Knit and the City

And, the race is on! I've filled up my water bottle, laced up my sneaks, and I've hit the ground running (and it's been less of a sweat since I got my air conditioner fixed!)

The race began at Washington Square, a very good place to start, since since it's home to my first job out of college.
Washington Square, burying ground of Philadelphia's Unknown Soldier, is home to Philadelphia's medical publishing industry - Lippincott, Saunders, Elsevier (which I think was bought out by Saunders) all border the square. At $18,000 a year, a swell title, "editorial assistant," and swanky place to go to work every day, The Curtis Center, I thought I was on my way. Besides being the site of my first paycheck, The Curtis Center is also the showplace of Maxfield Parrish's 15 x 49 ft Dream Garden . If the Dream Garden looks familiar, and you haven't visited Philly, that's probably because in the movie the Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis's character meets his wife at a bar, and the backdrop to the bar was the Dream Garden. Anyway, my dreams of moving to New York and becoming the most fabulous literary agent of our times lost steam as I pieced together text and pictures of gum disease, elephant feces, and intestinal blockage (I worked for the dental/vet/internal medicine editor), and after a mostly drunken, hazy weekend on Georgetown's campus, I decided to go to law school.

With Tulip off the needles, I dashed to my next destination, the Clap at the Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell is about 2 blocks away from Washington Square, so I didn't even have to work up much of a sweat before Clappy was bound off and blocked. As soon as I pulled the pins out of Tulip (which, I guess because it's cotton, took nearly 2 days to completely dry), I tacked down Clappy.

Clearly, the batteries are dying on my digital, because focusing was definitely an issue this morning, and it had nothing to do with the pitcher of Sangria I split with my mom in Atlantic City last night after a lovely day on the beach.

Unfortunately, on the train ride down, I stumbled on Ella, dropping a stitch in a crucial spot, and requiring some expert diagnosing and doctoring before I sigh, rip back. Even with this small pothole delay, I feel I will hit Chinatown, and completion of Ella this weekend. At this pace, 10 days into August, and 2 projects in the can, I think finishing the race is a real possibility.

Race update to come, and, if upon request, I have no problem submitting to chemical testing along the way.