Sunday, October 29, 2006
The Home of The Brave
and The Land of Multiple Time-Zones
So, Cheap Joe's had an amazing sale on their Tsunami brushes.
...Why amazing? 'cause they were 70% off!
......Why Tsunami? due to their ability to pick up a lot of water and paint.
.........Why is that good? Oh, go take a watercolor class and stop interrupting me with questions!
Now, artists are notorious for getting as many brushes as they can. As Myrna, our esteemed and very cool instructor in the Watercolor Portraits workshop cheerfully claimed: "The more brushes you have, the bigger the chance you'll eventually have the brush you need. And always call them 'tools'".
A lesson I have embraced with loving hands, as it serves as a wonderful excuse (explanation, that is) for our non-understanding spouses, who cannot comprehend the profoundly significant difference between a red sable, a Kolinsky and a squirrel brush, and why we really do need seven of each.
Now, not only are artists keen on enlarging their brush collection, they are also on the look for deals, as, well, you don't quite make millions being an artist. That's because the world is not yet ready for your masterpieces, obviously...
So, upon receiving that appetizing ad via Email, I contacted several artist friends, got our orders together, from brushes to paint to glue to a new type of paper, and together we made it above the free shipping bar, which is always a reason to rejoice.
The special sale was until October 25th, midnight.
Needless to say, being an orthodox procrastinator, I postponed the actual completion of the order until the very last evening. Wait - you really can't blame me! There is, you see, something very final and irrevocable about the "Place Your Order" button. Once you hit it - that's it. The decision has been made, there is no way back, and it's all just too hard to cope with for my suffering artistic soul.
Plus, I was trying to resolve the moral dilemma whether I should indulge myself by buying some more stuff - - - No, rewind! I mean, Uhm, responsibly purchasing crucially essential and indispensable, hmm... tools.
There I was, sitting in the living room after a nice Raman dinner, contemplating brushes, knowing I still have 2.5 hours till midnight - - and suddenly, it hit me.
To John's astonished eyes, I performed an impressive spring from my chair, and with a cry of despair sprinted to the den, where the blinking desktop was awaiting, giggling....
And indeed, on the website, as I logged onto my cart, the prices have tripled themselves like a nightmare. Apparently, that art supplier resides in the East Coast...
...and as the clock hits 9pm in California, their carriages start turning back into pumpkins, and their Tsunamis get expensive again!
Needless to say - I freaked. Quite loudly.
John came running to investigate what-what, and after learning of the tragedy, he immediately assumed the position of the mature-adult-perspective-man, elaborating on priorities and scales of disasters and how this is not really crucial, all this said with the pious tone of he-who-never-ever-freaks-when-a-CD-is-put-back-in-place-not-according-to-alphabetical-order-and-at-a-slant-of-two-degrees-from-the-angle-of-the-other-CDs-that-Arianly-stand-to-attention.
I felt terrible, as it wasn't only my order - I was ordering for 6 people!!!
And so, in between john lecturing, and me hitting my procrastinating head at the wall while furiously uttering "(censored)!!" "(censored)!!!" "(censored)!!!!", I looked angrily at the sale ad - - - - - - and, through the fog of guilt and sorrow, it suddenly occurred to me, that the ad, how shall I put it, never actually mentioned EST (Eastern Standard Time).
A little ember if hope was starting to rise, bringing me back to a state of being able to express uncensored words. And John switched to the role of the knight in shining armor, and claimed I should go ahead with the order, and then contact them about this.
And so I did.
The story has a happy ending: after a firm-yet-pleading Email, and a follow-up phone call in the morning, not only did they claim they adjusted the prices, they even apologized (and thus became a favorite art supplier; as fairness has a big impact on me).
Between the 6 of us, we have 11 Tsunami brushes on this order... and the price difference was very significant - hence the panic.
11 Tsunami brushes!
Now, that's a lot of squirrels running around without their tails...
And to those of you who jump with horror, crying out "Awwwwww, but how can you use brushes made from these cute creatures!?!"... Well, you can put your steak dinner aside for a second, look at your leather shoes - and then get back to me.
Mind you, whenever I see "our" territorial squirrels jumping all over our hanging pots, digging out newly planted seeds, biting into our tomatoes and peppers (one bite only, before they move to the next one), and doing all that while giving me the finger - - I do toy with the idea of simply catching one of them and making myself a real nice thick brush, for free, from its (censored) tail.
But there I go again, reverting to profanity...
# posted by Nava @ 11:02 AM 
Comments:
Say, ever heard of "paint brushes" in software? They cost NOTHING ;-)))
# posted by 
: 10/29/2006 12:49 PM
And the scarier thing is, these brushes haven't arrived yet, nor have the previous order, but she's thinking about buying more.
If these tools are so expensive, maybe you really should get into the squirrel hunting and brush making business... You know, while taking a break from the painting. May be a good thing for the Muse, too.
# posted by : 10/30/2006 8:50 AM
Hey - you can make fun of anything, but not art supplies.
That's where my sense of humor draws the line.
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# posted by : 10/29/2006 12:49 PM
: 10/29/2006 12:49 PM 
# posted by : 10/30/2006 8:50 AM
: 10/30/2006 8:50 AM That's where my sense of humor draws the line.
