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Chicago Bound…

I’m heading to Chicago to meet with some industry folks today, so I’m writing this on the plane as large patches of white-coated Earth float by below. I tried reading an article about Caleb Chung in Make and started daydreaming about owning my own baby robot dinosaur. However, I then started having flashbacks of the devilish Furby my friend’s mom bought me for Christmas around 7 years ago (it knew when I was in the room, even when I turned it around!) and the motion sickness set in. I can type on my laptop, but not read the small print of a zine… weird.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but airports really have it out for me! I used to have fairly good luck with flights, but not within the past year. Today’s delay was annoying, but not nearly as long as the last time I flew to Chicago which had me running around a powerless Queens thanks to ConEd. Although… my last Chicago transit delay was quite a bit more entertaining. (A true test of character is to just loan someone a car and not tell them that said vehicle is equipped with a PA system and a full body gorilla suit. Whew.) Leaving Brooklyn, where the wind chill was already considerably below zero for Chicago in February is just… not the smartest thing in the world to do. Wind chill in Chicago before I left was -23 degrees. That’s crazy! My native Texan mind can’t compute things below freezing, let alone below 0 degrees. So mom asks, “Did you pack thermals?” No. “What about those earmuff things Nana got you for Christmas?” No. “What’s wrong with you?” I have no idea. In my defense, I’m going to be indoors the whole time, except to just run to and from the car. I think I’m going to be in Chi-town all of 20 hours, so I bet I’ll be fine. I have friends that rave about this city like it’s the best thing since peanut butter and chocolate, but -23? That’s moose weather. Not people weather. Snow is charming, but c’mon…I am most definitely looking forward to meeting everyone, though. On a crafty note, I actually made something for myself yesterday! Not a gift, not something for work, not something for the site, but for me to wear! Yay! I started to make a dress to impress all these sewing folks yesterday, which turned out really cute. I got it completely finished and the buttonholer on my machine started malfunctioning… darn. I’ll finish it promptly, though and post pics. I love the fabric and it should be a great winter dress. It felt great to sew at home again… I need to keep that up.

Nik
Nicole Smith is an author, editor, designer, and instructor who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Check out her latest book, Skirt-A-Day Sewing, out now at your local bookstore, or online.
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