Sarah Jane Humke

So, all of my stuff was loaded into a container and left the London Thamesport on the 29th of September on the good ship (at least I hope it’s good!) Hoechst Express which is owned and operated by Hapag-Lloyd which is a German shipping company.  The ship is “expected” on the 20th of October in the Port of Chicago.  So if any of my peeps in Chicago see my container make sure the driver knows that they are headed to IOWA, not Ohio or Idaho:-)

To tell you the truth, I was a little surprised that my container was landing in the same city as I did.  I know that Chicago is a port because of the Great Lakes, but I still didn’t think of it.  I figured that my container was going to head into one of the big East Coast ports and travel by semi-truck cross-country.  Oddly enough, knowing that it is only going to be driven from Chicago makes me feel more… I don’t know, secure about it?

I wish that the Hapag-Lloyd site had a little map showing where the ship is now but I understand on many levels why they wouldn’t want that information out there:-)

I’m glad to have an idea of when my stuff is supposed to arrive.  I’ve been itching for my spinning wheel of late as well as my collection of ugly acrylic yarn to make scrapghans.  I stopped at the Hobby Lobby in Waterloo last week and had to physically restrain myself from getting some of their newest ombre and variegated yarns.  They were just so… special.  Hobby Lobby has their own brand of yarn called I Love This Yarn which is really quite nice to work with.  I now understand why some knitters are so hateful towards acrylic yarns as it does sometimes squeak when you knit with it but for crochet, I feel that it works better than wool blends.  Anyway, I have collected ombres and variegated yarns for years as they add a lot of color to my scrapghans and granny square blankets really quickly.  Hobby Lobby comes out with new colors a few times a year as well as special seasonal colorways (these can be most exciting!).  Going into this store can be a dangerous act from which my accounts usually suffer.  I was extremely restrained in that I only got 2 balls of cotton yarn and it was on clearance!  I figure that I need to start working on Christmas presents now that I am here and dish clothes are quite popular amongst my friends.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that it is interesting to me which things I am missing.  I’m also missing my shelf of books “to be read” as I’ve been doing a lot of reading of late.  I would’ve packed more books except for the fact that they weigh so much!  I wish I could have lined the inside of some of the animals crates with some books (in plastic baggies of course!) as they were well below 50lbs:-)  I’m not missing my clothes all that much…yet.  I have a feeling if I don’t have them by the time that snow flies I might be a tad antsy for some sweaters and sweatshirts.  The clothes that I packed are almost all causal, basically an assortment of long and short-sleeved tees and jeans.  But I can see it being a pain even in a few weeks as I only have one sort-of dressy outfit with me and I can’t wear the same thing to church every week!  I wish desperately that I had Mal’s normal wire crate.  The wooden one that was used to get him over here is much too big to be in my room and he really needs a place to be.  Once a dog has been crate trained they feel safer in their crates than they do roaming about and will settle down quite quickly often once they are inside it.  I miss my couch and ottoman as it is a really comfy place to sit.  I wish that I had packed more good writing paper as I hate using my fountain pens on normal paper (I know, such a snob!). Really, it’s been kind of surprising what I’ve been missing!

Anyway, go Hoechst Express go!  (Safely of course.)