so, last wednesday, I was relieved to find isa's passport waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home from work, since our trip to taiwan is only two weeks away. I'd been waiting for it for what felt like an eternity (in reality, about 3 months). apparently, the feds are really busy since they'd decided to make everyone going to mexico and canada get passports. due to the sudden influx (which you'd think they would have prepared for, right?), passports are taking for-freaking-ever. I suppose they're in a huge rush to get them cranked out, so they don't have time to check their work. imagine my horror (ok, more like outrage) when I open the envelope to find that isa's name is spelled wrong. where is the quality control here?! it's not like she has an unusual name. and it's not like it wasn't printed clearly on the application and her birth certificate...

after throwing a fit and spending most of thursday on the phone trying to figure out what to do, I had no choice but to take friday off to hang out in san francisco. under normal circumstances, that would be fun. but, sadly for me, it involved about four hours in the passport office and two on bart. the only exciting part of it was that since I'd be on the train, I'd get to knit! hooray!

only problem was, I didn't really have anything to take with me. I'd started this rowan sweater a few weeks ago and have been plugging away slowly at a sea of stockinette (ok, like 3 inches) while watching tv. I almost died when I laid it out to admire and saw this:

a dropped stitch! right! there! so so close to the cast on edge. thankfully, this is ksh, so I'm not really worried that it's going to unravel, but it was enough to annoy me to where I didn't want to look at it anymore. so I banned it from my sf trip and decided to just take some sock yarn and the embossed leaf socks pattern I'd ripped out of ik. once I'd settled in on the train, I realized I should have at least read the first line of the pattern (or maybe not ripped the pages out of the magazine) before leaving the house, because it asked me to do some cast on I'd never heard of and to see page #not-the-ones-I-had-with-me for how to do it. I just did a long tail cast on since I really had no choice and now either must settle for a not pretty cast on edge or just rip it out and start over. but that's another post for another day. anyway, as I got started, I happened to glance over to see the lady across from me pulling a scarf out of her bag too! another knitter! I was so excited and ready to strike up a conversation, until I realized she wasn't knitting it, she was putting it on. because it's freezing in san francisco at 7:30 in the morning. then I thought "I should have brought a scarf. or a real jacket. or knit this sock really really fast."

anyway, long story not so short, I met lots of interesting folks, all seemingly very chipper to be spending their friday at the passport office, which turned out to be about 100 times less efficient than the dmv. even the people who had to catch their flights later that day seemed to be in good moods. that helped me not to get too aggravated. I didn't want to be "that one angry knitter lady. look at her with her pointy sticks. arrrrgh!" also, the people working there were really patient and nice. it was really weird. and hard to be mad at them. even though I really really wanted to be. like really. my fingers are crossed that it will arrive tomorrow, like fedex is telling me, and that it will be correct. especially since I had to give up isa's awesome mugshot for this less amusing puckered look.

I'm running out of words, so it's time for this post to come to an end. one last thing, tho - I went to the maker faire on sunday. it was so fabulous! I wish I'd been able to go the whole day saturday instead of just half the day sunday. can't wait for next year! so! much! cute! aaaahh!!