Early Work Week Observations

Today and yesterday were long days of joining for me. I had easily three times as many frames to deal with this week than usual.

However, far from being overwhelmed, I'm pleased. I like joining. It allows a whole portion of the mind to remain wholly unoccupied while the rest of the mind obsesses over making four pieces of wood look most convincingly like one.

The unoccupied portion of the brain does various things to pass the time. It is particularly fond of observing entertaining things - like the two girls who passed by my window at some point today. One was jogging, the other was walking. Both looked pretty much exactly the same from my vantage point. The jogging girl wore black shorts and a pink shirt. The walking girl wore a pink skirt and a black shirt. They both listened to ipods. As the jogging girl passed the walking girl, they made a very interesting study in color and movement. I was pleased, although the walking girl looked rather irritated about the whole thing.

Also, when joining frames, I think a lot about frames. I think about how annoying it is that the fancy shmansy frames that come with "inspected by this or that real person" stickers are always the most warped or crookedly cut and thus most difficult to join.

I also think about our customers. Yesterday, I recognized one frame as belonging to a woman who was extremely rude to me when she placed her order. My first thought when I unpacked and recognized hers was, "I should do a shitty job on this frame because this woman was mean to me for absolutely no reason."

Then, I thought, "No. No, Robin. You should do an extra good job on this frame. Because that woman was so rude, she obviously has an empty and unfulfilling life. While you, you have a wonderful life and are a happy person, which is why you are not rude."

So, with this thought in mind, I got to work. But the frame wouldn't join well. There wasn't anything wrong with it. The cuts were straight. The molding wasn't warped. It just... didn't fit together very well. There was nothing I could do about it. I tried. I really did, and the finished frame looks fine. But I didn't get to step back and look at it with that completed feeling and the thought "perfect" at the end. Instead, I had to think, "good enough," which isn't nearly as satisfactory.

My conclusion - there are forces in this world that are far more vindictive than I am.