Someone said they were surprised I was open on Mother’s Day — the truth is, I’m not that sentimental, I’ve never wanted to go out for brunch on Mother’s Day (crowds, reservations, stressful), and I was happy to be here this weekend.
Even though I’m still tired (I think I’ll be okay tomorrow, with one more night of good sleep), there were lots of lovely moments this weekend:
• Kevin was feeling ill, but still staffed the store for most of Friday, so I could prep for the OPALGA+ potluck I was hosting. Hero of the revolution.
• one of the people at yarn circle Saturday was a Montessori teacher in her day job, and when Larissa’s son came in to visit, she made him an origami butterfly (he loves mariposas), and also a dragon that flaps its wings, her own modification on the classic crane. (She made me one too, a few weeks ago). She’s a SF person, did I mention? — she was wearing a suitably geeky t-shirt the first day she came in, and so I knew she was of my tribe. 🙂
• the semester’s over, but one of my former students is still coming by co-writing because they find it helpful, which is terrific. Their mom made cupcakes for graduation, so they brought some to co-writing this morning. R, if you see this, please tell your mom that they were delicious!
• someone came in today and told me that her daughter’s class had visited the Berwyn Shops last year, and couldn’t stop talking about how much she loved my store. I am pretty popular with a certain segment of pre-teen and teen girls who love flowers, I have to say. The dragon and nine-tailed fox jewelry generally pleases them as well.
• I was giving out flowers (and offering cookies) to everyone who stopped in today, and it was just lovely, seeing how happy people were to get a flower.
• various people signed up for the UV resin workshop — that third picture is from a mother-daughter pair from today. They both did a very different style from what I typically design, and I love them. They loved them too, which is more important. Nice Mother’s Day activity!
•no pic, because I was too busy petting, but I got my ‘pet-friendly establishment’ sign up, and so people have been stopping in (if your dog is a store-friendly dog, then we’re a friendly store for them…). I have treats! It is much fun to pause and pet the cuties. I’m starting to learn their names — Victoria came by with her mom (who has decided she likes buying gifts here). Victoria had just been to the groomers and was wearing a jaunty scarf — as her mom said, she was clearly feeling herself. 🙂 Bobo is tiny and very friendly, and totally able to eat a big dog treat biscuit if I break it up for him. (For her? Not sure…)
• Alec Nevala-Lee stopped in with Wailin, bringing me a copy of Astounding! I had him sign both of his books that I have on hand — recommended! While formal co-writing is Sunday morning, the couch is here all the time, and Fridays are usually pretty quiet, if friends want to stop by, say hi, and get some writing (or knitting!) done. Just bring headphones in case I have to check people out. Tea is always here, and if you have a dollar to chuck in the tea kitty, great, but if not, no worries.
•a student called to tell me they’d gotten their final project work in. Just under the deadline, but I’ll take it! Just get it to me, please, kids. He also was sweet enough to say that I was one of the best teachers at UIC. I particularly needed to hear that because he and I had a terrible time with e-mail and schedules and kept missing each other this semester — but we pulled it together in the end. Whew. This has been my most disorganized year of teaching ever, but I am determined to pull it together going forward. I still love the teaching, it’s just the tracking everything that I’m having trouble with. Working on it.
• one of the dads who came in with his family looking for Mother’s Day gifts saw the flyer that said we’re discussing Murderbot at the next book club, and he told me he had just started reading the new novel that just dropped and I did not spoil it for him because I am not a terrible person, but we had a nice conversation about how much we love Murderbot, and how the AppleTV+ adaptation did a surprisingly decent job with it.
• I did a whole bunch of sanding just now, and that last pic are various things that are mostly done. Just need a little more finishing resin — they’ll be in shop by Friday. Cheese knives, tea light holders, little houses, garden stakes / houseplant jewelry. Tulips, pink fairy roses, creamy rosebuds, white snowdrops, blue scilla.
• I had the bubble machine going today (though the little silver watering can I got for holding bubble mixture for easy refilling has mysteriously gone astray), and various children played with it while a parent was shopping. I could see them through my window. It was charming.
• Kavi has promised to make me a playlist for the store as her Mother’s Day gift, and Anand has promised to Terraform Mars with me, so I’m heading home now.
