Well, I made it home safe and sound from the Salon des Arts Decoratif painting convention despite the dingbat lady in the red pontiac sunbird who came onto the freeway thru Montreal from one of the inclined on-ramps hidden behind a "wall" and proceeded to shoot across my right front bumper. I was boxed in but had some freedom to brake lightly and managed to avoid a good thump and then woke her up with my horn. Grrr. She "started" and looked a little embarrassed but that didn't dissipate my shock and anger. Dingbat.
It was about 2 hours and 40 minutes door to door which included one "necessary" stop, lol. Sure beat the almost 4 hours it took to get there on the 13th. I got stuck on the highway when it was reduced to one lane at St.Albert through to Maxville (just before the Quebec border). That was an hour sitting in traffic. Funnily enough, it was surprisingly easy getting through Montreal at 2 in the afternoon. Go figure.
The show was awesome, despite the fact we couldn't start set-up 'til Thursday. We were hoping we could start on Wednesday night. That way we could at least lay out the booth and put stock under tables where we could pull from on the Thursday. Oh well, the best laid plans... everyone pitched in, though, and set-up went smoothly and was done by dinner. Yippee.
The show opened at 9 a.m. each of the three days. Ugh. 9-9 on the Friday (9-5 on Saturday and Sunday). Made for an incredibly long day. We were whacked. I'm not sure the foot traffic was as busy as last year, but it still never let up and we were kept hopping. We had translators in the booth this year which made it easier for those doing demos and for technical questions about product, etc. I was okay on cash and elsewhere as my "franglais" is passable and the customers were tremendous. They were happy, helpful with the language barrier and just so positive and friendly. It was a great
experience. Sunday, however, was slow and the couple of us in the booth were chatting (in English) and those coming into the booth quickly switched into English if they could. Mid-afternoon I was alone except for our translator who was tidying a corner when someone came into the booth and in rapid-fire French asked me something. Seen a deer caught in the headlights? Think that's probably what I looked like (and felt like), lol. I was horrified, lol. But the wonderful customer quickly realized what had happened and switched to English and we laughed about it and I gained my composure. I was at a total loss for any kind of language in that moment (believe it or not [grin]) I was so tired. Too funny.
Met lots of great people and artists and it was a great show.
~Shelley
P.S. - oh... and my soulmate brought me a bouquet of flowers (yellow carnations - my favourites) to welcome me home (and a PaintWorks magazine I had my eye on). I'm so spoiled!
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