Saturday, October 29, 2016

getting to work at 5:00 a.m....

... is not routine, but actually not all that far from reality. I only agreed to do it today, early in order to leave at ten, for an event I was planning to attend at the local botanical garden.  The usual arrival time is 6:00, which is not so different from five, especially when I woke up numerous times wondering what time it was, fearful the alarm had failed me. Making me feel like I woke up every 15 minutes to check and be sure I had not overslept.

Today at the gloriously blooming, neatly landscaped, tidily groomed gardens was the annual fall festival: fun, games, plants for sale, bouncy inflatables, portable rock climbing wall, eats and treats, plus me face painting. I had offered to be there as one of two people who would do some simple little designs on kids: face painting (or putting designs on hands for little ones who were too fearful to let someone decorate their cheeks.) As it turned out, I was one of one.

And paint I did. I must have put pumpkins, ghosts, smiley faces, ladybugs, butterflies, little green snakes or shooting stars on well over a hundred little sweaty cheeks in a little more than four hours. Wishing I had kept up with how many I did, but it was such chaos I doubt I could have counted them. In addition to a few grubby little hands that didn't want the painting on their faces. I think I would still be there, with a line of little ones in assorted princess and storm trooper costumes, if I had not said: 'the face painting shop is closed'.

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