I really hate to be negative and I have been trying to remove myself from negative influences; be they family, friends, or co-workers.  I used to hang out a local needlework shop.  When the owner first opened the store I would hang out there every Saturday and I even stitched a lot of her shop models.  I helped her catch a few employees who were stealing from her.  I stopped going there as much around 2006 when I went back to school and I took in an ornament to be finished and it got lost.  She told me the finisher had misplaced it.  Then she changed locations and I was unaware of the move.  I thought she had gone out of business.   I found out in 2008 that she had moved about 1 mile east of her previous location.

As preparation for the Stars for a New Millennium SAL, I went there in July for help picking fibers and canvas.  The owner has always been talented at picking fibers and knowing what stitches will look good where.  I was shocked at how little inventory she had in the store.  She had tons of canvases but the fiber selection was limited.  We still managed to find everything except enough Rainbow Gallery Splendor 808 for what I needed.  I paid for everything, including the Splendor knowing that she would call me when it came in.

So fast forward to this weekend. I wanted a new stitch for the spines and wings of my Dragon Dreams Dragon Doorstop so I went to the shop Saturday during a time I expected her to be open (she has variable hours despite what’s posted to the side of the door).  There was a note on the door that the shop would be closed Friday and Saturday but would be open on Labor Day.  So I arrive today with my project and for the first 15 minutes I get lambasted with how horrible the candidate she assumes I’m supporting for president is at running his campaign, what a bitch his wife is, and then she launches in on my religion.  As her Monday morning stitching class arrives she starts in on how horrible it is to make people prove they are who they say they are when it comes to voting because you know those poor saps on the East Coast are too dumb to know how to get picture ID from their states.  They don’t drive like those of us out West so why should they have driver’s licenses or any form of government issued ID? One of the class members then brings up then how do East coast people cash checks or go through airports?  That gives enough of a pause that someone asks a stitching question and I get a chance to ask if my 808 has come in.  “No it hasn’t,” she’ll check on the order.  I’m suddenly very grateful that I’ve ordered the Splendor from a 2nd source who told me that she loves ordering from Rainbow Galleries since they ship quickly.  Yes, they have a minimum order but it’s such an easy level for her to meet that she should have my Splendor no later than next Friday, even with the Labor Day weekend.

So with the class there, the shop owner then attacks my position on a social issue I used to be fanatical about not realizing that over the years I’ve reached the point that I don’t care strongly about it any more and in fact I would be leaning more toward the other side if it weren’t for the behaviour of the nutcases I see supporting it strongly.  I don’t want to be lumped into their group.  I just let it slide and the room lapses into silence.  I then mention that I built my blocking board and got IVY blocked and it’s looking gorgeous.  I just need to figure out how to make it into a pillow.  She then offers to send it to her finisher.  I look up and say, “I’m not bringing anything back here for finishing until my purple ornament comes back.”

She bounces up from her chair and says, “That reminds me, I found it.”  She pulls my finished ornament canvas out of a basket behind the cash register.  It’s in exactly the same shape as when I dropped it off, it hasn’t been blocked at all.  That means all these years that she’s been blaming the finisher, it never left her shop.  The finisher only gets items which have been blocked.  She had me write up a new finishing ticket and she’s doing it free.  Which is nice considering she charged me $80 for the last ornament of similar size and she’s had my canvas for 6 years.  She didn’t give me a deadline for when it would be competed though.  I’m hoping I’ll see it before 2015.

Now, my husband has showed me how to set the timer on my phone to have the alarm sound like a phone call.  I knew from the time we pulled the fibers for Stars for a New Millennium that I really do not like being around this woman for more than an hour anymore.  Before I went into the shop I had set my timer for 1 hour and right after I finished the finishing ticket, it went off.  I have never been happier.  I pretended it was from my husband wanting to have a family holiday together.  As I was gathering my stitching supplies up, I was subjected to her standard lecture of how husbands are only useful if they are funding your lifestyle.

I left the place feeling sick to my stomach and stopped at Burger King for “therapy.”  Yes, I know food should not be a comfort but I just needed a sugar/carb boost to counter the energy drain the hour in the shop created.

Just doing this brain dump, reasons I can see for not going back once I get my ornament back:

1. Anything she has in stock I can get elsewhere for less money and less emotional stress.

2. I have resources for stitch guides on my canvases.  Not to mention I have access to some of the greatest stitching minds on the internet.

3. I do not need that kind of negativity.  I have been out of her shop for over 3 hours and I’m still reeling from her personal attacks on me and my family.

4. Would I have ever walked back into any other shop where the proprietor attacked my family, my religion or my political beliefs?

The only con I can see is finding a finisher for my needlepoint canvases.  Over the past 6 months, I’ve surfed around a little and dropped emails to people who don’t respond.  Maybe it’s time for me to learn how to do this myself.  But then again, I always loved the finishing work at Stitcher’s Paradise in Las Vegas and it gives me an excuse for a road trip.

Oh and I have a credit for $32 at the local shop unless the Splendor 808 ever comes in – maybe I can find something in the limited stock when I pick up my ornament.