As Luck would have it

We arrived around 6pm Friday night to set up our booth at the CWE show. They let us in early which was nice and everyone was so sweet, thanking us for participating, etc. A nice welcome to the show.

Until I got to my booth, #13, and found a huge pile of dog shit right next to my booth number. Aaaacckkk!!! I am somewhat superstitious anyway, so the #13 was sort of bugging me then I saw the dog shit and all bets were off. Even my dragon earrings didn't stand a chance.

But my friend Heather, ever the sweetie-pie simply announced, "this is the end of your bad luck, you have it all out of the way now." And right she was as I had a stupendous day on Saturday, selling my first piece during set up, hours before the show even opened! It was steady sales all day, more than I've had in the last several shows. I felt the evening developing along the same lines, lots of people with great buying energy.

Until the rumors started......one artist heard we were going to experience 60 mile per hour winds......then a police officer said St. Charles (about 25? miles away) was being hit by a severe storm and we were on the same weather path........on and on it went. The skies darkened and artists started closing their booths. The crowds continued to swell, seemingly oblivious to the threatening situation. John and I weren't sure what to do. This weather in the Midwest is just so strange and many of the "predicted" storms never materialize. Even though some artists closed up, we rode the middle ground and got ready for rain, but didn't totally close our tent. We dropped the sides and zipped up the back. I tarped the dolley and had it ready to pull into the tent at a moment's warning.

All Hell broke loose around 7:45 when we heard loud thunder and the skies went black. So we quickly closed the front and killed the lights. We grabbed all our stuff - one huge tote bag, my purse, 2 coolers, the laptop case - and ran. It was about 3-4 blocks to the car. The wind was gusty, the rain just starting. We are both sadly out of shape but managed to put in a respectable pace.

The drive home was horrible, very heavy rain with water accumulation on the highway. But we made it safe and sound. It stormed all night long and I don't think I slept a wink. I kept imagining all these insane scenarios with my art popping off the walls of the tent and floating down the road into a sewer drain.

The weather was fine today despite continued dire predictions. Being the cautious sort, I wore my Walmart Wellies during the morning. The temperature had dropped a ton so it was a little chilly even, so odd for June. Sales were fine, but Saturday was my big day for sure. Must have been that lucky 13.