I Scream... (in My Thought Bubbles)

If we want to get technical, today was hell day #4 this week. But for the purposes of mirroring it with the first day of the car show, we'll call it hell day #1.

I'm a survivor.

It wasn't easy either. I mentioned the planning part was stressful. And I figured the executing part might be, too. But I didn't factor in the "disgruntled customers" to a high enough degree. Not even close.

Why were they disgruntled? In a word: change. Things are set up differently. We don't have the same product or same amount, etc, etc. We pretty much had to explain it to 4 out of 5 people stopping / shopping in our book tent. Lord knows I say the Serenity Prayer all the time. I often need His help to accept the things I cannot change. These folks were not accepting anything. And definitely weren't attempting to.

If they read the thought bubbles above my head, they would know I was all out of patience and a voice by 10 a.m. I had some great one-liners I was screaming at people, but those silent bubbles floated away in the wind. It was a trying day.

Far from my usual presentation on here, I took less than a half-dozen photos. And those were all of cars! So many things changing! I saw this station wagon and just wanted to hop in and take a trip to anywhere. And fast.

By day's end, though, my little hybrid in the parking down the road knew exactly where to go.

We'll skip past the point I sometimes reward myself with ice cream (and by sometimes I mean as often as I can get away with it). As I was leaving Iola I called hubby and said he could make supper for himself and I was having King Cone for supper.

My reasons for stopping (read: hell day #1) weren't good, but I am so glad I did. And not just because of the ice cream. When I walked in, there were only two people there – my old pastor and his wife. By old I just mean retired and my first pastor when I moved to Rapids. They still live in Rapids, but we just don't run in the same circles.

Ice cream brings the world together.

They needed to stop after a rough day at a funeral near Milwaukee.

Ice cream is comfort food.

We had such a nice long chat catching up that I almost forgot why I was there. But since I was already there, I figured I might as well get ice cream.

Ice cream cures the "I scream..."

While I would love to stop at King Cone again tomorrow, I hope the day is better. I will have to remember to say the Serenity Prayer to accept that I cannot change how people are reacting to my changes.

If that doesn't work, stay tuned for Monday's blog on "starting my new diet."