A Plea and a Bargain

Today I spent part of the morning looking up airline prices for ticket to take me to my brother's wedding in December. As the GoFundMe my soon-to-be sister-in-law set up has raised $690, I didn't expect to be too close to our lofty goals of over $3000 to get tickets for my husband, my daughter and myself. Since the beginning of our efforts, and the emergence of a half-dozen other fundraisers from friends for other causes, I have set the more realistic goal of $1000 to get one ticket for me to fly.

This means I would be flying alone, leaving my husband to his work and my daughter to be spoiled at her grandparents' house. This means leaving my two-year-old for days on end when I've only been away from her for a few hours to teach before. While this trip will still be difficult for my family and me, the strain of a few days apart is not nearly as heartbreaking as missing my only sibling's wedding.

To my surprise, tickets today including fees and insurance came up to just over $800. 

$800?! Holy crap! I have never seen such a cheap ticket to get home before! Back when I was gainfully employed, before marriage or baby-rearing, I flew back and forth across the Pacific a number of times, but never for less than $1000. I picked cheap flights too and once spent an 8-hour layover in San Francisco's airport on New Year's Day because it was the cheapest available flight.

If we can buy a ticket soon, we only need $800. Airline ticket prices rise by the day.

If you have already donated, I thank you. If you're thinking about it, do it now! Help if you can! $5 from 30 people and I'm in Texas! So there's the plea. Here's the bargain: I make things. Lots of things. 

Sock monkeys

Endure4Kindness 2014-- All the Monkeys

 Sock Monkey Hats

Julia modeling her Sock Monkey Hat

 Arm Warmers

My Crafting for Kindness Campaign

Origami

My GISHWHES Origami Centerpiece

Would you like any of these things? Any of it can be made for you by me! Just contribute to the fund and let me know what you would like. I can bring it to Texas in December or ship earlier upon request. I've been known to make Sock Monkeys in specific genres. Here is the Geisha Sock Monkey I made as a commissioned piece last year:

Complete with Kimono and Sandals

As I live in Japan, I also have access to random Japanese stuff. If you're interested, email me at j.elaine.fleming@gmail.com or message me on twitter or Facebook. If you'd like to donate, you can do that here. If you've already donated and would like one of my bargain items in return, let me know.

Thank you so much for reading!

GISHWHES Round Up

GISHWHES was last week and it was awesome. A few things made this year significantly better than last year:

1. Our team was made up of friends or friends of friends, the last of whom was part of the team a month before the big event. Last year, I wasn't even registered until a few days before registration closed and our team was mostly fragments of other teams with just a couple of individual players.

2. Group GISHing. It's hard to be the only one in your physical area who is also doing GISH or on your GISH team. A lot of the items are better if done by a group. Some are impossible to do solo. This year I was blessed to have a couple of ladies in my vicinity for the first half of GISH, which we knocked a lot of items out, giving me time to work out some other items and do some I had originally considered impossible. Most of these could not have been done by myself. None of them could have been more fun.

3. Because our group was all well informed before the event started, we had prepared for certain snafus, such as one girl being unable to send any of her completed items in due to lack of internet after mid-week. We divided up what was left of hers and did our best. Some amazing stuff happened.

4. I pushed myself and did everything I could figure out how to do, and some that I didn't know how to do before last week.


Things I learned to be better about next year:

1. Include Julia more. She wants to be included. Once I got her into costume, she had a blast. More of this needs to happen for her.

2. Ensured internet access options for our members. I think this will be better resolved though because everyone involved will likely have been in their home-state for more than two weeks before GISHWHES (which was not the case this round)


All in all, it was a wonderful time. Lots of crazy antics were had. I have no idea what anyone else thinks, but I am thrilled with our outcomes.