The calm before the show
Oct. 6th, 2017 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntr3:30 pm on Friday afternoon. Clay Fest doesn't open until five, and a few potters are still sorting, pricing, stocking their booths. Far more are talking, wandering the show, grazing the remains of the lunch potluck, or filling out last-minute ballots for Best Booth or Best in Show.
I'm exhausted, of course, from finishing up my booth, hearing sales training for the umpty-umpth time, hanging previous year's posters at the information booth, dashing home to print up gift certificates for the garden club ladies who do flower arranging for us. This is the point where I normally fidget, walk the aisles checking in with friends and checking out pots. This year I'm sitting down and writing; hopefully, I'll have some energy back when we finally open the doors to the public.
Who persist in trying to get in early. But the flyer said Friday through Sunday. Yes, and it also said "5-8 pm." Can't we just go in for a minute to see the show? No, really, you can't. We're still concentrating on getting our work out of boxes and safely arranged or hung, without tripping over each other, much less spectators. It's amazing how many people asked to come in, assuming, I guess, that they were the only ones--about 20 so far. Not to mention the ones who just stroll through the open door (past the sign that says, in 5-inch letters, "Clay Fest opens at 5 pm Friday and closes at 8 pm") and make themselves at home.
I've gotten tired of being polite and appealing to their sense of fairness and appropriate behavior. I tell them that our insurance won't permit non-participants on-site outside of open hours.
Who knows? It might even be true.
I'm exhausted, of course, from finishing up my booth, hearing sales training for the umpty-umpth time, hanging previous year's posters at the information booth, dashing home to print up gift certificates for the garden club ladies who do flower arranging for us. This is the point where I normally fidget, walk the aisles checking in with friends and checking out pots. This year I'm sitting down and writing; hopefully, I'll have some energy back when we finally open the doors to the public.
Who persist in trying to get in early. But the flyer said Friday through Sunday. Yes, and it also said "5-8 pm." Can't we just go in for a minute to see the show? No, really, you can't. We're still concentrating on getting our work out of boxes and safely arranged or hung, without tripping over each other, much less spectators. It's amazing how many people asked to come in, assuming, I guess, that they were the only ones--about 20 so far. Not to mention the ones who just stroll through the open door (past the sign that says, in 5-inch letters, "Clay Fest opens at 5 pm Friday and closes at 8 pm") and make themselves at home.
I've gotten tired of being polite and appealing to their sense of fairness and appropriate behavior. I tell them that our insurance won't permit non-participants on-site outside of open hours.
Who knows? It might even be true.