Not In New York

I am not going to be in New York this weekend. Nope, I will still be in New Jersey. I would like to be in New York, but unfortunately, I didn't realize that I wanted to be there until this past Monday, when it was too late to make sure I could be in New York.
Why do I want to be in New York this weekend?

Because Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will be there.

I love reading her blog, and her books, and I've spent the last year and a half not only reading her current posts, but slowly catching up from her posts from the very beginning of her blog (January 2004). So I get a good dose of her daily, reading several posts at a time. I am only up to October of 2007, but it's enough to have followed her on several book tours and visits to the US. Enough that I have wanted a chance to go to one of her speeches/classes when she came close enough to New Jersey, and maybe get a chance to meet her in person and say hello, and perhaps even wave some knitting project at her (not that mine are all that impressive).
So, when reading her current blog entries, I was excited when I realized she was finishing up another book. That meant book tour at some point. I figured sometime in 2011 she would be busying flying all over again, and hopefully she would come close enough to where I would be able to attend (but hopefully not around April, when I am due to have the baby...she IS a doula, but I don't think she would appreciate having to stop her class/speech to deliver my child). I checked her Tour page several times, but it had no updates on it.
Then apparently I didn't check it for 3 weeks or so and that's when it happened...the update. I happened to catch a random comment made by a fellow reader of the blog, something about attending her class this upcoming weekend. And I wondered what class it could be. And that reminded me that I hadn't looked at the Tour page in a week or two (or maybe three). So I pulled it up...and sure enough...tour info was listed for 2011. And her closest stop? New York City. And naturally...it was her first stop...and it was this weekend. Wait, THIS weekend? As in, less than 5 days? I don't plan for things that quickly, so I got a little panicky at what I should do, but I decided to look into the details of the weekend. And it turns out that the decision was already made for me. The event was all booked up. *sad sigh* There wasn't a way to go see her this weekend. I had missed my chance, at least for a good part of the year (unless more dates/locations get added to her page).
I am really hoping that maybe in the fall she'll make it down this way again. That maybe, just maybe, she'll make it to New Jersey. In 2007 she was at a Borders in Marlton, NJ....which is about 15-20 minutes from where I live. That Borders is no longer there, but dude....she was SO close (I, sadly, didn't know who she was at that point and wasn't reading her blog. So there is hope that she might be close again. There are a few local knitting stores nearby, and several bookstores. So...one can hope, right? But honestly, I would even be happy with something as close as Philly. I'll send out some good knitterly vibes during the intentions part of my weekend yoga practice, and we'll see.
In the meantime...hope you are enjoying New York, Stephanie!