Yeah, one time -- 'cause I was a kitchen designer and um, one of the designers -- so I was in the break room on break, and the other designer, who was more of a frenemy, I learned, said, "Hey, there's some really angry customers. You know, they -- you messed up a project or something, or they claim you messed up a project or something. You messed something up, whatever -- an order. You know, you just, you just stay in here for a little bit, and -- 'cause I've been working with them, so you just, you know -- so that they don't get angry and yell or something. You just stay in here for a few minutes. I'll help 'em. And that'll make things smoother." And I trusted her at the time, so it's like, "Okay, uh, thanks!" Well, it was like a long time, and I was like, "WTF!" And then I think after that, they started going to her because they -- 'cause she really wanted like, like, um, house flippers and contractors, like she wanted the professional, like repeat business people, not just the little, like "I'm gonna get a couple of cabinets here and there for my house," you know, homeowners. She wanted like, repeat ones. And so I think that what she was doing was trying to get them to go to her, you know, instead of me. And so I think she was kinda like stealing the customer and trying to win them over. So, you know, I didn't know her at the time, and you know, maybe I was younger and more naïve, so it's like, at first I thought, "Oh, she's like trying to smooth out a situation. Oh, that's cool." And I'm already in the break room, like, you know? But I think she was actually like taking them, you know what I mean? So, um so I thought it was like a nice thing, and it was actually more of a sabotage-y thing.

"Have I ever taken a shot in the dark and been right about something?" I will preface this story by saying now, in 2025, I would not openly speculate about someone's sexuality. When this story took place, I was in college, and I didn't spend a lot of time talking about this topic to be clear, but I played on a sports team and two of my teammates were quote-unquote, "best friends." And I wasn't intending to be malicious or anything when I said it, but I said, "Oh, you are in love with each other," and they would kind of laugh. But they had a very, like, codependent, just like, attached at the hip -- but it was more than that, I thought. And so they would make jokes about how close they were, and I would say, "Well yeah, because you're in love with each other." And, um, then, I don't even know how long later -- a period of time later, they pulled me aside -- or one of them pulled me aside -- and very seriously was like, "You should know that I am in fact in love with this other person." And I think it was very anticlimactic for them because I said, "Yes, I know. I've been saying that for months, but I'm glad you've caught up. Congratulations, happy for you." So I guess I don't know if that’s a total shot in the dark because there were context clues, but I was correct about that.

I went to the doctor because my knee was bothering me. I thought I had injured it, but I would put off going to see the doctor. But it had, it had gone on so long, I knew I couldn't wait anymore and went to see the doctor. And she looked at my knee and, you know, examined it -- my range of motion, what hurt, what didn't. And, I -- you know, I thought she was gonna say that I had like a torn something-or-other or I was going to need to go through some kind of regimen of physical training or -- sorry, physical therapy, I mean. Or, you know, wear a brace or something, I don't know, I just was hoping that it was something like -- I would have some kind of non-invasive issue. I was not prepared for what she told me, which was that I had arthritis.  And I was just processing that for a minute, and the doctor said to me, “You look like you're stunned.” And I was like, "Yeah, that's a really good word. I am stunned.” Because I did not feel old enough. I thought of arthritis as something that was, you know, more typically something you suffer from when you're older, and I know you can get arthritis when you are younger. But I didn't think -- well, I mean, I just, I just really didn't feel old enough to just have like ordinary, garden variety, "you're old and you have arthritis" arthritis. And I mean, it was really -- in some ways it was good news because it's not like she was saying, "Oh, you know, you've torn such-and-such and you're gonna need to have surgery or whatever." Um, you know, and it was a kind of thing where exercise is actually probably better for it, also good news. But, um, I just -- it just didn't fit in with my concept of myself at that stage. And I have to say that continues to be the case. This was 10 years ago. I got that diagnosis 10 years ago and I still don't feel old enough to have arthritis. I don't feel old. I know I'm not a spring chicken, but in my mind, I feel so much older than what my birthday indicates that I am. And I don't think that’s a terrible thing.

Knitters are the nicest people that you probably wanna meet. I got out of the car, and two ladies that parked next to me were standing there, and they were laughing. And they both looked at me and they said, "We're laughing at your license plate." My license plate says [a knitting-related term], so I'm used to people commenting about it, but they were just laughing. They said, "I'll bet you get a lot of comments about it." And I said, "Yeah, I do." I said, “The best one, of course, was when my husband was driving my car. We were moving my son and we were driving behind Metro -- Detroit Metro Airport on Eureka Road. And there's a whole series of places where you have to stop, like every half a mile as you go through. And my husband stopped at the stoplight -- I was about three cars behind them with my son's car -- and some lady pulled up next to my husband and asked him what his favorite yarn was. “And of course, my husband went, ‘Uh, I don't know.’ His comment was, ‘It’s my wife’s car. She’s about four cars behind. You can ask her.’” Anyway, pretty funny.