Alabama Pics!

Okay, I’m back!!

We had a wonderful time. We met Amy and Karen at Liberty Church in Henagar and heard Shape Note singing. It is heavenly; the wall of sound created by that many voices singing in harmony is just beautiful. Several times I almost wept!

Anyway, from there, we went to Ft. Payne to the Holiday Inn and did some all-important knitting! Afterwards, we had dinner at Mi Casita.

ETA: Karen’s dh got ill and had to miss dinner… :heart: Hugs :heart: and hope for a speedy recovery for him!

And, what you’ve all been waiting for, PHOTOS!!

Thanks for the pics!! Looks like a great time was had by all. I’m so glad they didn’t reject you because of your zit. :rofling:

:roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard:

And, I forgot to tell them, but I spilled Diet Coke all over the front of my tee on the way there and had to wear my sweater zipped the whole time. I could have been ostracized for that, too!! :rofling:

Yes, I hear those Shape Note singers are a very critical bunch. :roflhard:

:roflhard: Angelia, I think if I were older and smarter, we would get along wonderfully!

You all look gorgeous!! It’s nice to see a pic of Angelia finally! Looks fun! I have to catch up on everything b/c I just logged on—even though I have to change and go to work in 15 minutes :crying:

(I’m doing my Don’t Wanna Work dance right now)

You’re going to RIT, I’m sure you’re pretty darn smart! And I know you’re pretty darn nice and pretty darn cute–so therefore, who could resist you? :wink:

:roflhard: Sara, I always wonder how I got into this place!
Seriously, though, there should be some kind of meetup around here sometime! Actually, if I thought I could afford to stay in a hotel somewhere, I’d be willing to drive pretty far for a weekend.

:roflhard: Angelia, I think if I were older and smarter, we would get along wonderfully![/quote]

We already do get along wonderfully, Cate! And, visit the post I just made in your blog…:wink:

Cate, I plan on coming up to knit with you at some point, it’s kind of like long-distance stalking on my part. :lol:

We would like to get up to Roch more often than we do. I need to go up tomorrow to shop for presents, DD’s birthday is the 4th, but I think I have too much homework. :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: Do I make my DD’s 6th birthday a wonderful experience, or do I get my work done? Or do I drop classes on Monday? :lol:

Oops! Thread-napping! Sorry! :oops:

Drop classes on Monday, duh!
Sorry. :roflhard: I’m not so good about going to one of mine. :shock: And, contrary to popular belief, it’s NOT because it’s at 8:00 on my two busiest days - I would skip it no matter when it was. :rollseyes: It’s the only one I just can’t make myself care about.
I’m going to run away now, before the thread napping goes further. :oo:

Look its Amy giving us the finger again!!! :roflhard:

LOL! I didn’t even notice that, Feministmama!

It looks like you guys had a good time–I’m so jealous and I hate it that I couldn’t attend. :frowning:

:heart: :cheering: :heart: :cheering: :heart:

I wish you could have been there, too, Cristy! And we missed Dannah–we looked for her, but she never came. Oh Dannah?!

Ooh, Karen will be in Huntsville around the first part of May (the first weekend, I think?), so maybe we can plan festivities for that! :happydance:

Hi!!! I’m back at the computer - we got home just before 11 last night (looked for you in the Fantasy Festival parking lot, Andrea, but we were too early I guess! :smiley: ).

We had a great time this weekend! Angelia was just as I’d thought she’d be, she and her DH were SO nice and funny - and it was the first chance I’d had to spend time with Sheldon, who was ALSO so nice! We had so much fun knitting in the lobby of the hotel and then at Mi Casita (and the waiter had us sing a song for him too! Of course, it turned out to have not the most cheerful lyrics - “Young people all, attention give, and hear what I shall say, I want your souls in Christ to live through everlasting day/ Remember you are hastening on to death’s dark gloomy shade, Your joys on earth will soon be gone, your flesh in dust be laid” - but then again, a lot of texts in the Sacred Harp are like that! Definitely from a tradition that believes in facing death square in the face! But the waiter liked the singing, he said!)

I forgot to tell you, Angelia, our next trip to Alabama is actually Easter weekend - but I know most people have plans for that weekend. There’s a one-day singing on the third Sunday each April near Collinsville on Lookout Mountain (Pine Grove Church, and incidentally the place where DH and I met!), and our habit is to come down on the Friday night, then on Saturday my DH (who was feeling much better by the time I got back to the hotel on Saturday night - probably it was just something he ate at lunch on Saturday) goes off and hangs out with singing friends (usually does something like help plant corn or find missing goats!) while Lynne, our non-knitting friend Laura (who was the one who came through the lobby while we were knitting asking for Lynne’s room number) and I go to an Aveda salon in Chattanooga and indulge in spa facials and the like. Then on Sunday there’s the all-day singing. That will be my next southern singing to try to convince Amy and Sheldon to go to (there is actually a tiny all-day singing on the Saturday, near Arab, AL, but it’s really small and not so great, and it can’t compete with a facial…).

Very tired, and we had what DH and I agree was our scariest plane landing ever when we got to Midway - the flight had been very uneventful, even despite the 30 or so adolescent male hockey players on board, but when we got to Chicago, there was a cloud cover, so we were bouncing a bit through clouds for a while - when we came out of it we were pretty close to the ground already, and the plane was doing that side to side rolling dipping thing that happens, and we kept coming towards the ground REALLY FAST - DH and I grabbed each other’s hands and I had the fleeting thought of “Am I supposed to be assuming some sort of impact position?” and then somehow the pilots managed to set us down incredibly softly at the last minute. DH was getting off just as one of the pilots was coming out of the cockpit, and he thanked him for the good landing, and the pilot looked a little sheepish and said it had been a bit rough, but DH told him at least the actual landing had been soft. But on the drive back home we kept every so often just saying, “Wow… that was scary…”

But all very worthwhile (the singing on Sunday was strong and powerful and fun!), and extra special because of the knitting and visiting on Saturday! And a good example of why, as DH counted yesterday, we spent 9 weekends in Alabama last year! :smiley:

Actually… I did come, but just too late.

Nina and I drove up to Ft. Payne, but didn’t get there till about seven, drove around the city looking for ya’ll then got ahold of Sheldon at the Holiday Inn Express to learn ya’ll went to a bluegrass festival, so we went back home.

It wasn’t a total loss, we stopped off at unclaimed baggage and got a ton of stuff - lots of yarn, rosewood needles, clovers, and addis for a total of like 12 bucks or something. I’ll get a picture of our finds up as soon as I can.

We hated that we missed ya’ll but… we still had fun driving and talking and goofing off. We didn’t get to leave Huntsville till about 4 because of the Fitting that ran too long. But I will be at B&N tonight.

Aw, that is a shame that we missed you! Phooey! But the Unclaimed Baggage score was well worth the drive, it seems! Wow! I’m jealous–it never even occured to me that UB would have knitting stuff, or the dh and I would have stopped first thing! :rofling:

How often do knitsters meet at B&N? Is it that knitting guild? Do you go often, Dannah?