* That’s the name of the navigation system found in some rental cars. And indeed, it came to the rescue.

As my recent lack of blogging has shown, I’ve been pretty close to “lost in my work” here in Chattanooga since early August. I’ve been away from Chicago for almost a month – supporting the live application here has meant working crazy hours – including weekends. In the midst of all the work I’ve enjoyed a few ‘adventures’ that have helped to keep me from becoming too lost in the work.

Two weekends ago my rental car was equipped with “Never Lost” – when I picked up the car on Friday afternoon my initial reaction was to the effect of “hmm..don’t need that.” Fast forward to Saturday afternoon when I left the office at 3:00 – it was a beautiful day, I had a couple of hours free before meeting up with friends for dinner – what to do? After picking up an Italian soda at a cute little cafe, I got in the car and headed across the river. I remembered that there was a yarn shop “over there” but didn’t know where & didn’t want to go back to the hotel to get online and look for it. Enter “Never Lost.” I pulled into a parking lot, turned the system on & searched for nearby specialty shops. About the 5th shop listed was “Genuine Purl” – so the car talked me to the location. I walked into a charming store overflowing with all sorts of beautiful yarns. Given the near exhausted state that I was in, in a word I was overwhelmed! I circled through the rooms & picked up all sorts of beautiful things. Even though I had projects back in the hotel room I wanted to pick up a simple project to start on that afternoon – after quite a bit of back & forth I picked up a fun variegated yarn for a simple ribbed scarf. As yarn souvenirs I picked up a lovely green Malabrigo yarn and also some Claudia’s Hand Painted Yarns in a colorway that reminds of some Scenic City scenery – the river and the mountains. (No pictures yet)

I left the yarn store with a smile on my face and a bag full of pretty yarn. I still had some time left to my afternoon – so I parked at the river front park, found a park bench, turned on my iPod & cast on for the scarf. An hour of good tunes, being outside, watching the boats on the river & the back & forth of the ribbed scarf were just what I needed.

I still wasn’t ready to head back to the hotel so I got in the car and did some mountain driving – up and down Lookout Mountain. I had been along that route once before and the vintage signs for Rock City really did help ensure I was “Never Lost” while on the curvy mountain roads. The autumn sun through the tree leaves (some of which were just starting to change colors) made for beautiful scenery.

This serendipity Saturday was capped off with dinner with new friends. We went to a new Thai restaurant that is owned by a couple of people that work at my client site. Royal Thai is a great place – if it were closer to downtown I would be there a lot more frequently.

That Sunday my parents were in town while heading back to GA from a weekend getaway. We explored the town, had a great brunch at Lookout Mountain Cafe and did a lot of driving through the mountains – it was another beautiful day & we all enjoyed the sun, the trees, the start of fall leaves.

This past weekend I didn’t have to be in the office so I headed down to the ‘Ville to hang out with the family. No big plans – just lots of little things – sleeping in till 8AM, my kitty snuggling under the covers with me, Mom’s home cooking, a bit of shopping, watching a classic musical (Oklahoma) and all of us humming songs the rest of the weekend. On Sunday evening I had dinner with a college roommate on the northside of Atlanta before coming back up to Chattanooga – it was great to catch up with Kelly & reconnect with a dear friend. The simple pleasures of this weekend were a “homegrown” version of Never Lost that pulled me back from the depths of work overload.

Still very little to report on the knitting front. To my swaps pals, I haven’t been lost – just a bit off the “normal” path.

My time in Chattanooga is probably wrapping up soon – I look forward to being back home, back on the blog and back involved with the parts of my life that have recently been put on hold while being “lost in work.”