Sunday Sunday ...

Ok, so I skipped the photo opp send off today. I just was too hot to go anywhere.

Saturday morning at the market was interesting to say the least. No, I didn’t make enough money to have it be worth it. But I did learn something interesting. I’ve mentioned how I feel like the black sheep, or red headed step child or what ever you wanna call it. Well, I learned part of why.

Terry (spouse of a vendor & also a board member) told me that what he had heard was that some of the vendors were coming to me complaining that Betty & Derl were providing most of the produce for the share program. (Betty being the lady in charge of it & her hubby Derl a grower) Umm… excuse me? Well, after these said vendors came to me, I then went around & spread the rumors further or something like that. WTF??? I haven’t talked to anyone about the share program. Vendors have never come to me. When it first began, I was thrilled at the turn out of subscribers, & wished her the best of luck with the program. Connie even offered to help her bag stuff if she needed it. I helped spread the word about the program to people I knew, & also had flyers in my space to help promote it. What’s funny is that Tim & I were friends with Betty & Derl before this.

Then there was the whole day that Julie (normal mkt. mgr who runs the mkt. & assigns spaces) was not there & Derl was “in charge”. Well, when several people were not showing up & we were faced with having huge space gaps, I helped to minimize the effect. Terry & I were also trying to help Derl keep up with getting vendors in their spaces. Terry had the list in his hand, which he handed to me. I saw some gaps & made a couple adjustments which hurt no one. Apparently, I “snatched” the list from Derl’s hands & just started moving people around so I could have a different space. OMG!!! I didn’t care what space I had. I was trying to prevent the very thing that again happened on Saturday. Huge gaps. It looks terrible when there are a bunch of vendors, then huge gaping gaps then more vendors. Between me & the next vendor … was 6 spaces. How big is a space? A parking spot size. I should have taken pix.

Well, a few weeks back I was “talked to” by Julie. I don’t recall if I wrote about that or not. She basically snapped at me in a very “not nice” tone. Told me how dare I move people around & that I needed to watch my attitude. WTF??? I’m sorry, but that day, she caught me so totally off guard I was speechless. She had Derl with her, sulking behind her while she told me off. Tim was right there when it happened & even he was like WTF?

So Terry was the one filling me in on things Saturday. He’s the one who felt strongly enough to let me know what was being said. And even he was hearing it second hand. He was telling me that he feels Julie keeps a list of “nice” & “not nice” and somehow I moved form one to the other. I have no idea what is going on. I have not talked bad about the market to anyone. I have gone around each week I’m there & talked to most of the crafters. Just to see how things are going & if I need to bring any concerns to the board.

Part of me has to wonder if they are trying to find a way to get rid of me. People in this valley are weird. Small minded. Not that Julie is from this Valley, but Betty & Derl are, & the 3 of them have become quite chummy. I have to wonder if it centers on my personal spiritual beliefs. I don’t flaunt pentacles or anything all over the place. But, I have been known to wear my favorite ring, & on occasion my necklace. Most of the time, the necklace would be under a shirt tho. This is the only thing I can think of that they would not approve of. Not that they have to approve. But, yeah ….

Maybe it’s a pick on the new member who wont see it coming. Maybe it’s because someone didn’t like the fact that we denied membership to a few crafters & now they want to find a way to get back at me like it was all my doing. I’m grasping at straws. I’ve tried to do a good job as secretary. One minute everyone was happy with all my efforts. Then the next, I am totally snubbed. When that feeling started, I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to do so I did & said nothing. I became quiet. I didn’t know what exactly was going on … & come to find out, I had no clue how much was being said about me behind my back.

More little things I’ve noticed since all this began … I’m supposed to put together a monthly newsletter for the vendors. I’m supposed to get input from a few people as to what needs to go in said newsletter. Remember me spending so much time on making it all new & revamped? Yup. Got tons of compliments on it too, including from Julie. Well, time comes to make the next one. I send out emails & ask for input. Nothing. I ask Julie to send me info for the newsletter, in person. Ok. Nothing. I was also asked to see about making a monthly newsletter for the public. More of just an info sheet that would tell what produce is in season this month, what entertainment & special events were happening in any of the markets, etc. I told everyone on the board that I would be happy to do this, all I needed was the info. I would put it all together. What did I get? Yup, nothing.

Whew. Ok, I feel a little better just sitting here typing all that out. Maybe now I can face the board better to get all this cleared up. Because yeah, this is stupid. I’ve been keeping track of my sales so far this season. For the time I put in, I would like to get minimum wage back out of it. Otherwise, it’s not really worth my effort. I don’t make minimum wage (for WA). Will I do the market next year? Probably not. Will I be a board member? I’d love to be one, if we can resolve this BS.

What else can I ramble on about? Well, that might take another couple pages. I’ll save that thought for another day. Today has been a super lazy afternoon here. Connie is at work. Tim is at Joe’s. Tim & Joe are working on getting Tim’s computer up & running & fully loaded. Connie walked to work this morning because it was already to warm to ride her bike. She’ll be calling here when she’s done for me to go get her. No biggie. It’s about time for her to buy another tank of gas anyways. Meanwhile, I’ve had the whole afternoon to myself. I kinda felt bad about not going out to the park but dang it was too hot.

This morning tho, after we ate breakfast & were figuring out what to do today, I made mention of the fellowship down the road we’ve been meaning to check out. I quickly got online & checked the calendar …. Today it was all about pets! Wanna go? Sure. When does it start? 10:30. What time is it now? 10:24. We got dressed, grabbed the dog, and the Sam necklace & were out the door. The Cascade Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is right down the road so it only took like less than 5 minutes to get there. The group was open & welcoming to us. Talk about nothing like a church service. It was really cool. Today’s thing was about blessing our pets & being open to learn from them & all that cool stuff. We did a little candle lighting thing for all the pets we’ve lost then she said a little blessing over each of the dogs who was there today. It was really neat. We chatted with a few people afterwards, & headed back home. My new friend Amy told us about this place. We were next to each other at the market one day & just got to chatting. It was fun to hear her be all excited about it. Kinda made us excited to go check it out. That was about a month ago. We finally went today. And on a whim at that. I think I’ll be checking this out a bit more.

Well, now it’s almost 530. That’s when Connie gets off work. I should get this posted & be ready when she calls. Of course there are cookies for everyone who read all my babble.