Jordi We Sure Are Gonna Miss You!

Our wonderful Jordi is working her last day today at the shop. If you read this before 8 p.m., you can even pop by and wish her a bon voyage. She’s been at the store close to three years now, and, she says, it’s time for her to head out of Texas. I asked her for a little exit interview—not the corporate kind, the “What are we going to do without you? And what are you going to do without us?” kind. And here’s what she had to say:

Spike: Tell me about you and knitting.

Jordi: I’ve been knitting since I was eight. My grandmother taught me. She lives in Ireland. I would visit her two months every summer. She’s 94 now and still lives alone in the house she raised her nine kids in.

Spike: Did you grow up in Austin?

Jordi: Mostly I grew up in Holland. I moved to Houston when I was fourteen and came to Austin to go to St. Ed’s where I majored in photography.

Spike: How did you wind up working at HCW?

Jordi: I knew about the store. I went in one day—I was broke and I wanted to treat myself to something and they were hiring. I was doing AmeriCorps at the time, a program called Communities in Schools. I was tutoring and mentoring about twenty middle school girls for a year. The job at HCW was a great supplement to my less-than-minimum wage job.
It’s my favorite job— I usually keep about three jobs going at a time and this is always the fun one.

Spike: So, why are you leaving us?

Jordi: I just am really bored – not with the job, just with living in Texas. I’m moving to New York. New York is exciting and big. I don’t want to live in the US but I don’t want to live that far from my boyfriend. He was going to go with me to NY, but now he’s moving to LA.

Spike: You’ve decided on an interesting travel plan to get from here to there.

Jordi: I’m leaving on my scooter. I’m going to take three weeks to get there. I’m going to go along the South all the way to Florida and then up the Atlantic Coast. The trip is about 2800 miles. And I’m going alone. And everyone can keep their opinions to themselves. I bought pre-routed maps from a bicycle touring company. I’m going on all well-worn, paved routes. I’m going to camp and hostel and hopefully once or twice treat myself to a hotel.

Spike: You can’t carry a lot on a scooter…

Jordi: I gave away almost everything. I’m shipping up two boxes to start with and my sisters will ship up two more boxes.

Spike: What’re you going to do when you get there?

Jordi: I have a free place to stay as long as I need it in Brooklyn. I haven’t decided what to do up there. The world is my oyster. I have a scholarship from AmeriCorps, so I could go to grad school if I want. Or I could nanny. I might look for a knit store job. Not every store is HCW though. This store is a gem. I don’t think it would be as satisfying to work in a different store.

Spike: Are you going to knit on the way up?

Jordi: I’m going to do socks on the way—portable, small, useful, a pleasure to knit.

Thanks Jordi—have an awesome trip and a wonderful time in your new home. And come back and visit SOON, hear?