Booth Stocked

[The bag display]

It's up! Everything is displayed and looks like real stuff that people would buy at a show. I know that sounds strange, and that's how it feels. Everyone knows what it feels like to go to an art show and see the beautiful things on display, but I wonder how many people think about how it got there. At this show, there are dozens, if not hundreds of artists who spend most of their time in studios making things that they then box up, drive to Southern California, display, and sell. There are others who just sell, shipping their merchandise from show to show all over the country.

After setting up the displays, I decided to see if I could get lenses for my glasses. My real glasses broke just before I left so I've been driving with my prescription sunglasses. Someone told me that Walmart could grind lenses in an hour. Nope. They have to send them out, and it takes over a week. The lady at Walmart gave me directions to Lenscrafters. Since the freeway was bumper-to-bumper, I thought I'd try to find it based on her directions while I waited for traffic to die down.

I am never driving down here again without seeing a detailed map first. Everytime I do, I end up lost in some beautiful neighborhood where people have apparently never seen a vehicle as rundown as mine. (I can completely understand The Beverly Hillbillies. That's me!)

Oh, yeah, and to buy a map I'd need to find a bookstore. I don't know if they have them down here. I've seen a dozen Target megastores, but not even one Borders, say nothing of an independent book shop.

It's my version of hell: in a car-based city, stuck in traffic, with nothing but fast food and chain stores in every direction. I knew I was out of my element when I finally got back to the freeway and felt relieved.

So now I'm back home in my van, ready to trundle up the hill and connect to wifi and send this post. Then it's bedtime.