A Surprise Ending

July 9 

Sunday felt altogether more calm and relaxed.  I had my set-up figured out, I knew what hot felt like, and I understood that this trip was going to feel more like a meet-and-greet with a learning curve show, with a dream roadtrip bonus. 

I always meet really wonderful people at these shows.  The value in this experience is the information and advice I take in from other vendors and people that are visiting the show.  I’m open with people who are interested in enamel and I’m open when they are interested in where I am based out of.  “I’m in-between places.”  I left Brooklyn for Portugal and now have a metal studio in Southern Georgia, and I’m traveling the west coast.  It’s all a strange combination. 

But the highlight of my time in LA had little to do with the show, and more to do with the choices I have made in the past year. 

Sunday was over and I was packing up the jewelry for the weekend, and a lady approached my table.  She asked if I was the artist that moved to Portugal and I said Yes, in a where-is-this-going type of thought. 

She introduced herself stating she and her boyfriend were the couple that came to my apartment last year and bought most of my furniture when I was moving out of Brooklyn.  I couldn’t believe it. 

This couple was so sweet and encouraging of my move out of Brooklyn and taking the chance to go and travel.  They had just been on a similar type of journey and were settling in Brooklyn and reacquiring things for their new apartment.  They loved my stuff and wanted to buy much of it from me.  At the time, I was on-the-fence about whether to store my stuff, or to just sell it altogether.  Having them in my place, and watching it all walk out the door of my apartment so quickly made the decision rip of like a band-aid. 

So many decisions feel so hard, and then they are made for me, and I accept them.  People come along who buy all of your furniture, cars breakdown, a tooth needs extraction. 

It meant a lot for me to see this couple at that moment.  I wasn’t feeling totally great about the show in Los Angeles, accepting the losses, but sometimes it helps to just have a little moment, a small-world moment.  A reminder of a time where I was at the end of a major chapter of my life and where I currently am within a whole new experience.  It kind of just makes me feel like I’m doing something right, in the right place.