The LA Flower Mart

There are times when life speeds up and events seem to domino one after the other. This Spring is shaping up to be one of those times. Monday morning I had my Probationary Performance Evaluation with my Assistant Library Administrator that retired on Friday. I passed with "always met and sometimes exceeded expectations". It is nice to be appreciated. Last Thursday, I left home at 6:00 am to get downtown for the opening at 8:00. LA Flower . I had to consider whether I wanted to try to get the flowers on Thursday morning (the flower market opens at 6 on Thursdays) for optimal freshness or on Wednesday for optimal sanity. I chose sanity over freshness. I recommend this choice. I got down to the Flower Mart, paid for parking, $3 and paid for entrance $2 and then walked into a floral wonderland. I was amazed and wanted to just browse but I remained focused because I had the Library Commission visiting my library mid-morning for a meeting. I wanted to make sure that I back to work ASAP. I quickly purchased 60 stems of peach roses, 60 stems of small chrysanthemums, and 40 stems of a small purple flower quickly fell apart but I ended up with enough for the arrangements. I also picked up some greenery and floral foam. All for around $100. I got enough flowers to make 10 regular centerpieces and one guest of honor centerpiece. I love the flower market. It is fabulous and I can't wait to go back down. However, I don't know when that will be, going down and finding my way caused more than a few honks because I was inevitably in the wrong lane and had to squeeze into the right one. And then on the way back, the normally good Glendale Freeway had a major crash and my expected 15 minutes turned into almost an hour and a half. I hate freeways. But I did arrive in time to realize that most people for the Library Commission Meeting were caught in the same traffic jam so I guess I timed the adventure right. In the afternoon, I went to Canyon Country Library to put the arrangements together.

At first I thought I was creating floral tragedies but after sizing the stems down a bit, it began to come together. The only thing I needed to do was go get some ribbon to put around the little containers I bought at the Dollar Store. I ate lunch at 6:00 pm on Wed.
Thursday was a long long day for me. I first arrived at the Canyon Country Library at 8:00 am to finish up the arrangements with ribbon and to help with getting everything in order before our 9:00 meeting. I ended up burning myself with the hot glue gun about 10 times before I successfully added the ribbon and bows. If only I had thought about this before I put everything together I would have saved myself some blisters.
The luncheon went off without a hitch. I got a lot of compliments on the flowers.

Suzanne and I coordinated our colors and decorations perfectly. After most everything was cleaned up, I took a few hours off before I headed to my library. The third Thursday of each month is both our Regional Meetings and La Crescenta Town Council. I will be forever working splits on these days. I got back to the library at about 5:00 and helped close up. Then I went upstairs to prepare the meeting room for the Town Council. I don't mind these meetings and I fully expect to be there until 10 or so. True to my expectations, I didn't get out until almost 10:30 and home until after 11:00. Thankfully Friday I was off.
I will miss my Administrator Andrea. She always offered advice and wisdom that I will take with me throughout the rest of my career. She listened to me yet also put me back in place when I needed it without too many rumpled feelings on my part. Since I am quick to react and overly sensitive although I strive quite unsuccessfully to be neither, this says a lot about her tact and skill as a mentor and supervisor. She will be greatly missed.