Beware of Mrs. Claws

“What we learn with pleasure we never forget.”

– Alfred Mercier

Oh, the joys of being 50-plus & thus no longer having much of a filter…

So I was on the plane the other day, trying to snooze on an evening flight. As we all know, Mrs. Claus needs her rest this time of year. About half way through the flight, the guy behind me decided to start sliding his meal tray back and forth, back and forth. Yes, that’s the right…the meal tray attached to the back of my chair.

I let him do this for about, oh…90 seconds. Then I turned around to have a little chat. He momentarily stopped sliding his tray and stared at me, stunned. He was about my age and rather handsome.

Now, he wasn’t stunned because he thought he was going to get into trouble (which he would soon find out) but rather because the mere sight of me was somewhat alarming in and of itself.

I was wearing an eye mask (with big letters that said “HUNGOVER” – which I wasn’t but he didn’t know that), the hood of my vest was up (which dramatically increases my “Don’t mess with me” look), plus I was wearing headphones and earplugs.

So after letting him have a good look at the irritated creature he was now going to be dealing with, I moved my eye mask to the top of my head, removed my headphones and ear plugs and gave him The Look.

“What?” he says.

“What do you think, what?” I say back.

“Was this bothering you?” he asks, then proceeds to give me another demonstration of his tray-sliding trick.

“Yes,” I say. “It was.”

“Oh,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

But I wasn’t finished. Oh no.

“What,” I ask, “would possess you to think that I wouldn’t feel you sliding that tray and back and forth?”

“Uhhh…”

“Exactly,” I say. “What are you…eight?”

“No! I just – ”

I shook my head and wagged my finger at him, big smile on my face. “You just STOP that right now,” I say. “No more sliding of the tray. Deal?”

He smiles. “Okay.”

Then I turned back around and fell fast asleep for the duration of the flight.

After we landed, I stood up, looked at the guy and smiled.

“Did I behave myself?” he asks.

“Yes,” I reply. “You were good as gold. Thank you.”

Then I pointed to the luggage compartment above his head. “Now could you get my bag down for me?”

He looked at me. “What’s the magic word?”

“Please,” I say. “But make it snappy, would ya? People are waiting.”

To which we both threw back our heads and laughed.

“You’re just like my wife” he says. “You gave me heck but you were smiling while you did it.”

“That,” I say (with a wink and a smile), “is because it’s a very effective strategy.”

Crazy Mrs Claws

As mentioned in a blog a few weeks ago, the professional photographer, Roxanne Low, was on hand at the First Chance Christmas Craft Show in Sidney, BC. As perhaps you can imagine, we had an awful lot of laughs doing the Mrs Claws photo shoot (photo at top of blog).

Here are few more photos of the Pink Gazelle Cards & Creations table & wares taken by Roxanne at the First Chance show:

All of the above products are available in our Etsy store (except the Wax & Tissue prints – if you are interested in those, please e-mail me).

I will be at Last Chance Christmas Craft Show in Sidney Dec 14th & 15th

If you are in the Sidney area, pop by and say hi. I will NOT be in my Crazy Mrs Claws outfit…and I WILL be nice to you. Promise 🙂

Maryanne Pope is the author of A Widow’s Awakening, the playwright of Saviour and the screenwriter of God’s Country. Maryanne is CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and Chair of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. If you would like to receive her weekly blog, please sign up here.