First time for everything...

Tomorrow morning I'll be hopping on a plane bound for San Jose, CA.  This trip will be full of firsts:
1. First time flying into San Jose
2. First time visiting friends Dennis & MaryLouise since they moved from Virginia to California
3. First time in the Bay area for fun, not work or flying through on the way somewhere else
4. First time attending a big knitting event

I really miss not living near Dennis and MaryLouise so that is the most important part of the trip.

The reason for making the trip now though is to attend Stitches West.  The prospect of all the yarn shopping and knitting classes is exciting.   The prospect of spending 3 days with thousands of other women is a bit ..... daunting. 

Let me explain that a bit.  I'm an engineer working in a male dominated field.  In my office of 60 people, there are about 5 other women engineers and another 3 women total in the office.  The proportion at my customer site is about the same.  It's been that way for all of my career starting with college (ratio 4 men to 1 woman).  For one project I managed, the usual meeting attendance was me and 15 guys with occassionally another woman. I'm used to it and most of the time I don't even think about it.  I'm just one of the guys.

So the thought of going to an event that will be more like 90-95% women attendees is a bit odd.  Will I fit in?  How do you make small talk?  How bad will the bathroom lines be?  (At most of the meetings I go to for work, unlike your average public event, the lines are for the men's room not the ladies.)

This will be an adventure!   I'm signed up for 3 classes to learn some new knitting techniques and will probably take an extra bag for carting yarn home.    And one more first... I finally signed up for a Twitter account.  I don't know how much I'll tweet from Stitches West, but one of my favorite yarn brands will be tweeting short term specials at the show.  Oh, well, into the Twitterverse I go.

As much as I'm excited about all things yarny, what I'm really looking forward to is Dennis's cooking!