Craftiness

Last week, I was in one of our local craft stores to buy art supplies for Anna. These type of stores stir up latent needs to make cute decorations for the appropriate seasons. I don't know the source of these urges, since generally I don't like clutter or cutsie things that I have to move to dust. Someday, they'll find a crafts gene. Most likely I'm missing that gene since my projects either lay unfinished or look like they'll get third prize at the kindergarten fall arts fair.

So I paused, unwisely, on my way to the serious art supplies department. Foam pumpkins, cute canvas bags decorated and painted with a glittering "BOO", and other fall crafts were hung in front of me. I noticed, however, that the supplies for these crafts were largely depleted. I was too late.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a great deal of activity in a nearby section. Christmas! Women crawled like worker ants over Christmas ornaments to make, fake pine boughs and ribbons. "STOP!" I shouted inside my head. Didn't these women know what they were doing to women-kind? We hadn't passed Halloween, not to mention Thanksgiving, and they'd already moved on to Christmas!

Production lines came to mind, where a new fast worker is reprimanded by long-term employees who have developed a comfortable pace over the years and see it jeopardized by someone working faster. I had a momentary daydream of running through the aisles with my arms outstreched, clearing the shelves onto the floor. How to stop the madness?

With my art supplies and a pumpkin candle holder in my cart, I stood in line behind a woman that had purchased enough garland to fill the largest size trash bag. "I'm just getting started. I'll be back," she said cheerily. Perhaps I will, too. After all, Easter is just around the corner.