Ready, Set, Go, Go, Go!!

About six weeks or so ago, a friend asked me if Someone and/or I would be willing to go to Wisteria for an event, help her set up her booth. Usually her daughter would hep, but her daughter's in school and can't...so my friend thought of us. She knows we love the venue and are delighted to be there as much as possible.

She offered us our gate and space to vend with her.

How could we refuse?

We've spent some time since then trying to get ready - usually I have a year to prepare for my one event at Wisteria. This is a bonus, and I only had a few weeks...eek!

We leave on Wednesday morning at Ohgod:30 in the morning, and I AM NOT READY! I am not packed, the laundry is not all done, I do not have all the groceries, I have not cleaned out the van or loaded the trailer...halp!

Before you ask, Someone is busting his butt, too...sorting through all our gear is a full-time job, especially as we decided to leave some things behind that we didn't use...which means going through boxes and removing the unwanted items. He has also cleaned the garage so we can actually move around in there, which will make loading the trailer worlds easier.

I HAVE pre-cooked and frozen the things I needed to, and MOST of the laundry is done and just wants folding or packing, which I will do some of tonight and the rest of tomorrow. Bird has offered to help clean the van. Someone and I can crank out the trailer in short order once we put our minds to it.

Meanwhile, the baby needs feeding and loving and playing with, Bird needs much of the same, the garden need watering, the house tending, groceries need shopping, the cats reassuring (one of the cats, Ki, tends to meow plaintively when she sees the suitcases - it's kind of funny and sad at the same time), and at some point I will have to get some sleep because twelve hours is a long drive and only gets longer on short sleep - last time I did it, I drank a ton of coffee and my stomach gave me hell for it.

We'll be gone until Monday night/Tuesday morning. A wonderful friend is coming by to water the waterables, harvest the harvestables, and tell the cats they are marvelous. We're going to have a lovely time, even though I KNOW I'll forget something...

What's your Labor Day looking like?

Labor Day

As a child, I didn't understand Labor Day, except as the last holiday before school started. Remember when school started in September? After Labor Day?

Work didn't have any meaning to me - except for Mum, the adults in my life didn't work. Not until I was much older, in my teens, did I learn that one had to earn the money to buy what one needed or wanted - until then, I just asked for it and someone gave it to me. Don't get your knickers in a twist - I rarely asked for it, because I just didn't care about "stuff".

If you teach your kids nothing about finances, if you shelter them from the reality of bills, of debt, of income and outgo, you are doing them a disservice. I'm not saying your two-year-old needs to know the ins and outs of high finance, but there's nothing wrong with gently explaining that the toy, kid's meal, or trip to Chuck-E-Cheese they want can't happen right now because it's not in the budget.

If I'd known about budget, about saving for the items I wanted instead of using credit, I never would have had to declare bankruptcy way back in the dark ages of my past.

There's nothing wrong with a little delayed gratification.

I've never been able to hold a regular job. Anywhere from the first day to six months in, I used to look around my workplace for ways to kill myself. I figured that's not really healthy, so I moved on from job to job until I gave it up entirely. Luckily, my family has understood my preference for not offing myself with a deep-fryer, glass cutter, razor blade, pneumatic stapler, pizza cutter, or and other otherwise useful and generally harmless tool of one trade or another. I'm blessed, and I know it - plenty of people have no choice but to work shit jobs just to struggle to keep their family in Ramen.

Now I'm a wee more grown up (well, older at least), and I am still a little hazy on this whole Labor Day thing - what's it all about? Does anyone else find it a little ironic that our nation celebrates labor by not working??

Oh, well...happy Labor Day anyway.