Current mood:

awake

River, River - Book!
I just downloaded the new HT book. Disappointing. Not worth $30, that's for sure. And I'm not trying to be a snob, just... that IndoArab book had more useful stuff and was half the price. I just regret being out $30.

This week I had a private appointment referred by Lucky Monkey. It was the day after the worst thunder storms I think I've ever experienced. No joke, from 6 am until midnight, it was storming somewhere in my area. The humidity was insane. They booked me for an hour since that's the minimum for non-party stuff and then the woman picked a design that took me about 5 minutes to do. o.o So I did henna on her daughters too and still ended up leaving early. They were very generous, nice people. The weather has been great this weekend, so I hope her wedding was grand!

Yesterday, I covered the afternoon shift for shwankie in Howell. It was the Balloon Festival and she had to leave early. I got there around 3 pm and stayed til 6 pm. Only had three customers. WotA's pricing policy is different from CW's since I'm not actually renting space there. At CW I chage $5, $10 or $20/design and they pay me directly. At WotA, the rate is $1/minute with a $20/15 minute minimum. I felt bad charging them this much when they picked designs that took so little time. I tried to dress things up and give them their money's worth, but in my design books, $20 gets a hand, not a bracelet.

I'm not complaining or saying either way is better or worse. Just commenting on how I felt. I'll be doing Tuesdays up there now, so I'll get used to it. Luckily, the conversation was fun. I met Elijah who does tarot readings. Vibrant person. He told me we wouldn't be moving until March, which I didn't want to hear. I kinda figured that's how it would end up anyway, I just really don't want to be here throught another winter. And I got to chat with the stylist whose name I don't remember. He'd just been to Greece (Rhodes) and had grand stories to tell. He reminded me of my brother Derrick, really.

While we were talking, someone drove by and shouted "I believe in Jesus!" (since it's a pagan bookstore) so as I left, I was stopped at the corner on a red light and shouted to them "I believe in Jesus!" and got a big grin and a wave. From Howell, I hurried back to A2 with a half hour of quiet time to have dinner. I sampled CW's enchiladas which are made with butternut squash, curry & cumin. Quite a flavor!

My first customers at CW were a couple young women whose mothers had contacted me about doing henna to welcome them into womanhood. They picked out a dragon and a yin yang. I also did a design that a woman had come up with herself. She wanted it on her palm. To her it symbolized fertility and she told me that she had been artifically inseminated a couple days before and she and her partner were really hoping for a baby. Fun!

dummergirl47 was also in town for the weekend and dropped by, bringing offerings of shortbread and wild tales from camp. I know she's nervous about camp, but she seemed really happy and excited about life. It was a good feeling and I have a lot of confidence in her. But it was great to see her - until she whacked me with her cane. :P (I'm surprised it didn't bruise!)

And now I'm home and a local friend named Jess (who is storing my surplus of henna powder in her fridge) is coming over in about a half hour. I'll be doing henna on her hands! Maybe I'll try some new designs. I was going to use this weekend's henna cash to do something special for myself, but I feel so guilty about the $30 for that book, I think I'll just deposit the cash in the bank.

Oh, and a girl (I'm assuming employee) at CW asked if she could do henna alongside me. o.o I was confused at first since she said she would do it for free. My thought was "Well, why would they pay me to do it if you're doing it free?" but what she meant was that she wants practice and would give me her portion of the money. I think it could work, though we'd have to iron out some details for while she's operating under my name and using my supplies. But the truth is, it'd be nice to train a few replacements for when I move.