Weekend plans... weather permitting, that is

I finished another preemie hat. And I set it down on my little messy corner of the kitchen until I got out the scissors and needle to finish the ends and looky here what I sat it down upon...



An invitation to an annual girl's only, no children weekend of drinkin' and stitchin'. Coming up in September. Most of the stitchers are needlepointers pulling a last weekend before it's too late to have projects finished for the holidays, but I'll be there with my needles in hand. My Hurricane Sock Party sock in fact, I've been waiting for this weekend to pull it out and finish it up.

The first weekend my friend planned I was pregnant with PeeWee, I happily went and was the designated driver to and from all the meal pickups since it was a lush-filled weekend. We were in Pass Christian, MS, a weekend place for a lot of New Orleans folks. We were in a newly built house for the weekend, watching Hurricane Ivan inch through the Gulf of Mexico, thinking surely it will miss us, they always turn the last minute. We were like Weather Channel junkies. We all went home, packed up for another evacuation and got in our cars to go inland a bit. A long weekend for the kids basically.

The second weekend, PeeWee was just a tiny tike, about 9 months old so I just zipped over to the Pass for the day, being a nursing momma and all. Once again there was trouble a brewing in the Gulf, looking much more like big trouble than some others before it. Little lady named Katrina you may have head of. We all went home, packed up for another evacuation and got wiped off the map. Pass Christian was the direct hit.

I think a lot of people think it hit New Orleans, but baby, we were on the GOOD side of that hurricane. It veered off to the Pass and we got the less rainy side. Had it been a direct hit, New Orleans would be slightly less rebuilt than it is now. I will not get into all that now though... because after the storm Pass Christian was pretty much destroyed. It's rebuilding though, and we're heading over there for another weekend. Fitting since this weekend a hurricane is supposed to make it's way into the Gulf.

Last year, for reasons I don't think need mentioning, there was no girl's weekend for our group. Instead we took our turns hosting stitching nights in town, my turn no one seemed to mind we were halfway through the renovations here, with plywood counters and no bathroom door. We're all family. I had a toaster oven to cook my roast in! I got good at it too.

Of course, we've got some time before the weekend's here, but keep your fingers crossed we still have a house to go to by then. We're all watching the Weather Channel while mentally making the lists of what's going to fit in the car this time around. I myself have a little evacuation tub filled with important papers, negatives, and disks of pictures. (And don't forget the bottle of Xanax) What's your plan?