Before I go further, I will state that I am fine. Honestly. I know that the word “evacuation” causes all sorts of images of me on a stretcher being taken out of Ukraine by Marine helicopter (at least it does in my head), but it was nothing like that. My medical condition was not life-threatening, or even really an emergency. It was just something that needed to be checked out before April 2009, so medevac was the way to go. And for the sake of not sharing too much personal information online, that’s all I’m going to say about my health.

But I will share more details about the experience itself. It was probably one of the craziest weeks of my life. I left Kyiv Monday morning, landed in DC Monday evening, and hit the ground running. I had appointments and testing all day Tuesday and part of the day Wednesday, results were determined by the end of the day Thursday, and I was “cleared” to return to post on Friday (although my return flight was on Monday morning). It was a confusing time of explaining and re-explaining my situation. I had never had an experience with a teaching hospital before, so since all my appointments were at The George Washington University, I got to see the whole intern system in action.

I think my favorite (and I’m laughing only after the fact) intern experience was the one I had at my ophthalmologist appointment. She was very thorough, yet somehow completely lacking in bedside manner. Things came to a head when she was checking the pressure in my eyes. In the past, I’ve always had that done with the weird puff-of-air machine. But in this case, she numbed my eyes and then moved an apparatus in to actually touch my eye. Gross, I know. However, Intern didn’t mention what she was doing in advance and suddenly I realized that my eyes were feeling really funny and something is moving toward them…and getting too close. So I start blinking like crazy - she starts yelling at me that I’m “only going to make it hurt worse” (clearly indicating to me that she plans on causing me pain) - and I finally hear myself shout “What is that thing and what are you doing?!” After Intern took all of 30 seconds to explain what was going on, I was fine, of course. For the sake of her future patients, I hope she learned a small lesson. Oh, and when the real doctor came in the room, she rattled off about 5 things she had found wrong with my eyes. It took the doctor about 2 minutes to determine that there wasn’t anything wrong with them and I stumbled out into the sun, traumatized and with dilated pupils.

So between all the appointments and general craziness of the week, I soaked up some serious American culture. My mom came to spend a few days with me and, let’s say, “over-encouraged” my shopping habit. I was like one of those people on StyleTV that they give the credit card to and tell them to buy a new wardrobe. Unfortunately, unlike the show, I have to pay off my credit card. In my defense, I was in need to new clothes and I now know how lacking my options are in Kyiv. (I prefer to be able to sit down in my skirts.) Additionally, I got to eat at several of my favorite restaurants and saw 4 movies (Harry Potter, Superbad, Nanny Diaries, and Stardust).

So after a week’s diversion, and over 5,000 frequent flier miles, it’s back to real life - loads of laundry and walking a dog that seemed to get a little wilder in my absence. Only 5 more months until our R and R vacation….

I’ve also realized that I haven’t done a “crafty” post since we got here to showcase all that I’ve been working on. To be honest, I feel like I haven’t been super productive since we arrived in Ukraine. I initially thought that I would be doing nothing but crafting after arriving here, especially since I didn’t have a job. However, we got the puppy fairly early on, which turned out to be my full-time job. And the exhaustion of living in a foreign country has taken up much valuable free time. Even if my only task for the day is to get groceries, it takes 3 hours to actually get the groceries, and then about 3 more hours to recover from the experience. So not a whole lot gets done on those days. Anyway, here are the few projects that I have been able to get done in the past few months.

This is the only bit of knitting I’ve done. The pattern is from the Spring 2007 Knitscene. I haven’t been very motivated to knit lately. Maybe that’s because it actually took me three attempts to get this garment right…

These are two quilting projects I’ve been working on. The one on the right isn’t actually finished in the photo, but it is now. These were the first projects I started when we got to Kyiv, so they were both pieced and quilted completely by hand. It’s not as impressive as it sounds - they’re only 19 inches square! In other quilting news, I’m still making steady progress on my butterfly quilt - I’ve got all 56 squares put together, now I just need to embroider all 112 antennae.

I’ve decided one of my favorite things in the world is that moment when you’ve got your sewing pattern all pinned on the fabric and are just ready to cut. There’s just something so neat and organized about it. (And you know you haven’t made any mistakes yet. Not that I make mistakes…) On the left is the beginning of a skirt from a Vogue pattern made out of some gorgeous wool that my mom bought for me at G Street in Washington. And the fabric on the right is going to be a top from a Simplicity pattern with a few alterations to the neckline.

And my final project to share is a small attempt to jazz up my sewing area. What makes a space happier than matching sewing machine covers? Honestly?