Phun in Phoenix

I’m very happy to report that this Phoenix trip is turning out to be as entertaining as I was hoping and expecting. Bead show folks are like traveling gypsies. We come together in one city or another across the country, friendships are renewed – it feels like your family – and we put our best and prettiest and brightest shiny things out for everyone to see. We laugh and tease and educate and enjoy. And then Sunday rolls around in within an hour, many of us have all our remaining possessions packed up. The carnival is over. We say our goodbyes and move on to the next show in the next town. Some of the people will be the same, but some of them twirl off in another direction to shows in other cities instead. The same group never gets together twice. But you know these people are “your people.” The love of beads and jewelry and craft have brought us together. We know the strange struggles of packing our personal stores as small as possible and traveling and selling that which we love. We bond. I love every moment of it. Okay. Maybe not every moment. But many, many, many of the moments.

I have some photos to share when I get home of the friends, new and old, at this show. Some of us attended a Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game tonight together, and while the team lost soundly, the fireworks afterward and the companionship during made it worth while.

Saturday will be hard core working day. I need to rest up for it. It can be not just physically but emotionally challenging to be “on” all the time.