Knitting Dangers

As if it wasn't bad enough that my seven year old broke his left arm playing soccer this spring thus excluding him from swimming for most of the summer...there I sat once again in the waiting room of the Sports Med. Clinic waiting for yet another appointment. This time, his right arm was injured in a fall from the ladder of the high dive (really high) on his third visit to the local pool this summer. Waiting patiently, I gently pulled my almost completed Clapotis out of my knitting bag and onto my lap to get some much needed stitch therapy. A few stitches into a decrease row I hear the man sitting two chairs away say, "So you can knit?" I guess he is speaking to me so I glance in his direction, throw him a "yep" smile and return to my knitting. His next statement was something like "So you think you're really hot stuff 'cause you can knit?" What does one reply to such an odd, slightly offensive statement? I decided to defer to the same quick glance and smile technique that managed to get me into trouble the first round. Waiting for the next bit of wisdom to tumble out of said stranger's mouth, I was thrilled to hear my son being summoned into the inner recesses of the examination rooms. Here is where things get really crazy. In my haste to put as much space as humanly possible between me and the nut in the waiting room I inadvertently grab my knitting bag, needles with project dangling percariously on the tips, and my purse and jolt towards the open door. I was led around a maze of narrow hallways and through several doors before I heard the giggling behind me. I had dropped my precious ball of yarn back in the waiting room and now had a mile long trail of Flash in Magenta leading me right back to the man I never want to see again. Embarrassed and afraid, I nervously began to pick up yarn by the handful edging closer and closer to the dreaded waiting room. Just as I thought about leaving the remainder of yarn behind (cut my losses so to speak), I see the kind smiling face of what had to be a yarn lover carefully winding my little lost ball all the way through the waiting room door to my little hands. What a relief! Who knew that knitting could get me into these situations? With a deep breath, I thanked the kind Winder and quickly met my children in the exam room waiting for yet another bit of stress to work it's way through my veins. And, YES, there is plenty of stress to be had this summer it seems! My little one has now broken the right arm...two whole weeks after removing the cast from the left arm. I'm sure there is something to be learned from all of this. I haven't the slightest idea of what that might be but there just has to be a lesson in it. Needless to say, Clapotis is not finished. I am only about five decrease rounds and a finishing round away from completion but I'm not sure when I'll get to it now. I do know one thing...if anyone ever asks again, my answer will be a definitive "Yes, I do think I'm hot stuff 'cause I can knit."