Men make plans and God laughs...

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...or, Mary and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day.

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(Here's the part where I made plans):

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You see this bag? It's taunting me.

( The wine is for scale. And maybe for comfort.)

This is the bag I bought at Target on Tuesday, a bag suitable for train travel, or so I thought.

In this bag, in preparation for my trip to Baltimore on Wednesday, I managed to fit the following:

* One Toshiba tablet PC & powercord - to read client documents on train
* One computer mouse
* One ethernet cable
* One digital camera - to capture sights while on train
* One mp3 player - to play music, on train
* One set, Bose headphones - to drown out unwanted noise, on train
* Two knitting projects - to keep hands busy, on train
* Two magazines - to keep mind occupied, on train
* Three books - to lose self in story, on train
* One notepad & pen - to take notes at client meeting (not on train)
* One wallet
* One small makeup case
* One set, car keys
* One cell phone
* One sandwich, granola bar and bottled water - to stave off hunger, on train

(Can you tell I have a pathological fear of boredom?)

So, I was pretty damn proud of myself that I could fit all that in one bag for a daytrip, with plenty of room to spare, and not have to carry a separate case for the laptop. Patting myself on the back, in fact, for such brilliant forethought and planning.

(And here's the part where God laughs):

I missed my train.

Yep.

Let's just say that I'm an effin' idiot and leave it at that.

And so, what had been planned to be a great day of train travel, knitting, reading, music, sight-seeing and general relaxation before my meeting, was instead a morning of frantic driving up I-95, around DC on the Beltway to Baltimore and Columbia, MD. (So close to where MS&W will be in a little over a month's time. I saw no fiber Wednesday, however).

And then an afternoon of driving home in stop-and-go, Beltway mixing-bowl rush hour traffic. Ugh.

To say I was a little peeved at myself is a like saying that Laurie was just a little miffed at those hoodlums in Paris.

So, then, because insult must always be added to injury where my life is concerned, I was sitting in that afternoon stop-and-go traffic, still periodically kicking myself for ruining my own day, when I looked down and noticed that my state inspection sticker had expired. And I looked to my right, and there was a state trooper next to me.

Yep.

She saw it too.

Pulled over. $25 ticket. Did I mention that I was an idiot?

All this for a 90-minute meeting with the client.

...Sigh...

But I try not to dwell on the negative. After all, I made it there and back safely, without injury to myself or to anyone around me. Despite the traffic, I still made it home in three hours, in plenty of time to watch the latest episode of Lost. And finally get some knitting in that day, (when I should have had a good six hours of it).

And all of that is just a segway into my showing you some sock progress:

Do you think this "Baltic Sea"...

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...is reminiscent of this Baltic Sea?

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In closing, I do hope God had a really good chuckle on Wednesday at my expense. And if He did, I won't hold it against Him.

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