Well, I survived the third day of my weekend shift (my weekends start on Fridays now), but it was a near thing. Set alarm for 8, groaned, but got up. Managed tea and a bite of breakfast, unmolded some resin pieces, realized it was almost 9, rushed to get all of the stuff needed for today packed, went up and showered and dressed in something vaguely approaching a costume.
Kevin loaded up the car for me with our cemetery stones (we have pretty heavy ones, because the light ones all used to blow over in the wind every few days, which drove me nuts, so I started buying 1-2 heavier ones a year, and now we have a nice collection), because my wrist is still slowly improving but likes to stab me with pain on occasion, and lifting heavy things is one reliable way to get it to do that.
I ran down to the Shops (5 minutes drive south of me), had a nice fellow vendor help me unload the car, left him to set up the cemetery, ran down to Sprout (another 10 minutes drive south of me), stopped at a Starbucks because Sprout wasn’t open yet and got some egg bites and a chai latte, both definitely needed, went to Sprout and dropped off my bowl full of candy for today’s Halloween event, chatted with a few of the vendors for twenty minutes or so about how the Shops were going, came back to the Shops, finished setting up my Halloween decor…
…then realized we could use a three-wall tent attachment for the spooky movies we were planning to play, ran home and got that, plus a washable rug and some blankets for the kids to sit on, came back, helped set those up, and opened up my shop just in time for our 11 a.m. opening, whew.
And then it was pretty much a whirl for the rest of the day — some of the other vendors had organized a popcorn machine and a face painter and two adorable kids selling home-grown pumpkins and the afore-mentioned movies, so the parents could drop off their kids while they shopped, and it was really quite nice having a bustle in the Shops, as often it’s kind of dead. Foot traffic and the lack thereof is the real issue there, of which more anon, I expect.
Did decent sales — about $350 for the weekend all told, which is just fine; if I did that every weekend, I’d be content. And lots of people came in who hadn’t been before, and said nice things about all my pretties, and said they’d be back for Christmas shopping, which is very nice if they do, but I hope they remember to do that before it gets cold, or worse, snows, and they decide they really don’t want to come to an outdoor shopping area in that weather…
…and at 4:45, we starting taking down Halloween, and by 5:05, the Shops were closed and I was in my car (jam-packed with tombstones and other Halloween decor and tent walls and blankets, etc. and so on). And I came home, to find Kavi had arrived back from New Orleans just before me, and we talked a little bit about her Taylor Swift concert (a surprise appearance by Sabrina Carpenter, Kavi’s actual favorite, made it “the best day of her life!” In all caps, but I won’t do that to you), but we were both very tired, and it wasn’t long before I had ordered Indian takeout (what I really wanted was my Amma’s beef and potato curry, but we didn’t have the ingredients, dammit), climbed wearily up to bed, changed into pjs, and collapsed. I may have fallen asleep a bit while trying to read.
An hour later, the food arrived, I gorged myself on idli and sambar and kottu paratha and goat vindaloo and palak paneer and garlic naan and mango lassi — and may I once again note how glad I am that there are South Indian restaurants delivering to us now? It’s not Sri Lankan, but it’s better than before. And then I felt semi-human again, and came back to bed, and read for a while without falling asleep, and then Kevin came up and we watched an episode of Abbott Elementary and an episode of High Potential, both good, and that takes us to now.
Now I am planning to watch the latest episode of Great British Bake-off, and hopefully post the rest of my World Fantasy pics — brace yourself for more Niagara Falls. And then sleep the sleep of the dead, until my trainer shows up at 8:15.
Tomorrow I have to be VERY disciplined and grade ALL my student papers and deal with URGENT and sadly belated SLF financial matters and also go through the last HUNDRED OR SO e-mails and figure out which balls I’ve dropped recently, so that will be fun.
I am allowed to craft BRIEFLY in between these tasks, but only if I am very good and stay on target, even if I DO have a brand new set of molds for a CHESSBOARD and CHESS PIECES and a PLAN for what I want to do with them….sigh.
Have y’all figured out yet that I ramble mightily when I’m exhausted? Yes, yes I do.
Okay, onward to waterfalls and pastry week.
This pic is from Sunday morning, when I’d managed to carve out a few hours from World Fantasy to go see the Cave of the Winds, which I’d somehow thought was on the Canadian side, so I pulled out my passport and crossed the Rainbow Bridge again, only to realize when I was on the other side that it was actually on the American side, oops. Cost me a dollar. But I crossed back in good time, and look, you got these photos from the bridge and the Canadian side, so that’s something.
