How are you with asking for things?
I am terrible.
I have needed buckets for my flowers forever. It’s crazy that I clean out huge glass ones to use in my studio when I could be using light ones that are made of plastic and are easier to move around. Easier on my arthritic hands.
A lovely flower farmer friend told me that she just goes to ask for them at florists where she lives and they are more than happy to get rid of them.
Seems simple.
But the catch is that she asked.
Yesterday as I was on a wild goose chase to find a certain kind of glass vase that I need for an event at the end of the month. I need 25 4×4 inch glass vases. I assumed that I had seen them “everywhere”. When I re-traced my steps to “everywhere” it turns out, they aren’t there, they were 3×3, or 4 but very tall or 6×6, or 6×2.
After more or less a snack at dinner time, I determinedly headed out. Ok fine I’ll go to the big craft store. On my way, I passed a thrift store that was still open at 6:40. I scoured all the places. I found some! They were grimy. The woman working there was lovely – she offered me a free bag from the bin- it smelled of cigarette smoke (yuk). When I got back to the car my hands were grimy – the score of 8 glass 4×4 containers was definitely a make do. Some of them weren’t really vases, they were food storage containers which I reasoned won’t matter when I filled them with flowers and placed leaves over the edges.
I went to two more big stores after that. I had already looked on line where I could – so my search was just to where they don’t list everything on line. I had already been to two second hand stores before “dinner”. Nothing.
I had picked up one from a friend – bless her heart.
Earlier, as I was leaving the second hand store I saw a florist that I remembered my Dad always went to when buying flowers for special occasions for Mom (that was in the later years when she wasn’t gardening…she would have laughed at the meme going around where the woman receives flowers from her husband and the caption reads: “WHERE’S THE REST OF THE PLANT!”)
Not that I was going to strike up a conversation with this woman I didn’t know but perhaps she knew my Dad…only that it gave me the 10 seconds of courage that I needed to go and ask. No. She was very nice about it and suggested some big box hardware stores that I don’t think would carry them.
As I was walking back to my car, patting my back for asking, passing a weird guy (spidey-senses-activated-weird-guy) parked in the disabled parking spot with the music BLASTING and trying to make eyes with any woman walking by…I heard one mom say to her pre-teen—- when I get old I’ll probably listen to that music really loudly too! Side eye (from me, not her child). The parking lot was for a busy grocery store- with a floral department…
Here I go – asking! I had rehearsed in my mind if I were ever to ask to buy them how many would I like. So when the busy manager said I can’t sell you these ( the ones I’d pointed to thinking they were all the same ) but I can GIVE you these! How many do you need? …I don’t have 10 but you can have all of these and come back tomorrow and I’ll give you more…Wow! Thanks!!
I guess if I had a million bucks, that is what I would feel like. But in the meantime… 6 black plastic flower buckets, that REAL flower people use…made me feel like I had a million bucks as I walked out of the automatic doors of the store.
This is what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.
Every little and every big thing as an entrepreneur is noted. At the end of a long day, I said to myself: “You did good kid, never mind it’s not enough (and we can bleach those glass ones outside). You did your best. Tomorrow is another day.”
This morning my sweetheart found ( on FB Marketplace) someone with 33 4×4 glass vases that she had used for her wedding. As I was picking them up and placing these perfectly clean vases in my own bag on her porch, a family of deer ran through along the driveway and hopped a fence into their back garden.
When I had loaded them carefully into my car and was about to drive away, I noticed a woman walking by- she stopped to take a picture of this beautiful house. Maybe she found it inspiring— something that the owner who is in Europe will never know.
Now that I have these, I can check them off on my list and carry on to the next thing.
I’m going back today to ask for more buckets.
I like the feeling of a million bucks.
How are you with asking?