Baby Animal Day Sucks

So far, Baby Animal Day sucks.

I arrived to set up my booth at 7:30 this morning. By about 10:30 it became apparent that this was not going to happen. We were getting tremendous high winds, Big Bad Wolf type winds that were blowing everyone's tents down. I barely got mine up, and I couldn't get the sidewalls put up because they were whipping around. It hurts, by the way, to get caught in the face by the corner of a whipping sidewall. So my tent was up, but my displays kept blowing over. It was just impossible to sell anything; I couldn't even set it out.

The show organizers were friendly and offered to help us move to a different location. Unfortunately, the only available location that was any less windy than the one we currently had was along the side of a building in full sun. AWHC volunteers helped us move to different spots around the area. I was able to get my booth set up by about 1 pm. The lady next to me, who was selling very lightweight decorative gourds, was not able to set up at all even on the leeward side of the building, so she just packed up and went home. So I sat in the sun all by myself with tiny Knuckles, trying to keep him from the sun and the blowing wind.

The wind, in the meantime, was kicking up all kinds of dirt and straw (which had been spread all over this particular area for some reason, perhaps Old Western atmosphere?) I spent most of the remaining time picking straw off my merchandise. When I packed it up at the end of the day, everything was covered in bits of straw, dried grass, and dirt. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem if I'd been in my original spot (where my tent was still standing because if I tried to take it down it would have blown away) because there was no straw there and I would have had my sidewalls to keep blowing dirt out.

And to top it off, I only made $27 in sales. I'll be lucky, I think, to make back my booth fee on this show. I'd been hoping to bring home a good $500, but I just don't think even that will be possible. The worst part about it is the one thing everyone is asking for is kids' tie-dyed t-shirts, the one item I did NOT bring with me because sales of them were so incredibly slow at every other show that I didn't think they'd be worth bringing.

So here I am with a sunburned face and no bacon to bring home, and I have to do this for two more days. I am so discouraged and disappointed, but if I cry about it my face will just sting even worse.