Exciting news!

This past week was an adventure of creative scheduling. It would have been anyway, but the weather does have a way of butting in. Random hours of shoveling snow cutting into the work day are normal, if not desired. However, last week I lost an additional, entire morning to a simple miscalculation.

I spent the early morning running errands, and was on track to get home with all of them completed, and get back to work before 10am. The day, I erroneously thought, was off to an excellent start. On my very last stop, I missed my turnoff. Now this isn’t noteworthy, since every time I make that particular run, I always miss my turn off. So I went to the next big road and turned. A little way from the corner is the entrance to a park. I will often turn into the entrance, turn around, and go back out the other direction. On this particular day, however, the familiar maneuver failed.

I turned in, as usual. And I managed to turn around, as usual. However, the snow was packed so tightly and slick that it had become a slippery sheet, and once I got turned around I couldn’t get out! The tires did not have the traction to move me. Actually, that isn’t true. They refused to move me forward, but they were quite okay with moving me backward. The entry to the park is a road that goes downhill a steep way. I had no intention of going down the hill–just use the part right next to the road. However, each time I attempted to move my tires and move forward, or even sideways, I found myself slipping further and further downhill backward. Now, ending up at the bottom of the hill-or worse, in the small ravine next to the hill-didn’t really seem advisable, so I stopped. I did the prudent thing. I called AAA and I waited.

Of course, the weather being what it was, they couldn’t get to me immediately. I called about 9:20 in the morning, and they estimated they would get to me around 11:40, so I watched my dreams of a productive morning go up in smoke, and I settled in to listen to my audiobook and wait the time away.

During the next two hours, no one stopped to check to see if I was alright. This didn’t surprise me. The way I was situated, it didn’t actually look like I was stuck in any way. Even if it were obvious, there are dangers of stopping at strange cars, or of getting caught yourself on the ice. However, after two hours passed, a lovely young gentleman stopped to see if I needed help. He had driven by three times and noticed I was still in the same place. We had a lovely chat, and not being able to pull me out, he left me to wait for AAA. I got back into my car thinking how nice that was, and hadn’t really settled into my book yet, when I looked up to see a police car pull in. This also didn’t surprise me, since they have their routes, and someone sitting in the middle of the park entrance would likely strike them as odd. So I got out of the car to speak with him, and when I did, the police officer looked unwarrantedly surprised.

At my cheerful hello, he asked if I was okay, and I explained how I had gotten stuck. To my surprise, as he nodded at me, an ambulance came up the road and pulled over. The policeman looked at me and said they had received a call that someone thought there was a dead body in the car. I probably stared at him in bewilderment as I said that I wasn’t dead. Before he had a chance to answer, a second police car pulled up and parked behind the first. At this point I believe I said something along the lines of, “Well, I am feeling both really stupid, and very important just now.” The policeman opened his mouth to respond. Before he could, the fire truck pulled up behind the second police car.

It was almost like watching clowns continue to come out of the clown car. It was the most surreal thing.

Long story short, they all left and I wasn’t dead. However, to my sincere indignation both the first police officer, and the fire truck, imitated the initial move that got me into that mess, and they did not get stuck. In the case of the fire truck, that’s not surprising, but I am quite indignant that the police car didn’t even struggle. I am only partially appeased by the fact that when the tow truck finally got there to rescue me (less than 10 minutes after the emergency brigade) it took him less than 90 seconds to pull me out and he said that if everyone would be as sensible as me his job would be a lot easier. Since sensible isn’t a term that has applied to me lately, I am taking it and running.

HOWEVER. Despite many drawbacks in my schedule, I succeeded in a major accomplishment. I am so excited to announce that I am now one of the premier artists at Gallery 4 in downtown Fargo! They just moved locations, and their soft opening was yesterday, March 1st. The other artists have spent the month working unbelievably hard to have the space ready, and I have been fortunate enough to be able to join them when it was all completed. Doesn’t my stuff look lovely all done up on the walls together with art from the other artists?

It is such an honor to join such amazingly kind and talented artists. Nerve wracking, too! I hope my local people will occasionally stop in to visit (I will be working there two days a month).

Still a bit of scrambling on my end for the next month, but it is all coming together, y’all!