Tuesday Meetin'

It was a lovely day. I postponed breakfast by reading e-mail and jumping on the rebounder. I didn't think my ankle would be too happy about it, but it was fine. I also folded laundry and put mine away. Breakfast was after 10:30. Barbara called to see if I wanted a ride to Quilter's Combo, and could I meet her and Bertha at the church at 1pm. I was thrilled because I had never been there and heard that it was hard to find. I spent hours searching online for a way to disable an keystroke combination which results in deleting text. All I could find was a way to disable ALL combination keystrokes and shortcuts. I was sketching out a iron caddy pattern when MaryAnn skyped me at 12:30. We had a brief chat before I had to leave. Bertha and Barbara were waiting for me. They had come together, so I hopped in the car and away we went. Bertha showed me the back way since she knew I wouldn't want to drive on 565. When we got there, I had to agree that it was hard to find. It was a small shop underneath a shopping center. The selection of fabrics and patterns was very nice. Down a hallway was the classroom. We all bought something there, and then headed back. Since I hadn't been to Patches and Stitches either, they took me there. This shop was much bigger, but at least half of the space was given over to needlepoint and embroidery items.

They dropped me off at the church and went home, as did I. There was still daylight, so I stayed outside. I tried a few forward headrolls on the lawn. I was surprised to find that each one made me dizzy and nauseous. I suppose I shall have to work up to it. Then I raked up more leaves and put them with yesterdays leaves in a box to dump on the leaf pile. Chris came home early with the new registration for our cars. I put mine on and came in. Chris warmed up a spaghetti squash and ham for supper. But the oven had stuff on the element which gave off a great deal of smoke and caught on fire. The fire alarm screamed at us, and Chris had to unscrew it from the wall to stop it. Then he turned off the heat and opened the windows to clear the air. We had to huddle for warmth in the bedroom... At 5:30 we ate supper. I put some sun-dried tomato butter on the spaghetti squash and it was very good. Then I gathered my show-n-tell items and headed to the guild meeting. I was a little late and apparently missed the part where everyone paid their dues, which were being collected for the first time. Jen gave me a baggie of batik triangle leftovers from her project. Linda brought the donation quilt, now quilted. All I have to do is bind it to turn it in to the other guild. At the meeting we discussed going to Paducah, and how all the rental houses and most of the lodging rooms were already taken. This was quite a shock to me as I have been planned to go and rent a house with a bunch of quilting friends. After show-n-tell we talked about approving the by-laws that several people had 'borrowed' from two other guilds. It did not set well with me. They wanted to add in a juvenile membership clause and talked about whether it was ok for people to bring their kids and how much they would have to pay. And also about how many times a person could come to a meeting or Sewing Saturday before being asked to pay dues or leave. Then there was the whole thing about the president changing the name of the group on Facebook, but since the facebook e-mail address wouldn't change, she deleted the whole group and started another one, and moved all our names over, but the notifications didn't get transferred or something, so I didn't get any more messages from the group. This added to her deleting the Yahoo group (which cut off those who weren't on Facebook) just set me off. I spoke my mind and when she asked why was I there, I got up to leave. Jen told me not to leave and said we could work it all out. Deb said all guilds have such by-laws and worse. I think she started the kind of group she wanted to join, and I just never knew that dues and by-laws and deciding who was or wasn't part of it were part of her grand vision. I thought I was joining a social club, freely sharing information and ideas to whomever wanted to come. And since we are not paying for the room we meet in, why were the $12 dues we voted on raised to $20? Maybe I over-reacted, but at least I told them what I thought. After the meeting, I presented the block of the month for both December and January. As the ladies filed out, one lady took me aside and said that I wasn't the only one who felt that way, just the only one brave enough to stand up and say it. She said some wanted to form another group. We turned off the lights and went home. I stopped on the way to buy some sprouts and kimbap at the Asian store. Chris was waiting for me at home. We went down to watch another Richard Sharpe DVD. It was a very difficult movie to watch as he was lied about and mislead and villified by the wife who took all of his money and left him for another man. Afterwards I stayed up to post this message and he went to bed.