Seriously, People?!!

Do you remember this picture? It's me, reveling in my fine fortune almost a year ago, when I first began working in MVOFS. (My Very Own Fabric Store, March 15, 2009.)



Back then, I loved absolutely everything about My Very Own Fabric Store! As a matter fact, I posted several blogs declaring that love, which I thought would never fade.

But there was something that didn't show up in my self-portrait that day...



...the rose-colored glasses!


Well, I'm here now to admit that perhaps I was a bit delusional when I wrote about how kind, wonderful, considerate and patient all of the customers were in MVOFS. Maybe I was being overly effusive when I gushed about how much I loved thread and zippers and planagrams...

Ah, but now the glasses are off.



Perhaps it's just post-holiday letdown -- the customers' and mine. Or maybe we're all a little bit cranky from working so hard to hold it all together as we tried to find some Comfort and Joy. Whatever it is, something is causing my undying love to become more, well, dying.

Maybe it began with the woman who wanted to know why she could not return a pattern, when the store policy taped to the check-out counter clearly states that we don't allow customers to do that. "It's the store policy" is like "Because I'm your mother." I shouldn't have to explain it to her.

Then there was the lady who came in carrying nary a fabric swatch, a spool of thread, or a bottle of nail polish for comparison. She simply declared that she wanted some watermelon pink fabric to make a bridesmaid's dress. We had, at the time, at least eight different fabrics that I would describe as "watermelon pink." But to each one, she said, "No. That's not watermelon pink."

Or the lady who interrupted my conversation with another customer -- the one who was asking if I could get those five huge rolls of home dec fabric off the top row so she could see if she liked them -- to ask, "Is there someone here who makes Indian doll clothes?" (Happy as I was to be pulled away from hefting gigantic bolts of fabric from lofty heights, all I could do was gape at her and say, "Huh?")

Or how about the man who accosted me as I was rushing back to tell the lady on the phone that no, we no longer had any UNC fleece fabric...He wanted to know if we had any of that fabric you cover kitchen chairs with. And also, could I tell him now much he would need. He'd never sewed before, but he had this idea that he could take his ladderback chairs and turn them into parsons chairs with a little bit of foam and the right fabric. Oh yeah -- and a pattern, too, of course.

But just as perplexing was the whiny little woman wanting to know why a particular pattern didn't come in her size -- And she expected me to have an answer.

I don't know -- Maybe it's just me. I do seem to be a little on the dark side lately. Maybe everything will seem brighter when I go back tomorrow...

You know, now that I think if it, I'd been there for about an hour yesterday before I realized that all of the elastic had disappeared from the waistband of my tights, and, and that I was struggling to walk around with the crotch just a couple inches above my knees. Do you suppose something like that might have affected my attitude? Hmmmmmm.