block island .... being there part III

not to leave you hanging or anything...

but there were a lot of interactive moments on block island. 

i was unable to sort through them all and then report their valued states as i recuperated. 

where was i? 

i will drop into the middle of my stories, then since my mind is made of swiss cheese these days. 

saturday night we went out for dinner at a local but sorta costly place. 

our waitress was a sweet girl that grew up on block island and was going to college in southern california.

her course of interest was in art therapy. 

she was working her way through her college experience and doing it the hard way. 

 she looks like she could be from a beach boys song or video.

AND her name is ashley by the way. 

i invited her to visit us at the show the next day... 

and surprisingly she did. 

she brought along two very sweet fellows as well.
i imagine, that there are no shortage of fellows following ashley wherever she may go. 

i gave her some earrings since it was within my purview to do so. 

and it made me truly very happy. 

sunday, i was NOT very happy at all. 

the weather was atrocious. 

and my tent was puddled to within an inch of its life. 

needless to say, but i will anyhow, i am not all that practiced with tents and their foibles. 

i had seen in the past that one could pull the edge of one of these tents and the puddled water would spill out in a sheet. 

i did this and managed to soak myself from head to toe. 

LITERALLY. 

not having had any coffee yet, i decided the best choice i could make would be to leave setting up until i was properly caffeinated. 

i went across the street to a little restaurant. 

it is called MABEL's

if you ever want reasonable priced food on BI, that tastes like it should, this is 

THE PLACE. 

as i entered this cute place, to find some coffee,
i was met with a cache of charming young women 

and one boy. 

they asked how i was, and i said i was extremely wet. 

and hungry. 

and decaffeinated. 

the owner of the place took one pitying look at me, 

heated my  "homemade" frittata 

(filled with eggs, potatoes, basil, sweet homegrown corn, tomatoes and ricotta cheese),

and told me that my endless cup of coffee was on the house all day. 

talk about hospitality!

i went back to work on setting up my tent. 

rearranged the tables for minimal rain interference

and set up the flowery items for show as best as i could. 

by this time, i had learned a few things. 

people are more kind than you might imagine when you look half drowned. 

i found out that to spill water pools from a tent, it is best to do so from under the tent with a  long object. this successfully was accomplished with my folding chair. 

i started to dry out. 

the post pancake dining crowd started to visit in their rain gear. 

also, the most recent ferry had landed and many of
the folks on it were unable to get to their rooms yet. 

there was a semi-captive audience in place.

MABELS' was able to close up for the day a smidge
after i went back to grab a sandwich and drink. 

the owner, dianne, yet again came to my rescue. 

she gave me my lunch. 

what a doll. 

and by this time, i had met most of the lovely girls who worked there. 

one of whom was a sweet gal named EmmaRose.
she was dianne's daughter.

i invited them all to visit me when they finished with closing up properly. 

so when Mabel's was fully closed, the wait staff made it's way across the street to our art fair. 

when each of the girls came by, i was able to offer them some reciprocating earring generosity. each of them was entitled to pick out a pair of earrings for their own. 

even with a little twisting, dianne did so as well. 

i felt a burning fire of love in my pit. 

this was good, since i was feeling quite ill otherwise. 

all nauseated and bathroom bound. 

that was pushed aside until closing up from the show. 

however i had some swell moments. 

remember  ashley , my little waitress from the night before came to visit. 

she selected some patina green open flowers for her ears. 

later came emmarose with her mom, dianne.

emmarose had snagged some filigree earrings with red elephants on them.

turns out that emmarose and ashley are besties from way way back. 

 from kindergarten i thought. 

they both came back to my space to after they had each picked out earrings, found each other, showed one another their new earrings

 and excitedly revealed all the parts of this story, to me in tandem. 

i had no idea they knew each other, but how could they not in such a small place?

finding out that they were friends and some of the few folks indigenous to the island, 

and part of my experience there... 

well isn't that a little bit o'karma?

the whole thing was great and warmed my soul which needed that. 

it was still somewhat soggy. 

emmarose, ashley and dianne

all fabuloso!

then i was visited by two other lovely ladies of mabeldom...

lydia and gillian.

such sweet gals. they have energy that jumps off of the page. 

and earrings that they can now do it in. 

i really enjoyed the heck out of my MABEL experiences. 

of course i met some other kick butt gals...

this is Julie Messler who lives on a boat and sews fine clothes out on the water. 

she was super stunning, tall, sun-kissed and helpful. 

she was so full of ideas to get my wares out to the world. 

for which i am duly grateful. 

 a stunning woman who makes my earrings pop and sizzle!

thank you for everything julie!

and then there was Pam. 

she used to live next door to my friend pernilla(a swedish goddess in providence). 

Pam moved to chicago, came back to block island to vacation, 

and found me, after drawing her life in a large wide circle. 

there is nothing that she can wear that did not look genuinely pretty on her. 

seriously, i had some gorgeous ladies, some gorgeous girls waiting to be ladies and a lot of fun times this weekend. 

i must have been having a superb time, in spite of my revolting queasiness. 

it took a while, but i figured it out finally. 

D E H Y D R A T I O N !

what a horrid experience. 

i thought it was any of a bunch of other possible ailments.

when the idea occurred to me finally, 

i grabbed a bottle of water, 

some smart water 

electrolyte balancing stuff...

and guzzled it. 

within an hour, i was feeling a whole lot better.
ADVICE TIME:

be careful out there... it is really easy to become dehydrated. 

and the results are quite unfortunate. 

by morning, all i wanted to do was fly down to the dock and see if i could grab a spot on the ferry to return home. 

luck held me in good stead, i got the last standby spot for a ferry leaving in about 20 minutes. 

did you hear me cheering?

i stayed in my car on the auto deck as it travelled back to Point Judith.

 this allowed me the private time to sort some details out. 

also, i had been on for days and needed some quiet to just think and appreciate the natural surroundings i found myself missing out on. 

a ferry deckhand resting up and the wake spilling behind us. 

 another ferry going towards block island in the distance. 

and what may be an unexpected ad for dockers' pants...

the ferry trip was cool and pleasant and began a return to my normal life. 

which i must say, i missed more than i could ever have imagined. 

clicking my ruby slippers together, 

there's no place like home.... 

(at least for one day.) 

xoxo. 

w.