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It's going sew terrific



   As a good friend pointed out recently, maybe I should be writing more about being jobless and less about being a goddess. You know sometimes it’s hard to think of my situation as fodder for writing but I will give it a whirl and get back to my roots. And I have to tell you all about recent developments.
   Namely, my husband and I have decided to use joblessness in our favor. That’s right. We took all we had and bought the equipment he needs to start a business here. Listen, it was that or the highway. We prefer to think of ourselves as “spunky” not “crazy.” Never fear, I still don’t get a paycheck and probably never will. In fact he doesn’t either. We’re just happy to keep the heat on right now. It’s amazing how the basics can mean so much sometimes.
   My husband is a fantastically gifted upholsterer. It’s a lost art really and there aren’t many people working at it on an island so our hope is that we’ll be able to stay on Martha’s Vineyard and keep admiring the view. We’ve been sucked in by the ocean and the Not Your Sugar Mamas Chocolate bars, which we scour the Island for once a month. We can’t leave now. I haven’t tried the dark chocolate mint yet.
   Just because I don’t get a paycheck doesn’t mean I’m not working. I’m creating flyers, burning before and after photos to CDs so we can go cold calling every business we see. I’m learning how to use a sewing machine and how to cut a pattern. I say things like, “Now do you want welt or flange on that settee?” And just last week I met with an accountant to set up a program to keep track of invoices – all three of them. Unfortunately, the entire time he was talking all I could do was think to myself, “Is he speaking Spanish or is it Russian? It sounds more Russian to me…” I knew I should have paid more attention in my high school bookkeeping class.
   So we’ll see how this part of the adventure plays out. I have high hopes. Just think of all those boats that could use new cushions. All those sun rooms and decks and all that wicker in need of new indoor/outdoor fabric. This is the stuff dreams are made of. Hopefully we’ll swim rather than sink, which is a little scary because I haven’t worn a bathing suit in eight years. I’ll keep you posted.
  

   Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied.  - Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1859

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