I open the page in my calendar for the new month and write in family birthdays and decorate the squares with a looping border, even though all the people I celebrate live far away from me and I won’t be getting together with them, singing songs and having slices of cake. Next, I write in the mundane: car service, dr. appointments, reminders for a hair cut (which lately has been a fraught experience). And then I notice: Where are my I can hardly waits?
This idea came from Annie Mumolo, in an interview in the LATimes:
“My dad calls them the “I can hardly waits.” He says there came a point when he turned 40 and he felt like all of his “I can hardly waits” were over, and then what do you do? I can hardly wait to get married, I can hardly wait to have kids, whatever your hardly wait is.”
The interview is worth the read, if only for Wiig’s and Mumulo’s description of middle-aged women who are kind of “invisible,” but I was most struck with this idea of the I can hardly waits, and by naming them, I realized mine had all but evaporated over the last two years. Yearly, my husband and I had penciled in travel dates on the calendar. We’d circled squares for visits to family, notable achievement celebrations and so on. We sorta-kinda had one coming this fall for a conference in Ann Arbor, but that’s turned into a virtual conference with the rise of the Delta variant.
Which leads me to registering for QuiltCon. (You knew I’d get here eventually.) It’s an annual ritual of controlled mayhem. The management at QuiltCon is always looking for a way to reduce the bloodshed, wailing and gnashing of teeth that happens at the moment the registration site opens. They’d changed this year to the people who manage ComicCon registration, but apparently the new people (Configio) didn’t read the specs, didn’t allot sufficient bandwith/server space/whatever and so the whole thing was The Worse One Yet. I imagine Configio treated “all those nice little quilters” much like the women in the movie Barb & Star, who are “kind of invisible,” “aren’t on TikTok” and are an “unrepresented portion of the population” (from here).
I got on at 7:00 a.m., which was our time here on the West Coast. It’s always good to have a registation buddy to rant text with, so Simone was in Northern California doing the same thing. She got through to the registration portion before me, at about 7:15ish. I tried every which way, but saw these too often:
Finally, by 7:44, I had two of my classes. I went back in three more times over Wednesday, and by the afternoon, I had all my lectures and classes. Here is my schedule, if you are interested:
Yes, I know I clipped short the foundation piecing class on Saturday to go and hear Tighe, but I figure (since I’m in the age group of Barb & Star) I’ll be sort of <all done> by the time 3 p.m. rolls around. If not, I’ll be late to the lecture, or miss it. Here is a class that made me laugh:
I actually have one of these going, stashed away in my sewing room, along with a vintage family apron for inspiration.
Many athletes had a lot of I can hardly waits with the Olympics this past two weeks. The Washington Post put up an array of photos that were fascinating. Here are a few:
This month’s blocks for our Gridster Bee are a combination of three flying geese (cut the colorful part 2.5″ x 4.5″ then snowball on two low-volume corner blocks 2.5″ square). Strips on the side were added (cut 1.5″ x 6.5″). Although Linda only asked for four blocks, once I got started in my scrap drawer I couldn’t stop.
And in ankle news, at almost 6 weeks I’m getting there, walking on it a little bit, going to get a pedicure, although I was really careful to let my pedicurist know not to touch the sore spot. We had moderate success in that goal, and I cut it short to go home. I also got a hair cut yesterday, trying to salvage the over-processed mess from the last stylist. This new person is my third to try after my regular guy moved to Florida. And yes, I know. it’s pretty pathetic if your I can hardly waits consists of a visit to a hair salon.
I looked at Road to California classes (coming in January) and thought Sew Kind of Wonderful’s Posh Penelope was lovely, but do I really want to add another project to the pile waiting to become quilts? Not really.
I have a lot of the not reallys going on lately, and not too many of the I can hardly waits. However: I have a pattern I just finished writing last night for a workshop I’m teaching in September to the Santa Clarita Quilt Guild, my very last Guild presentation and workshop. I’ll be teaching Blossom and if you are interested in seeing if they have any openings, let me know. I’ve taught for them before and they are a super guild with lots of lovely quilters. That and QuiltCon are the I can hardly waits right now for me.
Happy Quilting!
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 
Thanks to your dad, you had a nice title for your post today. You had my attention all the way. You would think that an outfit that could handle ComicCon could handle anything right? I know that the Houston Quilt Festival used to be just as hard to get into because the classes seemed to fill up immediately, but I don’t think it was from technical difficulties, just too many anxious quilters. You sent me on a goose chase looking for snowflake embroidery and I signed up for her newsletter. That is not something I have time for now but I can surely put that on my can hardly waits list. I like what the Gridster Bee is doing but I don’t do hashtag. I have to draw lines somewhere! LOL I really like your fabrics in the flying geese block. That looks almost like it could be a leader/ender project. Needless to say, I enjoyed your post.
What a nice way to approach the future, looking forward to special activities and events. They are few and far between these days. Though, personally, my summer has been so chock full of travel and activities that I’m looking forward to the fall slow-down! I’m happy for you to have gotten registered for what you want to do at QuiltCon. Looks like you and I have only two Sunday lectures in common. No such luck here getting the workshop I wanted though, and that was the same case with my friend (yes, we were swapping texts too) who wasn’t able to get into three of her desired workshops. Since the initial registration, she has dropped a lecture and added a different workshop that wasn’t on her list. I think it’s unfair that a 10 percent forfeit is required for a change to a lecture or workshop, when those decisions are made on account of the inability to register in the first place! I’m looking forward to QC too, but have four teaching gigs, in person, that come before then. Enjoy your anticipation! And I’m glad your ankle is healing, albeit slowly. Take care!
Dearest Elizabeth. I am kinda, sorta back. Thank you for another exquisitely written piece. The idea is compelling and the cadence of repeated phrases drew me onward.
Love, Christine
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Oh my gosh! I can so relate on all levels – QuiltCon registration (mine was an 1:20) and even the hair! I recently found “my gal” after seeing three different people since moving here. I even needed a “short cut” to trim the “firecracker pieces” (over processing) as she called them and give my color a fresh start. It was a game changer and that, along with my house being done this week, FINALLY feels like we are heading toward being settled in our new community. I’m so looking forward to seeing you at QuiltCon! Until then, stay safe E!
Love everything about you and your writing.
Well, we’ve had lots of “I can hardly wait” things with the house, and now we’re anxious to get the mountain house ready to sell. However, COVID certainly has put a damper on many of the things we wanted to do. I’m glad you got your QuiltCon classes and look forward to hearing about it.
So good to hear the ankle is improving and your Scrap blocks are so sweet. Quilt on registration sounds like a bit of a nightmare. Life seems to be filled with a real mix of Not Really’s and I Can Hardly Waits these years but I’m hoping that eventually the I Can Hardly Waits will become more abundant and outweigh the Not Really’s. I love those perfect descriptors.
No I Can Hardly Waits around here – they have become Maybe Next Summers. It’s fun to see Snowflaking/Chicken Scratch coming back again. Seems to be a cycle of three decades or so. My Grandma made aprons in the ‘50s and ‘60s, I did it in the mid-‘80s. I had a couple of Grandma’s aprons, but I’m not sure where they are now. Maybe Next Summer I can get back to my mountain house and see if they are there.
Loved the Washington Post photos. I have been only skimming the Olympic coverage; will go back and look for them.
We have a ‘can hardly wait’ next week with family time in the mountains. Looking forward to hiking, biking and lots of talking with my SILs. Glad you were able to register for at some of what you wanted at QuiltCon. I haven’t bothered to register or enter in years and don’t miss it a bit. I’ve been going through some old magazines/books lately and am (once again) struck by how it’s all been done before. Everything old is new again . . . until you’re old enough to have seen it the first time round.
What a great way to describe the anticipation of great events! Glad your ankle is healing, though I’m sorry your QuiltCon experience was so frustrating. When it works, technology is great, but when it doesn’t……..
A few thoughts:
In March 2019 I was angrily stomping across a parking lot to a crisis communication training session when I rolled my ankle. I smacked my knee in the way down. When I next went to my salon, the pedicurist took some extra time on that bruise and I gotta say I felt amazing after. I wish all ills could be solved with a little extra massage.
My Cant Hardly Wait is a hair cut in three weeks. I haven’t had one since January of 2019! My husband wants to document the length I have no because barring another pandemic, I’ll never have it this long again. I too thought I’d have to find another stylist as ours lives in Victorville and we make a day of seeing her as she’s a close family friend. Logistically we couldn’t work out a day trip with the baby. But she volunteered to come to us! I’m so incredibly excited to lob off this mess and maybe even out the parts baby has pulled out (he favors the back left side).
Well I’m off to look at when Road is. It sometimes coincides with my anniversary but it might also coincide with a work thing this year (which also tends to land on my anniversary).
Really enjoyable post, start to finish! Now you’ve got me thinking about my “I can hardly waits” and I think I’m in the same boat as you. I was hoping to go to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival next year and was so sad when they canceled, permanently 🙁. With the pandemic stretching onward and the future so uncertain, it’s just too frustrating to plan for things that keep having to be canceled or rescheduled. Better to focus on the here and now – and maybe that’s not so bad. Those photos of the olympics are fabulous – I have a Post subscription, but somehow missed them so thanks for sharing!
I always enjoy your posts! I calendar in the same way…. and so much has been canceled or is being postponed…. Love those Olympics photos. I’m back in Tokyo now. I watched as much of the Olympics as I could in the U.S. Knowing firsthand how brutal Tokyo summers are, I felt bad for the athletes. I guess my one big “I can hardly waits” is moving back to the U.S….. but that is 8 months away and I know there’s a lot to experience here in the meantime, one day and week at a time. I’m going to hit reset and make the best of the time! Anyway thanks for an as always thoughtful enjoyable post!
Finding this post months later and out of context, apparently they cannot handle Comic Con either. Thanks for posting about your experiences with Configio!