Sew What?

Lots of people have unusual collections. One of my best friends at Stamford High School, Richard Burns, got a job post college at an exclusive tanning salon in Hollywood, and was on Letterman with his collection of carefully folded paper towels preserved in plastic sandwich bags. He would wipe the sweat off of the tanning bed after a celebrity had used it, preserve it and then label it. His collection was quite impressive and even included Sylvester Stallone's sweat. This is the boy I went to Homecoming with.

My own collection is of hotel sewing kits. I have always had a fascination for these little compact gems--the prethreaded needles, the single white button, and small but utilitarian safety pin. One of the many perks of marrying Kip Veasey was that my Mother in Law, Nonnee, has helped me amass a serious collection of EPIC PROPORTION. I have hotel sewing kits from literally all over the world. I've got hotel sewing kits from China-Greece-you name it. I won't know where it is on a map, but By God, I know what color threads is preferred.

Just an aside here, in case you were wondering: Kip has a secret collection of deli napkins. I find piles of them in the odd times I am alone in his office and go rooting through his desk. Last year while he was away in the Orient, I discarded approximately 426 that he had shoved in various places.

But back to the sewing kits because the reason for this blog is to alert you to an alarming trend. In an effort to cut costs, it appears that more and more, hotel sewing kits are ceasing to contain prethreaded needles with a variety of thread colors. I KNOW! IT BLEW MY MIND TOO! It seems that the powers that be have decided to opt for about six thread options--you got your white, black, brown, blue, green and pink....but only one needle. YOU MUST THREAD YOUR OWN NEEDLE. It's an outrage really--because these are EMERGENCY sewing kits after all--and in my mind it's kind of like requiring that someone crank up their own juice on a defibulator. When you have a sewing emergency in a foreign country, you are counting on that needle being prethreaded.

Must log off and write congressman.