I’ve been living on Nantucket for most of my life and am very used to the rather laid-back pace that comes with the territory. This becomes even more evident every time I leave to spend a couple of days in the Boston store. But a couple of weeks ago I had an old childhood friend come for the weekend. She’s lived in California for as long as I’ve lived on Nantucket and all weekend long I kept thinking she was on speed. She wasn’t of course, but the train she was on was running a lot faster than mine. I’m aware how everyone talks or writes, or texts or emails in shorthand. I admit, I multitask like everyone else since there are always way too many things to deal with in a day than there are waking hours, but things have gotten out of hand.
A woman came into my shop and we got to talking about summer rentals. I asked if she’d checked V-R-B-O, in long-hand that translates to Vacation Rental By Owner. “Oh Verbo, sure” she said, shortening the name even further. I thought about this. Four syllables for V, R, B, O when two would do. Made sense to me. I like the idea of editing…. To a point, I do not like it when I get a text message that requires a call to a five year old for translation. And I do admit that I only hire young employees for the simple reason that I am basically technnologically lazy. It’s so easy to hand the phone to my assistant and ask her to program in my most called numbers than actually do it myself. But then when some of them become obsolete I haven’t a clue as to how to delete them. And this is why I will never join Facebook, because my BFFs, will be on there forever even long after I can’t remember who the heck they are.
Given that I am basically an impatient personality type it baffles me to know that I do any craftwork whatsoever let alone decoupage. This is a craft that takes a great deal of patience. It literally slows down the world and chunks of time are gobbled up. But I have watched many super hyper employees become docile lambs after a week of cutting out intricate botanical prints. This just might be a major medical break-through for curing ADD. At the very least, I know that crafting relieves stress, it helps to stay on a diet (you can’t eat as much when you are crafting) and the results are satisfying. Not a bad return on such a minor investment!