Vendor’s Lifestyle: First Market of the Year

So here she is again, Saturday morning and one more time at the Abbotsford Rock & Gem Show, sleeping under the canopy in the ‘compound’ with a cluster of RVs which are on the ‘other side’ of it. Rain, light tip taps on the metal roof, woke her early morning. Harder ones get her up later on but still a bit early considering it’s a long day ahead. The rain comes and goes in tempo like the weight of the world on her shoulders. The climate weather are the strongest forces in her life. No wonder the Greeks and those before them associated these powers to gods and goddesses. When did the relationship between human and nature go all rational? Why? What forces were at play to make humans think that they can overcome the rhythm that Nature initiates? The rain falls harder now…

She wonders what kind of day she is heading into. The main show was quiet last night giving her a chance to visit with vendors she knows and hasn’t seen since last year. All are in the same places with beautiful things haphazardly displayed, tables crooked around corners and splitting booth space to share costs.

A robin…gentle rain on the canopy roof…Sunday morning…

Yesterday is done, complete, under-her-belt. Her instincts were right: the tailgate sale is all about rocks. And, she had them, and sold them: the sulfur, the fire opal rough…a few dollars here, a few dollars there. At the end of the day maybe $300 worth of rocks and a $200 opal ring from the jewelry inventory. A geologist bought the large feldspar crystal sprouting from magnetite, a piece she brought home from the Yukon the summer she worked there as a prospector. Having prices on everything helps, is a place to start from…

She was halfway up the grassy slope, refreshed, redressed, on her way to the after-sale meeting to socialize…always looks forward to it…when someone called ‘Hey, you wanna party?’ and there were J……n and D..e, other vendors and instead of going back into the exhibition building she ended up in the cool dampness and deep into the night listening to their stories and the ceremonial music from J’s truck and watching as they performed a dance ritual…energy through the body, the hands, the earth, rising up to meet them. She remembers D… saying ‘warrior’ at some point. They made her feel strong, and mostly, listened to her when she talked. She really felt like a human BE-ing…

Everyone selling something. She tells herself she doesn’t really ‘need’ anything…bought the granite pegmatite book and two large catseye moonstone cabochons for rings and a piece of crazy lace agate and several ammonites for Rock Shop Daniel’s shop at home, one of which she dropped on the concrete of the parking lot when she was showing J……n and D… which cracked a piece off it…Darn! Dammit! She is such a destroyer of the perfection of Nature…so annoyed with herself…When will she ever learn? So heading home, a late Sunday afternoon drive, her head is a confusion of conversations, her heart full of feelings…a few empty boxes left behind and her wallet a little plumper. Yes, she can reflect that the first market of the season was a success in all ways…