May Day!

April flew by in a blur of work and tomorrow is the first Tuesday Market! I will be there despite the rumors of rain and I hope to take my Jell-O Art too. I've secured a ride down with my pile of tubs and tables and zipties. 

We're trying something new this season: setting up on the northwest block of the park Blocks, where the farmers usually set up on Saturdays. We wanted a new look instead of what had developed on the East Block, and we may move back there at some point when we figure out our promotional plans. Creating and sustaining a mid-week Arts Market is challenging. Unfortunately we can't just transfer all of our efforts from Saturday to Tuesday. It takes a gaggle of staff people to make Saturday happen, and we just don't have the vendor strength yet on Tuesday to afford the staffing.

But it should be a grand start! Please join us for at least a look. I will be launching my birthday week as well. My actual birthday is Saturday, which is fun enough since it may be another sunny Market day, but this is 62 for me and I celebrate being old enough to get back some of the money I invested in Social Security. I won't actually get any until July (despite registering in February) and I won't get much, but it feels good to join the ranks of the semi-retired.

Because of the potential for rain, I won't be wearing my crown and all that, because everything is still a lot harder than it used to be. I am walking a little bit with crutches and the walker, but it's not really walking. The scooter is still fabulously helpful. I can even get to the clotheslines and washed off my car yesterday too.

So help me celebrate my first birthday as a Queen and bring me things! Cake, ice cream, piles of whipped cream confections and cash would all be entirely appropriate. I like flowers too. I promise to be graceful and regal and remember to say a sincere thank you.

At least bring your body downtown to act like a customer, even if you don't really buy anything. There's a little wrinkle in that Tuesday is also International Worker's Day and traditionally a day that workers strike, but artisans and the self-employed are kind of on strike against unjust working conditions every day so we're going to grab our sales opportunity instead. I don't have a moral conflict with it, or with collecting the money I have paid into the system for all of my working life. The self employed do indeed pay social security, right on our tax forms, and in fact we pay both the workers portion and the employer's. Yes, we pay twice as much. There's a little credit/deduction built in there too, but we do pay. So no guilt in getting back. No shame in growing older. 

The sixties are glorious! We're not old, just maturing, feeling our power and at our creative peak. I'm feeling quite vital. Once this right foot cooperates, I will be back with the energy of a teenager. Look out!