Sometimes I just want to talk about things that I shouldn’t. Today’s discussion is about hot flashes. I know you don’t want to hear about them, but I’m going to share. If you don’t want to hear the story, it’s ok, there are lots of normal people that blog on crafty sites, unfortunately, I’m not one of them.
One of my girlfriends asked me if I would help her reorganize a space that she and another woman share at an antique market. She refinishes furniture and the other woman makes deco mesh wreaths, candles, framed art, and a variety of other crafty projects. Their space is probably 25 feet wide and 15-20 feet deep. It holds a LOT of stuff. The owner of the antique market doesn’t really believe in air conditioning, and yesterday, the temperature was almost 90 degrees, so it was extremely warm there. Not only was it warm, but it was also very humid. It was so humid, in fact, that we couldn’t get the metal tape measure (that normally retracts automatically), to retract. It was humid and I was miserably hot. I started with a minor hot flash and within a half hour of being there, my entire head was drenched in sweat. I tried mopping my head, but that really didn’t do much (besides glue my hair flat to my head), so I just let it drip. I looked and felt disgusting, but I was committed to helping, so I soldiered on. The antique market was open, but they thankfully had very few customers, (so very few people saw how bad I looked.) And then it happened. A woman walked up to the booth (that looked like an explosion had gone off as everything was off the walls and either in shopping carts or on the floor), and says to me, “You look familiar.” I immediately said the town I was from (which was about 40 minutes away), thinking that would end the discussion, and the woman said, “Rich Parker.” This is the exact moment I tried to crawl under something and hide, because the sweat was now pouring down my back and I knew I looked like a wet dog. She said “I met you once at a restaurant, and went to high school with your husband.” Really? What are the odds that I would run into someone who would recognize me from meeting me once and would remember me (even though I swear I didn’t look this bad the other time we met.) She’s telling my girlfriend that she came specifically to see this booth as she is friends with the other woman that she shares the booth with and then looks back at me. I decide to diffuse the situation by explaining, “hot flash, you know how these things go,” and she says, “I’ve never had one.” I could have cried or karate chopped her in the throat for saying that, but I just smiled and said, “wow, that’s lucky,” but inside, I was dying. I was just waiting to get home and have Rich mention that his facebook page was buzzing with all of his high school friends, talking me and my new wet dog look.
All I’m saying is some days it’s just not worth getting out of bed when you have a four hour hot flash ahead of you.
CraftingForAlmostEveryone.com 
I know exactly how you feel. It’s too bad the woman you met could not show any empathy. I just want you to know you are not alone believe me so don’t feel bad. I’m sure your friend was truly grateful for your kind and generous help in her booth especially with you soldering on like you did. I hope you carry a bottle of water with you at all times and rehydrate yourself. You are a kind and sweet person. It’s a blessing to know there are people like you in this world.
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Lissette, Thanks so much for such a sweet note. I didn’t want to disappoint my friend, as she really wanted to reconfigure her booth, and she’d just had reconstruction surgery on Monday (this was Sunday) after breast cancer, so I didn’t want her to try to do this alone. The woman she is partnered with is in the final stages of planning her daughter’s wedding, so wasn’t able to help….it was so hot and humid though. I did have bottled water and Rich brought me a huge iced tea that I drank without even remembering it. I was so glad to see him, as we needed men with hammers to finish the job. Between my friend’s husband and Rich, they accomplished more in 30 minutes, than we did in three hours…It was such a relief when it was done.
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You are a good friend and that’s so sweet to hear about your husband. Rich seems to be a real blessing. I’ve been blessed too with my husband of 30years. Life is made more tolerable with good friends and family in one’s life especially when such hardships like you hear about in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas are occuring more often. I have family in Puerto Rico. I’ve been worried and praying for them. We haven’t been able to contact them. Prayerfully they’ll be alright and they’ll receive help soon.
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Lissette, I’m so sorry to hear that you have family in Puerto Rico that you haven’t heard from. I can’t imagine how scary that must be. We have a friend on St. Maarten and haven’t been able to talk to her since their storm. Her home was one that the government of St. Maarten provided, and they had been trying to get the tenants to move out, because they wanted to sell the land for more money….She stayed, as did two other families out of twenty homes….Their houses haven’t been updated in years because the government thought that would be a good way to make them move…and the houses are on the side of a hill, so I don’t know how or if she made it through the storm. It’s so frustrating when you can’t get word to them. I really hope you get word from your family very soon, and am keeping you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.
Yes, I’m really lucky to have Rich…He’s been a tremendous partner to me, and I know it’s rare to meet your other half when you are nineteen and twenty, but that’s how it happened for us. It sounds like you have had a similar experience…we’ll be married 35 years in October, and time has passed so quickly. Do you and your husband have any children? Unfortunately, because of my arthritis, we could not. Just one more thing that Rich was so accepting of…I’m really lucky and try not to take him for granted.
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Hi Sandra,
Rich sounds like a really good guy but he has also beeen blessed to have a wonderful, kind and loving wife. We were lucky to have been able to have one son. He’s 28yrs old. He was living on Sint Maarten studying medicine but thank goodness he happened to be visiting us the week before the hurricane hit. We ourselves evacuated since we live in South Florida but we were all together and we were okay. Irma hit SXM on Wednesday and he was supposed to head back on Monday. We had been listening to the weather reports and decided he shouldn’t go back yet. Thank goodness he didn’t go back. We also worried for friends there but through the school’s use of WiFi and the use of a phone application called Whatsapp, last week we heard heard from them and they are okay. One friend even sends me her recorded prayer messages much of which is about gratitude even though they lost most of their things. The school is letting her and her kids live there for now since the school will not be able to open up. They hope that they can rebuild. Your friends in Sint Maarten and Texas as well will also be in my thoughts and prayers. P.S.: When we returned to our house it was okay. Just a little water damage and debris.
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Rich and I have spent a lot of time on St. Maarten, so know the medical school well. How will this affect your son’s ability to graduate? I’m so sorry to hear that he was going to school there, as they don’t really have any good plans for rebuilding when storms hit. How lucky that he was home when it happened? That is amazing…I’m so glad you didn’t have much damage to your home either. Someone was definitely looking out for you and your family…That’s amazing!
Have you spent much time on the island? It’s a beautiful place and it’s so sad that it’s been basically destroyed. We were there in 1999 in a level 4 hurricane and it was so scary. So glad your son wasn’t there. I really hope you hear from your other family members soon.
I know you watch my channel and so you probably know of my plans to help the people affected by the hurricanes with crafty things. I’m hoping that viewers will help, and am planning to do something like stores do at the holidays where they have Christmas trees with wishes for people on them….It would be in the comment section and hopefully, we’ll have viewers who want to donate the things that people are asking for. I’m doing a big destash video where all of the proceeds will buy gift cards for people who didn’t get their wishes filled, and Rubber Stamp Tapestry are donating a big box of stamps so hopefully, we’ll make enough money to fill a few more wishes with the money from the destash. I’m really hoping we help a lot of people…
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Thanks for asking about my son. He’ll be fine I’m sure. Just a little delay in some life plans but the main thing is that he does have a LIFE and that he is safe. That is truly a blessing
I do know about your plans to help those affected by the hurricanes with crafty things. I think it’s a great idea. I’m new to card making but it’s helped me tremendously in de-stressing and brought me much pleasure. You are very kind and thoughtful to put this all together. I look forward to helping and donating something. Thanks for all you do.
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I hope your son finds a way to get back into school soon. It would be so frustrating to not know how long it will be before his school is re-opened, or if it will be reopened. But you’re right…knowing he’s safe is more important.
I’m really glad to be able to have this platform to be able to help and will do whatever I can to help others. Have you heard from your family in Puerto Rico yet?
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Hi Sandy,
No, we haven’t been able to reach them yet. Hopefully soon we’ll be able to and they are alright. Thank you for your kind concern. I hope you also can reach your friends in Sint Maarten.
My son was told the school wants to hold classes again but in England! I don’t think we can manage that this semester. He’ll have to restart his studies in January. Hopefully by then the classes will be better organized and he can better prepare for such a big move. In the meantime, he studies from review books he has and he can spend quality time with us as well as with his fiance. He just got engaged to a sweet girl a couple of months ago. We’ve known her and her family for years.
By the way, I loved your fairy garden video and don’t worry about your your closet. I think it’s wonderful you have a brand new space which you are organizing and making your own. It just takes patience and time to get it the way you want. I think all crafters get frustrated when trying to organize their space. We have that in common. Remember to just enjoy your new space. Is it going to be on YouTube? I’m looking forward to seeing it if it is. I always enjoy all your videos. They are fun and informative.
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We just heard yesterday, that our friend is ok. No real info, just that. We were hoping to hear if her house made it through the storm, but so far, just that she’s ok.
England seems a little bit odd for a Dutch inhabited island….So great the he’s engaged, and I can see why he wouldn’t want to go to England with his fiance here.
I’m glad you liked the fairy garden, I thought Shelli did a great job of explaining it.
As for the closet, I’ve been organizing stamp sets for two days and I’m still not done. I have way too many stamp sets and should get rid of a lot of them. Nobody needs this many stamps, it’s crazy! Ok, I’m calming down, I have a tendency to criticize my crafty hoarding, and hope others do that as well. I just have so much stuff.
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Hi Sandy,
We thought England was an odd choice too like you said for a Dutch run country but my son says he’ll go to England next semester when the school has things more organized.
Shelli did do a terrific job explaining her fairy garden. Please tell her and her friend I really enjoyed the video. I told friends and family members to watch it. My sister already made her cute fairy garden.
I’m so glad you heard from your friends in SXM and they are okay. Hopefully their home is still intact. We heard from my family in Puerto Rico today through friends of friends. Thank goodness they all seem to be okay for now. They are of course rationing their water, food and gasoline. They have enough medicine (my aunt is diabetic) to last a couple more weeks. People there seem to be helping each other out whenever they can and I pray that we somehow can get them more supplies soon.
I’m also glad your closet organizing seems to be coming along nicely. You have been crafting for a long time so it’s only natural to have accumulated a nice stash of crafty things. You never know when you or friends can use some of your lovely stamps. I watched the frugal crafter, Lindsay Weirich, clean out her crafty things on her YouTube channel and thought she had “guts” to be able to get rid of some of her stuff and organize with the Konmari method. I told my husband we should do that with our garage which I call “no man’s land” since it’s such a mess and he loves to hoard stuff. My friends and family said good luck with that! Lol. Take care Sandy and God bless you. Thank you for taking all this time and effort to respond to me. I know you are a busy lady. I appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness.
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I love hearing from viewers and hope I’ll always be able to respond. I’ve been watching Lindsay with her Konmari method and laughed at how many things she couldn’t get rid of. I’m doing a big destash video hopefully this week, to raise money for gift cards to supplement our Make a Difference Day video. I’m hoping that people who have been affected by the floods will ask for specific tools, so viewers who are doing the Konmari method, can send the things that they no longer need and that we can supplement where needed with the gift cards. It’s not my goal to give gift cards, but know we’ll never have as many donations as we will have requests.
I’m wondering, since you are in Florida, if you could help me with my research. I’d like to include the name and address of a library that’s been hardest hit, a senior center that’s been hardest hit, as well as an elementary school. If you would give me their names and addresses, that would be great. It would even be better if we know the craft things that they need, in case people want to send craft tools directly to them. I’m only looking for one of each in Florida, as I have someone else working on it in Texas. If this isn’t something that you think you can do, it’s ok, I can ask someone else, but thought since you are so close to the damage, that you would know how to find them for me. I’d appreciate any help you can give me.
I’ll definitely tell Shelli and Linda about how much you liked her fairy garden.
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I tried to look up some info before going out of town. I found schools the most impacted by the storm according to a news article were Big Pine Academy on Big Pine Key and Sugarloaf School on Sugarloaf Key (http://wlrn.org/post/key-west-schools-welcome-back-students-after-hurricane-irma). They are located in the lower Keys. They have remained closed until today Monday, Oct. 2.
I think Big Pine is a charter school and Sugarloaf is a public elementary school.
Sugarloaf School
255 Crane Blvd, Summerland Key, FL 33042
(305) 745-3282
Florida Library Assiciation has organized a disaster relief fund and their website to donate is http://www.flalib.org/
I’m sorry I do not know which senior centers have been particlarly hard hit by Irma. I know there was a nursing home where seniors suffered from having no A/C, were overcome by the heat and some died. That was just horrendous and heartbreaking.
Perhaps you can ask a another source for more information. If I find anything out I’ll let you know. I’m sorry I do not have more information. Monroe County which is basically the Keys in South Florida was hardest hit down here. I live in Broward County still part of south Florida but it’s further north than the Keys or even Miami. Collier County on the west coast also got hit hard. There was just a lot of damage everywhere in Florida but I believe Monroe, Miami Dade and Collier Counties were the hardest hit. I wish I could be more helpful.
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