

In honor of this craziness, I'm planning to do some mobile blogging, there may or may not be photos since I think the cable to connect the camera to the computer is in that van. There may or may not be blogging because not all places offer free wireless internet in the airport, and some hotels like the one I stayed in last week charge $4 for 20 minutes of net time, and well, I can't blog in <20 minutes, plus, I'm cheap. There may or may not be a theme, because it's hard to keep your head straight when you are traveling so much for so many different activities in such a short time span.

Airports are funny places. The whole system is just crazy. Those self check-in things. Just dumb if you ask me. They are a poor replacement for actual humans. Just so you know, it is 6:19 am, an hour of the day I rarely see and those stupid machines have already failed me twice on two different airlines, so I speak from experience. I log a lot of miles in the air and I've been using those machines for ~6 years now, and I have about a 35% failure rate, so I think that I'm safe in my criticisms.
........

Sorry, I'm back now, the kind airline dude just announced that we should all look at the beautiful sunrise, so we did. It was beautiful (I don't see sunrise all that often so there isn't much basis for comparison), but I was not among the half dozen people who felt it was beautiful enough to capture on my cell phone camera.

I guess my point was just made for me. Airports are funny places.

I'm knitting a shawl!

And a sweater. And a scarf. And a blanket. And oh yea, let' not forget those three pairs of socks. What a shawl? a scarf? a blanket? You say? Those weren't on the list of things to finish before starting something new. Yes, I'm coming clean. I had a bit of startitis last week. What was the cause you may ask? After all, I was doing so well, finish a sweater, finish a sock. The cause, was the downfall of knitters and fiber heads everywhere. RHINEBECK.

I had a fabulous time at Rhinebeck, this was my first time and now I know what all the fuss is about. Oh boy, is it worth the fuss. Yarn, beads, yarn. It was like craft heaven. My purchases were pretty restrained, a couple of skeins of socks that rock, (I'm a STR virgin so I'm pretty excited about that), some good basic worsted weight wool at a price I couldn't resist (enough to make a sweater for hub and enough to make a sweater for me), and two skeins of sock yarn from Oak Grove Studio, and the pattern to make a scarf they had on display and I just fell in love with.

But, the real fabulousness of Rhinebeck was spending time with my mom. We went just me an her it was really nice. My mom and I haven't spent alot of time just me and her in a while, not really sisnce we made my wedding dress together, which was a whole three years ago now. It's not that we don't spend time together, it's just been all family time, and it was nice. We talked alot and had a great time.

But ironically, I haven't starting knitting on any of the Rhinebeck projects. While we were there, we were admiring a lot of shawls and mom expressed interest in having one. I have been thinking about knitting one, but I don't think I'm an elegant enough lady to wear a shawl. But, mom, she's classy and quite elegant, a totally shawl like gal. So I kind of became a little obsessed with the shawl thing. We didn't find the right yarn/pattern combo while we were there, but we did see one that she liked. So I did some digging, and the yarn was $85 a skein! Mom, don't have a heart attack, while you are worth it, my lace knitting skills are worthy of that fancy yarn quite yet. Then I came across a new pattern from the same designer, available in a preorder kit for a reasonable price and it's beautiful. So I "preordered" it, without really paying attention to when it would arrive. In my head it was a far off time. Like last Monday when it was on my porch. But I'm so excited about this project I had to cast on. So why, am I telling you this, knowing that mom is a regular reader and the surprise is spoiled. Well a couple of reasons. 1) I'm really excited about the project and can't keep it in. 2) Mom already know that I'm not doing Christmas knitting this year and since her b-day is xmas eve, that means no birthday knitting either. 3) This is a long term project, we'll all have forgotten it, remembered it, and forgotten it again by the time it's done. 4) My mom is cool and deserves a shawl and some non event based knitting.

So there you go, I'm knitting a shawl.

In other worlds, if you are a blog reader of any kind, you must be aware that we all have decided that november is the month to get things done. Renee is participating in an altered (read normal persons) version of the novel writing thing. Many knitters are knitting a sweater. And many bloggers are committing to blogging every day this month. Well, I've never been much of a joiner, and I have no illusions of my own abilities. My secret desires to write a novel are definitely not planning to manifest anytime soon (I'm reserving that for my mid-life crisis), I cannot knit fast enough to knit an entire sweater in a month, and my life is definitely not interesting enough to blog about something everyday. So I've decided to put my own November goals at reachable, feel good levels. One personal and one professional:

I will finish my sunrise circle jacket by Thanksgiving
I will write and submit a single journal article by the end of the month.

Martha Part 2

Well, I should finish the story right....where were we, oh yes, backstage. After we walked off the set they shuffled us back to our seats. Then they started loading people on buses. The red star people got to go first, and this was the bus that Martha and Usher were on. I think those were the people who seemed most likely to spend the money right then and there because they were big kitcheny people and people who were doing lots of remodeling. Then the second bus went, and we were still in the studio, we watched all the other audience members loading up on the monitors. Just when we thought we had been forgotten, we got on the last bus, which only had 10 people on it. Then we waited on the bus for a long long time before we went anywhere. Then we got stuck in the traffic caused by the premeire of Oprah.

When we finally did get to Macy's we had missed the Welcome from the president, which I saw on the show the next day, but we did get a private escort to the bedding and bath floor, where all organized chaos reigned. Martha was there "shopping" with cameras and lights and mics and an entourage following her around. Every Macy's employee on the planet was also there. The producers were lining us up in certain sections that we were "interested" in and feeding us questions to ask Martha if she came over. There was a lot of yelling things like "towels I need 7 people who are interested in towels" and then running to the towels section. It was all a little overwhelming but alot of fun too. To me it was most interesting to see the process in real life and then watch it on TV the next day. Totally different in real life. In the end, they filmed Martha at the checkout and she left. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Macy's trying to decide what to spend the giftcards on. My sister bought a Martha apron to remember the day and I didn't buy anything. I don't need anything for the house. Kitchen wise I'm well stocked from our wedding, and as you probably guessed that stuff doesn't see much use in my life. I love having it, I'm all about having the right tool for the job, and while DH will never understand why we "waste" perfectly good drawer space with a cookie scoop I use maybe once a year, knowing I have it makes me happy. Bedroom wise I have a gorgeous handmade quilt that my mom made, so even though Martha's line is beautiful, it could never match what's there. Bathroom wise...well it's pink and the tiles are falling off the floor, and I bought new towels two weeks before the Martha show. So $250 in Macy's giftcard form is burning a hole in my wallet. Doesn't seem right to spend it frivolously...like on a Coach bag or something...but I don't need any Martha stuff. Right now I'm leaning towards a totally for fun purchase, but the practical side of me just can't seem to actually do it. Oh well, it's a good thing those things don't expire. After Macy's we did make a trip to School Products, where I did splurge on a little cashmere...if only Macy's sold yarn I would have been all good, a crafty purchase Martha would have approved of. :)

So there it is, the Martha story. We had a blast and it was so great to spend the time with my sister, she's cool and fun.

In other news, I'm out of town again. I haven't sleep home on a Sunday since Labor day and I have to tell you that's getting old, but the forced alone in the hotel time will probably mean a lot of posts this week. Just ones without pictures because I didn't bring the cord for the camera with me. I also forgot socks, but that's another matter.

Domestic Diva

"the only thing domestic about me is that I live in a house"

There is this cute green vw bug that parks in my parking lot everyday with that quote on a bumper sticker. It TOTALLY applies to me, and DH reminds me of it everytime I try to do something domestic. Those of you who know me know it's true. I bake once a year with my mom and my sister at Christmas time, and for the occasional cookie craving premade dough is the way to go. So this may surprise you:



yup that's me, standing behind the queen of domesticity: Martha Stewart.

My sister, the domestic goddess of our family, loves Martha Stewart. When I say loves I mean worships. So a month or so ago when it was announced that you could apply for tickets for the new season, we signed up. You submit your name and week that tickets are available for and then if you're picked you get tickets to the show for whatever day they decide. A week later, we got an email saying we had tickets. FOR THE SEASON PREMIERE. (I put that in caps because that was the way sister told everyone, with much emphasis on the premiere part). I'm not a kitcheny person, but I am a crafter and I have been known to watch the show, so I was pretty excited too.

The email had all these instructions and questions and was just a little odd. Saying things about being longer than a regular taping because they film promotional segments, bring flats because you'll be standing and walking alot. It was all a bit vague and a little fishy. Then a week before the show, a producer called my house to ask all these questions again, are you a baker, a chef, a crafter, are you remodeling, a new home owner, getting married....and can you send us pictures of yourself. Fishier, but we complied.

Then the commercial aired: "don't miss the season premiere of Martha with special guest Usher and see our studio audience get a surprise that will change the way they live". Seriously, "change the way they live".

So I got a little more excited and we embarked on our adventure. We stayed ~30 minutes outside of the city since we needed to be there super early in the am and thought it would be better to drive in the night before. Got to the studio 45 minutes early and waited outside for a bit. Then we checked in and they handed us our tickets. Most people were getting tickets numbered in order. We got ones with a purple stripe on them, and it was clear that we had somehow been preselected for something (we suspected it was based on our pictures), but we couldn't tell what (there were green stripe people too and then people getting interviewed about their love of kitchen gadgets or their remodeling got red stars..most everyone was classed in one way or another) We were seated with all the other purple stripe people. On the side of the studio far from were Martha ever was, over by the craft room and the whole episode took place in the kitchen. (honestly I was starting to think they had decided we were too ugly to be caught on camera). Then the big surprise. We were all going to Macy's to shop with Martha and we were each getting a $250 gift card to do so! She has a new line of kitchen, bed and bath things there. Suddenly the need for flats made sense. Then cut to commercial and next thing I know, they are lining up us purple stripes to be in the final scene, walking out of the studio with Martha and Usher to go to Macy's. So there we are, standing next to Martha and Usher. When my sister realized that Martha was two feet away she went into shell shock. Then Usher started talking to her (my sister, not Martha) and I thought she was going to pass out. He saw that she was pregnant, got all excited, asked her about the baby, how far along was she, told us his wife was pregnant too. His whole face lit up, it was so cute, if all fathers were that excited about their children to be the world would be a better place. Then we filmed, and walked off the set with Martha, backstage and everything! Not all the way to Macy's though, that's a whole other story and this post is probably long enough :)