Grinning Fool

I've been trying to write this post since last night, and I can't. It's not that I'm speechless, or that I don't know what I want to say. It's just that when angels sing in your chest, its kinda hard to put into words.

Perhaps I should explain? Yesterday, I spun at a wheel for the first time.

Jess described me as "grinning like an idiot." I'm ok with that, really.

First, I tried her new wheel (that's her story, though. For the purposes of this story, though, it is a Lendrum.) I was nervous, people were watching and I had no idea what I was doing. Can I repeat that? People, people I didn't know, were staring at me and I had No Idea what I was doing. For someone that is a little high-strung on a good day, this was not good. (I didn't want to wet my pants in front of Jess' wheel. Bad form.) While it is a lovely wheel, I skittered off to hide somewhere.

Then, I met this, a Kromski Minstrel, I think.



Now, this isn't the perfect wheel for me. I know this. I had to accommodate it, rather than it helping me. But, this is the wheel I learned to spin on. In my world, this is Big. Jess has a few pictures that, I'm sure, make me look like the biggest dork of my life. I don't care. For what I felt, I'll take it. The lady, Janet Lynn of The Wheel Thing, who's wheel it was, took the time to completely encourage me. "No, it's normal for a new spinner to do that. Oh, and that. Whoops! That, too." I didn't feel like a slow child, I felt...normal. Then, she said the magic phrase: It is a 1-2 step, like a metronome. Draft, spin, draft, spin. I tried it. She was right! I stumbled at first, but there it was. I was spinning!

Can we pause here for a moment, please?

This is when the angels (that I don't actually believe in) entered my chest and started singing angel songs. My whole body started to buzz, to fill with lightness and, no. No, I'm not exaggerating. It was like finally understanding how to drive a stick shift, but with angels. And no cursing.

Chucky told me this morning that financially, we could afford either a wheel or bunnies, but not both. I'm thinking of going with the wheel.

I should be writing about where we were, my "adventure" with Springfield and the Mass road systems, and the hell of a good time I had with Jess. I can't. The spinning is too much. I can only say: Jess? I got 32.2 miles to the gallon on the way home.