You can get anything you want…
Every quarter we have a conference, and for the past few years, I've handled the theme decorations, sometimes homemade, or gleaned from scouring the dollar store and Oriental Trading on-line. Quite often, it's pretty late in the game when we finalize the theme, or switch it. Sometimes I'm a little unfamiliar with the theme. One theme last year was soccer, so I purchased a bunch of mini hackeysack soccer balls, logo'd whistles, and flags from different countries to place on fields of patio artificial turf from the hardware store for centerpieces. I asked..."are there lines on a soccer field?"..I would paint them on..but wrong game, doh, so I didn't. It looked nice...We have very few stores to sort through for specialty items, a Walmart and a dollar tree, both carrying a small amount of craft supplies. Our Walmart specializes in scrapbooking supplies and quilting fabric. Those themes are unlikely to come up.
There's this remarkable little shop in the local mall called "All that Glitters". It reminds me of the hoarder that I may become, because it is cluttered with oddities from different eras, like my mind. The shop is small and difficult to maneuver, and you are overwhelmed by the many little things all piled together, to the point you don't recognize them. I always ask "do you have...?" There's been a different employee there each time I've wandered through, and so far, they've always had what I'd been seeking. It can be pretty strange.
Last quarter, we needed to create a wise guru who was like Yoda, Dumbledore, and the Dalai Lama put together, a master, a great teacher, a "tongue-in-cheek" wise man on the mountain...who looked like Yoda - okay :s The team had a tunic and robe. I went to the magical store and asked, "do you have a wizard hat, not so wizardy and pointy? The shopkeep led me to a dark corner overflowing to the ceiling with hats, so I explained that the wizard had to look like a great teacher, and she pulled out a perfect velveteen royal blue hat (within a few seconds)that was fashioned after something from the renaissance, a cross between a cap worn at graduation and something wise and wizardy. Then I thought, "oh, he's supposed to look like Yoda." I asked her if she had any pointy ears, and a yin & yang symbol prop, and of course, she did. Our sage looked wonderful. We had a technical wizard of our own who video-taped the wise man's sequence against a serene, palatial background at the local high-school.
This quarter's theme is disco. I'm out of time. Some of the items I've ordered haven't arrived, and an inexpensive disco light set arrived, non-working. I picked up some sequined fabric for the table tops on dark blue backdrop and figured out a back up plan if the rest of what I ordered doesn't get here. I didn't have an outfit. Looking back to the era, I guess I dressed more like a hippie rather than a dancing queen. I went over to the little shop and said, "I don't suppose you have a disco ball." A totally different lady was there and she looks up to think, and says, "I think I've seen one around here," leading me to a perfect real rotating (small) disco ball, mirror glass and all. I didn't want to spend much and asked if she had some cheap plastic set of lights, but she didn't. I decided to get it anyway. It was much nicer than I planned to buy. There was a multi-colored sequined shirt in my size in the corner on the wall behind the head of a moose that "mooed?" when you walked by. It's probably been there for years. So I got that and a matching sequined gold hat. When she rung it all up, she only charged me $35.00. "I checked with my boss, and today, it's all on sale", she said.
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou for being in our community.
One Response to “You can get anything you want…”
Scorpio - April 27th, 2009
This sounds like an analogy for how an artist can re-invent themselves. Walking through their mind, as an objective observer, picking and choosing the things they want to be a part of them. The rest is there, it just doesn’t get to come to the party.
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