"You can't spit in the gallery" and other fine tales.

I was without a WFMW idea, so I thought I would share this subject instead.

Okay, y'all know that I work in an American craft gallery with a sister store, right? Keep that in mind as I tell you the following tales.

About a week and a half ago, I was toodling through the gallery and doing my typical display gig. I heard something. I heard an unmistakable sound and went whispering to the other guy that was hanging out with me.

"Joe, someone just spit."

"No! Did they really?"

"Yes!"

"Who?"

"I don't know."

I go about my business and I hear it again. This time, I was walking past the open back door that goes out to our court yard, I look out and there is an older guy sitting in one of our chairs just pulling himself back around from the audible spit and let-it-fly episode.

I was so grossed out. I paged the gallery manager and told her about the spitting guy.

"You are not serious, are you?"

"Yes and you have to come do something!"

I laugh now when I think about it because she came out of the door and said, "Sir, I had a report that you were spitting in the gallery. You can't spit in the gallery, so here are some tissues and a trash can for you to use."

Then what does he say? "I didn't spit."

She comes in, upset at me thinking that I just accused this guy of something disgusting. Turns out that it was him. He did do the spitting and the slinging and ewwww, it makes me crinkle my face up at the thought.

I was walking through this evening with an armload of tiles to be hung. They are thick and heavy, but I had them balanced just so.

Wouldn't you know, a woman was blocking my narrow way. Then, she turns and says, "Oh! Do you work here?"

Really?

"Yes I do."

"Well, I have a question for you." We were proceeding forward, but it was like she was purposely blocking my way.

"Ma'am, I'll be happy to help you in just a minute. I'm sorry. I want to put these tiles down a moment. They are a little heavy."

I think that it may have irritated her that I couldn't help her right. that. minute. All of a minute later, I was back to her. She wanted "an English riding horse, not a Western horse, but an English riding horse. Something more refined. I looked at things next door and they were ffffaaaarrrrr too expensive." The thing or two that I showed her, she turned her nose up at. She wanted a blown glass horse sculpture about 18-24" tall, but didn't want to pay the "handcrafted in America" price for it. I explained how the items were all handcrafted and that called for the difference in price, but she was snooty about it. (Yes, I meant snooty and not snotty.)

Fact of the matter was that she wanted a gorgeous hand crafted piece, but wanted it to be at mass produced price. I tried to find things for her. One item that I suggested she stated would be "a slap in the face of a person who truly rides." "You know, I gave one to a friend who owns a horse and is a die hard rider and she just thought it was great. Certainly, it isn't the perfect gift for everyone." (To note, it was a small, hand crafted metal sculpture.)

I had some older folks come in. They let us know that they were looking for bookmarks. I pointed them all out to them. We have beautiful inlaid wood bookmarks, basic paper, fun plastic corner markers, small metal religious and fun printed wood. They further explained what they were looking for. It was a small hook bookmark that we had at the holidays. They were $3.00 each. We had no more. They were so mad at me.

I moved a bunch of mirrors by our door and the first person who came in had to stop, check herself out and make certain that her make-up was good. That one made me laugh!

We had a woman mad at us today because "you always move everything." The item she was looking for? She saw it at Christmas. When she left, both Julia and I discussed how we didn't recall her being very nice when she was in before. This same lady was the one that came to the counter and announced, "THIS IS A GIFT." "Congratulations! I'm so glad you were able to find what you were looking for! Did you need that gift wrapped?" Hint, hint. Ask nicely. Though it is free, please don't be so demanding about gift wrap. And yes, I did a gorgeous wrap job on her item.

We had a woman pop part of her body in the door at 5:05 PM and say, "Oh good! Are you still open?"

The door has the hours. The double open gate across the drive has a huge, very visible sign that says "OPEN" and our hours.

"Absolutely! We're open for another hour."

We chuckle that people miss a big sign on a very large, bright-colored door.

Just a few things that make us tilt our heads to the side.

Smiles in my day:
- K-'s motivation to get her sentences written in the evening is being able to ride her bike for the mile and a quarter loop around the housing development around the corner.
- The pile of cake and brownies that showed up today after my boss announced that his birthday was this weekend and, "Where was my cake?" Happily, he got his cake. The one in charge of the cake dropped the ball. We all made up for it, though.
- Although displaying product that I'm not a fan of at all, the display (though not close to done) is looking good. Hopefully the customers will like it, too.
- Figuring out that if I take an Advil Cold and Sinus when I start to get head haze, what appears to be an allergy headache goes away lickety-split. I can't let it go too far, though. If I do, I lose it and the Advil Cold and Sinus doesn't relieve it and I walk around in a cloud.
- We turned K-'s Time Line project in today. It is due on Friday, but I had to drive K- to school this morning because of the PTA meeting I needed to attend. We still wrapped it in two garbage bags. It was raining and I didn't want it to be ruined!

Have a great day!