Sockiness - waiting

Well....I'm a'wait'n.
Tuesday night I got an e-mail from the Sock Summit folks indicating they had a few spots in a few classes to fill and rather than crash the server again (and send the IT folks right into the Loony Bin) they'd decided to hold a lottery - "students" chosen by a random number generator. My heart near stopped.
I could try again to attend the Sock Summit.
I would also have a very limited amount of time to pull together a place to sleep and a way to get there - IF my lottery submission happened to get picked.

There was another heart-stopping moment when I couldn't remember if I'd saved the list of classes for which I'd been a'wish'n. {gasp/sigh of relief} The list was still there.

So, I tried to go to bed and sleep and I plotted to submit my Sock Summit wish list on Wednesday night.
As it turned out I submitted my lottery request very early Thursday - seven minutes into Thursday morning to be exact {wry grin}. (The deadline was Thursday night...)
I had to be somewhere Wednesday night so I started re-studying my sock class wish list rather late.

And then I was reminded that several of the classes I wanted were all at the same time.
So, I sucked up my wish-I-could-go-for-the-whole-weekend yen and asked for the class I wanted most "Knitting for Speed and Efficiency" with the Yarn Harlot herself, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee; only available on Thursday or Saturday. My next desire was the "Rivendell and Beyond" class. Spiffy elfin-like socks that would make me take a step into more interesting sock knitting. Only given on Thursday afternoon.
I was also really intrigued by two short classes "Hooked on Beads" (only available Thursday and conflicting with Rivendell) and "Judy's Magic Cast-on" (Available Thurs., Sat. and Sunday - conflicting with the Yarn Harlot's class Thurs/Sat.). {sigh}.

Oh no - that wasn't ALLL of the wish list!
There were other classes I'd LOVE to take - but being only on my 3rd pair of socks, it would be cruel and a bit rude of me to hold up folks in the "Dancing with Socks" class with the amazing Cat Bordhi (Whoa yeah - she does lots more than spiffy moebius bowls!) - AND I'd need to arrive "expert in Judy's Magic Cast-on". Ya get where I'm coming from with the short class I wanted?
I also love the look of the "Arch-Shaped Stockings" taught by Meg Swanson and Amy Detjen. Spiffy, yes? But again, requiring a bit more skill than I currently own.
Then there's Heather Ordover's "Sock Heels". Boy do I need that class! It could help to cure my heel-turn angst. (And it conflicts with my other two favorite classes...arrrgh!!! Perchance she'll teach it here in Tucson....? I'll ask a bit later. )
So much to learn.

I'm seeing folks post on Ravelry that some Lottery submissions have been randomly selected and already accepted by the Ravelry postees. I had to beat down some base jealousy when some of these folks noted they were already registered for other classes.
Ok, so I'm human.
I'm suffering from Sock Summit spiffy learning opportunity ENVY.
It's just the way things work out sometimes. Deeeeep Breaths!

So - I'm a'wait'n. DH has been very supportive of my yen to run off to Oregon for a few days.
I try to discuss it with friends and they're polite, but their eyes glaze over pretty quickly. ;-)
I'm the only Knitting Junkie in my circle of friends. They don't quite understand the things I spout in the midst of knit geekiness ...HOWEVER - they are learning who the Yarn Harlot is and are very appreciative when I share pages from the "Never Not Knitting" page-a-day calendar!
(Inspiring knitters one page at a time...a bunch of them are making Knit Dr. Bags...it won't be long now before I corrupt (uh, improve), the world with knitters!! Muwhahahahah...{you're already reading this with a slightly maniacal Dr. Horrible " edge, right?)

Ahem. Sorry.
Sigh. OK.

And then there's the once in a life time opportunities at the Sock Summit:
Barbara Walker's Lecture "How I became a Knitter".
And the Luminary Panel.

These are opportunities that will never come again. I'm suffering from a kick-me backlash because I didn't include these to gems in my Lottery list. Partially because
A.) there was a Saturday AM conflict with the Yarn Harlot's class (Hey - that means she doesn't get to go either...well, a lot of the Summit teachers won't get to go. That's very sad as I'm sure they have a much greater understanding of Barbara Walker's impact on the Knitting World than I do.)
B.) The cost of staying until Sunday when I might not have classes past Thursday...?
C.) Well, because I'm a frigging ninny!
I shouldn't pursue this kind of thing at midnight when I've already been practicing my insomnia for several weeks....OY. {Thumping head on desk 'cause I - AM - A - Ninny...}

~~~~~~~~
I'm contemplating just going up there for a day or two. But I find it hard to reconcile spending a lot of money so I can go spend more money.
Well, yeah! Of COURSE I'd shop. Be realistic! {wry grin}. So tempting. And maybe, just maybe...even if there were NO classes available, maybe I could attend the Lecture and Luminary Panel. {Dreaming a bit.}
Then there's the whole "Where would I sleep question" {...waffleing...}
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It is very unlikely that my lottery submission will be chosen. {Deep Breath} I'm accepting that.
I'm also a'wait'n to hear how many lottery submissions they received. My guess would be not quite the 30,000 that crashed the server during the first round of registrations - but I'd bet there's at least 10,000 - if not more. The lottery was the best possible option.

There is a bright spot from my last blog. Jo of Celtic Memory Yarn left a comment that she'd been unaware of the Sock Summit Sock Museum. It sounded like she was off to register to knit a sock for the museum! She's a profoundly good knitter!! I can't tell you how tickled I am that a comment from my blog may have "inspired" a knitter of that caliber to knit for the Sock Summit Sock Museum!!! (I'm living vicariously through better knitters!)
Yeah, I know it's a very small thing - but it's tickling my knit geekiness and I am so pleased. (There's some guilt involved too - her latest blog post was a pledge to address the 7 Deadly WIPs she'd found in her dining room. She wasn't supposed to start a new project (like socks...) until the 7 Deadly WIPs were overcome. But knitting for the Sock Museum would an EXTREMELY good reason to pause on the pledge...) ;-)
(Oh - how cool is it that she was looking at my blog? Feeble attempt to restrain the gushing knit geekiness ...)