The Madness Has Begun

Yes, it's that time of year again, Scarborough has begun, and so has my 61-day work week... It's all good, because I don't hate my weekday job, and I LOVE working at the perfumery on the weekends.  This weekend should be interesting, because the owner will not be in town, so my co-worker & I are on our own, which means minimal breaks and virtually no time to run amok. I've always worked a part-time schedule on the weekends, instead of full-time, so we'll see how my system manages that!

 One of my co-workers is umm, militant about her beliefs, and is relatively intolerant of other people's opinions and beliefs.  Last week, another employee asked her about Easter eggs in conjunction with a program she's involved in at her church. Her response was to look directly at me and say "I object to the use of Pagan symbols in relation to Christian holidays". Yeahhh, she's made an assumption about my beliefs, based entirely on the fact that I am part of the Renaissance Festival community. Never mind discussions we've had over the last 18 months about my CHURCH. I refrained from pointing out to her that 1. my beliefs are none of her damned business, 2. My Bibles (I own at least one KJV, a RSV, an NIV, and a Living Bible) ALL include "Judge not, lest ye/you be judged", and 3. I object to Christians believing that they have the right to judge others AND cram their beliefs down everybody's throat.   Hmm, perhaps she thinks I'm a Pagan in the Spring, and a Christian the rest of the year? So yesterday, I noticed that she'd clipped a tract to her wall-mounted inbox entitled something like "Becoming a Christian is as E.A.S.Y  as A.B.C".  Yeah she's a passive-aggressive B!#(H, and her life truly only consists of Work, Church, and living with her parents & 2 dogs. She lives to get a rise out of people, and she's not going to be successful with me.  I have no doubts about where I stand with God, and I also know that on my WORST day, I have an amazing support system of friends and family from diverse walks of life, all of whom love and accept me for who I am, without trying to make me conform to what they think is right.

Last Tuesday, I came home after the storms that were in the area, to find that the mama kitty that's been hanging about (I believe she & her boyfriend were abandoned, as they are way too social and keep trying to get into the house to really be ferals) had delivered 5 kittens. 4 have survived this long, and even on my cranky mornings, seeing them in their box on the porch brings a smile to my face.

On that note, I think it's time to shut down and head for the bed with the kitties.  Sleep is kind of hit or miss these days, and tomorrow's an early morning.

CRASH

I knew going into the season working Scarby that it would be a long road, and that I would need to be extra careful to get appropriate rest, since I was going to be on the go for 75 days in a row, with no days off.  As it turned out, my schedule at faire the last 2 weekends of the season (this past one, and the coming one) are "breaks only" schedules, because my boss's sister-in-law is helping her with breakdown and hauling everything back home on Monday or Tuesday. This is excellent, as it gives me closing weekend to play with my bestie, assuming that she makes it out, at least Saturday & Sunday, plus part of Monday, and it gives me a chance to go run amok with Angela as she's  planning to be out & kiddo free on Monday. 
Throughout the season I've been trying and adding to my yes/no list various scents.  I've found several wonderful new things, and a lot that I LOVE in the bottle, but they just aren't wonderful on me. I've tended to have one on my left wrist and one on my right.  One day a couple of weekends ago, I had on Sun and Thunderstorm, and my boss suggested I mix them together. I wasn't crazy about it, but it did give me the idea to find a water scent to mix with the Sun, and I started sniffing the scents until I found the right one, and Liquid Sunshine was born. It's sweeter and more floral than I've been wearing, but it's garnered compliments from all but one person, and she's not a fan of the floral scents to begin with. The first weekend, we sold 8 drams of it, so this past weekend I got to mix up a vial sized bottle of it for sale. I know that at least 4 drams sold, but beyond that I have no idea.
On Sunday morning when I woke up, I knew I was going to have to choose between lasting a whole day out there, or going to work Monday morning (yeah, like there's actually a choice there). When the boss told me that there wasn't enough business for them to need me, even for breaks, I packed up my cooler, and headed home. Yeah, it was bad, I was POOPED, and by the time I got home, I fell into bed for a short nap before I got up and did as much of my household chore for the week (cat cages) as I physically could.  I slept another 9 hours and managed to drag myself up and to work, only to discover that my computer is DEAD. Yeah, it was a rough couple of days, but today's severe weather has completely missed us, and it doesn't look like anymore is on its way, so we're all safe, dry, a comfortable temperature, and ready to face another day!

Scarby 2011 Begins

I'm home, after my 14^th day in a row of work, and I'm looking at more of the same… at least 54 of them. Last weekend, when I was in Norman, inhaling a year's worth of fiber and 3 seasons worth of dirt, I was offered a part-time gig working at Scarborough for the season. It's not glamorous, but the people are awesome, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE fragrance oils, which is what I'm selling. I'm working at Majikah Perfumery, about 15 hours/weekend, and the rest of my time on shire is my own, which is great, it gets me entry, allows me to save on water, soda & food costs while I'm on site, and it's going to give me the opportunity to try some new and interesting scent mixes. I am TOTALLY not in standing on my feet for more than 30 minutes or so at a time shape yet, but I'll get there by the end of the run, I'm sure. Last night my feet were fairly swollen, but today they're not quite so much, but by the time I got off, they were screaming "HEY LADY, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!" The location of the shoppe ensures that I'll see a lot of the folks I usually get to see, because while it's off the main path, it's very near one of the bridges, so we see everyone who goes from the gate across that bridge. It was much hotter than it usually is for opening weekend, but all of our regular crew managed to stay hydrated, and as far as I know, we didn't lose anybody to the heat.
It's going to be an interesting season, with some of the entertainment and vendor changes, and we'll see how it all shakes out! For now, I'm off to bed so I can get up and function tomorrow!