How other’s perceive our lives is truly a mystery. Yesterday when we were on our way to the GO station (the train that takes my husband into the city every day) we noticed a new neighbor hurrying to catch her bus. I had seen her before at the GO station. In the back of my mind I knew the "right thing to do" was to stop and ask her if she needed a lift. My husband who is notorious for not wanting to interact with our neighbors surprised me by saying we should stop and ask her if she wanted a ride. I said nothing but in the back of my head I felt a twinge of hesitation…something wasn’t quite right…but I said nothing since I felt guilty and didn’t want to stop this out pouring of generosity by Robert.
Now I’m not a "bad" person, but it has been my experience in the past that once you offer your hand people can sometimes ask for your arm, foot and body as well. We didn’t want to have to wait every morning to do "ride sharing". Our daily our schedules change and we never know when he’ll catch the train.
The woman…who I won’t name…was surprised and seemed hesitant to get into the car. I know I don’t look great in the morning but my husband was dressed in a suit and we don’t drive a super crappy car, but she took a chance, said, "Okay, thanks." and got into the back seat.
I keep lots of magazines in the car for when I’m waiting to pick Robert up from the GO at night so I’ll have something to read while I wait for the train to arrive. It seems it’s the only time I ever have to catch up on what’s happening in the industry. She noticed these right away and commented," Scrapbooking!" I asked her if she ever did it and the usual response came back, "oh I’d like to, but I don’t have the time." I said that I owned a company that manufactures scrapbooking products. Then she said that she now knew who she could come and borrow a punch from when she is making her cards. The subject turned to who works where and how her husband owns a theater group stays at home with their almost 2 year old very cute little girl. At this point I mentioned that I was also home based.
Then came the shocker….as this point we knew this woman all of…maybe 3 minutes…casually she said, " I feel great since we now know someone in the neighborhood. My husband often has to run errands during the day can drop off our very cute little girl at your house. Don’t be surprised if some large hairy big bear of a man shows up and drops off my daughter at your doorstep or asks you to go over to our house and look after her."
Okay…am I crazy or is that TOTALLY out of line? First I don’t know this woman, second I never once said I even had kids or for that matter wanted to look after hers…and third I’m assuming that since she thinks I "work from home" that is in fact a translation for "lazy bum who watches TV and scrapbooks".
After this startling news neither myself nor my husband commented. She must have felt a change in the air since she said, "oh it would probably not be very often, only in emergencies". Thankfully by this time we arrived at the station. We let her get out in advance. We commented on her outright strange and rude behavior after she had left the car. I was so taken aback that I didn’t even really know what to say.
That whole event was nothing compared to what Robert later called to tell me he overheard as he walked through the underground tunnel to the GO train. She was on her cell phone and could be overheard stating, "Scrapbooker stays home."
WHAT??????
"Scrapbooker stays home."
Excuse me??????
Of course my husband knew just to what extent this would drive me crazy as I’ve been working all day, 16-18 hours a day for over two months now without stopping….trying to get remotely caught up on all the orders and deadlines I have for the business. We have gotten much busier since the show with the new lines and it is everything I can do just to keep remotely in control of all the work that needs to be done. Not to mention the fact that to grow the business I’ve been working hard every day for over 5 years.
I’m showing some of my working space here…3 computers…one for designing, one for UPS and the other for everything else. Files…boxes…inventory…accounting…advertising…promotion…customer service…emails…phone calls…all of it piling up daily.
All because as we all know…."Scrapbooker stays home."
Well Hi there,
just wanted to say that I have just opened a packet from Willowtree crafts, here in the UK- I am on the DT, and it contains some of you PDQ products- the colours are gorgeous, and the chipboard is to die for- gonna have fun with them! i am in Scotland and I think I may be the first person here to get my mitts on these-
Don’t work too hard at home- what a cheeky neighbour!
No good deed goes unpunished 🙂
Hope you are feeling better!
well, when the hairy guy shows up with the girl answer the door with a beer in one hand and a lit cig in the other lol;) she can hang out with the truckdriver dude that phoned me about my book order asking me what the big rush was on the delivery, after all,
‘don’t you work from home?!’ for real, yeah, even if that were true it wouldn’t make it any less important… these two need to get together 😛
Hi Suz, I originally worked from home – until my business outgrew the “back room”.. and I understand the concept of working from home very well. That woman was damn rude!! As you and I know, when you work from home – you never leave work!!! It is always there, surrounding you. It is so much easier to go to work, and come home from work.
Take care, and Congratulations of the growth of your business. I first contacted you about 5 years ago i think from “Scrappindipity”