Summertime Humanity Overload

It's December. Where did the year go? I haven't written a post in a YEAR! WOW!

Last summer I stepped out of my comfort zone and back into my old life, taking unnecessary risks with human encounters and living adventurously after existing too long as a hermit.

I'm in the process of trying to downsize and part of that includes getting rid of the hoards of boxes filled with art stored in my closet. Doing art over the years has provided a much needed entertainment in my reclusive life. It keeps me away from people. When the art project is done, it goes into a closet never to be seen again. I'm an amateur and I do art for entertainment so I've never really had the confidence to try to sell it, let alone face to face selling it with smelly people in my air space.

I decided to take the risk and signed up for an artist studio tour that welcomes other artists from outside the town to set up booths at locations. A museum in this town offered spaced at no cost! I didn't even need a canopy booth. But how do I protect myself should a buyer walk up to me smelling like a French whore?

I rallied two friends for help to provide buffers and a safety net. One was to be my assistant, and the other was going to sell her own art in the space next to me. My space was on the end so I was protected in a corner and we were outside with fresh air ventilation. I was still nervous. Would I be poisoned? End up in a hospital in anaphylactic shock? Sick for weeks? It had been a long time of isolation since my last bad exposure. Am I being unrealistic?

My first challenge was getting a real cell phone! Wow! I've only had Tracfones my whole life mainly because I hate phones in general, but cell phones give me headaches. I've tried to avoid EMFs as much as possible since MCSers are susceptible to exposure. New cell phones are a steep learning curve! Not only that I had to add apps for credit card payments, etc. Wow! It's a whole new world!

The second challenge was my assistant's family came down with COVID days before the event. Really? She was not infected and continuously took COVID tests to make sure. I threw all caution to the wind and said, "Come anyway. I can't do this without you!" We wore our masks all day not only to protect me from perfume exposure but as protection against COVID if in fact she was carrying any virus germs.

The stress was almost unbearable. I often wondered if I should have just thrown everything away instead of trying to "recycle" it by selling.

My instructions to my friends were code warnings if stinkers arrived. If they came into my friend's space first, her warning was to yell at me, "Do you want to go for pie after this?" Problem is she kept forgetting! Then I realized, she didn't even smell them! My assistant was instructed if anyone smelled to get between me and the buyer and say loudly, "If you have any questions, just ask." Fortunately,  the only person who stunk all day was the owner of the museum and she didn't come out to peruse the art often. Regardless, the masks worked wonderfully.

All went so well I wondered why I was ever stressed! I sold a mega amount of art. I was so encouraged by this, I signed up for festivals, markets and other craft-selling events all summer long! It was like having part of my old life back. I met a lot of other artists and made some friends. I continued to limit myself to outdoor events so fresh air was always ventilating my booth and I requested from event organizers to be placed on the edge and away from smelly products like scented candles, incense, essential oils, toxic air fresheners, and soaps. Sometimes I was accommodated, but sometimes not.  From time to time, I did encounter some stinkers wearing perfume, smelly vendors too close, or smokers, but I donned my N95 mask and all was fine.

I guess all my reclusiveness paid off and has made me less reactive? I don't know. The experience was fun, productive, exhausting, exhilarating, and financially rewarding. It was a great summer!