A Fourth of firsts

I contemplated titling this post "girls rule and boys drool" because this July 4th happened to be a fantabulous girls' weekend. I spent the holiday weekend in Ohio Amish country with my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and her mother, aunt and daughter, and I had the BEST. TIME. EVER. Seriously. And, it just happened to be a weekend of a few firsts.

I experienced my first...

...real auction. And it is very difficult to know the amount that you're actually bidding. The quilt auction we attended (to benefit the Ohio Crippled Children's Fund, a fund that benefits Amish children that do not have health care coverage) was run by professional auctioneers. To me, each opening bid sounded like this: jfdklafjdkajfk $700. Ajdkfl;djwkl;fjkdl;avcixzjvimfkeqnf $300. jfkel;ajfkdl;sajfdl;sajfkleaj $35. (Wait! Was that $35 or $135??) The auctioneers start with the price they think the quilt *should* go for, and go down from there. Once they have their opening bids they start going up. Not only does each auctioneer have their own style and own musical yodeling-like syllables they say between bids, they repeat the number they are *asking* for -- not the number they have. It goes fast, it's confusing, and it's not built for the person who needs a moment to hem and haw. But it rocks. I bid on four, and walked away with three pieces. It was exhilarating.

...trip into Amish territory. Of course, I had seen a horse and buggy on the road before, but had not actually been outnumbered by Amish people before. I came to recognize common Amish family names, the fact that they drive brown horses with black manes, the fact that they don't wear zippers or buttons, and just how loud a cruising buggy can be. It's incredible to look out across the countryside at night, and notice only 1 or 2 lights where you know there are at least 20 farms. It's also quite astonishing to be tailgated by a horse and buggy. :)

...pickled eggs. I had never heard of or seen pickled eggs before. That's fine, but the embarrassing part is that I needed a picture. I'm told my face was beet-red when I came back from taking a picture of the buffet. The beet and mustard eggs were delicious, though.

...genuine desire to figure out this new-fangled ebay thing. I have thought about it before, have listed it as a new year's resolution before, but not until now have I genuinely wanted to figure out how to use ebay. I want a heat transfer press machine. I want to make my own fabric, then quilt it. I want to copy Deborah Anderson's process she used for the Musings on the Bounty quilt that I saw at the Columbus Museum of Art. (I'm also on the lookout for a ukulele.)

...non-Boeing, non-Airbus plane. Thanks to the DH, knower of airplanes and all-around geek, I pay attention to whether I'm flying in a plane that Boeing manufactured or not. And, convinced that I had never seen the plane I flew with Midwest airlines before, I (for the first time) examined the in-flight safety manual to discover that the plane was manufactured in Canada by the Bombardier group. It was also my first time getting on a plane from the ground, rather then from the jet way.

...interval of time with my sister-in-law without the guys around. Which was great. For that matter, I think this might have been the first time I spent a significant amount of time with my mother-in-law without the guys around too. And, it was definitely a first significant amount of time with the other ladies as well. Love the guys, love the girl time too.

However, it was not the first time that I scared people with my enthusiasm. While standing in line for lunch at the auction (for the best chicken, noodles, and pie), an Amish gentleman asked me if I was having a good time. I blurted out "I'm having the BEST. TIME. EVER!" at him. He just... kind of... turned away.

Honestly, I would do the same thing, but in my defense --- *he* asked!