My former co-worker posted on Facebook that he had written and published a children’s book – and was going to be doing a “book launch” at an Art In The Park event at the Medina Public Square.
I thought it would be nice to surprise him and buy a couple of copies for the families with kids in the neighborhood.
Jim had plans that Saturday morning and needed me to get a little later start after I took care of the dogs. So, it was a little after 11 before I started out.
I usually eat lunch then and decided to stop at Sheetz on the way for a sandwich.
I still don’t know what kind of “meat” was in that chicken sandwich or how old it was – but if this was an omen on how the day was going to go, it wasn’t a good one.
I made do with a bag of chips and a soda, then was on my way again.
I didn’t have an exact address for the Public Square, but found an entry in the GPS for a Public Square restaurant and assumed that would get me close enough.
And that part did work. I got near enough, found a side street nearby and parked – then headed to the square.
I knew the booth number, but all I could find was a small section of food vendors. I wandered around a bit, confused, and then found the info booth.
“I’m looking for the…” I said and then my eyes saw a stack of cards advertising the event and finished with, “Art in the Park”.
“Oh, that’s tomorrow,” the staff person said and then proceeded to tell me all about it.
I paid about ⅛ of my attention to all of that, wondering how I’d gotten this wrong. I thanked her for the info and looked back through the facebook posts to figure out where I had messed up.
I had assumed it was a Saturday event and the post from that morning was “I’m at booth 55 with my daughter for Art in the Park” – but included the flyer that I hadn’t opened that clearly said it was on a Sunday.
Cranky at my own mistake, I headed back to my car. I had been wanting to go to a paper store to get materials for a christmas wreath and it was only 6 miles away from where I was.
Hoping to salvage the trip, I set the GPS and headed out.
The paper store was open – but didn’t have any big sheets of green paper. They don’t have regular supplies, but I had hoped for something I could use or adapt.
I bought some supplies for other potential projects, but it still felt like a wasted trip.
On the way back to Akron, I stopped at Dick’s Sporting goods. My niece has a birthday coming up and I’d gotten some guidance on clothes – but on my first trip there I didn’t realize I was missing the sizes.
And guessing on the sizes for an almost-teenaged girl sounds like a felony.
Even though I’d just been in the store earlier in the week, I couldn’t find the sweatshirts again. If there’s an underlying order to the layout of Dick’s Sporting Goods it is lost on me – I’ve never found anything there without searching the entire store and then asking someone.
With help, I found and bought the surprisingly expensive sweatshirt and headed out.
I had a headache by this point, but while I was out I decided to stop at Target and get soda and birthday cards. Not my favorite tasks – 80-90% of cards are completely stupid – but I found them and managed to get checked out.
I was overheated, hungry, cranky, and disappointed in myself – but I got through my trip.
On Sunday – the correct day for the event – I took a deep breath and headed out again. I was earlier this time and didn’t stop for lunch. I also found the location more easily and a better parking spot. It was also clear I was in the right space and the booths were numbered.
I found my former co-worker and surprised him. He was happy to see me and re-introduced me to his daughters – it had been a long time – and he showed me his painting he was working on and his artwork. He also walked me through the book and offered to autograph it. I said yes and decided I’d keep it instead of giving it away.
We chatted a bit, but he had other people coming into his booth. I thanked him and his daughters and headed out. I walked around a little bit, but it looked like rain and I decided to leave.
This was my only errand for the trip so I just headed back home. It took me two days and 2 hours of driving total, but I got done the one thing I really needed to accomplish.
Next time, I need to read the facebook post more carefully before I try to be clever and surprise someone.